Martha Garcia

Experience

Martha Garcia has been with Katz Friedman since 1986. Because she worked in labor relations in the medical arena prior to becoming a lawyer, Martha operates as comfortably representing employees and unions in labor cases as she does securing benefits for employees injured on the job.

She has represented labor organizations before state, federal and labor boards including the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, and in arbitrations as well as other aspects of the firm's labor and employment practice.  She presently concentrates her practice in workers' compensation, with a special expertise in the airline, education, and health care industries.

Martha has been a frequent lecturer on workers' compensation and disability and employment law, and has authored several articles in the legal press on the subject of disability discrimination. She has also authored and co-authored articles on workers' compensation, most recently, "Disability Evaluation" in Illinois Workers' Compensation Practice (2009) for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. She has served as chairperson of the Chicago Bar Association's Workers' Compensation Committee.

Martha earned a B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1975 and received her Juris Doctor from the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology in 1986 with High Honors. She is a member of the American, Illinois and Chicago Bar Associations; American and Illinois Trial Lawyers Association; Workers' Compensation Lawyers Association (Illinois); and several other legal and health care professional organizations. Outside her office, court, or lecture podium, Martha has a fondness for eco-travel in warm and exotic places, and singing in the Chicago Bar Association Chorus.