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Michael G. Kushner
mkushner@curtis.com
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New York Office
Practice
Michael G. Kushner is counsel to the Firm’s New York office, specializing in ERISA matters. His practice includes work with financial institutions, hedge funds, other investment funds and securities broker-dealers regarding ERISA’s broker-dealer exemption, plan asset regulations, venture capital operating company and real estate operating company exceptions and reporting and disclosure issues. He also focuses on the design and implementation of qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, health and welfare benefit plans, cafeteria plans, COBRA, HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley Act and ERISA fiduciary litigation, and advising institutional clients and promoters on structure and consequences of tax shelters involving employee benefit plans and insurance arrangements.
Mr. Kushner advises clients on the employee benefit aspects of mergers and acquisitions and similar transactions and represents clients in ERISA matters, including compliance matters, before the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. He also represents clients on the employee benefit aspects of bankruptcies and reorganizations and represents multinational companies in international employee benefit and executive compensation matters. He is a nationally recognized authority on multiemployer pension and welfare benefit plans.
Mr. Kushner also represents clients from China in international trade, investment, commercial, corporate and tax matters. He has spoken in China on issues such as international trade, international mergers and acquisitions and international tax planning and recently organized and spoke at a Curtis conference in Shanghai, China on Doing Business in the United States. He specializes in Chinese “outbound” investment, i.e., Chinese companies seeking to do business in the U.S. and has expertise in the tax and other financial incentives available to Chinese businesses and investors offered by U.S. state and local governments. Mr. Kushner is a member of the Firm’s International Trade and Cross-Border Investment Group.
Before joining Curtis, Mr. Kushner was with Coudert Brothers LLP, also specializing in ERISA matters, and has served as National Director for Retirement Plan Compliance for a large national employee benefits consulting firm.
Mr. Kushner was an Adjunct Professor at Dickinson College School of Law, Carlisle, PA, where he taught a course in ERISA for the LL.M. program in Commerce and Taxation, and was an Instructor at Georgetown University's School of Continuing Education, where he taught employee benefits law in the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) program.
Mr. Kushner is admitted to practice in New York, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
Education
- LL.M., Taxation, George Washington University, 1982
- J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1977
- B.A., English, George Washington University, 1974
Associations
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American Bar Association, Chair, Committee on Employee Welfare Plans of the ABA’s Real Property Probate and Trusts Section.
- American Bar Association Deputy Chair, Section on Health Law, Subcommittee on Employee Welfare Benefits
- Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB) Board of Directors, New York Chapter.
Speaking Engagements
- Frequent speaker before employee benefits audiences, including Benefits Management Forum and Expo, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, Profit-sharing and 401(k) Council of America, Legg-Mason client seminars, WEB, and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Publications
- BNA Tax Practice Series, Plan Qualification Requirements
- BNA Tax Management Portfolio No. 359, Multiemployer Plans--Special Rules
- BNA Tax Management Portfolio No. 361-4th, Reporting and Disclosure under ERISA
- BNA Tax Management Portfolio No.359-4th, Multiemployer Plans - Special Rules
- Tax Management Tax Practice Series on CD. Author of chapters on qualification and taxation of qualified retirement plans, executive compensation, welfare benefit plans, fringe benefits, COBRA and HIPPA
- Co-author, Portfolio No. 45 BNA Corporate Practice Series Federal Taxation of Employee Benefits (first, second and third editions)
- Co-author, Choice of Form of Business Entity - Legal Considerations, Portfolio No. 50 BNA Corporate Practice Series
- Co-author, Employee Benefits Desk Encyclopedia, BNA Books, 1996
- ERISA: The Law and the Code, BNA Books, annual annotated statutory compendium - chief editor of annual edition since 1995.
- ERISA: The Regulations, BNA Books, annual annotated statutory compendium - chief editor of annual edition since 1994 (companion volume to ERISA: The Law and the Code).
Languages
English, French
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