Ten Considerations In Drafting Executive Employment Agreements

Perhaps your company has just acquired a new business and wants to put that entity's employees under a more structured employment arrangement.  Or maybe you are just looking to roll out new executive-level agreements within your own company.  Whatever the motivation and circumstances, here are ten things to think about in drafting employment agreements that often go overlooked: 

1. Severance – The most common question is the easiest: Are you going to provide severance and, if so, how much?  Other details merit consideration though.  For example, is death or disability a severance trigger?  As part of the package, do you want to provide things like medical benefit continuation, prorated bonus, equity vesting acceleration, extension of the option exercise period, or other benefits?  Whatever you do, the employer will want to make sure that the executive has to execute a release to receive the severance benefits, other than vested benefits and accrued compensation.