Employee Benefits & Pensions
WHO WE ARE ~ McDermott Will & Emery LLP is a pioneer in the field of employee benefits. For over 50 years, we have been assisting and advising clients on a variety of employee benefits and executive compensation matters. We have more than 50 lawyers who practice exclusively in employee benefits and compensation, providing counsel in the international planning, implementation and administration of a wide range of compensation and benefit plans and programs.
Many of our lawyers are recognized nationally and internationally as leaders in the employee benefits field. In addition, before joining the Firm, several of our lawyers worked in corporations or insurance companies on employee benefits programs. This combination of expertise and experience provides us with a unique understanding of the actual implementation of employee benefits and compensation programs, adding a vital component to our ability to respond effectively to client needs.
Our diverse clientele adds another dimension to our ability to respond quickly and efficiently with client‑oriented solutions to real-world problems. Our employee benefits lawyers advise corporations, partnerships and organizations from all business sectors, including insurance; manufacturing; retailing; technology; media; service industries (such as airlines and hotels); health care providers, legal and accounting firms; banks and other financial institutions; telecommunications; and the printing, publishing and paper industries. We represent more than 38 Fortune 500 companies and 10 Fortune 100 companies in employee benefits matters on a regular basis. Many of our clients are service providers for employee benefit plans maintained by other employers (including trustees, record-keepers and insurers). Our broad client base also allows us to help clients identify new trends in the field and quickly identify and address any new or potential legal hurdles.
WHAT WE DO ~ Our lawyers regularly handle the full range of issues that affect 401(k) plans, profit sharing plans, ESOPs, and pension plans (including cash balance and other hybrid pension plans), non-qualified deferred compensation and executive compensation plans, health and welfare benefit plans, employment agreements, and fringe benefit plans. Often, we are called upon by our clients to conduct compliance reviews in various areas, such as tax-qualification, COBRA compliance, and fiduciary compliance matters. In addition, to better serve the diverse and growing needs of our clients, our Employee Benefits Department has created several specialized practice groups.
Our Retirement Plan Practice Group counsels and advises Fortune 500 companies that sponsor retirement plans with plan assets normally exceeding $100 million. Members of the Retirement Plan Practice routinely advise clients on the tax and ERISA compliance issues faced by plan sponsors, including fiduciary liability issues, investment management agreements, and claims administration and litigation counseling.
Our Welfare Benefit Plan Practice Group advises clients on the design and administration of health, welfare and other fringe benefit plans, and is anchored by partners who have over sixty years of collective experience in counseling clients on health and other group benefit plan compliance matters. Lawyers in this group regularly advise clients on matters involving HIPAA, COBRA, ADEA, ADA, and many other laws affecting welfare benefit plans.
Our Executive Compensation Practice Group counsels clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to emerging growth companies on all aspects of executive compensation, including nonqualified deferred compensation, golden parachutes, Section 162(m) and multinational executive benefits. Members of the Group include former IRS officials who participated in many of the rulings and regulations impact the executive compensation area and who hold leadership positions in the American Bar Association.
Our Employee Benefits Controversy and Litigation Practice Group regularly represents employers as plan sponsors and plan administrators, as well as individual and corporate fiduciaries and service providers, in both routine and complex employee benefits claims, controversies, and litigation. This group routinely and successfully handles large class action litigation.
Our ESOP Practice Group includes lawyers with experience developed through work on hundreds of ESOP transactions. One of our lawyers drafted most of the ESOP provisions in the original ERISA legislation, and another was the principal lobbyist in the far-reaching changes enacted in the Tax Reform Act of 1984. We have obtained precedent-setting Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department rulings and exemptions for our clients and have been involved in landmark litigation matters in the ESOP field.
Our London Practice Group advises U.K. and multinational employers on all aspects of U.K. employee benefits and compensation, including the structuring of international pension plans and share schemes and programs. The group’s clients include many household names in the banking, investment and financial services industry with regard to sophisticated remuneration structures to minimize tax and national insurance costs.
HOW WE CAN WORK FOR YOU~ With the continuing stream of complex and technical employee benefits legislation and regulation and with the increased globalization of workforces, employee benefit plan administration has become increasingly difficult. Employers and plan fiduciaries must constantly reexamine and redesign employee benefit programs in light of the latest government guidance or case law. Because our attorneys are highly specialized and focus their practices in one or two primary practice groups, our Firm can help clients work through complex problems with a level of employee benefits and international expertise not found at most law firms.
In addition, our lawyers have significant experience in negotiations with government agencies—like the Internal Revenue Service, the Inland Revenue, Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority, the Department of Labor or the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Members of the Employee Benefits Department also have successfully lobbied and testified before Congress and federal agencies with respect to various proposed laws and regulations. Although litigation typically is not a desirable outcome, if litigation or any other alternative dispute resolution mechanism is necessary, we and our employee benefits litigation practice group members are well-equipped to handle even the most complex employee benefits disputes. In short, we can guide our clients through the maze of regulations and litigations and help them create comprehensive, workable, cost-effective, and individually-tailored international benefits and compensation programs.
Representative Employee Benefits Experience
Counseled a global consumer products company on the conversion of $450 million of convertible preferred stock held by its U.S. 401(k) Plan into common stock.
Advised a Fortune 200 U.S. health plan provider on the determination of how COBRA should apply to a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). McDermott designed an innovative approach for the application of COBRA to a HRA that is being considered by the IRS and Treasury officials.
Secured an IRS private letter ruling that allowed a Fortune 500 company to deduct compensation paid to top executives even with a failure to timely obtain shareholder approval under Section 162(m).
Defended an international oil company in a class action claiming breach of fiduciary duty in implementing a “paperless” telephone system for administering a 33,000 participant 401(k) plan; this case was resolved by a nominal settlement after we defeated class certification in federal court in Texas.
Advised a multinational conglomerate regarding its spin-off of a specialty paper company using an ESOP. The $810 million buyout was funded in part with assets employees elected to invest from their existing retirement plan. Effective with the buyout, the paper company became a 100 percent ESOP-owned S-corporation with 100 percent of its future earnings exempt from U.S. income tax.
Counseled one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies on the merger of thirteen U.K. pension plans into one plan with a value in excess of £1 billion.
Worked with a Fortune 100 technology company on the employee benefits aspects on over a dozen outsourcing and divestiture transactions; McDermott was also the deal counsel on at least four of these transactions.
Contacts
- David E. Rogers
+1 202 756 8307
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