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With 17 offices, from New York to Los Angeles and Seattle to Orlando, we live and work in communities all over the U.S., collaborating across locations, disciplines and even borders. Our experienced, highly ranked lawyers serve businesses wherever they are and wherever they want to go.

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Am Law 100 firm with practices in Business, Digital Assets and Data Management, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment, Litigation and Tax.

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The View from the ANA Kids Table [ANA Children’s Advertising Recap]

It’s the Holiday Season, and the NLRB Is the Union-Friendly Gift That Keeps On Giving

Carl Hittinger Comments on Behalf of Client Alon USA Energy in Law360 Article

Preparing for the 2024 Proxy and Annual Reporting Season: Key Issues and Considerations

He is particularly adept at handling the challenges and disputes that plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries and other stakeholders face when things go wrong, regardless of the root cause, including private litigation, and regulatory inquiries and enforcement actions. John considers all aspects of matters facing his clients and crafts practical, long-term solutions that can withstand challenge. Particular areas of experience include multiemployer plan disputes (both&nbsp;plan disputes and disputes with others over responsibility for plan-related liabilities), health care reform (including the Affordable Care Act) and related tax sanctions, worker misclassification matters, high stakes ERISA litigation&nbsp;and executive compensation arrangements.

John is routinely ranked in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation (Band 1; highest ranking) and in The Best Lawyers in America® (in which he has been named “Lawyer of the Year” three times: in 2014, 2015 and 2020).

core/freeform

J.D., University of Toledo College of Law, 1983

B.B.A., Accounting, University of Toledo, 1978

<ul>
<li>Chambers USA: Employee Benefits &amp; Executive Compensation in Ohio (2006 to present)
<ul>
<li>Band 1 (2008 to 2023)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Best Lawyers in America® (2008 to present)
<ul>
<li>Ohio: Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law
<ul>
<li>Best Lawyers® &#8220;Lawyer of the Year&#8221; (2014)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Ohio: Litigation &#8211; ERISA
<ul>
<li>Best Lawyers® &#8220;Lawyer of the Year&#8221; (2015, 2020)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Ohio &#8220;Super Lawyer&#8221; (2005 to 2006, 2008 to 2016)</li>
</ul>

Cleveland

Chambers USA Guide 2023 Honors 147 BakerHostetler Attorneys and Recognizes 64 Practice Areas

Hundreds of BakerHostetler Attorneys Honored as 2023 Best Lawyers, Ones to Watch and Lawyers of the Year

Chambers USA Guide 2022 Honors 145 BakerHostetler Attorneys and Recognizes 62 Practice Areas

John McGowan, Ray Malone Offer Insights on Executive Benefit Strategies

191 BakerHostetler Attorneys Named in 2022 “Best Lawyers” List; 10 Recognized as “Lawyer of the Year”

Webinar: Compensation Strategies for Section 4960

Chambers and Partners USA Honors 134 BakerHostetler Attorneys and 55 Practice Areas in 2021 USA Guide

Treasury Allows Employers That Choose Not to Withhold Employee Share of Social Security Taxes Pursuant to Presidential Memorandum to Collect and Pay Those Taxes in 2021

195 BakerHostetler Attorneys Named in 2021 “Best Lawyers” List; 13 Recognized as “Lawyer of the Year”

Steven Goldberg, Jorian Rose Lead BakerHostetler Team Representing Investment Firm in $75 Million Stalking Horse Purchase Agreement for Balducci’s, Kings Food Markets

President Signs Four COVID-19 Relief Orders, Including Deferral of Certain Payroll Tax Obligations

Chambers and Partners USA Honors 121 Attorneys and 35 Practice Areas in 2020 Guide

John McGowan Quoted by Bloomberg Regarding End to Healthcare Insurance Subsidies

John McGowan Comments on Rules Designed to Stabilize ACA Insurance Markets

150 BakerHostetler Attorneys Named 2016 Super Lawyers; 91 Named Rising Stars

John McGowan Analyzes Supreme Court’s ERISA Preemption Ruling

John McGowan Tells Bloomberg that Healthcare Alliance was “Long Overdue”

John McGowan Talks to Bloomberg Labor Report About DOL’s Authority Over IRAs

John McGowan Quoted by Politico Regarding “King v. Burwell” Decision

John McGowan Tells Law360 That Burwell Decision May Have Wide-Ranging Implications

John McGowan Comments on Departing Insurance Industry Leader in Bloomberg BNA Health Law Article

John McGowan’s Article, “Anthem Data Breach Focuses Attention on Role Benefit Plan Fiduciaries Play in Managing & Controlling Plan Records” is Published in Bloomberg BNA Health Insurance Report and Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Daily

Bloomberg’s article “Madoff Victims to Get $322 Million in Trustee Payout” acknowledges BakerHostetler attorneys at announcement of fifth distribution plans

John McGowan Tells QSR Magazine “Applicable Large Employers” Must Provide Healthcare Coverage to Employees Under Affordable Care Act

