Employee benefits

Scope of our practice

Our employee benefits team advises on all types of employee share scheme and cash bonus arrangements. We have advised a variety of multinationals on introducing global share schemes in various jurisdictions around the world. We also regularly advise non-UK (particularly US) companies on setting up UK schemes based on schemes they already operate in their home territory.

Team

The employee benefits team, headed by David Cohen who is also chairman of the Share Plan Lawyers’ Group, is a team of dedicated incentive specialists providing wide-ranging advice on tax issues, securities law, corporate governance and best practice. The practice combines technical expertise with a practical experience-driven approach.

How we work

The employee benefits team:

• believes in providing creative advice and tax-effective solutions
• gives clear guidance on the corporate and shareholder aspects of employee share incentives with a particular awareness of the views of institutional investors
  can help you introduce schemes which best suit your employee culture and are compatible with any share incentive arrangements which your company already has in place
• will work closely with you at all stages in bringing an employee incentive scheme into your organisation, and will continue to assist you in post-implementation activities such as advising on ongoing reporting and other regulatory requirements.

What we do

The employee benefits team is a highly regarded practice which:

• advises listed and large private companies on all types of share and cash-based employee incentive arrangements, as well as providing support to such companies during corporate transactions
• provides wide-ranging advice on tax issues, securities law, corporate governance and best practice and combines technical expertise with a practical experience-driven approach
• advises companies on how best to incentivise their executives and employees wherever in the world they are based, through its network of international offices.

Clients

The employee benefits team provides ongoing share plan advice to its key clients which have included:

HSBC, Liberty International, Drax, Petrofac, Netstore, Glencore, Burberry, Easyjet, Chaucer, NYSE Euronext, Spring Group, Watson Wyatt, Panmure Gordon, Geopark, Katanga Mining, Peter Hambro Mining, Aricom, Jupiter Asset Management, 7 Investment Management, General Cable, Domestic & General, Kiln, Workspace and Avesco.

More information on our global employee benefits practice.