Marie Dempsey Carter
Marie is the founder and managing partner of Marie Carter, PLC. Her legal practice has focused on employee benefits and executive compensation law for over 35 years. She has extensive experience working with public and private companies, tax-exempt entities, and governmental employers on a range of legal issues related to tax-qualified retirement plans including pension plans, 401(k) and other defined contribution plans and ESOPs, health and other welfare benefit plans, annual and long-term incentive compensation programs, and executive compensation matters.
Before forming the firm, Marie served as Assistant General Counsel at one of the nation’s largest energy companies, where she was the in-house legal counsel for employee benefits and executive compensation matters. She was also responsible for oversight of the corporate ethics and compliance program. Marie was previously a partner and chair of the employee benefits and executive compensation practice group at a national law firm.
Over the course of her career, Marie has served as lead employee benefits counsel to several Fortune 500 companies, large healthcare systems, national and community banks, closely-held businesses, and churches. From 2002-2006, she served as employee benefits counsel to the public colleges and universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia pursuant to an appointment by the Office of Attorney General. Marie also has assisted litigators arguing ERISA cases before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Courts in Virginia.
Education
University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas, J.D.
Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, B.A.
Memberships
Virginia State Bar, admitted 1982
Central Virginia Employee Benefits Council, Board Member, 2000-2010; Chair, 2009-2010
Court Admissions
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia
Virginia Supreme Court
Pro Bono/Community Service
Board Member, Trustees of the Funds – Episcopal Diocese of Virginia
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia, Vestry Member 2017-2020
St. Andrew’s School, Richmond, Virginia, Board Member, 1999-2009, Chair, 2005-2008
Awards & Recognition
Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished Peer Review Rating (excellent rating for high professional achievement and ethical standards)
Listed in Virginia Business Magazine Legal Elite in Employee Benefits Law
Personal
An avid cook, Marie is the author of Daily Bread: From My Kitchen to Yours, a cookbook with a recipe and inspirational quotation for each day of the year; she donates a percentage of sales proceeds to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the VCU Massey Cancer Center.
Marie was born in Montreal, Quebec and is fluent in French. She and her husband are the parents of four adult children.