Certificate in Employee Benefits Law Seminar

Faculty Biographies

George F. Cicotte founded the Cicotte Law Firm in 2002. Mr. Cicotte's entire career has focused on employee benefits, beginning in 1989 as a pension actuary and, since 1995, as an ERISA attorney. He currently serves clients in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. Before establishing the Cicotte Law Firm, Mr. Cicotte practiced law in Washington, D.C. with Covington & Burling. His broad employee benefits practice involves such diverse issues as health and retirement plan design, representing employers in labor relations matters, federal taxation, assisting health plans with HIPAA, COBRA and all other requirements and advising on a myriad of employment and fiduciary responsibility issues. In addition to counseling with clients on compliance and transactional matters he frequently defends ERISA lawsuits. Mr. Cicotte has authored and co-written several articles and publications including the employee benefits chapter of The Contingent Workforce - Business and Legal Strategies, published by Law Journal Press. He has spoken throughout the country for entities including the Society for Human Resource Management, the Western Pension and Benefits Conference, The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors and the Zero Alpha Group. Mr. Cicotte earned his J.D. from Brigham Young University and his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Washington, Colorado and Washington, D.C. bar.

Ilene H. Ferenczy is the managing member of the Law Offices of Ilene H. Ferenczy, LLC in Atlanta. She specializes in qualified pension and profit sharing plans, nonqualified plans, employee stock ownership plans and tax-sheltered annuity plans for tax exempt organizations. Her expertise includes the design and implementation of retirement plans, consulting with clients on retirement plan issues in relation to mergers and acquisitions, representing companies and plans under audit by the IRS, Department of Labor and the PBGC, and consulting with clients regarding a myriad of planning, taxation and fiduciary liability issues. In addition to working with companies to develop various benefit programs, Ms. Ferenczy advises clients on the issues that arise on a day-to-day basis in these plans. A member of the employee benefits community since 1977, Ms. Ferenczy was a Vice President of a Southern California pension administration company prior to going to law school. After law school graduation, she specialized in ERISA at both Los Angeles and Atlanta law firms. She has earned the designations of Certified Pension Consultant from the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA) and Accredited Pension Administrator from the National Institute of Pension Administrators. Ms. Ferenczy is a nationally known speaker and has authored more than 50 articles on benefits topics for national journals. She is the first female co-chair of ASPPA’s Government Affairs Committee, a member of ASPPA’s Board of Directors, and a trustee of the ASPPA Pension Education and Research Foundation. Ms. Ferenczy received two J.D. degrees, summa cum laude, one from Georgia State University College of Law (six CALI awards, BNA Award for Excellence in Labor Law) and Western State University College of Law, (emphasis in taxation; six American Jurisprudence Awards, Law Review). She is admitted to practice by the Georgia and California Bars.

Ashley Gillihan is a member of Alston & Bird's Employee Benefits and ERISA Litigation Groups in Atlanta. Mr. Gillihan focuses his practice exclusively on health and welfare employee benefit compliance and litigation issues for employers, health plan administrators and other health and welfare benefit plan service providers. He also has extensive experience assisting financial institutions and insurance companies who serve as Health Savings Account trustees or custodians. Mr. Gillihan is active in publishing and speaking on various health and welfare benefit plan related topics and serves as a faculty member and/or technical advisor for several health and welfare benefit plan focused organizations. He is a member of the Employer’s Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC) Technical Advisory Council and the board of editors for the Benefits and Compensation Law Alert published by M.Lee Smith Publishers and was recently named a contributing author for the Flexible Benefits Answer Book published by Aspen Publishers. He received his B.A. from Western Kentucky University and his J.D. from Samford University.

John R. Hickman is head of Alston & Bird’s Health Benefits Practice where he leads five attorneys devoted exclusively to HIPAA privacy, flexible benefits, and other health and welfare benefit issues. Mr. Hickman has been a pioneer in the consumer-directed health care arena and has worked closely with health plans, financial institutions, and employers as well as the IRS, Treasury, and DOL in developing guidance for tax-favored health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs). Mr. Hickman has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White), Super Lawyers magazine and Who’s Who Legal in the employee benefits area. He has lectured widely and published articles on HIPAA, ERISA litigation, cafeteria and health plan issues. He is co-author of the Cafeteria Plans Manual, HIPAA Portability and Privacy, and Consumer-Driven Health Care (published by the Employee Benefits Institute of America). Mr. Hickman has been called upon by benefits and trade associations to testify before the IRS and DOL on issues affecting health and welfare benefit plans including HIPAA, cafeteria plan regulations, DOL claims procedures, and the HIPAA health care privacy regulations. He received his B.A. from Florida Atlantic University and his J.D. from Emory University.

