Spring 2025
Professor(s):
Krisa Benskin (ADJUNCT)
Allison Perry (ADJUNCT)
David Winston (ADJUNCT)
Credits: 2
Course Areas: Taxation
Health Law
Time: 7:30p-9:30p M Location: 211
Course Outline: The laws governing employee benefits and executive compensation are ever-changing and of interest to employers, employees and law makers. Practitioners in this area can be found at big law firms, family law firms, insurance companies, banks, in-house counsel, unions and government. This 2-hour course provides a basic overview of the specialized employee benefit plans (such as 401(k) plans, pension plans and health and welfare benefit plans) governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), and the applicable provisions under the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”). This course also will review the taxation under the Code of executive compensation arrangements, such as non-qualified deferred compensation plans, stock options and other equity plans. Students will gain a historical perspective of ERISA’s origins to learn how the need for federal action came about and lean about more recent legislative actions in this area, such as Obamacare, along with pertinent case law. The course will focus on the ERISA and tax aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation plans and arrangement from both the employer and employee perspectives. The goal of the course is to convey a practical understanding of how ERISA and the Code impact employee benefits that are provided by employers to employees!
Course Syllabus: Syllabus updated 1/14/25
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. For this instruction mode, instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid-term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Prerequisites:
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule: 5/5/2025 6-8pm 211
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: No
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Available
Course Materials
Book(s) Required
Course Materials: 9781531000264, Recommended: 9781683284611
