Knowledge Lawyer - ERISA, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation

Overview

Mayer Brown is an international law firm positioned to represent the world’s major corporations, funds, and financial institutions in their most important and complex transactions and disputes. We are recognized by our clients as strategic partners with deep commercial instincts and a commitment to creatively anticipating their needs and delivering excellence in everything we do.

We are a collegial, collaborative firm where highly motivated individuals with an unwavering commitment to excellence receive the opportunity, support, and development they need to grow, thrive, and realize their greatest potential all while supporting the Firm’s client service principles of excellence, strategic partnership, commercial instinct, integrated strengths, innovation, and collaboration across our international firm.

If you thrive in a collaborative environment that values exceptional client service, initiative, professionalism, responsiveness, and adaptability, we invite you to consider joining our Knowledge Management department in our New York, Chicago, or Washington, D.C. office as a Knowledge Lawyer or Counsel (US ERISA, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation).

The Knowledge Management Lawyer creates, curates and updates substantive legal resources, standard forms, precedent, training, and current awareness for their practice group, and drives the adoption of AI tools and innovative technology within the practice. The role captures and structures institutional expertise, reduces risk and duplicated effort, and equips attorneys to deliver consistent, efficient, and high-calibre client service. Working closely with practice group attorneys, the Knowledge Management Lawyer embeds market experience into the knowledge assets produced and keeps them current and commercially relevant.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions:  

Knowledge Strategy

• Partner with practice leadership and Knowledge Counsel to assess knowledge needs and develop and implement a strategy and plan to address them, with particular focus on ERISA, employee benefits, executive compensation, and M&A benefits support priorities.
• Clearly and consistently communicate the knowledge strategy to the practice group.
• Regularly review the knowledge strategy and its execution to inform priorities and strategic decisions.

Legal Knowledge Resources

• Monitor and keep the practice group up to date and ahead of the curve on relevant legal, regulatory, enforcement, agency, and market developments affecting employee benefits, executive compensation, ERISA Title I, II and IV, qualified and nonqualified plans, health and welfare plans, and transaction-related benefits and executive compensation issues.
• Lead the capture, creation, drafting, updating and maintenance of market-leading knowledge resources, including standard forms, precedent documents, plan governance templates, fiduciary and prohibited transaction memos, ERISA fund formation templates, qualified plan and health and welfare compliance checklists, executive compensation and equity compensation templates, 409A checklists, legal research documents and other relevant resources for the practice group.
• Develop and maintain M&A benefits support resources, including diligence request lists, benefits diligence report forms, issues lists severance and change-in-control arrangements, 280G analyses, model purchase agreement provisions, disclosure schedule review guides, and closing and post-closing integration checklists.
• Assess, develop and collect attorney feedback on practice workflows, including benefits diligence, regulatory update tracking, precedent management, plan document review, and executive compensation issue spotting, and identify and implement appropriate knowledge management and practice solutions to improve efficiency and effectiveness of client service delivery.
• Develop a practice intranet page and develop content and update the group’s external website
• Ensure knowledge resources are readily accessible on the intranet practice pages and the Global Knowledge Bank and remain current and aligned with practice needs.
• Conduct matter debriefs with attorneys to support know how collections.
• Verify data accuracy within KM systems and ensure effective data collection processes.
• Work with other stakeholders to implement new workflows and technology solutions that improve data capture.
• Advise and act as a trusted sounding board for partners and attorneys on technical ERISA, employee benefits and executive compensation queries and, where appropriate, give advice directly to clients.
• Advise on and mitigate risk for the practice group by keeping abreast of legal and regulatory developments that impact the practice, working closely with risk partners and the firm’s Legal Risk Management team.
• Meet regularly with attorneys in the practice group to obtain insights relevant to improving knowledge management resources, strategy and technology resources.
• Work with the practice group and Business Development & Marketing to establish processes to capture matter descriptions, practice spotlights and press releases for external marketing and categorizations in the firm’s matter systems, including benefits advisory, executive compensation, Title I , II and IV, and M&A benefits support experience.
• Assist with setting up a process for collecting valuable precedent documents and, for transactional matters, organizing benefits diligence materials, purchase agreement provisions, disclosure schedules, closing deliverables, ancillary documents, and post-closing integration resources.

