Brittney Avila
Brittney Avila is a Principal Attorney at Haynes Benefits PC, where she leads a hyper-focused employee benefits practice specializing in ERISA compliance and complex health and welfare plan issues. Her work includes MEWAs, cafeteria plan design and eligibility matters, service agreement review and negotiation, compliance training, document preparation, and Department of Labor audit and interview readiness. She is known for providing practical, business-minded legal guidance to clients navigating highly technical regulatory requirements across the employee benefits landscape.
Brittney’s professional journey began at Texas Woman’s University, where she initially started as a nursing major. Early in her academic path, her professors recognized her strengths in analysis and advocacy and encouraged her to pursue legal studies instead. She ultimately graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Government and Legal Studies, magna cum laude, before preparing for and successfully taking the LSAT, gaining admission to multiple Texas law schools. She chose Texas Tech University School of Law, where from 2013 to 2016 she completed her Juris Doctor with a Health Law concentration—years she describes as both the most challenging and most formative of her life. She went on to pass the bar exam on her first attempt in 2016.
Following law school, Brittney began her career as In-House Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for an insurance brokerage in West Texas. While the role provided foundational experience in compliance and operational risk, it ultimately was not the right long-term fit. Her career trajectory shifted after attending a continuing education event to obtain CLE credits, where she heard Andrew Ky Haynes, now President of Haynes Benefits PC, speak. Inspired by his leadership and approach to employee benefits law, she pursued an opportunity with the firm, interviewed, and was hired on the spot after meeting with the team and clients. Since joining Haynes Benefits PC over six years ago, she has grown into her current role as Principal Attorney, advising carriers, TPAs, brokers, and large employers nationwide. In addition to her legal practice, she is a professional speaker, contributes thought leadership within the industry, and serves on the ECFC panel, where she writes and presents alongside leading experts in employee benefits law.
• Juris Doctorate, 2016, Health Law Certificate
• Licensed Attorney (Texas Bar 2016)
• Texas Woman's University - BS, Government and Legal Studies
• ECFC (Employers Counsel on Flexible Compensation)
• NABIP (National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals)
• American Bar Association Health Law Section
What do you attribute your success to?
I just give God all the glory, honestly. I think it was a God thing that I met Andy at that conference, and that I'm in the place that I am now. It's about listening to what I was called to do and having the courage to step through that door. For a lot of people, taking a job in another state with someone you just met is a little bit intimidating, and it was for me too, but I did it. So I give the glory to Him, but I think it did take strength and courage to walk through the door, too.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
You never get what you don't ask for. You have to value yourself before anyone else can value you the way that you should be. Once you find the confidence and the worth that you have, the asking for what you want and need becomes easier.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Since it's such a male-centric profession, and even more so when it's tailored down to this industry - when you look at the health insurance industry, the majority of the people who work at brokerages and carriers and TPAs and vendors are male - I would say let yourself be present, or seen, or heard. Don't let the predominantly male industry kind of overshine what you have to bring to the table. Have confidence in your capabilities, your intelligence, and your ideas, and don't let anybody stuff you out.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges right now are that the regulations we're trying to keep up with at the federal level are changing so fast that it's hard for people to even know what they're supposed to do or how to comply. It's a very volatile regulatory front that we're dealing with. The biggest emphasis is on transparency in RX pricing and these pharmaceutical companies and PBMs - pharmacy benefit management companies - that are stealing money from people through price structuring that's all written in small print that nobody reads. The biggest lobbyists that pay the most money to our representatives work for pharmaceutical companies, so the ability to control pricing of RX is almost non-existent. The trickle-down effect is that employers can barely afford to offer benefits to their employees that someone would even consider affordable or an option. Even with them contributing 50%, it's still an outrageous expense to the employer and to the employee, and it's for kind of crap coverage. More and more employers are asking how they can offer benefits when they can't afford it. So we're working on coming up with creative solutions to help people have peace of mind in what they're offering their employees, as well as their pocketbooks, and what their employees can actually benefit from without paying an arm and a leg. Overall cost, I would say, is a good summary.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I would say having a Jesus-centered and servant mindset in how I approach anything and anyone. Showing His love, either in my personal life or my professional life, in the best way that I can is a big value to me. Always making people feel heard is something that I think is pretty valuable because most people in the industry and just in life are either fighting to get heard, or think they're right and want to be right, or have the last word. To shift our focus from thinking about what we're going to say next and winning, and instead really hear the other person, you can really reach more people.