Proskauer

Although Rory has been widely recognized as a driving force within the employee benefits legal community during the past quarter-century, he recently garnered several prestigious accolades in this area, including receiving for the past several years a coveted “Second Tier”ranking from Chambers USA, which has described him as “truly a trailblazer” and as “a bright intellectual who offers practicality to his clients, all of whom benefit from his excellent judgment.” In the 2008 edition of Chambers, clients commented to its editors that Rory possesses a “great breadth of knowledge and is adept at handling complex situations where competing viewpoints need reconciling.” The Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group also garnered a “Second Tier”ranking byChambers, which praises the Group as having “deep expertise” in employee benefits and as “a great resource to bounce ideas off, with a great talent base of extremely knowledgeable, responsive and no-nonsense lawyers.”

Rory is a prolific author and speaker, having published dozens of articles, and lectured before numerous organizations throughout the country, on various employee benefits law, investment and fiduciary responsibility issues. He also has authored several major legal treatises, including The ERISA Fiduciary Answer Book and The Trustees Handbook, as well as numerous articles for the International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans' Employee Benefits Digest. While an undergraduate student at M.I.T., Rory authored a treatise on police unionism in Boston, Massachusetts, titled A Time for Reform: A Case Study of the Boston Police Department (M.I.T. Press 1974).

Rory is a trusted legal advisor who provides practical business advice to his clients on the full panoply of employee benefit law issues, such as:

• The design, implementation and operation of defined benefit, defined contribution, profit-sharing, 401(k), severance, executive compensation, and many other types of retirement and deferred compensation plans
• All forms of health and welfare plans, including medical, hospitalization, prescription drug, severance and training plans
• Pension plan funding and withdrawal liability issues, including those triggered by business acquisitions, closings and reductions in force
• Audits, investigations and lawsuits involving plan participants, fiduciaries and regulatory agencies (such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and the U.S. Departments of Labor and Justice)
• Reforming "troubled" benefit plans that were subject to corrupt and/or other nefarious influences

 Rory handles the full gamut of employee benefit plan asset and investment issues, including:

• Structuring all forms of investment arrangements, including negotiating and drafting investment management agreements; investment guidelines, policies and objectives; collective, commingled and other group trust documents; documentation for alternative investment vehicles (such as hedge, private equity, and venture capital funds and “fund-of-funds”); insurance company annuity and guaranteed investment contracts; limited partnership documents; securities lending and domestic and global custody arrangements; brokerage commission recapture programs; and various other plan investment, funding and financing arrangements
• Negotiating errors and omissions, fidelity bond, and fiduciary liability insurance policies
• Benefit plan mergers, consolidations and asset transfers
• Leveraged buyouts and other forms of business acquisitions and reorganizations, as well as in bankruptcy matters involving a wide variety of employee benefit issues

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