Erek M. Sharp

Erek M. Sharp is a Partner in the firm's Employee Benefits and Labor and Employment Practice Groups.

In his Employee Benefits practice, Erek regularly analyzes, drafts and amends both qualified and nonqualified plan documents. He has extensive experience counseling a diverse roster of clients in connection with plan implementation, compliance and termination-related matters arising under ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code and other applicable laws. Erek assists clients in identifying and correcting operational, plan document and fiduciary failures under the EPCRS and VFCP guidelines. He has also negotiated correction methods and related excise tax issues with the IRS and the DOL.

Erek also counsels clients with regard to their fiduciary obligations and has provided advice in connection with prohibited transaction issues and the application of related class or statutory exemptions. In addition, Erek has prepared applications on behalf of clients for individual exemptions.

Erek advises plan sponsors, named fiduciaries, trustees and investment advisers in connection with the investment of benefit plan assets in both traditional and alternative investment vehicles (both domestic and offshore), including plan asset funds, VCOCs and REOCs, and reviews and negotiates the terms of related advisory/service agreements and fund documents. In the fund formation context, he has counseled clients in connection with their fiduciary obligations when operating funds that hold pension assets.

Erek also counsels clients in connection with benefits and compensation issues arising in merger and acquisition transactions. In addition, he has advised clients in connection with the design and implementation of various types of non-qualified deferred compensation plans and arrangements, change in control agreements and severance/separation pay programs and agreements, as well as their reporting and disclosure obligations with respect thereto.

• Business and Finance
• Employee Benefits
• Labor and Employment
• Tax
• Tax-Exempt Organizations
• Tax Practice and Procedure
• Distributor, Dealer, Franchise Group

• Connecticut Chapter of the National Institute of Pension Administrators, Board Member
• Mercy Housing and Shelter Corp., Board Member

• September 13, 2018 - After Recent Attorney Additions, Murtha Cullina LLP Labor and Employment Practice Group Prepares for Fall Seminars
• June 29, 2018 - Erek M. Sharp Joins Murtha Cullina LLP Employee Benefits Practice Group

• Connecticut
• Massachusetts
• New York
• Maine

• University of Maine School of Law (J.D., 1998)
• University of Maine (B.A., 1995)