Joseph M Penko

Practice Areas

Joe Penko advises public and private companies, private equity firms, executives and boards on executive compensation and employee benefits issues, with a particular emphasis on issues arising in the context of mergers, acquisitions, initial public offerings and other corporate matters. Mr. Penko regularly advises companies, executive management teams and individual executives with the design, implementation and termination of compensation and benefit arrangements, including executive employment and severance agreements; consulting arrangements; retention, severance and change-in-control plans; cash and equity-based incentive programs; and nonqualified deferred compensation plans. He also frequently advises clients regarding tax rules relating to deferred compensation, excise tax on excess parachute payments and limits on the deductibility of executive compensation. He also advises on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules governing executive compensation disclosure and corporate governance matters arising in the executive compensation context. Additionally, Mr. Penko counsels clients on a variety of ESG-related matters.

Publications

Mr. Penko often speaks at seminars and conferences that focus on executive compensation issues and regularly publishes thought leadership, including an ongoing series of articles on Bloomberg Law that explore executive compensation considerations arising in M&A transactions; Skadden’s 2023 Compensation Committee Handbook; “SEC Adopts Final Clawback Rules and Disclosure Requirements (Skadden.com, November 2, 2022); and SEC Adopts Long-Awaited Final Pay Versus Performance Disclosure Rules (Skadden.com, August 31, 2022).

Education