Executive Compensation

BRG experts obtain and analyze data regarding internal and external executive compensation relationships in order to provide rigorous, factual statistical evidence to aid resolution of the disputes in question. Both plaintiffs and defendants have retained our experts to offer their opinions on these types of issues.

Comprehensive analysis.

BRG’s Labor and Employment experts typically undertake work in situations where there is a dispute about the compensation paid or not paid to an executive or group of executives. In some instances, especially involving family-owned firms, a family member claims that other family members are overcompensated. In other instances, especially involving large firms that have terminated the employment of certain executives, the executives claim that they are still owed certain pay and benefits that were unfairly and illegally withheld. Still other instances involve attempts by governmental authorities to claw back allegedly excessive compensation paid to company executives or to pursue claims of stock-option backdating by company executives.

BRG experts obtain and analyze data regarding internal and external executive compensation relationships in order to provide rigorous, factual statistical evidence to aid resolution of disputes in question. This analysis is comprehensive and takes into account all forms of executive compensation, including base pay, bonuses, equity (i.e., stock grants, options, and discounted purchases), deferred compensation, and fringe benefits. BRG experts also analyze the content of executive contracts to determine how contractual provisions bear upon claims and counterclaims. The experts advise companies and organizations on the design and implementation of executive compensation plans, including the role of performance and other factors, such as industry, organization size, and location, in those plans.

In cases involving issues of executive compensation, our experts have testified in federal, state, and local courts, US Tax Court, administrative law courts, and arbitration hearings featuring single arbitrators and arbitration panels. Specific cases include allegations by:

Female executives that they were underpaid relative to male executives
A former CEO of a joint venture company that his equity compensation was unfairly and illegally denied
A non-officer brother and joint owner of an energy company that his two officer brothers and joint owners of the company were excessively compensated
A former CEO of a high-tech company that his vested and unvested stock options were unfairly and illegally cancelled by the successor company
A co-owner of a clothing manufacturing company that her stock ownership in the company had been transferred unfairly and illegally to her daughter and son-in-law, both officers of the company

Other cases have featured trustees or receivers appointed by public authorities to recover compensation from executives that was allegedly excessive as a result of Ponzi schemes or other questionable or illegal arrangements.