ERISA Disability Claims Demystified: What Every Practitioner Needs to Know

Michelle L. Roberts is the founder and principal of Roberts Disability Law, P.C., a firm dedicated to representing individuals and employees in complex ERISA disability benefit disputes. Since beginning her legal career in 2005, Ms. Roberts has focused her practice on the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), with particular emphasis on wrongful denial of disability insurance benefits. Ms. Roberts has been consecutively named a Northern California “Super Lawyer” each year since 2015 and has been repeatedly recognized on the Super Lawyers Top 100 and Top 50 Women Lawyers lists. She has served in leadership roles within the Federal Bar Association—including as President of the Northern District of California Chapter—and completed a four-year term as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council. Ms. Roberts is deeply engaged in the legal community and ERISA scholarship, serving as Editor-in-Chief of the American Bar Association’s Employee Benefits Law treatise and having authored numerous book chapters and articles on ERISA litigation and disability benefit claims. Her extensive speaking experience includes panels and programs for the ABA and other national and regional forums on ERISA benefit claim strategies, fiduciary issues, and litigation practice. Ms. Roberts earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and her B.A. summa cum laude from the University of California, Riverside.

Brent Dorian Brehm is an accomplished insurance benefits attorney whose practice centers on disability, life, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D), and long-term care insurance matters. Throughout his career, Brent has been on the front lines advocating for policyholders against some of the world’s largest insurance companies, earning a reputation as a tenacious and effective advocate. Since 2006, he has successfully resolved more than 500 disputes on behalf of clients, and his work has been recognized by leading legal publications, including Super Lawyers (as both a Super Lawyer and Rising Star), The Recorder (Lawyer on the Fast Track), and the Daily Journal (Top 20 Lawyers Under 40). Brent has also played a role in several significant court decisions shaping insurance law, including cases before the Ninth Circuit and California federal district courts.

Brent is a shareholder at Dorian Law P.C. and previously served as a partner at Kantor & Kantor, LLP. His earlier experience includes work with the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, and the University of California Police Department. He earned his J.D. from Rutgers University, Camden, and his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles. A frequent speaker on life insurance law and long-term disability claims, Brent combines deep legal knowledge with practical insight. Originally from Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley, he now lives in the San Fernando Valley with his wife and their three daughters. Outside of his legal practice, he is a former endurance athlete—having completed two Ironman triathlons, multiple marathons, and a 200-mile Death Valley bike ride—and currently enjoys cartography.

Stacy Monahan Tucker has been deeply involved in the insurance industry throughout her professional career. She worked as a management consultant for national insurers and later attended the University of Chicago Law School, where she began representing insurers in legal disputes.

Stacy spent the first decade of her career at the national law firms of Jones Day, and Quinn Emanuel in San Francisco. There she represented insurance companies in high-stakes insurance litigation, often involving plaintiffs who were high level executives, professionals and business owners whose disability and life insurance claims could potentially cost the insurer millions of dollars each. Over the years, she has accumulated a wealth of experience dealing with disability insurance, life insurance, and long term care at the most complex levels.