A&O Shearman

Compensation, Governance & ERISA

Of Counsel

Linda focuses on all aspects of executive compensation and benefits, including corporate, securities and tax laws, and related corporate governance and regulatory matters.

She has broad experience in the design and implementation of executive incentive programs, and in the negotiation and preparation of executive employment contracts and severance arrangements, with particular emphasis on the financial services and entertainment industries. Her practice also encompasses all compensation, benefits and related governance issues associated with corporate acquisitions, divestitures, public offerings, restructurings and bankruptcies.

Her practice has a special concentration on corporate governance matters of global, U.S. and non-U.S. companies and their Boards of Directors and Compensation Committees, including matters involving corporate investigations, shareholder activism and engagement, CEO and senior management employment and succession and executive compensation design, disclosure and taxation. She also represents individual executives of public companies and private enterprises.

Linda has served as independent counsel to the compensation committees of the Board of Directors of Wells Fargo, State Street, Fannie Mae and Peabody Energy. She has also regularly represented financial institution clients including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and The Carlyle Group, and corporate clients such as Viacom, Vivendi, Olayan Group, Alexander's and Sony Corporation.

Before joining the firm in 1979, she was a Law Clerk to Chief Judge James S. Holden, U.S. District Court of the District of Vermont, from 1978 to 1979.

She is a regular speaker for The Wall Street Journal, Director and Boards, The Society of Corporate Secretaries, The Clearing House, The Institute of International Bankers, The Practising Law Institute, And ALI/ABA, among others, and also the author of numerous articles on a variety of corporate governance and executive compensation issues.