Executive Employment Advocacy
Main office: Marblehead, MA • Representing employees in Massachusetts and New Hampshire
An Experienced Advocate On Your Team
Mark Whitney has spent his career representing a broad spectrum of employers in connection with the wide variety of legal issues that relate to senior executives. From contracts to litigation, Mark understands how employers approach complex issues with executives. He recognizes that executive interests sometimes differ and often align with the employer’s goals, which requires careful attention to strategy and diplomacy in negotiations.
Through Whitney Law Group, Mark applies that management-side experience exclusively in service of executives. If you are a C-suite leader, VP, managing director, senior director, or partner-track professional facing a workplace legal issue, you deserve counsel who has seen your situation from the other side of the table, and knows exactly what the employer is thinking.
Executive Services - What Whitney Law Group Covers
Employment Contracts and Offer Negotiation
Review and negotiation of offer letters, employment agreements, and executive compensation arrangements. Key issues include: base salary and bonus structure, equity grant terms and vesting schedules, for-cause termination definitions (which affect severance and equity forfeiture), change-of-control provisions, and restrictive covenant scope.
Executive Compensation
Evaluation and negotiation of total compensation packages including annual and long-term incentive plans, deferred compensation arrangements and IRC 409A compliance, clawback clauses, garden leave provisions, and golden parachute structures. For executives at North Shore biotech, life sciences, and technology companies, understanding how compensation structures interact with equity plans and separation terms is often the most critical part of the engagement.
Employee Equity Compensation
Review of stock option agreements (ISOs and NSOs), RSU grants, performance share units, profits interests, and pre-IPO equity arrangements. Particular focus on: vesting acceleration in acquisition contexts, forfeiture clause analysis in for-cause terminations, post-termination exercise window negotiation, and equity protection in separation agreements.
Separation and Severance Negotiation
Evaluation and negotiation of separation packages: cash severance, equity acceleration, bonus proration, consulting arrangements, deferred compensation distribution timing, COBRA terms, reference language, and D&O indemnification provisions for outgoing executives.
On-Boarding and Exit Strategy
Advice at the beginning and end of executive employment engagements: understanding what you’re signing, what you’re agreeing to waive, and how to structure your departure to protect your legal rights, your equity, and your ability to compete.
Executive Advocacy During Employment
Strategic advice for executives navigating performance improvement plans, internal investigations, board disputes, whistleblower situations, and difficult employment relationships. Whitney Law Group advises executives on how to protect their position while managing the relationship, before a situation becomes a formal dispute.
Frequently Asked Questions - Executive Employment
Q: My company is being acquired. What happens to my unvested equity and my non-compete?
Both require immediate attention before the deal closes. On equity: your grant agreement and the acquisition documents determine whether unvested equity accelerates (single-trigger), accelerates only on a subsequent termination (double-trigger), or is simply assumed by the acquirer at the same schedule. Many executives discover this only after signing, when negotiation is no longer possible. On non-competes: acquisition-related non-competes signed in connection with the sale of a business are treated differently under Massachusetts law and are generally subject to stricter scrutiny. Whitney Law Group advises executives at the term sheet stage, not after the fact.
Q: I’ve been put on a PIP. How should I respond?
Carefully and with legal counsel. A PIP is frequently a documentation strategy designed to build a record supporting a for-cause termination, which can trigger equity forfeiture provisions and eliminate severance rights. The right response depends on whether your employment agreement has an express for-cause definition, what your equity plan says about cause terminations, and whether the PIP itself may reflect discriminatory or retaliatory motivations. Whitney Law Group advises executives in this exact situation on how to respond strategically without accelerating the conflict.
Q: How is an executive separation different from a standard employee severance?
Significantly more complex. Executive separations typically involve multiple documents: a separation agreement, an equity amendment, sometimes a consulting agreement or release of claims under a long-term incentive plan, and sometimes a board resolution. The issues include bonus proration, equity acceleration, deferred compensation distribution timing (IRC 409A), D&O indemnification, reference and announcement language, and the specific terms of any non-compete or non-solicit included in the separation. Whitney Law Group handles executive separations at this level of complexity.
Schedule a consulation in Marblehead, MA
Serving Marblehead, MA and the North Shore
Whitney Law Group’s main office is at 11 State Street in Marblehead, MA, the firm’s home since its founding in 2017. We serve clients throughout Essex County and the North Shore, including Swampscott, Salem, Beverly, Peabody, Danvers, Gloucester, Newburyport, and Marblehead. Virtual consultations available statewide.