Employment Class Actions: Strategies for Target Defendants

The Associated Press reports on BakerHostetler and the Madoff Recovery Initiative recoveries of $10.5 billion

CNBC reports on BakerHostetler and the Madoff Recovery Initiative in article Madoff Recoveries Top $10 Billion With New Settlement, “… an amount virtually no one thought possible”

BakerHostetler talks with USA Today about the SIPA Trustee’s fourth pro rata interim distribution; states Madoff Recovery Initiative nears $6 billion in distributions to allowed claimants

BakerHostetler’s settlement with JPMorgan Chase and the ongoing Madoff Recovery Initiative Discussed on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered

PPACA Delay Does Not Signal End of Affordable Care Act, John McGowan Says

PPACA Delay Means Employees May Head to Insurance Exchanges, John McGowan Tells NBC News

BakerHostetler appears on NPR’s All Things Considered to discuss Madoff Recovery Initiative; host Robert Siegel interviews SIPA Trustee Irving Picard and his Chief Counsel David Sheehan

Madoff Recovery Initiative surpasses $5 billion in distributions to allowed claimants; CNBC’s Scott Cohn discusses latest recovery with BakerHostetler’s SIPA Trustee Irving Picard and his Chief Counsel David Sheehan

McGowan Discusses New NHL Benefit Plan in Pensions & Investments

Madoff Recovery Initiative Marks Fourth Anniversary … Moves into Fifth Year Still Building Recovery Momentum

McGowan Discusses Affordable Care Act at Crain’s Cleveland Healthcare Reform Breakfast

McGowan Discusses Affordable Care Act Implications for Employers in InsideCounsel

BakerHostetler’s work recovering more than half of the losses in the Madoff Ponzi scheme featured on WNYC in interview on The Brian Lehrer Show

Press Release: Second Interim Distribution of Recovered Funds to Madoff Claim Holders

McGowan Discusses Affordable Care Act’s Risk Adjustment Component in Bloomberg BNA

Mills and McGowan Offer Advice to Employers in Light of the PPACA

Press Release: United States Supreme Court Denies Certiorari, Upholding Net Equity Decision in BLMIS Liquidation

McGowan Comments on Equity-Based Compensation Awards in Tax Analysts

The Wall Street Journal showcases BakerHostetler and the “unprecedented magnitude” of the global recovery efforts in article “The Madoff Liquidation, Three Years Later”

Health Law Update—January 5, 2012

McGowan Publishes “Safe Harbor or Venus Fly Trap? What to Make of the IRS Offer to Voluntarily Settle Worker Misclassification Problems” in BNA Pension & Benefits Daily and BNA Pension & Benefits Reporter

Press Release: Initial Interim Distribution of Recovered Funds to Madoff Claims Holders

The New York Times reports on BakerHostetler’s negotiation and settlement with the Picower Estate for $5 billion in the SIPA liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC

McGowan Addresses Orlando HR Professionals on Health Care Reform

Executive Compensation

Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation

Health and Welfare Benefit Plans

Noncompete and Trade Secrets

Contingent Workforce: Gig Economy Platforms

Employment Deal Team

Strategic Healthcare Initiatives

Contingent Workforce

Contingent Workforce: Suppliers of Contingent Workers

Contingent Workforce: Users of Contingent Workers

Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Controversies

ERISA Litigation

Industries

Healthcare

<ul>
<li>In litigation spanning eight years, was a key member of a team representing a business owner who sold his family&#8217;s business to the business&#8217;s employees by setting up an employee stock ownership plan. The owner was then sued by a class consisting of current and former employees claiming the terms of the sale were unfair. Contentious litigation ensued, with three separate employee groups taking extreme positions. Following a series of strategic victories on key motions, including one forcing a division of the class into separate classes and the appointment of separate counsel and one involving the realignment of fiduciaries, the case was settled on terms economically favorable to the client.</li>
<li>For the past 35 years, has regularly advised and represented nonprofit organizations, ranging from tax-exempt pension and welfare trust funds and tax-exempt trade associations, co-ops, educational institutions and public charities to taxable nonprofit mutual insurance companies, in connection with a variety of executive compensation, pension investment, and health and welfare plan regulatory matters.</li>
<li>In litigation spanning eight years and involving two Ohio Supreme Court decisions, changed the laws in Ohio for dividing public employees’ benefits in a divorce or dissolution.</li>
<li>Helped an international manufacturer restructure its commitments following the strategic acquisition of a failing business with substantial legacy costs. To facilitate the restructuring, represented the client in three class action lawsuits brought by retirees – a certified class action involving collectively bargained retirees, a putative class action involving management retirees and an enforcement action brought to enforce a consent decree the client was alleged to have violated. Appeared in the Second and Sixth U.S. Courts of Appeals and in U.S. district courts in Ohio, Connecticut and Alabama to overcome the three lawsuits.</li>
</ul>

John J. McGowan Jr.

John J. McGowan Jr.

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