Executive Employment Law

Executive Employment Law: Protecting Executives, Entrepreneurs and Employees provides practitioners and business executives with a working knowledge of executive employment-related negotiations and the laws governing executive employment. The book discusses strategies for negotiating employment contracts, separation (termination) agreements, non-compete agreements and founder's stock contracts.

In the wake of the most recent financial crisis as well as the relatively recent corporate scandals, the country
appears more concerned than ever before with executive compensation practices. It seems that every call in
Washington for a new stimulus or bailout package is inextricably linked with a call for limits on executive
compensation in one form or another. However, politicians rarely, if ever, focus on how executive's compensation
got to where it is.

The corporate lawyer who represents high ranking, and sometimes high profile, executives, requires a full
understanding of the dynamics of executive compensation negotiations and the types of contracts executives enter
into. The same can be said of in-house counsel responsible for advising their employer or compensation
committee on executive hiring, retention or termination matters. There are myriad issues beyond the requirements
of compensation reporting to consider, from negotiating the employment relationship to understanding
compensation packages, to considering executive's mid-employment requests, to terminating the employment
relationship, whether due to performance or merger.

Jotham S. Stein has represented hundreds of executives, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and companies in a wide variety of business and employment negotiations. He has negotiated (or counseled clients during the negotiation of) numerous employment and founder-related agreements, including executive employment contracts, stock option agreements, change of control agreements, management carve out agreements, and severance agreements. Mr. Stein also offers prospective employees, managers, shareholders and corporate executives advice on ways to best protect themselves, and the risks of choosing not to do so, before employment begins, during the employment relationship and/or while a transaction is taking place.

In addition to his extensive executive employment experience, Mr. Stein has been counsel in complex multi-million dollar litigation matters and in smaller individual and business cases. Mr. Stein has represented clients in state and federal courts, before state and federal agencies and in arbitration. He has also served as part-time General Counsel of a high-technology Silicon Valley company.

Mr. Stein is a graduate of Princeton University and Stanford Law School. After graduating from Stanford Law School, he joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, in Palo Alto, California as an associate. He has also served as a Lecturer/Instructor in Legal Research and Writing at School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Stein now practices on his own, with offices in Palo Alto, California and Geneva, Illinois.