RUSSELL A. GAUDREAU, JR.
Professional Experience
The Wagner Law Group, A Professional Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts. January 2009
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Partner
- Responsible for consulting with firm clients on a wide variety of issues with respect to qualified retirement plans, tax-sheltered annuities,
- Nonqualified deferred compensation, split-dollar life insurance arrangements and executive compensation.
- Maintains close contacts with representatives from the IRS and the DOL.
- Activities include:
- All aspects of qualified and nonqualified retirement and deferred compensation plans and arrangements of taxable and tax exempt employers;
- Practice before IRS, DOL and PBGC in examinations, correction programs, and ruling requests;
- Employee benefit issues in mergers and acquisitions;
- Fiduciary responsibility and prohibited transaction issues;
- Executive compensation matters; and
- Benefit programs for tax-exempt entities.
Ropes & Gray LLP (1970 – 2008)
Russ Gaudreau was a partner in the Tax & Benefits Department since 1979 and headed Ropes & Gray’s employee benefits consulting and actuarial practice. Russ concentrated on retirement plan and executive benefit matters and practiced in Ropes & Gray’s Boston and Washington, D.C. offices.
Russ also served as the managing partner of Ropes & Gray’s Washington, DC office. He developed a significant employee benefit practice in D.C. and frequently obtained private letter rulings, closing agreements, and advisory opinions from the IRS and the DOL.
HONORS & AWARDS
- Boston’s Best Lawyers, Employee Benefits Lawyer of the Year, The Boston Globe and Boston.com, (2010)
- The Best Lawyers in America (1987-2009)
- Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2006-2009)
- Massachusetts Super Lawyers (2004-2009)
PROFESSIONAL & CIVIC ACTIVITIES
- Director and founder of the New England Employee Benefits Council
- Long-time faculty member, Boston University School of Law Graduate Tax Program
- Member of the Georgetown University Law Center faculty, where he teaches courses on pension, profit-sharing and other deferred compensation arrangements
- Member of the American Law Institute of the American Bar Association faculty
- Director and former president of Parents’ & Children’s services
PUBLICATIONS
- "Executive Retirement Benefits in the Non-Profit Sector -- A White Paper -- Managing Expectations When There is No Perfect Answer," (PDF) BNA's Executive Compensation Library on the Web, March 8, 2010
- "Executive Retirement Benefits in the Non-Profit Sector," (PDF) Crain's New York Business.com, February 23, 2010
MEMBERSHIPS & AFFILIATIONS
- American Bar Association (Committee on Employee Benefits of the Tax Section)
- American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, founding member
- Boston Bar Association
- Washington D.C. Bar (Employee Benefits Tax Study Group, Employee Benefits Committee, ERISA Committee)
BAR ADMISSIONS
- Washington D.C., 1991
- Massachusetts, 1968
COURTS
Supreme Court of the United States
EDUCATION
- 1969, LL.M. (Tax Law), New York University School of Law
- 1968, J.D. Suffolk University Law School
- 1965, B.A. University of Massachusetts