Maura Ann McBreen

Practice Areas

Maura Ann McBreen is a partner in the Firm's Chicago office and has over 30 years' experience in executive compensation and employee benefits. Maura Ann is widely recognized as a leading advisor to both C-suite executives and employers on compensation arrangements and has been recognized in her field by both Chambers USA (2019) and Chambers Global (2019) noting she is "renowned in the market for her work on a broad range of employee benefits and executive compensation matters."

She is ranked Band One by Chambers Illinois Labor & Employment: Employee Benefits & Compensation (2019-2022). She is particularly noted for her deft handling of employee benefits and executive compensation issues as part of large corporate transactions. Sources praise her "immediate and substantive advice on highly technical and nuanced issues." She is recommended by Legal 500 in Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans: Transactional and Design. She is ranked in 2021 Best Lawyers for Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law and Employment Law - Management. She is also named as a Leading Lawyer in Employee Benefits, Illinois Super Lawyer (2006, 2008-2023) She was ranked No. 1 in Top Ten Employee Benefits Lawyers in Illinois for 2018 by Leading Lawyers. She was named "Lawyer of the Year" in Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law in The Best Lawyers 2016-2017. She was named one of 2017's "Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago" by Crain's Chicago and one of 2018's "Most Notable Women Lawyers in Chicago."

Maura Anna authors a quarterly column in Corporate Taxation and is a member of its Board of Contributing Editors and Advisors. She was instrumental in launching The Compensation Connection blog and in organizing the Firm's 2017 Third Annual Global Pensions Conference in Chicago.

Maura Ann focuses on executive compensation and employee benefits, especially with regard to single employer, multi-employer, and multinational benefits. She addresses operational and fiduciary issues as they arise under tax-qualified retirement plans, including employee stock ownership plans, and leads our global pensions practice.

She lectures and advises on plan assets issues, including investment fund structuring with respect to employee benefit investors. She designs deferred compensation and equity-based incentive compensation plans, advises on issues under Code Sections 162(m), 280G, 409A and 457A and negotiates executive employment agreements.

Her experience in handling employee benefits issues in multijurisdictional corporate transactions includes the division of employee benefit liabilities and transfer of plan assets, as well as the negotiation of plan liability provisions in connection with corporate financing agreements.

Professional Memberships

• American Bar Association

• Chicago Bar Association

• National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP)

• Global Equity Organization (GEO)

Corporate Responsibility:

• Member of the Board of Advisors, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago

• Member of the Board of Advisors, The University of St. Mary of the Lake, 2016 - Present

• Member, The Chicago Network, 2010 - Present

• Member, International Women's Forum, 2011 - Present

Publications

• The Compensation Connection Blog

• Author, “Compensation and Fringe Benefits,” Thomson Reuters/WG&L, Bi-monthly publication.

• Co-author, "Developments in Cross-Border Compensation: Employer Withholding and Reporting Requirements, and Retirement Plan Issues for Mobile Employees," NYU 72nd Institute on Federal Taxation 2014

Work Highlights

• Advises management of a global electronics manufacturer with respect to all executive compensation, employee benefits and executive employment matters, both domestic and global.

• Represents several pharmaceutical companies with respect to their executive compensation matters, including negotiation of deal covenants and other matters regarding golden parachute agreements, in connection with major acquisitions and divestitures.

• Represents global companies in connection with the worldwide review of their pension programs and with the roll out of worldwide compensation programs designed to mirror US compensation arrangements.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

USA

Languages Spoken

English

Education