overview
Evelyn A. Haralampu advises businesses, executives, corporate boards, and not-for-profit organizations on executive compensation, employee benefits, and related tax and fiduciary issues. She also represents parties and investors in vetting compensation and benefits issues in mergers and acquisitions. She counsels clients on a broad range of issues as they arise in employment agreements, separation agreements, change in control agreements, stock-based compensation arrangements, health and welfare plans, and retirement plans. She also counsels on ERISA fiduciary and prohibited transaction issues, the privacy of health information under HIPAA, and data privacy matters under Massachusetts law. She regularly represents clients before the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor on related matters.
She has served as a leader of both the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Associations Tax and ERISA sections, is a member of the Employee Benefits Committee of the American Bar Association, is a past board member of the New England Conservatory, and is a current board member of the Pension Action Committee of the University of Massachusetts-Boston. She writes and teaches for professional and lay audiences on many topics in law.
education
LL.M., Boston University School of Law
J.D., Suffolk University Law School
Editor, Suffolk Transnational Law Review
Honors graduate, Wellesley College
admissions
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Tax Court
honors & awards
AV® Preeminent Rating by Martindale-Hubbell
The Best Lawyers in America© Best Lawyer, Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law (2013-2024)
Massachusetts Super Lawyers (2004-2006, 2010-2018)
community involvement
New England Conservatory
- Board of Overseers
UMass Boston Pension Project
- Board of Directors
experience
- Counsel employers in designing and implementing executive deferred compensation arrangements for tax efficiency, including 409A review.
- Counsel clients involved in mergers and acquisitions as to benefits issues, including multiemployer plans, ESOPs, tax qualified retirement plans, self-insured medical plans, MEPs, PEPs, prohibited transactions, ERISA, COBRA, ACA, 409A, 280G.
- Counsel employers, private equity funds, and financial organizations on the design, operation, tax and fiduciary requirements related to tax qualified retirement plans, healthcare plans, ESOPs, stock options, restricted equity, partnership profits interests and other compensation arrangements.
- Counsel businesses and hospitals on protecting the privacy of health information that they handle (HIPAA).
- Counsel non-profit organizations such as schools, colleges and hospitals on their 403(b) and 457 arrangements and state paid leave requirements.
- Argue for clients’ interests when their retirement and healthcare plans are under audit by the IRS and U.S. Department of Labor, or subject to a private controversy.
- Counsel clients on preserving the tax qualification of their retirement plans, addressing the correction of operational problems, and updating plan documents.
- Provide counsel to trusts and estates in matters relating to the proper and tax-efficient distribution of retirement benefits.
- Assess the financial and legal risks of multiemployer plans, self-insured medical plans and other employee benefit arrangements.
- Led the ABA working committee that made comments to IRS regarding non-discrimination tests under the ACA, former chair of Boston Bar Association ERISA Committee, current chair of Massachusetts Bar Association Taxation Law Section Council.
