Duane Morris LLP

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Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation

How does an employer create and maintain effective employee benefits and compensation programs? The process requires the delicate balancing of employee needs, company culture, cost, competitive pressures, and administrative and regulatory complexity. Instead of offering "one size fits all" services, the members of Duane Morris' Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation (EBEC) Group recognize that creative thinking, planning and a thorough understanding of the client's unique needs are an essential prerequisite to offering legal services that are in-line with each client's expectations.

Our attorneys provide clients with the full range of employee benefits legal services. From qualified retirement plans to sophisticated equity compensation arrangements and from executive employment agreements to broad-based health and welfare plans, the members of the EBEC Practice combine practical experience with high-quality and efficient service that leads to practical solutions.

Our attorneys offer in-depth experience in the design, administration and ongoing compliance with respect to qualified plans. We have experience representing plans in a general counsel capacity, including contracting for services, fiduciary counseling, developing administrative policies and advising fund administrators and trustees. Our attorneys offer assistance with plan administration and management, including day-to-day support for in-house benefits personnel regarding plan transactions (e.g., distributions, loans, withdrawals, investment changes, and QDRO administration), participant communications, participant claims and inquiries and contractual relationships with plan service providers. The following types of qualified plans are supported:

  • 401(k) and other defined contribution plans
  • defined benefit plans, including cash balance and other hybrids
  • ESOPs
  • multi-employer plans

Nonqualified Deferred Compensation
Our attorneys design and draft NQDC plans and counsel clients on all aspects of their plans, including compliance with Internal Revenue Code section 409A. Our attorneys are currently providing guidance to clients on NQDC plans and the issue of pre-409A grandfathered deferrals and transition into Code section 409A-compliant plans.

Executive Compensation
Our attorneys design, draft and counsel clients on the tax and design implications of executive compensation plans, as well as related federal and state securities law, employment law and accounting considerations.

The EBEC Practice has assisted numerous clients in establishing option plans and other equity compensation arrangements, as well as providing guidance on rabbi trusts and other devices to provide security for nonqualified plans. Recent transactions include:

  • negotiating retention, severance and employment agreements
  • calculating "golden parachute" liabilities
  • creating an equity program for the U.S. executives of a foreign corporate parent
  • globalizing the equity incentive plan of a multinational company
  • creating SERPs and phantom plans for mid-level executives where equity is not available
  • creating nonqualified programs for executives of nonprofit organizations
  • designing an equalization program for transferring executives among foreign and U.S. affiliates
Welfare Benefit Plans
With increasing federal regulation of health benefits and rapid changes in the healthcare industry, compliance is becoming increasingly complex. Our attorneys act in a general counsel capacity and provide advice on the impact of many laws affecting welfare benefit plans, including, but not limited to HIPAA, COBRA, FMLA, ADA, ADEA and USERRA. We are often called upon to analyze existing programs to improve them and make them more efficient. We counsel employers and plan administrators in a wide offering of benefit plans, including:

  • health, life and fringe benefit plans
  • cafeteria plans/medical expense reimbursement plans
  • dependent care expense reimbursement plans
  • adoption assistance plans
  • education assistance plans
  • VEBAs
  • multi-employer health and welfare programs
Fiduciary Counseling
Our attorneys counsel plan trustees and administrators, business owners and executives regarding their fiduciary responsibilities in a broad spectrum of areas, including:

  • ERISA fiduciary status
  • ESOP trustees
  • prohibited transactions
  • advisory fees
  • investment of plan assets in nontraditional ventures
Corporate Transactions
Our attorneys are sensitive to the related benefits and compensation issues that impact transactional matters. When appropriate, we interface with our corporate, tax and finance attorneys to provide a complete range of services.

Financial Products
We provide advice to entities, such as insurance companies, that create and market financial products to employers and high net worth individuals. These include:

  • insurance company retirement plan products
  • new mutual fund trading platforms
  • fund-of-funds arrangement with a QPAM to limit potential fiduciary exposure
  • special tax sheltered annuity programs
We also work with employers to review and prepare financial products for their employees. These include:

  • split-dollar and other insurance arrangements
  • funded welfare programs
  • rabbi trusts and other methods of funding nonqualified plan accruals
Employee Communications
Frequently, litigation in the employee benefits area is based on faulty or incomplete communications of the salient provisions of retirement and welfare plans. Further, the government is requiring the communication of broader and more detailed information in connection with these plans and programs. Our attorneys have considerable experience preparing and reviewing communications materials, ranging from summary plan descriptions to COBRA and other notices to specialized materials for executives. We often create information packages that are both comprehensive and comprehensible.

Litigation
Benefits-related litigation is one of the fastest growing sectors in the federal court system. Our attorneys work with employment and litigation attorneys to represent companies and individuals involved in benefits-related disputes. Often, these simply involve the application of the claims procedures set forth in retirement and welfare plans. However, with increasing regularity, we find these matters moving through the court system or to another dispute resolution process.

Our EBEC attorneys work with litigators in our Employment and Trial Practice Groups to provide practical advice on both the technical and procedural aspects of benefits-based litigation. This enables us to take advantage of the strengths of our individual attorneys in these representations. Examples of litigation projects include:

  • legal compliance reviews of plan documents and operations
  • representing plan administrators and financial advisors in fiduciary breach actions
  • representing liquidating employee benefit trusts
  • preventing the cloning of trade association programs
  • preparation of amicus briefs in benefits cases of national importance
  • advising clients on the ownership of stock associated with the demutualization of insurance companies
  • representing insurers in connection with covered claims on large fiduciary policies

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Peer Reviews

4.9/5.0 (548 reviews)
  • Legal Knowledge

    4.9/5.0
  • Analytical Capability

    4.9/5.0
  • Judgment

    4.9/5.0
  • Communication

    4.9/5.0
  • Legal Experience

    4.9/5.0
  • 5.0/5.0 Review for Cyndie Chang by a Managing Partner on 10/05/15 in Civil Litigation

    Cyndie Chang is an outstanding individual and attorney who adheres to the highest ethical standards. She is reliable, trustworthy and a bar leader.

