Broadcast Date: Friday, January 22, 2021
from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm (ET)
Overview:
With today’s major economic recession faced by businesses due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) continues to be an attractive option for companies seeking to address the need for succession planning to sustain competitive advantage in the market and looking to provide their employees with an ownership interest through a retirement plan.
While ESOPs offer several advantages it offers, including significant tax benefits, as an ESOP is an ERISA-covered retirement plan, those regulations must be carefully considered and addressed. Now more than ever, companies, sellers, fiduciaries and their lawyers must be conversant with the implications of implementing ESOP to ensure that risks are mitigated, while having a favorable market position in a post-coronavirus environment, that the ESOP and its participants receive fair market value and that other ERISA requirements are followed in this post-coronavirus environment.
In this LIVE Webcast, ESOP experts David Johanson (Hawkins Parnell & Young LLP) and Joseph Barton (Block & Leviton LLP) will provide an in-depth discussion of ESOP formation post-COVID-19. Speakers will also offer helpful succession planning tips in maximizing the potentials of ESOPs, ensuring that ESOPs provide the proper benefits to participants, follow ERISA’s requirements and navigating possible challenges along the way.
Some of the major topics that will be covered in this course are:
- ESOP Formation Post-COVID-19
- Recent Regulatory Trends and Developments
- Legal Risks and Challenges
- Practical Tips and Best Practices
- Outlook
Learning Objectives:
- Identify essential considerations when making ESOP transactions and valuations as well as when conducting due diligence in light of COVID-19.
- Determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on projections and ESOP litigation.
Credit:
Course Level:
Intermediate
Advance Preparation:
Print and review course materials
Method of Presentation:
On-demand Webcast (CLE); Group-Internet Based
Prerequisite:
General knowledge of ESOP
Course Code:
149284
NASBA Field of Study:
Business Law – Technical
NY Category of CLE Credit:
Areas of Professional Practice
Total Credits:
1.5 CLE
1.5 CPE (Not eligible for QAS (On-demand) CPE credits)
How to Claim CLE Credits Per State:
https://knowledgewebcasts.com/how-to-claim-cle-credits-per-state/
CLE State Requirements:
https://knowledgewebcasts.com/cle-state-requirements/
CPE State Requirements:
Speaker Panel:
David R. Johanson, Partner
Hawkins Parnell & Young, LLP
David assists clients in general corporate matters and in employee ownership, benefit, ERISA, and related business matters, with an emphasis on executive compensation, equity incentive plans, non-qualified deferred compensation, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), ESOP transactions, mergers and acquisitions (and related tax planning), and business succession and estate planning. David has served as outside general counsel to numerous corporate clients over the past 35 years. He also frequently appears on behalf of clients in business and employment-oriented defense litigation in state and federal courts throughout the country, before regulatory agencies (e.g., U.S. Department of Labor, California Labor Commissioner, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), in tax controversies before the Internal Revenue Service and comparable state regulatory agencies, against felony criminal indictments in U.S. Federal Court, and in dispute resolutions of various kinds.
R. Joseph Barton, Partner
Block & Leviton LLP
R. Joseph Barton is a Partner at Block & Leviton LLP and leads the firm’s Employee Benefits practice and Veterans/USERRA practice. He represents employees in a variety of employee benefit disputes, fiduciary breaches or other ERISA or USERRA violations and also represents fiduciaries of plans with claims against other fiduciaries. He has been trial counsel for plaintiffs in several ERISA trials, including two cases involving ESOPs holding privately-held stock. In a case affirmed by the Seventh Circuit, he represented a class of participants and obtained a favorable liability decision and remedies award of over $20 million after trial concerning a complex transaction involving the purchase of stock by the Trachte Building Systems ESOP.
Agenda:
SEGMENT 1:
David R. Johanson, Partner
Hawkins Parnell & Young, LLP
- ESOP transactions (preparation and process)
- Valuations and projections how to prepare in a post-COVID world and how to adjust these
- Due Diligence and how this has changed due to COVID
SEGMENT 2:
R. Joseph Barton, Partner
Block & Leviton LLP
- COVID impacts
- How has business and projections changed
- Adjusting projections
- Case law updates
Date & Time:
Friday, January 22, 2021
3:00 pm to 4:30 pm (ET)
Who Should Attend:
- Employee Benefits & Compensation Lawyers and Consultants
- ESOP Lawyers
- Benefits Managers
- Employees and Employers
- Retirement Plan Financial Professionals
- Finance Executives
SPEAKERS
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