I help the firm’s clients approach executive compensation from the legal and technical perspective. As they strive to go beyond a check-the-box exercise and instead develop pay plans that align with their business and leadership strategies, there is still a devil lurking in the details. My Technical Services Team helps clients ensure they are making sound decisions relative to contracts, securities disclosure, taxation, and overall sound corporate governance practices.
Deborah Lifshey is a managing director at Pearl Meyer, where she specializes in advising clients on compensation matters from a legal perspective including securities disclosure, taxation and corporate governance issues, negotiation contracts, and reasonableness opinion letters.
Prior to joining Pearl Meyer, Deborah practiced at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where she specialized in executive compensation, ERISA matters, and corporate transactions, and at Holland and Knight, where she specialized in employment litigation matters. She has authored and/or co-authored the following works: "The New Qualified Plan Minimum Distribution Rules," The New York Law Journal (Winter, 1996); "IRS Changes Rules Through Field Service Advice – This Time on FICA and ESPP," Journal of Taxation of Employee Benefits (January/February 2000); Perquisites, Executive Compensation and Benefits Handbook, BNA Publications (2002); Negotiating and Drafting Employment Agreements, Executive Compensation and Benefits Handbook (2004); and Executive Compensation: The Perspective of the Compensation Consultant, Chapter 15 of Corporate Governance: Law and Practice (2005). Deborah is a frequent speaker and panelist on disclosure and taxation issues, and is regularly quoted on executive compensation best practices.
She is a graduate of the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell University and the University of Florida College of Law, and served as a federal clerk for the Honorable Judge Susan H. Black on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Deborah is a member of the New York and Florida Bars.
