John assists companies with employment and compensation matters from onboarding through executive exits, including offer letters, invention assignment and confidentiality agreements, executive employment agreements, equity incentive plans, and short-term and long-term bonus plans. He designs bespoke phantom equity plans and individual award agreements for closely held companies, tailored to each company’s ownership structure and exit plans, along with profits interest structures and the Section 409A analysis these arrangements require.
John also represents executives individually, on the other side of the same documents. That work includes reviewing and negotiating offer letters, equity award agreements, severance and change of control terms, and onboarding paperwork, frequently with private equity backed portfolio companies where the equity documents matter as much as the salary.
John’s employment and executive compensation experience includes:
- Designed a complete executive retention package for a logistics company, including a phantom equity plan, award agreements, an executive employment agreement, and a board-facing decision summary.
- Represented an incoming chief product officer in the negotiation of his offer letter and equity award agreements with a private equity backed portfolio company, including vesting and acceleration, bonus protection on termination, and severance terms, working alongside the executive’s compensation consultant.
- Advised a senior executive on offer and onboarding documents in a move between portfolio companies, reviewed and negotiated before signature.
- Restructured a closely held engineering firm’s LLC into voting and non-voting classes with a unit split to support an annual equity gift program for a key employee.
- Phantom stock and phantom unit plans, and profits interests plans, including Section 409A structuring.
- Executive employment agreements, separation and release agreements, and board adviser agreements.
- Equity incentive plans and company employment policies.
- Confidentiality, invention assignment, and non-competition agreements.