I need to negotiate a matter between the Washington Office of IRS regarding my Plan. I am looking for someone with a lot of experience and a powerful name - I want the attorney to be mentioned on rankings, journals, and he/she needs a exceptional track record.

Please let me know who that person would be.

Based on the frequency with which his articles are posted and reposted on this message board, I would say that Lance Wallach is probably the top ERISA man in the country. He comes highly recommended . . . from himself.

But in all seriousness, most attorneys prefer to know something about the potential client they're referring before tossing a colleague's name out on an internet bulletin board to a pseudonymous poster. You might try asking for referrals from the attorneys you work with on other issues.

How much justice can you afford?

What kind of problem is it: disqualfication, prohibited transacation, etc. Perhaps you could state the code section?

I need to get the service to put our company on a payment plan for some contributions due to the Plan. I want the best ERISA attorney in the nation (the person must have an exemplary track record and be mentioned in law journals). I am willing to pay top dollar (provided it is reasonable and the expected result can be achieved).

I can recommend several, from a variety of states, as many readers/users of these Boards could. E-mail me, if that is what you need. But, as implied earlier, it may be more useful to get recommendations from someone you know.

the VEBA Guru would know Ron Snyder as he is an Erisa atty.

Why did you use the epistemic modal verb "would"? And why would it matter to Koo whether the VEBA Guru knows Ron Snyder? And are you really saying that the VEBA Guru knows all ERISA attorneys? Because that is the implication of the phrase "as he is an Erisa atty." Or is the antecedent of "he" "the VEBA Guru"? If that's the case, then you are implying that all ERISA attorneys know Ron Snyder. And that can't be true, because I don't know Ron Snyder and I'm an ERISA attorney.

Given the number of articles you have posted and reposted on this message board recently, one might expect you to have a better command of English.

At any rate, koo, when you get a referral, you should consider the source. Professionals with whom you have an existing relationship are often a better resource for referrals than are self-promoting blowhards who stubbornly refuse to stop polluting useful and otherwise collegial message boards with their nonsense.

Sal Tripodi, author of the ERISA Outline Book, past president of ASPPA
Fred Reish of Resih Luftman something or other
Craig Hoffman and/or Derin Watson from Sungard Corbel

Google any of their names and you'll get tons of hits...

Craig is with ASPPA now.

You might be better served by someone inside the Beltway, preferably someone who recently worked at IRS or Treasury in that area. I can give you an entire list of names including a recent former Benefits Tax Counsel at Treasury.

When we went thru EPCRS, the local office of our national audit firm used a guy from their DC office. No telling if the name signing the correction filing actually had any impact. Point being... the DC offices of some of the major audit and accounting firms might be a place to look.

As the VEBA Guru whose name was taken in vain a few posts ago, I know what I have done to obtain representation in cases in which I have been involved as a party. There is no "best ERISA attorney in the U.S." There are many excellent ERISA attorneys and ERISA litigators. The top law firms all have very adequate ERISA counsel and tax litigators.

I have done as David Rigby suggests, above.
1. Narrow your search to a specific area of the law. Since you indicated it involves IRS, which Section or sections of the IRC does it involve? 401(a)-qualified plans? 409A-non-qualified plans? 419/419A-welfare benefit plans?
2. If it involves qualified plans, does the issue arise under 404 (deduction), 412 (actuarial), 415 (maximum benefit/contribution limitations), 411 (benefit accrual), 414 (controlled group and affiliated service group), etc.
3. Narrow your search to a specific geographic area, either the location of the client who needs to meet with the attorney or the locality where the IRS office is located.

From this point on the search becomes serious: you either need to be referred to an attorney that meets the criteria, or you can select blindly from peer ratings. Most personal referrals are to practitioners known to the referrer rather than to specialists who can best represent you. Responsible attorneys who know the local bar members will refer you on to someone better suited to the task.

For a cold beginning point, I recommend doing a search on Martindale.com Look for attorneys in firms that have both tax controversy and ERISA attorneys. Read their websites to ascertain the focus of their practices. Select at least 3 who are AV-rated ("A" meaning-top level competence, "V" meaning ethical). Call all of them to determine whether you are comfortable with their personality, with the focus of their practice and how closely it matches your needs, and with their price structure. If possible, meet them briefly to assess your comfort level.

Then make your decision based on all input you have. Good luck.

I agree with the plan of attack suggested by VEBAguru. Before I would recommend someone, I find out what type of plan is involved because the attorneys I would recommend for a defined benefit issue are very different than the attorneys I would recommend for a 409A plan issue.

Only part I disagree with is the local bar association thing. Because ERISA is federal, I don't know any ERISA attorney that regularly attends local bar association functions except the social functions. Maybe there needs to be a national ERISA bar. If an ERISA attorney mentioned they had been in state court lately, I would assume that they were not devoting 100% of their time to ERISA.

While there is no "ERISA bar" (Federal or state), the Employee Benefits Committee of the Tax Section of the ABA tends to act as such. While I don't know all of my fellow committee members, I do know enough of them to be able to recommend practitioners for various types of cases in various locales. Other Employee Benefits Committee members would also be able to make similar recommendations.

http://www.acebc.com/content/fellows.asp

Because becoming a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel requires a minimum of 20 years of experience of practice as an employee benefits attorney, a lot of very good and knowledgeable ERISA attorneys are not Fellows because they are simply not old enough to become a Fellow. I'm curious if there are any Fellows younger than age 46 (youngest person in my law school class was age 26 when they passed the bar + 20 years of practice = minimum age of 46). Working the numbers another way, if the youngest Fellow is age 46, that means that they were probably born in 1963, and ERISA became law in 1974, so the youngest possible Fellow was age 9 when ERISA became law. Is it October 15th yet?

Why not a Bar Association for ERISA attorneys. Of the 3 areas of law which are primarily federal (intellectual property, bankruptcy and ERISA), the only one without a national bar association is ERISA. Intellectual property attorneys have had the American Intellectual Property Law Association since 1897. Bankruptcy attorneys have the various local Bankruptcy Bar Assocations. If anyone is interested, I'm willing to bring the sandwiches.

I am under the impression that American College of Employee Benefits Counsel is more of a "club" for such attorneys rather than an active, working group. I note that not only am I not in the club, but the person I consider to be the top ERISA attorney in Los Angeles (Bruce Ashton) is also not a club member. (I have been an ERISA attorney for 26 years.)
When new legislation is proposed, or new Regs are contemplated, it is the Tax Section of the ABA and the working committees that have the input, even suggesting (and in some cases writing) Regs.