NEBGH Members only, Webinar

Navigating the Post-Roe World: A Special Session with Employee Benefits and Employment Experts from Epstein Becker Green

This is a NEBGH Members only event. If you are interested in attending and not a member, please contact Elizabeth Merrill.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization opens a pandora’s box of questions and challenges for employers.

How should employers address access for employees to reproductive healthcare that is restricted in the state where the employees reside?

What should employers consider in offering travel benefits for healthcare services prohibited by state law?

What employment-related concerns should employers be aware of in light of the Dobbs decision?

These are only a few of the questions and challenges employers face in a post-Roe World.

 

Panelists

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.

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.

Jennifer Barna

Senior Counsel
Epstein Becker Green

JENNIFER STEFANICK BARNA is a Senior Counsel in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management and Litigation practices, in the firm's Newark office. Her practice focuses on civil litigation and corporate counseling in the areas of employment law and complex commercial matters. Ms. Barna represents businesses in a broad spectrum of industries, including commercial real estate, financial services, health care, and retail.

Ms. Barna's experience includes:

  • Representing employers in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies and arbitration tribunals on a wide range of issues involving harassment, discrimination, retaliation, breach of employment contracts, wage and hour compliance, tort claims, and restrictive covenants
  • Representing businesses in various sectors in diverse and complex commercial litigation matters
  • Counseling employers on workplace and employment law issues, such as discipline and termination, workplace accommodations, FMLA and similar state law leave issues, wage and hour compliance, and internal investigations
  • Representing retailers, hotels, and other hospitality-related businesses in public accommodation matters, including ADA accessibility and retaliation litigations
  • Conducting internal investigations on behalf of management on such issues as discrimination and sexual harassment
  • Conducting workplace training seminars for employers, including managers and non-supervisory personnel
  • Drafting employment policies and procedures as well as employee handbooks and manuals

While at law school, Ms. Barna was an Associate Editor of the Dickinson Law Review.

Event details

When
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Where
Webinar (Link available following registration)
Who Can Attend
All NEBGH Members
July 6