Overview Experience Thought Leadership Outside the Office Community Leadership

Craig A. Kovarik

Partner

Kansas City
office: 816.983.8249
fax: 816.983.8080

Overview Experience Thought Leadership Outside the Office Community Leadership

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Overview

Craig is member of the Firm’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation team (and a former Certified Public Accountant) who has spent his entire legal career helping clients navigate complex ERISA, tax and related laws pertaining to employer-sponsored benefit plans and compensatory arrangements.

Among the areas Craig counsels clients (both public and non-public) include the following:

Equity-based compensation (including required SEC disclosures)
Executive employment agreements
Annual and long-term incentive plans, including customized award agreements
Non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements
Compliance with Internal Revenue Code Sections 162(m), 280G and 409A
Qualified 401(k), pension and other retirement plans

Craig also has significant expertise with health and welfare benefit plan compliance matters, including ERISA, HIPAA and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Industries

Healthcare

Life Sciences

Services

Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation

Employee Stock Ownership Plans

Healthcare Operations

Healthcare Providers

Recognition

The Best Lawyers in America, Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law, 2009-2019; Kansas City Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law "Lawyer of the Year," 2017, 2019
Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers, Employee Benefits/ERISA, 2006-2007

Education

J.D., University of Kansas School of Law
B.B.A., The University of Texas at Austin
- with honors

Admissions

Missouri
Kansas

Professional Associations and Memberships

Kansas Bar Association
The Missouri Bar

Experience

Assisted large international benefits broker with HIPAA privacy and related confidentiality issues regarding the client's web-based marketing strategy.
Routinely helps clients with the design and implementation of their executive compensation programs. His recent experience includes the drafting of 3-year rolling long term incentive plans and related award agreements.
Represents three major tax-exempt hospital systems, collectively with more than 15,000 employees, on all employee benefit and executive compensation matters.
Represented numerous large and midsize companies, both public and nonpublic, on virtually all employee benefit and executive compensation matters.
Advised more than 20 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) clients in transactions exceeding $100 million.
Routinely represents clients on employee benefit and executive compensation matters relating to mergers and acquisition strategies and integration. Most recently, represented a packaged foods company in connection with its $2.7 billion divesture.
Negotiated a tax-penalty abatement of more than $300,000 arising from an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) payroll tax audit.
Filed and received a compliance statement on more than 20 submissions under the IRS’ Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS).
Advised hundreds of clients relating to compliance with section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).

Thought Leadership

News Releases

Husch Blackwell Places 143 Lawyers in 2019 Best Lawyers in America

Alerts

IRS ACA Penalty Letters Have Landed in Your Mailbox…Now What?

Alerts

Year-End Deadlines Reminder for Employee Retirement, Health and Welfare Plans

News Releases

Husch Blackwell Places 156 Lawyers in 2018 Best Lawyers in America

Seminars

Annual Higher Education Seminar

Alerts

IRS Offers Easier Option for Substantiating Hardship Withdrawals

News Releases

Husch Blackwell Represents Algonquin in Closing $2.3 Billion Acquisition

Alerts

Supreme Court to Decide Trio of Church-Affiliated Pension Disputes

Webinar

Issues in Higher Education Webinar: Limiting Retirement Plan Liability in Light of Recent Litigation

Seminars

November 2016: What's New In Labor and Employment Law?

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Community Leadership

Employee Benefits Institute of Kansas City, Steering Committee
Mid-America Coalition on Health Care, Board of Directors