Mr. Whitehead is a partner and in charge of the employee benefits practice in the Los Angeles office.
Mr. Whitehead has practiced in the employee benefits area since 1978, with an emphasis on the representation of large pension and health and welfare funds in both the public and private sectors. He has extensive experience with all issues relating to these plans and their sponsoring organizations, including plan set up and design, legal compliance, plan investments, fiduciary responsibility, prohibited transactions, contractual relationships with service providers, benefit claims, collections and litigation in state and federal courts. Mr. Whitehead has also represented plans in connection with DOL and IRS audits and has been involved in numerous litigations involving alleged breach of fiduciary duty.
In this regard, he has acted as counsel to a number of multi-employer pension and welfare plans, as well as collectively bargained governmental plans, including some of the largest Taft-Hartley and governmental plans in the country. Mr. Whitehead has also specialized in representing financially troubled plans, and plans that are experiencing difficulties with legal compliance or with their real estate or other investments.
Mr. Whitehead has represented both employers and highly compensated executives in connection with all aspects of executive compensation, including the negotiation and drafting of employment agreements, qualified and non-qualified stock option plans, stock appreciation rights, phantom stock plans, deferred compensation arrangements, bonus plans, severance plans and other compensation arrangements. Mr. Whitehead has dealt extensively with the special issues relating to confidentiality and trade secrets, non-compete clauses, the ownership of intellectual property, unfair competitive practices, and post-employment consulting arrangements. Mr. Whitehead's clients in this regard are concentrated heavily in the entertainment, software, promotion and marketing, advertising, technology and communications industries.
