Reinhart’s Culotti helps clients make sense of retirement

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By MaryBeth Matzek
Special to The Daily Reporter

When Jessica Culotti mentions she works in employee benefits at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, she knows most people will assume she practices in employment law and handles terminations, contracts or harassment cases.

Those assumptions are not even close.

“I counsel employers and boards of trustees on a variety of retirement and welfare-plan issues to help them make the best choice for their companies, employees and participants,” Culotti said.

Culotti never imagined specializing in employee benefits law or working with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, also known as ERISA. She was serving as a judicial law clerk in Minnesota when she learned that Reinhart was looking for a lawyer to join its benefits department. The interview went well, Culotti quickly found she liked the other team members and she never looked back.

“I help clients figure out different situations related to their plans,” she said. “Retirement plans are complicated and often the law is not clear, which is why it is essential to have knowledgeable and experienced legal counsel.”

Culotti now works with several long-term clients, which can be helpful when she is trying to figure out why things are the way they are today.

“Someone will say, ‘Why is this provision in here or how did we address this situation before?’ and we have that history and background to answer those questions,” she said.

As laws change, as they often do, Culotti said it’s important to make sure employers and boards of trustees are kept up-to-date and that plans stay compliant.

“For people who don’t work regularly with these plans and this area of law, it is hard for them to understand the intricacies of the law, but at the end of the day it is all about doing what is best for the employers, boards of trustees and their employees and participants,” she said.

Wisconsin Law Journal: What makes your work important to you?
Jessica Culotti: As lawyers, it is our job to take complex laws and concepts and break them down to help people understand their rights and obligations. This is vital, whether a lawyer practices corporate law or family law, litigation or transactional work. What I enjoy about my job is being able to learn those laws and concepts and explain them in a way that allows a client who has limited, if any, exposure to that area to understand his or her options for complying with the law.

WLJ: What do you do outside of work to deal with stress from the office?
Culotti: As much as possible, I try to carve out some time each week to work out. I enjoy doing yoga, but any exercise helps me to relax. I am also fortunate to have great co-workers and they help keep me laughing when things get stressful.

WLJ: What’s one thing many people get wrong about what you do?
Culotti: A lot of people, even lawyers, think I practice employment law. If I say I specialize in employee benefits, there is a good chance the individual will launch into a story about how his or her friend, sister or uncle was wrongfully terminated. I then have to explain that employee benefits is different than employment law. Once I mention ERISA, most attorneys understand, but unless you practice or have experience in the field, most individuals are not familiar with the area of law.

WLJ: What’s your favorite memory from law school?
Culotti: My favorite memory from law school was the cane toss at the homecoming game during my third year. The University of Wisconsin Law School invites third-year law students to participate in the cane toss, where they are allowed to run across the field and toss their canes over the goalposts. As the story goes, if you catch your cane as it comes down on the other side you will win your first case. If you drop the cane, you will lose the case. I caught my cane so if I ever litigate a case, I feel pretty good about my chances for success.