Lisa Burman

Lisa M. Burman concentrates her practice in employee benefits, regularly counseling clients concerning all aspects of benefit plan administration and operation of employee benefit plans. Her advice to clients on employee benefits and ERISA matters includes :

• Correction of serious operational and document failures of qualified retirement plans under the various IRS correction programs, as well as Department of Labor investigations and IRS audits.
• Disposition of employee benefit plans following corporate mergers and acquisitions.
• Fiduciary obligations, prohibited transactions, participant disclosure (including summary plan descriptions) and other communication issues, and IRS and Department of Labor reporting.
• Termination of qualified retirement plans, including securing the necessary administrative approvals by the IRS and PBGC, and dealing with the treatment of residual plan assets in overfunded defined benefit plans.

Ms. Burman has extensive experience in designing, drafting, and amending various types of employee benefit plans, including defined benefit plans, target benefit plans, money purchase pension plans, profit sharing plans, 401(k) plans, employee stock ownership plans and employee stock purchase plans, as well as group health and other welfare benefit plans.

She also regularly works with other attorneys at the firm in connection with litigation concerning ERISA and other employee benefit matters. Ms. Burman also designs and drafts stock option plans, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, SERPs and other benefit plans for executives, including experience with Section 409A and Section 280G issues.

Her professional activities in employee benefits matters are extensive. Ms. Burman was a co-chair of the IRS/ASPPA Great Lakes Benefits Conference in 2007 and 2008. She was a member of the Great Lakes Benefits Conference Executive Committee in 2005 and 2006.

She is a former chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Employee Benefits Committee and a former chair of the IRS Liaison Subcommittee. Ms. Burman is also a member of the Great Lakes TE/GE Council, a committee consisting of selected employee benefits practitioners and IRS Employee Plans managers in the seven states comprising the Great Lakes Area.

Ms. Burman also served on a special task force created by the Great Lakes Area for the purpose of improving the IRS determination letter process and audits of employee benefit plans.

Education :

• LL.M., Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law, 1995, Taxation
• J.D., Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law, 1989
• B.S., Loyola University of Chicago, 1986

Admissions : Illinois, U.S. Tax Court