Compensation issues of today and tomorrow are increasingly complex due to evolving laws, changing administrative rules and increasing shareholder activity. It is clear that faulty navigation through this changing landscape can lead to liability. A primary step to avoiding liability is to hire competent advisors.

What is a competent advisor? Historically this meant hiring a few advisors, including one to handle surveys and benchmarking, a different advisor to address tax issues, and another advisor to solve corporate governance and securities issues. However, the foregoing is not substantively efficient in today’s fast-paced environment.

What Sets Us Apart
The members of our Compensation Practice Group are multi-disciplinary within the various substantive areas of compensation. As multi-disciplinary practitioners, we take a holistic and full-service approach to compensation matters that considers all substantive areas of compensation.

For example, shareholder disclosure (e.g., proxy statements) and the concerns of institutional shareholder advisory services will often be a determining factor in the overall design of a company’s compensation strategies. However, substantial knowledge of the tax laws is also needed to effectuate a proper compensation design. Therefore, an approach by a compensation advisor that is substantively multi-disciplinary should result in efficiencies to the client service model that is readily apparent by our clients.

Our Multi-Disciplinary Services at a Glance
Our Compensation Practice Group provides a variety of multi-disciplinary services within the field of compensation, including:

Traditional Consulting Services Corporate Governance

• Surveys
• Peer group analyses/benchmarking
• Assess competitive markets
• Pay-for-performance analyses
• Advise on say-on-pay issues
• Pay ratio
• 280G golden parachute mitigation

Securities/Disclosure

• Section 16 issues & compliance
• 10b5-1 trading plans
• Compliance with listing rules
• Sarbanes Oxley compliance
• Perquisite design/related disclosure
• Shareholder advisory services
• Activist shareholders
• Form 4s, S-8s & Form 8-Ks
• Proxy & tabular disclosures

Corporate Governance

• Implement “best practices”
• Advise Compensation Committee
• Risk assessments
• Grant practices & delegations
• Clawback policies
• Stock ownership guidelines
• Dodd-Frank

Traditional Compensation Planning

• Section 83
• Section 409A
• Section 280G golden parachutes
• Deductibility under Section 162(m)
• ERISA, 401(k), pension plans
• Fringe benefit plans/arrangements
• Deferred compensation & SERPs
• Employment taxes
• Health & welfare plans, 125 plans

Design/Draft Plan

• Equity incentive plans
• Synthetic equity plans
• Long-term incentive plans
• Partnership profits interests
• Partnership blocker entities
• Executive contracts
• Severance arrangements
• Deferred compensation plans
• Change-in-control plans/bonuses
• Employee stock purchase plans
• Employee stock ownership plans

International Tax Planning

• Internationally mobile employees
• Expatriate packages
• Secondment agreements
• Global equity plans
• Analysis of applicable tax treaties
• Recharge agreements
• Data Privacy

About Our Practice Group
The members of our Compensation Practice Group are multi-disciplinary within the various substantive areas of compensation. As multi-disciplinary practitioners, we take a holistic and full-service approach to compensation matters that considers all substantive areas of compensation.