Pitfalls in Executive Employment Contracts

When top executives of big companies negotiate employment contracts, you tend to get experienced, sophisticated counsel on both sides of the deal.  Yet even the most carefully crafted agreements won’t necessarily keep a party from a nasty surprise in subsequent litigation.

In Negotiating Bonus Provisions, a recent piece in the New Jersey Law Journal, lawyer Steven H. Sholk (left) of Newark’s Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione takes a look at the case of HealthSouth’s Richard Scrushy, who saw an Alabama court hit him with an order to repay some $50 million.  The case, says Sholk, offers a good object lesson for those negotiating such deals.

[Frank Snyder]