Today, the House of Representatives passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the “ARPA”). The ARPA has already been approved by the Senate and is expected to be quickly signed into law by President Biden. We recently published a client alert addressing Title IX, Subtitle H of the new legislation, which includes significant pension reforms for multiemployer and single-employer pension plans, and expands the number of covered employees for the limitation on the deductibility of executive compensation under Section 162(m) of the Tax Code.

Read the full client alert here.

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Proskauer’s cross-disciplinary, cross-jurisdictional Coronavirus Response Team is focused on supporting and addressing client concerns. We will continue to evaluate the CARES Act, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, related regulations and any subsequent legislation to provide our clients guidance in real time. Please visit our Coronavirus Resource Center for guidance on risk management measures, practical steps businesses can take, and resources to help manage ongoing operations.

Posted in Client Alert, Coronavirus, Health and Welfare Plans, Retirement Plans
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Photo of Ira Golub Ira Golub

Ira M. Golub is a partner in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group. He practices exclusively in the employee benefits area. The nature of Ira’s practice embraces virtually all aspects of employee benefits law, ranging from the establishment and design of pension…

Ira M. Golub is a partner in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group. He practices exclusively in the employee benefits area. The nature of Ira’s practice embraces virtually all aspects of employee benefits law, ranging from the establishment and design of pension, profit-sharing, welfare and executive compensation plans to the administration and termination of such programs.

Ira works regularly with both single employer and multiemployer pension, welfare, annuity, vacation and apprenticeship funds. He serves as fund counsel to numerous multiemployer funds in a variety of industries, providing advice to trustees and administrators in connection with the operation and maintenance of the funds. His understanding of the issues emanating from the operation of multiemployer funds is enhanced by his experience in effecting the termination and mergers of funds and representing contributing employers in disputes with employee benefit plans.

Ira has extensive experience representing employers in their efforts to manage withdrawal liability exposure. He has assisted numerous employers that have been assessed withdrawal liability in challenging, arbitrating and negotiating the settlement of such assessments. The fact that Ira formerly worked for an actuarial consulting firm and serves regularly as counsel to multiemployer funds that assess withdrawal liability enables him to bring a spectrum of analytical skills and a depth of experience when addressing withdrawal liability matters. He has provided advice to employers in connection with highly complex and multi-faceted withdrawal liability problems, worked intensively with all withdrawal liability methods (including the hybrid withdrawal liability allocation method recently adopted by some large multiemployer funds) and given advice in connection with multiple withdrawal liability transactions involving liabilities in excess of a billion dollars. He has represented clients before the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and has negotiated a number of agreements with the PBGC in transactional and other contexts (such as, for example, Section 4062(e) of ERISA). He has been a legal advisor in many situations involving bankruptcy and restructuring as it relates to withdrawal liability and pension underfunding.

Over the years, Ira has developed a particular capability representing plan sponsors and trustees in connection with the full range of fiduciary and other plan asset and investment issues. He also has a breadth of knowledge with respect to issues relating to welfare programs, and is considered a leading authority with respect to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, as amended (COBRA) and Health Savings Account. Ira is often called upon to provide advice relating to managing and modifying significant employer retiree medical liabilities and obligations. He frequently has been involved in providing advice to large corporations in connection with reductions-in-force, and with respect to the full range of employee benefit aspects arising in corporate mergers and acquisitions. Ira also works with government sponsored employee benefit plans that are not subject to ERISA.

Ira has published the COBRA Handbook, a comprehensive text on COBRA that is updated annually. He is a member of the Board of Editors of HR Advisor. In addition to having worked at a national actuarial consulting firm, Ira previously was a trial attorney for the National Labor Relations Board.

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Photo of Robert Projansky Robert Projansky

Robert M. Projansky is a partner in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group and is currently a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee.

Rob has a broad practice advising both multiemployer and single employer clients on all issues related to the legal…

Robert M. Projansky is a partner in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group and is currently a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee.

Rob has a broad practice advising both multiemployer and single employer clients on all issues related to the legal compliance and tax-qualification of ERISA-covered pension and welfare plans. Rob’s clients include the largest and highest-profile U.S. media and entertainment industry clients, as well as a broad range of Fortune 500 companies.

In the multiemployer context, he serves as counsel to the boards of trustees of a number of large and small funds and frequently assists clients in addressing issues related to the funding of defined benefit pension plans, including zone status, benefit suspensions, special financial assistance and withdrawal liability. He also advises these clients on healthcare compliance, cybersecurity and government investigations. In addition, his practice includes advising corporate clients on their responsibilities related to multiemployer plans, with particular expertise on the impact of multiemployer and collectively bargained plans in corporate transactions.

Rob has extensive experience advising corporate clients regarding general compliance issues and fiduciary compliance matters, including plan asset and prohibited transaction issues. He also has addressed a myriad of issues related to complex plan investments, including negotiation of separately managed and collective investment vehicles for both traditional and alternative investments such as hedge funds, private equity funds and fund-of-funds vehicles.

