Kara Backus has rejoined Lane Powell as a Shareholder on the Labor, Employment & Benefits Team. She will also be a member of the Corporate, Securities and M&A, ERISA, Life, Health & Disability, Senior Living & Long Term Care, and Wage & Hour Teams. She previously worked as an Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Attorney at Lane Powell from 2012-2015.
Backus' practice is exclusively in the areas of employee benefits and executive compensation. Backus enjoys working with clients to help them better understand and solve their often complex employee benefits issues.
She has experience with qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, health and welfare benefit plans, executive compensation issues, and the employee benefits aspects of mergers and acquisitions. Backus counsels clients to design and draft benefit plans, monitor compliance with new legislation, analyze regulatory guidance under the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA, and to interact with the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor regarding plan issues. Backus also advises clients on COBRA and HIPAA issues, fiduciary responsibility, and prohibited transaction requirements.
In describing what brought her back to Lane Powell, Backus shared “I wanted to rejoin Lane Powell’s team of employee benefits specialists who work together to provide excellent service to clients across the benefits spectrum.”
Backus is a Board Member of the Oregon Retirement Savings Board and a former Portland Chapter President and current member of the Western Pension & Benefits Council. She has been named a Leading Lawyer by Chambers® USA and included in The Best Lawyers in America© in the area of employee benefits.
She received her J.D. from the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, and her B.A. in English and German from Amherst College.