LIBN'S "Who's Who" Features - Robert Archer

In Intellectual Property and Labor Law

Friday, 8.Jun.2007 | Source: Long Island Business News

 

Robert M. Archer is a member of Archer, Byington, Glennon and Levine LLP labor and employee benefits practices. As a senior labor attorney of the firm, Archer represents labor clients in the building trades industry in NYS.

Archer believes The Pension Protection Act (PPA) signed in to law by Pres. George Bush in 2006 has been the most significant labor legislation in 30 years.

"The PPA makes sweeping changes to rules effecting both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans, addressing such varied provisions as expedited vesting in DC plans, clarification of rules relating to so called hybrid plans and new prohibited transactions involving plan investments," he said. "Clearly however, the far reaching changes made to funding rules for single employer and multi-employer pension plans are the hallmark of this new legislation."

"We have been working with our clients with respect to the changes applicable to multi-employer pension plans inasmuch as PPA imposes new and expanded obligations on boards of trustees that sponsor multi-employer DB plans and on collective bargaining parties that are responsible for plan funding," he said.

Prior to Archer, Byington, Glennon and Levine., Archer was an associate at Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein. Before Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein he was as an attorney, supervisory attorney and deputy regional attorney at the National Labor Relations Board. Archer is rated "AV" by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest level in professional excellence and ethics.

Included in his clientele are the Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters and the International Union of Operational Engineers. Some of his most notable clients are LI Building Trades, Operating Engineers Local 138, Empire State Carpenters IBEW Local 25 Funds, Plumbers Local 200 and Musicians Union Local 802 of Greater New York.

He is a member of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, the Nassau County Bar Association, the Labor and Employment Law Section of the NYS Bar Association and the Labor Section of the American Bar Association. In 2006, Archer was appointed by US Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao to the US Department of Labor's ERISA Advisory Council, where he will serve a three-year term. He was also captain in the US Army. Archer has published numerous articles and has lectured extensively before trade associations, attorney associations, employment groups and labor unions.

Archer was admitted to the bar in Virginia in 1970 and in NYS in 1972. He is also admitted to practice before the US Court of Appeals, Federal and Second Circuits, and the US District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern Districts of NY.