It is common practice for US-based multinational companies to adopt executive severance plans to provide for additional benefits to be paid to executives in the event of certain specified termination events, including those in connection with the change of control of the parent. These benefits may consist of cash payments, favorable treatment of equity awards, and/or other benefits (e.g., payment of health insurance premiums).

These types of plans help companies recruit and retain talent and also provide some certainty around payments which will be made to executives upon termination while securing a release of claims for the company. Multinationals with executives in countries outside the US often desire to cover their non-US executives under the same plan.

In our latest NASPP guest blog post, we explain why it is difficult to extend US executive severance plans to non-US executives and the approaches companies can consider to provide equivalent severance benefits to their non-US executives.

To read more, click here.

Author

Jeff Bauman is an associate in the Firm's North America Employment and Compensation practice and is based in the San Francisco office. Jeff advises multinational companies in the design and implementation of their international equity compensation plans, including dealing with issues such as tax obligations, regulatory compliance, data privacy, cross-border and mobile employee implications, and labor law compliance.

Sofia Chesnokova
Author

Sofia focuses her practice on advising clients on domestic and cross-border employment matters arising throughout the employment relationship, including helping clients expand into new jurisdictions, manage global workforces and terminate employment relationships. She also provides domestic and international employment law counseling and advice on mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructurings. Additionally, Sofia counsels clients on a broad range of domestic employment matters such as background checks, hiring, terminations, bonus and commission plans, restrictive covenants, and executive employment agreements.