Employee Benefits/Executive Compensation

Employee benefits and executive compensation are essential and increasingly complex parts of a company’s overall strategy to attract and retain their workforce. We have a different perspective on working with clients in these areas. Our team strives to provide legal expertise suited to each client’s needs.  With this goal in mind, we explain complex provisions of the law in terms that are easy to understand. We merge that user-friendly explanation with a client’s specific concerns such as workforce demographics, the financial impact on the organization, and the organization’s short-term and long-term initiatives. Our client-focused approach to providing legal services adds value to each of our client relationships.

Today, employers who sponsor employee benefit plans face multiple challenges like designing competitive benefit plans that comply with rules under the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA.

We help clients:

• • Design and adopt qualified retirement plans, including traditional 401(k) plans and Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs).
  • Design and implement welfare benefit plans and make sure they adhere to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
  • Make corrections to their plans under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) and the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) and
  • Comply with the prohibited transaction rules and fiduciary requirements.

Compensation is key for all employers — public, private or tax-exempt — to get right. We help employers design and administer executive compensation arrangements to recruit and retain key leadership.

We advise clients on a broad scope of compensation plans such as:

• • Golden parachute arrangements
  • Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans (SERPs)
  • Excess and restoration plans
  • Stock option and other long-term incentive plans
  • Split dollar arrangements
  • Executive employment and retention agreements and
  • Other forms of nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements.

Fiduciaries — most often employers and plan sponsors — play an important role in the success or failure of a given employee benefit plan. We provide day-to-day advice to them. When fiduciaries face problems administering their plans, our lawyers help them find solutions and lessen their risks. We are involved in all aspects of employee benefits litigation and administrative proceedings, including U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits, correction procedures and fiduciary and benefit litigation.

Our practice and our lawyers have earned recognition for their professional excellence in well-known legal publications such as Chambers USA Guide and The Best Lawyers in America.

We represent:

• • Public companies
  • Mid-sized to large closely held companies
  • Partnerships
  • Service providers in the employee benefits industry
  • Public employers