Practice Areas
Concentrations
Employee Benefits
Executive Compensation
Firm Committees
Retirement and Benefits Committee, Chair
Executive Committee, Member
Bar memberships
- Kentucky
Education
- Tulane University Law School, J.D., 1981, magna cum laude
- Order of the Coif
Tulane University Law School, H. Sophie Newcomb College, B.A., 1979
Debbie Reiss Hardesty
Debbie is a member of the Firm's Executive Committee and is a former Vice Chair of the Firm's business department. She also founded the Firm's Kentucky Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group, and, until recently, led this practice group across the Firm's geography. In that role, Debbie addressed a wide variety of issues involving design and tax and ERISA compliance for employee benefit plans and executive compensation programs. She has successfully used her knowledge of stock ownership and compensation programs to lead a number of cross-disciplinary teams in business management and ownership succession transactions. Debbie also serves on the Firm's Executive Committee.
Example Experiences:
- Assist in the entire life-cycle of successful ESOP companies. One example: established the ESOP to preserve jobs in the face of possible closure due to loss of capital financing; counseled the company in governance and maintenance of the ESOP; and then represented the company in sale of ESOP's stock to a public company after years of growth.
- Executive compensation program redesign, requiring termination of some plans, enhancement of others, and addition of new plans, cooperating with in-house counsel, actuaries, and other outside consultants and vendors to create a cohesive new program.
- Frequently navigate the numerous options available to family-owned companies considering the pros and cons of sale, succession of ownership and management to family members, or the succession to non-family members with or without continued family ownership.
Highlights & Recognitions
- Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell®
- The Best Lawyers in America®, 1995-2012
Memberships & Affiliations
- American Bar Association
- Louisville Bar Association
- Kentucky Bar Association
- Kentucky Judicial and Legislative Form Retirement System, Trustee, 2008 - present
- National Association of Professional Women, Member
- The ESOP Association
- Kentucky Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Board of Directors, 1990-1998; Treasurer FYE, 1992 and 1993; Vice Chairman FYE, 1994; Chairman FYE, 1995 and 1996
- Practitioner liaison to the Baltimore Key District Office of the IRS (EP/EO) through 2000
Recent Blog Posts
Publications
- More Health Care Reform Guidance Issued
- New Guidance Confirms: It is Going to be Nearly Impossible to Remain a “Grandfathered” Health Plan
- What Does Health Care Reform Mean for Employers—Now and Later?
- Health Benefit Changes in Recent Legislation
- How to Avoid Code Section 409A Pitfalls in your Stock Plan
- The Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 Gives Relief from Required Minimum Distributions
- If You Payroll Deduct Contributions for Employees to Send to 403(b) Providers, You Have New Requirements to Address Before the End of 2008!
- W-2 Reporting of Nonqualified Deferred Compensation
- The IRS has Issued Proposed Regulations on New Deferred Compensation Rules
- Numerous Recent Law and Accounting Changes Affect Stock Options
- The Kentucky Employee Benefits Guide
- New Tax Rules Require Changes In All Compensation Arrangements That Allow For Payment In A Later Year
- COBRA Continuation Coverage Requirements
- HIPAA and Other Laws Governing Health Plans: Employers Face More Challenges
Press Releases
Published Articles & Seminars
Debbie has served as a great resource to hundreds of businesses around the region throughout 2009-10 in sharing her knowledge and understanding of federal healthcare reform’s effects on employers at seminars and speaking engagements around Kentucky and Indiana.
"Health Benefit Changes in Recent Legislation," presented to clients and friends of Frost Brown Todd and BB&T Insurance Services on April 15, 2009.
"How to Avoid Code Section 409A Pitfalls in your Stock Plan," presented to the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Stock Plan Administrators on March 24, 2009.
"HSAs: Basic to Advanced," presented at the Kentuckiana Society for Human Resource Managers Conference in October 2007 and 2008
"New Tax Rules for Deferred Compensation," presented at the 18th Annual Cincinnati Employee Benefits Conference, June 2005 (and other locations, including updates after proposed and final regulations)
"The Top Ten Benefits and Compensation Issues for 2007," presented at the 24th Annual Carl A. Warns Labor and Employment Law Institute, June 2007
Retirement and Fringe Benefit Planning, a chapter in Limited Liability Companies in Kentucky (University of Kentucky College of Law, 1994)
Chapter Author: Executive Compensation, Retirement and Fringe Benefit Issues, in Kentucky Corporation Law (University of Kentucky College of Law, 1997)
Co-Author: Drafting Partnership Agreements (ALI/ABA 7th ed., 1986)
The Employee Benefits Manager's Challenge for 1989 (Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Focus Magazine, Jan/Feb, 1989)
Unique Aspects of Employee Stock Ownership Plans as Retirement Vehicles (The Pension Actuary, October, 1994)
Do Your Employees Need Investment Education? (Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Focus Magazine, Jan./Feb. 1996)
Will your COBRA Procedures Withstand an IRS Audit? (Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Business Bulletin, 1996)
Editor and Author of Monograph: Business Succession Planning (University of Kentucky College of Law, 1988)
