PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
The Wagner Law Group, A Professional Corporation, Boston, MA. May 2006 -
Of Counsel
All aspects of qualified and nonqualified retirement and deferred compensation plans and arrangements of taxable and tax exempt employers.
Fiduciary responsibility and prohibited transaction issues.Prior Experience
*Entire professional career in private practice in New York, as tax lawyer and pension and benefits specialist, except for 4 years (1974-78) as U.S. Government official in Washington, D.C., serving as Assistant Commissioner of Internal Revenue, in charge of Employee Plans & Exempt Organizations (first appointee under ERISA to administer pension law and to regulate entire body of public and private retirement plans and exempt organizations (including charities, churches, public and private foundations, labor unions, et al.)). For that service he was recipient of the Commissioner's Award "for exceptional leadership."
*During New York City financial crisis of 1975 he was the responsible IRS official who permitted loans by the NYC municipal pension plans to the City that enabled it to survive during a brief time when its bank lines of credit were shut down.
*Chaired committees of American Bar Association and New York State Bar Association tax sections, and chair of Special Committee on Pension Simplification of NYSBA, and on Executive Committee of NYSBA; and now serves on Quality Assurance Group of ABA Tax Section reviewing submissions on proposed regulations to Treasury Dept. and IRS.
*While in private practice: he was one of five New York City lawyers who, during Gov. Rockefeller's administration, drafted New York State legislation conforming the state's income and estate tax laws to the federal laws; he was an adviser to the Vice President's Task Force on Regulatory Relief during the Reagan administration; and he was engaged by New York City to advise it regarding qualification issues relating to its pension plans for municipal employees.
EDUCATION
Cornell School of Law, Ithaca, NYADMISSION TO PRACTICE
New York State, District of Columbia, U.S. Supreme Court, Court of Appeals of 2nd Circuit, U.S. Tax Court, and other courts.
OTHER EXPERIENCE*Charter fellow of American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, and fellow of New York Bar Foundation
*Chair and editor of NYU Review of Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (annual compendium of scholarly articles), and editor-in-chief of Pension & Benefit Power (internet periodical for small business pension and welfare plan sponsors)
*Author of tax treatises on employee benefits (including Lurie's Commentaries on Pension Design, Lurie's Guide to VEBAs, ESOPs Made Easy), and many scores of articles in print periodicals and internet websites, including journals for business (Barron's, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek) and professionals (New York Law Journal, NYSBA Journal, Tax Notes, Journal of Taxation, Journal of Financial Service Professionals, Plan Sponsor, Journal of Pension Planning and Compliance, Pension and Benefits Weekly, Business Entities, et al.)
*Expert witness in pension litigation on behalf of major plan sponsors; and cited as authority in technical journals.
*Frequent speaker at national tax and benefit institutes and seminars.
