Margi Butler

Margi Butler worked at the Regional Solicitor’s Office at the U.S. Department of Labor for over thirty years enforcing all areas of Federal worker protection laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act, Child Labor provisions, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Executive Order 11246 (Discrimination), various Whistleblower statutes, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Davis Bacon Act, and other labor statutes. Over the years she retrieved millions of dollars in unpaid wages, retirement funds and health claims for employees.

For the last ten years before she retired at the end of 2021, Margi was Counsel for ERISA during which time she managed the Secretary of Labor’s ERISA litigation in New England and provided advice to the Boston Regional Office of the Employee Benefits Security Administration. Prior to attending law school, she worked for Local 26 of the Hotel Restaurant Workers Union and became involved in employee benefits from both the perspective of union negotiations and the administration of benefits. Through her work at the DOL and in the Union, she became committed to expanding health care access and equity. Margi is an active member and former co-chair of the Employee Benefits Committee in the Labor Section of the American Bar Association. The pandemic underscored the inequities in the health care system and the lack of access to quality health care for many people in the United States.

Margi received a BA in political science from Wellesley College and a JD from Harvard Law School. She clerked for Judge Rudolph Kass at the Massachusetts Appeals Court. She is trained as a mediator and has mediated EEOC cases and Whistleblower cases. She serves as an Election Commissioner for the City of Newton, MA, and is an advocate in the area of Special Education and access to jobs for people with intellectual disabilities.

As a Fellow, Margi is planning to work on a range of health care issues with the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School, with emphasis on education and enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.