Eric R. Keller

Eric Keller is a partner in the Tax Department of Paul Hastings, and is a member of the firm’s Global Compensation, Benefits, and ERISA practice group and the Employment Law practice group. Mr. Keller is ranked by Chambers USA as one of the top employee benefits and executive compensation lawyers in the District of Columba. According to Chambers, he is "praised [by clients] for being ‘very good at identifying risk and then giving very pragmatic advice’ and works within all areas of benefits and compensation." Chambers noted one client advised said he "treats every matter that I send to him - big or small - as if it is the most important thing he is working on." Mr. Keller is also recommended by Best Lawyers in America in employee benefits and ranked by Legal 500 in executive compensation and employee benefits. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, teaching classes on executive compensation.

For over 20 years, Mr. Keller has devoted his practice to executive compensation, employee benefits, and workforce restructuring matters. A substantial portion of his practice is devoted to advising clients on labor, employment, and employee benefits matters in connection with domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and other business transactions by conducting due diligence, negotiating, and preparing contract provisions, addressing transitional issues, and developing strategies to minimize financial expense and taxation.

Mr. Keller also maintains a broad-based practice representing domestic and international clients on executive compensation, tax-qualified retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and workforce restructuring matters. He advises clients regarding tax, employment, fiduciary, governance, securities, and litigation issues. Mr. Keller also designs and prepares plan documents and participant communications, negotiates service-provider contracts, and assists clients in developing and operating efficient and prudent plan administration practices.

In the executive compensation area of his practice, Mr. Keller designs and implements employment agreements and executive compensation programs, including short, mid, and long-term incentives, equity-based compensation, retention, severance and change in control arrangements, deferred compensation, and supplemental retirement compensation.

In the tax-qualified retirement plan area of his practice, Mr. Keller advises investment committees and other plan fiduciaries on how to reduce their risk of fiduciary liability for plan investments and fees, and represents sponsors of employee benefit plans in voluntary compliance programs maintained by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor.

In the employee welfare benefit plan area of his practice, Mr. Keller advises clients on the Affordable Care Act and HIPAA privacy compliance for group health plans, as well as Health Reimbursement Accounts, Health Savings Accounts, and other consumer-driven health plan designs. In addition, he represents plan fiduciaries in administrative claim disputes with participants and contractual disputes with service providers.

Finally, in the workforce restructuring area of his practice, Mr. Keller designs and implements early retirement incentives and reduction in force programs and advises clients on the WARN Act, state WARN Act analogs, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and other related issues.