Emily Rickard
Emily Rickard focuses her practice on executive compensation and employee benefits, and has devoted a substantial portion of her practice to assisting employers in implementing and maintaining employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). She has represented companies, inside ESOP trustees, and outside ESOP trustees in buy-side and sell-side transactions, as well as in ongoing ESOP compliance matters.
Outside of the ESOP context, Emily’s practice spans a wide range of national and international employee benefits matters. This includes qualified plans, nonqualified plans, executive compensation, health and welfare arrangements, and Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) litigation. She advises employers in connection with fiduciary issues under ERISA, government audits of employer-provided benefit plans, and also with respect to litigation from regulatory enforcement actions. Emily has also been a member of several cross-practice group deal teams relating to mergers and acquisitions of public as well as private companies.
Emily regularly writes and speaks on issues she encounters in her practice, including ESOP compliance, investment menu design, multiple employer plans, the history of ERISA and ERISA’s fiduciary obligations.
Emily is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University Law School. While in law school, Emily was executive student writing editor for the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. She is a 2014 Gary S. Tell ERISA Litigation Scholar.
Washington, District of Columbia 20001-1531
