Listed companies’ plans

Our work with the employee incentives arrangements for listed entities often starts before listing, with designing and implementing all types of incentives, including all-employee tax-qualified plans and plans for senior management and executive directors. We also help established listed companies in setting up and operating such plans on an ongoing basis. This includes the impact on plans of transactions (see below), specific issues for executive directors’ incentives (see below), compliance with the Corporate Governance Code, the Listing Rules and the market abuse regime, and advising on tax, market practice, regulators’ and investors’ views.

Board pay

Remuneration for directors of quoted companies is a perennial hot topic under relentless political, media and public scrutiny. There is a plethora of rules affecting the design, implementation and disclosure of pay: legislation, guidance, market practice and investors’ expectations. We assist companies and remuneration committees aiming to reward directors appropriately for performance, on hires, terminations and on an ongoing basis. This includes board training and preparation and review of pay policies and the annual remuneration reports.

Pay in the financial services sector

Our market leading practice advises on all aspects of regulatory remuneration and governance in the financial service sector, across all market participants including global investment banks, UK listed banking groups, global asset managers and leading insurers. We steer our clients through the continuing developments in the regulatory landscape and the increase in complexity of operations across Europe since Brexit. We have close ties to the financial services industry, working closely with industry bodies, and have worked with regulators to clarify and influence the practical application of the rules. We also advise on remuneration issues in the context of regulatory investigations and crisis situations, including on performance adjustment, freezing of current year pay and applying malus and clawback.

Private and portfolio companies

Implementing effective management incentives in private companies often requires specific and bespoke arrangements. We advise on the design of new management incentive arrangements in a broad range of private companies and sectors, as well as in private equity portfolio companies. We advise on the wide variety of structures used by private companies, including tax-optimised arrangements, and the establishment of plans for management teams globally. We assist clients with all aspects of the operation of the arrangements, and related matters such as establishing employee trusts to facilitate holding of shares and leaver arrangements.

Corporate transactions

Remuneration, and share incentives in particular, are often among the most critical and high profile issues on transactions. We assist companies and their remuneration committees to navigate and balance conflicting interests, regulatory requirements, reputational issues and investor concerns. As well as advising on the key legal issues for employee incentives on IPOs, we advise on the effects of corporate transactions, including capital raisings, private mergers and acquisitions, demergers and public takeovers, on our clients’ incentive plans. This includes liaising with tax authorities, regulators and investment bankers, carrying out due diligence and plan changes, and project managing employee communications.

Global share plans

We advise on the implementation and launches of global share plans for multinational companies. We can assist with the design, drafting, implementation and project management of all types of global incentive arrangements, including local tax-qualified plans. We advise on the legal issues with using global nominee arrangements and online share plan administration platforms, and help companies to formulate a global approach to data privacy compliance for their plans.

“Excellent advice and client service. Demonstrate strong expertise in regulatory remuneration.”

“Knowledgeable and dedicated.” 

^{(Chambers, 2022)}

"Calm, considered and technically good."

^{(Chambers, 2022)}

“Working in partnership with the business. Mutual respect.”

^{(Legal 500, 2022)}

“The team provide a consistently high level of advice and I appreciate both the technical expertise and the practical lens..“
^{(Legal 500, 2023)}

“Incredibly commercial advice and faultless technical detail; the team has a complete grasp of the complex EMEA remuneration regulatory environment.”
^{(Legal 500, 2023)}

"It is an excellent team. The lawyers are very human in their approach and are always available."

^{(Chambers, 2020)}

"The team is personable, commercial, responsive and excellent at communicating." 

^{(Chambers, 2020)}

"The team is personable, commercial, responsive and excellent at communicating." 

^{(Chambers, 2020)}

“The Linklaters team are pragmatic and creative in solutions."
^{(Chambers, 2023)}

“Linklaters has an impressive ability to assist with complex, nuanced questions and to provide pragmatic, easy-to-understand advice."

^{(Chambers, 2022)}

“All of the Linklaters team are technically excellent, very responsive and good to deal with.”
^{(Legal 500, 2023)}

“Technically excellent but at the same time very good at distilling complex concepts into simple language for stakeholders.”
^{(Legal 500, 2023)}

“Responsive and proactive in all the work that they do, solution orientated.”
^{(Legal 500, 2023)}

“Commercial players who always grasp the nuances and complexities of the situation and able to respond and advise accordingly.”
^{(Legal 500, 2023)}

“Technical expertise, availability, sincerity, and problem solving."

^{(Legal 500, 2022)}

“Knowledge of regulatory remuneration matters was an asset and very valuable during our work with Linklaters.”

^{(Legal 500, 2022)}

“Responsive, commercial and a pleasure to work with,; Technical experts with a proactive approach.”
^{(Legal 500, 2023)}

"Linklaters are so easy to deal with and always deliver. Nothing is too much trouble, and they are incredibly responsive and able to react when needed on short notice."
^{(Chambers, 2023)}

“The Linklaters team invested time in understanding our business requirements in order to advise how new regulations would impact us.”

^{(Legal 500, 2022)}

“The whole team is great and such a pleasure to work with, responsive, commercial and calm, enthusiastic and practical.”

^{(Legal 500, 2022)}

"Linklaters stands out for its client focus, its pragmatism and its subject matter expertise but, beyond that, it is just a very collaborative firm that is always eager to help"

^{(Chambers, 2021)}

"Responsive and always provides cogent and actionable advice."

^{(Chambers, 2022)}

"They anticipate client needs, nothing is too small or too large for them to handle and they get to know their client."

^{(Chambers, 2021)}

"The team at Linklaters are able to break down legal issues and explain them to all levels in the organisation in an incredibly clear and concise way. Their knowledge and work ethic is second to none. Having just gone through a very complex merger with a large number of legal challenges, their ability to break down complex legal issues and explain them to the reward team was very useful. We are very confident in this team and putting them in front of senior executives is never a risk, they always excel and are spoken highly of across the organisation."

^{(Legal 500, 2020)}

"Extremely responsive and provide excellent quality of advice, very commercial and excellent communicators."

^{(Chambers, 2020)}

"Strong technically and is very responsive, commercial and pragmatic, have the ability to break down highly complex legal problems and explain them in an easily understandable way."

^{(Chambers, 2020)}

"The excellent department is noted for its global share plans expertise." 

^{(Legal 500, 2018)}

“Linklaters demonstrated good knowledge of new regulations and collaborated very well to address our questions and provide solutions.”

^{(Legal 500, 2022)}

“Very good insights into market practice and the regulatory perspective.”
^{(Chambers, 2020)}