Legal Technology & Innovation

• Develop and maintain expertise on emerging technologies and knowledge management systems relevant to the practice group, including AI-driven applications.
• Partner with Knowledge Counsel, Knowledge Management, Legal Technology & Innovation and other technology and business services teams to identify, evaluate, pilot, build and deploy solutions that meet attorney needs and drive more efficient client service delivery for employee benefits, executive compensation, and M&A benefits support work.
• Develop or support tools for benefits diligence automation, precedent clause banks, plan document and agreement review, regulatory update tracking, executive compensation and equity-plan issue checklists, 409A and 280G workflows, Title I, II and IV issue spotting, and AI-enabled research and drafting.
• Drive implementation and adoption of legal technology, including generative AI and document automation.
• Help evaluate generative AI capabilities, including developing, testing, and refining prompts for specific legal tasks aligned with practice needs and firm best practices.
• Act as a subject matter expert on the effective use of legal technology and AI within the practice group.
• Work with the Legal Project Management team on legal process improvement and project management initiatives for the practice group.
• Gather attorney feedback on KM systems, technology, and AI to guide adoption, and document best practices and lessons learned.
• Work with attorneys to translate practice-specific workflows into scalable, technology-enabled solutions and advise on improved processes and new tools.

Knowledge Data Transformation & Information Architecture

• Collaborate with internal data, innovation and transformation teams to leverage AI in enhancing the firm’s knowledge assets – streamlining classification, producing draft profiles for review, and enriching content with metadata that makes it findable and useful.
• Work with the practice group to define practice- specific metadata, including legal topics, document types and the data points that matter to how they practice.
• Contribute to the firm’s governance of AI assets – including prompts. Workflows and agents – ensuring they are portable and vendor-agnostic, able to be shared across systems rather than locked into a single platform.

Business Development

• Research, monitor and inform the practice of key legal, regulatory, enforcement, agency, and market developments and trends affecting employee benefits, executive compensation, ERISA fiduciary matters, ERISA Title I, II and IV matters, retirement plans, health and welfare plans, compensation disclosure, equity and incentive compensation, and benefits and executive compensation issues in M&A transactions
• Identify opportunities for the practice to use its internal know-how, expertise and insights to pursue business opportunities and raise profile to align with the practice’s strategy and priorities
• Draft, research and assist partners and attorneys with the legal content for client alerts, articles, thought leadership pieces, CLE programs, and other client-facing products as needed by the practice, in all cases demonstrating the practice’s leading technical capability and market awareness
• Play a key role in client relationships by developing, and where appropriate, delivering client training, seminars and talking points

Attorney Training/ Technical Expertise

• Work with partners and attorneys in collaboration with Learning & Development to identify and plan core practice-related training, including ERISA Title I, II and IV, qualified and nonqualified plans, health and welfare plans, executive compensation, equity compensation, 409A, 280G, M&A benefits support, and ideas for utilization of technology and different approaches to deliver an engaging training program for the practice including team training, seminars, workshops and offsite training
• Develop onboarding and just-in-time training materials for attorneys supporting M&A transactions, including practical guides for identifying benefits and executive compensation issues, escalating specialist questions, and coordinating efficiently with corporate deal teams
• Capture valuable training materials and make them easily accessible to the practice group
• Develop and deliver legal training for attorneys to assist them with locating practice-related internal and external practice knowledge
• Design and deliver training on KM resources and best practices, and in collaboration with technology training teams, legal technology and best practices
• Promote use of the practice group’s KM resources and drive adoption and behavioral change across the practice
• Mentor associates by advising and demonstrating best practices in the use of knowledge management resources, assist attorneys in finding relevant knowledge management materials on request and help attorneys develop increasing independence and competence in finding and using knowledge management and practice solutions
• Establish relationships with attorneys to promote awareness of, and solicit participation in KM initiatives

