NEBGH Members only, Webinar

The Dobbs Decision: What’s New and What’s Brewing

Interested in attending this event and not a member? Contact Elizabeth Merrill.

A lawsuit challenging access to medication-induced abortions has been filed in Texas by the same law firm that litigated Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.  The implications could be huge for both employees and employers around the country.

Other legislative and regulatory activity is in the works that may affect telemedicine abortions, fertility services and travel benefits.

Hear the latest on what to know and what to keep your eyes on from the experts at Epstein Becker Green.

Download a PDF of the presentation HERE

Speakers

Susan Gross Sholinsky

Member of the Firm
Epstein Becker Green

Attorney Susan Gross Sholinsky gives employers the tools they need to make smart decisions about their workforce challenges. She is a sharp, versatile partner to executives, human resources professionals, and in-house legal teams who seek her out for her straight-forward advice and access to boots-on-the-ground resources, regardless of location.

Susan also helps employers ensure compliance with the latest local, state, and federal laws, from sexual harassment to discrimination, restrictive covenants, paid family leave, and accommodations. When a company makes an acquisition, she literally writes the legal and compliance script for ensuring a smooth transition and integrating employees into the new organization. Her succinct talking points help deliver key updates and tough decisions to affected team members.

Whether she’s conducting training on anti-harassment (similar to Epstein Becker Green’s “Halting Harassment” online training tool) or leading training on diversity, internal investigations, or performance documentation best practices, Susan’s effective training style helps managers spot problems early and boost productivity through safe, compliant practices. Susan helps employers respond rapidly to social issues, like the #MeToo or racial justice movements. She spearheaded the firm’s COVID-19 taskforce that provides employers with practical advice supported by training programs compliant in all 50 states, and dozens of pandemic-related policies and forms, as well as client advisories, blog posts, and articles.

Susan holds several leadership positions within the firm, including as a member of its Board of Directors and as Vice Chair of both the Employment Labor & Workforce Management Steering Committee and the Diversity and Professional Development Committee. She is also a member of the Finance Committee and the Executive Committee of the Women’s Initiative. Among her many professional and community volunteer initiatives, she has served multiple years as New York Co-Chair of 50/50 Women on Boards: Global Conversation on Board Diversity. She was also recognized as one of 2020’s Responsible 100 by City & State New York, an award bestowed upon private-sector leaders whose work makes life better in communities in New York City and across the state.

Gretchen Harders

Member of the Firm
Epstein Becker Green

Attorney Gretchen Harders helps companies ensure the health and welfare of their employees with compliant and tax-efficient health care and retirement benefit plans. She also advises multinational employers on designing and implementing equity-based compensation packages to incentivize top-level executives.

Clients value Gretchen’s commitment to understanding their challenges and her ability to break down the complex rules governing their programs. She explains highly intricate tax laws and ERISA regulations from a business perspective. Tax-exempt and not-for-profit institutions rely on her advice to ensure compliance for their pension plans, executive compensation, deferred compensation, and employee benefits.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gretchen helped numerous clients use disaster-relief tax provisions and coordinate with new benefit providers to give employees access to health and wellness benefits through secure mobile apps. As companies grapple with Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rules, Gretchen’s analysis and insight inform practical solutions for updating and changing benefits plans. When implementing a post-merger rollover of benefits, she helps employers see beyond the technical aspects of their decisions to anticipate how their actions will be perceived by employees and the public.

Gretchen is a frequent speaker on various employee benefits issues and developments. She authors articles on timely ERISA and employee benefits law topics.

Additionally, Gretchen is a trustee of the Helene Fuld School of Nursing and an officer in the Rotary Club of the Palisades. Her interests include reading, playing piano, and coaching youth soccer.

Delia A. Deschaine

Member of the Firm
Epstein Becker Green

Named to the Washington DC Rising Stars list in the area of Food and Drugs (from 2018 to 2020), attorney Delia Deschaine focuses her practice on advising pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients on a broad range of FDA regulatory matters. Her services include:

  • Providing advice on pharmaceutical and biotechnology development and approval
  • Advising on pharmacovigilance, current Good Manufacturing Practices (“cGMPs”) compliance, Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (or “REMS”), registration and listing, field alert reporting, import and export controls, recalls, labeling, advertising and promotion, and Drug Supply Chain Security Act compliance
  • Conducting internal investigations, and defending clients in government investigations and litigation
  • Representing manufacturers and their suppliers in responding to FDA Form 483s, Warning Letters, and Import Alerts
  • Drafting and negotiating commercial agreements and conducting diligence in corporate transactions

Delia has a deep understanding of FDA requirements related to cGMP and FDA Quality System Regulations (“QSR”). She routinely counsels clients on their obligations related to cGMP and QSR, including quality systems, data integrity, supply chain management, aseptic processing, validation, and sterilization. 

