Leslie B. Kramerich Assumes Pension Post As Acting Assistant Secretary Of Labor

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Leslie B. Kramerich has assumed the position of Acting Assistant Secretary of the Labor Department's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA). For the last year, Kramerich has been PWBA's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy.

She became Acting Assistant Secretary on Dec. 6 upon resignation of then Assistant Secretary Richard McGahey and will remain in the post until a permanent candidate is appointed.

Kramerich, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, will oversee more than 6.7 million private pension and welfare plans, with pension assets alone totaling nearly $4 trillion under PWBA's jurisdiction. She is responsible for administration, policy and enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

When she joined the department, Kramerich had experience in pension, securities and bankruptcy laws. She came to the department after five years of working with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as an attorney-advisor to the chief negotiator. While at PBGC, she participated in several landmark agreements between the government and private companies as well as provided financial, legislative, and regulatory analyses in support of various initiatives of the agency.

From May 1989 to November 1993, she was an attorney with Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, a Washington, D.C. law firm, where she advised clients on issues dealing with employee benefits, disability, tax and bankruptcy.

She also has legislative experience spanning the period 1982 to 1989. Kramerich served as advisor to minority members of the committee with oversight over federal government programs. And as a staff member to the Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health (Senator David Durenberger) and to the Chairman of the Senate Aging Committee (Senator John Heinz). She briefly served as an intern to the House Committee on Aging, working on issues related to corporate raiding of pension plans through asset reversions.

Kramerich also was a consultant to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), designing educational materials and a public outreach program to explain a newly-enacted Medicare program on physician payment. The project was widely disseminated to a broad spectrum of constituent groups, including AARP chapters, Medicare beneficiaries, health and senior citizen organizations, and consumers.

Professional affiliations include membership in the Ohio State Bar, District of Columbia Bar, and the American Bar Association.

Kramerich holds a Bachelor's of Science degree from Case Western Reserve University and earned a Juris Doctor from Ohio State University College of Law in 1984.

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Contact Name: Gloria Della
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