Firmwide Collaboration

• Proactively develop relationships across the firm with attorneys, knowledge management, innovation, technology, and other business services teams to ensure seamless support for the practice group, including coordination with corporate, private equity, labor and employment, ERISA litigation, global mobility, tax, finance, insurance, restructuring, and other teams as relevant
• Gather feedback and continuously refine knowledge management and practice solutions
• Contribute to firmwide knowledge management initiatives and cross-practice collaboration
• Participate in Knowledge Management meetings to facilitate the sharing of best practices and knowledge

Other

• Attend external training and conferences to keep up-to-date with relevant developments in employee benefits, executive compensation, ERISA, M&A benefits support, the broader business environment and knowledge management
• Foster own internal and external networks
• Provide other knowledge support to the practice group as may be assigned by the head of the practice group, the Knowledge Partner, or the Director of Knowledge Management

Qualifications, Experience and Personal Attributes

Education/Training/Certifications: 

• J.D. or equivalent law degree from an accredited institution
• This position requires a lawyer with actual practice experience in a field related to ERISA, Employee Benefits and Compensation who is or will become admitted to practice in the jurisdiction in which the position is located.

Professional Experience: 

• Minimum of 5-7 years’ experience practicing as an ERISA, employee benefits and/or executive compensation lawyer for an international law firm, leading U.S. law firm, or comparable legal environment.
• Excellent knowledge of ERISA Title I, II and IV including fiduciary duties, prohibited transactions, plan governance, reporting and disclosure, claims procedures, and enforcement developments.
• Strong knowledge of tax-qualified retirement plans, nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements, health and welfare plans, cafeteria plans, severance arrangements, change-in-control arrangements, and related tax and regulatory requirements.
• Strong knowledge of executive compensation, equity compensation, incentive compensation, employment and severance arrangements, 409A, 280G, securities-law-adjacent compensation disclosure issues, and public and private company compensation practices.
• Significant experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, private equity transactions, and other corporate transactions on employee benefits and executive compensation matters, including diligence, issue spotting, purchase agreement drafting, disclosure schedule review, 280G analysis, equity and incentive compensation treatment, and post-closing integration.
• Experience developing or maintaining forms, precedents, checklists, clause banks, training materials, client alerts, legal updates, and other knowledge resources for an employee benefits and executive compensation practice.

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products, required
• Familiarity with legal technology, document automation, AI-enabled legal research and drafting tools, and workflow tools relevant to employee benefits, executive compensation, and transactional support.

Performance Traits:

• High professional standards with a passion for quality product
• Excellent drafting and research skills
• Well-developed organizational and communication skills
• Understanding of learning processes and different methods of training
• Effective interpersonal skills and the ability to interact with people at all levels
• Pragmatic, self-motivated, flexible and good team worker
• Ability to work in a diverse team environment and effectively support the demanding needs of the Firm
• Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines with shifting priorities
• Ability to translate complex, technical employee benefits and executive compensation rules into practical guidance for deal teams, advisory teams and clients
• Must be a self-starter with a high level of initiative
• Strong customer service skills, able to anticipate needs and exercise independent judgment
• Maintains confidentiality and exercises discretion
• Exercises solid strategic thinking and problem-solving skills

The above is a general description of the essential duties associated with this position and does not represent an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all duties.

The Firm may modify and amend this job description at any time at its sole discretion. Nothing herein creates a contract of employment or otherwise modifies the at-will nature of employment.

We offer competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits, including medical/dental/vision/life/and AD&D insurance, 401(k) savings plan, back-up childcare and eldercare, generous paid time off (PTO), as well as opportunities for professional development and growth.

We are committed to providing equal opportunity and reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities and disabled veterans. To request an accommodation related to the application process or interview, please email [email protected]. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

Mayer Brown works with select external search firms that have been vetted against our standards. Firms without a contract or agreement with Mayer Brown are not authorized to represent that they are working with the Firm, nor are they entitled to placement fees. Mayer Brown does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruiters. Submission of an unsolicited CV to Mayer Brown or any of its Partners or employees will not establish any right of priority for the submitting agency.

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Posted Pay Range

The typical pay scale for this position is between USD $254,000.00/Yr. and USD $336,000.00/Yr., although the actual wage or salary could be lower or higher if the candidate's education, experience, skills and internal pay alignment are different from those specified.