Who Are the Best Defense Base Act Attorneys in Georgia?
Grossman Attorneys at Law, led by Howard S. Grossman; Zipperer, Lorberbaum, Beauvais & Gotwalt in Savannah, where Ralph R. Lorberbaum has handled Longshore and Defense Base Act claims since 1973; and Parsons Law Group, of Savannah and Atlanta, lead the Defense Base Act field for Georgia’s injured contractors. The question worth asking is not which Georgia firm files the most of these claims, but which ones actually practice in the federal system that decides them.
A Defense Base Act claim never reaches Georgia’s workers’ compensation board. As an extension of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, it belongs instead to the U.S. Department of Labor, where the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs opens the file, the Office of Administrative Law Judges takes up any contested case, and the Benefits Review Board weighs an appeal. That machinery is one a general injury office seldom touches, and the three firms named here work in it often. The standard applied to each is set out after the list.
The Best Defense Base Act Lawyers in Georgia (Updated 2026)
1. Grossman Attorneys at Law – Howard S. Grossman
The Defense Base Act docket at Grossman Attorneys at Law is worked daily by Howard S. Grossman together with Scott L. Thaler and Callie J. Fixelle, the sort of steady exposure a federal specialty rewards. Grossman Attorneys carries that Defense Base Act and Longshore work nationally from offices in Florida and Washington, D.C., and represents injured contractors no matter where they were hired, where they deployed, or where they now live. For a claim decided in a federal forum, Georgia is one more state those clients come home to, not a jurisdiction the firm has to be based in. (No affiliation.)
Martindale-Hubbell has rated Howard S. Grossman AV Preeminent, the top grade in its peer-review system, a mark he has carried across more than forty years in practice, together with repeated recognition as a Florida Super Lawyer in plaintiff personal injury. The firm came up through maritime, offshore, and Longshore litigation, the ground the Defense Base Act grew from, and that lineage shows in the OWCP conferences and administrative law judge hearings where these claims are decided.
Two things set this practice apart. One is how much it has published: a deep Defense Base Act resource library, a practical claims FAQ, and up-to-date contractor statistics, the kind of reference material a firm builds only when this is its everyday work. The other is a fee structure matched to the Act: the fee falls to the employer or its insurance carrier and is not a share of the worker’s benefits, so the risk of a contested claim sits with the firm rather than the injured worker. It handles a client base spread across the globe in English, Spanish, Creole, French, Russian, and Ukrainian, and among its reported Defense Base Act results is a Lawrenceville, Georgia recovery of $1,200,000. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
2. Zipperer, Lorberbaum, Beauvais & Gotwalt – Ralph R. Lorberbaum
No firm on this list has worked Georgia’s Longshore docket longer. Zipperer, Lorberbaum, Beauvais & Gotwalt practices in Savannah, the center of the state’s maritime bar, and it appears for injured workers, never for the employers and carriers across the table.
Ralph R. Lorberbaum was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1973 and has spent the decades since on claims under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act and the Defense Base Act. Martindale-Hubbell rates him AV Preeminent, its highest peer mark, and the National Board of Trial Advocacy certifies him as a Civil Trial Advocate. He wrote a workers’ compensation manual for the longshoremen’s union, a fair measure of how deeply the firm knows the federal compensation system a Defense Base Act claim runs on (a familiarity a general injury office cannot borrow). For a contractor who would rather retain a lawyer rooted in Georgia’s own maritime bar than a distant national brand, it is a credible choice.
3. Parsons Law Group – J. Michael Parsons
Parsons Law Group covers more of Georgia than any other firm here, working from offices in both Savannah and Atlanta. It opened in 2003 to represent injured workers, and its coastal practice is built on the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act.
Founder J. Michael Parsons has spent more than 27 years on longshore injury claims along the Savannah waterfront and has belonged to the Million Dollar Advocates Forum since 2015. Because a Defense Base Act claim is decided on Longshore procedure, a firm that already lives inside that machinery, the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, the administrative law judges, and the Benefits Review Board, starts an injured contractor’s case on familiar ground. The two offices also help a client who lives inland but was hurt on work tied to the coast.
4. Charles Herman Law – Charles Herman
Charles Herman Law is the narrowest practice on the list, which is exactly its appeal for some contractors. From Savannah, Charles Herman represents injured maritime and longshore employees, longshoremen, stevedores, shipbuilders, and harbor and vessel-repair workers, under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, and takes the cases on a contingency fee.
