As a boutique firm, Kiesewetter Law Firm specifically focuses on three primary practice areas: employee benefits, health care regulatory compliance and general corporate law. We primarily provide legal counsel to companies of all sizes located in the Mid-South and throughout the nation with respect to the practice areas listed below.
We also provide legal advice to individuals in very specific instances, for example with respect to executive compensation agreements or with respect to qualified domestic relations orders.
PRACTICE AREAS
I. Employee Benefits
Statutes, regulations and legal guidance affecting employee benefits are ever-changing. We help our clients navigate these waters so that our clients are achieving their benefits goals when it comes to their companies and their employees while keeping our clients compliant with real world solutions in a very complex regulatory environment.
Within the world of employee benefits, we advise our clients with respect to the following:
- Qualified plans including defined contribution and defined benefit plans
- Non-qualified plans including deferred compensation plans, Code section 409A issues, Section 457 plans, top hat plans, non-qualified stock option plans, split-dollar life insurance plans, equity-based compensation plans, golden parachutes and handcuffs, other executive compensation plans
- Regulatory compliance and governance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and the Internal Revenue Code
- Negotiations and other communications with the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation with respect to benefits issues, including plan audits, determination and opinion letters, plan terminations, correction programs, private letter rulings and prohibited transactions
- Health and other welfare benefit plans
- Wrap and cafeteria (or Section 125) plans
- Fringe benefit plans
- Employee stock ownership plans (“ESOPs”)
- Section 403(b) plans
- Governmental plans
- Public sector and private sector union plans
- Multiple and multiemployer plans
- Fiduciary responsibilities, duties and liabilities associated with employee benefit plans
- Reducing risk with respect to non-compliance with Federal and/or state laws and regulations
- Qualified domestic relations orders (“QDROs”)
- Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (“COBRA”) and other applicable Federal laws to employee benefits
- Income and pension excise taxes
- Mergers and acquisitions with respect to employee benefits
- Corporate ownership and employee benefits
- Compliance reviews of plan administrative practices, operations, policies and procedures
- Employee communications and document drafting, including summary plan descriptions, summary of material modifications, and other discretionary or required notices and/or disclosures
- Section 404(c) compliance
- Training of any or all workforce with respect to any compliance or education of regulations
- And other various employee benefits issues, including plan design, plan drafting and amending.
We also practice in the area of employee benefit litigation, defense. We represent employers, plan administrators, plan sponsors and insurers in cases involving disputed benefit claims, ERISA preemption, and fiduciary duty issues.
Our attorneys are admitted to practice before the following Federal courts:
- All Federal courts in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi
- United States Courts of Appeals in the Sixth Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals in the Seventh Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals in the Eighth Circuit
II. Health Care Regulatory Compliance
Like the employee benefit regulatory landscape, the area of health care is very vulnerable to regulatory change. Health care regulatory compliance is equally as complex as that for employee benefits and is currently in a state of continual flux. We advise our physician, physician group and other healthcare entity clients on a significant range of health care regulatory compliance issues such as HIPAA, Stark law, Federal Anti-Kickback law, the False Claims Act, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Health Care Reform”) and Medicare/Medicaid issues.
In addition to helping our clients in the design and implementation of and compliance with plans and policies, we also assist our clients in drafting and reviewing all contracts and agreements which are affected directly or indirectly by such regulatory compliance issues. Further, we assist our clients with any or all training with respect to compliance to further ensure that the programs are fully implemented according to regulation.
III. General Corporate
In addition to the above practice areas, we also assist our clients in general corporate matters that arise. We frequently provide representation in the following areas:
- Corporate and business entity formation
- Contract review and drafting
- Buy-Sell agreements
- Succession planning
- Acquisitions
- Sales
- Mergers
- Dissolutions
- General corporate planning
- State and local tax issues
- Tax and business transactions
We also provide legal advice to individuals in very specific instances, for example with respect to executive compensation agreements or with respect to qualified domestic relations orders.
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