David Whaley

Partner, Thompson Hine

David Whaley
Partner, Thompson Hines
David is a partner in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation practice
group. He focuses his practice on assisting private and public companies and
nonprofit organizations with all areas of employee benefits, including design,
implementation and compliance in connection with tax qualified and
nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements (e.g., 409A compliance),
health and welfare arrangements and employee fringe benefits.
David has extensive experience in the area of employee stock ownership plans
(ESOPs). His ESOP experience includes representing company sponsors of
ESOPs and ESOP trustees and fiduciaries in acquisition transactions between
the company, selling shareholders and the ESOP. In addition, he has worked
with ESOP companies and ESOP trustees and fiduciaries in connection with
acquisitions, divestitures and corporate organization once the ESOP owns
company stock. Further, he assists both ESOP companies and lending
institutions in connection with loans being made to ESOP companies so as to
enable those companies to be able to meet their unique needs. Finally, David
assists both ESOP companies and ESOP trustees and fiduciaries in connection
with governmental investigations, participant claims processing, and
governmental and plaintiff litigation.
In addition to his ESOP experience, David’s practice encompasses assisting
employers with modifying and properly administering both small and large
defined benefit and defined contribution plans, supplemental retirement
programs, equity compensation programs, health and welfare arrangements
and employee fringe benefits programs.
In doing such, David assists nonprofit employers in drafting and administering
qualified and nonqualified plans, including 403(b), 457(b) and 457(f) plans. He
assists professional employer organizations (PEOs) in offering employee benefit
programs to their client organizations. David also has the unique experience of
assisting larger employers (both public and private) in establishing benefit
programs for newly established entities resulting from corporate reorganizations.
In addition, he represents plan sponsors before the Department of Labor,
Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in
connection with audits of employee benefit plans.
David also helps employers comply with the mandates of the Affordable Care
Act, providing counsel on the design of eligibility modifications to ensure
compliance with the terms of the “pay or play” mandate in a way that both
protects the employer from penalties while ensuring the continued delivery of an
employee benefit that serves the employer’s recruitment and retention goals.