Labor and Employment

Jones & Keller provides its clients with an integrated approach to the diverse employee benefits needs of its clients by combining expertise in traditional employee benefits and executive compensation with extensive experience in corporate tax planning, employment benefits litigation and insurance regulation and policy.

We assist our clients in all aspects of planning and implementation of incentive compensation programs, benefits plans, and tax qualified and non-qualified plans. We provide advice to employers on compensation and benefit plans for employees, as well as plans or arrangements for executives, directors and key personnel. We help our clients deal with increasingly complex benefits issues such as tax implications of deferred compensation (IRC §409A), “Golden Parachute” issues surrounding executive compensation in change-of-control transactions, design, amendment and termination of tax-qualified and non-qualified plans and incentive compensation plans for corporations and limited liability companies. We also assist start-ups and rapidly growing companies in designing compensation and stock incentive plans that help them recruit and retain key personnel and meet the demands of venture capitalists and mezzanine financiers.

We help boards of directors, compensation committees, management committees and outside accountants to craft executive compensation plans that meet the needs of executives, shareholders and outside directors. We also assist boards of directors in development of director compensation plans.

We help our clients to choose from a variety of compensation options, such as:

• Incentive and performance compensation plans
• Equity-based compensation programs
• Phantom equity and profits-based compensation plans
• Deferred compensation arrangements

We also advise clients involved in mergers and acquisitions regarding the interaction and integration of qualified plans of the various parties.

Jones & Keller helps prevent liability by making recommendations and preparing transitional documents for terminations, resignations, reductions-in-force, layoffs, executive hiring and terminations, handbooks and policies; and restrictive covenants, including non-competes, non-solicitation, and trade secret protection. We help our clients establish and implement programs and policies to manage the risk of employment actions, develop compensation plans to meet business objectives, and manage outsource and independent contractor relationships. Jones & Keller lawyers have extensive hands-on knowledge of employment issues facing businesses and public sector clients today, derived from their experience in dealing with day-to-day employment issues as general counsel and executive officers of various businesses.

Clients turn to Jones & Keller for guidance when issued a citation by the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration (OSHA) or state OSHA programs and in disputes over general employment contract matters. We also defend employers against claims of retaliation under the National Labor Relationship Act. Prevention measures include counseling clients on workplace safety issues as well as updating employer safety manuals.

Our attorneys represent employers in potential and actual claims of alleged wage and hour violations and misclassifications under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state wage acts in federal and state courts as well as under audit by the U.S. Department of Labor/Wage and Hour Division and state department of labor. Counseling clients on prevention measures is part of our practice to reduce the risk of liability from misclassifying exempt and non-exempt employees and independent contractors.

Jones & Keller advises institutions that act as fiduciaries of ERISA plans, plan sponsors, issuers of securities, institutional and individual fiduciaries on ERISA implications of their business activities, including prohibited transactions, exemptions, plan asset issues, fiduciary duties, and securities law disclosure requirements.  Our ERISA clients include a variety of industries, such as banks, insurance companies, investment advisors, construction companies, placement agencies and brokerage firms.

Lawyers in the ERISA practice provide counsel on the ERISA and executive compensation implications of proposed business entity transactions and restructurings, such as mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs.  We also help our clients with the design and implementation of tax-qualified employee benefit plans, and advise on compliance under both ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code.  Our ERISA practice includes providing advice in the following areas:

• Plan design and implementation
• Plan termination
• Plan spin-off
• Resolution of plan qualification issues
• Fiduciary duty and plan compliance
• Acquisition or disposition of a business
• Planning and compliance related to incentive compensation
• Stock options and other programs designed for executives
• Resolution of claim disputes