Bruce J. McNeil
Partner
Bruce J. McNeil is a Partner with Leech Tishman and a member of the Employment & Labor Practice Group where he leads the ERISA, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group. Bruce is based in the Washington, D.C. office, where he focuses his practice on assisting clients in a variety of employee benefits matters including tax-qualified plans, executive and nonqualified deferred compensation plans, as well as the tax aspects of equity, phantom equity and employee benefits litigation.
Bruce is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and is considered one of the country’s foremost authorities on executive and deferred compensation.
Bruce regularly advises clients on a wide variety of issues with respect to tax-qualified retirement plans, including 401(k) plans, 403(b) and 457 plans, nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements, equity arrangements, split-dollar life insurance arrangements, COLI, and other forms of executive compensation. Bruce counsels clients on all aspects of tax-qualified and executive and nonqualified deferred compensation plans and arrangements for taxable and tax-exempt employers, employee benefit issues in mergers and acquisitions, fiduciary responsibility and prohibited transaction issues.
Bruce also has experience in practicing before the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in examinations, correction programs, and ruling requests.
Bruce has served as an expert in federal hearings and investigations, including:
- Testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance as an expert witness in the hearings on the Enron Corporation.
- Testifying before the U.S. Department of Labor ERISA Advisory Council on executive compensation, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, and other employee benefits matters.
- Participating in several investigations by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the impact of mergers and acquisitions on employee benefits, cybersecurity and employee benefit plans, reporting, and disclosure for nonqualified plans at the request of U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), U.S. Representative Robert Scott (D-VA), and other members of Congress.
- Participating in an investigation by the GAO on nonqualified deferred compensation plans at the request of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT).
As a leader in employee benefits law, Bruce serves on the board of directors of the Plan Sponsor Council of America and was chair of its Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Committee. He is also the President of the Western Pension & Benefits Council as well as a member of the Board of Directors. Bruce is the Editor-in-Chief of both the Journal of Pension Planning & Compliance and the Journal of Deferred Compensation: Nonqualified Plans and Executive Compensation, quarterly publications published by Wolters Kluwer.
In addition, Bruce has been an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, Drake University Law School, and the University of Iowa College of Law and is a frequent lecturer on employee benefits matters. He has authored more than 40 books on various employee benefit matters, including “Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans,” published by Thomson Reuters, and co-author of the “IRA Answer Book,” published by Wolters Kluwer and more than 100 articles on related employee benefit topics.
