What Are The Key Issues An Executive Or A Professional Should Consider In Negotiating An Employment Contract, Or Executive Compensation, In Manhattan, NYC?

A well-drafted employment contract or executive employment agreement can set forth a comprehensive, carefully thought out, and clear recitation of the employee’s categories of compensation and employee benefits. An employment agreement can shield an employee from arbitrary termination, demotion, or a change in control of the employer. In a written agreement of employment, the executive may secure the employer’s advance consent to an orderly and fairly compensated exit, should one of those events take place.

Employment contract negotiations can be lengthy and complex. Executives and professionals who are bargaining with a potential employer for an employment agreement should use an experienced Manhattan Employment Lawyer for Executives and Professionals.

The following is a checklist of important issues that an employee should consider in negotiating an employment agreement. At the Law Offices of David S. Rich, LLC, we have substantial experience in bargaining for, drafting, revising, and enforcing these contractual provisions and many others on behalf of executives and professionals.

Promises about the employee’s obligations to previous employers or companies
Relocation package
Term of employment and renewal provisions
Job title and reporting relationships
Duties and responsibilities
Compensation
- Base salary, commissions plan, and bonus provisions
  - “Guaranteed” bonus to compensate for bonus that employee would have received at year-end, had he kept working for his or her previous employer
- Common employee benefits
  - Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  - Life, accident, and disability insurance coverage
  - Vacation and other paid time off
  - Fringe benefits
- Deferred compensation
  - Equity compensation
- Employee indemnification
- Intellectual property and business property rights
- If the employee will be working overseas, benefits for working abroad
- If the employee is not a U.S. citizen, visa and immigration help
- Restrictive covenants
  - Non-competition, non-solicitation agreements, no-poaching, and confidentiality provisions
- Termination of the employment relationship
  - Grounds for termination
    - By employer, for cause, good cause, or good reason
    - By employee, for cause, good cause or good reason
  - Result of change of control of the employer
  - Disability or death of the employee
- Severance pay and benefits
  - Amount and type of severance
  - Expenses associated with the end of the employee’s working relationship with the employer
  - Required notice
  - Continuation of medical coverage
  - Payment of bonuses and commissions, for preceding calendar year or calendar quarter, not yet paid out upon termination
  - Employee’s post-employment duty to cooperate with the employer
- Remedies for breaking the employment agreement
  - Choice of forum
  - Required mediation and/or arbitration
  - Injunctive relief
  - Winning litigant’s right to reimbursement of reasonable attorneys’ fees
- Miscellaneous provisions
  - Merger or exhaustion provision
  - Choice of law
  - Taxation issues

If you are an employee in the Manhattan, NYC metro area who seeks a written agreement of employment with a prospective employer, or who must respond to an employment agreement tendered by a potential employer, call Manhattan Employment Attorney David S. Rich at (347) 941-0760.

Our firm’s labor and employment practice includes the following:

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