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 and United Kingdom. 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 Named a “Leading” Firm for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation: New York

Chambers USA

Weil Named a “Leading” Firm for Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation

Legal 500 US

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, 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
Weil Ranked Tier 1 for National: Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law Award Brief — U.S. News - Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms”

Speaking Engagements

ABA Business Law Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Meeting Speaker(s): Paul J. Wessel
April 12, 2018 — New York, New York — Weil partner Paul Wessel discusses how public companies are dealing with the transition rule with respect to the elimination of the performance-based compensation exception to the prohibition of public companies’ deducting compensation in excess of $1 million per year for certain executive officers as part of the ABA’s Business Law Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Meeting.
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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