Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation
Our Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice advises publicly traded companies, private entities, nonprofit organizations, and public sector employers of all sizes and across industries on the full range of legal, financial, and administrative issues relating to benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements.
We take a business-minded approach to help clients align benefit and compensation programs with organizational goals, enabling them to attract, motivate, and retain talent. Our team has extensive experience advising hospital systems, health care providers, faith-based organizations, and academic medical centers on the complex compliance and strategic issues unique to those organizations.
Leveraging our firm’s national platform, we partner with clients to design and maintain benefit and executive compensation strategies that are compliant, competitive, and aligned with long-term objectives.
Many of our employee benefits professionals bring prior experience from leading actuarial, accounting, and consulting firms, as well as significant in-house and government agency experience. This diverse background allows our attorneys to align legal strategies with practical, real-world solutions.
We regularly represent employers before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of Labor (DOL), and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), enabling us to guide clients efficiently through audits and other government proceedings. Working alongside our Labor & Employment and ERISA Litigation teams, we advise clients on best practices to prevent or resolve benefit-related litigation—often with meaningful cost savings.
Representative Services
- Tax-qualified retirement plans, including 401(k), 403(b), 457, profit-sharing, cash balance, and defined benefit pension plans
- Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), including business strategy and tax efficiency counseling
- Health and welfare plans, including self-funding arrangements, stop-loss insurance, and HIPAA and COBRA compliance
- Executive and non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements, including equity-based plans, incentive programs, and employment agreements
- Compliance counseling under Code Sections 83, 162(m), 280G, and 409A
- Wellness programs designed to improve employee health outcomes and reduce employer costs
- Affordable Care Act (ACA) counseling and compliance strategy
- Benefit plans for unionized workforces, including multiemployer pension plan and collective bargaining issues
- Negotiation of plan service provider arrangements to achieve cost savings and improved commercial terms
- Benefit and compensation issues arising in corporate transactions, restructurings, and bankruptcy proceedings
- ERISA fiduciary obligations, governance procedures, and investment oversight