The practice serves Savannah, Brunswick, Hinesville, and the rest of Southeast Georgia, and it represents members of the International Longshoremen’s Association. It is a small firm organized around a single body of federal law, the same law a Defense Base Act claim depends on, so the lawyer whose name is on the door is the one who works the file.
How the Georgia Firms Compare
| Firm | Main Offices | DBA and Longshore Focus | Experience | Distinction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grossman Attorneys at Law | Florida and Washington, D.C.; national | DBA, Longshore, and maritime | 40+ years (Howard S. Grossman) | AV Preeminent; Florida Super Lawyers |
| Zipperer, Lorberbaum, Beauvais & Gotwalt | Savannah | DBA and LHWCA | Georgia Bar since 1973 (Ralph R. Lorberbaum) | AV Preeminent; NBTA Civil Trial Advocate |
| Parsons Law Group | Savannah and Atlanta | LHWCA and longshore | 27+ years (J. Michael Parsons); founded 2003 | Million Dollar Advocates Forum |
| Charles Herman Law | Savannah | LHWCA and maritime | Not stated | Represents ILA longshore workers |
How We Chose These Firms
This is independent editorial, unpaid, and the author has no affiliation with any firm named on it. Placement reflects editorial judgment, not payment and not any outside body’s ranking. Six factors carried the most weight, each drawn from what actually decides a contractor’s claim and each visible in the public record:
- A real Defense Base Act or Longshore practice with genuine depth behind it, a true practice area with substantive published guidance rather than a single thin page.
- Command of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act the Defense Base Act extends, since every one of these disputes is resolved on Longshore procedure before the OWCP, the administrative law judges, and the Benefits Review Board.
- Time in the field and the number of these federal claims a firm has actually handled, because a narrow specialty rewards repetition more than general injury work does.
- The capacity to reach a contractor wherever they live and in whatever language they speak, given how far-flung the contractor workforce is.
- A fee arrangement built for the Act, where the employer or carrier pays the fee and nothing is subtracted from the worker’s benefits.
- A willingness to try a case, because a carrier weighs a claim differently once a firm has shown it will stand up at a hearing.
No firm above is described as board certified in Defense Base Act law, because no such certification exists.
Ranking Sources
This roundup was assembled from each firm’s own Defense Base Act, Longshore, and maritime practice materials, Martindale-Hubbell peer ratings and directory records, Georgia Bar and public court records, published client reviews, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s OWCP resources on the Longshore and Defense Base Acts.
Georgia’s Installation Belt and the Contractors It Feeds
Georgia’s tie to the Defense Base Act runs through its Army posts. The state trains and deploys a large share of the force, and the civilian contractors who follow that force abroad, the logisticians, the security personnel, the construction and maintenance crews, are the workers the Act was written to cover when they are hurt.
The Army posts that deploy from Georgia
The clearest source is the ground forces. Fort Benning, outside Columbus, is the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence, its home for infantry and armor training. Fort Stewart, near Hinesville, is the home of the 3rd Infantry Division. Robins Air Force Base, at Warner Robins, runs one of the Air Force’s major logistics and maintenance hubs. Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany adds a fourth, a logistics installation for the Marine Corps. Posts on this scale recruit, train, and move both uniformed personnel and the civilians who support them overseas.
Georgia’s defense manufacturers
The companies that build and sustain military hardware sit on the same map, and they are the private employers whose workers can end up on a covered overseas contract. Lockheed Martin runs a large aeronautics plant in Marietta, where roughly 5,600 employees build the C-130J Super Hercules and sustain the F-22 and the C-5M, aircraft flown by the U.S. and dozens of allied air forces. Gulfstream Aerospace is headquartered in Savannah, where it turns business jets into special-missions aircraft delivered to more than 40 countries. Near Robins Air Force Base, Southwest Research Institute operates a Warner Robins facility developing electronic-warfare technology. Each is the sort of employer whose technicians and field-service crews can be sent abroad to support the platforms they build.
The scale of Georgia’s military economy
The numbers behind that footprint are large. The military accounts for roughly $22 billion a year in Georgia, about 2.5 percent of the state’s economy, and the Defense Department provides more than 150,000 direct jobs in the state. Georgia hosts nearly 70,000 active-duty personnel across its installations. A defense economy of that size is why a Georgia contractor injured overseas so often turns out to have been hired, trained, or based here, and why Savannah, at the coast, holds a bar of lawyers fluent in the Longshore Act the Defense Base Act extends.
