Russell E. Greenblatt

Russell E. Greenblatt concentrates his practice in employee benefits. Before joining the firm in 1980, Mr. Greenblatt served as an attorney advisor with the Employee Plans and Exempt Organizations Division of the Office of Chief Counsel to the IRS (Washington, D.C.), during which time he was the principal author of the IRS regulations on VEBAs.

Mr. Greenblatt is a frequent author and lecturer on the subject of welfare benefit plans and related funding vehicles, including VEBAs and IRC §115 trusts, including for the American Bar Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York University Tax Institute and University of Southern California Tax Institute, and Taxes, Taxation for Lawyers, The Journal of Taxation and Benefits Law Journal. He has testified before the Ways and Means Committee and the IRS on pending benefits legislation and regulations, and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Benefits Law Journal, for which he authored the quarterly column "Federal Benefits Developments" for many years. Mr. Greenblatt has served as an adjunct faculty instructor for John Marshall Law School's LL.M. in Employee Benefits Program and is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. He has also been listed in Illinois Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America.

Because of Mr. Greenblatt's particular experience with respect to welfare benefit programs, Katten serves as special benefits counsel to many Fortune 500 companies. This work ranges from the design, documentation and implementation of employee welfare trusts to the representation of employers/trusts before the IRS and DOL on audits, ruling requests and litigation.

Mr. Greenblatt's academic achievements include an accounting degree, magna cum laude, from Indiana University; a law degree, cum laude, from Northwestern University; and postgraduate coursework at Georgetown University Law Center and the IRS. Mr. Greenblatt's practice is limited to employee welfare benefit plans, and vehicles used for the funding of such benefits (such as VEBAs and IRC §115 trusts).