The experienced lawyers in Sidley’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation group are assisting employers in navigating the complicated and quickly changing compensation and benefits issues triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Together with the firm’s multidisciplinary COVID-19 Task Force, our lawyers are helping clients structure and adapt their employee benefits and compensation arrangements in response to the challenges brought on by new federal and state legislation, market volatility and changing workforce needs.
Representative Experience
- Advising employers about how the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and other newly enacted and proposed federal and state laws, executive orders and Federal agency guidance related to COVID-19 affect the suite of benefits and compensation arrangements offered to their employees
- Counseling clients on the tax and other implications of offering specially designed employee benefits and compensatory programs, such as donation leave programs, qualified disaster relief payments, and post-termination health and other benefits, to ease the financial burden their employees may be experiencing due to the COVID-19 crisis
- Providing advice to companies in connection with the pandemic’s impact on compensation arrangements, including ways to deal with equity, incentive compensation and executive compensation arrangements in light of market volatility, fast-changing performance metrics, furloughs and terminations of employment
- Advising public company clients on SEC disclosure consequences associated with adopting new compensation arrangements or modifications to existing compensation arrangements, as well as advising on COVID-19 disclosure for annual proxy statements