Mark H. Hess

Partner

Mark focuses his practice on employee benefits and executive compensation as well as corporate and individual taxation and tax-exempt organizations. He has represented clients in the banking, entertainment, health care and real estate industries.

In particular, Mark has extensive experience in employee benefits and ERISA issues. He has assisted clients with:

• Qualified plan design, drafting and counseling (including 401(k), defined benefit and ESOPs);
• Welfare plan drafting and compliance;
• Executive compensation (including nonqualified deferred compensation plan drafting and counseling and stock-based compensation such as restrictive stock and qualified and nonqualified option plan drafting and counseling);
• IRS audits and corrective programs;
• DOL audits;
• Tax controversies;
• Benefits due diligence and counseling in connection with mergers and acquisitions; and
• Strategic assistance in ERISA litigation.

Mark is well-known for his knowledge of the legal aspects of institutional pension plan investment and related fiduciary matters and in collectively bargained multiemployer plan practice. He also has many years of experience serving as plan counsel to major multiemployer (Taft-Hartley) trusts.

Mark, a certified public accountant, also has a broad-based practice in corporate and partnership income tax, including choice of entity considerations and tax issues involved in mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions as well as employment law matters. He also handles tax ruling requests and tax controversies and has been involved in the formation, capitalization, reorganization and dissolution of many public and private companies, S corporation, partnerships, limited liability companies and tax-exempt entities. Mark serves as management appointed co-counsel to the Screen Actors Guild-Producers Pension & Health Plans.

Mark's tax practice also includes the representation of individuals, including actors, athletes and medical and legal professionals, in connection with their personal income tax, executive compensation and retirement planning issues. He also assists with the interplay between the taxation of their individual activities and activities of their professional corporation.

Additionally, Mark advises a number of tax-exempt organizations, including hospitals and other health care providers, research organizations, trade associations and private foundations on issues such as obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status, managed care, executive compensation, reorganizations and joint ventures, acquisitions, unrelated business income tax planning and foundation excise taxes. Mark advises individuals and companies in the US wishing to do business in Israel and Israeli businesses wishing to do business in the US.

Before Fox Rothschild

Prior to joining the firm, Mark was a partner with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, in Los Angeles. He has also previously been a partner with Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro and with Loeb and Loeb. He began his career as a staff accountant with Coopers & Lybrand.

While in law school, Mark was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and was managing editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.

Honors and Awards