Laurie Kirkwood

• Assisted multistate third-party administrators with various state law licensing and HIPAA administrative simplification regulations, as well as analyzing ERISA preemption issues and drafting service agreements.
• Advised a large national insurance company on HSA compliance and state law issues.
• Counseled a leading national food service and wine, spirits and beer distributor in matters related to COBRA administration, qualified domestic relations orders, and cafeteria plan compliance.

Laurie Kirkwood is a senior attorney in Alston & Bird’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group. She concentrates her practice on health and welfare benefit plans, including compliance with ERISA, MHPAEA, HIPAA, ACA, COBRA, and other federal law matters that arise in plan administration. She publishes articles on current developments related to health & welfare plan administration and is the co-author of Complying with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act published by AIS. She drafts health and welfare plans for employers, insurers, and third-party administrators and reviews service provider agreements. Laurie works closely with plan fiduciaries and in-house counsel to represent clients before administrative bodies such as the IRS, DOL, and state/local regulatory agencies.

Bar Admissions

• Georgia

Education

• Emory University (J.D., 2005)
• Georgia State University (B.A., 1994)