Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation

Stradling’s attorneys are experts at designing and implementing cutting-edge arrangements for compensating, attracting, and retaining key executives, employees, partners, and board members.

We have extensive experience advising clients on executive compensation arrangements and employee benefit matters, including all aspects of:

Employee equity award programs
Bonus programs
Deferred compensation plans
Severance and golden-parachute arrangements
Employment agreements
Related corporate governance issues

Our clients include:

Startups
Public and private companies
Boards of directors
Compensation committees
Management teams

In solving complex executive compensation and employee benefits issues, Stradling’s attorneys adopt a multidisciplinary approach, advising in all areas of law, including tax, securities, fiduciary, and employment laws.

Rebound Therapeutics Corporation Completes $102.1 Million Sale to Integra LifeSciences Corporation

Mako Steel Completes Sale of a Controlling Interest to New State Capital Partners

Time to Revise Your Arbitration Agreements: Supreme Court Holds PAGA Claims Can Be Compelled to Arbitration

Today, the United States Supreme Court issued a significant decision allowing the arbitration of claims under the Private Attorney General Act (“PAGA”). The Court’s decision in Viking River Cruises v. Moriana provides that employers may now compel an employee’s individual PAGA claims to arbitration. Under prior California precedent, PAGA claims could not be compelled to arbitration meaning that even with class action waivers, an individual employee could bring PAGA claims on behalf of all aggrieved employees and require a court to determine the outcome. Under the Court’s new standard, the PAGA claims of individual employees can be compelled to arbitration if that employee signed a properly worded arbitration agreement. Importantly, the Court also clarified that once an individual employee’s PAGA claims are compelled to arbitration, that employee loses the ability to seek PAGA penalties on behalf of other employees. When paired with an enforceable class action waiver, signed arbitration agreements can now require individual employees, and former employees, to arbitrate their individual claims, including PAGA claims, effectively preventing class action treatment of wage and hour claims and preventing PAGA actions on behalf of all aggrieved employees. In other words, employers would then only be faced with arbitrating the claims of a single employee. Period.

New California Law Will Prevent Employers From Asking Applicant's Salary History

On Oct. 12, 2017, Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 168, prohibiting California employers from asking job applicants about their salary history. The law, which takes effect in January 2018, is the latest effort from state law makers to combat pay discrimination through local legislation.

Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation

Rebound Therapeutics Corporation Completes $102.1 Million Sale to Integra LifeSciences Corporation

Mako Steel Completes Sale of a Controlling Interest to New State Capital Partners

Time to Revise Your Arbitration Agreements: Supreme Court Holds PAGA Claims Can Be Compelled to Arbitration

New California Law Will Prevent Employers From Asking Applicant's Salary History

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