Melissa J. Sandak

Melissa J. Sandak is a partner in Goodwin’s ERISA & Executive Compensation practice who focuses on a wide variety of employee benefits matters for private and public companies, private equity and hedge funds and single and multiemployer plans. She advises her clients on the design, implementation and ongoing administration and compliance of their health and welfare benefit plans and retirement plans. She routinely represents clients in connection with Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation investigations, audits and filings. She regularly prepares voluntary correction filings under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System and applications for determination letters on tax qualification and plan termination.

Melissa also has extensive experience counseling clients with respect to federal health and welfare laws, especially the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, COBRA and HIPAA. She frequently works with employers, vendors and multiemployer health funds to design and administer a wide range of benefit packages and programs, including medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits, wellness programs, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. She also counsels clients on compliance with the HIPAA privacy and security rules, including drafting appropriate policies and procedures.

Melissa also advises boards of trustees of multiemployer plans on all aspects of governance and compliance, including trustee fiduciary obligations, issues related to the funding status of defined benefit pension plans and ongoing legislative updates. She works closely with multiemployer plan administrators, actuaries, investment consultants and other service providers to ensure the proper administration of the plans. Melissa also counsels employers contributing to multiemployer plans with respect to their contribution obligations and various plan interpretation matters.

Melissa also advises her clients with respect to the employee benefit considerations of various business transactions. In particular, she has extensive experience negotiating ERISA plan asset investments in separately managed accounts, private equity funds, real estate funds, hedge funds, secondaries funds, funds of funds and other alternative asset classes. She also advises fund managers regarding ERISA’s fiduciary and prohibited transaction rules in connection with the offering and structuring of their investment vehicles.

Prior to joining Goodwin, Melissa was a special counsel at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP. Previously, she was an associate at Proskauer Rose LLP.

Melissa has spoken, taught and written widely on compliance issues for ERISA retirement, health and welfare plans.

Melissa’s publications include: 

• Co-Author, “New Year, New Employment and Benefits Developments for Employers,” SRZ Alert, January 20, 2022
• Co-Author, “DOL Issues First Cybersecurity Guidance for Plan Sponsors,” SRZ Alert, May 17, 2021
• Co-Author, “COBRA Subsidies Under the American Recovery Plan Act of 2021 — What Employers and Plan Sponsors Need to Know,” SRZ Alert, April 14, 2021
• Co-Author, “DOL Confirms Private Equity Can Be Small Components of Defined Contribution Plan Investments,” SRZ Alert, June 24, 2020
• Co-Author, “Contact Tracing Applications: Privacy and Other Legal Considerations for Employers Under Existing Laws and Recent Senate Proposals (COVID-19),” SRZ Alert, June 4, 2020
• Co-Author, “Benefit Plan Updates (COVID-19),” SRZ Alert, May 20, 2020
• Co-Author, “Tax-Qualified Retirement Plans Under the CARES Act (COVID-19),” SRZ Alert, March 30, 2020
• Co-Author, “Employer Concerns — Federal and New York Legislation Responding to COVID-19 (with Chart of Requirements),” SRZ Alert, March 19, 2020
• Co-Author, “Employer Concerns — COVID-19,” SRZ Alert, March 17, 2020; republished in The Hedge Fund Journal, March 2020
• Co-Author, "Private Equity Funds: Formation and Operation" Practising Law Institute, 2018-2019
• Co-Author, “DOL Fiduciary Duty Rule Officially Dead,” SRZ Alert, July 5, 2018
• Co-Author, “DOL Fiduciary Rule: Update for Fund Managers,” SRZ Alert, February 9, 2017
• Co-Author, “President Trump and the Affordable Care Act: What Happens Now?,” SRZ Alert, January 25, 2017; republished in Westlaw Journal – Health Care Fraud, February 2017
• Co-Author, "SRZ Pension and Health Plans: 2015 Year-End Review," SRZ Publication, February 2016
• Co-Author, “Cadillac Tax Officially Delayed to 2020,” SRZ Alert, December 21, 2015
• Co-Author, “U.S. Supreme Court Holds Premium Tax Credits Available on All Exchanges — Key Group Health Plan Action Items,” SRZ Alert, July 2, 2015
• Co-Author, "SRZ Employment & Employee Benefits Developments: New Health Care Compliance Considerations for Employers in 2015," SRZ Alert, January 2015
• Co-Author, “Health Care Reform Legislation and Its Impact on Multiemployer Funds and Beyond,” The Regulation of Compensation: Proceedings of the NYU 66th Annual Conference on Labor, LexisNexis, 2014
• Co-Author, "Health Care Compliance Burdens Continue to Weigh on Employers," SRZ Employment & Employee Benefits Developments, Fall 2013
• Co-Author, “Supreme Court’s DOMA Decision Sparks Changes in Employee Benefits,” SRZ Alert, July 16, 2013
• Co-Author, "2012 Year-End Health Plan Highlights and Reminders," SRZ Employment & Employee Benefits Developments, December 2012
• Co-Author, "2012 Year-End Reminders for Pension Plan Sponsors," SRZ Employment & Employee Benefits Developments, December 2012
• Co-Author, “What Do Retirement Plan Sponsors Have to Do Now that the ERISA 408(b)(2) Fee Disclosure Deadline Has Come and Gone?,” SRZ Alert, July 2012
• Co-Author, “Supreme Court Upholds Landmark Health Care Reform as a Tax,” SRZ Alert, July 10, 2012
• Co-Author, “Final Rule on Summary of Benefits and Coverage,” SRZ Alert, April 11, 2012
• Co-Author, "Special Healthcare Reform Issue," SRZ Employment & Employee Benefits Developments, Winter 2012
• Co-Author, “Qualified Retirement Plan Year-End Reminders,” SRZ Alert, December 9, 2011
• Co-Author, “FASB Enhances Disclosure Requirements for Employers Participating in Multiemployer Plans,” SRZ Alert, November 10, 2011
• Co-Author, “Reminder: Cafeteria Plans May Need to be Amended for Health Care Reform Over-the-Counter Drug Requirements,” SRZ Alert, June 6, 2011
• Co-Author, “Important News for Employers and Other Health Plan Sponsors,” Proskauer Rose Alert, February 2009
• Co-Author, “The Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 Provides Pension Funding Relief,” Proskauer Rose Alert, December 2008

Melissa’s speaking engagements include:

• Speaker, “Health and Welfare Plan Compliance,” New York Law School, December 2018
• Speaker, “ERISA Fiduciary Rules,” New York Law School, October 2018
• Speaker, “HIPAA and HITECH: A Primer,” CLE Presentation, February 2018
• Speaker, “Health and Welfare Plan Compliance,” New York Law School, October 2017
• Speaker, “Health and Welfare Plan Compliance,” New York Law School, October 2015
• Speaker, “‘Grandfathered’ Plans — Issues in Plan Design,” NYU Center for Labor and Employment Law Implications of the Affordable Care Act for Multi-Employer and Single-Employer Plans: What You Need to Know, June 2013