Kent A. Mason
Partner
Despite having done this job since the days of the electric typewriter, Kent continues to advise Davis & Harman LLP clients in the retirement savings area. He says that he loves his job, and thinks that everyone would love ERISA if they got to know it (sadly, he actually believes that). He works primarily with major employers, large plans, and national vendors of retirement plan services. Perhaps because he has been doing this for so long, somehow he is viewed as an expert in the full range of retirement savings issues—including all types of retirement plans and IRAs—with respect to tax, ERISA, and PBGC matters. He has also been known to talk a lot about VEBAs and 401(h) accounts.
Kent frequently represents clients before Congress, the IRS, Treasury, the Department of Labor, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, on issues he knows well technically, avoiding lobbying on issues he doesn’t know fully. He reserves talking without any knowledge for his home life where no one pays attention to him anyway. Kent speaks frequently on employee benefits issues, is often quoted in media sources such as Pensions & Investments, Plansponsor.com, and Bloomberg Government, and has testified on many occasions at hearings before Congress, the IRS, and the Department of Labor.
Kent is on many Super Lawyers lists, best this or that lists, Chambers list, etc. His view of lists was, however, tainted in February of 2017 when Institutional Investor listed him as #23 on its list of Pension Power Players, one behind Senator Elizabeth Warren and one ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders. Kent found it fun to be listed, but had trouble understanding his position, having slightly less name recognition than those two. (Try asking family members if they recognize any of the following names: Senator Warren, Senator Sanders, or Kent Mason.)
For fans of the really old days, prior to joining Davis & Harman, Kent served as a Legislation-Attorney for the Joint Committee on Taxation, U.S. Congress, and as an Attorney-Advisor in the Office of Tax Policy of the US Department of the Treasury. After law school, he served as a Law Clerk for Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Kent received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and was elected to the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel.
- Legislation Attorney, Joint Committee on Taxation, US Congress
- Attorney-Advisor, Office of Tax Policy, US Department of the Treasury
- Law Clerk to Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch, US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- American College of Employee Benefits Counsel
- American Bar Association
- District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Virginia
