Laura Ostrander

Practice Focus

Laura Ostrander is a Workers’ Compensation Attorney at Berry Law who brings two decades of experience working closely with insurance carriers and employers on workers’ compensation claims. That background gives her a rare, practical understanding of how workplace injury claims are evaluated, defended, and managed within the system. Today, she applies that experience on behalf of injured workers, helping clients navigate a process that can be complex, technical, and deeply consequential to their health, finances, and future. Laura understands that a serious work injury can affect nearly every part of a person’s life, and she approaches each claim with a focus on helping clients pursue the best possible outcome while feeling informed and supported throughout the process.

Laura’s career gives her an unusually strong advantage for this work. After spending years working closely with the employer and carrier side of workers’ compensation matters, she developed firsthand insight into the legal, practical, and procedural issues that shape these claims. That perspective now benefits the individuals she represents. She understands the pressure points that can affect case value, the complexity of medical and employment issues in work injury cases, and the importance of guiding clients through the system with both strategy and clarity.

Role at Berry Law

Laura has said she is honored to join Berry Law so she can use her industry experience to help injured workers navigate the complexity of the workers’ compensation system and pursue strong results in their claims. She has also described Berry Law’s focus on delivering the best possible client experience as a defining strength of the firm and one that reflects her own professional priorities. That alignment matters in workers’ compensation cases, where clients are often dealing not only with physical pain, but also with uncertainty about treatment, income, employment, and long-term recovery. Laura’s practice is grounded in the belief that effective representation requires both substantive legal knowledge and a meaningful commitment to client success.

Her litigation and appellate background further strengthen that advocacy. Laura has represented clients before the Iowa Division of Workers’ Compensation, the Iowa District Courts, the Iowa Court of Appeals, the Iowa Supreme Court, and the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court. Through that work, her appellate advocacy helped establish several important workers’ compensation legal precedents in Iowa. That level of experience reflects not only familiarity with the day-to-day realities of work injury claims, but also the ability to handle the larger legal questions that can shape how those claims are decided.

Before entering practice, Laura also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Van Zimmer of the Iowa Court of Appeals immediately after graduating from law school. That experience sharpened her legal research, writing, and appellate analysis and gave her an additional layer of insight into how courts evaluate records, arguments, and legal standards. Combined with her longstanding industry knowledge, it equips her to approach workers’ compensation cases with both detail-oriented preparation and a strong command of broader legal strategy.

Background & Interests

During law school, she served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Corporation Law and as an Appellate Advocacy Student Judge. She is also a member of the Iowa State Bar and the Nebraska State Bar.

Taken together, Laura’s background reflects a lawyer who understands workers’ compensation from multiple angles: the carrier perspective, the employer perspective, the claimant perspective, and the appellate perspective. For injured workers seeking guidance through a difficult and often unfamiliar system, that depth of experience positions her as a knowledgeable and effective advocate.