Employee Benefits

The attorneys in the Willig, Williams & Davidson Employee Benefits Group understand that quality health care and a secure retirement are the most important things that labor unions offer to America's working families. We therefore have committed ourselves to providing the highest level of representation to Taft-Hartley pension and welfare trust funds, and to unions that negotiate for their members' benefits.

Our Benefits Group provides legal services in connection with the establishment and maintenance of a wide variety of pension, profit sharing, health and welfare, severance, training and education plans, for public and private, single and multi-employer funds. This includes counseling and advice relating to the applicable requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code and the Taft-Hartley Act, The Pension Protection Act, guidance in plan formation and design, and advice in problems of fund administration, including eligibility, coverage, and investment issues. We also offer advice on employee benefit issues arising in corporate restructuring, including divestitures, mergers, plan shutdowns, spinoffs, bankruptcy reorganizations, and plan terminations.

We negotiate contracts with service providers, including investments in private equity, hedge funds, real estate and openly-traded securities.  We advise funds under audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). We counsel funds on all issues of day-to-day operations, including participant communications, claims adjudication, COBRA, HIPAA, and cafeteria plan administration.

We work closely with our clients' professional advisors, accountants and actuaries to design employee benefit plans and to secure favorable tax treatment with respect to the formation and subsequent proper operation of these employee benefit plans. We are not content just to copy IRS model language into our plan documents. All of our clients require plan documents that comply with the law. But we believe they also deserve plan documents that clearly reflect the terms of their bargain and that provide a workable blueprint for plan administration.

We also represent our union and trust fund clients by: (1) developing innovative benefit proposals to resolve bargaining impasses successfully; (2) representing them in all forms of benefits litigation -- including trustee-deadlock arbitrations, lawsuits against former plan providers, and contribution delinquency actions against employers; (3) handling benefit related grievance arbitrations and unfair labor practice proceedings; and (4) preparing and presenting benefit issues before interest arbitration panels.

Our lawyers regularly serve as lecturers at employee benefit law institutes and seminars and prepare educational training for clients in the employee benefits area. Our Group Chair, Deborah Lerner, was recently honored by being selected to the American College of Employee Benefits Lawyers.

Employee Benefits: Resources

• 2012 Will Be a Big Year for Health Care Reform
  January 20, 2012
  On Mar. 27, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear several hours of oral argument on whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, commonly called Health Care Reform, is constitutional. The primary challenge arises from the Act’s “individual mandate,” a provision effective in 2014 which requires individuals to buy health insurance or pay certain penalties.
  
  
• Third Circuit Decision May Limit a Health Plan's Ability to Get Reimbursed for Benefits Paid When There Is a Third Party Recovery
  January 17, 2012
  A recent decision by the Third Circuit could have a significant impact on the subrogation and reimbursement policies of self-insured health plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
  
  
• U.S. Department of Labor Revises Form LM-30 for Union Officers, Employees and Trustees
  January 15, 2012
  On Oct. 26, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards issued a revised Form LM-30 with instructions for use by Union officers and employees beginning in the 2012 calendar year (and due Mar. 31, 2013).
  
  
• Willig, Williams & Davidson Gets Injunction to Stop Pension Changes
  January 10, 2012
  On Dec. 29, 2011, Alaine S. Williams of Willig, Williams & Davidson obtained a preliminary injunction on behalf of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 85 to stop planned pension changes by Erie County, Pa.
  
  
• Third Circuit Allows Withdrawal Liability Claim to Receive Administrative Priority Status in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
  December 2, 2011
  In one of the more significant bankruptcy and employee benefits decisions issued this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that withdrawal liability could qualify as an administrative expense in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and therefore receive priority over claims of general unsecured creditors.
  
  
• Labor and Employment Attorney Richard Poulson Speaks about PA Supreme Court Ruling for Firefighters' Rights in The Philadelphia Inquirer
  November 30, 2011
  A Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling will make it harder for the City of Philadelphia to enforce changes to its Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP, a firefighters' union lawyer said Tuesday.
  
  
• The Legal Intelligencer Interviews Attorney Richard Poulson about PA Supreme Court Ruling for Firefighters' Pension Rights
  November 30, 2011
  A public employer cannot unilaterally eliminate firefighters' pension benefits without collectively bargaining with a union representative first, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
  
  
• Pennsylvania Supreme Court Bolsters Public Workers' Pension Rights
  November 29, 2011
  On November 25, 2011, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a unanimous decision protecting the pension rights of public employees in a case litigated by Willig, Williams & Davidson and the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board on behalf of firefighters in the City of Erie.
  
  
• Philadelphia Employee Benefits Lawyer Louise Pongracz of Willig, Williams & Davidson Presented at Pennsylvania Bar Institute Labor Symposium
  March 24, 2011
  Philadelphia employee benefits lawyer Louise F. “Wendy” Pongracz of Willig, Williams & Davidson, recently presented an overview of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act at the annual Pennsylvania Bar Institute Labor Law Symposium.
  
  
• Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008
  February 19, 2011
  
  
• Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
  December 7, 2010
  PBI Labor Symposium - 2010
  
  
• Highlights on Health Care Reform Legislation
  May 20, 2010
  In March, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (and an accompanying reconciliation bill) into law.  This new law will make dramatic changes to this country’s health care system. Here is what you need to know... 
  
  
• Form 990-N E-Postcard Due May 17, 2010 For Small Calendar Year Tax-Exempts, Including Labor Unions
  May 12, 2010
  In the Fall of 2007, we wrote to our clients about a brand new filing requirement for small tax-exempt organizations, including labor unions.
  
  
• 2009 Health Care Round-Up
  
  
• Employee Benefits Bulletin, October, 2009