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Stephanie O. Zorn is a principal in the St. Louis, Missouri, office of Jackson Lewis P.C.

Stephanie has over twenty years of experience representing management in employee benefits and employment matters, both as in-house counsel and in private practice.

Stephanie is co-lead of the firm’s Transactional Services group and spends a substantial amount of her practice assisting clients with the employment and employee benefits matters implicated in mergers and acquisitions, with a special focus on clients in the private equity, technology, consumer goods, manufacturing and healthcare sectors. Stephanie leads due diligence review, the drafting and negotiation of definitive deal documents, insurer and co-investor interface and closing and post-closing business integrations.

Stephanie’s employee benefits practice includes assisting clients with all aspects of a broad range of plans including retirement plans, health and welfare plans, nonqualified plans, executive compensation plans, severance plans and voluntary early retirement plans. Stephanie also defends plans and plan administrators in disability, group health plan and life insurance claim litigation including ERISA section 502(a)(1)(B) and (a)(3) claims. Stephanie’s practice also includes counseling clients on Internal Revenue Code, ERISA, COBRA, ACA, HIPAA and fiduciary compliance including investment selection, service provider reviews and plan committee issues.

Stephanie’s employment practice consists of counseling employers in connection with discrimination, harassment, disability accommodations, family and medical leave and wage and hour matters. Stephanie also assists clients with reductions in force and reorganizations, noncompete and confidentiality agreements, retention agreements, service provider classification, outsourcing and international labor and employment matters.

Stephanie is a frequent speaker on employee benefits and employment law issues.

In Newsom v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 4505 (5th Cir. Feb. 18, 2022), the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit clarified the difference between an eligibility determination and a disability determination for disability benefits.

James Newsom worked as a software architect for Lereta. He had a

In McIntyre v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, 972 F.3d 955 (8th Cir. 2020), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit clarified the standard of review to apply where there has been a denial of benefits challenged under ERISA Section 502(a)(1)(B).

Generally, a court reviews a denial of benefits under a