Martha Jo Wagner

As a member of the ERISA and  Employee Benefits Group, Martha Jo (“Marty”), provides practical business solutions – emphasizing cost containment and legal risk management – to complex benefits problems.

Experience

Prior to joining Cohen & Grigsby, Marty was a partner in the D.C. office of Venable LLP. While at Venable, she led teams of Venable lawyers that:

• Assessed the risks of reducing retiree health benefits for a client with more than 100 retiree health plans and hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term liabilities. 
• Created a disciplined, systematic and automated health contract review process for a client with more than 300 benefit designs and more than 65 health care vendors. 
• Helped a client with several hundred employees employed on military bases world-wide design and implement a strategy to meet its statutory benefit obligations, including those under TRICARE.

Marty’s process orientation helps convert lessons learned into integrated process improvements, often on a national scale. Her extensive litigation experience provides her with a perspective unlike most benefit practitioners.

Representative Clients

Clients Marty has assisted include: General Dynamics Corporation; The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.; Bank of America Corporation; Lockheed Martin Corporation; The Pepsi Bottling Group Inc.; PepsiCo, Inc.; MBNA Corporation; Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Intelsat; Giant Food, LLC; Nextel Communications Inc.; UST Inc.; and Gray Television Inc. 

Representative Matters

• Marty assisted the Commission on U.S. Capital Markets for the 21st Century by coordinating a team of experts and drafting recommendations related to retirement plans.
• She led a team that designed and implemented more than a half dozen voluntary and involuntary severance programs offered simultaneously to approximately 9,000 employees.
• Marty also redesigned employee communications for a pension plan with more than 150 benefit configurations. 
• Marty provided expert testimony before a House Subcommittee regarding disability benefits paid to former NFL players.
• Having litigated retirement, health and welfare, and fiduciary breach claims nationwide for more than 25 years, she has been involved in successful litigation in many federal courts, including, most recently, those in Delaware, Tennessee, and Ohio.

Honors

• Fellow, Board of Governors Member, Officer, and Executive Committee Member, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel
• Member, ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Leadership Development Program 
• Best Lawyers in America, 2008 to the present 
• Selected for inclusion in District of Columbia Super Lawyers 2010 - 2011 
• Who’s Who in American Law 
• Who’s Who in America
•  Who’s Who of American Women 
• AV® Peer-Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell

Additional Roles

Marty is the past Management Co-Chair of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Employee Benefits Committee. She served as Management Co- Chair of several Employee Benefit Subcommittees, including those on: Fiduciary Responsibility, Benefit Claims and Individual Rights; and Liability Issues Unique to Welfare Plans. She also served as Management Co-Chair of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Pro Bono Committee. In addition, Marty is a member of the Employee Benefits Committee of the United States Chamber of Commerce and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center in the LLM program.

Representative Publications

Marty writes regularly on benefit topics.  Articles and chapters include:

• "What, Me Worry? The Top Ten Consequences of Careless 401(k) Compliance," BNA ERISA Compliance and Enforcement Library, Vol. 8, No. 12, December 2008 (with K. Kosko)
• "In Defense of the Sliding Scale," ABA Labor & Employment Law Employee Benefits Committee Newsletter, Summer 2004
• Steven J. Sacher and James I. Singer, Employee Benefits Law (2d. Ed. and Supp. 2000-2003) (Chapter Editor) 
• Steven J. Sacher and James I. Singer, Employee Benefits Law (1st ed. Supp. 1994-1996) (Chapter Editor)

Representative Presentations

Marty speaks frequently on diverse benefit topics. Recent select seminar presentations include:

• Claims Review and Exhaustion, Ethics, 2010, 2011
• Claims Review and Exhaustion, Exit Incentive Programs and Retiree Health, 2007
• Service Provider Litigation, Standard of Review, 2006
• Standard of Review, Long-Term Disability Claims, 2005, 2004
• Fiduciary Litigation, Removal, Attorneys Fees, Standard of Review, Evidence 2003
• Claims Review, Removal, Attorneys Fees, 2002
• Removal, Attorneys Fees, Claims Review Exhaustion, 2001, 2000

ABA National Institute on Health and Welfare Benefit Plans:

• Hot Topics in Health and Welfare Plan Litigation, 2010, 2011

ABA National Institute on ERISA Basics:

• Claims Administration, Federal Welfare Plan Laws, 2010, 2011
• Advanced Civil Procedure, 2007, 2006
• Reporting and Disclosure, Claims Review, Prohibited Transactions, 2001
• Claims Review Procedures, 2000
• COBRA Litigation, 1999

Annual ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Conference:

• The New Health Care Legislation: What Employers, Unions & Employees and Their Lawyers Need to Know, 2010

• Limiting Fiduciary Exposure in Complex Plans, ERISA Fiduciary Program, 2007
• Complex ERISA Disclosure Duties, ERISA Fiduciary Program, 2006, 2005
• Duty to Disclose, ERISA Fiduciary Program, 2004, 2003
• Communicating Employee Benefits, ERISA Fiduciary Program, 2002, 2001

BNA Legal & Business EDge:

• Top 10 Careless Compliance Consequences, 401(k) Fiduciary Compliance, 2008
• Benefit Litigation Preventative Maintenance, ERISA Cutting Edge Litigation, 2007

Other:

• Health Care Reform: Next Steps for Employers, Maryland Chamber of Commerce, 2010
• Health Care Reform 2.0: Redesigning Your Health Plan and Planning a Successful Open Enrollment Season, Venable Webinar, 2010
• How Will the New Health Care Reform Law Impact Employers?, Association of Builders and Contractors, Inc, (ABC) Webinar, 2010
• Health Care Reform: What It Means For Employers and the Health Plans They Sponsor, Venable Webinar, 2010
• Health Care Reform, JCEB Government Invitational, 2010
• Health Care Reform: What Employers Must Know Now, BLR 2009
• The Changing HIPAA Landscape, Venable, 2009
• ERISA and Health Plans: Hot Topics, D.C. Bar, 2004-2009
• Are you Hip to HIPAA?, Datatel Users Group Conference, 2005
• Alphabet Soup: HSAs, FSAs, and HRAs, AHT, 2004