Katuri Kaye focuses her practice on qualified retirement plans, including defined benefit plans (both traditional and cash balance plans) and defined contribution plans (401(k), profit sharing, ESOPs and money purchase pension plans), and plans of tax-exempt entities and public schools and universities, including 403(b) and 457 plans. Her clients include benefit plans, service providers and employers of all sizes and industries, including Fortune 50 companies. Katuri also serves as the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) Director.

Katuri works with clients regarding plan administrative issues; plan, SPD and amendment drafting; service provider and investment management agreement reviews; M&A due diligence and a variety of retirement plan qualification matters. Katuri also assists clients with responding to and negotiating the successful completion of Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and Department of Labor (“DOL”) plan audits. She also prepares many applications on behalf of clients under the various IRS and DOL correction programs. She has been very successful in obtaining the IRS’s approval of creative corrective measures under its Voluntary Correction Program (“VCP”) that provide the most cost-effective resolution for her clients.

Additionally, Katuri regularly counsels employers about their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), including with respect to plan governance, benefit claims, required plan notices, and selection and monitoring of plan service providers. She also provides fiduciary training to plan committees or to others who serve as the fiduciary of ERISA plans

Katuri remains up-to-date on all aspects of qualified plan reporting and disclosure in order to assist plan sponsors in timely compliance with regulatory requirements. She writes and speaks regularly on an array of ERISA and benefits issues, including the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”), retirement benefits for domestic partners, missing participants, controlled group considerations, plan governance, and the fiduciary responsibilities of retirement plan committees. When it comes to pressing issues that keep plan sponsors, employers and fiduciaries up at night, Katuri is the person to contact to help clients wrestle through those issues.

As the firm’s DEI Director, Katuri oversees the implementation of the firm’s DEI initiative. In this capacity she chairs the firm’s DEI Committee, provides vision and thought leadership, and helps develop and facilitate strategies, policies, and programs supportive of efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels at the firm. She also serves as the firm’s ambassador and point person for interactions with external organizations. Katuri has worked to promote DEI throughout her career, including with her involvement with the National Bar Association, the Black Women Lawyers Association of Northern California and the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Inc., where she has held several leadership positions.

Under her DEI leadership, the firm has developed a DEI Mission Statement, adopted a DEI Billable Credit Program recognizing attorneys who are involved in the firm’s DEI initiative and implemented an expectation through the annual evaluation process that all attorneys participate in a meaningful way in the firm’s DEI initiative.

Katuri is admitted in California, New York and Virginia, and currently practices in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Katuri has been recognized for her efforts and leadership, including being named by Los Angeles Business Journal as their 2020 Attorney of the Year in Labor and Employment for its “Leaders in the Law Award,” being recognized as a 2020 “Rising Star” by Southern California Super Lawyers, being named to Los Angeles Business Journal’s “2019 Most Influential Women Lawyers” list, being listed on the “Lawyers of Color 2013 Inaugural Hot 100,” and being honored at the National Bar Association’s “2012 Top 40 Advocates Under 40 Award”.

 

RECENT AND UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS

• Internal Revenue Service Updates the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System under Revenue Procedure 2021–30
• Retirement Plan Relief in Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
• Impact of the Historic Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act on Retirement Plans — and Action Items for Plan Sponsors
• Internal Revenue Service Provides Transition Relief to Code Section 403(b) Plans for Violations of the Once-In-Always-In Rule
• California to Move Forward with Auto-IRA Despite Loss of ERISA Safe Harbor
• IRS Provides Guidance on Mid-Year Changes to Safe Harbor Plans
• IRS Issues Final Regulations on the Determination of Minimum Required Contributions for Single Employer Defined Benefit Plans

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

• TRUCKER HUSS WEBINAR: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 — Understanding the Health and Welfare and Retirement Provisions