Addition continues growth of San Francisco footprint and builds on leading Tax and Employee Benefits Practices
San Francisco, CA (September 19, 2016) – Venable LLP announced today that it has added Scott D. Thompson to the firm's leading Tax and Employee Benefits Practices in San Francisco as counsel. Mr. Thompson joins from Latham & Watkins LLP, where he was also counsel.
Mr. Thompson works with private equity funds and private and public corporations, designing their equity-based and other incentive compensation arrangements. He has significant experience designing stock option plans, employee stock purchase plans, deferred compensation plans, and various other types of incentive compensation plans and arrangements. He also advises on the tax, securities, and corporate law issues arising from the establishment and administration of such plans. Additionally, Mr. Thompson represents clients on benefits issues resulting from corporate mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, initial public offerings, and other corporate transactions, and he regularly represents employers and executives in connection with the negotiation of executive employment agreements. His practice touches all matters related to the design, implementation, and administration of tax-qualified retirement plans (including 401(k) plans, ESOPs, and defined benefit plans), non-qualified deferred compensation plans, and health and welfare programs.
"Scott is a welcome addition to Venable and the San Francisco office in particular as we continue to grow strategically. Since opening this office in 2013, we have tripled in size by taking a deliberative and measured approach to identifying and hiring extremely talented attorneys drawn to the Venable partnership. We will continue to expand our practices and services to our clients in the Bay Area," said James E. Nelson, Partner-in-Charge of the firm's San Francisco office.
Douglas C. Emhoff, Managing Director of Venable's West Coast offices, said, "With nearly 90 attorneys in California, Scott is another strong addition to our team. His practice has many natural synergies with attorneys throughout the firm, especially those within our well-known Tax and Wealth Planning Group in Los Angeles."
"Venable will provide me with a great platform to build and expand my practice," said Mr. Thompson. "The firm has a solid reputation as a leader in tax and employee benefits matters, with a deep bench of attorneys across the country. I'm excited to be joining such a talented team and helping to build the firm’s presence in San Francisco."
At Venable, Mr. Thompson joins a dynamic tax and wealth planning practice, which is regarded as one of the elite groups in the country. The more than 60-attorney group has a number of top-ranked attorneys concentrating on domestic and international tax, sophisticated estate planning including the preservation and protection of wealth for generations of families, the establishment and advising of private foundations, and other services for high-net-worth clients and family offices.
Mr. Thompson is the latest addition to Venable's growing firm-wide Tax and Wealth Planning Group, which recently added Friedemann Thomma, with his concentration in international tax in San Francisco; Meredith R. Bushnell, who has a deep understanding of trust and estates in San Francisco; Grace Chung in Los Angeles; and a three-person team, including American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Fellow Douglas L. Siegler, Carolyn P. Vinson, and Emily A. Plocki, in the Washington, DC office earlier this year.
Mr. Thompson received his JD from the University of Michigan Law School in 2001 and his BA from Middlebury College in 1995.
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Venable LLP is an American Lawyer Global 100 law firm headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in California, Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Virginia. The firm has more than 600 attorneys who serve domestic and international clients in all areas of corporate and business law, complex litigation, intellectual property, regulatory matters, and government affairs. For more information, visit www.venable.com.