Work Department

Corporate/Mergers and Acquisitions/Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits

Position

Head of the Firm’s Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Practice Group. Practice includes participation in complex mergers and acquisitions, securities and commercial banking transactions involving issues arising under ERISA and related provisions of the Internal Revenue Code; the structuring and implementation of management equity arrangements, and other executive compensation, employment and severance programs; and advice with respect to tax, accounting and securities law issues related thereto.

Career

Joined firm as a Partner in 1998; Previously a Partner at Paul, Weiss.

Education

Columbia Law School (J.D., 1988); Amherst College (B.A., 1985).

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional

The team at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP now includes seven partners following the promotion of Jeannine McSweeney in January 2019. In a significant transaction in the private equity space, Gregory Grogan advised a Blackstone Group-led consortium on a $20bn partnership agreement with Thompson Reuters. An equally sizeable public transaction saw David Rubinsky advising Vistra Energy on all executive compensation and employee benefit matters related to its $20bn merger with Dynegy. Practice head Brian Robbins has been instructed by high-profile senior executives including CEOs of Avon Corporation, National Geographic, Evercore and Ralph Lauren; he also recently advised Dover Corporation on its $3bn spin-off of Apergy. Other names to note include Palo Alto-based Tristan Brown, who was involved in KKR’s $9.9bn acquisition on Envision Healthcare and Andrew Blau, who has expertise in equity and cash-based incentive schemes, deferred compensation and retirement plans. Named lawyers are based in New York unless stated otherwise.