Overview
Representative Matters
Insights
Awards

Jeff focuses his practice on all areas of employee benefits, including executive and stock-based compensation, employee stock ownership plans, benefit issues arising in mergers and acquisitions, pension and welfare benefit plans, and issues of fiduciary responsibility under ERISA.

  • Advises clients on the design and implementation of stock-based compensation plans including stock options, restricted and phantom stock and stock appreciation rights.
  • Advises clients on all aspects of executive compensation including the design, disclosure and implementation of supplemental pension plans, excess benefit plans and employment agreements.
  • Negotiates and coordinates employee benefits issues arising in corporate acquisitions and divestitures and reorganizations.
  • Advises clients on change in control and severance matters, including the golden parachute excise tax, the applicable deduction limits and the nonqualified deferred compensation rules.
  • Designs and implements ESOPs and alternative arrangements for the investment by qualified plans in employer securities.
  • Advises clients in connection with the standards of fiduciary duty prescribed by ERISA.
  • Advises clients on the design, implementation and administration of pension and welfare benefit plans.
  • Legal 500 United States for Labor and Employment: Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans: Design (2024)
  • Best Lawyers in America®: Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law (2023-2026)
  • Chambers USA: Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Georgia (2020-2025)
  • Business Today: Top 10 Influential Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Lawyers in Georgia (2023)
  • Thomson Reuters: “Super Lawyer” in Employee Benefits (2007, 2014-2016)
  • Georgia Trend Magazine: “Legal Elite” in Labor and Employment Law (2004)

Jeff focuses his practice on all areas of employee benefits, including executive and stock-based compensation, employee stock ownership plans, benefit issues arising in mergers and acquisitions, pension and welfare benefit plans, and issues of fiduciary responsibility under ERISA.

  • Advises clients on the design and implementation of stock-based compensation plans including stock options, restricted and phantom stock and stock appreciation rights.
  • Advises clients on all aspects of executive compensation including the design, disclosure and implementation of supplemental pension plans, excess benefit plans and employment agreements.
  • Negotiates and coordinates employee benefits issues arising in corporate acquisitions and divestitures and reorganizations.
  • Advises clients on change in control and severance matters, including the golden parachute excise tax, the applicable deduction limits and the nonqualified deferred compensation rules.
  • Designs and implements ESOPs and alternative arrangements for the investment by qualified plans in employer securities.
  • Advises clients in connection with the standards of fiduciary duty prescribed by ERISA.
  • Advises clients on the design, implementation and administration of pension and welfare benefit plans.
  • Legal 500 United States for Labor and Employment: Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans: Design (2024)
  • Best Lawyers in America®: Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law (2023-2026)
  • Chambers USA: Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Georgia (2020-2025)
  • Business Today: Top 10 Influential Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Lawyers in Georgia (2023)
  • Thomson Reuters: “Super Lawyer” in Employee Benefits (2007, 2014-2016)
  • Georgia Trend Magazine: “Legal Elite” in Labor and Employment Law (2004)
  • Board of Directors, HERO for Children, 2004-2006

Education

  • University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law, LL.M., 1989
  • University of Georgia School of Law, J.D., 1985
  • Clemson University, B.S., 1979

Bar Admissions

  • Georgia
  • North Carolina

Court Admissions

  • Supreme Court of Georgia
  • Labor & Employment Annual Seminar, Troutman Sanders, October 24, 2019.
  • Protecting Against Fiduciary Lawsuits: 10 Lessons for HBO’s Game of Thrones, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Webinar, Troutman Sanders, October 2, 2019.
  • Community Bankers Association of Georgia, 2015 CFO Conference, Employee Benefits in Mergers & Acquisitions, August 12, 2015.
  • What Plan Sponsors Should Think About Now, DiMeo Schneider & Associates, L.L.C. Luncheon Conference, June 30, 2015.
  • Top 10 Takeaways on Fiduciary Liability, Corporate Counsel, 27th Annual General Counsel Conference, June 3, 2015.
  • Same-Sex Partners: Workplace Impact of the Supreme Court’s Defense of Marriage Act Ruling, Troutman Sanders Annual Labor & Employment Seminar, October 17, 2013.
  • Valuing Stock Compensation Under Section 409A, Strafford Publications & Seminars, November 25, 2009.
  • Navigating the Complexities of New IRC Section 409A, Georgia Society of CPAs, August 16, 2007.
  • IRC 409A Presentation – General Rules for Stock Options and Other Awards, Technology Association of Georgia, March 6, 2007.
  • Executive Breakfast on the New Deferred Compensation Rules, Hunton & Williams LLP Program, December 1, 2004.
  • A Primer on S Corporation ESOPs and Other Employee Benefit Issues, Lorman Education Services Seminar on S Corporations, October 2, 2003.
  • Reporting and Disclosure Requirements Applicable to Employee Benefit Plans, Lorman Education Services Seminar on Employment Related Records in Georgia, April 17, 2002.
  • Enron – The Implications, The New South Chapter of the ESOP Association, April 20, 2002.
  • Employment Law, Labor Relations and Employee Benefits, Hunton & Williams LLP Virginia Program, November 1997.
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Welfare Plan Administrators Group Presentation, May 1997.