Skip to main content

David R. Lagasse

Member

[email protected]

+1.212.692.6743

Follow:
Share:

David has extensive experience handling executive compensation issues in mergers and acquisitions, venture capital investments, private equity financing, and other transactional contexts.

On behalf of buyers, sellers, and management teams, David drafts and negotiates the compensation and equity arrangements for senior-level executives that drive and reward performance. He is also skilled at structuring and implementing deferred compensation arrangements, performance bonus plans, option and restricted stock awards, synthetic equity plans and equity participation in limited liability companies, partnerships, and corporations. He is adept at structuring these arrangements to comply with the employment, corporate, tax, employee benefit, and securities law issues inherent in them.

He is also skilled at counseling clients and litigating with respect to a broad range of business issues, with an emphasis on employment law issues as they relate to business disputes and transactions. He assists corporate counsel and human resources personnel to develop strategies and documentation for handling sensitive employee situations.

Experience

  • Representing a large private equity fund in structuring the compensation and equity arrangements for the senior management team in its acquisition of an industrial materials manufacturer. 
  • Representing the senior management team of a marketing information services company in negotiating their employment and equity arrangements in connection with a private equity company’s acquisition.
  • Structuring and implementing a management incentive plan for an international manufacturer. 
  • Representing a public company in connection with modifying its outstanding performance equity awards to comply with Section 409A of the tax code. 
  • Representing a large not-for-profit organization in connection with the investigation of alleged misconduct by a high-level officer. 
  • Negotiating compensation arrangements for senior portfolio and strategy managers with various mutual, private equity, and hedge funds. 
  • Handling an internal investigation concerning alleged kickbacks to employees from a corporation’s vendors. 
  • Winning an arbitration to obtain purchase price adjustments for the principals of a corporation sold to a public company. 
  • Avoiding whistleblower claims from senior members of a manufacturer’s accounting department based on allegedly fraudulent accounting practices.  
  • Represented the Chief Operating Officer of a large telecommunications company in connection with a renewal and renegotiation of his employment agreement and equity awards.
  • Represented a wholesale retailer in connection with negotiating the equity awards granted to its CEO, including drafting and negotiating a restricted stock award, a non-qualified option award, two profit interest awards and multi-party put, call and pre-emption rights agreement.
  • Represented a wholesale retailer in connection with negotiating the equity awards granted to its CEO, including drafting and negotiating a restricted stock award, a non-qualified option award, two profit interest awards and multi-party put, call and pre-emption rights agreement
Read less

viewpoints

Employment, Labor, and Benefits Viewpoints Thumbnail

Hiring Across the 49th Parallel: Traps for the Unwary for Cross-Border US-Canada Hires

February 14, 2024 | Blog | By David Lagasse, Brad Tartick, Marc Aspis, Patrick Denroche

Read more

FTC Seeks to Ban Non-Competes: What it Means for Businesses & Employees

January 6, 2023 | Blog | By David Lagasse, Marc Aspis, Danielle Bereznay, Danielle Dillon

Read more

Webinar Recording: Cryptocurrency in Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: Let's Discuss!

June 29, 2022 | Webinar | By Anne Bruno, Michelle Capezza, David Lagasse

Read more

Webinar Recording: Hot Topics in Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation: What's New in 2022?

February 9, 2022 | Webinar | By Michelle Capezza, David Lagasse, Anne Bruno

In this webinar, members from our Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice discuss the latest in how employers must continue to manage their benefits and compensation programs to attract and retain talent. Hear our attorneys talk about 2022 trends in benefits and compensation and how companies should address the wide array of compliance issues affecting their programs.
Read more

Conference Recordings: Mintz's Annual Employment Law Summit

March 12, 2021 | Webinar | By Michael Arnold, David Barmak, Micha Mitch Danzig, Geri Haight, Andrew Matzkin, David Lagasse, Jennifer Rubin, Alexander Hecht, Danielle Bereznay, Delaney Busch, Corbin Carter, Emma Follansbee, Natalie C. Groot, Paul Huston, Brendan Lowd, Nicole Rivers, Richard Block

Mintz’s Annual Employment Law Summit brought together thought leaders to discuss the most pressing issues employers are facing in today’s unprecedented work environment. Attendees heard presentations on the continued impact of COVID-19; social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; recent and anticipated changes to employment laws; and best practices for managing sensitive employee situations.
Read more
On Friday, May 15, 2020, the Small Business Administration, in consultation with the U.Sh Department of the Treasury, released the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Forgiveness Application. The application is accompanied by instructions on how to complete the application. Together, the application and the instructions answer a number of ambiguities about whether and how an employer will be able to receive forgiveness of all or a portion of a loan received under the PPP.
Read more

Summary of CARES Act for Employers

March 27, 2020 | Blog | By David Lagasse, Danielle Bereznay

Congress has now passed the CORONAVIRUS AID, RELIEF AND ECONOMIC SECURITY ACT OR CARES ACT – Federal government’s Phase III response to the health and economic impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. President Trump has pledged to sign the Act into law immediately.
Read more
Join us in a discussion on the increasingly complex landscape of employee misclassification as we explore best practices to help your company avoid the costly pitfalls and time consuming litigation that can result from this expensive mistake. An estimated 3.4 million employees are misclassified as independent contractors when they should be reported as employees.
Read more
Read less

News & Press

Press Release Thumbnail
NEW YORK – Mintz is pleased to announce that 18 attorneys have been named New York Metro Super Lawyers and 11 attorneys have been named New York Metro Rising Stars by Super Lawyers for 2023.
Press Release Thumbnail
17 Mintz attorneys have been named New York Metro Super Lawyers and nine Mintz attorneys have been named New York Metro Rising Stars by Super Lawyers for 2022.
Press Release Thumbnail
Best Lawyers named 85 Mintz attorneys to its 2018 list of The Best Lawyers in America. In addition, Mintz attorneys Matthew J. Gardella and Samuel M. Tony Starr were named “Lawyer of the Year” in their respective practice areas.
Mintz attorneys represented Seventh Generation, Inc. in its recent sale to Unilever. Based in Vermont, Seventh Generation is a pioneer in corporate responsibility and sustainable product innovations, including plant-based detergents and household cleaners.
Sixteen Mintz attorneys have been named New York Super Lawyers for 2016 and twelve have been named New York Rising Stars. The list will be published in a special advertising supplement in The New York Times Magazine and in a stand-alone magazine, New York Super Lawyers - Metro Edition.
Attorneys from Mintz represented Myriad Genetics, Inc. in its acquisition of Assurex Health, an informatics-based precision medicine company providing treatment decision support to health care providers for mental health patients.
Best Lawyers named 73 Mintz attorneys to its 2017 list of The Best Lawyers in America. Mintz attorneys selected for inclusion in this year’s list span 44 practice areas. 
Thirteen attorneys from Mintz have been named New York Super Lawyers for 2014 and eleven have been named New York Rising Stars. The list will be published in a special advertising supplement in The New York Times Magazine and in a stand-alone magazine, New York Super Lawyers - Metro Edition.
Read less

Events & Speaking

Recognition & Awards

  • Best Lawyers in America: Employment Law – Management, Litigation – Labor & Employment (2011 – 2021)

  • Included on the New York Super Lawyers: Employment & Labor List (2010 – 2023)

Read less