Amy Moore is chair of Covington's employee benefits and executive compensation practice. She advises public and private companies and tax exempt organizations on a wide range of tax, ERISA, and employment law issues concerning all types of benefit programs.
Ms. Moore counsels some of the world's largest multinational companies on the design and implementation of innovative benefit strategies, including the restructuring of retirement programs to meet the needs of the modern work force; the use of surplus pension and insurance assets to provide non-traditional benefits; and the establishment of funding and security arrangements for welfare plans and executive compensation. She represents clients in connection with pension fund investments in private equity funds, hedge funds, group trusts, and derivatives. She also advises on benefits and compensation issues in acquisitions and divestitures, debt finance, joint ventures, and other corporate transactions.
Ms. Moore represents companies in audits and contested agency proceedings involving benefit plans and advises clients on employee benefits issues that arise in connection with ERISA litigation and settlements. She also counsels employers on issues of plan administration and the correction of operational problems under government-sponsored remedial programs.
Representative Matters
· Helped a Fortune 250 company restructure several complex defined benefit plans covering approximately 90,000 employees in order to implement a new enterprise-wide retirement program.
· Advised a large number of public and private companies and tax exempt organizations on the re-design of their executive and director compensation programs in response to the new deferred compensation rules in Internal Revenue Code section 409A.
· Testified on health care reform before the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
· Successfully concluded an "early warning" proceeding before the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, so that a public company was able to complete a corporate restructuring without providing the additional pension funding or guarantees originally demanded by the PBGC.
· Advised on techniques for reducing golden parachute liability in connection with the merger of two financial services companies.
· Assisted with the transition of compensation and benefit programs when a large tax-exempt organization acquired a for-profit publishing company.
· Helped a Fortune 50 company transfer excess insurance reserves from a disability insurance policy to a tax-exempt trust for retiree medical benefits.
· Resolved potential fiduciary and prohibited transaction issues raised during a Labor Department examination of a private company's ESOP loan repayments, avoiding any financial liability or excise tax.
Honors and Rankings
· Chambers USA, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (since 2007)
· The Best Lawyers in America, Employee Benefits (since 1997)
· Legal 500 US, Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation, and Tax - Employee Benefits (since 2007)
· Washington DC Super Lawyers, Employee Benefits/ERISA (since 2007)
Publications
· "FBAR Filing Deadline Extended for Certain US Persons," Covington E-Alert (6/7/2011), Co-Author
· "FBAR Final Regulations Expand Reporting Requirements," Covington E-Alert (3/29/2011), Co-Author
· "Recent Treasury Guidance On Foreign Bank Account Reports," Covington E-Alert (3/8/2010), Co-Author
· "Stock Options - You Can't Take Them With You," 2 Public Company Advocate 4 (July 1999), Co-Author
Presentations and Speeches
· "Deferred Compensation," The ERISA Industry Committee Board of Directors' Meeting (October 2007)
· "Testimony on ERISA Preemption at the Hearing on Health Care Reform: Recommendations to Improve Coordination of Federal and State Initiatives, Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions of the Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives," (May 2007)
· "Legal Update on Health Plan Issues," regular presentation at quarterly meetings of the ERISA Industry Committee Health Policy Committee (2005-2007)
· "401(k) Plan Fees: Regulation and Litigation," The ERISA Industry Committee Legal Conference (April 2007)
· "401(k) Fees: Revenue-Sharing Litigation," The ERISA Industry Committee Retirement Security Committee Quarterly Meeting (November 2006)
· "Nonqualified Deferred Compensation: The Impact of the New Rules on Major Employers' Plans," The ERISA Industry Committee Legal Conference (March 2005)
· "Section 409A for Employment Lawyers," ORC Worldwide Teleconference (December 2005)
· "Recent Developments in Compensation Planning for Exempt Organizations," 38th Annual Washington Non-Profit Legal & Tax Conference (March 2002)
· "The Return to Rational Despondency: Ideas for Dealing With Equity-Based Compensation in a Declining Market," The ERISA Industry Committee Spring Benefits Committee (May 2001)
· "U.S. Equity Compensation," Atlas Venture European Employee Incentives Conference, London, England (February 2001)
· "Surplus Assets: What You Can and Cannot Do," The ERISA Industry Committee Spring Benefits Conference (May 2000)
· "Executive and Equity-Based Compensation in Corporate Transactions," The ERISA Industry Committee Fall Benefits Conference (October 1999)
· "Employee Benefits in Mergers and Acquisitions: Handling Pension Assets and Liabilities in Corporate Transactions," The ERISA Industry Committee Fall Benefits Conference (October 1999)
· "ERISA & COBRA Law: What It Says, How It's Applied," Employee Assistance Professionals Association 7th Annual U.S. Public Policy Conference (April 1998)
· "Allocating Plan Assets & Liabilities in Corporate Transactions," Speech to the Western Pension and Benefits Conference, Phoenix, Arizona (December 1998)
Judicial Clerkship
· Hon. Frank M. Coffin, U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, 1983-1984