Honorable Frank E. Brown, Chairman

Chairman Frank E. Brown was appointed effective July 1, 2013, by Governor Rick Scott. Chairman Brown brings to the Commission 30 years of labor and employment law and litigation experience in both the public and private sectors, working at such firms as Carlton Fields, the Florida Attorney General’s Office, Zinober & McCrea, P.A., and MacFarlane, Ferguson and McMullen, P.A. He graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1983 and Florida State University College of Law in 1987. He has been peer-recognized as an outstanding labor and employment law practitioner in a number of publications, including Best Lawyers In America, Florida Super Lawyers, Florida Trend’s “Legal Elite,” Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers For Business, Tampa Bay Magazine’s “Top Lawyers,” and Martindale-Hubbell. He has been board certified by The Florida Bar in labor and employment law since the certification was first established in 2001. In 2019, he was recognized by Florida Trend’s “Legal Elite” as one of Florida’s top government lawyers. He was also selected for induction in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a professional organization of the nation’s leading labor and employment lawyers.

Chairman Brown has extensive substantive law and litigation experience across a broad spectrum of labor and employment areas, including reemployment assistance law, equal employment opportunity law, wage and hour law, employee benefits law, collective bargaining law, employment contract law, drug testing law and procedure, and civil rights law. He has tried dozens of employment and civil rights cases in federal and state courts and in private arbitration. He has represented parties in a broad variety of administrative hearings, and presided over hundreds of employee discharge administrative hearings during a decade as counsel to the Hillsborough County Civil Service Board. He also successfully defended numerous favorable decisions in state and federal appellate courts.

Throughout his legal career, Chairman Brown has devoted a significant portion of his time to legal scholarship, writing, and education, with emphasis on civil discovery, employee benefits, and wage and hour law. He served for over a decade as a chapter editor for the annual supplements to the ABA treatise The Fair Labor Standards Act. He has given over 60 continuing legal education presentations for the American Bar Association, The Florida Bar, and other sponsors. He served as an instructor of business law at the University of South Florida from 2010 to 2013, teaching over 3,000 students. Since appointment as chairman, he has been an invited speaker on topics such as labor and employment law issues, evidence, and the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules for the annual meeting of the National Association of Unemployment Insurance Appeals Professionals. He has been a member of the Executive Council of The Florida Bar Labor and Employment Law Section since 2002 and has served in numerous positions for the section, including editor of the section column in The Florida Bar Journal for nine years and chairman of the section for the 2015-16 bar year. He also currently serves on The Florida Bar’s Labor and Employment Law Certification Committee and the Florida Supreme Court’s Standard Jury Instructions Committee for Civil Cases. 

 

Honorable Thomas D. Epsky

Commissioner Thomas Epsky has been a member of the Florida Reemployment Assistance Appeals Commission (RAAC), a position appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Florida Senate, since 2001. Prior to his appointment, Commissioner Epsky was the Managing Partner and Principal Consultant in a human resource consulting practice. He began his career in Human Resource Management as a training manager in Macy’s Department Store and was a human resource generalist at Stony Brook University on Long Island.

Commissioner Epsky holds a Bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York as well as a Master’s degree from Barry University in Miami. He holds several professional certifications, including the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the HR Certification Institute, the SHRM-SCP (Senior Certified Professional) from the Society for Human Resource Management, and the IPMA-SCP (Senior Certified Professional) designation from the International Public Management Association for Human Resources. He has been selected by two Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Chapters as “Professional of the Year” for his work in Human Resources and in the community and is the recipient of the State of Florida Mary B. Hooks Award for service to the state.

Commissioner Epsky is a past president of the Martin County, Florida, Human Resource Management Association and served as an executive officer on the HR Florida State Council. He also has served as chairman of the Florida State Health and Human Services Board and as chairman of the City of Port St. Lucie Code Enforcement Board. He is past chairman of the board of directors for the United Way of St. Lucie County and past president of his local American Heart Association community board of directors.

A sought-after presenter at professional, trade, and business conferences, meeting speaker, author, and radio and television guest, Commissioner Epsky currently serves on the United Way of Florida Board of Governors. He is an adjunct faculty member at Indian River State College and has lectured at the College of the Bahamas.

Honorable Dr. Joseph D. Finnegan

Most Reverend Doctor Joseph D. Finnegan, DD, of Tallahassee, Florida, is a Commissioner of the Reemployment Assistance Appeals Commission, a position appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Florida Senate. Doctor Finnegan has served on the Commission since April 17, 2012.

Dr. Finnegan is a retired manager with more than 42 years of experience in both the private and public sectors, and he has served as pastor of All Saints Catholic Community since 2006. In 2005, Dr. Finnegan managed Florida’s voter registration services for the Florida Department of State. Prior to that, he served as Director of Market Investigation for the Office of Insurance Regulation within the Florida Department of Financial Services from 2001 to 2005, and he served as Manager of Human Resources and Risk Management for the St. Lucie Board of County Commissioners from 1998 to 2001.

Dr. Finnegan served as Executive Director of the Healthy Start Coalition of Southwest Florida, Inc., from 1995 to 1998. From 1987 to 1995, he was Principal and Managing Partner of the Management International Group, and Vice President of the Northeastern Eye Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania, from 1983 to 1987. Previously, he was a manager for General Electric Capital from 1978 to 1983, for Gilbert Associates from 1974 to 1978, for Communications Satellite Corporation from 1969 to 1974, and for Aetna Life and Casualty Company from 1962 to 1969. Dr. Finnegan earned a Bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s Seminary and University, a Master’s degree from George Washington University, and Doctors of Ministry and Divinity from AGAPE Seminary.

In July of 2015, Dr. Finnegan received the Commission’s Mary E. Griffin/Thomas D.C. Epsky Award for recognition of his many hours of community service. In July of 2018, he received the Commission’s Hon. Alan Orantes Forst Award in recognition of his many career achievements.

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