Adam focuses his practice on employee benefits and executive compensation.  He assists a diverse group of clients, including public companies, closely held businesses, and tax-exempt organizations, in matters such as:

• Tax-qualified retirement plans, 401(k) plans, traditional pension plans, cash-balance plans, and ESOPs;
• Nonqualified deferred compensation plans, such as supplemental executive retirement plans and elective salary deferral plans;
• Equity compensation arrangements, including restricted stock, phantom stock, and stock options;
• Executive employment and separation agreements; and
• Employee benefits due diligence and transaction agreement provisions arising in mergers and acquisitions.

Adam was recently named a Nolan Fellow by the American Bar Association's Tax Section, recognizing outstanding service to the ABA.  Adam is a frequent speaker on employee benefits topics before organizations such as the Tax Executives Institute and the American Bar Association, for which he is Chair of the IRA Subcommittee of the Tax Section.  He also teaches "Retirement Plan Qualification Requirements" as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and he previously taught "ERISA: Pensions" as an adjunct professor at the Catholic University School of Law.

Adam's recent experience includes:

• Performing a detailed compliance review and restatement of a foreign governmental entity's 40-year-old defined benefit pension plan, including use of IRS correction programs;
• Providing employee benefits advice in connection with
  • British Nuclear Fuels plc's $5.4 billion sale of Westinghouse Electric Company to Toshiba Corporation;
  • Compass Group's $3.2 billion sale of Select Service Partners to a private equity consortium; and
  • Altria Group, Inc.'s spin-off of Kraft Foods Inc.;
• Assisting in the negotiation and drafting of employment agreements for the CEOs of two Fortune 100 companies;
• Reviewing and restating deferred compensation plans for compliance with Internal Revenue Code section 409A; and
• Representing a large public company's position on proposed regulations before IRS and Treasury Department officials, and reaching a favorable result in the final version of those regulations.

Click here to view Sutherland's website on nonqualified deferred compensation and section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code.