Biography

Ms. Atkins is an associate in the Employee Benefits Department of the Seyfarth Shaw LLP. She focuses her practice on qualified retirement plans, health and welfare benefit plans, and executive compensation.

Qualified Retirement Plans

Ms. Atkins advises a number of large clients on the day-to-day administration of their qualified defined benefit and qualified defined contribution retirement plans, providing guidance on such issues as participant distributions, Qualified Domestic Relations Orders, Powers of Attorney, claims for benefits, and appeals of denied claims for benefits. She has extensive experience with clients who maintain multiple qualified retirement plans, and who also have union and non-union employee populations.

Ms. Atkins regularly drafts plan amendments to accomplish desired design changes and to ensure continued legal compliance, and also has experience in merging qualified plans, terminating qualified plans, and correcting errors through the various correction programs with the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor. She has also reviewed clients’ fiduciary structure for recommended best practices to enhance the legal protection of individuals on various committees. Ms. Atkins has also had the opportunity to utilize her bilingual skills by assisting a client in applying for plan qualification in Puerto Rico.

Ms. Atkins regularly communicates with third party vendors to assist with day-to-day plan administration issues, and to implement recent plan design changes. She also drafts and reviews amendments to administrative service agreements.

Health and Welfare Benefit Plans

Ms. Atkins advises many clients on the day-to-day administration of Cafeteria Plans, Flexible Spending Accounts, Dependent Care Spending Accounts, and other consumer-driven health care products such as Health Savings Accounts. As in the qualified retirement context, she has extensive experience with clients who maintain multiple Health and Welfare plans, and who also have union and non-union employee populations. She also has extensive experience with multi-employer welfare funds. Ms. Atkins regularly advises clients on the applicability of recent federal and state legislation to their Health and Welfare plans. She reviews and prepares resolutions and consents for Trustee and Committee meetings, and reviews and also prepares plan and contract amendments to effectuate the executed resolutions.

In conjunction with her day-to-day advice, Ms. Atkins has experience in reviewing Summary Plan Descriptions, Summaries of Material Modifications, COBRA notices, HIPAA notices, and other participant communications for legal compliance.

Executive Compensation

In the Executive Compensation context, Ms. Atkins has experience in reviewing claims for benefits, as well as advising clients on various stock option arrangements under equity incentive plans.

Education

J.D., Vanderbilt University Law School (2007)

Dean’s List; Mock Trial Quarter-Finalist; Honor Scholarship; Public Interest Half-Stipend Recipient

B.A., Business Administration, B.A., Spanish, University of Florida, magna cum laude (2004)

Phi Beta Kappa; Beta Gamma Sigma; Sigma Delta Pi; Florida Bright Futures Scholarship

Admissions

• Illinois

Courts

• American Bar Association
• Chicago Bar Association