Strategic Workforce Planning

Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other related transactions have vast implications for labor, employment and ERISA laws. Stevens & Lee’s extensive expertise in each area of law allows us to ensure that transactions are structured to achieve the best results for our clients. This includes:

• Conducting due diligence
• Negotiating and drafting provisions of purchase agreements
• Creating employee evaluation and decision making processes for integrating and downsizing combined organizations
• Conducting disparate impact analyses
• Coordinating and integrating compensation and benefit plans
• Crafting severance programs
• Conducting any legally required bargaining with labor unions

Our efforts in this area have resulted in our clients’ completing their transactions with a minimal number of lawsuits or administrative charges being filed, none of which has been successful. These transactions include:

• Several mergers, reorganizations and divestitures involving one of the largest electric utility companies in the eastern U.S.
• Ten acquisitions by one of the largest banks in the Northeast, when it grew from under 1,000 employees to approximately 8,000 employees and quadrupled its assets
• A management buy-out and spin-off of assets and employees of a foreign-based multinational company creating one of the three largest industrial battery manufacturers in the world
• Several acquisitions for a large manufacturer of generic pharmaceutical products

We have also assisted clients in providing benefit enhancements as part of an early retirement program for full or partial workforce reductions. These have included retirement plan enhancements, severance or pay continuation plans and health care continuation programs. Our services include addressing all aspects of ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code and COBRA continuation coverage.