Douglas W. Ell

“Groom is the best employee benefits firm in the country,” says Doug Ell, “and we prove it everyday with our depth of experience and expertise.”  He certainly knows whereof he speaks.  Listed in Best Lawyers in America for the past ten years and recently named by Washingtonian magazine as one of the best lawyers in D.C., Doug has achieved a national reputation for his work on legislative, fiduciary, and collective bargaining issues arising from the design and management of employee benefit plans. 

But it is his work with the National Football League Players Association that has garnered the most attention for him and the firm.  “I helped to design and implement the 1993 collective bargaining agreement that is the foundation of the current success of pro football as a business, largely because it got management and the union working together,” Doug recalls. “I drafted the new plans, including the first 401(k) in sports, and branched out into disability benefits and annuities to help the players with their retirement.”  His work with the NFL players is ongoing—and still immensely rewarding.  “There is always something new, like the new plan for players with dementia, which may be the first of its kind, and the new lifetime health accounts to help players and their families with medical bills,” he says, and adds: “It has been our privilege to defend the fiduciaries of these plans in litigation, and to help preserve the generous array of disability benefits.”

While Doug takes pride in his professional accomplishments, he is just as passionate when speaking about the importance of balancing his often-heavy workload with his many outside interests.  “I was a math major at MIT,” he says, “and studied algebraic number theory for three years after that.  I still love to read math and science books and Scientific American.  I also love sailing and go on a sailing trip every year.”  He takes a deep breath and continues with another smile:  “Oh, and I also play classical piano and tennis and take lessons in each almost every week.” 

If Doug’s list of professional and personal activities is exhaustive—and exhausting—it is a more simple truth that brings him into Groom everyday, prepared to help the firm maintain its national reputation.  “I love the ability to do unusual and challenging work with a bunch of really nice people,” he says. “What more can you ask for than that?”

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