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Gary D. Ammon has been a partner with the firm since 1988 and was chair of the firm's Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group from 1996 until 2007. He joined the firm in 1981 as an associate after practicing for several years with a firm in Pittsburgh where he specialized in employee benefits.
Areas of Concentration. Gary has extensive, in-depth experience in virtually every aspect of employee benefits, including qualified retirement plans (e.g., designing, drafting and installing pension, profit-sharing and 401(k) plans; terminating plans; and advising on benefit claims by participants); plans using employer stock (e.g., stock bonus plans, ESOPs, incentive and nonqualified stock option plans, and restricted stock and restricted stock unit plans); and nonqualified deferred compensation and other arrangements for executives (including "rabbi trusts"). He has often been involved with the employee benefit aspects of mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs and joint ventures. In addition, Gary has substantial experience advising investment advisers, banks and mutual funds on ERISA fiduciary and prohibited transaction issues and about prototype plans and individual retirement accounts for their customers. Gary deals on a regular basis with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). He has obtained private letter rulings from the IRS and opinion letters from the DOL regarding proposed transactions.
In General. Gary received his bachelor's degree from Allegheny College in 1969. Following service in the U.S. Navy, he received his J.D. degree from Duquesne University School of Law in 1977. During his last year of law school, Gary was awarded an Honors Clerkship with Judge Aldisert of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Gary received an LL.M. degree in Taxation from Temple University School of Law in 1992.
Gary has participated in a number of employee benefit programs and seminars for the Penjerdel Employee Benefits and Compensation Association (PEBA), the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Mellon Bank, the Eastern Conference on Mergers and Acquisitions, and others. He is a member of the Employee Benefits Committee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association and a member of The ESOP Association and PEBA. | 