SEND AN E-MAIL TO THIS FELLOWKatherine A. Hesse
Boston, MA
Katherine Hesse is a partner in the law firm of Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane, LLP, in Boston, Massachusetts where she has been practicing since 1977, primarily in labor and employment, employee benefits law, with a concentration on fiduciary, trust, health, retirement and ERISA law and related litigation. She has served as counsel to Fortune 500 Companies, emerging businesses, government, and tax-exempt organizations including hospitals, colleges and private and public retirement and health and welfare trust funds including multi-employer Taft-Hartley plans, multiple employer trusts, church and governmental plans. She advises clients on employment, benefits and trust issues including related tax matters and has litigated employment and benefits cases before the state and federal trial and appellate courts, administrative agencies, and arbitrators. She is experienced in all forms of alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, and various forms of arbitration as well as serving as an expert witness and professional trustee.
Katherine heads the team of attorneys that was named the only firm in New England and one of only 11 in the United States to the special ERISA fiduciary litigation panel for one of the world’s largest insurance companies. She and her team successfully concluded a $110 million legal battle over the surplus assets of the former Bank of New England’s pension plan. She is the author of the authoritative chapter on the
Massachusetts Public Employee Retirement System published in A Judicial Guide to Labor and Employment Law – a publication relied upon by the state’s judges as a definitive reference guide to this area of law.
Katherine received her B.A. degree from Smith College and her J.D. degree from the Boston University School of Law. She is admitted to the Bars of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Katherine serves as Chair of the Government Liaison Committee of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans has served for several years as one of its nine Advisory Directors. She also served as Chair of its Attorneys Committee and its Financial Review Committee She was part of the inaugural class of Certified Employee Benefits Specialists, served as president of the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists, and co-founded the Greater Boston Chapter. She was inducted into the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists Hall of Fame in its 2018 inaugural year, one of only three recipients in the country, and was winner of the 1997 Cushing-Gavin Award for excellence in providing legal counsel.
Katherine sits on the editorial board of Benefits Quarterly, a journal for health and retirement benefits professionals, and has authored/edited its Legal Update for many years. She also served on the Board of Wolters Kluwer Law and Business Pension Editorial Advisory Board, and formerly wrote the legal column for Aspen Publishers, Inc., Managing Employee Health Benefits. She has taught at Northeastern University and speaks frequently on employee benefits and fiduciary issues across the country. She also developed materials for and provided training to employees of DOL’s EBSA and the PBGC.
Katherine has held leadership positions in the Boston Bar Association (Chair, Labor & Employment Law Section), the Massachusetts Bar Association (member of Labor & Employment Law Section, Chair, Dispute Resolution Section), the Massachusetts Bar Foundation (Trustee and Life Fellow) and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (Board member and officer) and is a long-time member of the American Bar Association and the Employee Benefits Committee of the Labor and Employment Section. She served on boards including Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Quincy Mutual Life Insurance Company and currently serves on the advisory board of Eastern Bank.
Katherine has been active in supporting women’s causes and served as President of the Alliance for Women’s Business and Professional Organizations. Her charitable endeavors include having served as Board Chair for St. Mary’s Center for Women & Children, St. Coletta’s/Cardinal Cushing School and Training Center, and St. John of God Hospital. She is a recipient of the Patriots Trail Girl Scouts Leading Women Award and the Woodward School Woman of Distinction Award. She is a loving sister, aunt, godmother, and now doting great-aunt for one year old Virginia and three-month-old Carter. She loves traveling, reading, and going to theatre in NYC with her pals from Junior Year Abroad. Her next trip is to Thailand on a tour to visit one of her favorite charities, Friends of Thai Daughters, to attend the ribbon cutting at its new facility at Jasmine Farm. Friends of Thai Daughters provides education, safe shelter and emotional support to girls at risk of being trafficked in Northern Thailand, empowering these vulnerable girls to become valued Daughters, educated women, and independent adults.
