Michelle is an accomplished employee benefits and executive compensation lawyer with more than 25 years of experience advising clients on ERISA, benefits, and executive compensation matters, including in connection with corporate transactions. She also brings this knowledge and experience to counsel clients that are digitally transforming their business on the use of automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace and the related implications for employee benefits and compensation for their changing workforce. Michelle is called to represent Fortune 500 companies, multinational corporations, nonprofit entities, medium-sized businesses, and individual executives across a variety of industries, including financial services, health care, life sciences, technology, artificial intelligence, media, telecommunications, hospitality, and retail.

Drawing on her law firm, corporate in-house, and business experience, Michelle partners with clients' in-house attorneys, human resources professionals, and benefit plan service providers to develop practical solutions to technical issues that advance clients’ business goals. Clients value Michelle’s clear advice and dedication to working with their project teams. She is often approached to provide guidance on the design, administration, compliance, and termination of qualified plans (such as 401(k), profit-sharing, and pension plans); nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements (including top hat plans and SERPs); employee welfare benefit plans (including group health plans, cafeteria plans, wellness programs, and COBRA requirements); equity/incentive compensation programs (such as stock option, restricted stock, phantom stock, and executive bonus programs); severance plans, and other benefits programs. For corporate transactions, Michelle’s practice includes counseling clients on such issues as the treatment of equity awards, change-in-control and golden parachute issues, plan spin-offs and terminations, post-transaction benefits integration issues, severance, COBRA, multi-employer plan withdrawal liability, and PBGC issues. She also regularly reviews and negotiates her clients’ severance, vendor, trust, investment management, and service provider agreements, and advises clients on the design of plan participant communications. Michelle serves as a trusted advisor to clients on compliance with ERISA, the Affordable Care Act, the Internal Revenue Code, the SECURE Act, the CARES Act, CAA 2021, ARPA, and other laws affecting employee benefit plans. She regularly counsels clients on fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA, including providing advice on plan governance, fiduciary training, and cybersecurity risks for employee benefit plans, and assists plan sponsors, trustees, and Investment and Administrative Committees with the development of best practices. Michelle also represents clients in matters before the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and other government agencies, including in connection with the DOL Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program and the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System.

Michelle is a Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, and has received national awards and recognition for her work in employee benefits and executive compensation, including from Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, The Legal 500 United States, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Marquis Emerging Leaders. She has also been included on the New York Metro Super Lawyers, New York Metro Top Women, New York Metro Rising Stars, and New Jersey Rising Stars lists for her work in the area of employee benefits. In 2012, she received the Excellence in Achievement Award from Seton Hall University School of Law’s Peter W. Rodino, Jr. Society for her commitment to excellence and compassionate service in the field of law.

In addition to her practice, Michelle frequently speaks and writes articles on topics related to employee benefits and executive compensation, including health care and financial regulatory reform, fiduciary issues under ERISA, cybersecurity risks for employee benefit plans, and the outlook for employee benefits in the “future of work.” She has been a featured faculty speaker for continuing education programs offered by the New York City Bar Association, DC Bar Association, Strafford, Lawline, Clear Law Institute, and The Knowledge Congress. She has also published articles in and been interviewed for numerous publications such as The Employee Benefit Plan Review, The New York University Review of Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Journal of Pension Benefits, Practical Law (Practice Notes), Lexis Nexis Practice Advisor, Law360, Benefits Law360, The BNA Health Insurance Report, The BNA Pension & Benefits Reporter, The BNA Health Law Reporter, The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Confero Magazine, TechNews, and Financier Worldwide. Michelle has also served as an adjunct faculty member of the Seton Hall University School of Law, where she taught a course in Corporate Transactional Skills.

Prior to joining Mintz, Michelle was a member of a national law firm in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation and Health Care & Life Sciences practices. She has also practiced employee benefits law in the New York and New Jersey offices of several national and international law firms. In addition, Michelle has served in corporate in-house counsel roles with financial institutions, where she provided legal support to their retirement plan and equity award plan recordkeeping businesses. Michelle worked at a Wall Street brokerage company earlier in her career, assisting with retirement product development and obtaining her Series 7, Series 63, and other professional licenses required in the financial services industry. After law school, Michelle served as a judicial law clerk in the Civil Part of the Superior Court of New Jersey.

