The Executive Compensation Practice Group regularly advises public and private companies regarding how best to achieve the dual objectives of fairly compensating management while creating significant incentives to grow the company and increase value for stockholders.
Our attorneys work closely with clients to develop the appropriate purposes of a plan, the plan structure, within which to best accomplish those purposes, taking into consideration all legal, tax and securities concerns, draft the plan and related documents, and provide the tools necessary to educate and inform the participants about the plan.
For public companies, our attorneys work in areas such as proxy and other public disclosure, tax deduction qualification, SEC registration, stock exchange listing, Section 16 qualification and reporting, and shareholder approval matters.
The types of incentive plans and features we draft include stock options, stock appreciation rights, limited rights, restricted stock, stock bonuses, stock grants and purchases (in lieu of cash compensation), phantom stock, and short, medium, and long term cash incentive programs. Our cash incentive programs have ranged from single-goal to complex, multiple-matrix programs.
Our attorneys also counsel clients with respect to non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements, allowing participants to delay taxation of income earned today. This experience includes deferred compensation plans, rabbi trusts, phantom stock plans, split dollar life insurance agreements, top-hat executive plans, deferred compensation plans for governmental employees, and other solutions to ensure maximum after-tax wealth accumulation for executives without undue burden to the company. We also counsel companies and executives with respect to executive employment, severance, and non-compete agreements, and have provided counsel in severance situations ranging from public disclosure to dispute resolution to litigation.
ATTORNEYS
David Jay Krauss
Geetha Rao Sant
R John Klevorn III