Melissa Ostrower is a principal in the New York City, New York, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. and co-leader of the firm’s Employee Benefits practice group. She counsels clients in a broad range of employee benefit matters, including general compliance and administration of qualified retirement plans and nonqualified retirement plans.

Melissa assists clients with welfare plan issues involving cafeteria plans, health plans, flexible spending accounts, COBRA and the Affordable Care Act. She regularly speaks on all benefits issues including federal health care reform, fiduciary compliance and executive compensation.

Melissa regularly advises on executive compensation matters, including issues related to compliance with Section 409A, 162(m) and 280G of the Internal Revenue Code.

Melissa represents clients in connection with Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor audits and information requests. She also regularly assists clients in fixing plan operational and document errors. Melissa negotiates with benefits providers, volume submitter and prototype vendors, TPAs, insurers and auditors.

Melissa also advises clients in connection with phantom and equity based compensation arrangements.

Stephanie O. Zorn is a principal in the St. Louis, Missouri, office of Jackson Lewis P.C.

Stephanie has over twenty years of experience representing management in employee benefits and employment matters, both as in-house counsel and in private practice.

Stephanie is co-lead of the firm’s Transactional Services group and spends a substantial amount of her practice assisting clients with the employment and employee benefits matters implicated in mergers and acquisitions, with a special focus on clients in the private equity, technology, consumer goods, manufacturing and healthcare sectors. Stephanie leads due diligence review, the drafting and negotiation of definitive deal documents, insurer and co-investor interface and closing and post-closing business integrations.

Stephanie’s employee benefits practice includes assisting clients with all aspects of a broad range of plans including retirement plans, health and welfare plans, nonqualified plans, executive compensation plans, severance plans and voluntary early retirement plans. Stephanie also defends plans and plan administrators in disability, group health plan and life insurance claim litigation including ERISA section 502(a)(1)(B) and (a)(3) claims. Stephanie’s practice also includes counseling clients on Internal Revenue Code, ERISA, COBRA, ACA, HIPAA and fiduciary compliance including investment selection, service provider reviews and plan committee issues.

Stephanie’s employment practice consists of counseling employers in connection with discrimination, harassment, disability accommodations, family and medical leave and wage and hour matters. Stephanie also assists clients with reductions in force and reorganizations, noncompete and confidentiality agreements, retention agreements, service provider classification, outsourcing and international labor and employment matters.