In law school, Michelle served as a member and assistant notes and comments editor of the Seton Hall Law Review and a co-captain of the Phillip C. Jessup International Moot Court Team. She also received several scholarships and interned with the civil court in Essex County, New Jersey and Seton Hall Law School’s Center for Social Justice.

ERISA Fiduciaries May Consider ESG Factors in Selecting Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights

November 30, 2022 | Alert | By Jacob Hupart, Michelle Capezza, Thomas R. Burton, III, Megan Gates

Read about a DOL final rule under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which clarifies that fiduciaries may consider climate change and other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when making investment decisions and exercising shareholder rights.

November 4, 2022 | Blog | By Corbin Carter, Michelle Capezza, Evan Piercey

Effective January 1, 2023, New York City employers will be prohibited from using artificial intelligence in employment decision-making processes unless they take a number of specific and affirmative steps prior to doing so, including a bias audit of the tool. These requirements have emerged following the passage of New York City Local Law 144 in December 2021, which creates a specific regime employers must adhere to in order to utilize automated employment decision tools, which the City has referred to as “AEDTs”. Many questions emerged following the passage of Local Law 144 and in response to some of these inquiries, the City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (“DCWP”) has proposed rules that provide some answers, expand upon Local Law 144, and regulate the use of AEDTs. Mintz attorneys Corbin Carter, Michelle Capezza and Evan Piercey analyze and discuss these proposed rules.

July 13, 2022 | Blog | By Michelle Capezza, Patricia Moran

Dobbs impacts employer-sponsored group health plan coverage for abortion services in states where abortion is, or becomes, illegal, and abortion-related travel benefits. While our earlier post focused on coverage of abortion and abortion-related travel services under a group health plan, and related ERISA preemption considerations, in this post Mintz attorneys Alden Bianchi, Michelle Capezza and Patricia Moran examine other approaches available to employers that seek to make these benefits available, such as HRAs, health FSAs, excepted benefit EAPs and HSAs.

June 29, 2022 | Webinar | By Anne Bruno, Michelle Capezza, David Lagasse

Interest in cryptocurrency investments has been increasing at a rapid pace and employers don't want to be left behind. In this webinar, team members from Mintz’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice break down key considerations employers face towards designing compensation programs to pay employees in the form of cryptocurrencies.

June 26, 2022 | Blog | By Jennifer Rubin, Michelle Capezza, Corbin Carter, Michael Arnold

With the Supreme Court’s decision reversing Roe v. Wade, employers may find themselves navigating complex benefits and tax-related issues. Our Employment, Labor & Benefits team examines what employers will confront if they seek to amend group health plans, or adopt new plans, programs or arrangements, in an effort to facilitate employee reproductive choice in a post-Roe v. Wade environment.

June 8, 2022 | Blog | By Michelle Capezza, Evan Piercey

This alert covers the key components, concerns, and considerations of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (“EEOC”) recently issued technical guidance, addressing how an employer’s use of software, algorithmic decision-making tools and AI to assist them in hiring workers, monitoring worker performance, determining pay or promotions, and establishing the terms and conditions of employment could violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”).

February 9, 2022 | Webinar | By Michelle Capezza, David Lagasse, Anne Bruno

In this webinar, members from our Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice discuss the latest in how employers must continue to manage their benefits and compensation programs to attract and retain talent. Hear our attorneys talk about 2022 trends in benefits and compensation and how companies should address the wide array of compliance issues affecting their programs.

February 4, 2022 | Blog | By Michelle Capezza

Last year, New York State joined an ever growing number of states requiring certain employers to either offer employees a retirement savings plan or enroll in the applicable state program. More specifically, the New York State Secure Choice Savings Program (“NY Secure Choice”) provides a retirement savings program in the form of an automatic enrollment payroll deduction IRA (similar to a Roth IRA) that allows employees to opt-out from participation. New York State employers, whether for profit or not for profit, with at least ten employees in the state at all times during the previous calendar year, who have been in business at least two years, and have not offered a qualified retirement plan in the last two years, are subject to the participation requirements of the NY Secure Choice (“Applicable Employers”).

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Michelle Capezza

Of Counsel

New York

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