UBS Lawyer Schmid Takes Job at Swiss Law Firm
Notable Attorneys
Bernhard Schmid, the head of UBS AG’s legal department, left Switzerland’s biggest bank by assets to become a partner at a Zurich law firm founded by a former banker.
Schmid joined Kuoni Attorneys at Law on Feb. 1 to help the company increase its work advising banks, founding partner Wolfram Kuoni said by telephone yesterday. Schmid, who is Swiss, was one of three lawyers to share former General Counsel Peter Kurer’s workload when Kurer became chairman of the bank in 2008.
UBS paid a $780 million fine and disclosed the names of 255 account holders in February 2009 to avoid criminal prosecution in the U.S. on a charge that it helped thousands of wealthy Americans evade taxes. The bank hired Markus Diethelm from Swiss Reinsurance Co. to replace Kurer as general counsel in 2008.
Schmid is “wonderful for a firm like mine to tap into the banking market. He has an outstanding track-record,” Kuoni said in a telephone interview yesterday, adding that he wants to expand the practice’s work advising banks “one tier below” UBS and Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank by market value.
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Workers’ Compensation Subrogation of Administrative Fees and Costs
When a worker covered by workers’ compensation makes a claim against a third party, the workers’ compensation insurance retains the right to subrogate against any recovery from that third party for all benefits paid to or on behalf of a claimant injured at work. When subrogating for more than basic medical and indemnity benefits, the Texas workers’ compensation subrogation statute provides that “the net amount recovered by a claimant in a third‑party action shall be used to reimburse the carrier for benefits, including medical benefits that have been paid for the compensable injury.” TX Labor Code § 417.002.
In fact, all 50 states provide for similar subrogation. However, none of them precisely outlines which payments or costs paid by a compensation carrier constitute “compensation” and can be recovered. The result is industry-wide confusion and an ongoing debate and argument with claimants’ attorneys over what can and can’t be included in a carrier’s lien for recovery purposes.
In addition to medical expenses, death benefits, funeral costs and/or indemnity benefits for lost wages and loss of earning capacity resulting from a compensable injury, workers’ compensation insurance carriers also expend considerable dollars for case management costs, medical bill audit fees, rehabilitation benefits, nurse case worker fees, and other similar fees. They also incur other expenses in conjunction with the handling and adjusting of workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ compensation carriers typically assert, of course, that, they are entitled to reimbursement for such expenditures when it recovers its workers’ compensation lien. Injured workers and their attorneys disagree.