Robin M Solomon

Robin M. Solomon is a partner in Ivins, Phillips & Barker's Employee Benefits practice. She counsels employers on a wide range of issues, including qualified plan design and compliance, health and welfare compliance (ACA, HIPAA, COBRA, FMLA, MHPAEA), privacy, severance, employment classification, and executive compensation. Robin has extensive experience drafting plan documents, amendments, employment agreements, summary plan descriptions and other participant communications.

Robin’s client base covers many different industries, including aerospace and defense, automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, oil and gas, retail, and technology. She possesses particular expertise in counseling clients on workforce and benefits integration after a large acquisition, and she is experienced with the unique problems faced by large controlled groups. 

Clients value Robin as a “business-minded” and practical leader, who can manage large projects on a tight deadline.

Representative matters include: 

• Advised a multinational corporation on a voluntary lump sum offer to 40,000 former employees, followed by a second lump sum offer made under ten pension plans simultaneously, in an effort to reduce the company’s $68 billion pension liability.
• Counseled one of the nation’s largest employers on the transition from DB to DC plan benefits, including all associated ERISA and tax qualification issues such as non-discrimination testing and disclosure obligations. This included the soft freeze of ten pension plans, followed by the hard freeze of plans covering 68,000 non-union employees and 33,000+ union employees.
• Advised multiple clients on the redesign of their retiree medical programs, typically involving a transition from traditional retiree medical plans to HRAs with private exchanges.
• Assisted multiple clients with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, advising on plan design, grandfathering status, participant communications, reporting obligations, and numerous other compliance issues.  
• Advised a 401(k) plan with $45 billion in assets on the implementation of Roth 401(k) contributions and enhanced profit sharing contributions.
• Successfully shepherded a mid-sized retailer through an IRS 401(k) plan audit, with no changes requested or penalties imposed.
• Obtained a favorable IRS determination letter on one of the nation’s largest cash balance plans – a process that took nearly ten years. She not only deflected IRS criticism of the plan, but she developed an alternative strategy that left the plan design virtually intact.
• Secured IRS approval of complex operational corrections for several Fortune 10 companies, often winning approval for unique methods of correction.
• Integrated large-scale benefits programs following significant M&A activity by Fortune 50 companies. These projects have involved the establishment of a new benefits program for acquired subsidiaries, as well as the management of subsidiaries’ existing benefits programs with several dozen plans.
• Testified as expert witness in union arbitration on behalf of multinational corporation.