Leading Employee Benefits Lawyer Ian L. Levin Joins SRZ

SRZ today announced the addition of Ian L. Levin as a partner in the Employment & Employee Benefits Group. Resident in the firm’s New York office, Mr. Levin will focus his practice on executive compensation and employee benefits. He joins SRZ from Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, where he served as co-chair of the Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Department.

At SRZ, Mr. Levin will practice employee benefits law with a focus on the employee benefit aspects of mergers and acquisitions, executive compensation, and issues arising from the investment of pension plan assets.

“We are thrilled to have Ian join the firm. He will be a great addition to a very strong employee benefit practice at Schulte Roth & Zabel. Ian is widely recognized for his expertise in employee benefits, in both mergers and acquisitions and the fiduciary requirements of ERISA pension plan investments,” commented Ronald E. Richman, co-head of the SRZ Employment & Employee Benefits Group and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, whose practice concentrates on the litigation of employee benefit and employment cases in federal and state courts throughout the United States, and the representation of employers and employee benefit plans before the DOL, IRS and PBGC.

Mark E. Brossman, co-head of the Employment & Employee Benefits Group, added, “Ian is a leading attorney in the field of employee benefits law, and his addition to the team will further strengthen our depth of practice.” Mr. Brossman’s areas of concentration include all aspects of ERISA, employment discrimination, labor relations and related litigation.

With an employment practice that is dramatically different from the industry norm, SRZ lawyers counsel and represent clients with respect to the whole employment relationship. As a go-to firm handling the most complex employment and employee benefits-related matters, they provide technical advice to employers from the private, public and non-profit sectors, educational and cultural institutions, as well as the trustees and administrators of pension and other employee benefit plans on issues related to a wide range of compensation and benefits arrangements. 

“Ian has had a distinguished career and our clients will certainly benefit from his wealth of experience,” said Alan S. Waldenberg, chair of the firm’s Executive Committee and chair of the Tax Group. SRZ is the preeminent law firm for alternative investment managers. As such, the lawyers advise many of the world’s largest and most influential funds in their investments and dispositions, and the employee benefits issues in those sophisticated deals.

“Schulte Roth & Zabel is a firm known for the expertise and breadth of its employee benefits and employment practice, and its strong cross-practice approach to headline-making transactions. I look forward to working on this stellar team,” commented Mr. Levin, who was with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz earlier in his career. He received his J.D. from Emory University School of Law, his LL.M. from New York University School of Law and his B.A. from Union College.