Steven Eckhaus Shares Executive Compensation Negotiation Tips in The New York Law Journal

November 23, 2022

The New York Law Journal published an article from HSW partner Steven Eckhaus on how lawyers can fairly negotiate the executive compensation terms for C-Suite roles in light of pandemic-era conditions. His article, “Negotiating executive pay agreements for the C-Suite in these volatile times” (subscription required), also includes pointers for attorneys handling executive compensation negotiations for senior and junior-level executives and managers.

Eckhaus writes that pandemic-era economic instability, political uncertainty and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence threaten society’s return to a full-employment economy with good jobs. Due to this combination of factors, lawyers representing candidates for C-Suite and professional positions must ensure they account for a host of points they would not have otherwise considered before the coronavirus pandemic’s onset and economic fallout.

“Due to these uncertain circumstances, counsel must know what terms they should try to negotiate for their clients, and how,” Eckhaus writes. He adds that lawyers looking to steer their clients in the right direction at the negotiating table” should consider modifying their approaches to negotiating contracts for terms of years, equity and profit interests, cost of living increases, most favored nation (MFN) treatment, telecommuting, defining the term “cause” in the agreement and more.

Eckhaus clarifies that as lawyers representing C-Suite and professional-level position candidates begin negotiating, they should remember that success is never defined by the number of changes they can work into an employment contract.

“Do your best to obtain a materially-improved contract and describe the shortcomings and risks to your client, but don’t stand in your client’s way of a deal,” Eckhaus writes, “With rare exceptions, you will not have done your job as counsel if you don’t help your clients seal the deal on the jobs they worked so hard to attain.”

Eckhaus helps lead HSW’s employment & executive compensation practice. A titan and mainstay of New York’s executive compensation and employment bar for more than four decades, Mr. Eckhaus has developed a market-leading reputation guiding high-powered business, banking, and financial executives and senior employees on all matters concerning their employment, partnership, ownership, compensation and equity interests. Mr. Eckhaus has set key precedents in employee discrimination laws and has successfully negotiated more than $6 billion in compensation for his clients during his career.