Susan Katz Hoffman concentrates her practice in the areas of employee benefits litigation, plan design and administration, and issues in corporate transactions, representing:

• Plan sponsors
• Prototype plan sponsors
• Institutional trustees
• Investment managers
• Employer associations
• Multi-employer plan trustees
• Insurers

Susan has more than 35 years of experience representing employers in cutting edge benefits litigation, plan design and transactions. With clients in the transportation, banking, manufacturing, and retail industries, as well as public sector and public utility employers, she has specific expertise with matters involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code and the Bankruptcy Code.

Susan regularly writes for various national legal and accounting publications regarding developments in employee benefits tax issues and employee benefits litigation and regulation. She also lectures on subjects relating to benefit plans in mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies, ERISA litigation and multi-employer pension plans. At the invitation of the IRS, she presented a program for IRS National Office Employee Benefits attorneys and plan reviewers on merger and acquisition issues.

She has been recognized by her peers by serving in leadership positions on bar association benefits committees since 1977.  She is also a sought-after speaker in benefits legal education addressing litigation, bankruptcy, transactions, and legal ethics as it relates to benefits.

A shareholder of Littler Mendelson, Susan is the current Co-Chair of the firm's ERISA and Benefits Litigation Practice Group, and former Co-Chair of the Employee Benefits Practice Group.

Susan also is a crossword champion.  She regularly finishes among the top 50 competitors in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, and appeared briefly in the movie “Wordplay” when she won the “C” division in that Tournament.

PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY AFFILIATIONS

• Fellow, College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
• Charter Fellow, American College of Employment Benefit Counsel
• Former Chair, Employee Benefits Committee, Labor and Employment Section - American Bar Association
• Former Chair, Litigation Subcommittee of Employee Benefits Committee, Section of Taxation - American Bar Association
• Former Chair, Fiduciary Subcommittee of Employee Benefits Committee, Section of Taxation - American Bar Association
• Former Chair, Mergers and Acquisitions Subcommittee of Employee Benefits Committee, Section of Taxation - American Bar Association
• Former Chair, Employee Benefits Subcommittee of Tax Committee - Massachusetts Bar Association

RECOGNITION

• Recipient, Goldstein Prize in Labor Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
• Named, Best Lawyers in America, 1995-2012 (for employee benefits and benefits litigation)