Phil Gutwein concentrates his practice in employee benefits law. He represents employers and fiduciaries in plan design, tax and benefits law compliance, executive compensation, corporate transactions, benefits-related disputes with unions and multi-employer welfare and pension plans, and a wide variety of benefits-related litigation (ERISA and non-ERISA). Phil has significant experience with employee stock ownership plans (or ESOPs) and executive and incentive arrangements, including deferred compensation, stock option, retention and severance plans.

In corporate transactions, Phil has experience with:

• Managing transactions for the acquisition, sale and closure of businesses dedicated to providing trustee and administrative services to employee benefit plans;
• Addressing issues related to employee benefits plans in merger and acquisition transactions, including the assumption, termination, spin-off or adoption of plans in connection with corporate transactions, the conversion of company stock investments in a plan, change-in-control agreements and the allocation of liability (including withdrawal liability) with respect to employee benefit plans; and
• Designing corporate transactions to comply with ERISA's sale-of-assets exemption to withdrawal liability.

In litigation, Phil has experience with a broad range of benefits-related disputes and issues in both the individual-plaintiff and class-action contexts, including claims for benefits of all types (such as short- and long-term disability, medical, life, severance and pension), claims for breach of fiduciary duty, claims for benefits-based discrimination (ERISA § 510 claims), claims for equitable relief by or against plans and fiduciaries, ERISA pre-emption, the removal of ERISA cases from state to federal court, discovery disputes (including those based on ERISA's fiduciary-exception to the attorney-client privilege), the alienation of pension benefits, the qualified status of domestic relations orders, claims by multiemployer plans for delinquent contributions and withdrawal liability, and claims under ERISA for attorneys' fees and costs. Representative cases include:

• Schwing v. The Lilly Health Plan, et al. (3d Cir.) — Represented Eli Lilly in a request to reverse a judgment awarding the plaintiff benefits from Eli Lilly's severance plan, where the plaintiff's entitlement to benefits had been premised primarily upon purported conflicts of interest and procedural irregularities. 
• Grammer v. Aetna Life Ins. Co. (7^th Cir.) — Represented defendant in a Seventh Circuit case to affirm the district court's dismissal under Rule 12(c) of the plaintiff's ERISA claims by application of the long-term disability plan's contractual limitations period.
• Near v. Eli Lilly and Co. (S.D. IA) — Represented Eli Lilly in claims for discrimination under ERISA § 510 and for long-term disability benefits, in the context of litigation that involved issues related to the existence of an ERISA plan and the pre-emption by ERISA of the plaintiff's state-law claims.
• Essick v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. (S.D. Ind.) — Represented MetLife in a request to remove the case from state to federal court, pled the pre-emption of the plaintiff's state-law claims and opposed the plaintiff's motion to amend her complaint to add additional claims.
• Marsh v. Marsh Supermarkets, Inc. (S.D. Ind.) — Represented Marsh Supermarkets to quash a subpoena, premised upon ERISA's fiduciary exception to the attorney-client privilege, of the company's counsel's records related to a "top-hat plan" in which the plaintiff/former executive was a participant.
• Glaze v. SYSCO Corp. (S.D. Ind.) — Represented Sysco Corp. regarding plaintiff's claims that the claim administrator for SYSCO's long-term disability plan had incorrectly calculated the amount of his LTD benefit and wrongfully suspended his LTD benefit to recover an overpayment of benefits the plaintiff received as a result of a retroactively-applicable award of Social Security Disability Income Benefits. 

Phil also has experience representing employers in compliance initiatives before the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor (such as filings under the IRS' EPCRS program and the DOL's VFCP and DFVCP programs), as well as in the arbitration of withdrawal liability disputes with multiemployer plans.

Honors

• Indiana Super Lawyers — Rising Star, Employment Benefits/ERISA, 2011 
• Governor's Fellowship, 1996-97
• Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition — Champion, 1999-2000
• Federal Communications Law Journal — Notes Editor

Board Memberships

• Easter Seals Crossroads — Board of Directors
• Indiana Benefits Conference — Board of Directors
• Golden Hill Neighborhood Association, Inc. — Board of Directors

Publications and Speaking Engagements

• "Ethical Challenges That Arise for Employee Benefits Lawyers," Employee Benefits/ERISA: Moving Into the Next Decade, ICLEF Seminar, Indianapolis, 2011
• ERISA Litigation, Indiana Benefits Conference, 2010
• Health Insurance Boot Camp, Lorman Education Services, 2008 and 2007
• Indiana Employment Law Letter, contributing author
• "The FCC and Section 312(a)(7) of the Communications Act of 1934: The Development of the 'Unreasonable Access' Clause," 53 Fed. Comm. L.J. 1, 2000