Demanding What's Right.

Compensation Negotiations, Benefits & Contract Review

I Represent Employees in All Industries

What are your skills worth? What about your training, experience and industry insights? What protections can (and should) you secure when taking a new position? What hidden risks are not evident or optimally covered in your offer? These are important questions you will benefit from addressing during your job search or a potential career change. When reviewing documents and considering an employment relationship, a Maryland executive compensation lawyer can help you strategize, make informed decisions and be your own best advocate.

Kathleen Cahill Law works with professionals who are reviewing new contracts from a potential employer, including employment contracts, non-competes, and restrictive covenant agreements. In order to negotiate your best deal, I will carefully consider all possible scenarios and contractual protections in light of your particular circumstances. I will help you decide what makes sense to pursue and use my experience to ensure your contractual rights are maximized and the risks and inequities are minimized.

What I Can Do For You

Whether you have been offered a new position with your company, you are being recruited for a new career opportunity, or you are thinking about leaving your current employer, I can assist in ensuring you are protected before you make any big moves.

• Maximize Your Protection Before Accepting a New Job – Your employment package establishes the groundwork for both your success and fulfillment at a job. During a contract review, I consider the unique employment considerations that apply to your industry - whether that be medical, arts, tech, administration, sales, finance, retail or another sector. Even if your employment documents seem straightforward, there are still nuances and technicalities that should be reviewed by a professional to limit your risk so you can feel confident you are protected.
• Identify the "Snakes in the Grass" Hidden by Legalese – Employment contracts can contain a variety of hidden risks. If you don’t address these risks before you sign, you will lose the option and opportunity to do so. From heavy-handed restrictive covenants to the perils of the "employment at will" doctrine, I can help you avoid unknowingly accepting a position that doesn't meet your requirements or needs.
• Guide Informed Decisions Before You Leave Your Current Position for a New One – If you are thinking about leaving your company (whether to take another position or start your own business), it is imperative that you understand the scope, duration and enforceability of any restrictive covenants in your employment contract. Together, we can review any non-competes and restrictive covenants to make an informed and well-timed decision based on the terms of your agreement.
• Maximize the Value of Your Employment Relationship – Ultimately, Kathleen Cahill Law can help maximize the value of your employment relationship. And, isn’t that what it’s all about? As a Maryland executive compensation lawyer, I have helped employees safeguard their employment onboarding for more than 30 years, and I look forward to offering you the same protection and detailed review you deserve.

Ensuring Your Employment Contracts Limits Your Risk, Promotes Your Goals

I have significant experience negotiating comprehensive employment packages for my clients in a variety of industries. I am a legal ally to employees throughout Maryland, helping men and women make informed decisions about new job opportunities, or strategically and carefully plan an exit for a new career move.

My goal as a Maryland executive compensation lawyer is to help you explore your options and secure the best terms possible. A well-designed employment contract establishes expectations, protects your future opportunities, and clearly outlines your employment benefits. I share my insights and experience to ensure you evaluate all relevant options; and, when warranted, we work together to secure enhanced opportunities and terms that aren’t initially offered. After signing an employment contract, the last experience you want is to learn that you neglected to consider something important or missed an opportunity for additional benefits.

There are several elements to a comprehensive employment package. Too often, executives, IT specialists, designers, healthcare workers and other professionals focus solely on compensation. While compensation is undoubtedly a key element, it is ultimately just one element of many that requires scrutiny. Together, we will evaluate the factors that are most important to your family, lifestyle, and future economic goals. I will review your agreements closely for unfavorable terms or costly omissions, and then make recommendations to bring your deal in line with your most important objectives.

Components of Executive Pay

We are enjoying times in which favorable executive compensation packages are expected in order to hire and retain top talent in today's competitive job market. A comprehensive executive compensation package features much more than a competitive base salary. It should include a range of enhanced incentives that align an executive's pay with what is most important in the individual’s life.

When negotiating employment packages, I help my clients explore all options and drive for the strongest possible terms. I share my insights, analysis, and experience to ensure that you consider and negotiate for all beneficial options.

Executive pay packages should clearly outline employment compensation and benefits, clarify expectations, and protect your right to pursue future alternative opportunities. That’s what they should do, but that does not mean they automatically are proposed that way by a prospective employer. My job as your Maryland executive compensation lawyer is to ensure that any employment contract you are considering aligns with your career and personal goals. I work to help shape your ideal package in light of how you define your success. Then we craft a negotiating strategy and go for it.

Some of the key components of an executive compensation package include salary, benefits, short-term incentives, long-term incentives, and executive perks.

• Salary - Your base salary provides security and predictable income for you and your family. Of course this is important, but your salary is just one part of a compensation package. We look farther than this shiny piece and consider how your entire compensation package benefits measures up.
• Benefits – Robust health benefits, retirement plans, and liberal leave opportunities are benefits executives in Maryland should be driving for.
• Short-term Incentives - Performance-based incentives are benefits executives in Maryland should be driving for. These are often linked to measurable objectives and can be awarded annually. In these times of enhanced competition for the best talent, there may be a chance at a generous sign-on bonus as well.
• Long-term Incentives – Equity opportunities are benefits executives in Maryland should be driving for.

These are the fundamentals of an executive compensation package from which we build and negotiate your ideal offer. As your Maryland executive compensation lawyer, we consider the package as a whole and ask the tough questions: Are they undervaluing or short-changing you? Are they agreeing to adequately rewarded you for your hard work and success? Have they embedded in the documents language that unduly limits your opportunities for future movement and growth? I look forward to lending my knowledge and insights as an experienced Maryland executive compensation lawyer to help you avoid unwittingly agreeing to modest or constricting or unfavorable terms.

About Non-Compete Agreements

Employment packages will often include a non-compete agreement that could potentially limit your future opportunities and make it difficult to leave your current position. When reviewing a non-compete, I am considering limits on your future employment mobility (a plus in this favorable post-pandemic marketplace) as well as resulting limits on your advancement and wage growth. In addition, there is immense value in my explaining a non-compete in layman's terms so that you fully understand the agreement and its limitations. Employers often make the legal verbiage overly complex, and a review with your own Maryland executive compensation lawyer can simplify the terms so you have a complete understanding and are empowered to make the decisions that are best for your circumstances.

Restrictive Covenant Agreements

Restrictive covenants are generally enforceable under Maryland law, which should cause you to pause before signing one without a proper legal review and negotiated modifications. What many of my clients fail to understand is that these documents are in fact negotiable. If you are being asked to sign a restrictive covenant, it can be refined and narrowed to further enhance your protection and flexibility. The time to raise concerns and negotiate is when there is an offer on the table and you have leverage to avoid short-changing yourself by not scrutinizing a restrictive covenant that may repress your options for taking new opportunities later in your career.

Contact Kathleen Cahill, Your Maryland Executive Compensation Lawyer

Employment contracts, restrictive covenants and non-compete agreements are extremely nuanced, and it is important to have a professional review the material to ensure your protection before signing on the dotted line. Allow me to help you accept a new position, or leave a current one, with confidence, equity and power. Let’s start a conversation today.