Phone: (919) 787-7711
Facsimile: (919) 787-7710
fclement@wrlaw.com
Bio
Frances M. Clement brought her workers’ compensation practice to Wilson Ratledge in 2017. She was a former partner at Brooks, Stevens & Pope, PA. Since 2007, Ms. Clement has represented employers, insurance carriers, and third-party administrators in North Carolina workers’ compensation claims. Ms. Clement has experience and proficiency in legal research and writing, in working with clients to get claims settled at mediation, as well as in workers’ compensation litigation and appeals.
Ms. Clement has given presentations for clients on all matters of workers’ compensation issues and defenses as well as CLE and CEU presentations for the National Business Institute, including talks on Workers’ Compensation Subrogation Procedure, Advanced Topics in Workers’ Compensation, Medical Issues and their Role in the Complex Workers’ Compensation Claim, and Litigation Techniques and the Difficult Workers’ Compensation Case. Most recently, Ms. Clement gave a presentation at the 2022 PRIMA conference on the Intoxication Defense, Misrepresentation Defense, and Penalties for Safety Violations, and provided a CEU on Compensability Issues and Application of Relevant Case Law from 2022; Coordination of Benefits; and Using the Intoxication, Misrepresentation and Safety Violation Defenses. She was also a co-author for an Amicus Brief submitted to the North Carolina Court of Appeals on behalf of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys on the issue of extended benefits.
Ms. Clement graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Davidson College in 1999 with degrees in Classics and English. While at Davidson, Ms. Clement was a member of Rusk House and was on the Union Board Publicity Committee. She was also a member of the Eta Sigma Phi Classics Honor Society, Philanthropic Society, and the American Classical League. Ms. Clement studied abroad at Cambridge University, England, and spent a semester traveling all over the Mediterranean studying Classical Humanities. She received her J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Law School in 2002. During law school, Ms. Clement published an article in the North Carolina Banking Journal and served as a senior articles and notes editor for the North Carolina Banking Institute. Ms. Clement was also a member of the Public Interest Law Foundation and Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity, serving as vice-president and secretary. She served as a marshal for the Craven Moot Court Competition and as the chair of the Student Bar Association Career Services Committee. In the fall of 2001, Ms. Clement was a legal intern for the Kenan-Flagler Business School in the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology and researched and assisted in writing an article for publication in Law Review as well as a practical guide for students and practitioners on start-up ventures.
Following law school, Ms. Clement spent almost five years with a well-established firm in Chicago, Illinois practicing insurance defense work and trying more than 35 jury cases to verdict. The cold weather eventually drove her back to her home town of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Areas of Practice
- Workers’ Compensation Defense
Education
- J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2002
- B.A., Davidson College, cum laude, 1999
Bar Admissions
- North Carolina, 2007
- Illinois, 2002 (inactive)
Professional Activities
- North Carolina Bar Association: Member of the Workers’ Compensation Section
- Tenth Judicial District Bar