Executive Compensation
We advise our public and private clients, alike, on employment agreements and other employment arrangements with their executive officers and other key employees. Our corporate attorneys also work closely with tax experts to structure and document stock option plans, phantom equity plans, and other incentive plans for both public and private companies.
We offer corporate support, including tax advice, in evaluating executive compensation matters for clients acquiring or selling a business. We also regularly represent senior management groups participating in equity rollover plans and other senior executive compensation arrangements in change-of-control transactions with private equity funds or other acquirers.
Representative matters we have handled include the following:
- Represented prominent executive in new employment and equity incentive compensation arrangements as CEO of venture capital-backed digital media company.
- Represented senior executive officer of one of the nation’s top talent agencies in connection with his separation from the agency.
- Represented a senior executive of one of the nation’s largest big box retailers in connection with her separation from the retailer.
- Represented an executive at a major entertainment company in negotiation of her employment contracts in connection with her transfer to a European subsidiary.
- Represented founder and CEO of start-up computer software company in buyback of the company from venture capital investors.
- Represented founder and CEO of Nasdaq-listed aftermarket automobile parts company in a going-private transaction financed by a national bank.
- Represented senior management group of regional big box retailer in their equity “rollover” as part of buy-out by one of the nation’s largest private equity firms.
- Represented senior management group of one of the nation’s largest retail grocery chains in establishing an equity appreciation rights plan and other incentive compensation arrangements in buy-out of the chain’s parent company.
- Represented senior executive in separation from “big pharma” company.
- Represented senior management group of one of the nation’s largest retail grocery chains in bankruptcy proceeding of the parent company and subsequent sale of the chain to one of Los Angeles’s most active private equity firms.
- Represented senior management of regional drugstore chain and its subsidiaries in buy-out by Los Angeles’s premier LBO firm.
- Represented principal designer and creative force behind one of the world’s most renowned fashion designer labels in establishing equity and executive compensation arrangements as part of his sale of the business to a French luxury goods conglomerate.
- Represented senior management group of one of the nation’s largest distributors of herbal supplements in their equity “rollover” and employment agreements in connection with going-private transaction sponsored by Chicago-based LBO firm.
- Represented senior management group of privately held structured finance investment company in sale of the company to one of the nation’s largest brokerage and investment banking firms and the group’s ongoing employment arrangements.
- Represented privately held technology company in negotiation of employment agreements with senior management group in connection with sale of the company.