Holland & Hart LLP

Our Benefits Law Group works with employers to simplify the painstaking and time-consuming task of managing benefit plans. We help companies comply with and follow developments in ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, HIPAA, PPACA, and the numerous other statutes, regulations, and procedures affecting benefits.

Our approach is heavily client-focused, as no two organizations are identical in needs or philosophy. Our team delivers right-sized support to clients ranging from large private and publicly traded employers, governmental entities, small entrepreneurial businesses, and tax-exempt organizations. We understand the value of having a proper employee benefits structure to maximize employee performance and the financial success of the enterprise.

Our Benefits Law Group enjoys long-term in-depth relationships with our clients. We provide daily benefits guidance on a wide variety of topics, in addition to being available to assist with critical short-term projects. Our deep bench strength and tight-knit coordination mean that our clients receive the attention they deserve in the shortest amount of time possible.

Plan Design, Maintenance, and Interpretation
Our broad experience includes the design, maintenance, interpretation of, and advising on:

• Retirement plans, including both defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans (such as 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, and ESOPs).
• Multiemployer plans, focusing primarily on withdrawal liability issues.
• Medical benefit plans (including self-funded health plans, retiree medical plans, short- and long-term disability plans, medical expense reimbursement plans, health reimbursement arrangements, and flexible spending arrangements), as well as other welfare benefit programs like dependent care and other fringe benefit plans. We also work VEBAs and other funding mechanisms for such programs.
• Other tax-related incentives, such as incentive equity plans (incentive and nonstatutory stock option plans and restricted stock plans), phantom equity plans, deferred compensation plans, rabbi trusts, supplemental executive retirement plans, severance plans, and change in control agreements. 

Each of these arrangements operates under a complex web of rules, including Internal Revenue Code requirements and standards under ERISA. The Benefits Law Group helps employers navigate compliance issues including controlled group and affiliated service group analysis, defined benefit plan funding issues, nondiscrimination testing, employee income tax issues, and reporting and disclosure obligations.

Best Practices in Benefits Administration
The goal of the Benefits Law Group is to anticipate our clients' needs in light of current trends, pending legislation, and regulations. We monitor official and unofficial agency guidance, court opinions, and legislative activity, regularly explaining new developments via email alerts and articles on our website. We stay ahead of the compliance curve, and recommend changes in plan design and operation that will help avoid audit penalties, sanctions, and litigation.

Audits and Correction Programs
When problems do arise, the attorneys in the Benefits Law Group represent our clients before the IRS, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). We routinely guide plan sponsors through EPCRS, VFCP, and DFVC, the correction programs of the IRS and the Department of Labor. We have represented clients in numerous plan audits conducted by these agencies, frequently reaching dismissals of the audit without penalty. We also assist clients in avoiding or correcting prohibited transactions to limit their costs and penalties.

Mergers and Acquisitions
Corporate transactions require careful evaluation of all parties' benefit and compensation obligations and programs. The Benefits Law Group works as an integral part of our clients' transaction team, helping to analyze the risks and practicalities associated with transitioning benefit programs to fit the new business structure.

Fiduciary Exposure
The Benefits Law Group advises clients about their fiduciary duties under ERISA and under state law. With litigation over employee benefit programs on the rise, fiduciary issues are at the forefront of compensation, pension, and welfare benefit planning and operation. We are well versed in dealing with these issues and in assisting clients with compliance. Our attorneys educate fiduciaries (frequently sitting on designated fiduciary benefit committees) about their duties and recommend best practices to limit fiduciary exposure.

Holland & Hart's Statement of Commitment to Diversity
We are proud of our tradition of fostering and maintaining a work environment in which the diversity of each individual is valued and celebrated. We believe that the contributions of each individual are essential to our continued growth and to our ultimate goal of providing excellent quality legal services to our clients, with greater creativity and innovation. We are committed to taking full advantage of the rich backgrounds and abilities of our people and to promoting a greater diversity whenever and wherever possible.

Diversity Pledge
Holland & Hart is committed to promoting diversity by:

• Making every possible effort to recruit, hire, retain, and promote diverse persons at all levels of employment.
• Promoting greater sensitivity to the value of racial, ethnic and other forms of diversity, through diversity and sensitivity coaching or training for law firm members.
• Inviting to partnership diverse attorneys who meet the requisite criteria.

Diversity Initiatives
The following are additional examples of our commitment and efforts toward supporting and achieving diversity:

• We make a conscious effort to ensure that women and diverse attorneys are included as voting members of our committees of importance within the firm.
• We work closely with law school deans and placement directors in an effort to identify women and diverse law students who are interested in working at Holland & Hart.
• Holland & Hart offers medical and other benefits to partners of gay and lesbian employees on the same terms as it does to spouses of employees.
• We created an Indian Law Practice Group and actively recruited Native American law students and lateral hires.
• Each year we contribute to such scholarship funds as the Colorado Native American Indian Scholarship Fund, the Sam Cary Scholarship Endowment Fund, the Colorado Asian American Bar Scholarship Fund, the Colorado Hispanic Bar Scholarship Fund, and the Colorado Women's Bar Association Scholarship Fund.
• In partnership with the University of Idaho School of Law, we sponsor a "Law by Day, Jazz by Night" each year for undergraduate minority students who have an interest in law.
• We took a leadership role in organizing and supporting the Colorado Pledge Group's Minority First Year Law Student Summer Clerk Program. Through this program, law firms agreed to add at least one diverse first year law student to their summer clerk program.
• We were involved in the creation of the Cross-Professional Business Networking Group, where diverse attorneys in our community can meet and network with non-attorney professionals of color. We view this as a way to help diverse attorneys increase their business development possibilities.

For more information regarding Holland & Hart's commitment to diversity, please contact Peter Houtsma at (303) 295-8259.