I sure do love my job! And I believe that you love your job too. How do I know? I’ll tell you.I’ve been working extra hours lately because Sheila Osei, Liz Raddatz, and I start a two-week jury trial in a few days. For me, this has been a labor of love. I’m enjoying the preparation, the strategizing, the collaboration with my trial team, the arguing with my worthy opponent, the coy banter with my claim pro-

fessional, and the serious relationship I’ve developed with the insured that we represent. This is serious business, to be sure; but I’m having fun. And I’m not alone.

Our Chicago office is having fun, where Andy Ellbogen is preparing to begin a trial; and our attorneys and partners try many serious cases. Our Indianapolis office is having fun, moving into a new office space almost twice the size of our previous office, complete with our name on the building and a bocce ball court outside for our enjoyment. Our Farmington Hills office is having a lot of fun, growing with the addition of many attorneys and many many new clients, but still finding time to hangout in the employee lounge. Our Crown Point office is having fun where our vibrant partners have filled every available office.

Our administrative staff his having fun, dealing with the growth, hiring new employees, finding new office space, and setting up new equipment. All of our employees, attorneys, paralegals, support and administrative staff: we all have fun at work.

How do I know? Because if we did not enjoy our work, we wouldn’t put in the extra hours, pay close attention to our projects, work through lunch to complete documents to meet each other’s needs. We wouldn’t return every telephone call, get status reports out, visit our clients, research and investigate our cases, and think about our individual part in defending these cases all of the time, even after work. We have an entire staff dedicated to excellence, to concierge service, and above all to doing their job with joy and self-satisfaction. I’m glad about that.

We all deserve to be happy. We work hard and do excellent work. We are suc-cessful and we treat each other with the care and appreciation that we enjoy re-ceiving from our peers. I am grateful to all of you because you make me proud, you make my job easier, and most importantly…you make my job fun.

Hope you all have a fun day today and every day.

Bob

KPD CONNECTMarch 2016

“Do what you can

with what you have

where you are.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

Monthly Inspiration

Let's Have FunBY: BOB KOPKA

N e W

C l i E t sN

Steel Transport, Inc.

(Michigan)

(Michigan)

As you may have heard, our Indianapolis office is moving at the end of March. The new office is located at 550 Congressional Blvd in Carmel, IN, just a half mile down the road from our current loca-tion. We are scheduled to open the new office in early April.

The Indianapolis office has grown over the last couple of years and there was a definite need for more room. The new office space fea-

tures additional office space for attorneys and paralegals, larger cubicles for ad-ministrative staff, and a large file room! As part of our lease, our firm name will be prominently displayed on the exterior of our new building as shown in the picture below. The new office building also features a bocce ball court and a bike-share program.

All of the people in the Indianapolis office are busy preparing for the big move. We have already sent dozens of files to our off-site storage, and we are getting ready to send out notices about our new address to all of our clients and vendors. New business cards and letterhead are being ordered, since we will be retiring the P.O. Box and only using our new street address after the move.

This new office space will increase our ability to offer concierge service to our cli-ents, and we are very excited to get moved in and unpacked!

2

Upcoming

Speaking Engagements

Bob Kopka

March 3, 2016

NRRDA Annual Conference

Ft. Lauderdale, FLCrisis Management: Cyber Attack

Our Indianapolis Office is Moving!BY: JOHN BRINKS

Tricia Bellich

March 15, 2016

ICLEF WC Masters Series

Indianapolis, IN

Drug Testing & Surveillance of Injured Workers

Bob Abramson

March 18, 2016

National General

Farmington Hills, MIPIP & BI Presentation

Gene Pinkus, Christine Sutton,and Jacklyn Paletta

March 21, 2016

Auto Owners Insurance SeminarLansing, MI

3

Lisa SchwerDeb KapitanAimee BeauchampArelia BennettDonna MarkusCarolyn DuffHeather LopezPatricia Connolly

CPCPCPFHBGFHBGChi

3488

16182231

MAR

Happy

Birthday!

9182424252630

Christine PietschAngelo TestaJim MilstoneDonna MarkusTina MilesNikki ShingledeckerErin Meyer

FHFH

IndyBGFHFHCP

11

1963

131

MAR YEARS

Happy

Anniversary!KPD

2016 March Against Hunger Campaign

We are excited to announce that our office will again be participating in the In-diana State Bar Association’s March Against Hunger competition! For the 8th consecutive year, the Indiana State Bar Association (ISBA), along with the Office of the Indiana Attorney General and Feeding Indiana’s Hungry (FIsH), is sponsoring this friendly food drive competition to raise both non-per-ishable food and monetary donations for Indiana’s 11 regional food banks during the month of March.

The competition is an opportunity for attorneys and law firms throughout Indi-ana to help put food on the tables of those struggling in our state. Since 2009, the March Against Hunger food drive has generated 64,459 pounds of food and $282,027.91 in monetary donations for Indiana food banks.

