Press Release

Entire Keightley & Ashner Team to Join the Wagner Law Group

Issued by The Wagner Law Group P.C.

Jan. 12, 2022

Marcia Wagner, the Managing Director of The Wagner Law Group, has announced that the entire team from Keightley & Ashner, the nation’s premier PBGC-focused law firm, will be joining The Wagner Law Group’s Washington, D.C. office, where Wagner partner and former PBGC Chief Counsel Israel Goldowitz is already located. Keightley & Ashner’s attorneys, Harold Ashner, Linda Rosenzweig, and Deborah West, along with John Langhans (Senior Actuarial Advisor), Ellan Spring (Senior PBGC Benefits Advisor), and Jon Henkel (Senior PBGC Negotiations Advisor), will be part of The Wagner Law Group starting January 24, 2022.

“The knowledge and insight our expanded PBGC team will have about PBGC rules, policies, and procedures is simply unparalleled in the industry,” says Ms. Wagner. In the aggregate, this expanded PBGC team has 165 years of experience working for PBGC, in roles such as Chief Counsel, Deputy General Counsel, Senior Assistant General Counsel for ERISA/Bankruptcy Matters, Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulations, Deputy Manager of PBGC’s Actuarial Services Division, Supervisory Auditor for PBGC’s Plan Termination Insurance Program, and PBGC’s primary program official on benefit policy. And since their time working for PBGC, the team members, in the aggregate, have 100 years of experience providing legal or other professional services to employers and others facing PBGC issues.

The expanded PBGC team at The Wagner Law Group will address the full range of PBGC-related issues that may be encountered by employers, actuarial firms, other law firms, investment banking firms, or private equity firms.

The Keightley & Ashner Team:

Harold J. Ashner, who joins The Wagner Law Group as a partner, advises and represents clients on a wide variety of employee benefits matters, with an emphasis on PBGC issues. He served as Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Regulations at PBGC, where he drafted or supervised virtually all regulations and policies issued by PBGC from 1988 until he left the agency in 2005, along with Jim Keightley (1942-2021), PBGC General Counsel, and Bill Beyer (1945-2018), PBGC Deputy General Counsel, to form Keightley & Ashner.

Linda E. Rosenzweig advises and represents clients on a broad range of matters involving employee benefits and employment matters, including PBGC matters, having practiced in these areas for more than 40 years. She has represented employers in administrative and court proceedings arising under ERISA and federal employment laws, and has handled private litigation (including U.S. Supreme Court and federal court cases) on behalf of employers as well as on behalf of PBGC during her PBGC tenure.

Deborah West advises clients on a wide variety of PBGC-related issues, drawing on her 12 years of experience with Keightley & Ashner and her 25-year tenure with PBGC. She served as PBGC Senior Assistant General Counsel for ERISA/Bankruptcy Matters from 1996 until she left PBGC in 2005, supervising hundreds of cases involving the full gamut of PBGC issues, including cases involving employer liability in and out of bankruptcy; standard, distress, and involuntary terminations; participant benefit entitlement; conflicts between ERISA and other federal laws; fiduciary breaches; evasion and avoidance transactions; and PBGC’s Early Warning Program.

John F. Langhans, FSA, MAAA, works closely with lawyers in advising clients on a variety of actuarial issues, with an emphasis on those arising under Title IV of ERISA. He served as Deputy Manager of PBGC’s Actuarial Services Division for most of his 14 years at the agency, thereafter joining Keightley & Ashner as Senior Actuarial Advisor in 2008. While at PBGC, he was extensively involved in the Early Warning Program and in bankruptcy litigation, and served as an expert witness for PBGC on a wide variety of actuarial matters. Prior to his PBGC employment, he had over 20 years of experience as a consulting actuary.

Ellan Hamilton Spring works closely with lawyers in advising clients on a variety of issues relating to how PBGC determines and pays benefits when it takes over a terminated pension plan. Prior to joining Keightley & Ashner as its Senior PBGC Benefits Advisor in 2010, she had a 27-year career at PBGC and another eight years as a consultant to PBGC. She served as PBGC’s primary program official on benefit policy, having created and headed the agency’s central benefit policy office.

Jonathan L. Henkel works closely with lawyers in advising clients about distress terminations, plan termination and other liabilities, and other matters involving negotiations with PBGC. Before joining Keightley & Ashner as its Senior PBGC Negotiations Advisor in 2016, he had a 30-year career at PBGC, and another seven years as a senior financial analyst with Deloitte, where he supported PBGC by negotiating and valuing employer liability settlements. During his PBGC tenure, he served as Supervisory Auditor for PBGC’s Plan Termination Insurance Program and worked closely with PBGC attorneys, actuaries, and other financial analysts in making plan termination and trusteeship determinations and negotiating settlements for PBGC.

The Wagner Law Group

The Wagner Law Group is a nationally recognized practice in the areas of ERISA, employee benefits and executive compensation, employment, labor & human resources, investment management, bankruptcy and restructuring, HIPAA, privacy & security, expert witness, mergers & acquisitions, legislative, regulatory & policy services, tax exempt organizations, trusts & estates, probate, litigation, independent fiduciary services, family law and Union Members Estate Planning.

Established in 1996, The Wagner Law Group is dedicated to the highest standards of integrity, excellence and thought leadership and is considered to be amongst the nation's premier ERISA and employee benefits law firms. The firm has 12 offices across the country, providing unparalleled legal advice to its clients, including large, small and nonprofit corporations as well as individuals and government entities worldwide. The Wagner Law Group's 43 attorneys, senior benefits consultant, and seven paralegals combine many years of experience in their fields of practice with a variety of backgrounds. The firm is recognized by U.S. News and World Report as a Tier 1 Best Law Firm in the areas of ERISA and employee benefits. Nine of the firm's attorneys are AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell and eight are Fellows of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, an invitation-only organization of nationally recognized employee benefits lawyers. Seven of the firm's attorneys have been named to the prestigious Super Lawyers list for 2021, which highlights outstanding lawyers based on a rigorous selection process. The Wagner Law Group is certified as a woman-owned and operated business by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council. 

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