Overview
Attorney Gretchen Harders helps companies ensure the health and welfare of their employees with compliant and tax-efficient health care and retirement benefit plans. She also advises multinational employers on designing and implementing equity-based compensation packages to incentivize top-level executives.
Clients value Gretchen’s commitment to understanding their challenges and her ability to break down the complex rules governing their programs. She explains highly intricate tax laws and ERISA regulations from a business perspective. Tax-exempt and not-for-profit institutions rely on her advice to ensure compliance for their pension plans, executive compensation, deferred compensation, and employee benefits.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gretchen helped numerous clients use disaster-relief tax provisions and coordinate with new benefit providers to give employees access to health and wellness benefits through secure mobile apps. As companies grapple with Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rules, Gretchen’s analysis and insight inform practical solutions for updating and changing benefits plans. When implementing a post-merger rollover of benefits, she helps employers see beyond the technical aspects of their decisions to anticipate how their actions will be perceived by employees and the public.
Gretchen is a frequent speaker on various employee benefits issues and developments. She authors articles on timely ERISA and employee benefits law topics.
Additionally, Gretchen is a trustee of the Helene Fuld School of Nursing and an officer in the Rotary Club of the Palisades. Her interests include reading, playing piano, and coaching youth soccer.
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Industries
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Experience
- Frequently helps non-U.S. employers adhere to U.S. tax, legal, and employment considerations when developing compensation plans for U.S.-based executives. For example, Gretchen counseled a multinational financial services firm in structuring its global incentive compensation programs for fund managers. Her global analysis of the incentive compensation strategies allowed her client to integrate its international policies and goals while adhering to U.S. tax, legal, and employment considerations.
- Helps employers comply with retirement plan rules, and if, for example, the U.S. Department of Labor scrutinizes a client’s 401(k) plan, she brings the plan back into compliance quickly to avoid costly fines. Gretchen has represented many employers in correcting retirement plan qualification and fiduciary issues through the IRS and Department of Labor correction programs.
- Represented a financial services firm in its post-acquisition termination of its retirement and equity-based compensation plans. Drawing on her knowledge of legal risks and compliance and notice requirements, Gretchen helped her client successfully integrate an Employee Stock Ownership Plan conversion and eliminate retiree medical risks through a seamless rollover to a new benefit plan structure.
- Counseled a telecommunications company on implementing a national COVID-19 testing program, an employee assistance program, and wellness initiatives. Gretchen navigated strict group health plan legal requirements and privacy issues to help her client use new benefit providers to provide workplace safety benefits delivered through apps.
- Advises professional sports organizations on tax-favored approaches to providing their workforces with access to qualified COVID-19 relief programs, donation programs, and other benefits. Gretchen helped her clients communicate the valuable benefits of the programs to provide relief to employees directly impacted by COVID-19.
- Negotiates effectively with unions when transferring pension benefits from distressed multiemployer plans to single-employer plans. For example, Gretchen represented a consumer goods and services company in its union negotiations involving its withdrawal liability of a multiemployer pension plan and transfer of assets to single-employer plan. She negotiated an alternative pathway to address distressed multiemployer plan pension funds involving union members.
Recognition
- The Best Lawyers in America©: Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law (2014 to 2024)
- The Legal 500 United States: Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation, and Retirement Plans: Design (2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2022)
- New York Metro Super Lawyers: Employee Benefits (2013 to 2022)
Credentials
Education
- University of Minnesota Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1997)
- University of Chicago (B.A., 1989)
- Fundamentals: Issues & Texts
Bar Admissions
- New York
Professional & Community Involvement
- Helene Fuld School of Nursing, Trustee
- New York State Bar Association, Employee Benefits Committee, Tax Section
Media
Events
Past Events
- March 23, 2023
- March 16, 2023
- November 10, 2022
- November 3, 2021
Insights
Insights
- Firm Announcements
Twenty-One Attorneys Named to the 2023 New York Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists
12 minute read - Firm Announcements
Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Recognized by 2024 Best Lawyers for Excellence in the Legal Profession
12 minute read - Media Coverage
Gretchen Harders Quoted in “Dobbs’ Impact on Employers, Law Firms, Women Lawyers, and Future Lawyers”
3 minute read - PublicationsSECURE Act 2.0: What 401(k) Plan Sponsors Need to Know12 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Seventeen Attorneys Named to the 2022 New York Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists
8 minute read - Firm Announcements
Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Recognized by 2023 Best Lawyers for Excellence in the Legal Profession
11 minute read - Media Coverage
Gretchen Harders Discusses Employee Benefits After the Supreme Court’s Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade
2 minute read - Blogs
Employers, Are You Ready for a Possible Post-Roe Workplace?
