Since 1994, Teresa Pofok’s practice has been devoted to the representation of multiemployer benefit plans jointly sponsored by unions and management. After starting her legal career with a union labor law firm, she served as an in-house compliance consultant with The Segal Company, a national multiemployer actuarial and consulting firm. This background provides her with a detailed understanding of the critical funding issues confronting most pension and health funds today. Teresa’s practice is concentrated in the area of employee benefits. She works with multiemployer benefit plans and employees on health and welfare and retirement benefit issues. She advises clients concerning legislative compliance issues, including retirement plan qualification, Affordable Care Act, continuation coverage under COBRA, and Health Insurance portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) and ERISA claims procedures. Teresa represents clients with respect to employee plan investigations and routine audits before various governmental agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department of Labor and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporations. These matters also include obtaining IRS determination letters, prohibited transaction exemptions, private letter rulings and opinion letters along with utilizing the IRS Employee Plan Compliance resolution System. Teresa graduated, cum laude, from Kent State University and earned her Juris Doctorate from Rutgers University College of Law at Camden. She is a member of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association and American Bar Association. She was recognized in the 2006 edition of Ohio Rising Stars magazine.
