Robert Dietz

Robert L. Dietz is a shareholder at ZKS with the Workers’ Compensation practice group and helped open the firm in Orlando in 1984. Mr. Dietz is chair of the Workers’ Compensation practice group of the firm. His practice has included work defending insurance companies, self-insured employers, third party administrators, and employers in every workers’ compensation jurisdiction in the state of Florida. In addition to all aspects of workers’ compensation litigation, Mr. Dietz also handles premium disputes, rate classification appeals, and file audits. He provides risk management consultation and litigation management recommendations for his clients. He is also a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator and has mediated over 1,200 workers’ compensation matters. In addition to being AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell’s peer review, Mr. Dietz has been recognized by Super Lawyers Magazine as a Florida Super Lawyer, Leading American Attorneys, Who’s Who in American Law, and International Who’s Who. Mr. Dietz’s leadership in professional organizations spans from national chair of the ABA Tort & Insurance Section’s Workers’ Compensation & Employer Liability Committee, president of the Florida Defense Lawyers Association (the first workers’ compensation practitioner ever elected to the position. He has also served on the steering committees of the Defense Research Institute’s Workers’ Compensation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Committees. He is a member of The International Association of Defense Counsel. He is the first Floridian elected to the national board of directors of the Association of Attorney-Mediators, and is a member of the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS). He is a graduate of the Greater Orlando Leadership Foundation. Mr. Dietz has also been active in pro bono work representing abused children as a Guardian ad Litem. He has won numerous awards for this service including the Judge Thomas S. Kirk Legal Aid Society Guardian ad Litem of the Year, the 2007 Bob Seidl Semper Fi Award at the 27th Annual Dick Batchelor Run for the Children, the FDLA Pro-Bono Service Award, the Orange County Bar Association Legal Aid Society Award of Excellence, and the Florida Supreme Court Pro-Bono Service Recognition (two-time recipient). Community service is also important to Mr. Dietz. He has served as president of the East Orlando Civitan Club (four times) and was district governor of the Sunshine District of Civitan International, covering Central Florida from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf coast. Civitan is an international service club that focuses on research in developmental disabilities. He was the organizer of the annual Breakthru Golf Benefit that has raised over $3 million for the Civitan International Research Center, Civitan's flagship project, and anticipates raising over $300,000 at this year’s event at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando. Mr. Dietz has served as vice-chair of the Southeast Regional Board of Directors of Canine Companions, as moderator of a statewide denominational group, and as trustee for church, high school and civic foundations. He has worked in the acquisition, construction, renovation, and sale of property and buildings owned by non-profits. He has refereed youth basketball for the last ten years and has coached youth basketball, soccer, as well as a high school girls’ lacrosse team. He has also been awarded the “Up and Comer Award” by the Orlando Business Journal, the McArthur Alumni Award by Eckerd College, and is the recipient of Region 2, Florida District, Sunshine District and three club honor keys in Civitan. Mr. Dietz has published numerous articles and books on workers’ compensation and mediation nationally, and speaks to dozens of professional and civic associations and conventions each year on topics relating to insurance, risk-management, workers’ compensation, mediation, cross-cultural understanding, diversity training, quality management, best practices, and non-profit volunteer membership recruitment, retention and motivation.