Employee Benefits Institute of America

Editor/Contributing Author

Howard D. Bye (since June 2007). Mr. Bye is a Senior Editor at EBIA. Before joining EBIA, Mr. Bye practiced law for 22 years focusing on employee benefit matters for health, cafeteria, and welfare plans. He serves on the editorial board of the ABA’s The Health Lawyer. Mr. Bye graduated summa cum laude from Wartburg College and received his law degree with high honors from the University of Texas in 1985, where he was awarded the Order of the Coif.

Contributing Authors

John R. Hickman (since June 1997). Mr. Hickman is a partner in the Employee Benefits Practice Group with Alston & Bird in Atlanta. His practice focuses upon health and welfare benefit plan matters, representing employers, insurers, and administrators. Mr. Hickman is on the Publications Committee of the Self Insurance Institute of America (SIIA) and is chair of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC). He received his law degree from Emory University School of Law in 1989, and was awarded the Order of the Coif.

Andrew Ky Haynes (since Dec. 1998). Mr. Haynes is a Shareholder and Director of Haynes Benefits PC in Kansas City, Missouri. He practices primarily in the area of employee benefits, representing private and governmental plans, tax-exempt organizations and service providers. Mr. Haynes has served as Chairman of the Missouri Bar Employee Benefits Committee and the Missouri Department of Insurance Liaison Committee. Mr. Haynes received his law degree from Emory University School of Law in 1982, where he was Research Editor of the Emory Law Journal.

Cheryl Musselman-Brown (since Feb. 1999). Ms. Musselman-Brown is EBIA’s Vice President and Publisher. Before joining EBIA, Ms. Musselman-Brown practiced employee benefits law for nine years in one of Seattle’s largest law firms. She received her law degree in 1990 from the University of Washington, and was Executive Editor of Operations for the Washington Law Review.

Rebecca L. Williams (since Sept. 2000). Ms. Williams is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Seattle where she is co-chair of the HIT/HIPAA Practice Group. Ms. Williams graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a B.S. in nursing and received her J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law where she was the editor of Women’s Law Reporter. Ms. Williams wishes to thank Davis Wright Tremaine and the DWT HIT/HIPAA Practice Group for the use of material from Davis Wright Tremaine advisories and alerts (which can be found at http://www.dwt.com/hipaa.htm ).

John L. Barlament (since Dec. 2002). Mr. Barlament is a partner with Michael Best & Friedrich LLP in Milwaukee where he practices in employee benefits law. He advises employers, administrators, brokers, and benefit consultants on all aspects of employee benefits law. He has spoken nationally on a variety of employee benefit topics and is a frequent author on these topics. Mr. Barlament received his law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1997.

James D. O’Connell (since Mar. 2006). Mr. O’Connell is Special Counsel to Much Shelist Freed Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein, P.C., in Chicago. He represents employee benefit plans as both counselor and litigator. He was previously an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and General Counsel to the Hotel Employees International Union Pension and Welfare Funds. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received his law degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1979.