Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Page 3
Two Benefits Attorneys Join Snell & Wilmer
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The law firm of Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. has added two lawyers to the Employee Benefits and Compensation Group in its Los Angeles office, the firm said yesterday in a release.
Samuel W. Krause and David McFarlane, both formerly of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, L.L.P & Affiliates, have joined the firm as counsel, in order to expand the firm’s “range of services to its clients from transactional and regulatory to national and international businesses with interests throughout California and the Pacific Rim,” the release said.
“With the addition of Sam and David to our team, we truly enjoy the benefits of a full-service practice in Los Angeles to better meet our clients’ needs,” Cary Jones, administrative partner in Los Angeles, said. “Sam and David are talented attorneys with a number of high profile clients in Los Angeles County and the West.”
Krause has been assisting employers with their employee benefits and executive compensation issues for more than a decade. He focuses a large portion of his practice on ERISA-related issues in structured finance transactions, private equity and hedge fund formation, bankruptcy proceedings and proxy contests. Krause also has significant experience in the areas of tax-qualified and non-qualified pension and welfare plans, including fiduciary responsibility and prohibited transactions, and single and multiemployer plan liability matters.
He also works with boards of trustees of pension and other employee benefits funds, as well as financial institutions and companies sponsoring such funds, concerning their duty of care, fiduciary responsibilities, conflicts of interest, and other statutory duties under state and federal laws, the firm said.
He majored in history with a China studies emphasis at California State University, Northridge. He graduated from Hofstra University School of Law before earning a master of laws in tax from New York University.
McFarlane, who has a political science degree from McGill University in Montreal and a law degree from the University of Windsor in Ontario, has practiced employee benefits, executive compensation and human resources law in the United States and Canada for more than 20 years.
The firm cited his experience dealing with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the Department of Labor and the IRS in connection with pension and benefit plan issues including those involving multi-employer plans and union negotiations. He advises compensation committees, boards of directors and human resources departments on a wide variety of plan administration issues including matters involving COBRA, TARP, retiree benefits and IRC 409A compliance.
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