Back to Claims School
Jim Frerking has spent his career seeing workers’ compensation from several sides of the industry. He has worked for a large insurance carrier, a major property and casualty broker, and now Paradigm, where he serves as Senior Vice President of Sales for Clinical Solutions. Each role has given him a different view of how employers, carriers, brokers, service partners, and injured workers experience the workers’ compensation system. That range of experience allows Jim to connect the financial and operational responsibilities of commercial insurance with the human responsibility that appears when someone is injured at work.
Paradigm’s mission centers on helping people recover from catastrophic workplace injuries through clinical expertise and a comprehensive focus on the injured worker and family. Jim sees that work as part of a much larger purpose within commercial insurance. Businesses rely on insurance to create, innovate, take risks, and grow with greater confidence. Workers’ compensation adds another layer because the system also carries responsibility for helping injured people regain health, function, and productive activity after an unexpected event changes their lives.
His perspective fits naturally within the CLM Claims College School of Workers’ Compensation, which is powered by Paradigm. Jim brings students a view of the industry that stretches across organizations and roles while remaining grounded in one consistent belief: the strongest outcomes come from combining sound information with meaningful human interaction. Data matters. Expertise matters. The people involved matter just as much.
What originally drew you to workers’ compensation?
Commercial insurance is the backbone of American business.
It allows organizations to create, innovate, and succeed because they have partners helping them understand and manage risk. Workers’ compensation adds an especially meaningful dimension to that work because we also have an opportunity to help people who have been injured while working.
Helping someone restore health and return to a meaningful and productive life gives the work a purpose that reaches well beyond the financial side of insurance.
What perspective do you bring to the School of Workers’ Compensation?
I have had the opportunity to work for a large insurance carrier, a large property and casualty broker, and now a service partner providing specialized services.
Each role has allowed me to see workers’ compensation from a different vantage point. I understand the responsibilities carried by the risk-bearing organization, the perspective of the broker advising the employer, and the role specialized partners can play when a claim requires additional expertise.
Having that broader view helps me understand how the different parts of the system connect and how the decisions made in one area affect everyone else involved.
Why does that perspective matter for today’s claims professionals?
Career paths are more dynamic than ever.
Workers’ compensation professionals can build careers across carriers, employers, brokerage, consulting, service organizations, and many other parts of the industry. The people who remain curious and seek opportunities to understand more of the system become increasingly valuable in whatever role they choose.
Perspective matters because the more you understand how other people experience the work, the better equipped you become to make decisions within your own role.
What is one misconception you regularly observe within workers’ compensation?
A common perception is that insurance carriers are looking for reasons to avoid providing care while injured workers are looking for ways to take advantage of the system.
Both situations can occur. My experience has shown me that the vast majority of injured workers and workers’ compensation carriers want the same general outcome: prompt recovery and a successful return to productive activity.
Starting from that understanding creates a much better foundation for communication and decision-making throughout the claim.
What has professional experience taught you that a textbook never could?
No amount of data can replace human interaction.
Facts are important and data helps us make better decisions. The strongest results still require people to take the time to understand one another and recognize the human dynamics influencing the situation.
Life is a contact sport and workers’ compensation is no exception.
The most effective professionals understand the people involved, use that perspective to interpret the information available, and then make decisions with both elements in mind.
What do you hope students gain from learning with you at Claims College?
I want students to leave with a greater understanding of the role commercial insurance plays in helping American businesses thrive and grow.
A strong insurance partnership can provide tremendous value to an organization when it functions well. Businesses depend on banking, legal, accounting, and other professional relationships to help them operate successfully. Their insurance relationships deserve to be viewed with that same level of strategic importance.
Claims professionals are an essential part of delivering that value.
Complete this sentence: “Excellent claims professionals understand that…”
There is both an art and a science to excellence in the claims role.
Data, facts, and technical knowledge give us the science. Human judgment and the ability to understand people bring the art.
The strongest decisions require both.
What advice would you give someone building a career in workers’ compensation?
This is a huge industry and a very small community.
Surround yourself with good people. Help others aggressively. Lose your ego. Learn from anyone willing to teach you.
And never, never burn a bridge.
Your relationships will travel with you throughout your career and the way you treat people will become part of your professional reputation.
What might Claims College students enjoy knowing about you?
During my athletic days, our football coach recommended that 14 of us take a 12-session summer ballet course.
So we did.
And I can Demi-Plié with the best of them.
Apparently, football and ballet make a perfectly reasonable combination when the coach says they do.
Ready to Head Back to Claims School?
The strongest claims professionals never stop learning. Join the workers’ compensation community in Baltimore from September 9–11, 2026, for the CLM Claims College and three days of practical education, meaningful discussion, and professional connection. The School of Workers’ Compensation gives students the opportunity to strengthen technical knowledge, sharpen professional judgment, and learn directly from experienced industry leaders. Each class is designed to help professionals return to their organizations with greater confidence and new ideas they can apply to their work. Explore the School of Workers’ Compensation and reserve your seat at Claims College today.
The CLM Claims College School of Workers’ Compensation is powered by Paradigm. WorkersCompensation.com proudly sponsors the School’s study halls.
