Employee Benefits

Services

• Employee Benefits Counsel: We serve as Fund Counsel

  Our Employee Benefits lawyers participate in regular and special trustee meetings, draft meeting minutes, advise on procedural matters, prepare and review fund counsel reports (including collections) and advise trustees of legal developments. We have experience handling both the big picture as well as the technical details involving advice and compliance matters, fiduciary and plan governance issues, government audits and investigations, plan, trustee and contributing employer litigation, bankruptcy, and serving as policy and law advocates.

• Advice & Compliance: We help Fund Trustees create, design, operate, merge and, when necessary, terminate benefit plans.

  For over 80 years, we have helped our retirement, health, training and other benefit plan clients navigate an ever changing and complex landscape utilizing practical advice and creative solutions. We have a comprehensive and thorough understanding of ERISA, FEHBA, the Internal Revenue Code, and the numerous other laws that govern employee benefit plans.

• Fiduciary Responsibility & Plan Governance: We assist Trustees to make sure they understand the issues and engage in procedural prudence.

  We advise Trustees on the reporting and disclosure, fiduciary conduct, plan asset, and prohibited transaction rules to help them comply with the numerous requirements of ERISA Title I.

  Our work includes providing legal counsel on traditional and private placement investments (offshore, real estate and other alternative investments). We negotiate various investment‑related documents including investment management agreements, side-letters, custodial agreements and other related documents.

• ERISA Litigation: We defend against and prosecute litigation on behalf of Plans and Trustees.

  We routinely handle litigation on behalf of plans, defending against fiduciary breach claims, benefit claims and challenges to plan rules.

  We are equally skilled at prosecuting litigation involving delinquent employers, withdrawal liability, subrogation and recovery of fund losses. We have particular expertise in litigating against employers who engage in double‑breasted, non‑union operations to avoid their obligations to contribute to a benefit plan.

  When necessary, we represent clients in Taft‑Hartley Trustee deadlock arbitration.

• Government Audits, Investigations & Litigation: We know how to handle delicate situations when relationships having meaning.

  We routinely handle all types of DOL audits and investigations, as well as reviews by other federal and state agencies, including the IRS, PBGC, HHS, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, state Medicaid, and others.  We use our deep knowledge of the law and our experience with agency audits, as well as the personal experience of team members who have previously worked within these agencies, to help clients achieve results and resolution.

• Policy & Law Advocates: We advance the interests of the multiemployer plans and have the ability to influence.

  We bring the unique perspective of our clients to the halls of Congress, advocate for new laws, coordinate with industry and labor groups, and provide technical assistance to administrative agencies as they shape the regulatory landscape. Most importantly, we use our deep relationships in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government to help our clients achieve results on Capitol Hill and beyond.

• Bankruptcy/ Reorganizations: We represent employee benefit plans in bankruptcy and restructuring matters.

  We regularly represent benefit plans when contributing employers have filed for bankruptcy or are undergoing corporate reorganizations. Learn more about our Bankruptcy and restructuring practice here.

• Well-Versed on Continuously Evolving Legal Developments

  We don’t rest on our laurels. We remain fully abreast of legal developments that affect our benefit plan clients to ensure they remain compliant with legal requirements and address issues affecting their plans.

• Industry Recognized

  We are active with the ABA Labor and Employment Section’s Employee Benefits Committee, the ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits, the Tax Section of the ABA, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and the Union Lawyers Alliance of the AFL‑CIO.

  We both speak at and attend conferences of these groups and serve as editors of publications on the latest developments and changes affecting employee benefit plans.