Employee Benefits and Compensation

The right employee compensation and benefits are critical to recruiting and retaining top employees. But these programs raise complex business, personnel and legal considerations, and they require careful balancing of cost, employee performance and corporate culture. Our lawyers work with clients to help them establish comprehensive long-term plans and respond effectively to changing conditions and immediate needs.

Our lawyers design, review and implement a wide range of compensation and benefits programs for manufacturing, research, public utility, retail and service companies. We provide counsel regarding the ERISA, tax, securities and accounting considerations applicable to these programs.

Primary Services:

• 401(k) and profit sharing plans
• Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs)
• Cafeteria plans
• Welfare benefit plans, including group medical plans (insured and self-funded)
• Stock option and stock purchase plans
• Executive compensation
• Incentive plans
• Nonqualified deferred compensation plans
• Severance packages
• Prohibited transaction exemptions

Qualified Retirement Plans:
We design, review, and implement 401(k) and profit sharing plans, ESOPs and other qualified retirement plans. We assist clients in complying with the ever-changing tax and ERISA requirements applicable to these plans, represent clients in IRS and DOL audits of their plans, and work with clients in structuring corrections for operational and fiduciary errors.

Welfare Benefit Plans:
We provide similar counsel and representation with respect to cafeteria and other welfare benefit plans and issues, including group medical, life and other insurance coverage, health and dependent care flexible spending accounts, education assistance programs, COBRA and HIPAA.

Equity Compensation:
We provide stock option and stock purchase plans and assist our clients with the tax, securities and accounting aspects of these plans, including tax reporting and withholding requirements, SEC disclosure and filing requirements, and expensing for financial accounting purposes.

Executive Compensation:
We negotiate and prepare executive compensation packages for the officers of companies ranging from venture-backed startups to mature, publicly traded companies, and we advise Compensation Committees and Boards of Directors in developing appropriate compensation programs for their companies. Our experience includes structuring equity compensation, deferred compensation, severance, and golden parachute arrangements.

Mergers and Acquisitions:
We represent acquiring and target companies in corporate transactions and have experience negotiating how compensation and benefits programs will be treated in deals, as well as guiding our clients through the difficult issues that arise post-closing when compensation and benefits programs are eliminated or combined.

Additional Services:
Our attorneys work closely with other attorneys at Smith Anderson, especially those who practice in the areas of tax, securities, corporate and employment law, so that our clients have the benefit of a comprehensive analysis of the legal issues related to their benefits and compensation programs.

Our Clients:
Our clients range from emerging growth high-tech and biotech companies located in the Research Triangle Park and throughout the Southeast to major North Carolina banks and public utilities and local and regional manufacturing, retail and services businesses.

Our Lawyers:
The lawyers in our Employee Benefits and Compensation group have experience counseling and representing clients in all aspects of employee benefits and compensation matters. They actively participate in local and national benefits groups and in the North Carolina and American Bar Associations.

• Special Issues In Mergers And Acquisitions: Employee Benefits Implications presented at the 2008 Business Law and Corporate Counsel Section Joint Annual Meeting, February 22, 2008, Pinehurst, NC.
  
• Identifying and Addressing Employee Benefit Issues presented at the North Carolina Bar Foundation's Basics of Business Law Program, May 13-14, 2004, Cary, N.C.