Ropes & Gray LLP

Working alongside the firm's transactional practices, Ropes & Gray LLP plays a central role in negotiating the executive compensation and employee benefits components of transactions, from signing through closing and beyond, and leads the implementation process, including plan set-ups, spin-offs, and terminations. The practice also negotiates and drafts executive employment and severance arrangements and is involved in shaping and negotiating transaction and transaction-related documentation to ensure alignment between commercial objectives and workforce strategy. Boston-based Renata Ferrari and New York-based Allie Alperovich jointly head the practice, with Ferrari advising on broad spectrum of executive compensation matters, including equity-based incentive plans, deferred compensation arrangements, and severance programs, and Alperovich focusing on the executive compensation and employee benefits aspects of mergers and acquisitions, while also advising companies and individual executives on ongoing compensation planning and governance matters. Danna Kivell, in New York, and Jennifer Rikoski Whitney, in Boston, represent clients in compensation and benefits issues arising in the context of mergers and acquisitions. Joshua Lichtenstein is a name to note for ERISA matters, particularly in relation to issues that have emerged or gained prominence in recent years. He is based in New York.