Ted Becker: 2021 Lifetime Service Award Recipient

Ted Becker Wins Lifetime Service Award

Washington, DC, July 19, 2021 – Theodore “Ted” Becker, Partner at McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago, has been awarded the ESOP community’s highest honor, The 2021 Lifetime Service Award. The Lifetime Service Award honors individuals who have made a significant, long-term contribution to employee ownership and the ESOP community.

Ted is a respected and longstanding member of the ESOP community whose professional contributions have made a massive impact on employee ownership as we know it.  In some cases, he has single-handedly helped foster an environment that helped ESOPs grow.

Ted is Co-Chair of McDermott’s ERISA Litigation Team and a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. He focuses his practice on litigation under ERISA and related federal and state actions, and defense of government investigations and audits relating to employee benefit, health and welfare, and retirement plans brought by the US Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and the US Department of Justice. He is a leading voice and nationally recognized practitioner in this complex and vitally important practice area.

He has represented public and private companies that sponsor employee benefit, health and welfare, and retirement plans governed by ERISA, and their directors and officers and plan fiduciaries, as well as service providers to ERISA plans and plan sponsors. He has extensive experience with Employee Stock Ownership Plans and has defended some of the highest profile lawsuits involving ESOPs, helping to define the evolving landscape of the law relating to ESOPs.

Ted has a considerable experience in trial and appeals courts, including arguing before the United States Supreme Court and several United States Circuit Courts of Appeals.

He has served on The ESOP Association’s Board of Directors, Board of Governors, Interdisciplinary Advisory Committee on Fiduciary Issues, Legislative & Regulatory Committee, and the DOL / EBSA Subcommittee. He is an inaugural member of The ESOP Association’s Public Policy Council and serves on the Employee Ownership Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

Watch Ted’s colleagues and friends announce his award during TEA’s National Conference in Washington, DC:  https://youtu.be/c6FOlL_w3KY

About The ESOP Association
The ESOP Association is the largest organization in the world supporting employee-owned companies, the more than 10 million U.S. employees who participate in an ESOP, and the professionals who provide services to them. Headquartered at the International Employee Ownership Center in Washington, DC and operating as a 501(c)6 organization with the affiliated Employee Ownership Foundation, The ESOP Association conducts and funds academic research, provides more than 160 annual conferences and events attended by nearly 15,000 individuals, and advocates on behalf of employee owners and their businesses to federal and state lawmakers. You can learn more at www.esopassociation.org.

About Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)
ESOPs are a retirement plan that provides employees with a chance to share in the profits they help create. Unlike 401(k)s, ESOPs typically have no out-of-pocket expense for employees. ESOP companies often excel at creating engaging workplace cultures and are far less likely to lay off their employees, according to national research. These plans can provide tax benefits for the business and the owners who sell their shares to an ESOP. 

For more information on ESOPs, TEA or the award, please contact Paul Pflieger at The ESOP Association at 202-494-2220 or ppflieger@esopassociation.org.

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