Our lawyers are highly qualified to work with African and multinational companies on all aspects of cross-border and global equity compensation and employment issues.
Offering global equity compensation programs across borders is a complex process with many obstacles and challenges. We have worked with more than 100 multinationals on the design, management, implementation and maintenance of such programs. Critical to success is assessing the cultural, tax and legal landscape in each country before offering benefits to local employees.
Local insight, global reach: as one of the most active law firms in Africa, our team understands the political, cultural, regulatory and economic issues in the region, enabling integrated cross-border working for a seamless client experience. Our goal is to help clients avoid employee dissatisfaction, reputational damage, costly fines, unnecessary tax liabilities, high administrative costs and criminal penalties.
Our on-the-ground presence in 20 countries is backed by a global Africa team that comprises more than 200 lawyers in Johannesburg and Casablanca and extends to other key centers, among them London, New York, Paris, Dubai, Perth, Hong Kong and Beijing.
We are one of the world’s biggest business law firms, and our multidisciplinary teams are always up to date with developments in international HR and corporate strategies. We advise on best practices and keep clients apprised of legal, cultural and business changes that can affect workforces and compensation.
Key capabilities include:
- single point of contact in the same time zone, integrating objectives consistently across countries
- global equity compensation programs including qualified and nonqualified stock option plans, stock purchase plans, restricted stock, restricted stock units (RSUs) and stock appreciation rights (SARs)
- securities restrictions: local securities laws and compliance requirements in all jurisdictions
- data privacy: addressing local data privacy laws for compliance
- taxation of the local entity and allocation of costs; alternatives to mitigate tax consequences
- taxation of employees: solutions to potentially onerous tax obligations
- employer tax withholding and reporting
- program design: to comply with legal and statutory requirements of multiple countries
- employee communications of all types, including local language translations
- global human capital and employment issues, including codes of conduct, discrimination, handbooks and policies, employee monitoring, contracts, expatriate tracking, hiring, language/translation issues, non-competition and confidentiality agreements, reductions in force, severance and termination notices
Please contact us to discuss how we can help you to achieve your objectives.