Education

University of California, Davis (J.D., 1985) (editor, U.C. Davis Law Review)

University of California, Los Angeles (B.A., 1982)

University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (1978-79)

Experience

Steve Rehaut joined the firm in 1986, and became a shareholder in 1992.

Mr. Rehaut’s practice focuses on providing legal representation to boards of trustees representing labor and management on Taft-Hartley multiemployer defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution pension plans, health and welfare plans, and savings and vacation plans.

Over the years Mr. Rehaut has worked extensively as lead or co-lead counsel with, among others, the Sheet Metal Workers’ Health and Pension Plans of Southern California, Arizona and Nevada; the Inland Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Retirement and Health Funds; the Los Angeles Machinist Benefit Trust, and the IBEW Local No. 952-Ventura Division of Los Angeles County Chapter NECA Pension Trust Fund.

Mr. Rehaut advises clients on all aspects of plan design and administration, which includes working with trustees on benefit issues and keeping plans in compliance with state and federal law. He keeps health plan clients up-to-date and in compliance with an alphabet soup of federal laws and regulations, including HIPAA, COBRA, the HITECH Act, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). He keeps pension plan clients up-to-date and compliant with the Pension Protection Act (PPA), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and federal tax laws and regulations. Steve also works proactively with client plans and boards to keep them on the cutting edge where they need to be, successfully employing often-innovative approaches and out-of-the-box solutions to meet new challenges, an ever-changing landscape of laws, regulations, and industry and litigation trends, and expanding governmental oversight.

Mr. Rehaut has extensive expertise and experience in the areas of plan documents, Summary Plan Descriptions (SPDs), service provider agreements, withdrawal liability claims, PPA rehabilitation plans and funding improvement plans, government reporting, benefit claims and appeals, plan terminations, plan mergers, pension plan determinations, and government regulations. He has successfully managed Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service audits and examinations for plan clients, and has extensive experience navigating the IRS Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System for plans dealing with compliance issues. Steve also has considerable experience litigating benefit issues, fiduciary issues, withdrawal liability issues, and collection matters of all size and stripe.

Among his recent accomplishments, Mr. Rehaut successfully prosecuted several large-dollar withdrawal liability claims, and recently represented a health plan in a lengthy and extensive DOL examination which concluded with no closing agreement and the plan receiving what was effectively a clean bill of health.

In addition to his ERISA practice, Mr. Rehaut has arbitrated discharge and contract arbitrations on behalf of firm clients and assisted with the firm’s National Labor Relations Board practice.

Mr. Rehaut is originally from Chicago, where he was a proud working member of the Retail Clerks International Union (now the UFCW) for several years while in high school. He is a graduate of UCLA and the U.C. Davis King Hall School of Law. Following law school and before beginning his career with Gilbert & Sackman, Steve served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas J. MacBride (deceased), a senior judge for the Eastern District of California federal district court.

Memberships

• California State Bar; California State Bar Labor and Employment Section

• Los Angeles County Bar Association Labor and Employment Section

• National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles chapter.

Selected Publications

• “California’s SEERA vs. The Civil Service System: Making State Employee Collective Bargaining Work”, 18 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 829 (1985).