Stuart P. Kasiske

Associate

Stuart P. Kasiske is an associate in Morgan Lewis's Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice. Mr. Kasiske routinely counsels a wide range of clients with respect to the tax and ERISA implications of matters involving qualified and nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements, severance plans, collectively bargained funds, health and welfare benefits, executive compensation, plan investments, fiduciary issues, audits and investigations, prohibited transactions, and COBRA and HIPAA compliance. Representative clients include Fortune 500 companies, private firms, multi-employer (Taft-Hartley) funds, nonprofit organizations, and governmental plans.

Mr. Kasiske works directly with company management and in-house counsel concerning traditional plan sponsor issues, as well as with human resource and other administrative personnel to resolve day-to-day operational questions. In this regard, he assists clients with changes in plan recordkeepers, custodians, trustees, investment consultants and other service providers; negotiates investment management agreements, hedge fund offering documents and collective investment fund subscription documents on behalf of benefit plan clients; drafts investment guidelines for defined benefit plans and participant-directed defined contribution plans; performs due diligence in connection with business acquisitions; guides clients through both routine and complex benefit plan audits and government investigations; supervises welfare and retirement plan terminations; and reviews annual reports, proxy materials, and other SEC filings.

Before focusing his practice on employee benefits matters, Mr. Kasiske handled all forms of commercial litigation, prevailing as lead counsel in a bench trial on behalf of an international architectural design firm and authoring the winning brief in multiple appellate cases. He also served as an associate editor of the Fidelity Law Association Journal in 2001. More recently, in 2005, Mr. Kasiske spent four months on temporary assignment at a major client's in-house legal division, managing benefits-related projects for individuals in the company's human resources, tax, payroll, legal, securities, corporate governance, and compliance units.

Mr. Kasiske earned his LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2004, where he authored a graduate thesis titled "Planning for Ye Olde Age: The International Tax Implications of the Private Pension Provisions in the New U.S./U.K. Tax Treaty." He received his J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1999, and his B.S. in business administration from Southwest Baptist University in 1996. Law school honors include: First Place Brief, 1999 Roger J. Traynor California Moot Court Competition; National Finalist, 1998 ABA National Appellate Advocacy Tournament; National Finalist, 1998 TYLA National Trial Competition; and Pepperdine Moot Court Board, 1997-99.

Mr. Kasiske is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Texas and before the U.S. Tax Court.