Kurt L.P. Lawson

As the scope of benefits and compensation plans evolve, new challenges have emerged. Issues such as the design of corporate wellness plans and benefits for mobile executives have recently edged into the spotlight.

Kurt Lawson focuses on new and complex benefits issues, often involving multiple overlapping statutes or jurisdictions. And Kurt is highly regarded in these sectors he's been individually ranked by Chambers USA since 2010, appeared in Best Lawyers in America since 2007, and named by Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers since 2008.

Kurt works with employers, insurance companies, banks, PE funds, and individuals on a wide range of benefits matters, including cash balance and other tax-qualified plans, 403(b) and other plans for tax-exempt employers, health reform and other welfare plan challenges, executive compensation, and fiduciary and prohibited transaction issues.

He also tackles issues that have drawn attention only recently, such as executive compensation in partnerships and LLCs; alternative investments by pension plans and IRAs; special health reform issues involving employers, insurance companies, religious institutions, and universities; employee classification issues for tax, minimum wage, and other purposes; and funding relief for multiple-employer plans.

From 1989 through 1993, Kurt served in the U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Benefits Tax Counsel. He is vice-chair of the American Bar Association's Tax Section and previously chaired the Tax Section's employee benefits committee. He's also a former officer of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. He speaks and writes regularly on tax and benefits topics and was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center from 2004 to 2013.