Question for Executive Compensation Attorneys Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’ve been in executive compensation for almost six years now and all at the same firm. I was curious how other firms staff deals for exec comp attorneys. For example, at my firm the exec comp group handles the employment (diligence on things like flsa, employment agreements, non competes, etc.) and traditional exec comp (equity, 280g, etc) aspects of deals. We have a separate group for benefits. From interactions with other firms it seems like most either specialize in one of three (employment, exec comp, or benefits) or bifurcate to employment and exec comp/benefits. I was just curious how other firms split a deal up in terms of staffing.

[milkisforbabies]

I’ve been in executive compensation for almost six years now and all at the same firm. I was curious how other firms staff deals for exec comp attorneys. For example, at my firm the exec comp group handles the employment (diligence on things like flsa, employment agreements, non competes, etc.) and traditional exec comp (equity, 280g, etc) aspects of deals. We have a separate group for benefits. From interactions with other firms it seems like most either specialize in one of three (employment, exec comp, or benefits) or bifurcate to employment and exec comp/benefits. I was just curious how other firms split a deal up in terms of staffing.

At two different biglaw firms, both had separate staffing for employment issues. The Exec comp lawyers handled both comp and benefits (but were still definitely reviewing employment agreements).

[Anonymous User]

In my experience employment lawyers are usually completely separate - there may be some overlap on some things, and the lawyers may be in the same sub group, but exec comp attorneys aren't experts on flsa. Our benefits and exec comp lawyers have a fair bit of overlap (some lawyers do a little of both, others are more strongly benefits vs exec comp), but I know some groups really bifurcate between exec comp and benefits. We generally staff an employment and an exec comp/benefits team on each deal, but the teams work closely together, and we call in niche within the niche experts where needed.

[Anonymous User]

Depending on the deal, I do Exec comp only (most of our clients handle benefits in-house), Exec comp and benefits or Exec comp, benefits and employment (very high level diligence work).