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Andrew Liazos is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in the Firm's Boston office. Andrew heads the Boston Employee Benefits practice and the Firm's Executive Compensation Group.
Andrew has extensive experience with deferred compensation plans, equity compensation, incentive pay, employment agreements, golden parachutes, compensation committees, IRS audits, multinational benefits, employee stock ownership plans, employee benefits in bankruptcy, retirement plans, ERISA fiduciary compliance and securities law matters related to executive compensation.
Representative Experience:
Represented a Fortune 500 company in obtaining a private letter ruling allowing deductibility of over $20 million of incentive pay - BNA reported the ruling as a "liberal interpretation" of Section 162(m).
Represented a multinational company in designing an offshore trust to fund retirement benefits for non-U.S. employees in over 40 countries to provide ERISA-like creditor protection.
Represented a Fortune 200 company on pension funding and executive compensation matters raised by a $2.7 billion financial services company spin off.
Represented several executives in negotiating a settlement agreement allowing them to keep over 75% of their deferred compensation plan benefits paid less than 3 months before bankruptcy.
Represented a Fortune 200 company in preparing for and responding to an audit following the IRS' adoption of its executive compensation compliance initiative.
Andrew is the Vice-Chair of the Foreign and International Subcommittee on Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation for the ABA Tax Section and the former chair of the ABA's Task Force on Split-Dollar Life Insurance. Andrew is also an active member of the ABA Tax Section's Executive Compensation Subcommittee and has co-authored comment letters on Section 409A, golden parachutes, incentive stock options and split-dollar life insurance.
Andrew is a faculty member of the American Law Institute-American Bar Association, a past Chair of the ERISA Committee of the Boston Bar Association and a John S. Nolan Fellow of the ABA's Section of Taxation.
Andrew is ranked as a leading executive compensation and employee benefits lawyer by Chambers USA - America's Leading Lawyers for Business. Andrew is also listed in Massachusetts Super Lawyers.
Education:
Suffolk University Law School, J.D., 1990
University of Massachusetts Amherst, B.S., 1987 | 