Gwen Simons, Esq., PT, OCS, FAAOMPT

Gwen is an attorney and a nationally recognized expert in physical therapy. She is a Board Certified Orthopaedic Clinical Specialist and a Fellow in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists. Gwen is an adjunct faculty member in the University of New England Physical Therapy Program, teaching “PT Education & Consulting” and “Health Policy & Legislation.” She is the Past President of the Kentucky Physical Therapy Association and Past President of the Louisville Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. In 2000, she was named one of Louisville’s “Forty Under 40” in 2000.

Gwen has lectured on medical-legal and workers’ compensation topics to the Maine Society or Orthopaedic Surgeons, attorney groups, the Maine Chapter of APTA, and at the Annual Conference of the APTA Private Practice Section. She has published several articles on evidentiary issues in functional capacity evaluations and PT documentation as evidence in workers’ compensation cases. Gwen is currently writing a chapter on legal issues in functional capacity evaluations for an upcoming AMA publication.

In her 20 years experience as a physical therapist, Gwen has helped many companies solve their workforce health/injury problems by providing consultative services in: injury prevention, essential function quantification, job analysis, ergonomics, reasonable accommodations, return to work programs, and design of legally defensible employee screening exams. Some of her clients in Kentucky and Maine have included: 3M, Hitachi Automotive Products, Modine Climate Systems, General Electric, Ambrake, Caldwell Tanks, Verizon, Jim Beam and Shaw’s Distribution Center.

Gwen’s law practice now compliments the consultative services she has long provided in the areas of workers’ compensation and employment law compliance. She understands workers’ compensation issues from the legal side as well as the clinical side. Her knowledge of medicine and evidence-based practice provides a great advantage in identifying and resolving medical-legal employment, workers’ compensation and disability issues. This combination of legal and medical knowledge allows Gwen to help companies and PT consultants craft innovative and legally defensible solutions for their healthy work force initiatives.