Representative Experience
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
Employee benefits are an integral part of doing business. The legal and tax restrictions governing employee benefits, however, often burden the sensible delivery of these benefits. For more than 40 years, Sutherland has helped clients find workable and cost-effective solutions to employee benefits and executive compensation problems. Our experience began as a natural outgrowth of the firm's nationally recognized tax practice. As the regulation of employee benefits evolved from largely a matter of tax compliance to a complex overlay of IRS, DOL, PBGC, EEOC, SEC, state law and other regulation, we developed additional expertise.
Currently, 11 of our lawyers work substantially or exclusively on employee benefits matters. They provide experienced counsel on the full range of legal problems raised by plan design, operation, and investment decisions with respect to retirement plans, employee stock ownership plans, executive compensation arrangements, incentive programs, fringe benefits, and employer-sponsored life, health and other welfare benefit plans. We regularly advise both employers with respect to their own plans and companies that supply products and services in the employee plan market and have significant experience in the special employee benefits issues that arise in the course of corporate transactions.
Often our work involves seeking solutions to novel problems, addressing special concerns, or implementing new strategies in response to changing economic or legal considerations. When solutions to problems have not been available under existing guidance, we have obtained appropriate solutions through the administrative or legislative process. We have handled regulatory controversies and litigation involving a wide range of employee benefits issues. Our lawyers are also active in bar association and other groups, have good working relationships with agency and legislative personnel, and share an interest in the development of sound national employee benefits policies. This range of knowledge and experience allows us to place particular problems in a larger context - an ability that is frequently useful in arriving at a solution.
In the executive compensation area, our experience allows us to see the issues from both the company's and the executive's perspective. While in most cases we represent the company, we at times (when there are no conflicts) represent corporate officers. Thus, in connection with Kraft Foods' acquisition of Nabisco we represented Kraft and its parent, Philip Morris (now Altria Group, Inc.), in renegotiating termination arrangements for Nabisco's CEO. On the other hand, for example, we have also represented the CEO of Compaq in his employment arrangements with Compaq, in his new role as President of the merged Hewlett-Packard Compaq entity and in his new role as CEO of MCI.
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Experience Areas
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