Butzel Long Attorney Appointed to the U.S. Department of Labor's Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans.

Business Editors/Legal Writers

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2003

Butzel Long supervisory attorney Antoinette M. Pilzner has been appointed to serve on the U.S. Department of Labor's Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans. She was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and will serve a three-year term ending in November 2005, it was announced today by Butzel Long Chairman and CEO Richard E. Rassel.

The ERISA Advisory Council, as it is commonly known, consists of 15 members appointed by the Labor Secretary to three-year terms. The members represent various stakeholders in the employee benefits world.

The ERISA Advisory Council is a statutorily created body and is the highest non-governmental body in the U.S. organized to advise the Department of Labor on employee benefits policy. It serves to assist the Department of Labor in carrying out its agency function in the area of benefits.

"It is an honor to be appointed to serve on the ERISA Advisory Council," said Ms.Pilzner. "I look forward to contributing my experience and expertise with employee benefit plans to the Department of Labor's efforts to address issues faced by the employers who sponsor plans and the employees who participate in those plans."

Ms. Pilzner is based in Butzel Long's Ann Arbor office. She is a graduate of Wayne State University Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1995), where she was an Associate Editor of the Wayne Law Review and was awarded the Order of the Coif. She also has an M.S. in Taxation from Walsh College of Accountancy and Business Administration (with distinction, 1990).

Ms. Pilzner practices primarily in the area of ERISA and employee benefits, including qualified retirement plans, executive compensation arrangements, and welfare benefit plans. She assists clients in establishing new benefit plans, revising existing benefit plans to address business needs and changes in federal law, administering plans to comply with ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code and terminating benefit plans.

She is also a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and currently serves on its National Compensation and Benefits Committee. Ms. Pilzner recently testified on behalf of SHRM before the ERISA Council's working group studying employee benefit plan fiduciary training and education. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan (Labor & Employment Law and Tax Law Sections) and the American Bar Association (Labor & Employment Law and Tax Law Sections). She is also a Certified Public Accountant licensed to practice in Michigan, and is a member of the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants. Ms. Pilzner also instructs classes on COBRA compliance for the American Society of Employers.

Butzel Long was established in 1854 and is headquartered in Detroit. Butzel Long is one of Michigan's oldest and largest law firms, with more than 200 attorneys and offices in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Holland, Mich., Naples and Boca Raton, Fla., as well as Alliance offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. The firm represents clients from diverse industries on a regional, national and multi-national level and is the sole Michigan member of Lex Mundi, a global association of 160 independent law firms. Visit the Butzel Long website at www.butzel.com.