Michelle Lara is special counsel in the compensation & benefits practice after having joined Cooley in 2004. She specializes in employee benefits and executive compensation matters for a wide variety of clients, including startup enterprises and large, publicly traded companies. She advises clients with respect to the design, implementation and administration of tax-qualified plans, non-qualified deferred compensation plans, severance plans, stock option plans, other equity or cash based incentive plans and health and welfare plans, including related ERISA, COBRA, tax, securities, and corporate law compliance issues. Michelle also advises clients on benefits and compensation issues arising in mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and other corporate transactions.

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