Mark R. Schmidt Named to 2027 PA and Philadelphia Top 100, Marking 20 Consecutive Years of Super Lawyers Recognition

A Top 100 Among All Pennsylvania Lawyers, Not Just Workers' Comp Lawyers

The Pennsylvania Top 100 recognizes 100 attorneys who earn among the highest point totals in the statewide Super Lawyers selection process. Unlike rankings limited to a particular legal specialty, the list draws from Super Lawyers honorees across numerous practice areas, including workers' compensation, personal injury, criminal defense, business litigation, family law, and more.

Consider the scale. According to Pennsylvania's official 2025 attorney registration statistics, 47,249 active attorneys were located in the Commonwealth at the end of 2025. No more than 5% of Pennsylvania attorneys are selected to Super Lawyers in a given year. Only 100 are named to the Pennsylvania Top 100.

Schmidt is one of them, and he practices only workers' compensation.

It is an unbelievable honor to be recognized by my peers as one of Pennsylvania’s (and Philadelphia’s) Top 100 Lawyers - in all fields of law – for the second time.

What makes this so important to me is that it validates the time and effort by my partners and our entire staff to pursue the best interest of each and every one of our clients, and even pursuing appellate issues that benefit every injured worker today and into the future. Thank you to those involved in the process, and thank you to all of the lawyers who fight to protect the rights of Pennsylvania’s injured workers.”

Philadelphia Top 100 Super Lawyers: Recognition Across the Legal Profession

The Philadelphia Top 100 is a separate list, recognizing 100 attorneys in the Philadelphia area. Philadelphia County alone had 13,617 active attorneys at the end of 2025, according to the state's official attorney registration figures.

Philadelphia is home to thousands of practicing attorneys, including lawyers at some of Pennsylvania's largest and most established law firms. While advertising can make a lawyer familiar to the public, it has no bearing on Super Lawyers selection. Attorneys cannot purchase a place on the list. Recognition is determined through peer nominations, independent research, and evaluations by fellow attorneys.

Among all the lawyers practicing in the Philadelphia area, in every field of law, Schmidt is one of 100 named to this list. He is a workers' compensation lawyer, and that is all he does.

What a Top 100 Selection Is Based On

Super Lawyers' Top 100 lists come from the same patented selection process used for the full Super Lawyers list:

• Peer nominations from Pennsylvania attorneys who have seen a lawyer's work firsthand. Self-nominations are not allowed.
• Independent research scoring each candidate on 12 indicators of professional achievement and peer recognition.
• Blue ribbon peer review by top-scoring attorneys in the candidate's practice area.

The Top 100 recognizes the attorneys with the highest final point totals. The process is repeated every year, and nothing carries over. Earning both Top 100 honors in back-to-back years means doing it twice.

See how all four SKRR partners were selected to 2027 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.

A Career Devoted to Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Law

Schmidt co-founded the firm that became Schmidt, Kirifides, Rassias & Rio in Media, Delaware County, in 1994, and has built his career around protecting people injured at work.

He is a Certified Workers' Compensation Specialist, a designation authorized by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and administered through the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Workers' Compensation Law Section. His practice runs from hearings before Workers' Compensation Judges to the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board, Commonwealth Court, and Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Schmidt has served as Co-Chair of the Delaware County Bar Association's Workers' Compensation Committee, teaches Continuing Legal Education programs to other attorneys, and contributes to amicus curiae briefs on issues affecting injured workers, including on behalf of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Brown v. Gaydos (2026).

He also knows the system as an injured worker. After his own work-related back injury, Schmidt fought his claim through every level of Pennsylvania's system. In March 2025, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in his case, holding that items prescribed by a health care provider as part of treatment for a work injury, in his case CBD oil, can be reimbursable "medicines and supplies" under the Workers' Compensation Act. Read about the 2025 Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling.

Read Mark R. Schmidt's full attorney biography.

"We're Not an Appellate Firm. We Help Injured Workers From Day One."

SKRR's attorneys have handled more than 100 workers' compensation appellate matters and helped secure over 20 precedent-setting decisions. But Schmidt is quick to point out that appeals are not what most clients need.

People read about our Supreme Court cases and appellate victories assume we only take complicated cases or appeals. That’s not who we are.

Most people call us a few days after they get hurt, worried about their paycheck, their doctor, or what happens next. If a work injury is affecting your paycheck, your ability to do your job, or your livelihood, we’re here for you from day one. You get the same Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialist, the same preparation, and the same attorney by your side from start to finish.”

Many of the decisions that shape a claim happen early: how the injury is described, how the average weekly wage is calculated, what work restrictions say, and what gets told to the insurance adjuster. SKRR represents workers whose claims were already accepted, as well as people facing a new injury, a denial, an IME, a return-to-work dispute, a medical treatment fight, or a settlement offer.

A Top 100 Standard, Firm-Wide

Schmidt's Top 100 honors are individual, but they reflect the standard he and founding partner Vasil L. Kirifides set for the firm in 1994.

For 2027, all four SKRR partners were selected to Pennsylvania Super Lawyers for the second year in a row. All three workers' compensation partners (Mark R. Schmidt, Vasil L. Kirifides, and Anna V. Rio) are Certified Workers' Compensation Specialists.

At SKRR, your case stays with the same Certified Specialist from start to finish. You have direct access to the partner handling your claim, not a call center or a rotating cast of attorneys. Learn why injured workers choose SKRR.

Representing Injured Workers in Philadelphia, Delaware County, and Across Pennsylvania

From its office at 44 E. Front Street in Media, SKRR represents injured workers throughout Philadelphia, Delaware County, Chester County, Montgomery County, Bucks County, and the rest of Pennsylvania. The firm has recovered more than $100 million in workers' compensation benefits for more than 5,000 injured workers and their families.

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