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Attorney Katherine Hesse, a Partner at Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP, presented a Legal Update at the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (“ISCEBS”) 41^st Annual Employee Benefits Symposium this week. The four day symposium was held in Toronto, Ontario this year, and was attended by professionals of corporations, consulting firms, health care organizations, hospitals, banks, law firms, and others. Attorney Hesse began her Legal Update with recent Supreme Court case decisions: Hughes v. Northwestern University; Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Health Benefit Plan v. Davita, and; Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the landmark constitutional case Roe v. Wade. She also provided an overview of the guiding principles to avoid court, and winning if you do go to court: Dignity, Discretion, Diversity, Disclosure, Due Process, Due Diligence, Documentation; and “the D’s” to avoid such as, Delay, Discrimination, and Deceit. Additionally, Attorney Hesse introduced “the C’s”: COVID, COBRA, Cryptocurrency, and Cybersecurity. These principles were highlighted by other important recent court decisions. Attorney Hesse presented a follow up Legal Update later in the day where she recapped the guiding principles, outlined more important court decisions, and took time to answer attendees’ questions.

Ms. Hesse practices primarily in labor, employment and employee benefits law. She serves as counsel to Fortune 500 companies, emerging businesses, government, tax-exempt organizations and large Taft-Hartley and governmental trusts. She advises clients on employment and benefits issues, and has litigated employment and benefits cases before state and federal trial and appellate courts, administrative agencies and arbitrators. Ms. Hesse also served as a professional trustee for public and Taft-Hartley trust funds and as an expert witness, mediator and arbitrator of benefit fund disputes. She led her team of attorneys to be named the only firm in New England and one of only 11 in the United States to the special ERISA fiduciary litigation panel for one of the world’s largest insurance companies. She serves on the Board of Directors of the International Foundation and as Chair of its Government Liaison Committee, and sits on the editorial board of Benefits Quarterly and speaks and writes regularly on employment and benefits issues. Ms. Hesse, a CEBS Compliant ISCEBS Fellow, was inducted into the ISCEBS Hall of Fame in 2018. She received her B.A. degree from Smith College and her J.D. degree from the Boston University School of Law.