There are many reasons why working relationships stop working. Regardless of whether a parting of the ways is amicable, contentious, or somewhere in between, an academic executive will almost always be presented with some sort of severance agreement and release on the way out the door.
Our severance agreement attorneys can guide you through the labyrinthine separation agreement handed to you by your employer, and negotiate on your behalf the most advantageous exit package possible.
If you are a senior academic executive contemplating a move, or if you have some inkling that you may soon be asked to leave, call our law firm. Our severance agreement attorneys can help you lay the groundwork for your eventual or imminent departure. Or, perhaps you’ve already received your walking papers. Our severance agreement attorneys can guide you through the labyrinthine separation agreement handed to you by your employer, and negotiate on your behalf the most advantageous exit package possible.
Like employment agreements, separation agreements can have a number of tax ramifications, which our attorneys have assisted executives and companies in navigating. For example, by altering the proposed timing of certain separation payments, including years’ worth of deferred compensation, our employment attorneys succeeded in saving one executive $3 million in taxes. Without our intervention, he would have owed the IRS a 20% surcharge over and above ordinary income taxes due to legislation originally intended to prevent Enron-type manipulation, but which in fact applies to many ordinary severance arrangements.
Negotiations around an executive severance agreement might include helping you:
- Maximize the dollar amount of severance and benefits to be paid to you, while timing those payments so as to minimize any adverse tax consequences.
- Be enabled to move on within your industry as quickly as possible, unfettered by protracted or over-broad non-competition and non-solicitation restrictions
- Limit the scope of forfeiture provisions and releases
- Ensure that your employer indemnifies you on a continuing basis against any damages or claims which might be brought by third parties
- Understand ongoing obligations of confidentiality and cooperation
- Obtain mutual non-disparagement provisions
- Choose methods for resolving post-termination disputes
- Be certain that you understand what you might be giving up