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Stephanie D. Ahmad strives to help employers navigate complex benefits issues with confidence and peace of mind. Her practice focuses on employee benefits and ERISA, including health and welfare and retirement benefits. Stephanie has been recognized as a Rising Star by The Legal 500 in Benefit Plan Design. She has helped teams at Greenberg Traurig obtain recognition as a highly regarded firm in Benefit Plan Design and in ERISA Litigation. Stephanie works with a team of talented benefits and compensation practitioners, always with the goal of providing high quality support to clients.

Stephanie represents companies undergoing health benefits audits before the Department of Labor. She works with clients to meet compliance obligations and reduce the likelihood of or impact of an audit. Stephanie litigates ERISA cases in federal court, utilizing the GT platform to work in jurisdictions across the United States. She seeks to secure favorable outcomes for clients and is mindful of managing sensitive employee relations issues. Stephanie also supports mergers and acquisitions by performing employee benefits related transactional due diligence.

Stephanie has experience in the design, implementation, restatement, amendment, and review of health and welfare benefit plans, cafeteria plans, fringe benefit plans, and retirement plans. She regularly counsels clients on compliance with health care reform, laws impacting benefits and benefit plans, and related tax implications. She also regularly advises clients on U.S. leave laws.

Before joining GT, Stephanie served as a law clerk to Judge Harry Pregerson on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where she gained experience with ERISA. She graduated from Stanford Law School where she was a student attorney in the Youth and Education Law Clinic, a Senior Editor of the Stanford Law and Policy Review, and a board member of the Stanford Latino Law Student Association. Prior to law school and after graduating with a B.A. from UC Berkeley with distinction, Stephanie taught for two years at a Montessori elementary school in the Caribbean. In addition to her work as an attorney, Stephanie has twice been elected to local office as a school board trustee and she is currently serving her second four-year term.

In a significant decision for employers, plan administrators, and ERISA practitioners, the Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling in Zavislak v. Netflix, Inc. reaffirms a narrow interpretation of the disclosure requirements under ERISA Section 104(b)(4) and offers insight into how courts may treat compliance delays during extraordinary circumstances.…

Continue Reading ERISA Document Disclosure: Zavislak v. Netflix, Inc. and the Ninth Circuit’s Narrow Reading of Section 104

On Oct. 4, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill No. 616 (SB 616). Effective Jan. 1, 2024, SB 616 expands the existing paid sick leave entitlements currently available to employees under the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014 (HWHFA). This GT Alert provides an overview of the HWHFA as it…

The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) on Sept. 15, 2023, issued amended rules pertaining to the city’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA). The new rules go into effect Oct. 15, 2023. New York state enacted paid sick leave in 2020, and the same year the New York City…

On Feb. 24, 2023, in Wood v. Kaiser Found. Hosps., the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District held that claims for paid sick leave in California may be brought under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Paid sick leave is available to California workers under the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of…

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), which was signed into law on March 11, 2021, provides substantial assistance in maintaining health care coverage for individuals who may have lost that coverage in connection with the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Click here to read the full alert.

With the pandemic continuing to impact every-day operations of most businesses, opportunities to take advantage of the flexible spending account relief offered in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (“CAA”), passed at the end of December 2020, may not be top of mind for most employers.  However, the numerous considerable benefits created by the CAA…