Patricia is Of Counsel in our San Francisco office, and is an experienced advisor on the design, implementation and taxation of qualified and nonqualified retirement benefits, deferred compensation and health and welfare benefits. Patricia also regularly advises benefit plan committees on their fiduciary duties.
Patricia is a trusted resource for her clients and leads complex negotiations to provide innovative solutions with regard to benefits design, administration and compliance. Patricia provides substantive knowledge in the defense of benefits litigation matters, has substantial experience with the employee benefit aspects of sales and acquisitions of businesses and is well-versed in the Affordable Care Act and HIPAA.
Patricia regularly advises general counsel, executive management, CEOs, boards of directors, retirement and health plan committees and key leadership of Fortune 500 companies on complex questions and issues regarding the operation of their domestic and international employee benefit plans and compliance with federal and state law.
Before joining the firm, Patricia acted as Senior Manager of National Employee Benefits at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and formerly served as Senior Counsel-Benefits and Executive Compensation at AirTouch Communications, Inc. (now Vodafone).
Patricia also acted as Legislation Counsel on the Joint Committee on Taxation within the United States Congress working extensively on the Clinton health care proposal and other benefits legislation. Prior to the Joint Committee, Patricia was an associate at Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop).
On March 18, President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) into law. The FFCRA is effective April 1, 2020. The Department of Labor also issued guidance and detailed FAQs, addressing various hypotheticals.
Below are answers to some frequently asked questions about provisions of the FFCRA that are of particular importance to employers: the emergency expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and emergency paid sick leave. READ MORE
We promised to keep you up to date on the GOP majority’s promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”). After reaching agreement on several amendments to the original House bill (described in our previous alert), the House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act, (the “AHCA”) a budget reconciliation bill to repeal and replace the ACA. The first draft of the AHCA, released by House Republicans on March 6th was withdrawn by Speaker Ryan on March 24th due to opposition from the Freedom Caucus, among others. Several significant changes were made to the original bill and it was passed by a narrow margin on May 4th; 217-213. READ MORE
Under the Affordable Care Act, employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act must provide a “Notice of Coverage Options” to each employee. The purpose of this Notice is to inform employees that they may obtain health insurance through their states’ Health Insurance Marketplace. For current employees, the Notice must be distributed before October 1, 2013. For new employees, the Notice must be given within 14 days after work begins. READ MORE
