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Seth Safra is a trusted adviser and problem solver. His practice focuses on all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation, including the design, implementation, and administration of retirement plans (tax-qualified and non-qualified), equity and other performance-based compensation plans, and health and welfare arrangements. He also has extensive experience structuring and negotiating employment, deferred compensation, severance, retention, and similar arrangements. His practice includes representing clients before the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and other government agencies.
Clients of the firm benefit from Mr. Safra's creativity, passion, and ability to find common ground with regulators and adversaries.
Representative Matters
- Helping several Fortune 200 companies redesign their retirement plans in response to uncertain and changing economic conditions and legal obligations.
- Developed legal analysis and presentations that led to an IRS Chief Counsel memorandum reversing a prior position and allowing professional baseball clubs to deduct salary payments to injured players.
- With others, represented DuPont in Kennedy v. Plan Administrator for DuPont Savings and Investment Plan, 129 S.Ct. 865 (2009), in which a unanimous Supreme Court upheld the “plan documents” rule for identifying the beneficiary under an ERISA benefit plan.
- Helped clients restructure over one thousand deferred compensation plans and individual contracts to bring them into compliance with new tax rules under Internal Revenue Code Section 409A. This work required creativity in coordinating complex tax requirements with myriad external constraints, including industry rules and cultural considerations, employee relations, and business needs.
- Advising companies on the design of executive compensation programs to stay ahead of the curve as legal, regulatory, and economic requirements change.
- Advising professional partnerships on design and implementation of effective tax-qualified retirement plans for partners.
Honors and Rankings
- Law360, 10 Under 40 Rising Star - Employment (2010)
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