Rob Wendt, NOSSCR President

If you were unable to attend the NOSSCR fall national conference in Salt Lake City, Utah earlier this month, you really missed out. We’ve received lots of unsolicited feedback from members that this was the best NOSSCR conference they had ever attended, and I agree.

To start with the most important purposes of our national conference, the CLE presentations and related programming were absolutely first rate and state of the art. NOSSCR members should expect no less, particularly in light of the AI revolution that is transforming the practice of disability law at unprecedented speed. Our vendors/exhibitors were similarly first class, allowing for close interaction with them about all the latest products and services for our unique area of law.

As in life, a law conference should never be all work and no play, and on this point the Salt Lake City conference exceeded expectations. Salt Lake City is a truly great American city surrounded by amazing landscapes, including the Great Salt Lake. The Grand America Hotel is one of the finest hotels you will find anywhere in the country, and the food was the best we’ve ever had at a conference. Thanks to board member Sarah Bohr, we offered local tours of the city and Antelope Island State Park in the Great Salt Lake on the last two evenings, which were well attended.

The most fun and memorable night was the Scully reception, during which we debuted a talent show featuring NOSSCR members who sang, danced, played musical instruments, and performed standup comedy. It was organized by Sarah Bohr, who also performed with her long-time competitive ballroom dance partner; and was emceed by another board member, the fabulous Freddie Effinger. It was so good to see the artistic side of our colleagues – I know there are many more of you out there – and to see a bunch of serious lawyers let loose and have so much fun. We have to do that again.

All of these superlatives aside, to me, the most impressive part of the conference was the general session for all attending members, featuring Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, who appeared by video to give an opening address and then to answer questions along with his top staff who appeared in person, Jay Ortis, Chief of Disability Adjudication, and Jim Parikh, Head of Service Delivery and Accountability. Judge Ortis and Mr. Parikh followed the Q&A session with a detailed presentation regarding performance and initiatives in the disability program.

If any members still entertain doubts about the wisdom of our picking up and moving NOSSCR to Washington in 2022, what we heard from the Commissioner, and his top staff should assuage those concerns. This was the third NOSSCR conference in a row in which the Commissioner Bisignano and his leadership team have made a point of attending to answer questions and to stress the work we have been doing together to reform the disability program. The Commissioner stated that NOSSCR’s “insight and advocacy are invaluable” to SSA, and NOSSCR was described and an “important” and “indispensable partner” with SSA in improving the disability adjudication process. Our recent work with SSA to reform disability operations was also described as a matter of “unprecedented engagement.”

We also learned that our efforts to assist the agency in improving the disability adjudication process continues to bear fruit. The Commissioner announced among other things that the new representative portal to replace AARPS – called AROS, will be launched in December of this year, with greatly enhanced functionality and integration with ERE; and that he is open to discussing another increase in the fee cap as authorized by statute because he understands that representatives must to be reasonably compensated to provide effective advocacy for claimants.

I’ve been a NOSSCR member for close to 40 years, and during much of that time we never experienced the level of mutual trust and engagement with the Commissioner’s office that we currently experience. For years the relationship was aloof and often adversarial. NOSSCR members, and by extension our disabled clients, suffered as a consequence. Our recommendations on important policies were often ignored and defeated, we went for 14 years without a raise in the fee cap while inflation ate away at our profitability; after the Obama first mid-term election and the rise of the Tea Party in Congress, ALJ award rates nationwide dropped precipitously and the agency issued a series of regulations and policies, including changes to the treating physician rule, making it more and more difficult for our clients to receive fair decisions. Equally bad, if not worse, the agency descended farther and farther into operation failure with antiquated technology systems and failed operational procedures.

The turnaround in the relationship did not just happen, and it was neither easy nor without great risk, expense, and disagreement within NOSSCR. In 2022, the NOSSCR board and a small group of former leaders decided to take bold action to move NOSSCR to Washington, DC and to essentially start the organization all over again. While retaining our traditional alliances with other disability non-profits, we forged a new path for our relationship with the agency and the Commissioner’s office which was non-partisan, independent, and highly focused on the most important issue of reforming the agency’s operations and efficiency – goals which drew broad support across many constituencies and political lines. We dreamed a big dream and look what that dream, combined with a lot of effort, produced – a partnership of mutual trust and respect that is achieving unprecedented improvement in the disability adjudication process.

Much credit for this new day in NOSSCR’s Washington advocacy is also due to you, our membership. Your loyalty has kept our membership numbers stable and reliable, and your willingness to support NOSSCR in so many ways, whether it’s volunteering to participate in NOSSCR programs and committees or present at our conference, is the key to our ability to carry out our mission. Thank you for your support, what we have achieved, is something we have done together.

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