In addition, Delia focuses her practice on the federal and state regulation of controlled substances. She defends clients, including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, distributors, pharmacies, hospitals, physician groups, academic medical centers, and other researchers, in government investigations and litigation, and advises them on:

  • Controlled substances scheduling matters
  • Compliance with U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) and state law regulatory requirements
  • Conducting internal investigations

Delia also counsels clients on cannabis law matters. She was named to the Washington DC Rising Stars list in the area of Cannabis Law in 2020, and has advised pharmaceutical, researcher, conventional food, dietary supplement, and cosmetic companies on FDA, DEA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and states’ regulation of cannabis (including hemp), cannabis-derived products, and synthetic cannabinoids.

Prior to joining the firm, Delia served for six years as an attorney for an international law firm in the areas of pharmaceutical and biotechnology law, and two years at a boutique FDA law firm, both in Washington, DC. Before then, she was an Attorney Advisor for the DEA through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, where she received a Performance Award in 2011. She was also a legal intern for Magistrate Judge Susan K. Gauvey of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Erin Sutton

Associate
Epstein Becker Green

Health care organizations value attorney Erin Sutton’s strong focus on state and federal health regulatory analysis.

She researches and advises on matters concerning licensure, scope of practice, and telehealth laws for telehealth clients, and also works on issues relating to the provision of and payment for mental health and substance use disorder treatment.

Erin is a contributing author of Epstein Becker Green’s Telemental Health Laws app, a comprehensive survey of state telehealth laws, regulations, and policies for mental and behavioral health practitioners and stakeholders across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Before joining Epstein Becker Green, Erin was associate counsel at a major physician lobbying group, directly advising the general counsel on a large portfolio of health care and public health issues. Prior to that, she worked for a federally funded legal aid organization where she sought to remove low-income veteran’s legal obstacles to receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and military sexual trauma.

Cassandra Labbees

Member of the Firm
Epstein Becker & Green

Health care organizations, large financial services companies, and not-for-profit and tax-exempt institutions, among others, look to attorney Cassandra Labbees to address compliance-related issues for non-qualified and tax-qualified plans under the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA, health and welfare plans, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

With insights gained from working as an investigator for eight years at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Cassandra helps clients spot issues they may have overlooked and provides creative solutions and practical advice to ensure that clients’ needs are met.

Clients appreciate Cassandra’s knack for issue-spotting, strong communication skills, ability to talk to all levels of compliance teams, and efficiency. Cassandra helps clients reduce or defeat penalties and firm up their processes when it comes to their fiduciary obligations.

Companies turn to Cassandra to design, implement, maintain, and terminate their employee benefit plans. She assists them with compliance-related issues for defined contribution, defined benefit, self-insured and fully insured health and welfare plans, including medical, life, disability, employee assistance programs, wellness plans, cafeteria plans, flexible spending accounts, severance plans, and other types of compensation and benefits arrangements. She also counsels clients on compliance with all aspects of the ACA, including ACA reporting and assistance, employer mandate penalty assessments, applicable large employer determinations, and controlled group analysis.

In addition, Cassandra reviews service provider agreements. She advises clients on compliance issues related to multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs), association health plans, and professional employer organizations (PEOs). She assists clients with audits of benefit plans by the U.S. Department of Labor and corrections of plan errors under the Internal Revenue Code.

For companies contemplating a merger or acquisition, Cassandra advises on the impact of the transaction on employee benefit plans and assists with plan termination and integration.

While at the EBSA, Cassandra conducted compliance audits of employer-sponsored group health plans and qualified retirement plans to ensure compliance with ERISA. She worked with Assistant U.S. Attorneys and local district attorneys to handle criminal investigations of fraud and theft involving employee benefit plans.

Cassandra speaks frequently on ERISA fiduciary basics and employee benefit issues.

While attending law school, Cassandra was a legal intern at the Legal Aid Society – Juvenile Rights Division, at the St. John’s Child Advocacy Clinic, and for the Honorable Ruben Martino of the Harlem Community Court in New York City.

Event details

When
Monday, February 13, 2023
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Where
Webinar (Link available following registration)
Who Can Attend
All NEBGH Members
February 13