As a reminder, each division winner will receive the prestigious “Attorney Gen-eral’s Cup” to display. Last year, Burke Costanza & Carberry were triumphant for the 4th consecutive year by donating 257 pounds of food and $4,302.70.

Please join us in this friendly competition and worthy cause in effort to bring the Attorney General’s Cup to KPD! We will be accepting non-perishable food item and monetary donations starting Tuesday, March 1st through Thursday, March 31st. If donating by check, please make the checks payable to Food Bank of Northwest Indiana.

Our Farmington Hills office will also be making a team donation of immediate need items to benefit Forgotten Harvest in Michigan. Check in with our April KPD Connect to see our results!

4

Most people would agree with me that writing about yourself is a pain. So when Erin called and asked me to “step into the spotlight” for the March newsletter, my initial thoughts were “crap,” followed by “this will be awkward,” and ended with “but I’m so boring.” Once I finished my internal monologue, I sucked it up and began staring at the computer screen con-templating what to write.

So I am just going to jump in feet first. I graduated from Albion College with BA in English and a minor in Eco-nomics. My senior year at Albion, I studied abroad in Scotland for four months— I went back there in 2014 to visit my flat mates—and learned that haggis and kan-garoo are not things I want to try eating again. I also learned that you may not want to let the elderly gen-tleman know that his bus has not yet arrived when he asks, because he might proposition you for being so nice.

I had a poem published in a national undergraduate lit-erary journal—no, you can’t read it. I experienced the joy of graduating college during the recession, and nobody thought to warn me that maybe I’d want to graduate with a degree I could actu-ally use. After a year (more like two, but who was counting) of job hunting and working three part-time jobs, I ended up working at a workers’ compen-sation firm in Livonia as a legal assistant, and thus started my current carrier path. While I did take a short break and worked in the accounting department at Trinity Health, I ended up at Kopka Pinkus Dolin & he-who-shall-not-be-named in Febru-

ary of 2014. During my time here, I’ve sort of become a jack-of-all-

trades; I think it’s mostly because I can in-terpret tech speak.

I was tempted to say “The End” there, but Erin wanted me to share a bit more about myself. Well, I’m usually pretty quiet until I get to know you. Once I do, you’ll probably learn I’m a bit of a geek and am completely okay with it. I love to read and tend to tell people I’m a bookaholic. I’m not a bump on the couch though; Michelle and Sara in

the Farmington Hills Office got me hooked on boxing, so I am one of the seven who go workout at Title Boxing. (If you haven’t tried a class, you should. The first shot is free, so no excuses.)

I bought my first home in July of 2014, and finally under-stand why homeowners say owning your own place is so expensive. Within the first six months, I replaced the kitchen floor twice, had to buy a new microwave, new dishwasher, and pay to have a gas line in-stalled for the high-efficien-cy gas dryer that my grand-mother gave me. Oh the joys of being a home owner. My mom taught me to knit—for those of you who think it’s lame, at least I’ll be able to make myself clothes if we have a zombie apocalypse—and I’m a wee bit creative.

As for my personal life, my family has always been and

will always be very important to me. I’m not married and have no kids of my own, but basically raised my nephew, Micah, for two years. (Do you think that could count as a 4th part-time job?) At one point he asked if I could be his mom…while we were both standing next to my sister-in-law. Ouch. Don’t tell anyone, but he is my favorite.

My parents have two dogs, and I have one.

Step into the Spotlight!BY: MEGAN LILLY

All three are members of the family. In fact, I’ve moved down in rank according to my niece, Kenzie. Apparently, my parents’ new golden retriever puppy ranks higher than me on her want to see list, and yet she is scared of her. Go figure. Kenzie is also the one who told her mom I was calling her a bad word because I called her “niece.” She wanted me to call her nephew instead.

Also, for those of the Farmington Hills of-fice who never figured it out, I was the one hiding the elf around the office for the hol-idays. Cheers!

This guy said he had the most fun that day taking his picture with me.

My sweet nephew, Micah.

I was the only female to scale the wall for this picture. Yay me!

The holiday visitor of the Farmington Hills office.

5

Peter Dukaj

Farmington Hills OfficeAssociate

Welcome to the Team

Tiffany Tull

Farmington Hills OfficeParalegal

Amanda R. Eggemeyer

Chicago OfficeAssociate

Vincent J. Vigil

Chicago OfficeSenior Attorney

Christina M. Clark

Indianapolis OfficeAssociate

Alejandro Valle

Indianapolis OfficeSenior Attorney

Charles F. Albrecht

Crown Point OfficeAssociate

Maryam Hassani

Crown Point OfficeAssociate

Henry E. Ibe

Farmington Hills OfficeAssociate

Danielle Williams

Farmington Hills Office

Legal Assistant/Paralegal

Brenda Turner

Farmington Hills OfficeLegal Assistant

Christina Casler

Farmington Hills Office

Clerk/in Paralegal program

Jane Goad

Farmington Hills OfficeLegal Assistant

Don Stone

Chicago OfficeClerk

6

Recent Case Successes

Lauren “Lulu” Sarkozi, a legal assistant in our Farmington Hills office, and her husband, Keith are expecting their first baby (a girl!) in April. The Michigan office held a baby shower for her on Friday, March 4th. Delicious treats were enjoyed in the employee lounge, while the ladies of Farmington Hills showered Lulu with gifts and well-wishes. Congratulations!

