Lisa A. Durham

Lisa Durham has expertise in a wide range of qualified plan and other employee benefit plan matters, including 401(k), money purchase and employee stock ownership plans (“ESOPs”).  Ms. Durham had eight years of consulting, compliance and administration experience with qualified plans prior to coming to Krieg DeVault.  She uses this experience in helping plan sponsors, trustees and third-party administrators on administration issues and plan design.  Ms. Durham works with Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor representatives frequently.  She also has extensive experience in the correcting of ESOP and other retirement plan qualification failures under the IRS’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS).

In the area of ESOPs, Ms. Durham has experience in stock purchase and sale transactions, ESOP loans, repurchase liability options, fiduciary education, testing, and correction of prohibited transactions.  She is a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS) and is Chairperson of the Firm's Benefits Committee.

Representative Experience

• Served as trustee counsel in an ESOP company's acquisition of a $4 million health care company
• Supervised correction of five companies' ESOP loans through multi-year reallocation of shares
• Guided numerous companies through 401(k) plan corrections under the Self-Correction Program, Voluntary Correction Program or Audit CAP Program sponsored by the IRS
• Designed and prepared over 100 plan documents for ESOPs, KSOPs, 401(k)s, profit sharing plans, money purchase plans and 403(b) plans
• Assisted with unique ESOP transactions for physician groups, accounting firms, architectural and engineering firms, and other professional organizations

Education

• Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana (J.D., magna cum laude, 2005)
  • Note Development Editor, Indiana Law Review
• University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois (B.A., 1981)

Bar Admissions

• Indiana
• Georgia

Professional Associations

• Indiana State Bar Association
• Georgia State Bar Association
• American Bar Association
• WIPS - National Women In Pensions, Inc.
• International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (past President of Central Indiana Chapter)
• The ESOP Association (Member of the State and National Associations and Member of the Administrative Committee at the National Level)
• The National Center for Employee Ownership
• Ohio Center for Employee Ownership

Awards and Recognitions

• Frandsen Scholarship
• Francis J. Feeney, Jr. Tax Award
• Indiana Super Lawyers Rising Stars, 2011

Seminars and Presentations

• Presentations on administration and fiduciary issues at national and regional ESOP Association and NCEO conferences

Publications

• "ERISA Civil Remedies: Subrogation Claims in Welfare Benefit Plans After Knudson", Journal of Pension Planning & Compliance, Fall 2004
• "Indiana's ESOP Initiative", Willamette Management Associates Insights, Spring 2009