Kaplan strikes a chord in music and pensions
Ari Kaplan wrote the book on pension law. Literally. His book, Pension Law, was first published in 2006, and a second edition, co-authored with Mitch Frazer of Torys LLP, is due out this fall. When Kaplan started out as an associate at Koskie Minsky LLP, there wasn’t a lot of reference material on pension law from an academic or resource perspective. He did his master’s degree in law shortly after joining the firm, focusing on pension administration and regulation. “From that, I thought I had the kernel of an outline of a book.”
Besides educating others on the ins and outs of pension law through his writing, Kaplan is actively involved in the academic community. He’s currently an adjunct professor of law at the University of Toronto, and he also taught pension law at Osgoode Hall Law School and Western University. Kaplan wanted to have a presence in the academic world so he could show others how interesting pension and benefits law can be.
“It’s an exciting place for a generation of new ideas, and it’s exciting to be able to connect with people to share those ideas.”
Kaplan went to Osgoode in the mid-1990s. His interest in pension law began at Koskie Minsky, where he first articled in 1997 and still works to this day. He originally joined the firm because he liked labour law, which he felt had a human face to it. Labour issues, he says, deal with people and large policy issues that aren’t just related to employment but also to larger national and global issues. But it’s the variety of areas within pension law that Kaplan enjoys the most. “Family issues, tax issues, estate issues, administrative law issues, insurance issues—it just runs the gamut of multidisciplinary legal regimes.”
Throughout his career, he’s worked on numerous cases. One of the most well known is Nolan v. Kerry, in which he represented former members of the Kerry Canada pension plan through to the Supreme Court. (A dispute arose about whether the plan surplus could be used to fund contribution holidays and administration costs could be charged to the plan.)
Currently, Kaplan is part of a litigation team advocating for the rights of Canadian employees and pensioners in the Nortel Networks insolvency. “It is a fascinating case that is unprecedented in the history of commercial litigation.”
While Kaplan loves his career in law, he spends his free time on another passion: music. He runs the licensing and business publishing group for Toronto-based Paper Bag Records, an independent record label that discovered Canadian bands such as Broken Social Scene, Tokyo Police Club and Stars.
He became involved with Paper Bag after talking to members of one of the Canadian bands at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, a few years ago. Through them, Kaplan met their manager, Trevor Larocque, who’s now his business partner.
Kaplan’s role at Paper Bag is to get the artists’ music into television, films, commercials and other video productions. He says it’s a way to help support the careers of musicians who would otherwise have to rely on consumers.
Kaplan is also working to bring his expertise in pensions and benefits to the music scene by introducing coverage to music industry professionals and the broader fine arts. “While I haven’t been successful in merging those two worlds,” he explains, “I’m not giving up [on the idea] that one day, we could see a multi-employer pension plan nationwide covering Canadian indie rock musicians.” Rock on, Kaplan.
Craig Sebastiano is associate editor of BenefitsCanada.com
Get a PDF of this article.