Alex is a member of Graydon’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group. His practice focuses on the design, administration, and regulatory compliance of all types of retirement, deferred compensation, health and welfare employee benefit plans.

Alex counsels clients on all issues related to offering benefits to employees throughout the entire life cycle of a plan, from commencement to termination. Alex has significant experience drafting retirement plan documents for employers, including defined contribution and defined benefit plan documents, summary plan descriptions, and drafting nonqualified deferred compensation plans. He also has experience drafting welfare plan documents, including HIPAA policies and procedures, group health plans, cafeteria plans, and educational assistance plans. Alex assists clients on issues that arise during the administration of a plan and advises on issues related to reporting and disclosure requirements, the SECURE Act, the CARES Act, COBRA, HIPAA, and health care reform. He also guides clients through the process of correcting operational and fiduciary errors and has experience working with the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor on compliance issues.

Before joining Bricker Graydon, Alex earned undergraduate degrees in Economics and Philosophy and a J.D. from the University of Cincinnati. During law school, Alex gained an interest in tax law through coursework, three tax law internships, volunteering for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, and publishing an article on a tax issue as a member of the UC law review. After graduating from the UC College of Law, Alex continued his education at the NYU School of Law and graduated with an LLM in taxation.

Alex is originally from Morgantown, West Virginia, and currently lives with his wife Virginia in Hyde Park.

Education

University of Cincinnati, B.A. with honors, Philosophy (2012)

University of Cincinnati, B.A., Economics (2012)

University of Cincinnati College of Law, J.D., cum laude (2016)

New York University School of Law, LL.M., Taxation (2017)

Professional Activities

• Member, Cincinnati Bar Association Employee Benefits Conference Planning Committee

Blog Posts

Alex Mattingly has no problem with not being the center of attention. On the extrovert/introvert scale, if the former were red and the latter blue, he could be indigo. He’s not an introvert not in the sense of being fearful. He’s more of a collected, self-contained introvert.

He realizes the world encourages the unreserved, demonstrative, and gregarious. He doesn’t care. He finds virtue in being un-outgoing. For one, he thinks before he speaks.

“When I was younger, in middle school and high school, I thought that having an introverted nature was a weakness. But it’s just who I am. I think many of the skills I do have are because I’m introverted. I think my tendency to logical thinking stems from it. I pay attention to detail and go into situations well-prepared. I’m very much an analytical thinker.”

Alex grew up in Morgantown, W.Va. His father is a litigator who specializes in federal workers' comp law and who, according to Alex, is an extrovert – which goes with the territory with litigators in general. His mother was a nurse manager before retiring to care for her parents.

When he was in high school, Alex played catcher and first base for the American Legion state championship baseball team. He has completed six marathons, and can often be found running with his new training partner, a bernedoodle named Daphne (whose namesake was one of the central characters in his favorite sitcom, Frasier).

His taste in literature leans toward fiction because, through novels, he can feel what the characters are going through without having the actual experience. Lately, he’s been bouncing back and forth between sci-fi and classic novels, but often returns to his undergraduate roots and reads books on philosophy. He also has what he calls a tight group of a half dozen friends who get together and enjoy bowling, golf, and pickleball, and play board games like Axis and Allies. “We gravitate to games that require a lot of strategy. We’re fairly competitive and analytical.”

Alex realizes it takes more than knowledge of the law to be great at what he does. “Studying was my profession as a student in college and law school, and I became a good student. Now I’m learning what qualities, in addition to knowing the law, are required to make a good lawyer.”