Our Employee Benefits team has been representing multinational clients in employee benefits, executive compensation and ERISA matters for more than 40 years.
Our capabilities in these areas are broad, and we are extremely experienced in creating and counseling employers on sophisticated employee benefit plan matters and defending employers in disputes arising out of employee benefits, executive compensation or other ERISA issues.
In peer surveys of legal practices nationwide, we have been voted the country's top-ranked firm in litigation and arbitration and number five in ERISA and pension matters.
In a recent survey by the publication Best Lawyers in America, four of our partners, Barry Cowan, Jay Friedman, Mark Miller and Stephanie Schroepfer, were voted by their peers as among the best lawyers in America for employee benefits matters.
In another survey, the U.S. News and World Report and Best Lawyers recognized our Employee Benefits team as one of the first-tier services in the nation.
Scope of service
We have active employee benefits team in our Dallas, Houston, New York and San Antonio locations. A significant portion of the service for these lawyers is planning, drafting and updating qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, as well as assisting clients with on-going compliance matters, and working with the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation on various closing agreements, audits and investigations. This group is also highly qualified in identifying special issues and potential problems with employee benefits in corporate and partnership reorganizations, mergers, acquisitions and securities transactions.
An important aspect of our service is following new legislation and regulations and monitoring clients' employee benefits arrangements to maintain compliance with the law. Our employee benefits lawyers also have significant experience working with outside actuaries, accountants, compensation consultants and bank trustees.
Clients
We represent individuals and entities serving in various capacities in employee benefits, executive compensation and ERISA matters. These entities include:
- Single employer pension plans
- Plan sponsors
- Investment advisors
- Plan Administrative Committees
- Other fiduciaries under ERISA
- Joint boards of trustees of multi-employer employee benefit plans
- Multi-employer pension plans
- Financial institutions
- Trustees
- Third party administrators
- Executives in the negotiation of compensations arrangements
- Insurers
Our clients range in size from Fortune 500 companies and large privately held companies to mid-size companies, municipalities and other government organizations, tax-exempt organizations, partnerships and trusts.
Types of matters
Our corporate clients turn to us on a daily basis to address the challenges associated with offering numerous employee benefit plans to their employees. We help our clients navigate the changing dynamics of their industry (often through mergers, acquisitions and divestitures) as well as the new legislative issues that may impact a number of plans simultaneously.
For more information or questions about our employee benefits team, please contact Mark Miller or Stephanie Schroepfer.
Awards
- For the eleventh year, Corporate Board Member magazine reported that its survey of public company directors identified the firm as one of the top 25 corporate legal practices in the nation. Similar research by Corporate Board Member magazine identified the firm among the top 25 firms that general counsel would most likely hire for national matters. (2012)
