As Chair of Venable's Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group, Andrea O'Brien assists clients in designing and implementing a wide range of compensation and benefit arrangements, including tax-qualified retirement plans, executive deferred compensation arrangements, cafeteria plans, health and other welfare benefit plans, and employment policies and procedures. She works closely with clients to develop and implement comprehensive compliance initiatives for HIPAA's medical privacy and security rules. Mrs. O'Brien also focuses on executive employment, retention, severance and change-of-control agreements, and designs and implements executive level benefit plans of all types. An integral member of the Firm's business transactions team, Mrs. O'Brien advises clients on employee benefit arrangements in mergers and acquisitions and has implemented significant leveraged buyouts of closely-held companies utilizing employee stock ownership plans.

Activities

Mrs. O'Brien is a member of the Employee Benefits Committee in the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association, the Employee Benefits Committee of the District of Columbia Bar, the Maryland Bar Association, the Montgomery County Bar Association, the DC Women's Bar Association, and the ESOP Association. Together with other members of the firm, Mrs. O'Brien has co-authored numerous articles on current employee benefit issues and speaks frequently on employee benefit issues to professional groups and clients.