Catherine M. Marriott

Kate Marriott serves as chair of the Employee Benefits Section. Her practice focuses on all areas of employee benefits, including stock-based compensation, executive and incentive compensation arrangements, pension and welfare plans for private and tax-exempt employers, ESOPs for public and privately-held companies, and ERISA issues arising in mergers and acquisitions.

Kate Marriott serves as chair of the Employee Benefits Section. Her practice focuses on all areas of employee benefits, including stock-based compensation, executive and incentive compensation arrangements, pension and welfare plans for private and tax-exempt employers, ESOPs for public and privately-held companies, and ERISA issues arising in mergers and acquisitions.

Before joining Williams Mullen, Ms. Marriott was a partner with Hunton & Williams in Richmond. Her experience includes negotiating employee benefits issues involving U.S. and non-U.S. employees in numerous corporate reorganizations, including international merger and acquisition transactions. She has designed change in control and executive severance benefits and associated trusts for use by many public companies. She has also addressed qualified plan, severance, health plan and other issues raised by reductions in force.

Ms. Marriott regularly provides advice on potential prohibited transactions and other fiduciary aspects of third-party service provider arrangements with qualified plans. She advises clients with respect to tax, ERISA, age discrimination and securities law aspects of qualified retirement plans. She also advises clients on tax and ERISA aspects of insurance company demutualizations involving benefit plan assets. Ms. Marriott has substantial experience in designing and advising clients on IRAs, SEPs and prototype retirement plans.

She is a member of the Virginia State Bar, as well as the American, Virginia and Richmond bar associations. She is a founding member of the Central Virginia Employee Benefits Council, a member of the board of directors for the Capital Area Health Network and is chairman of the board of directors for Family Lifeline. Martindale Hubbell has rated Ms. Marriott an AV attorney, its highest rating available. Ms. Marriott is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and has been named a “Super Lawyer” for Employee Benefits/ERISA by Virginia Super Lawyers magazine. In 2009, Ms. Marriott was named one of the “Top 50 Women Lawyers” by Virginia Super Lawyers magazine, and was among the “Influential Women” of Virginia by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. In 2010, Ms. Marriott received the Richmond YWCA Outstanding Women Award in the law category.

Ms. Marriott received her juris doctor degree from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary where she was a member of the Order of the Coif. She received her bachelor of science degree from Dickinson College. She received her master of education degree from the University of Virginia.