Press & News

Seyfarth Shaw Boosts Employee Benefits Practice with Addition of Mary K. Samsa as Partner
02/23/2006

Contact:
Mark S. Roy, Public Relations Manager
(212) 218-5272, mroy@seyfarth.com

Chicago, IL (February 23, 2006) - - Seyfarth Shaw LLP, one of America’s leading full service law firms, today announced that Mary K. Samsa has joined the firm as partner in the Employee Benefits Practice Group.  She is resident in the firm’s Chicago office.  Previously, Samsa was a partner at Gardner Carton & Douglas.

Samsa’s employee benefits practice is focused on the area of executive compensation, both domestically and internationally.  She has significant experience advising clients regarding executive employment and nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements for both taxable and not-for-profit entities, equity compensation arrangements and alternatives, change-in-control issues, golden parachutes and qualified retirement plans.  Samsa also has substantial knowledge particularly with respect to international employee benefits integration following a corporate restructuring or corporate acquisition, extending equity compensation arrangements overseas for multinational employers, designing foreign deferred compensation plans, and analyzing split-pay arrangements for executives working overseas.

“We are pleased to welcome Mary to the practice group and Seyfarth Shaw,” noted Peter C. Miller, chair of the firm’s Employee Benefits Group.  “Her wealth of experience in her field adds a valuable skill to our practice, and her positive entrepreneurial focus is expected to be a great asset to our busy national group.”

Seyfarth Shaw’s Employee Benefits Group is one of the largest and most diverse employee benefits and executive compensation practices in the United States.  The Group’s attorneys offer clients a wealth of experience including retirement plans, welfare benefit plans, executive compensation and incentive arrangements, employee stock ownership plans, corporate transactions and restructuring, multiemployer plans and ERISA/employee benefits litigation.

“Mary is a significant and welcome addition to our firm,” said David J. Rowland, managing partner of Seyfarth’s Chicago office.  “We are very pleased to have the benefit of her background and depth of knowledge.”

Samsa received her B.S. magna cum laude from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She earned a Masters of Science in Taxation (M.S.T.) from the DePaul University College of Commerce and a J.D., with high honors, from the DePaul University College of Law.  A certified public accountant, Samsa worked as a tax accountant prior to and while attending law school.  She is the founder of the Midwest Chapter of the Global Equity Organization, an international non-profit networking group for employee share plan professionals.  She sits on the editorial advisory boards of and is a frequent contributor to The Benefits and Compensation Law Alert Journal and The Benefits and Compensation Law for Nonprofits Journal and is the author of numerous books and articles ranging in topics from the legal ramifications of extending an international equity plan overseas, immigration fundamentals for employers (visas, permits and tax issues) as well as actively pursuing statutory and regulatory change for the not-for-profit sector in relation to executive compensation matters (particularly revisions to Code Section 457(f) and the IRS enforcement action related thereto).  She is a member of the policy committee of the American Benefits Council, the Global Equity Organization, the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals, the ESOP Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

“I am delighted to join Seyfarth Shaw," said Samsa. "The employee benefits group is one of the best in the country and I look forward to contributing to it and to working with my new colleagues.”

Seyfarth Shaw has over 650 attorneys located in nine offices throughout the United States including Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento as well as Brussels, Belgium.  Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation and business services.  The firm’s practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the country’s business community. Clients include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, newspapers and other media, hotels, health care organizations, airlines and railroads. The firm also represents a number of federal, state, and local governmental and educational entities.  For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com.

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