Christine M. Kong assists public and private companies and tax-exempt entities with broad-based retirement plans, deferred compensation plans, cash- and equity-based incentive plans, and the employee benefit aspects of corporate transactions. She is vice-chair of the firm’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice Group.
In her broad-based retirement plans practice, Chris counsels clients on 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, profit-sharing plans, money purchase plans and defined benefit plans. In addition to assisting employers with plan document and operational compliance issues, Chris frequently represents employers before the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor when their employee benefit plans are under audit or investigation.
Chris also works on the design, drafting and implementation of equity-based incentive plans and deferred compensation arrangements for both for-profit and tax-exempt employers.
Her work in this area includes designing and drafting deferred compensation arrangements for highly compensated and management employees, analyzing issues under Sections 409A, 162(m), 457(b) and 457(f) of the Internal Revenue Code, reviewing golden parachute issues under Section 280G of the Internal Revenue Code, and drafting proxy disclosures and prospectuses for compensation arrangements.
Chris’s corporate transactions work includes representing employers in stock and asset acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures and affiliations. She identifies benefit issues that may impact a corporate transaction and advises clients with respect to those issues (such as underfunded defined benefit pension plans and operational issues with a seller’s 401(k) plan); drafts the employee benefit provisions of purchase agreements and works with the seller’s or the buyer’s counsel on those provisions; and advises clients regarding the post-closing integration of the seller’s and the buyer’s benefit plans.
Chris was a law clerk to the Honorable J. Sydney Hoffman of the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
Experience :
- Represented a publicly-held manufacturer of over-the-counter drugs with executive compensation, equity compensation, and employee benefit issues arising in connection with its acquisition of an Irish corporation in a corporate inversion cash and stock deal valued at approximately $8.6 billion.
- Represented a tax-exempt health care system with executive compensation and employee benefit issues arising in its affiliation with a leading non-profit healthcare provider in a transaction valued at approximately $1 billion.
- Represented a publicly-held retailer with employee benefit matters arising in a sale valued at approximately $890 million.
- Represented a plan sponsor before the Internal Revenue Service in the audit of its defined contribution and nonqualified plans, resulting in an 80% reduction of the Service’s proposed sanction of $2.5 million.
Education :
- Villanova University School of Law, LL.M., Taxation, 1997
- Villanova University School of Law, J.D., 1995, Villanova Law Review
- Arizona State University, B.S., 1991
Bar Admissions : New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania
Cost
Rate : $$$