4 minute read - Firm Announcements
2022 Edition of The Legal 500 Recognizes Epstein Becker Green with High Rankings in Health Care and Workforce Management ...
3 minute read - BlogsA First Look at Secure 2.0—New Requirements for Plan Sponsors3 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders Discusses How Wellness and Employee Benefits Can Support Workforces2 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders Discusses How Wellness Benefits and Leadership Contribute to Law Firm Success2 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders Quoted in “Burnout Is Going to Cause a Wave of Turnover Among Law Firm Leaders"2 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Fifteen Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Named to 2021 New York Super Lawyers List
8 minute read - BlogsCOBRA Premium Assistance Period Ends September 30, 20211 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsFifty-Eight Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Recognized for Professional Excellence–Three Attorneys Distinguished as ...7 minute read
- BlogsGood News for Retirement Plan Sponsors: IRS Issues Updated Guidance Enhancing Plan Correction Programs5 minute read
- Media CoverageMelissa Jampol, Gretchen Harders Discuss the Implications of the Trump Organization Indictment2 minute read
- BlogsFertility Treatments and Gestational Surrogacy: the IRS Reaffirms Narrow View of “Medical Expenses” under Section 213 ...3 minute read
- PublicationsEEOC Updates Guidance on COVID-19 Vaccination Policies, Including Mandates, Incentives, and Accommodations12 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders Quoted in “Employers Can Offer Vaccine Incentives to Workers, EEOC Says”3 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders Quoted in “4 Takeaways from New COBRA Subsidy Guidance”2 minute read
- PublicationsIRS Guidance on ARPA COBRA Subsidies: 86 Q&As and Counting16 minute read
- PublicationsMay 31, 2021 Deadline Approaching for ARPA's COBRA Subsidy Election Notices7 minute read
- BlogsARPA Requires Tax-Free COBRA Subsidy3 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders, Susan Gross Sholinsky Quoted in “Tying Executive Bonuses to Diversity Is Gaining Momentum” ...3 minute read
- BlogsUnder the Heroes Act, Employers Can Help Pay Your Student Loans3 minute read
- BlogsDOL’s Final Rule on Investment Duties of ERISA Fiduciaries and Its Impact on Retirement Plan ESG Investing7 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Seventeen Attorneys Named to 2020 New York Super Lawyers List
8 minute read - BlogsCaregiver Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic – A Conundrum for Employers4 minute read
- Firm AnnouncementsFifty-Five Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Recognized for Professional Excellence–Two Attorneys Distinguished as ...7 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders Quoted in "Making Antibody Tests Optional Won't Erase Legal Risks"4 minute read
- PublicationsReturn-to-Work: Benefits Guidance in the Time of COVID-192 minute read
- BlogsReturn-to-Work: Benefits Guidance in the Time of COVID-197 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders Quoted in "Pandemic Means Crisis Plans in Future Exec Comp Packages"3 minute read
- BlogsBenefits Guidance in the Time of COVID-19: RIFs, Furloughs, Layoffs, and Leaves of Absence19 minute read
- BlogsTemporary Benefit Strategies to Immediately Help Workers: Benefits Guidance in the Time of COVID-196 minute read
- BlogsMay Employees Take Hardship Distributions Under Their 401(k) Plan? Benefits Guidance in the Time of COVID-195 minute read
- BlogsEmployer-Sponsored Leave Sharing or Leave Donation Programs: Benefits Guidance in the Time of COVID-196 minute read
- BlogsBenefits Guidance in the Time of COVID-19: Continuing Employer Group Health Coverage During Temporary Layoffs or Furloughs ...4 minute read
- Media CoverageGretchen Harders Quoted in "3 Key Questions on IRS' Proposed Executive Pay Changes"3 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Nineteen Attorneys Named to 2019 New York Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists
8 minute read - Firm Announcements
Forty-Seven Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Named by The Best Lawyers in America 2020, One Attorney Distinguished as "Lawyer ...
5 minute read - PublicationsManaging Employee Mobility Today: Are You Succeeding or Scrambling?14 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Epstein Becker Green Recognized as Top-Tier Law Firm by The Legal 500 United States, Receives Additional High Rankings ...
4 minute read - Media CoverageGretchen Harders Quoted in "C-Notes in the C-Suite: How Women Can Get Their Fair Share"3 minute read
- PublicationsThe Proposed Expansion of Health Reimbursement Arrangements: Is This a Game Changer for Employers?8 minute read
- BlogsProposed Rules Loosen Restrictions on Hardship Withdrawals5 minute read
- Firm Announcements
Twenty-One Attorneys Named to 2018 New York Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists
8 minute read - Firm Announcements
Epstein Becker Green Attorneys Selected for The Best Lawyers in America 2019 and Four Attorneys Named "Lawyer of the Year ...
5 minute read