Litigating Against Senior-Care Facilities After the Federal Staffing-Rule Repeal

Michael Brusca, Esq., Partner | Davis & Brusca, LLC

Michael Brusca is a partner at Davis & Brusca, LLC in Princeton, New Jersey. Since 2009, he has concentrated his practice on abuse, neglect, and death cases arising in nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities, assisted living facilities, group homes, and hospitals, and he is among a small group of New Jersey lawyers who focus their work on this field.

• Education & Credentials

Michael earned his J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2002 and his B.S. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1996. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Before entering private practice, he served as a Judge Advocate in the United States Air Force, trying cases around the world, including in Japan, Qatar, and Kuwait.

• Recognition & Leadership

Michael is the past chairman of the Executive Board of the National Nursing Home Litigation Group for the American Association for Justice. His honors include recognition by Best Lawyers, the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list issued by The National Trial Lawyers (2025), Super Lawyers (2019 through 2025), the National Association of Distinguished Counsel Nation’s Top One Percent (2021 through 2025), and a Top 100 Lawyers 2021 Attorney of the Year recognition.

• Professional Involvement

Michael is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Pennsylvania State Bar Association, the Mercer County Bar Association, the New Jersey Association for Justice, and the American Association for Justice Nursing Home Litigation Group, where he serves on the Executive Board. He lectures around the country on nursing home litigation, has been consulted by reporters and law enforcement in the field, and has published many times, including in the New Jersey Law Journal and in Trial, the national attorney magazine of the American Association for Justice.

• Experience

Michael served as lead counsel for the plaintiff in Dwyer v. Harborview, which generated the largest nursing home verdict in New Jersey to date at $13.2 million; the verdict was later the subject of post-trial motions and an appeal and ultimately settled for a different amount. His recent speaking engagements include programs for myLawCLE, the American Association for Justice, the New Jersey Association for Justice, the New Jersey State Bar Association, Strafford, and Lawline, on topics spanning understaffing, corporate liability, medical record falsification, and damages.

Elizabeth M. Kim | Lanzone Morgan, LLP

Elizabeth M. Kim is an attorney at Lanzone Morgan, LLP, where she represents victims of elder abuse and neglect in litigation against skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and their corporate owners. Her practice focuses on uncovering systemic neglect, chronic understaffing, fraudulent charting, and corporate misconduct in long-term care facilities.

• Education & Credentials

Elizabeth graduated from the University of California, Berkeley before earning her J.D. from Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law. At Chapman, she competed on the Mock Trial, Moot Court, and Alternative Dispute Resolution teams, participating in 15 competitions and serving as Competitions Chair for both the Mock Trial Team and Moot Court Board. She is licensed to practice in California and in the Central District in California of the United States District Court.

• Recognition & Leadership

In addition to her work at Lanzone Morgan, LLP, Elizabeth actively volunteers with Chapman’s law school competition teams and coaches aspiring lawyers. Elizabeth was motivated to volunteer after the sudden passing of her mentor and favorite professor. She hopes to continue her professor’s legacy of passionate advocacy and integrity.

Elizabeth has been recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star (2025 and 2026), a National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40, and a member of the National Trial Lawyers Top 10 Nursing Home Trial Lawyers.

• Professional Involvement

Elizabeth is an active member of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), the American Association for Justice, Consumer Attorneys of California, Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. She is a member of AAJ’s Nursing Home Litigation Group and Appellate Practice Litigation Group.

• Experience

Elizabeth served as second chair in Jentz v. RRT Enterprises LP, which resulted in a $2.3 million jury verdict and was recognized as the Number 1 Elder Abuse Verdict in California and Los Angeles County for 2024, as well as one of the Top 100 Personal Injury Verdicts in California and Top 50 Personal Injury Verdicts in Los Angeles.

In 2025, Elizabeth served as trial counsel in Doherty v. Alameda Healthcare & Wellness Ctr. LLC, which resulted in a $7.6 million jury verdict, including $6 million in punitive damages, and a jury finding of 1,437 violations of the California Residents’ Bill of Rights, believed to be the largest number of such violations ever returned by a California jury. This verdict was recognized as one of the Top 100 Verdicts in California and Top 50 Personal Injury Verdicts in California in 2025.

Suzanne Voas | Lanzone Morgan, LLP

Suzanne is an attorney at Lanzone Morgan, LLP, where she represents plaintiffs in elder abuse and neglect, negligence, and wrongful death actions against nursing homes throughout California. She has challenged pre-dispute arbitration agreements at both the trial court and appellate levels. Suzanne argued before the California Court of Appeal, Second District, regarding a health care agent’s authority to bind a principal to arbitration with a nursing home, securing the ruling in Logan v. Country Oaks Partners, LLC (2022) 82 Cal.App.5th 365. After the California Supreme Court granted review, she was part of the team that secured the landmark decision in Harrod v. Country Oaks Partners, LLC (2024) 15 Cal.5th 939. She is an active member of the American Association for Justice Nursing Home Litigation Group and the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

• Education & Credentials

Suzanne earned her J.D. from Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law, where she received a merit scholarship for tuition, graduated in the top 20% of her class, and completed a degree emphasis in Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. In law school, she served three years on the Student Bar Association, holding Executive Board positions for two of those years, was selected for an academic fellowship with a law professor for two consecutive years, and is a four-time recipient of the CALI Award for Excellence for earning the highest grade in a law course.

• Recognition & Leadership

Suzanne won a precedent-setting ruling in the California Court of Appeal in Logan v. Country Oaks Partners, LLC (2022) 82 Cal.App.5th 365, later affirmed by the California Supreme Court in Harrod v. Country Oaks Partners, LLC (2024) 15 Cal.5th 939, a landmark decision delimiting a health care agent’s authority to enter an optional arbitration agreement with a nursing home. Since 2023, she has led recruitment and the development of training programs for legal interns at Lanzone Morgan, LLP.

• Professional Involvement

Suzanne is an active member of the Nursing Home Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice and the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

• Experience

Suzanne joined Lanzone Morgan, LLP in 2019 as a law clerk and became an attorney at the firm in 2021, building a practice devoted to advocating for the rights and dignity of vulnerable elders throughout California. Her work spans elder abuse and neglect, negligence, and wrongful death actions against nursing homes, including arbitration challenges at both the trial court and appellate levels.

SESSION 1 – Proving Elder-Neglect and Wrongful-Death Claims Against Understaffed Facilities | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This session gives plaintiff litigators a practical framework for proving elder neglect and wrongful death claims against chronically understaffed nursing facilities without relying on federal staffing standards. Attorneys learn how to use the federal requirements that survived Public Law 119-21 and state-law theories to establish duty, breach, and causation. Rather than relying on a single regulatory benchmark, attendees will learn how to build an understaffing case from intake to verdict by connecting staffing decisions to specific resident harm.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Defeating Arbitration and Maximizing Recovery in Senior-Care Neglect Cases | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

This session gives plaintiff attorneys the tactical and doctrinal tools to defeat nursing home arbitration agreements and maximize damages in senior-care neglect cases after the federal staffing-rule repeal. Attorneys learn the leading attacks on pre-dispute arbitration clauses, including unconscionability, lack-of-authority challenges, and FAA preemption defenses, drawn from recent appellate decisions such as Harrod v. Country Oaks Partners (Cal. 2024) and Hwang v. Pathway LaGrange (Ill. App. 2024). It also covers enhanced damages under state elder-abuse statutes, corporate discovery aimed at staffing budgets, and how to frame litigation as the main accountability tool now that federal minimum staffing standards are gone.