Craig A. Bitman provides clients with a range of knowledge and skills in all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation law, and he also practices in the firm’s institutional investor and private investment funds practices. Craig leads the firm’s employee benefits and executive compensation practice and has served as a member of the firm’s Advisory Board.
Craig brings more than 20 years of experience to his practice, advising clients on all aspects of benefit plan design, implementation, and administration. Specifically, he counsels clients in the context of day-to-day administration, plan investments, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and ongoing compliance. His advice extends to matters involving qualified and nonqualified deferred compensation plans, health and welfare benefit plans, equity compensation, and other types of arrangements. Craig’s representations include both ongoing benefits advice and transactional matters.
His client roster includes a diverse mix of businesses, trusts, and individuals, including financial services companies, public pension plans, life insurance companies, transportation and logistics providers, entertainment companies, and multiemployer trust funds. He spends a significant percentage of his time devoted to assisting these entities and individuals in complying with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) complex fiduciary duties.
A member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, Craig often speaks and writes on topics affecting plan sponsors and service providers. His experience in the space has earned him recognition by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Best Lawyers, PLC, Legal 500 and others.
Education
Georgetown University Law Center, 1996, J.D.
University of Pennsylvania, 1993, B.A.
Admissions
New York
Awards and Affiliations
Member, Law Firm of the Year, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation, Chambers USA (2019)
Member, Law Firm of the Year, Employee Benefits (ERISA Law), US News/Best Lawyers – Best Law Firms (2019)
Recommended, Labor and employment: Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactions, The US Legal 500 (2010, 2017–2020)
Recommended, Labor and employment: Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: design, The Legal 500 US (2019, 2020)
Recognized, Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law, New York, The Best Lawyers in America (2010–2020)
Ranked, Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2014–2016)
Recognized, Employee Benefits and Pensions, PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook (2008)