Nancy J. Courson Cooke

Nancy J. Courson Cooke, Principal and Managing Partner at Dirska & Levin, LLC, has been representing the interests of employers and insurers in Workers’ Compensation matters for over twenty-eight years. Nancy served five years with the Maryland Labor Relations Board by appointment of former Governor Hogan. Nancy is currently serving her third, three-year term on the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board of the National Council on Compensation Insurance.

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Nancy is active with the Maryland State Bar Association. She served as Chair of the Negligence, Insurance, and Workers’ Compensation Section Council for the 2022-2023 term, was selected by the section to serve as their representative on the Board of Governors for the 2024-2026 term, and has been selected as a Fellow of the Maryland Bar Foundation.

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Nancy’s leadership was recently recognized, earning her the 2024 MSBA Presidential Outstanding Service Award, celebrating her commitment to advancing the practice of law and public service. This honor was awarded for the groundbreaking program Settlement Template Generator, a tool designed to streamline and standardize settlement agreements for workers' compensation cases.  Nancy’s role as Chair for this program also contributed to the team’s receipt of the 2024 MSBA Presidential Best Section Program Benefiting the Bar Award.

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Nancy serves as Co-Chair for the Workers’ Compensation and Unemployment Insurance committee of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. She is a Maryland Defense Counsel’s Workers’ Compensation Committee member.

Nancy is a 1996 graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law. She has tried hundreds of cases before the Commission, handled dozens of trials by jury throughout the Circuit Courts of Maryland, and argued several cases before the Appellate Courts, including the Chesson v. Montgomery Mutual cases. These cases resulted in the exclusion of the claimant’s mold expert at trial and established that in Maryland, medical opinions must generally be grounded in accepted scientific principles.

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Barred in Maryland

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