  • 5.0/5.0 Review for William Marchant by a Founder on 10/28/25 in Commercial Litigation

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Diversity

"In my discussions with Duane Morris leaders, they frequently speak about how diversity within their firm has enabled them to better serve their diverse clients. They understand that investing in diversity is a wise business decision that positions them for the marketplace of the future."

Don Liu
Senior VP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary
Xerox Corporation

At Duane Morris, achieving diversity is paradoxical. By supporting and celebrating the differences of our attorneys - and the individual strengths that they bring - our firm culture expands, fostering creative solutions for our clients. But diversity at Duane Morris does not mean that we have a certain number of diverse attorneys; true diversity means that it is no longer noteworthy to see diverse lawyers leading our practice groups or managing client relationships. Ascending to positions of leadership and greater responsibility and providing the highest levels of client service is simply what is expected of all our lawyers. Diversity is another strong asset that adds to our collective abilities to meet the needs of our clients.

Our vision of diversity at Duane Morris is to realize an environment in which our lawyers' outstanding qualities are not just measured by ethnicity, race, gender and sexual orientation, but more importantly, that our lawyers are remarkable as excellent attorneys above all else. Only then can we celebrate our differences while focusing on the common pursuit of legal excellence which everyone shares at Duane Morris.

To reach this goal, Duane Morris understands that the familiar diversity strategies and policies that most law firms have are needed. Without demanding results from such policies, most law firms are bound to fail in even achieving numerical hiring and retention goals. Duane Morris has been proactive and ambitious in its efforts to improve diversity at the firm, and has set deadlines for reaching the milestones which mark our progress. To create a more diverse law firm, Duane Morris is:

  • Committed to strategically increasing our diversity levels, which is currently at 10 percent.
  • Bringing together our Diversity Committee and our Hiring and Retention Committee to raise diversity as an important factor in our hiring decisions.
  • Dedicated to improving retention by building upon our monitoring and mentoring program for all diverse associates.

Combining new initiatives with our longstanding diversity efforts, Duane Morris has seen increasingly positive results. In the Minority Law Journal's annual diversity survey of the nation's largest 260 firms, Duane Morris continued to improve its regional and national ranking, rising to number 136 of all firms surveyed. Our strides in Philadelphia are encouraging; in a city known for both the racial diversity of its population and the lack thereof in its law firms, Duane Morris is one of only two law firms to exceed the national average of minority partners at all law firms. Additionally, Duane Morris leads all national law firms based in Philadelphia in the number of Latino partners. Nearly 30 percent of all of our attorneys are women, and more than 20 percent of our partners are women.

In our approach to diversity, progress in racial, gender and cultural diversity cannot be measured in numbers alone. Duane Morris has focused our diversity initiatives on both increasing the number of diverse associates and addressing the challenges diverse attorneys face in building lasting careers and rising to senior and leadership positions. While several of our key practice groups are led by diverse partners and female partners, Duane Morris endeavors to create a culture which will foster a deep pool of such attorneys who can then develop into the firm's future leaders. Duane Morris understands that simply hiring diverse associates will not change the diversity of the firm; Duane Morris is working to mentor and retain diverse associates so that our progress in racial, gender and cultural diversity is also reflected at the highest levels of leadership within the firm.

Our progress on gender diversity has been profound. We have no glass ceilings: women hold positions of leadership at all levels of management at the firm. Women lead a number of our key practice groups, including our Energy, Immigration and International practices, and serve on the firm's Executive Committee. The success of our female attorneys at Duane Morris has not gone unnoticed. Barbara Adams was chair of the firm's Finance Practice until her appointment by Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell to serve as General Counsel of the Commonwealth. In 2004, our longtime General Counsel, Gene E.K. Pratter, was approved by the United States Senate and is now a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Our efforts to improve diversity extend beyond our firm's walls. The chair of our Diversity Committee, Nolan N. Atkinson, Jr., recognized the lack of diversity in Philadelphia's legal community and formed the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group. Nolan now serves as the chair of the organization, a consortium of 25 law firms and corporations that commits to employing at least one diverse first-year law student each as a summer associate. From this program, law students of diverse backgrounds gain access to what was once an exclusive legal community, and now have the opportunity to learn and develop their legal careers with experience at Philadelphia's top law firms.

In addition to our involvement in the Philadelphia area, Duane Morris has increased our presence at national conferences and events focused on diversity. We sponsor the Hispanic National Bar Association and its job fair. Duane Morris is also a longtime supporter and sponsor of the Equality Forum, a national gay and lesbian rights organization. Duane Morris continues to sponsor the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and is active in other associations of diverse attorneys including: the Asian American Bar Association of the Delaware Valley; the Charles Houston Bar Association; Cuban Bar Association; Korean American Lawyers Association; National American Indian Housing Counsel and the National Bar Association.

The challenge of improving gender, ethnic and cultural diversity at Duane Morris is an ongoing effort that has the support of the entire firm. Duane Morris has been at the vanguard in supporting gender diversity throughout the firm beginning a generation ago. Our diversity programs are leading to similar success in improving racial and national origin diversity at Duane Morris. But even as we share these examples of Duane Morris attorneys and our involvement in numerous legal events, associations and programs for diversity, our hope is that such examples will no longer be necessary to mention in the future. We hope that through our efforts, and the efforts of other law firms, these stories become so common that they are no longer the remarkable accomplishments they are today, but simply routine aspects of the legal world tomorrow.

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