Rob is described in Chambers USA as “incredibly smart and creative, and a really effective, zealous advocate” who “adroitly communicates complicated ERISA matters to clients in understandable language and well-timed levity.”  He is a widely sought after speaker on topics related to employee benefits, fiduciary, cybersecurity and government investigations and speaks each year at the annual conference and various other conferences sponsored by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, the largest educational organization in the employee benefits industry. Rob currently serves as one of the nine Advisory Directors on the Board of Directors of the International Foundation.

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Photo of Andrea Rattner Andrea Rattner

Andrea S. Rattner is a partner in the Tax Department and member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group. For more than 30 years, her practice has focused on a broad range of executive compensation and employee benefits matters, advising clients on…

Andrea S. Rattner is a partner in the Tax Department and member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group. For more than 30 years, her practice has focused on a broad range of executive compensation and employee benefits matters, advising clients on an ongoing basis as well as in the context of corporate transactions and other transformative and unique situations. Her clients include public and private companies, boards of directors, compensation committees and senior executives in a broad range of industries. Andrea has been involved in Firm management for many years, having served as a member of the Executive Committee and a former chair of the Tax Department.

Andrea counsels clients with respect to the tax, securities, corporate governance, stock exchange, ERISA and other implications affecting executive compensation arrangements. Andrea regularly provides advice regarding equity arrangements (such as stock options, restricted stock, RSUs, LLC/partnership interests and phantom equity), employment agreements, change-in-control agreements and all other types of compensation arrangements (including incentive awards, SERPs, deferred compensation and “409A” covered and exempt arrangements).

She counsels clients on benefits and compensation matters arising in all types of corporate transactions, including mergers & acquisitions, spin-offs, restructurings, joint ventures, debt and equity offerings and bankruptcies. In numerous transactions, she has addressed the treatment of stock options and other equity awards, change-in-control and “golden parachute” tax issues, severance obligations and separation agreements, the negotiation of new employment agreements and other executive arrangements, retention and other bonus plans, benefit plan liabilities, COBRA, PBGC-related issues and post-closing benefit plan and compensation structures and integration.

Andrea also advises clients on compliance with ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, and other laws affecting employee benefit plans, as well as plan design, administration, termination, fiduciary duty issues, prohibited transactions, qualification requirements and other matters concerning pension, profit-sharing, employee stock ownership, 401(k), and other types of plans. She has extensive experience with respect to the legal consequences relating to the use of employer stock in tax-qualified plans such as ESOPs, profit-sharing, stock bonus and pension plans.

Andrea has been lauded by various legal rankings directories, including Chambers USA and Legal 500, noting that her “depth of knowledge and involvement in this practice area, [including] the business and trends, is terrific.” She is also recognized for having an “excellent understanding of the business community” and for being “pro-active in keeping clients up to date.” She writes and lectures frequently on employee benefits and executive compensation matters and is a co-editor and chapter author of Executive Compensation (Law Journal Press). Since 1993, she has served as an adjunct professor on the faculty of Cornell University (New York State School of Industrial & Labor Relations-Management Programs). Andrea is also active in Proskauer’s relationship with the Women Corporate Directors (WCD), the only global membership organization of its kind focused on helping women obtain and succeed in board positions.

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Photo of Justin Alex Justin Alex

Justin S. Alex is a partner and a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group.

Justin advises private and public companies on all aspects of their employee benefits and executive compensation arrangements and plans.

He has particular experience in the sports…

Justin S. Alex is a partner and a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group.

Justin advises private and public companies on all aspects of their employee benefits and executive compensation arrangements and plans.

He has particular experience in the sports industry, including employment agreements for executives at the highest levels in professional sports and the benefits and compensation aspects of numerous transactions, such as the purchase or sale of the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Miami Marlins, Real Salt Lake, OL Reign, Professional Hockey Federation, the Licensed Sports Group Unit of VF Corporation, Full Swing Golf, and ADPRO Sports and the merger of the USFL and XFL.

In addition to Justin’s general benefits and compensation practice, he spends a significant portion of his time advising employers and financial sponsors with respect to pension liabilities. He also advises the trustees of collectively bargained single-employer and multiemployer plans with respect to their administration, governance, and legal compliance.

Prior to joining Proskauer, Justin was an attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), where he gained significant experience with pension termination and underfunding issues. He also represented the PBGC in corporate bankruptcies and federal court litigation.

Justin is the co-editor of Proskauer’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Blog and the Hiring Partner for Proskauer’s Washington office. He also serves on the Board of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

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Photo of Mary Grace Richardson Mary Grace Richardson

Mary Grace Richardson is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group.

In the employee benefits area, Mary Grace’s practice focuses on an array of tax and benefits issues impacting both multiemployer…

Mary Grace Richardson is an associate in the Labor & Employment Department and a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group.

In the employee benefits area, Mary Grace’s practice focuses on an array of tax and benefits issues impacting both multiemployer and single-employer benefit plans and plan fiduciaries. She assists clients on matters pertaining to plan administration, design and qualification, as well as regulatory, legislative and legal compliance.

Prior to joining Proskauer, Mary Grace clerked for Chief Judge S. Maurice Hicks, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Mary Grace received her J.D. and diploma in comparative law, magna cum laude, from Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law School. At LSU, she served as a senior editor of the Louisiana Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif.

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