Employment Benefits Partner Samantha Kopacz Joins Honigman in Detroit

Detroit, MI – Honigman LLP announced today that it is growing its Corporate Department with the addition of Samantha Kopacz as partner in the firm’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group in Detroit, Michigan.

Kopacz joins from Miller Canfield, where she led the employee benefits and executive compensation practice. Her work centers around the design, implementation and administration of employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements. She also brings over 15 years of experience advising employers, trustee boards, group health plans, insurance companies, and third-party administrators on regulatory issues related to qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, health and welfare plans, fringe benefit plans, and executive compensation and incentive programs.

"No one knows the ins and outs of employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements like Sam—and her know-how will be invaluable as we continue to serve clients in this important area," said Kimberly A. Dudek, chair of Honigman’s Corporate Department. “Additionally, Sam’s facility for collaboration and wide-ranging skillset will provide greater depth to our already robust bench of corporate attorneys.”

Kopacz has extensive experience structuring and advising on defined contribution plans, defined benefit/pension plans, self-funded and fully insured health and welfare benefit plans, IRC §125 cafeteria plans, IRC §501(c)(9) Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Associations (VEBAs), IRC §115 trusts, consumer driven plans and various other types of benefit plans. She also advises clients on various laws and regulations that intersect with employee benefits, such as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Internal Revenue Code (IRC), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA).

Kopacz earned a J.D. from Wayne State University Law School in 2007 and a B.A. from New York University in 2004. Prior to joining Miller Canfield, Kopacz was a shareholder at Fraser Trebilcock Davis & Dunlap, P.C. While in law school, she served as judicial intern to the Honorable Nancy G. Edmunds of the United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan. 

About Honigman

Honigman LLP is an Am Law 200 full-service, general business law firm with more than 350 attorneys counseling clients on complex issues across the country in Chicago, Michigan (Ann Arbor, Bloomfield Hills, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lansing), Washington, D.C. and in our newest wholly owned subsidiary office in Israel. Our lawyers counsel clients on complex issues in more than 60 areas of law. For more information, visit www.honigman.com.

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