Craig Tanner

Professional Experience

Craig is a Partner in Rimon’s Employment Law, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice. He has over 25 years of experience in representing US and multinational companies with executive compensation, equity compensation, employment, and data privacy matters.

In his compensation practice, Craig works with his clients in designing and offering performance-based incentives, Section 409A-compliant deferred compensation, and broad-based stock programs, including restricted stock units, stock options, profit interests, stock purchase rights, restricted stock, phantom stock, and stock appreciation rights; as well as commission, retention, transaction, and cash bonus programs. Craig works closely with his clients on the market practices, shareholder concerns, tax mitigation, securities registration, currency exchange, and communications issues that companies encounter when offering these programs to employees, directors, and consultants in the U.S. and throughout the world.

For employment matters, Craig works with his clients on onboarding executives, executive employment agreements, performance plans, severance agreements, and change in control incentives.  He regularly advises clients on employee handbooks, codes of conduct and other company-wide policies, and leaves of absence. Craig also advises his clients on market practices and regulatory compliance for services provided by consultants, expatriates, short-term assignments, cross-border employees, and contingent workers.

In his M&A practice, Craig works with his clients before and throughout the transaction and on post-merger integration. Craig advises his clients on concerns discovered during the due diligence process; drafting and negotiating the purchase agreement; drafting and negotiating executive employment agreements and retention incentives; structuring roll-over equity arrangements; mitigating potential Section 409A deferred compensation compliance liabilities; advising on excess golden parachute payment issues and providing alternatives to mitigate or eliminate tax obligations; advising on non-qualified benefit programs; and developing post-merger integration incentive programs.

In the data privacy area, Craig advises his clients on the collection, processing, and transfer of protected employee information necessary for managing the workforce, compliance with local data registration requirements, and the implementation of workplace privacy policies.