The need for effective executive employment counsel has never been greater. Recruiting, retaining and incentivizing executives remain key to a profitable and successful enterprise, along with creating shareholder value, heading off litigation, preserving intellectual property, delivering tax-effective solutions, implementing succession planning, and analyzing and preparing for the effects of business combinations and reorganizations. In the current environment, understanding the Treasury Department’s limits on executive pay, successfully navigating a change in control and managing governmental and SRO investigations have become as important as knowing the market and negotiating iron-clad agreements. At Katten, we bring practical business sense and unparalleled experience, knowledge and reputation to bear on the compensation issues that arise in today’s highly regulated, sophisticated and competitive marketplace. Our clients include the leaders, senior executives and general counsels of major financial institutions including public bank holding companies, asset managers, hedge funds, private equity funds, REITs, real estate enterprises, family offices, and news and entertainment companies.
Working through a single point of contact, we first listen to and study our clients’ individual requirements. We then employ an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to resolve our clients’ issues, considering comparables, competitive market position, “optics” and public disclosure issues, securities laws, regulatory and compliance issues, intellectual property, information technology, tax concerns, corporate governance and shareholder dynamics, as well as plain old business sense.
We assist our clients with every aspect of executive employment, including negotiating employment agreements, severance agreements, change-in-control agreements, indemnification arrangements, deferred compensation arrangements and long-term incentive plans, and advising on retention issues arising out of leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions and restructurings. Together with our Corporate, Securities, Financial Services, Intellectual Property, Tax Planning, Employee Benefits, Employment Law and Litigation practices, we tailor solutions that are specific to our clients’ needs, from designing the compensation structure for the alternative investment division of a bank holding company, to solving the need to provide equity to management by recapitalizing an asset manager, to counseling management through an MBO and negotiating a C-level employment agreement.