memberships
American Bar Association
- Tax Committee and Employee Benefits Subcommittee
Massachusetts Bar Association
- Tax Council and Board Member
- Taxation Law Section Council, Chair (2020-2022)
UMass Boston Pension Action Center
- Board Member
Boston Economic Club
Boston Committee on Foreign Relations
Boston Bar Association
articles
- “VAS Holdings v. Commissioner of Revenue,” May 31, 2022
- “Department of Labor Issues New Guidance on Cryptocurrency In Retirement Plan,” March, 23, 2022
- “ERISA Prudence and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Factors,” March 7, 2022
- “ERISA Fiduciary Prudence Does Not Necessarily Reflect Modern Portfolio Management,” February 16, 2022
- Burns & Levinson Announces 36 Attorneys Selected for Best Lawyers in America 2022, August 19, 2021
- “COBRA Subsidies: Employer Obligation To Notify Employees by May,” May 25, 2021
- “Consolidated Appropriations Act: An Outline of the Benefits Provisions,” January 15, 2021
- Burns & Levinson Announces 32 Attorneys Selected for Best Lawyers in America 2021, August 20, 2020
- “COVID-19: Worker’s Compensation in Massachusetts,” July 23, 2020
- “Private Equity Investments in Retirement Plans: DOL Information Letter,” July 6, 2020
- “Returning to the Workplace: What Employers Need to Know,” May 22, 2020
- “Maximizing PPP Loan Forgiveness with Compensation Planning,” May 7, 2020
- “Employment Taxes and Increasing Cash Flow,” April 9, 2020
- “Employer Costs and Massachusetts Unemployment Benefits During COVID-19,” April 2, 2020
- “CARES Act: Employee Benefits,” March 29, 2020
- “Employee Benefits During COVID-19,” March 24, 2020
- “Changes Under the SECURE Act Affecting Retirement Savings,” December 20, 2019
- “When Privacy Does Not Apply, But Tax Does: Cryptocurrency Transactions,” September 27, 2019
- Burns & Levinson Announces 32 Attorneys Selected for Best Lawyers in America 2020, August 15, 2019
- Burns & Levinson Announces 38 Attorneys Named to 2018 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists, October 18, 2018
- Burns & Levinson Announces 31 Attorneys Selected for Best Lawyers in America 2019 August 16, 2018
- “Millionaire’s Tax: Fairness or Folly?” June 14, 2018
- Burns & Levinson Announces 39 Attorneys Named to 2017 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists October 17, 2017
- “Retirement Plan Fee Litigation: Protecting Fiduciaries,” Burns & Levinson Employee Benefits Update, September 2017
- Burns & Levinson Announces 27 Attorneys Selected for Best Lawyers in America 2018 August 15, 2017
- “Securing Protected Health Information: FBI Warning,” Burns & Levinson Privacy & Security Update, April 2017
- DOL’s Fiduciary Rule: On the Road to More Change?” Burns & Levinson ERISA Update, April 2017
- “Supreme Court’s Evolution in Defining Equitable Remedies under ERISA,” Bloomberg BNA, April 2017
- “No Change by Trump: Fiduciary Regulations Still Effective in April,” Burns & Levinson ERISA Law Update, February 2017
- “Trump and the Debate Over the Fiduciary Rules Affecting Retirement Savings,” Burns & Levinson ERISA Law Update, December 2016
- “ERISA Liability,” MCLE treatise, Massachusetts Employment Law, December 2016
- “Health Reimbursement Accounts for Small Employers,” Burns & Levinson Employment Update, December 2016
- “Auto Dealers Lead the Way for Ignoring Certain Federal Regulations,” Burns & Levinson Employment Law Update, July 2016
- “The Top 7 Concerns for Employee Benefits Administrators,” Burns & Levinson Executive Compensation, Employee Benefits & ERISA Update, July 2015
- “Supreme Court’s Evolution in Defining Equitable Remedies Under ERISA,” Bloomberg BNA Benefits Practice Resource Center, June 2015
- “ERISA Fiduciary Duties for Plan Investments,” Burns & Levinson Employment Update, June 2015
- “U.S. Taxation of Canadian Registered Retirement Assets,” Burns & Levinson Employment Update, July 2014
- “Interim Guide for COBRA Notices,” Burns & Levinson Employment Update, May 2014
- “A Planning Note on Sun Capital Partner III LP v. New England Teamsters & Truckers Industries Pension Fund,” Burns & Levinson Employment Update, May 2014
- “Employee Benefits Checklist,” Burns & Levinson Employment Update, February 2014
- “Federal Health Care Reform and Massachusetts Family Businesses,” Massachusetts Family Business Magazine, Spring 2013
- “HIPAA Revises Business Associate Agreement Requirements,” Burns & Levinson Client Update, May 2013
speaking engagements
“Compensation Planning in Business”, Panelist, Massachusetts Bar Association Webinar, December 2023.