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Robert Newman

Partner

Washington +1 202 662 5125

  • About
  • Representative Matters
  • Credentials
  • About

    Robert Newman is a partner in the firm’s employee benefits and executive compensation practice group.  He represents clients ranging from small employers to some of the nation's largest employers, including for-profit and tax-exempt entities.  His practice includes:

    • designing, drafting, and amending a wide range of retirement plans (including 401(k) plans, ESOPs, and traditional and hybrid defined benefit plans) and welfare plans (including health, severance, and cafeteria plans);
    • creating executive compensation arrangements including nonqualified deferred compensation plans, stock option plans, and other incentive plans;
    • representing clients before the IRS and the Department of Labor;
    • assisting clients with legislative initiatives;
    • providing benefits expertise in corporate transactions and ERISA litigation;
    • counseling clients with respect to pension fund investments in private equity funds and hedge funds; and
    • negotiating and writing employment agreements.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Practices and Industries
  • Representative Matters
    • Advised Bristol Myers Squibb in its $14.0 billion acquisition of Karuna Therapeutics (Nasdaq: KRTX).
    • Advised IBM in the 2022 settlement of approximately $16 billion in pension obligations via the purchase of group annuity contracts from two insurers covering approximately 100,000 plan participants.
    • Part of litigation team defending Northrop in Baleja v. Northrop Grumman (C.D. Cal. 2022) that led to a victory for Northrop following a bench trial in a class action ERISA litigation involving the calculation of a pension offset.
    • Advised General Electric Company in the settlement of $1.7 billion in pension obligations via the purchase of a group annuity contract covering approximately 70,000 plan participants.
    • Testified at hearing before the ERISA Advisory Council on “Model Notices and Disclosures for Pension Risk Transfers."
    • Testified at hearing before the ERISA Advisory Council on “Private Sector Pension De-risking and Participant Protections."
    • Served as ERISA counsel to Verizon Communications Inc. on its transfer of $7.5 billion in pension liabilities to The Prudential Insurance Company of America.
    • Represented AstraZeneca on employment and benefits matters in its up to $4 billion acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb's interests in the companies’ diabetes alliance.

    • Designing and drafting a pension plan document converting a client’s traditional defined benefit plan to a cash balance pension plan.
    • Counsel to Xerox in Supreme Court case concluding that plan administrator is owed deference for plan interpretation.  See Conkright v. Frommert, 130 S. Ct. 1640 (2010).
    • Drafting comprehensive amendments to nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements for two of the nation’s largest employers to comply with Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code.

    Areas of Expertise

  • Credentials
    Education
    • New York University School of Law, J.D., 1996
        • magna cum laude
        • Order of the Coif
    • Brown University, B.A., 1992
        • magna cum laude
    Bar Admissions
    • District of Columbia
    • New York
    Judicial Clerkship
    • Hon. Alan C. Kay, U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii
    Accolades
    • Chambers USA, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation (2015-2023)
    • Lawdragon, "The Most Powerful Employment Lawyers" top 20 practitioners in the area of Employee Benefits (2016-2019)
    • Lawdragon, "40 Up and Comers in Employment Law" (2015)
    • Selected for inclusion in Human Resource Executive's "The Nation’s Most Powerful Employment Attorneys" (2014)
    • Legal 500 US, Labor & Employment - ERISA Litigation; Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation (2013-2016)
    • Washington DC Super Lawyers, Employee Benefits/ERISA (2013-2020)
    • Recipient of the 2012 "Burton Award for Legal Achievement."

    Areas of Expertise

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