Email: dcosta@jslex.com

Phone: (215) 351-0616

Dawn M. Costa

Shareholder

Dawn M. Costa is a shareholder at Jennings Sigmond P.C. and leads the firm’s ERISA practice. She has over 17 years of experience and is primarily engaged in the representation of the firm’s multiemployer plan clients, including international and local defined benefit pension plans, profit-sharing plans, welfare plans, apprenticeship funds, and similar fringe benefit plans.

Dawn is recognized for her expertise in multiemployer benefit plan collections and has presented on that topic to the Finishing Industries Forum, the IUPAT Professionals’ Summit, the AFL-CIO Lawyers’ Coordinating Committee ERISA Basics Seminar, and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans’ Collection Procedures Institute.

Dawn serves as General Counsel to the International Painters and Allied Trades Industry Pension Fund and as co-counsel to several multiemployer benefit plans in the construction industry. She provides advice to fund trustees on fiduciary issues, compliance, and litigation, and represents plans in collection actions and creditor bankruptcies. Dawn also counsels plans on benefit design and administration, Pension Protection Act compliance and funding issues, DOL investigations and IRS examinations, tax qualification under the Internal Revenue Code and voluntary correction, mergers and reciprocity, and due diligence and assessment of employer withdrawal liability.

Before joining Jennings Sigmond in 2003, Dawn served as a judicial law clerk in the Superior Court of New Jersey. She practiced as a legal services attorney and represented union members in criminal, domestic relations, and real estate matters before shifting to full-time ERISA practice. Dawn is a New Jersey native and is active in dog rescue. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with family, yoga, gardening, and working on her farm.

Bar & Court Admissions

  • Supreme Court of New Jersey
  • Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
  • United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
  • United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

Education

  • Rutgers School of Law – Camden, Juris Doctor, 2002
  • Rutgers University, Bachelor of Science, 1999