About Us

Mission Statement

The mission of the Coalition to Preserve Independent Contractor Status is to

i) educate the public and elected representatives about the importance of preserving the right to work as a self-employed worker,

ii) increase the public's awareness of the gradual erosion of those rights that is taking place, and

iii) lead collective action to resist such erosion and to strengthen the recognition under the law of the right to work as a self-employed worker.

Executive Director

Russell A. Hollrah

Russell A. Hollrah is an “AV” rated attorney with a national practice dedicated to employee-benefits, employment taxes and the specific application of those laws to contingent workers, such as independent contractors and leased employees. He advises firms on structuring relationships with contingent workers, either directly or through a third-party firm. He also defends companies against challenges to their treatment of workers as non-employees. His practice covers both federal and state laws.

Russ is the author of Alternate Staffing (PJC Publishing) and When Leasing is Smarter than Hiring (Thompson Publishing Group). He has published numerous articles on contingent-worker issues and/or employee benefits issues in professional journals, and has been quoted on contingent-worker issues in publications such as Newsweek, Investors Business Daily, HR Magazine, IP Magazine, Telecommute Magazine and Tax Notes.

Russ served as Chair of the Employment Taxes Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association (2002-2004). He received a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Maryland, beta alpha psi, a J.D. from the University of Tulsa, where he served as a Member of its Law Journal, and an LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University.

Legislative Strategist

Darrell Coover
Independent Contractor

Darrell Coover is the former head of the Washington, D.C.-based government-affairs office of the National Association of Independent Insurers, a trade association representing the property and casualty insurance industry. Mr. Coover has been actively involved in lobbying the U.S. Congress on independent-contractor issues for more than twenty five years. He was the leader of a multi-industry coalition that is dedicated to the preservation of independent-contractor status.