Andrew H. Cox

Andrew H. Cox, who died in 2007 at age 89, was an expert and prolific lecturer in the developing retirement plan law under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). He became a Charter Emeritus Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”) in 2000.

Andy received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in 1938, graduating magna cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and his Juris Doctorate degree from Harvard Law School in 1941. He was a veteran of WWII, serving from 1942 to 1946 in the U.S. Army field artillery and attained the rank of captain.

Andy was an associate and a partner in the law firm of Ropes & Gray from 1945 to 1989 where he was the head of the firm’s employee benefits practice. He gained special insight into ERISA and its beginnings when he served as a special assistant to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in 1974 and 1975 immediately following the law’s enactment.

Andy was one of the attorneys who tackled a difficult and uncharted new law that dramatically changed the legal landscape for retirement plans. College Fellow and colleague Russ Gaudreau shared that “Andy hired me to help him with his pension and profit sharing practice at Ropes and Gray in 1970. This of course was before ERISA. Andy was an unbelievable teacher and mentor. He not only taught me the fundamentals of the law, which in those days was a combination of Internal Revenue Code provisions and state law, but also how to draft complex plan documents in the simplest and most understandable way. He was one of the most patient instructors I have ever worked with. During and after the passage of ERISA, he and I spent countless hours studying and discussing the new requirements of Titles I and II.”

Of course, understanding the notoriously intricate law was one thing and educating and advising clients an additional challenge. Russ recalled that Andy excelled at both, “He was also great with clients. His ability to explain the most complex ERISA requirements to clients in a simple and understandable way was uncanny. He would spend whatever time it took to make sure that the client fully understood all the intricacies of the law and its plan documents.”

In addition to his service to his clients and to the public, Andy helped train many other lawyers in the complexities of ERISA. For over 30 years, Andy was a frequent lecturer for the American Law Institute-American Bar Association (“ALI-ABA”) seminars, teaching both basic and advanced courses on pension, profit sharing and other deferred compensation plans. For some years, beginning in 1959, he conducted a seminar on deferred compensation plans as an adjunct professor of law at the Boston University School of Law Graduate Tax Program.

Andy was a member of the ABA Tax Section from 1965 to 1989 and was a groundbreaker having served as the first Chair of the Employee Benefits Committee. He was a founding member of the American College of Tax Counsel from 1980 to 1989 and served as their Chair from 1987 to 1989.

Russ Gaudreau described Andy as extremely kind, competent, and caring, stating, “No one could have had a better “boss” and no client could have had a better ERISA counsel.” His active role extended to his private life. He was a town meeting member in Swampscott, MA, and served as residential chair of the United Fund in Milton, MA. His friends recalled his lovely laughter, his towering presence, and his sense of humor-a smirk and quick comment.

Photo Source: The Decade Book, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel 2000-2010