Michael L. Hadley
Partner
Michael Hadley is a partner in the law firm Davis & Harman LLP. He practices in the area of employee benefits, advising clients on the full range of tax, ERISA, and other laws affecting benefit plans. He has a particular focus on helping financial institutions that sell products to defined contribution and defined benefit plans, IRAs and similar plans navigate the special rules that govern those plans. He also provides clients with strategic advice, plan design, counseling, and compliance assistance for qualified plans, 403(b) and 457 plans, non-qualified executive compensation, employment agreements, and health and other welfare plans.
Mr. Hadley regularly advocates on retirement public policy for a range of trade associations, financial institutions, and service providers before Congress, the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Hadley is a frequent speaker on the latest retirement savings policy developments coming out of Congress and the regulatory agencies and has testified multiple times before Treasury, IRS, and Department of Labor.
Mr. Hadley was formerly Associate Counsel for Pension Regulation at the Investment Company Institute, the national association of U.S. investment companies. Prior to joining ICI, Mr. Hadley was with the law firm Covington & Burling LLP in the employee benefits group.
Among his professional activities, Mr. Hadley serves on the Program Advisory Committee for RetirePath, Virginia’s state-run automatic IRA program for small businesses. He is the co-editor of the 403(b) Answer Book and is the author of the chapter on “Annuities in Tax-Favored Retirement Plans” in the Annuities Answer Book. He has served on the management committee and from 2018 to 2019 he served as the firm’s Managing Partner.
Mr. Hadley was a law clerk for the Honorable Gerald Tjoflat, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was Notes Editor of the Virginia Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. He received his B.A., cum laude, from the College of William and Mary.
- Associate Counsel for Pension Regulation, Investment Company Institute
- Associate, Covington & Burling
- Law Clerk to Hon. Gerald Tjoflat, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Virginia
