Mark D. Wincek

Mark D. Wincek is a Partner in the Washington D.C. office of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP and the Emeritus Leader of its Employee Benefits Team. He concentrates his practice on qualified plans, fiduciary matters and executive compensation, focusing on counseling, transactions, controversies and benefits-policy advocacy.

Mark has more than 35 years of experience assisting large companies with their defined benefit pension plans, dealing with a broad array of complex issues, including serving as counsel to the fiduciaries in the largest-ever pension risk transfer. He has had exceptional results in IRS and DOL audits, including recently convincing DOL to drop all claims in a multi-year MEWA audit that could have bankrupted the sponsoring organization. Mark and his team regularly do the benefits and compensation work in major transactions, even when other leading firms handle other aspects. Mark has served as special benefits counsel in major class-action ERISA litigation, including cases regarding cash balance plans, retiree health cutbacks, employer stock and actuarial factors.

Mark is the author of the “SERPS and Excess Plans” chapter in the Section 409A Handbook (termed “the book within the book” by the Handbook’s primary editor) and scores of other professional publications. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and as a longtime active member of the ABA Tax Section. He was named a Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.

From 1976 to 1981, Mark was on the staff of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, serving as Senior Subcommittee Counsel to the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee in 1980 and 1981. While on the Hill, he participated in the initial drafting and enactment of Code section 125, the Code provisions on dependent care assistance, as well as provisions that still govern health and welfare plan nondiscrimination.

Mark is consistently recognized as a leading lawyer in employee benefits and executive compensation. He has been ranked in Chambers USA and The Best Lawyers in America since 2005, and is recognized by Legal 500 as a “leading expert” in the field. His accolades also include repeated selection as a Washington “Super Lawyer,” inclusion on BTI’s Client Service All-Star Team, and recognition by Business Today as one of the “Top 10 Influential Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Lawyers in DC.”