Bio

Austin Lilling focuses on issues relating to executive compensation arrangements and employee benefit plans. He regularly provides comprehensive counsel to senior executives, management teams, boards, key stakeholders, and employers on the design, negotiation, implementation, and administration of employment agreements; severance agreements; change in control arrangements; corporate and partnership equity and phantom equity compensation arrangements; qualified and nonqualified deferred compensation plans; welfare plans; retention; incentive; and other compensation and benefits arrangements. He has been listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business since 2021. Austin has substantial knowledge of ERISA, corporate, and tax issues relating to benefits and compensation arrangements, including under Internal Revenue Code Sections 409A, 457A, 162(m), 280G, and 83, and strives to maximize tax efficiency for, while avoiding the potential for punitive tax consequences to, his clients. He advises on benefits, compensation, and employee matters in transactional settings, including in private and public mergers and acquisitions, financial restructurings, and investment fund acquisitions and dispositions, and has significant experience representing various parties to such transactions. Throughout his career, Austin has been involved with many of the country’s most significant financial restructurings. Private equity and hedge funds often rely on Austin for thoughtful guidance relating to their key employee compensation arrangements and those covering portfolio company management.