Mary B. Hevener joins The Wagner Law Group as partner in New York

The Wagner Law Group named Mary B. Hevener as a partner in its New York office on Aug. 3, adding a veteran ERISA, employee benefits and executive compensation lawyer. The hire expands the firm’s tax and benefits bench as it handles mergers, audits, litigation and compensation planning for corporate clients.

Why it matters: - Mary B. Hevener brings deep experience in ERISA, employee benefits, executive compensation and payroll tax disputes to The Wagner Law Group. - The hire strengthens the firm’s ability to advise companies on tax, reporting and litigation issues tied to employee compensation and benefits. - Hevener’s background includes major corporate transactions, audits and tax cases that can affect payroll taxes, deductions and worker classification.

What happened: - Marcia S. Wagner, managing director of The Wagner Law Group, announced that Mary B. “Handy” Hevener joined the firm as a partner in the New York office. - Wagner described Hevener as one of the most recognized names in ERISA, employee benefits and executive compensation law. - The announcement was dated Aug. 3, 2026.

The details: - Hevener advises U.S. and multinational companies on how to minimize federal and state payroll taxes and maximize benefits-related tax deductions. - Her practice covers tax and information reporting for benefits outside qualified retirement plans, including stock options, stock-based compensation, executive income deferrals, golden parachutes and fringe benefits. - Her fringe-benefit work includes health and life insurance, employee loans, cars, planes and prizes. - Hevener works on more than a dozen mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs and IPOs each year. - That transactional work includes golden parachute issues, stock option deduction allocations, limits on deductions for executives earning more than $1 million a year and payroll tax problems for successor employers. - Outside M&A, she advises on compensation and benefit program design, employment and consultant contracts, and corporate and payroll tax audits at the federal and state levels. - She also handles penalty abatements and ruling requests from the IRS and state tax departments. - Hevener has led tax cases involving employee meals and per diem payments, corporate aircraft deductions, stock option taxation, bonus accruals, Railroad Retirement taxes on stock and moving expense payments, FICA treatment of ESPP options and tipped employees’ compensation, worker classification, and payments to former employees outside qualified retirement plans. - She has headed an attorney group that handles audits and appeals involving federal and state payroll taxes, airline excise taxes and corporate tax deduction issues across financial, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, restaurant, hospitality, railroad and airline industries. - The firm said those cases have saved clients more than $8 billion in proposed taxes and penalties over the past decade. - The cases have involved stock and stock options for U.S. and overseas employees, reimbursements for travel and moving expenses, tax return preparation, company cars, airplanes, cafeteria meals, litigation settlement payments and worker classification issues. - Hevener has been listed in Chambers USA every year from 2011 to 2026 and in The Best Lawyers in America each year. - She was named 2019 Lawyer of the Year by the New York Law Journal in Litigation and Controversy - Tax in New York City. - Earlier in her career, Hevener served as an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Tax Legislative Counsel. - In that role, she worked on tax issues involving current and deferred employee benefits, golden parachute payments, information reporting and worker classification. - She also worked on legislation and IRS guidance covering alternative minimum taxes, Social Security taxes, unemployment taxes, tax-exempt organizations and several excise taxes. - Hevener has served for decades on New York University’s Institute on Federal Taxation’s Advisory Board. - She speaks frequently before the Tax Executives Institute and was one of the original members of the IRS Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee.

Between the lines: - The move gives The Wagner Law Group another nationally known specialist in a niche area where tax, benefits and employment law overlap. - Hevener’s mix of deal work, audit defense and litigation suggests the firm is positioning itself for complex corporate matters rather than narrow benefits counseling alone.

What's next: - Hevener is expected to contribute to the firm’s New York-based work on executive compensation, employee benefits and tax controversy. - The Wagner Law Group is likely to continue marketing its national ERISA and employee benefits practice around high-stakes corporate tax and payroll issues.

The bottom line: - The Wagner Law Group added a high-profile tax and benefits lawyer whose experience spans transactions, audits, litigation and policy work.