Hardin Matthews was a Partner in the Tax & Benefits Department at Ropes & Gray LLP. He retired at the end of 2013 after 39 years of service for the firm. At Ropes & Gray, Hardin focused primarily on employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) from the perspectives of employers maintaining such plans and investment service providers offering investment management and investment products to such plans. His work involved compliance with the legal requirements applicable to benefit plans, including the complex tax rules administered by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the fiduciary responsibility rules administered by the US Department of Labor (DOL), and representation of employers and investment service providers in governmental audits and investigations.
Early in his career, Hardin served as Co-Chair of the ERISA Committee of the Boston Bar Association. Later, Hardin worked with the New England Employee Benefits Counsel (NEEBC), a Boston area benefits educational organization, in organizing annual Washington Update conferences featuring presentations by Washington, D.C. governmental benefits officials from the US Department of the Treasury, the IRS and the DOL. Hardin also represented NEEBC for approximately 20 years on the IRS Northeast Pension Liaison Group at regular meetings held in New York City attended by the IRS, the DOL, and practitioners representing various benefits educational organizations.
During the 2013 and 2014 tax seasons, Hardin served as a volunteer income tax preparer under the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program at The Neighborhood Developers, a community service organization located in Chelsea, preparing federal and Massachusetts tax returns in Chelsea and Revere.
Hardin holds a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
As an Access to Justice Fellow, Hardin will be representing clients of Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) in governmental tax audits, appeals, collection matters, and litigation. This work will be part of the services provided by GBLS under the Low Income Tax Clinic program funded in part by the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent unit within the IRS.