Member Profile

Katie Kohn is a Partner in Thompson Hine LLP’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice group. Katie counsels small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, individual owners, boards of directors, unsecured creditors’ committees and plan sponsors on qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, multiemployer plans and health plans with a specific focus on bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions and corporate planning. Katie assists her clients in finding practical and valuable solutions regarding plan mergers and spinoffs, plan de-risking transactions, plan terminations, plan corrections, overfunded plans and corporate transactions and reorganizations involving retirement and health plans. Katie also counsels her clients on matters related to multiemployer plan issues, including withdrawal liability and benefits litigation. Katie has a strong litigation background and represents clients in federal court and arbitration involving corporate and multiemployer benefit plans, benefits litigation, ERISA preemption and actuarial malpractice claims. A former Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation attorney, Katie offers clients unique insight into regulatory enforcement processes and regularly advises clients in investigations by the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Katie previously spent five years in the PBGC Office of Chief Counsel, where she received recognition for her experience with PBGC’s Early Warning Program, PBGC reportable events, distress and standard termination proceedings, and termination litigation. She represented the agency in federal court, including as lead litigation counsel in bankruptcies and civil actions and as counsel with respect to Title IV issues and general bankruptcy matters. She investigated pension plan sponsors, analyzed transactions for fiduciary breaches, and negotiated with plan sponsors for financial protection for pension plans in advance of major corporate transactions.