Wednesday, November 25, 2015
I'd like to add to Mark Dray's comments (on the ACEBC list serve), and some of this is a story I told at the ERISA 40th anniversary seminar. When I was a baby lawyer (as Dan Halperin might have said, not even a "real lawyer") at Treasury and Ian Lanoff was head of employee benefit matters at DOL, Ian and I made a lunch date with Don Lubick (then Asst Secy of the Treas for Tax Policy) at a Chinese restaurant and Ian laid out (as he recalls, on a napkin) a plan to move prohibited transactions over to DOL in whole, and IRAs to the IRS in whole (rather than joint jurisdiction - I'm making this all a little quick and dirty and apologies if I've messed up the details). What we've since referred to as the Chinese lunch deal. This plan of course took jurisdiction away, mainly, from the IRS. Al Lurie was then head of EP/EO and he asked Don and me for an audience to make his pitch NOT to take away the IRS's joint jurisdiction (or possibly to move it all to the IRS - I don't recall). We listened, but then told him we were sticking with the plan - which became Reorg Plan #4. I always thought Al would intensely dislike me after that, would avoid me, and certainly would do me no favors. Quite the opposite; he was, as Mark has said, a gentleman throughout, and continued to give me writing and speaking opportunities, essentially to be a mentor and always to treat me as a friend. Yes, an ERISA scholar, and a gentleman. He will be missed.
Dianne Bennett
