Mr. Smith provides practical counsel in most areas of employee benefits and executive compensation, including:

• Advising employers regarding compliance with the Affordable Care Act, ERISA, HIPAA and other federal laws that regulate health and welfare plans;
• Assisting employers on day-to-day administrative questions such as COBRA administration, change in status events, special enrollment rights, wellness program parameters, nondiscrimination requirements and Affordable Care Act compliance and reporting;
• Working with employers on a broad array of issues relating to qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, such as plan operation, drafting plan documents and SPDs, and participant communications;
• Assisting plan fiduciary committees on all aspects of compliance and procedure;
• Performing searches on behalf of fiduciary committees for recordkeepers, investment advisors, and third-party administrators;
• Analyzing issues related to executive compensation and equity arrangements;
• Counseling employers with respect to income, employment and excise tax issues related to employee benefits;
• Analyzing employee benefits issues in the context of mergers and acquisitions; and
• Advising clients regarding compliance with the FLSA, the FMLA, and state and local leave laws.

Mr. Smith received his B.B.A. from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School with concentrations in accounting and finance.  He earned his J.D. and LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Miami School of Law where he graduated summa cum laude and served as an Articles and Comments Editor on the University of Miami Law Review.  Before entering private practice, Mr. Smith served as a judicial law clerk at the Florida Supreme Court for Justice Charles T. Canady.

Mr. Smith is a member of both the Georgia Bar and the Florida Bar, the Employee Benefits Law Section of the Georgia Bar and the Order of the Coif.