Kent advises Davis & Harman LLP clients in the retirement savings area. He works primarily with major employers, large plans, and national vendors of retirement plan services. He is an expert in the full range of retirement savings issues—including all types of retirement plans, IRAs, and deferred compensation arrangements—with respect to tax, ERISA, and PBGC matters.
Kent frequently represents clients before Congress, the IRS, Treasury, the Department of Labor, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. He also works extensively for trade associations on legislative and administrative issues affecting retirement savings.
Prior to joining Davis & Harman, Kent served as a Legislation-Attorney for the Joint Committee on Taxation, U.S. Congress, and as an Attorney-Advisor in the Office of Tax Policy of the US Department of the Treasury. While with the government, he focused on retirement plans, health plans, and other employee benefits. After law school, he served as a Law Clerk for Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
"We are trying to improve the employee benefits area, and ensure that people have a secure retirement and adequate health care," says Kent Mason. "I am doing work I believe in."
Kent speaks and writes frequently on employee benefits issues, and has testified on several occasions at hearings before Congress, the IRS, and the Department of Labor. His speeches cover a complete range of benefits issues—including legislative updates, analysis of new regulations, plan design alternatives, and new compliance issues.
Kent received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and was elected to the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.
Kent is a native of Bethesda, Maryland. After a long career of coaching kids' sports on weekends, he has retired his cap and clipboard.