Michael S. Gordon

Michael S. Gordon passed away in 2004 at age 70. A talented attorney who helped shape pension reform and advocated for retirees, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”) in 2001.

Mike received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago in 1952 and 1955, respectively. Upon graduating from law school, he began his career as a lawyer with the Department of Labor (“DOL”) in Washington, DC. In 1962, the DOL assigned Mike as its legal adviser to the Presidential Committee on Corporate Pension Funds and Other Private Retirement and Welfare Programs, a cabinet-level task force established by President John Kennedy to study the nation’s private-sector pension system and employee benefit plans. In that role, Mike first encountered and began to consider how to solve the many problems facing the private pension system. In 1965, after the Presidential Committee issued a report recommending sweeping reforms to the laws governing private pension plans, Mike began to draft a federal pension law establishing vesting and funding standards as well as strong fiduciary protections applicable to private pension plans.

Mike left the DOL in 1970 to join the staff of College Fellow Jacob Javits, a Senator very active in pension reform and the then ranking minority member of the Senate Labor Committee. From 1970 to 1975, Mike served as minority counsel on pensions for the Senate Committee on Labor as well as the Public Welfare Subcommittee on Labor. Senator Javits had introduced a pension bill in 1967 similar to the one Mike had crafted during his stint with the DOL. Working with the Senator and others on the Committee, Mike merged ideas from both his own earlier draft and the 1967 bill into a blueprint that eventually would evolve into the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”).

Mike’s contributions to the passage of ERISA went well beyond merely drafting legislation. Senator Javits charged him with staff responsibility for energizing the grassroots demand that Senator Javits believed necessary to overcome the interests opposed to extensive federal regulation of pension plans. Mike applied his talents and accomplished the task against formidable odds. He conceived the brilliant strategy of organizing Senate Labor Subcommittee hearings around testimony that highlighted what came to be known as the “horror stories” that helped lead to the enactment of ERISA. Those hearings captured the attention of the public and the media and inspired numerous articles, a “60 Minutes” TV program, and an NBC award-winning TV program called “Pensions: The Broken Promise.”

Commentators have referred to Mike’s role in the creation of ERISA as draftsman, engineer, and architect. Of course, no single person can legitimately claim any of those titles, and his colleagues attest that Mike, always modest, never did. But ERISA undoubtedly would have been a far different and weaker bill without Mike’s tireless leadership and perseverance.

Mike spent the last three decades of his life combining private legal practice with public service. Year in and year out, whether a Democrat or a Republican occupied the White House, Mike was among the handful of private practitioners whose views policymakers repeatedly sought. Several generations of congressional staff on both sides of the aisle enlisted Mike’s help as they struggled to understand employee benefits issues.

Mike pursued the private practice of law through his own small firm, representing multiemployer plans, corporations, and non-profits. He also represented individual employees when he thought they had been wronged, often in cases other attorneys had turned down.

In 2002, Mike was an integral part of the formation of the National Retiree Legislative Network (“NRLN”), a Washington-based grassroots coalition of retiree and older worker organizations. Not surprisingly, the NRLN’s focus mirrors that of ERISA: “Making sure that promises are kept and reasonable expectations built upon those promises are not disappointed.” Mike served as general counsel and chief legislative strategist for the NRLN until his passing in 2004.

Mike contributed generous amounts of his time to the advancement of organizations and causes relating to employee benefits. For roughly two decades, he served as chair of the Board of Directors of the Pension Rights Center. In celebration of the Center’s 35th anniversary, the Michael S. Gordon Fellowship program was established in his honor. This program brought prominent retired pension lawyers to the Center as volunteers. In addition, Mike chaired the BNA (later part of Bloomberg Industry Group) Pension & Benefits Reporter Advisory Board for almost 30 years. He also served as a member of the Pension Research Council of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and as a technical advisor to the Coalition to Preserve Retirement Security. He wrote and commented on numerous articles reflecting on ERISA and its legislative history. He was always delighted to put aside whatever else he was doing to speak with a colleague about why a particular provision of ERISA read one way rather than another, which political actors had a stake in the provision, and how particular political and language compromises were negotiated along the way.

Mike’s colleagues and friends admired both his intellectual ability to master extraordinarily complex issues and his political skill in presenting those matters to members of Congress. He combined a keen intelligence, creativity and wisdom with decency, integrity, a generous spirit, and compassion. He had a deep passion for the principle for which he had dedicated his working life: Promises made by employers must be kept. He had a rare talent for making others want to do the things in which he so strongly believed. He was a true champion for millions of workers and retirees.

Photo Source: The Decade Book, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel 2000-2010