Jason Douthit works with employers and benefits consultants to unravel employee benefits questions. For over a decade, Jason’s focus has been simplifying and explaining the Internal Revenue Code, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and other complex retirement and healthcare plan laws.

Jason works closely with clients to create, evolve, and terminate tax-qualified retirement plans (401(k), profit sharing, traditional pension, and cash balance plans), non-qualified executive compensation plans, and both self-insured and fully-insured employer healthcare plans and multiple employer welfare arrangements. He also counsels clients on their fiduciary obligations to these plans and proactively monitors new legislation and IRS, PBGC, and U.S. Department of Labor regulations and guidance to help clients meet their goals while staying ERISA and tax code compliant. In the mergers and acquisitions context, Jason often reviews retirement plan documents and operations, and when warranted, suggests steps to correct defects and minimize risk.

Prior to Schwabe, Jason worked at Bullard Law exclusively as an employee benefits attorney, and at Independent Actuaries, where he was a senior consultant in charge of the firm’s defined contribution retirement plan practice. 

Bar Admissions

• Oregon State Courts

Education

• University of California, Davis School of Law, Juris Doctor degree (2006)‎
• San Francisco State University, Bachelor of Arts, Labor Studies and Philosophy, ‎magna cum laude (1999)‎
• American Society of Pension Professionals & ‎Actuaries, • Defined Benefit Plan Administration ‎Certificate (2014)‎
  • Tax-Exempt & Governmental Plan ‎Administration Certificate (2010)‎
  • Retirement Plan Fundamentals Certificate ‎‎(2007)‎

• Negotiated a substantial reduction in withdrawal liability for an employer that discontinued its contributions to a multiemployer (union) pension plan.
• Represented employers facing retirement plan audits from the IRS and U.S. Department of Labor.
• Corrected retirement plan document and operational failures through the IRS’s Voluntary Compliance Program and Self-Compliance Program.
• Counseled employers in meeting their fiduciary obligations to select and monitor service providers (e.g., third-party administrators, investment advisors, custodians, record-keepers) to their retirement and healthcare plans.

• 2023 Benefit Limits
• Using a Defined Benefit Plan for Business Succession Planning Purposes
• OP-ED: Prepare For Withdrawal Liability Before Selling a Company or Buying One
• Employer-Provided Travel Benefits in Response to Dobbs and State Prohibitions on Abortion
• Fully Subsidized COBRA Under the American Rescue Plan Act
• American Rescue Plan Act: Changes to Paycheck Protection Program, Certain Tax and ERISA Provisions, and Other Small Business Relief
• A Portland attorney on whether employers should review their health benefits coverage after recent Supreme Court rulings
• 2021 Benefit Limits
• OP-ED: Contractors, Take These Actions to Avoid Union Pension Liability
• OP-ED: To Attract and Retain a Diverse Workforce, Start with Self-Reflection
• PPP Authority Extended Through August 8, 2020

Seminar

• Pitfalls of Project Labor Agreements - Virtual Event