H. Douglas Hinson is the leader of Alston & Bird's ERISA Litigation Group and a member of the Securities Litigation Group. He concentrates his practice on ERISA litigation, securities litigation, complex commercial and transaction-based litigation and class action defense. Mr. Hinson is a noted author and speaker on various topics related to ERISA, securities and transaction-based litigation. He received his J.D. degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the ABA's Joint Committee on Employee Benefits sponsored by the Sections on Labor and Employment Law, Taxation and Tort and Insurance Practice. He is a presenter in the Advanced Benefits Law Seminar.

David C. Kaleda is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Alston & Bird. He has extensive experience with qualified plan compliance, design and drafting. His practice includes managing compliance projects for plans with as many as 30,000 participants, serving as a regulatory technical advisor and working on Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor self-correction projects and audits. He also has experience advising plan sponsors, plan service providers and plan fiduciaries on issues arising under Title I of ERISA. Mr. Kaleda also advises clients on compliance, design and drafting issues related to Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. He is a member of the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries. Prior to joining Alston & Bird, Mr. Kaleda worked for the second largest mutual fund company in the United States where he was a legal advisor to the company’s employee benefits trust and recordkeeping/ administration divisions and a compliance consultant to some of the company’s largest employee benefit plan clients. He received his LL.M. in Taxation from Villanova University School of Law, his J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law and his B.A. in history from the College of New Jersey. He is admitted to practice in Washington D.C., Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Johann Lee is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Alston & Bird where he concentrates his practice on health and welfare benefits laws issues for employers, associations, insurers, and health care and administrative service providers. His extensive experience in this area covers the full spectrum of issues involved in the proper and efficient design, financing and delivery of employee health & welfare benefits and related services, including issues under ERISA, HIPAA and the Internal Revenue Code. Mr. Lee is a contributing author of the Flexible Benefits Answer Book (5th ed., Aspen Publishers), and a frequent author and speaker on complex health and welfare benefit issues that impact businesses. He received his J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law and his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. Mr. Lee is a member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and a member of the benefits committee of the Self-Insurance Institute of America.

Emily W. Mao is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Alston & Bird. Her practice focuses on advising employers on all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation including design, drafting, compliance, administration and termination of tax-qualified and non-qualified plans. In addition to advising clients on ERISA, tax and executive compensation issues she also counsels public companies and private companies on employee benefits matters arising from corporate mergers, acquisitions, outsourcings and restructurings. She regularly advises clients with regard to ERISA Title I matters, including the special responsibilities of plan fiduciaries and issues relating to employee benefit plan investments in hedge funds, real estate funds and other investment vehicles. Ms. Mao also counsels employers on how to comply with changes in the law, including the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. She received her LL.M., with distinction, in taxation in 1999 from Georgetown University Law Center. As part of her LL.M., she also received a Certificate in Employee Benefits Law from Georgetown University. She received her J.D., cum laude, in 1991 from The American University, Washington College of Law, and her B.A. in English literature in 1988 from the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Mao is a member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Washington, D.C. and a former member of the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, a non-profit organization located in the District of Columbia.

Thomas G. Schendt is a partner in Alston & Bird's Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group in Washington, D.C. His practice focuses on employee plan litigation, agency civil and criminal audits, investigations and disputes and voluntary compliance initiatives involving the Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, Department of Labor, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. He also regularly counsels large employers on the practical effect of various qualification requirements that are issued by appropriate government agencies. This includes assisting clients with the execution of various plan administration and qualification requirements under Titles I & II of ERISA. Mr. Schendt also focuses on fiduciary issues affecting plan providers, including plan fee disclosure, exemption issues, and implications of recent PPA provisions. Prior to joining the firm, he was with the Internal Revenue Service, where he held a number of positions. As technical assistant to the associate chief counsel, Employee Benefits and Exempt Organizations (EBEO) for the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service, Tom assisted in the coordination of national employee benefits litigation for the IRS, including plan disputes and compliance initiatives. He also acted as a liaison between the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service and various field offices, including Exam and Appeals. The unique combination of his prior experience dealing with sensitive IRS, DOL and SEC compliance issues plus his understanding of the practical aspects in the administration and management of retirement plans provides clients with strategic alternatives in a cost effective manner. Mr. Schendt received a B.S., M.B.A. and J.B. from Marquette University.