Professional Experience:
Mary Ellen Schill's employee benefits law practice involves the representation of both public and private sector employers in their sponsorship of all forms of employee benefit plans as well as compensation planning. Mary Ellen has extensive experience in employee benefit plan selection and design, as well as plan drafting and implementation, whether qualified or non-qualified retirement plans, flexible benefit plans, or welfare benefit plans. She has counseled private sector employers on establishing, maintaining, and terminating ESOPs, and assisted (along with members of the firm's Business Transactions Practice Group) plan sponsors in ESOP redemption transactions. She also provides clients with a wide range of expertise regarding tax qualification, plan administration, preparation of plan participant communications, plan amendments, and plan terminations.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) provides the rules to follow as far as Mary Ellen's private sector clients go and she assists those who sponsor ERISA-covered plans as to the impact of ERISA on the administration and operation of those plans. Mary Ellen has developed a special expertise in the areas of ERISA's fiduciary duty rules and prohibited transactions. She has assisted clients in responding to Department of Labor audits of ERISA plans.

Mary Ellen advises employers on selection and design of executive compensation programs, both equity-based and non-equity based, sometimes "funded" by a rabbi trust. She also counsels our tax-exempt clients and governmental clients on sponsorship of tax-sheltered annuity plans under Code Section 403(b), including plan design, compliance with the myriad of rules limiting contributions, and correction of Code Section 403(b) plan defects.

Finally, Mary Ellen advises businesses regarding ERISA and Internal Revenue Code issues arising during mergers, acquisitions, and sales of businesses.

Education:
B.A. (magna cum laude), St. Norbert College, De Pere, WI (1985)

Honors: Agnes Ryan Scholarship; Wm. O'Callaghan, Award in Arts and Sciences, Honor Societies: Phi Sigma Iota; Sigma Tau Delta; Delta Epsilon Sigma

J.D. (cum laude), University of Notre Dame Law School, South Bend, IN (1988)

Honors: Dean O'Meara Scholarship, Notre Dame Law Review, Contributing Author and Note Editor,  Author; "Refusals to Deal by Single-Firm Monopolists -  Should We Rob Peter to Save Paul?," 63 Notre Dame Law Rev. 214 (1988)

Admitted to Practice:
Wisconsin Supreme Court
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin

Bar Associations:
American Bar Association

Section Member: Business Law; Taxation

State Bar of Wisconsin

Section Member: Business Law; Taxation

Marathon County Bar Association

Professional Activities:
American Bar Association

Business Law Section, Employee Benefits Committee, Member (2002 - present)

Greater Milwaukee Employee Benefits Council

Member (1988 - 1992)

International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

Member (1988 - present)

Wisconsin Retirement Plan Professionals, Ltd.

Member (1988 - 1992)

Civic Activities:
Wausau Conservatory of Music,

President (1997 - 1998), Vice President (1996 - 1997), Director (1994 - 2000)

Wausau Symphony and Band, Inc.

Director (1993 - 1998)

Wausau Area Performing Arts Foundation

Director (2000 - 2006), Education Committee (2006 - present)

St. Norbert College Alumni Association

Board of Directors (2009 - present)

Presentations:

• "Employee Benefits Update" 11/04/09
• "2010 Qualified Plan Cost of Living Increases, 2010 Social Security Taxable Wage Base" - 10/16/09
• State Bar of Wisconsin, 5th Annual Employee Benefits Update, "Employee Benefits Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, COBRA, SCHIP, and HIPAA" - 9/15/09
• "New COBRA Obligations Not Going Away Soon", The Business News 6/01/09
• "Update on COBRA and Wisconsin Health Coverage Continuation" - 2/26/09
• State Bar of Wisconsin, 4th Annual Employee Benefits Update, "COBRA and State Health Continuation Rights" - 8/21/08
• "Lessons From the Trenches on Negotiating and Designing Employment and Severance Agreements" - 6/25/08
• State Bar of Wisconsin, 3rd Annual Employee Benefits Update, "You Call It Quadro, I Call it Q-DRO" - 8/21/07
• "Show Me the Money! A Wage and Hour Forum" - 4/19/07
• "What's New in Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation" - 11/3/06
• "Nonqualified Deferred Compensation Plans: Can We Even Call Them 'Nonqualifed' Anymore" - 5/2/06 and 5/9/06
• "Taking Control of the Rising Cost of Health Coverage Through Plan Design Changes" - 10/14/05 and 6/8/06
• State Bar of Wisconsin, 2nd Annual Employee Benefits Update, "Are You or Your Client an ERISA Fiduciary??  Why You Should Care!" - 8/18/06