We have broad experience in compensation and employee benefit matters. Our employee benefit (ERISA) practice includes all legal aspects of planning, plan design, counseling, drafting, and implementation of benefit plans. In addition, we provide legal advice regarding plan administration and represent employers in benefit plan matters with the IRS, Labor Department and other government agencies.
With respect to tax-qualified retirement plans, such as pension, profit sharing and 401(k) plans, we help our clients maintain their plans’ tax-qualified status, seek and obtain favorable determination letters from the IRS, guide our clients through the IRS’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System, counsel clients regarding plan design alternatives, and prepare communications to plan participants, such as summary plan descriptions. We regularly counsel clients regarding plan mergers, spin-offs and terminations, and we perform the legal work necessary to implement such transactions.
Our clients sponsor welfare benefit plans, such as group health plans, health care flexible spending plans, disability plans and severance plans. We assist our clients in maintaining the plan documents and prepare on behalf of our clients communications to plan participants. We help our clients comply with the myriad federal statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to such plans, including COBRA (health care continuation coverage), HIPAA (portability, non-discrimination and privacy), and federal tax laws (such as those governing cafeteria plans and those concerning the tax-exempt status of plan benefits).
We regularly advise our clients regarding the employee benefits issues that arise in the context of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. We have substantial experience in identifying and resolving the benefits-related legal issues that arise when employers restructure by acquiring or spinning off a business unit.
We are pleased to serve as employee benefits counsel to a wide range of private and governmental employers, including the following:
- Carolinas Healthcare System
- Community Newspaper Holdings
- Fresenius Medical Care North America
- Martin Marietta Materials
- National Gypsum Company
- Nucor Corporation
- Queens University
- The Duke Endowment
- The John Motley Morehead Foundation
- Transit Management of Charlotte