Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits
| Our attorneys help human resource professionals, employee benefits managers, executives and in-house counsel with the technical/legal aspects of employee benefit plan compliance and with the real world challenges that employers encounter in the course of administering their retirement, health, deferred compensation and other employee benefit plans. We also review, draft, and negotiate executive employment agreements. | Chair: Frank C. Woodruff |
Our Skills
Among the areas our compensation and benefits attorneys routinely address are:
- Design and draft qualified and non-qualified retirement, health and other employee benefit plans, including traditional defined benefit pension plans, 401(k), money purchase pension, profit sharing and 403(b) plans, supplemental executive retirement plans (“SERPS”), deferred compensation and incentive compensation plans
- Design and draft summary plan descriptions, COBRA and HIPAA notices and procedures, QDROs and QDRO procedures, claims procedures and other employee-communications media
- Answer day-to-day questions on benefit plan compliance and help clients take advantage of the various correction programs offered by the IRS and the DOL
- Assist in formal and informal dispute resolution of benefit claims to protect employers against improper claims, to ensure compliance with specific ERISA requirements, and to provide employers with the knowledge they need to make effective decisions as benefit plan sponsors and plan fiduciaries
- Represent employers under audit by or in disputes with the IRS, DOL and other regulatory agencies
- Help employers negotiate with third-party administrators and other benefit plan service providers to ensure that the service agreements serve the employer instead of the service provider
- Review, draft, and negotiate executive employment agreements and compensation packages
Our Experience
We provide employee benefit counsel to for-profit and not-for-profit employers both large and small, including employers with collectively bargained plans. Our diverse client base includes hotels, Internet media providers, airlines, utilities, insurance companies, manufacturers, hospitals, real estate management companies, pharmaceutical companies and professional associations.
