2016 State Bar Workers’ Compensation Section Steve Jimenez Memorial Special Recognition Awards

We are pleased to announce this year’s recipients of the Steve Jimenez Memorial Special Recognition Awards. The awards will be presented during a reception at the State Bar of California Annual Meeting in San Diego on Friday, September 30, 2016. The reception will be held in the Bayside Room of the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m..

Lifetime Achievement Award Frederick "Rick" Dietrich Oakland, California

Rick Dietrich started practicing law in 1979. That same year he joined the legal staff at the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. In the years 1983 through 1990 he was an applicant’s attorney and partner with the firm of Airola, Williams, Dietrich and Otis. In 1992 he became a Workers’ Compensation Judge, and between that time and 2007 he was also a deputy commissioner for the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. Between 2008 and 2015 he was deputy commissioner and secretary at the Board.

Mr. Dietrich was instrumental in the seamless transition to EAMS and provided essential guidance to the WCAB during the reform acts of SB 899 in 2004 and SB 863 in 2012 and in 30 en banc decisions, including Almaraz-Guzman, Ogilvie, Weiner, Cervantes, Blackledge, Guitron, Valdez, Messele, Torres, Navarro, Dubon, and Neri-Hernandez.