Jeffrey D. Mamorsky

jeff@cohenbuckmann.com
LinkedIn

Practice area

Employee Benefits and ERISA

Education

New York University School of Law, LL.M., Taxation
New York Law School, J.D.
New York University, B.A.

Awards and recognition

  • The Best Lawyers in America

  • Litigation - ERISA, 2005-2021

  • Employee Benefits - ERISA, 2005-2020

  • The Legal 500 United States, 2012-2022

  • Benchmark Litigation, "Labor & Employment Star," 2019-2020

  • Super Lawyers magazine, New York Metro Super Lawyers, 2006-2009, 2014-2022

  • American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, Charter Fellow

ERISA and Employee Benefits Attorney
Partner

Jeffrey D. Mamorsky is a leading ERISA & employee benefits attorney with an emphasis on legal issues involving retirement and welfare benefit plans. Jeff serves as employee benefits counsel and provides fiduciary advice to plan sponsors which include large multinational corporations, financial institutions, insurance companies, closely held businesses, large not-for-profit organizations, governmental agencies, Big Four accounting firms, employee benefits consulting firms, large multi-employer plans, and major multi-employer pension and welfare funds.

With over 50 years of experience in ERISA and all aspects of employee benefits law, Jeff participated in drafting ERISA and subsequently authored a two-volume treatise, Employee Benefits Law: ERISA and Beyond, which has been cited as authority by the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal and state courts. Jeff is a frequent lecturer on topics surrounding ERISA and employee benefits and author and co-author of numerous articles on ERISA, employee benefits, and fiduciary compliance topics for employee benefit publications and professional journals. Jeff was a founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Compensation and Benefits, and has authored several books and treatises.

Jeff is the creator of the Fiduciary Audit® Privileged Process Review. This process determines whether robust procedures are in place for the monitoring of plan investment options and “reasonableness” of service provider direct and indirect compensation, and that those procedures are followed and documented. The Review provides a first line of defense for employers and plan fiduciaries in the event of ERISA "excessive fee" litigation alleging breach of fiduciary and prohibited transaction claims for lack of governance control and failure to monitor the reasonableness of fees. Jeff is also the creator of the Fiduciary Audit® Protection Program, assisting plan sponsors to avoid Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and ERISA liability.

Professional activities

  • IRS Northeast Region Pension Liaison Group, Member

  • ERISA Industry Committee ("ERIC"), Founding Member and Former Counsel

recent SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

  • Worldwide Employee Benefits Network (WEB), national webinar "ERISA at 50: How We Got Here and Where Employee Benefits Law is Headed", part of a panel of ERISA experts. June 20, 2024

  • National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, “Present at the Creation: An Examination of ERISA’s Historical Foundations for Public Plan Fiduciaries”, May, 2023.

  • Upcoming: National Association of Public Pension Attorneys (NAPPA) Legal Education Conference, June, 2023.

Publications

Law 36o, Partially Faulting Airline for401(k) ESG Focus Belies ERISA, February 24,2025

Law360, Now More than Ever Fiduciaries Should Revisit Origins of ERISA, May 24, 2023

Featured Interviewee: One Man’s Story of the Origins of ERISA, Morningstar, 2010

Fiduciary Liability Insurance: An ERISA Attorney Perspective, Trustee Handbook, 7th Edition, November 2011

Pension and Profit-Sharing Plans: A Basic Guide, Executive Enterprises Publications Co.

Employee Benefits Law: ERISA and Beyond, Law Journal Press, 2023

Health Care Benefits Law, Law Journal Press, 2020

Editor and contributing author to both Employee Benefits Handbook and Health Care Benefits Handbook.

Jeff’s two-volume treatise Employee Benefits Law and the Employee Benefits Handbook has been cited as authority by the U.S. Supreme Court and by many appeals court decisions, including:

  • U.S. Supreme Court: Hughes Aircraft Company v. Jacobsen, 525 U.S. 432, 438; 119 S. Ct. 755, 760

  • U.S. Supreme Court: Hazen Paper Company v. Biggins, 507U.S. 604, 609; 113 S.Ct. 1701, 1706

Community involvement

  • Citizen & Liveryman of City of London, United Kingdom

  • Appointed as Court Assistant to the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights, 2011-2018

  • Granted Freedom of the City of London, 2008

ADMISSIONS

New York

Supreme Court of the United States

U.S. Tax Court

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York