Sarah Bassler Millar
sarah.millar dbr.com
Phone:
(312) 569-1295
(312) 569-1295
Fax: (312) 569-3295

About
Experience
- Counseled clients across industry sectors on strategic responses to the 2014 employer shared responsibility (“pay or play”) mandate, including application of the rules regarding offering coverage to “substantially all” (95 percent of) full-time employees; implementing recordkeeping systems for tracking hours of service under the new IRS rules; and evaluating employment classification and benefit eligibility options for part-time and non-traditional (e.g., temporary, intermittent, per diem) positions.
- Conducted training sessions for HR managers and supervisors, as well as business associates, regarding the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules.
- Counseled clients regarding the employee benefit implications of mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, and other corporate transactions and drafted related documentation, including corporate and committee resolutions, retirement and severance plans, and retention arrangements.
- Assisted a variety of clients with benefit plan integration issues following corporate acquisitions, including assessment of strategic options, maintaining “protected” benefits, ensuring compliance with nondiscrimination rules and how/when to take advantage of controlled group transition rules, and streamlining benefit plan administration.
- Assisted several Fortune 500 companies with responses to DOL audits of their retirement plans and health and tax-exempt health systems.
- Assisted several Fortune 500 companies with preparations for IRS audit of their retirement plans.
- Audited a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company’s classification of contingent workers and prepared related compliance and training materials for managers, supervisors and staff.
- Conducted comprehensive benefit plan operational reviews for a health care system to identify areas of potential liability for noncompliance and implemented a comprehensive risk mitigation strategic plan.
- Assisted faith-based organizations with evaluating how “church plan” status applies to their organizations, assessing the pros and cons of church plan status and implementing an effective governance process for those plains maintained as a church plan.
- Obtained an individual prohibited transaction exemption on behalf of a retirement plan sponsor.
- Reviewed retirement plan operational errors and assisted in their correction, including through the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS).
Recognitions
National Law Journal “40 Under 40” (2013)
Thomas J. White Scholar, University of Notre Dame Law School
Awards Methodology (www.drinkerbiddle.com/content/awards)
Thomas J. White Scholar, University of Notre Dame Law School
Awards Methodology (www.drinkerbiddle.com/content/awards)
Credentials
Bar Admissions
- Illinois
Education
- University of Notre Dame Law School, J.D., 2001
- University of Notre Dame, B.A., 1997
Organizations
- American Bar Association
- Notre Dame Club of Chicago