Timothy S. Smith

Timothy S. Smith, who died in 2000 at age 52, served in the government at the beginning of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and then in private practice as an employee benefits attorney and litigator who helped develop pension law. Tim was inducted in 2000 as a Charter In Memoriam Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”).

Tim graduated in 1971 with a B.S. and in 1972 earned a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. While getting his Masters of Architecture, Tim became interested in urban planning and politics and decided that the key to effective urban planning was through elected officials. He saw law school as a tool to help him make those changes. He earned a J.D. in 1975 from the University of Michigan Law School.

Tim spent his entire career as an employee benefits attorney and started at the critical beginning period of ERISA. In 1976, he began work at the Employee Plans Division of IRS Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations working under College Fellow Alan Lebowitz who created a new group to address prohibited transactions under ERISA’s new section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code. That group, which included College Fellows Carol Gold and Elliot Daniel, was tasked with creating guidance on this challenging provision intended to protect benefits of plan participants against conflicts of interest by those in charge of private pension plans. After the Presidential Executive Order issuing the Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1978 (43 FR 47713, October 17, 1978) changed agency working responsibilities under the new law, Tim moved to the Department of Labor where he continued to work in the prohibited transactions area.

After his government service, Tim worked at Feder & Edes which became Feder & Associates in Washington, D.C. as an associate and then a partner (circa 1979-1993). At Feder, he advised numerous union health and pension plans on ERISA issues. College Fellow David Levin recalled that his colleague Tim frequently was actively involved drafting briefs in important ERISA litigation, e.g., Brock v. Walton, 794 F. 2d 586 (11th Cir. 1986). That case helped refine the understanding of exemptions from ERISA section 406(a)(1)(B)’s prohibition on plan loans to plan participants. The exemption requirements found in ERISA section 408(b)(1) included that the loans bear a “reasonable rate of interest.” The U.S. Court of Appeals held that a “reasonable rate of interest” on loans to pension plan participants may be different from“ the prevailing or market rate of interest.”

Tim loved the outdoors, which helped lead to the decision to relocate to the West coast. He worked at Davies, Roberts & Reid in Seattle, WA from 1993 to 1997 as of counsel, where he joined their ERISA and governmental plan practice. At Davies, Tim had a broad practice in employee benefits law as a counselor and litigator. He counseled multiemployer, multiple employer, and single employer pension, defined contribution, health, disability, and other benefit funds, located in more than a dozen Western states. As a litigator, he was part of the lead defense counsel team in Vizcaino v. Microsoft Corp., 120 F.3d 1006 (1997), a landmark class action case that addressed benefits for workers not on the books as employees. For Davies attorneys, Tim was also a mentor, serving as a wise resource for those who consulted him on questions of strategy and who sought his practical point of view.

Tim was an active member of the American Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section’s Employee Benefits Committee, serving for many years as a Co-Chair of its Fiduciary Liability Subcommittee. Tim was one of the Chapter Editors for the first edition of “Employee Benefits Law” of the Employee Benefits Committee of the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the ABA, published by the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (later part of Bloomberg Industry Group) in 1991.

Active in politics, social justice actions, and community building, Tim was remembered as a remarkable human being who was courageous in the face of personal adversity. Known as a kind, gentle, good-humored, and dedicated man, he left his mark on the developing law.

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