Overview
In order to attract, cultivate, and retain the highest-caliber talent–and maintain a competitive advantage–employers must create mutually beneficial, leading-edge employee compensation and benefit packages. They also must continually monitor and administer those arrangements in order to comply with new and evolving complex laws and regulations.
Our Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation practice group advises both employers and C-suite and other executives on the full range of employee benefits and executive compensation, including:
- Drafting and negotiating employment compensation packages, employment agreements, separation pay packages, and restrictive covenants agreements
- Drafting and implementing equity and synthetic equity incentive arrangements, profits interests arrangements, bonus arrangements, and a wide variety of other cutting-edge incentive compensation programs
- Section 409A compliance
- Keeping clients’ qualified and nonqualified plans in compliance with tax and other legal requirements and, when necessary, making needed corrections to preserve the tax-qualified status of plans
- Advising on the compensation and benefits aspects of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, including application of golden parachute payment tax rules (i.e., Section 280G)
- Representing clients (whether they are employers or fiduciaries) in ESOP transactions
- Drafting health and welfare plans, including cafeteria plans, wrap plans, and flexible spending plans, and assisting with ongoing compliance
- Advising private equity funds and investment advisers with respect to ERISA’s plan asset rules, fiduciary obligations, and prohibited transaction rules
- Representing clients in connection with ERISA claims and litigation
- Handling the securities law aspects of executive compensation and employee benefits matters, including Compensation Discussion & Analysis and related proxy compensation disclosures
- Representing clients with respect to managing pension plan withdrawal liability and challenging withdrawal liability assessments, including arbitration of withdrawal liability disputes
- Representing companies with respect to employee benefits issues and liabilities in bankruptcy proceedings
Our clients range from publicly traded companies with thousands of employees to closely held employers with just a few employees, as well as large public and private pension funds, private equity firms, senior executives, trustees, and financial institutions. Our clients span a wide range of sectors, including private equity, venture capital, life sciences, real estate, technology, manufacturing, and retail businesses.
Our work in this arena has consistently been recognized by Chambers USA, which reports that clients have said, “This is a firm that I trust 100 percent” and “Between the integrity of the people and the quality of their advice and knowledge, I can really rely on them, and that makes all the difference.”
Recognizing that employee benefits programs are not “one size fits all,” we draw on our team’s comprehensive knowledge of relevant corporate, tax, employment, labor, insurance, and securities laws to help clients create, implement, and administer custom employee benefits programs that meet their specific objectives and requirements. Throughout, we collaborate with a network of professionals, including investment advisors, actuaries, benefit consultants and administrators, financial consultants, banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions. As a result of our experience in this area, we anticipate client needs and deliver solutions that are on point, timely, and practical to achieve the client’s goals.
We provide proactive, strategic counsel to help our clients maintain compliance with the ever-growing body of regulations, court decisions, and other requirements affecting both employee benefits and executive compensation arrangements. Even the most careful employers, however, can uncover various problems that can be expensive to correct and can create delicate employee relations concerns. Our substantial experience in dealing with plan compliance issues and government authorities uniquely qualifies us to help clients tackle and resolve any problem or issue that may arise.
Hosted by members of Lowenstein Sandler’s Employee Benefits Executive Compensation Practice Group, this series is geared towards companies and senior executives, featuring lawyers from other practice areas, as well as other individuals who work for companies. Listen to all episodes by clicking here, and subscribe via Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify, or YouTube.