Rita M. Patel

Rita is an experienced attorney focusing her practice on executive compensation and employee benefits matters. Her services span the full range of domestic and international employee benefits law issues, including complex taxation, equity design, disclosures, asset acquisitions and divestitures, mergers, spinoffs, and other strategic alliances. She routinely advises on benefits and compensation matters in both sell- and buy-side representations.

Rita regularly partners and collaborates with other departments across the firm on matters related to complex regulatory framework, proxy disclosures, executive agreements, incentive compensation arrangements, and retention, change-in-control, say on pay, and golden parachutes agreements.   Rita advises on various tax and federal securities laws as they relate to such equity-based arrangements, including Section 409A and 280G, and routinely advises and provides comprehensive solutions on the design and administration of stock options, employee stock purchase plans, and various types of equity arrangements such as profits interest , restricted stock, restricted stock units, stock appreciation and phantom equity. 

Rita maintains a broad-based employee benefits practice that includes designing sophisticated qualified and nonqualified retirement and deferred compensation plans. She has considerable experience advising clients in the correction of plan failures under IRS and Department of Labor correction programs. Rita routinely advises clients on fiduciary and governance matters, which includes the formation and operation of plan fiduciary committees and provides fiduciary training. She also provides guidance regarding welfare plans, including multiple employer welfare arrangements.

Her leadership and dedication are evident in her work as the Chair of the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice and Co-leader of the Transaction Services sub-group practice at DLA Piper.