Art Marrapese

Art chairs Barclay Damon’s Employee Benefits Practice Area. With more than 30 years of legal experience, as well as in-house financial services experience and a background as the owner of an ERISA compliance and record-keeping firm, he focuses on the risks that arise in managing and administering employee benefit programs. He helps plan sponsors and fiduciaries identify and prioritize litigation and liability risks, using plan drafting, employee communications, governance measures, and policies and procedures to address them.

Art drafts employee benefit plan documents and summary plan descriptions and advises senior executives and board members on their fiduciary responsibilities and ways to limit the associated risks. His counseling also covers ERISA, COBRA, the Affordable Care Act, and HIPAA privacy and security requirements for plan sponsors, insurers, and health-plan service providers. In the operation of self-funded medical plans, he negotiates administrative-service, business-associate, nondisclosure, and data-transmission agreements. He also advises health insurance companies and brokers on the design, documentation, and administration of insurance products and services under applicable law, particularly the Affordable Care Act.

Art’s work extends to ERISA claims procedures and disputes. He helps claims administrators and administrative committees maintain compliant procedures, explain them to participants, and meet applicable deadlines, notice rules, and substantive requirements. That work is directed in part toward preserving administrative discretion when a claim is challenged. When disputes proceed to litigation, he defends plan sponsors, service providers, employee benefit plans, and fiduciaries against ERISA benefits and fiduciary-breach claims. He has argued ERISA cases in federal courts across New York State, including the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and represents plan sponsors and fiduciaries in US Department of Labor investigations and enforcement matters.

• University at Buffalo School of Law, JD
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges, BA

Admitted to Practice

• New York

Court Admissions

• US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• US District Court for the Northern District of New York
• US District Court for the Western District of New York

• Law360, "11th Circ. Ruling Could Unravel Strict ERISA Exhaustion Rule"
• Employee Benefit News, "SECURE 2.0 Student Loan Matching Will Serve as Talent Magnet"
• Law360, “ERISA Exhaustion Defense Still Viable in Some Jurisdictions”
• Law360, “Fiduciary Best Practices Helped NYU Win ERISA Class Action”
• Law360, “When 403(b) Prudence Claims Survive Dismissal”
• Thomson Reuters, Taxation of Distributions From Qualified Plans

• New York State Bar Association, “Employer Liability in Managed Health Care, Estate Planning for Qualified Plan Benefits, and Employee Benefit Plan Implications Associated With Worker Misclassification,” Panelist
• Strafford, “Tax and ERISA Rules Governing Employee Benefit Plan Overpayments,” Panelist
• Barclay Damon, “Managing and Insuring ERISA Litigation and Liability Risks” Webinar
• Barclay Damon, “Managing ERISA 403(b) Plan Litigation Risks in Higher Education” Webinar
• Strafford, “New Individual Coverage and Excepted Benefit HRAs: DOL Guidance and Compliance Challenges for Employers” Webinar