Haynes and Boone's Newsroom

Greta Cowart of Haynes and Boone Wins Coveted Burton Award for Legal Achievement
04/26/2012

DALLAS - Greta Cowart, a partner focusing on employee benefits and executive compensation, has been awarded a Burton Award for Legal Achievement for an article she authored for BNA Insights.

Cowart’s piece, “Standing at the Crossroads of ERISA and the Railway Labor Act: Choosing the Right Track and Avoiding Collateral Damage,” was one of 35 best law firm articles of 2012 as judged by the awards program in association with the Library of Congress. (To read the full article, click here.)

It is the second time in three years that Cowart has received national recognition for her writing. Last year she was named winner of the 2010 BNA Insights Awards, which honor practitioners and other thought leaders who have authored the best BNA Insights articles.

This year’s winning Burton entries were chosen from submissions by the nation’s 1,000 largest and most prestigious law firms. Nominations were placed into contention by firm managing partners.

Cowart will receive her honor at the Burton Awards event June 11 at the Library of Congress. This year marks the 13th for the non-profit program, which was initially established to honor the finest law firm and law school authors and now has expanded into other major achievements in law.

The 2012 awards program will feature retired United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens as guest of honor.

The submissions were judged by an Academic Board led by Virginia Wise, a renowned teacher at Harvard Law School; Anne E. Kringel, a widely recognized expert in legal writing and senior lecturer in law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School; Grace Tonner, a prominent dean from the University of California Law School at Irvine; Judge Ed Forstenzer, a distinguished judge from California’s Superior Court (retired); and William Ryan, a direct descendant of Noah Webster and former Chair of the White House Plain Language Committee.

Cowart is known for fixing complex employee benefit plan issues and has secured significant results in Internal Revenue Service employee plans team audits and in U.S. Department of Labor audits of employee benefit plans. During Greta's 26-year career, Greta has also resolved significant employee benefit compliance issues through the various voluntary compliance programs. Through her work on the Employee Benefits Committee of the American Bar Association, Section of Taxation, she has worked with the technical provisions governing retirement plans and executive compensation.

She has been recognized as one of The Best Lawyers in America for Employee Benefits, one of the Best Women Lawyers in Dallas for ERISA by D Magazine and as a Texas Super Lawyer.

Currently, Cowart is a regular contributor to Haynes and Boone's Practical Benefits Lawyer blog, which discusses issues and developments in the areas of employee benefits and executive compensation. She is also a member of the BNA Pension and Benefits Advisory Board.