Sometimes employee benefits issues will go to court, if that happens to you, we will be there for you. We’ll pay close attention to the operation of employee benefit plans, claims for benefits, and alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, and we’ll attend to you litigation needs in the U.S. Tax Court on qualification issues, in federal district and circuit courts regarding claims for benefits.

Due to a steady stream of alleged wrongful denial of pension, health, disability and life benefit cases, our ERISA lawyers have confronted a host of removal, preemption, administrative remedy exhaustion, standing, standard of review, and reporting and disclosure issues. These cases involve single claimant, multiple claimant and class actions in the context of single employer pension and welfare plans, as well as MEWAs. 

We also defend you, as we do routinely, in individual ERISA benefit claims for pension and welfare benefits. Our experience here will make your defense quite cost effective.

Our lawyers can counsel you in every aspect of plan design, implementation and administration of qualified retirement plans, including drafting, interpretation, communications and training, and dispute resolution. We can guide you through determination letters from the Internal Revenue Service, voluntary correction programs, audits, plan terminations, reporting and disclosure. We also help you maintain qualification of retirement plans by obtaining rulings from the IRS, the Department of Labor and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

We advise on changes in the federal laws as they apply to qualified plans and help you understand the impact on plan documents, disclosures to participants, and day-to-day administration.

Our ESOP focused-lawyers also represent national and regional financial institutions, providing the experience needed when lending into an ESOP transaction or an ESOP-owned company.

Our lawyers combine our extensive experience in delivering sophisticated solutions to the complex issues that arise at the intersection of health care and benefits.

We can help you develop cost-effective platforms from which to provide these benefits. We recognize that compliance with federal regulations of health and welfare benefits has become progressively more complex, driving an ever-increasing portion of employee compensation costs. We seek sensible business solutions that will provide the best result for your executives and all of your employees.

As an international or multinational executive or employee, you have the dedication and experience of our lawyers advising you on legal issues related to all types of equity programs, including qualified and non-qualified stock options, stock purchase rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and stock appreciation rights (“SARs").

You can trust us with your regulatory filings for global company stock awards. We have worked closely with companies on their securities disclosures, prospectuses, notices, and registration filings in Australia (ASIC class order registration), Japan (Forms 6, 7, 7-2, 8, and 10 filings), Malaysia (information memorandum), New Zealand (public companies exemption filing), Philippines (SEC exemption filing), and Thailand (exemption offering notice). We have experience with the on-going filing requirements for the EU Member States (prospectus filing), Israel (application for prospectus exemption), and Italy (financial intermediary negotiation). Generally, we can guide you and your business through the local country securities compliance requirements, including registering the equity compensation programs, drafting prospectuses and completing any on-going filing requirements. In addition, we routinely advise clients on the securities implications related to the offer of stock awards in countries where the compliance requirements are unclear or impossible to satisfy by a foreign issuer, such as China and Russia. 

You can also rely on us for our experience with all aspects of their international and multinational compensation needs including:

• Currency Exchange Controls

  Most equity-based compensation programs involve the transfer of funds across borders. We guide our clients through the intricacies of the local currency exchange restrictions that affect the transfer of funds and securities by the parent company, employer, and employee.



• Employee Income Tax and Social Insurance

  We help our clients find solutions to potentially onerous tax obligations by structuring their stock compensation programs to take advantage of the local tax regulations and to minimize the employees’ tax liability wherever possible. In many countries, we are able to provide our clients with alternatives, such as adopting subplans that allow the company and its employees to take advantage of preferential tax treatment.



• Employer Tax Withholding and Reporting

  We work with our clients to determine whether the parent company or the local subsidiary is obligated to withhold income tax on the benefits received by the employees. We also help to establish the administrative procedures necessary to remit the taxes owed to the local tax authorities.



• Employment Issues, including Work Councils/Unions

  Works council considerations and periodic employment claims are an issue in many countries.  We work with our clients to mitigate employment claims through structuring the stock awards to avoid the potential for entitlement rights to attach.



• Employee Communications

  We routinely assist our clients in drafting employee communication materials, which include offer letters, program summaries, agreements, enrollment forms and tax supplements. Relying on our considerable experience, we are able to help our clients communicate unfamiliar concepts in terms that are understandable for the local employees. In addition to drafting these documents, we assist our clients in preparing translations into the local language.



• Data Privacy

  We work with you to structure the administration of these programs so that they comply with the local data privacy laws and, where necessary, obtain the appropriate approvals. We have advised clients on data privacy consideration implicated by the offer of equity compensation programs in more than 90 countries.

High-level executives should be well-compensated for their specific skill set, unmatched commitment, and visionary tactics that drive businesses forward. You need attorneys that have experience representing C-level executives, private equity firms, Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. Our clients depend on us to guide them through the complicated executive compensation and employee benefits obstacles that can develop from mergers, acquisitions and other transactions.  

If you are a trustee, employer, industry body, regulator or other professional, we can assist you in finding your way through this complex and ever-changing area of law, on a national or international basis. Our UK Pensions practice has always played an active part in the wider UK pension industry and has helped shape organisations that contribute significantly to that industry today, such as the Pensions Advisory Service, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, Association of Pension Lawyers and Association of Corporate Trustees.

We can advise you on all pension issues and our role ranges from being retained advisers to schemes with over 300,000 members, to pro bono member complaints. We can provide you with advice on and solutions to the full range of pension problems arising from the running, restructuring and winding up of pension arrangements.

We operate two professional independent pension scheme trustees, Beaufort Trust Corporation Limited and Independent Pension Trustee Limited. This gives us invaluable insights into the practicalities facing trustees.

We are an experienced, pragmatic and approachable team. We place the emphasis firmly on ensuring that we communicate our knowledge simply and effectively to you, and we pride ourselves on the number of long-standing, loyal clients with whom we enjoy a valued day-to-day relationship.

You can rely on our guidance in connection to determination letters from the Internal Revenue Service, voluntary correction programs, audits, plan terminations, reporting and disclosure. We can also help you maintain qualification of retirement plans by obtaining rulings from the IRS, the Department of Labor and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Our lawyers provide advice on changes in the federal laws as they apply to qualified plans and can help you understand the impact on plan documents, disclosures to participants, and day-to-day administration. We also assist clients with document drafting, plan interpretation, employee communications and training, and dispute resolution.

In particular, we’ll give you:

• Counsel on plans of all sizes – from custom-designed plans for thousands of participants to pre-approved and individual plan
• Advocacy in qualified plan matter, unique from other firms – though regular contact with agents from the IRS, DOL and PBGC; allowing us to stay up-to-date on the issues of greatest concern to regulators and law enforcement officials
• Access to a bank of qualified plan-related documents and disclosures including retirement plans, summary plan descriptions, investment management agreements, employee/participant communications, domestic relations order review and qualification, trust agreements, administrative services agreements, investment policy statements, and administrative forms and instructions