Pizza Monday in Farmington Hills

Sheri Bradtke McNeilPartner, Crown Point

Sheri Bradtke McNeil re-cently won a Summary Judgment for the City of

Crown Point on a case involving a bi-cycle accident on the bike trail through the city, which it owns and maintains. The plaintiff made a negligence claim based on his alleged injuries, and the passenger on his tandem bike pre-sented a derivative loss of consortium claim.

Steve Bannwart recently settled a case for a total of $90,000—$65,000 from

State Farm on behalf of the insured, who was extremely pleased and in-tends to write to State Farm about our impressive professionalism.

Stephen D. Bannwart Senior Attorney, Crown Point

Christina Essex success-fully settled a State Farm

trial. The UIM case involved soft tis-sue issues. The plaintiff ’s demand was for $9,000 for UIM coverage, but the case settled for $2,000.

Christina L. EssexAssociate, Indianapolis

The Farmington Hills office held a pizza party to show appreciation to everyone for their hard work, and to welcome all of the new faces to our Michigan office. Everyone had a great time.

Coming Soon to Michigan: Baby Sarkozi

7

Congratulations to Deanna Torres, a paralegal in our Farmington Hills office. Her fiancé, Robert, proposed over Val-entine’s Day weekend. Let the wedding

planning begin!

Wedding BellsThere's Something About Jaime

Jaime Llorens, an Associate in our Crown Point office, shares ten facts about her-self that we may not have known.

1. I have recently developed an interest in gardening.

2. I love bulldogs.

3. I am the first person in my family to attend and graduate college.

4. I have a birthmark that covers my entire right arm; my grandma had the same one.

5. I hate sports.

6. I studied Japanese in high school and college.

7. I was a social worker before attend-ing law school.

8. I am getting married in May.

9. My paternal grandparents are Loui-siana Creoles.

10. I enjoy running and hot yoga.

KPD Employees Celebrate the Season

March Madness is upon us! Senior At-torney, John Tomasik and his family supported the Wolverines at a Universi-ty of Michigan basketball game.

Tammy Kain, Legal Assistant in our Crown Point office, created a wee bit of Irish spirit with her fabulous painting below.

Crown Point Clerk, Michelle Phillips-born, shared a picture of her fur-baby, Ruby, enjoying the snow.

8

Upcoming Trials

April Jay is scheduled to be-gin a trial for Farmers Insurance on March 7th.

Andrew Ellbogen is currently on trial representing Philadelphia Insurance.

Managing Partner, Gene Pinkus and Crown Point Partner, Brooke Riffell, stopped for a picture in front of pop art of the famous mascot, while vis-iting Geico. These visits help to nur-ture and grow the relationships we have with our clients.

The Value of Client Relationships

Jacklyn Paletta is scheduled to begin trials for Auto-Owners Insurance Company on March 21st and 28th.

Joel Groenewold is scheduled to be-gin a trial for Canal on March 8th.

Steve Bannwart is scheduled to begin a trial for State Farm on March 14th.

Picture of the Month

B Y: DAV I D KOPKA

Farmington Hills Attorneys, Shant Sagherian and Ken Letherwood, re-cently visited Farm Bureau Insur-ance and returned to the office with a CART load of claim files and new cases! Shant proudly posed with the haul for the picture shown above.

Jacqueline Clarke is scheduled to be-gin a trial for State Farm on March 1st.

Kim Thayer is scheduled to begin a trial for State Farm on March 3rd, and a trial for Ceva on March 14th.

Brooke Riffell is scheduled to begin a trial for IAT Specialty on March 6th.

Bob Kopka and Sheila Osei are scheduled to begin a trial for Philadelphia Insur-ance on March 7th.

Leslie Pollie is scheduled to begin a trial for State Farm on March 8th.

Ken Letherwood is scheduled to be-gin a trial for Farm Bureau on March 21st.

Eric Jones is scheduled to begin a trial for Farm Bureau on March 22nd, and a trial for State Farm on March 23rd.

Christina Essex is scheduled to begin a trial for Travelers on March 22nd.

Steve Couch is scheduled to begin a trial for State Farm on March 22nd.

Kevin Plagens is scheduled to begin a trial for Sentry on March 31st.

Jim Magrames is scheduled to begin a trial for State Farm on March 28th.

*David’s pictures once again appeared on WGN News at 9.