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December 22, 2023

Comments from Clarissa A. Kang, Employer Co-Chair

Clarissa A. Kang

It is a privilege and honor to serve as the Employer Co-Chair for our Employee Benefits Committee for the next two ABA years. Thank you to my predecessor co-chair, Stacey Cerrone, for starting me off on the right foot and giving me the tools to succeed in this position. And thank you to my co-chairs: Marie Casciari, Bruce Perlin and Jennie Arnold, for a warm welcome. I am excited to be working alongside such an esteemed, highly motivated group of leaders.

I remember my first Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, where I met many friends from the Committee for the first time. I had been practicing at Trucker Huss, in ERISA litigation, for a few years before I attended the meeting, and I remember the revelation that the Midwinter Meeting was THE conference to be attending every year and feeling that I had been missing out in those early years by not attending! Since then, I’ve come to learn that the Committee is much more than just the Midwinter Meeting.

Our Committee has a vibrant core of dedicated volunteers representing broad viewpoints in our field, and I am proud of the Committee’s camaraderie and many accomplishments. For decades, the Employee Benefits Law treatise has represented the hard, vital work of our Committee. The Midwinter Meeting is the capstone of the Committee’s efforts and a preeminent conference for ERISA practitioners. Our Committee newsletter has key legal updates and insights that are written and edited by our Committee members. Committee members spoke at and advertised our Midwinter Meeting at the ABA Annual Section of Labor and Employment Law Conference in Seattle in November. Our Committee leadership sits on the ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits to plan continuing legal education programs and events, including the upcoming “ERISA at 50” next year. The Committee also hosts the ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits ERISA Basics, which the co-chairs and I hosted in October and which is slated to run next year in November. We also are in the early stages of planning a multi-day virtual program for May for more experienced practitioners.

If you have any ideas for articles or programming, please let the co-chairs know. We also encourage your involvement in the subcommittees that drive the Committee year around, in and out of the Midwinter Meeting. We welcome your input and involvement.

Please feel free to contact me at:

Clarissa A. Kang
Trucker Huss, A Professional Corporation
135 Main Street, 9th Floor
San Francisco, CA
415-277-8014
[email protected]

It was so nice to see many Committee members at the virtual ABA JCEB ERISA Basics National Institute at which many of you spoke, and I am looking forward to seeing many more Committee members in person at the Midwinter Meeting in San Diego January 31 – February 3, 2024!

Warmly,
Clarissa

Clarissa A. Kang

Employer Co-Chair

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