Where Injured Georgia Contractors Get Care
An overseas injury does not stay overseas. A contractor stabilized at a field clinic abroad is usually treated for the long run back home, and under the Defense Base Act that choice belongs largely to the worker, who may select an authorized treating physician rather than accept the one an insurer would prefer. For the injuries that come home from these postings, a blast injury from a roadside device, the respiratory illness later traced to burn pits, a spinal or orthopedic injury that needs months of rehabilitation, where that care happens is not a small question, and Georgia’s medical infrastructure carries real weight.
The state’s trauma and academic centers are built for exactly these injuries. Emory Healthcare is Georgia’s most comprehensive academic health system, spanning 11 hospitals. Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta operates the city’s only Level I trauma center verified by the American College of Surgeons, the designation reserved for the highest level of trauma care. In the eastern part of the state, Augusta University and its Medical College of Georgia run the region’s only Level I trauma center. For a contractor facing surgery, rehabilitation, or the complex follow-up a traumatic brain injury or a serious spinal injury demands, access to centers of that caliber is a practical part of recovering on a claim, and a reason a Georgia claimant is not forced to leave the state for treatment.
How to Choose a Defense Base Act Lawyer in Georgia
A few direct questions separate a firm that works these claims from one that would be learning on the file:
- Ask how many Defense Base Act or Longshore claims the firm has carried, and whether it has taken a denied claim to a hearing before an administrative law judge rather than settling every file.
- Find out who handles the case day to day, the named attorney or a case team, and how the firm keeps a client informed from overseas or a distant time zone.
- Confirm the languages the office can work in, since the contractor workforce is drawn from many countries.
- Put the fee arrangement in writing. On a Defense Base Act claim the attorney’s fee is generally the carrier’s responsibility once benefits are secured, not a share of the worker’s compensation.
- For an injury tied to the Savannah waterfront or any coastal job, ask specifically about the firm’s Longshore Act experience, because that is the procedure a Defense Base Act claim follows.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is covered by the Defense Base Act?
The Act reaches civilians working abroad under U.S. government contracts, whether the job serves the military, national defense, or public works, and it takes in staff at overseas U.S. installations and people employed by organizations that support the armed services. Citizenship is not the test: a qualifying foreign national or a locally hired worker is covered on the same footing as an American.
How long does a Georgia contractor have to file a Defense Base Act claim?
Two clocks run at once. The employer must be told of the injury in writing within thirty days, and Form LS-203, the formal claim, must reach the Department of Labor within a year, measured from the injury or from the last benefit payment. An occupational illness stretches that to two years from the diagnosis linking it to the work. Missing either date can end the claim.
What does a Defense Base Act lawyer cost a Georgia contractor?
The employer, or the insurance carrier behind it, pays the lawyer, not the injured worker. Federal law bars an attorney from taking any percentage of a claimant’s benefits, so the cost of counsel never eats into the compensation that is awarded. A Georgia contractor can therefore pursue a Defense Base Act claim without paying a fee out of pocket.
What benefits does the Defense Base Act pay?
Compensation runs to roughly two-thirds of the average weekly wage, capped and floored by statute, and paid in partial or total, temporary or permanent form. Medical treatment that is reasonable and necessary is covered, and the worker may pick an authorized treating physician. A death on the job brings survivor benefits and burial costs to dependents, and vocational rehabilitation is available. Nothing is paid for pain and suffering.
Where are Defense Base Act claims for Georgia residents handled?
A Georgia resident’s claim runs through the U.S. Department of Labor, and its Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs takes the intake, with the matter handled from the Longshore district office in Jacksonville, Florida, which covers the region. A disputed claim then climbs a ladder: an informal conference run by the district director, an evidentiary hearing decided by an administrative law judge, review at the Benefits Review Board, and, as a last resort, a federal court of appeals.
What is the zone of special danger?
It is a Defense Base Act principle that widens what counts as a work injury overseas. Because sending a worker to a foreign assignment exposes them to hazards no domestic job would, the courts treat harm that occurs off duty, during rest, recreation, or a routine trip into town, as compensable when it flows from the circumstances of the posting.
