Employee Benefits

We advise sponsors and fiduciaries on all aspects of employee welfare benefit plans, including design, implementation, modification, termination and administration of medical, dental and vision plans for employees and retirees, Section 125 cafeteria plans, flexible spending account plans for health care and dependent care reimbursement, tuition reimbursement plans, and voluntary employees' beneficiary associations (VEBAs). We also prepare "wrap" plans and summary plan descriptions that comply with ERISA's disclosure requirements. Because of our employment law experience, we provide a unique and balanced perspective on providing affordable benefit packages that maintain employee morale while complying with a myriad of federal and state laws, including COBRA, ERISA, HIPAA, GINA, Health Care reform, and anti-discrimination laws.

If your company is a new or emerging growth company we can offer extensive experience with the structure of executive compensation plans and the interface between those plans and raising capital in public and private capital markets. We advise public companies on compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and SEC reporting requirements. We assist management with the analysis, design, and implementation of executive compensation arrangements in:

• senior management groups
• emerging growth companies
• public companies
• owner-manager companies
• traditional middle-market companies

Our capabilities include the design and implementation of individual equity-based compensation arrangements, such as statutory and non-statutory stock option plans, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, and phantom stock arrangements. We also develop short-term and long-term incentive plans, non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements, supplemental executive retirement plans, and "split-dollar" life insurance as competitive compensation arrangements. We actively monitor IRS guidance under Code Section 409A on deferred compensation plans.

Members of our employee benefits litigation team practice throughout the Northeast and the nation, trying complex cases on behalf of clients that include the world's largest disability insurer. Our benefits litigation team includes national leaders in this area. The breadth of our expertise runs the gamut of benefits issues including disputes over entitlement to benefits and associated removal/ERISA preemption issues, breach of fiduciary duty and prohibited transaction claims, subrogation actions, bad faith and rescission suits, and complex class actions in both ERISA and non-ERISA contexts.

We have assumed a lead counsel role in both routine and complex benefits cases in courts throughout the nation and have represented clients in connection with several important United States Supreme Court ERISA cases. We have argued benefits cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the First, Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals. We litigate benefits cases to judgment or verdict in all regional courts, including courts in the following states: California, Illinois, Tennessee, Alabama, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. Much of our work centers in Massachusetts where we have litigated some of the leading employee benefits cases.

We have authored numerous articles and book chapters addressing benefits issues. Our team includes the editor and co-authors of The ABA's ERISA Survey Of Federal Circuits. We are also active in the DRI Life Health & Disability Committee and our team includes the current chair of that committee as well as the recent chair of the committee's webconference subcommittee. Our team members are also frequent speakers on benefits litigation topics at national seminars including the annual DRI Life, Health, Disability & ERISA Litigation Seminar.