Robert J. Lichtenstein

Partner

Robert J. Lichtenstein is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice. He is also a member of the firm's Advisory Board. Mr. Lichtenstein's clients include those in the retail, financial, hospitality, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing industries.

Mr. Lichtenstein provides counseling on all facets of executive compensation and employee benefits, including equity and incentive compensation, employment and retention arrangements, ERISA compliance, qualified retirement, and pension and profit-sharing, as well as litigating employee benefit claims and disputes. He also has experience with numerous matters involving ESOPs, federal tax law, and representations before the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor, as well as in general business counseling.

Mr. Lichtenstein provides benefits and executive compensation advice relating to transactional matters, such as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, or spinoffs. Recently, he assisted Elan Corporation plc in the creation of its billion-dollar joint venture with a major international manufacturer of consumer goods and pharmaceutical products.

Mr. Lichtenstein has represented senior management teams—for companies such as Freescale, Avaya, and Sungard—in leveraged buyout transactions ranging from $100 million to more than $25 billion. Since 2005, he and his Morgan Lewis colleagues have represented management in more than 30 transactions involving more than $200 billion in total deal value, addressing a wide variety of complex executive compensation, corporate, and business issues. Mr. Lichtenstein also represents clients in attracting and retaining executives, and assists them with the similarly complex and highly strategic issues that come into play with those representations.

Mr. Lichtenstein assists companies and board compensation committees in the design and amendment of plans and programs and employment and retention arrangements for senior executive management, as well as best practices in the design and administration of cash incentive, severance, and equity programs. He also advises boards of directors, compensation committees, and administrators with fiduciary best practices, compliance procedures, and general governance issues.

Mr. Lichtenstein is a former director of a now-sold NYSE company, the chair of its Governance Committee, a former board member of a private manufacturing company, and the trustee (and controlling shareholder) of an investment management business. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and at the Villanova University Law School. He is also very active with the Federation Allied Jewish Appeal.

Mr. Lichtenstein is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and before the U.S. Tax Court. He is not admitted in Delaware.