Carrie Byrnes concentrates her practice in employee benefits and executive compensation law, with a particular focus on matters involving qualified retirement plans and the management and investment of employee benefit plan assets.

Ms. Byrnes has experience with a wide variety of compensation and benefits matters, including the design, drafting, implementation and administration of qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, health and welfare benefit plans, fringe benefit plans, SEP-IRAs, deferred compensation plans and equity-based compensation arrangements. As part of her qualified plan practice, she performs fiduciary “audits”, assists clients with compliance matters surrounding ERISA Title I and frequently advises and counsels clients on the investment of employee benefit plan assets, including the application of ERISA’s fiduciary and prohibited transaction provisions to such investments. In her health and welfare practice, Ms. Byrnes assists clients in complying with ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA, PPACA, FMLA, ADA, GINA, Mental Health Parity, CHIP, HEART, as well as other statutory and regulatory matters impacting their plans. Her executive compensation practice involves designing and drafting employment contracts, severance agreements and a variety of executive compensation arrangements designed to comply with, or be exempt from, Code Section 409A. She advises boards of directors, compensation committees, human resources departments and legal departments on these and other compensation and benefit issues.

During law school, Ms. Byrnes worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration where she focused on fiduciary correction matters.

Select Representations

• Counseling clients on the proper administration of their employee benefit and compensation programs
• Representing clients in connection with Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor audits of employee benefit plans
• Assisting clients in obtaining favorable determination letters and compliance statements from the Internal Revenue Service
• Defending clients in benefits litigation matters dealing with claims for benefits, ERISA preemption and breaches of fiduciary duties
• Conducting due diligence, assisting in preparation of documentation with respect to, and helping design strategies for the integration of, employee benefit plans in corporate transactions
• Advising clients on compliance with health care reform
• Training clients on duties imposed under ERISA and mechanisms to limit fiduciary liability
• Assisting clients in controlling and reducing the cost of their employee benefits schemes, including seeking termination of an underfunded pension plan in one instance

Bar and Court Admissions

Illinois, 2007

Missouri, 2006

Education

The John Marshall Law School, LL.M., with honors, 2006

The John Marshall Law School, J.D., summa cum laude, 2006

University of Illinois, B.S., highest honors, 2003

Speeches and Seminars

• "ERISA Litigation Update" Sponsored by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, September 22, 2011
• "Educating ERISA Fiduciaries: What You Should Know They Need to Know," Sponsored by the John Marshall Law School Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits, Chicago, Illinois, September 21, 2011
• “Supreme Court Roundup: ERISA & the Court in 2008” Sponsored by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, December 4, 2008

Professional Affiliations

• American Bar Association – YLS, JCEB
• Chicago Bar Association