RichardLoebl

Richard's practice focuses on the areas of employee benefits and executive compensation. He has worked extensively on questions related to fiduciary responsibility and has experience litigating fiduciary responsibility claims. His experience includes the following:

• Counseling clients on pension plans, 401(k) plans, ESOPs, prototype IRAs, health plans, severance plans, employment agreements, severance agreements, and non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements.
• Working on employee benefit issues related to corporate transactions, including "golden parachute" concerns arising from transactions and issues in transitioning benefits from seller's plans to buyer's plans.
• Working on benefits issues for nonprofits and governmental employers.
• Assisting both individuals and corporations on executive employment agreements and equity-based compensation.
• Advising employers on establishing equity-based compensation arrangements such as stock option plans, employee stock purchase plans, and both short-term and long-term incentive plans.

Richard's background in mathematics has given him excellent analytical skills, as well as an ability to recognize the economics of a situation. He likes to problem solve, so he takes on many projects that are a challenge to solve. Richard can think out of the box, come up with a novel approach, and refine it into a workable result.

All sizes and types of employers have turned to Richard for guidance. He has worked with one-employee clients, as well as employers with tens of thousands of employees. He has worked with clients who were parties to numerous collective bargaining agreements, and those who never had the notion of bargaining agreement raised by their employees. Most often, Richard works with clients who fall between these extremes, but his experience with the outliers helps inform possible approaches that might be appropriate for the particular client.

One client Richard acquired had a leveraged ESOP for which the loan needed to be repaid immediately in order to consummate the acquisition of the client. He found a way to pay off the loan within relevant IRS strictures. This was so surprising to the acquirer's major accounting firm, that they had to ask their headquarters specialists for technical support. The headquarters specialists agreed with Richard's approach.

In another instance, the IRS proposed new regulations regarding non-bank trustees that would have driven Richard's client, a regional brokerage firm acting as custodian/trustee to tens of thousands of IRAs, out of business. Richard wrote a comment letter to the IRS on behalf of his client, and received a call from the IRS staffer in charge of the regulation project. She told him that the leading industry trade group had tried to convince her to change the proposed regulation, but had not been successful, and invited him to try to change her position. The final regulation took the position Richard advocated. The CEO of the client wrote a letter to the head of Richard's firm, telling how Richard had saved their business.

Richard finds creative and unexpected ways to solve his clients' problems. His analytical skills allow him to look at spreadsheets and financial projections, and in many instances, identify where something does not make sense.

Richard's Seyfarth practice involves interesting questions and challenges, and in that work, he enjoys interacting with clients and colleagues.