COBRA and Other Implications of Recent Stimulus Bills On ERISA Health Benefits

Kirsten Scott is a partner in the firm. She advises and represents individuals with various employee benefit and employment matters, including pension and disability claims, medical leaves of absence, unpaid wages, misclassification and severance negotiation. She also represents clients in multi-plaintiff and class actions, including employee benefit and wage and hour matters.

Kirsten’s accomplishments include obtaining a landmark decision in 2017 from the California Court of Appeal establishing new law for public employee retiree benefits under the County Employees Retirement Law in Irvin v. Contra Costa County Employees’ Retirement Association, and helping retirees who lost millions of dollars in retirement savings win a $36.8 million judgment in 2014 in Beeson v. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., Inc., following a seven month civil trial in California Superior Court.

Kirsten speaks and writes on a variety of employment and employee benefit matters. She is a contributing author to Employee Benefits Law (BNA) and ERISA Litigation (BNA), and she is a past contributing author to the California Wage and Hour: Law and Litigation Practice Guide (CEB).

Prior to joining Renaker Hasselman Scott LLP, Kirsten was an attorney at a national employee benefits and employment law firm. She also previously served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Charles Breyer of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and as a law clerk for the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and Legal Aid at Work.

Sharon Goodman is a principal in the Washington D.C. firm of Slevin & Hart, P.C. Since 1988, Ms. Goodman has focused her entire career on the representation of employee benefit plans particularly multiemployer plan, and other tax-exempt entities. Her experience includes all aspects of employee benefits law, including ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code. She has extensive experience in pension plan and health plan design, tax qualification, pension funding, compliance for health plans under the Affordable Care Act, alternative investments, plan administration and the negotiation of service provider agreements. Ms. Goodman also has represented clients in many IRS audits and Department of Labor investigations and interviews. She has prepared numerous applications for tax qualification and tax exemption as well as guiding plans successfully through the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System program.

Ms. Goodman has spoken before many employee benefit organizations and is a frequent speaker before the AFL-CIO’s Lawyers Coordinating Committee, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the American Bar Association’s Employee Benefits Committee.

Ms. Goodman also has written extensively on a variety of employee benefit matters, including the impacts of the Affordable Care Act, negotiating provider contracts, spousal rights under plans, Section 401(k) plans, the Pension Protection Act, reviewing and negotiating alternative investments for ERISA plan and the rights of military veterans under ERISA plans.

Ms. Goodman is actively involved with the American Bar Association’s Employee Benefits

Committee and served as Co-Chair of the Qualified Retirement Plan subcommittee for many years and as a Co-Chair of the Specialized Retirement Income Plans subcommittee prior to that. She is also is a senior editor, chapter editor and contributing author of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law’s treatise, Employee Benefits Law.

Ms. Goodman graduated from the John Hopkins University with a bachelor’s degree in 1984. She received her law degree from Northeastern University School of law in 1988, and is a fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.

Ms. Goodman is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Maryland. She is also admitted to practice before the United States District Courts of those districts.

Ian has practiced labor and employment law throughout his career. Prior to joining the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office on the Labor Team, Ian spent 17 years in the Solicitor’s Office of the US Department of Labor. Ian earned his JD at the University of California, Berkley School of Law.

Ms. Santos counsels employers and multiemployer trusts on all aspects of their employee benefit plans, including health and welfare plans, Section 125 cafeteria plans, and qualified retirement plans. She assists clients with compliance matters; administrative and plan design issues; plan, SPD and amendment drafting; IRS submissions; IRS and DOL investigations; and the review and negotiation of service provider agreements, including investment manager agreements. Tiffany frequently makes presentations on health plan matters, including health care reform (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010), HIPAA, COBRA, and cafeteria plans, and on investment-related matters, including ERISA’s impact on alternative investments.

Tiffany has been listed as a Northern California “Super Lawyer” in the area of employee benefits law since 2018. Tiffany has also been selected by her peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers® in America in 2021 in the practice area of Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law.