The Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits practice group specializes in the planning, drafting, negotiation and compliance aspects of (i) compensation of employees with emphasis on complex executive compensation plans and employment contracts; and (ii) all types of employee benefit plans, including retirement, medical and severance arrangements. In addition, we play a critical role in the Firm's mergers and acquisitions practice. We have extensive involvement in nearly all areas of the Firm's commercial practice, except litigation (in which we occasionally play an advisory role). This pervasive involvement with the Firm's general practice areas essentially stems from three factors: the importance of compensation programs in attracting and motivating employees - particularly key senior corporate management; the fact that pension plan assets represent a key source of domestic capital; and the high degree to which Congress has regulated compensation and benefit arrangements (including recent emphasis on corporate governance), and the consequent importance of assuring compliance with these complex rules. As a result, our relatively small practice group possesses a body of expertise that affects nearly all clients of the Firm (save pure litigation clients) and all attorneys in the group have broad and relatively immediate internal and client exposure on high-profile issues.

Simpson Thacher is one of the world's leading international law firms. The Firm was established in 1884 and has over 800 lawyers. Headquartered in New York City with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., the Firm provides coordinated legal advice and sophisticated transactional capability to clients around the globe. Our offices operate in the world's principal financial centers and we offer attorneys with native language skills and backgrounds. On every engagement and for every client, our objective is to provide the highest quality legal services available globally.