Executive Compensation & Benefits

Weil’s highly-regarded Executive Compensation and Benefits practice plays a key role advising global clients on a wide range of corporate and restructuring matters.

Notable Representations, Key Contacts

Global Transactional and Restructuring Capabilities

Weil’s Executive Compensation and Benefits lawyers are strategically located in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. Our lawyers work in close coordination with the Firm’s perennially top-ranked M&A, Private Equity, Private Funds, and Business Finance & Restructuring practices and regularly advise global clients on the legal and financial risks associated with compensation and benefit arrangements that arise in these types of commercial matters — many of which require sensitive issues for senior management, transition planning and compensation.

Trusted Advisor to Public and Private Companies

Weil regularly advises public and private companies, as well as their boards of directors and compensation committees, on matters involving compensation and employee benefits. Our lawyers work closely with the Firm’s Public Company Advisory Group and Corporate Department to provide a full suite of advice for the design and implementation of compensation and benefit arrangements, taking into consideration Institutional Shareholders Services and institutional investor guidelines, as well as say on pay and disclosure issues.

Instrumental in the Design and Negotiation of Executive Employment and Compensation Arrangements.

We advise companies and management teams on senior executive employment and compensation arrangements, including for employment, separation, retention, cash incentives, equity incentives (such as stock options, restricted stock, partnership profits and capital interests, and other alternative forms of equity compensation), deferred compensation, golden parachutes, and pension and retirement.

Weil also regularly counsels clients in connection with ERISA, pension investments and fiduciary matters; equity and incentive compensation plans; nonqualified pension plans; and employment, severance, and change-in-control agreements. We frequently appear on behalf of clients before regulatory agencies such as the IRS, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and Department of Labor.

Shortcut Links

Key Contacts

Paul J. Wessel

Partner

New York

+1 (212) 310-8720
paul.wessel@weil.com

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Weil provides a “[v]ery precise, very high-level [of] work.”

Chambers USA

Weil has “great expertise in compensation and benefits matters related to mergers and acquisitions” with “excellent practitioners.”

Chambers USA

Weil provides “timely, and more importantly, succinct and practical advice in complex areas such as non-qualified deferred compensation and the taxation intricacies of executive compensation.” The “strong team, with great domain knowledge” handles transaction-related matters, often with a private equity slant, and bankruptcies.

Legal 500 US

“They are very knowledgeable, very responsive and very easy to work with,” and “incredibly prompt and can explain anything to a lay person - not just in legalese.”

Chambers USA

Ranked Tier 1 for National: Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law

U.S. News - Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms"

Awards and Recognition, Speaking Engagements, Firm News & Announcements, Recent Announcements, Latest Thinking

Awards and Recognition

Weil Named a “Leading” Firm for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation: New York Award Brief — Chambers USA
Weil Named a “Leading” Firm for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Award Brief — Legal 500 US
Randi Singer and Amy Rubin Win Americas Women in Business Law Awards Award Brief — Euromoney Legal Media Group
Weil Ranked Tier 1 for National: Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law Award Brief — U.S. News - Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms”

Speaking Engagements

Hot Topics in Executive Arrangements: Employment and Other Tax Issues Speaker(s): Paul J. Wessel
March 07, 2013 — Teleconference — Weil Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits practice leader Paul Wessel will participate in a panel discussion of typical employment tax issues associated with executive compensation arrangements. The panelists will discuss the increases in FICA and Medicare taxes, the impact of Section 409A on executive employment arrangements, the interplay between employment agreements and severance agreements, and tax timing rules for deferred compensation arrangements, among other topics. The teleconference, titled “Hot Topics in Executive Arrangements: Employment and Other Tax Issues,” is sponsored by the ABA Joint Committee on Employee Benefits.
PLI’s ERISA Fiduciary Investment Basics 2017 Speaker(s): Sarah Downie
March 20, 2017 — New York, New York — Weil partner Sarah Downie speaks on a panel titled, “The Launch – Establishing a Plan Assets Fund,” which reviews basic ERISA issues from the perspective of a hedge fund.

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