Longtime Vorys Employee Benefits Attorney to Join U.S. Department of Treasury

Vorys announced today that Linda Mendel has accepted a job with U.S. Department of Treasury.  Mendel, who has been with Vorys for almost 30 years, will become an attorney advisor in the Office of Benefits Tax Counsel, where she will work on tax policy impacting employment-based health benefits.

“While I’m excited for this new chapter in my career, I’m also a bit sad to leave my colleagues and clients,” said Mendel.  “My time at Vorys gave me the opportunity to dive deep into federal employee benefits laws and rules, and has set me up for this new role with the U.S. government.”

In her legal practice, Mendel worked with employers and multiemployer plans on health and welfare benefit plan issues, including employee communications, compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), tax issues, and vendor contracting.

Mendel is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.  She is also a member of the American Bar Association.  Mendel is a past chair of the Welfare Plans and EEOC Issues Subcommittee of the Tax Section of the ABA. She coordinated the ABA’s comments to the IRS on the employer shared responsibility penalties under Code §4980H and has participated in ABA projects to provide comments to the IRS on other ACA regulations.

For questions about Mendel’s departure or about employee benefits related issues, please contact Tony Ciriaco, chair of the Vorys employee benefits group, at acciriaco@vorys.com.