Brown Appoints Legal Affairs Attorney to WCAB

Wednesday, August 8, 2018 | 2

California Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed his deputy legal affairs secretary to the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, leaving one vacancy on the board to fill with a little more than four months left as governor.

Brown appointed 29-year-old Katherine Williams Dodd, of Napa, to the board. Dodd has served as deputy legal affairs secretary in the governor’s office since 2017. 

The state Senate must confirm the appointment.

Dodd is the daughter-in-law of state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, according to the Napa Valley Register.

The position pays $153,689 annually. Dodd earned $57,305.56 working as a legal assistant to the governor's office in 2017, according to the state's database of salaries. Her income as deputy legal affairs secretary was not available.

The WCAB had operated for years without the full contingent of seven commissioners. Dodd's appointment brings the board to six members with one vacancy, according to the WCAB's website.

Last month, Brown appointed a high-school classmate, 80-year-old Juan Pedro Gaffney, to the WCAB. The appointment was met with groans from some in the industry because Gaffney has no prior workers’ compensation experience and is not an attorney.

Dodd, in contrast, earned a Juris Doctor from the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. She was admitted to the California State Bar in May 2015.

Dodd was assistant general manager and corporate secretary at Frog’s Leap Winery from 2016 to 2017, the governor’s office said in a press release. She was a legislative advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union of California Center for Advocacy and Policy from 2013 to 2016, where she was a legislative assistant from 2010 to 2013. 

She is president of the Puertas Abiertas Community Resource Center board of directors, according to the governor's office. 

Dodd is a Democrat, the governor’s office said.