Biography
Deva Kyle is Of Counsel at Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP (“CWS”). She joined the firm in January of 2022 after practicing for almost 20 years in benefits law and policy.
At CWS, Deva advises plans, trustees, unions, and employers on a wide range of employee benefits, federal tax and legislative matters.
Prior to joining CWS Deva worked in the private sector for a few years and before that served as Tax Counsel on detail to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means where she advised the committee on tax policy and retirement security including recent multiemployer relief efforts and the Secure Act.
Deva began her career in 2004 with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation representing the agency as an attorney and Assistant Chief Counsel in large exposure litigation and Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. Later she served as Staff Director in the Office of Policy and External Affairs at PBGC where she was principally responsible for leading the agency’s multiemployer pension policy efforts.
In 2015 and 2016, Deva worked at the Treasury Department where, with a team of Treasury leaders, she crafted Treasury’s Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (“MPRA”) program regulations and processes. Once the program was established, Deva worked closely with Special Master Ken Feinberg and oversaw the first team of analysts, actuaries, and attorneys for the MPRA program reviewing the most financially and actuarially complex applications for benefit suspension to date. In 2017, she returned to PBGC to serve as Acting Deputy Chief of Negotiations and Restructuring where she helped lead PBGC’s single and multiemployer insurance programs. There, she participated in single employer early warning program negotiations and oversaw multiemployer Alternative Withdrawal Liability Rule requests, benefit suspension applications, mergers, and partitions, among other PBGC concerns.
Deva received her B.A. in Sociology from Vassar College and her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. Deva is admitted in California and D.C.