Wayne Jacobsen
Partner
Wayne Jacobsen is a Partner in O’Melveny’s Newport Beach office and a member of the Firm’s Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Practice. His practice is exclusively in the employee benefits and executive compensation field, including pension and profit sharing plans, employee stock ownership plans, deferred compensation plans, stock option plans, welfare plans, employment agreements, severance arrangements and change of control arrangements.
Wayne has represented clients including: American Suzuki Motor Corporation; Bank of America; Beckman Coulter Inc.; Broadcom Corporation; DIRECTV; Experian Information Solutions; Hilton Hotels Corporation; Korn Ferry International; Phase II Systems; Sunkist Growers, Inc.; SAIC, Inc.; SanDisk Corporation; Toyota Motor Sales; Raytheon Corporation; and United Airlines.
Illustrative Professional Experience
- Represented United Airlines in creating and operating the largest employee stock ownership plan in the United States
- Represented SAIC, Inc. in its transition from employee ownership by means of that company’s initial public offering
- Represented fiduciaries of an ESOP in a shareholder dispute concerning corporate control
- Represented Hughes Electronics in California’s most significant case concerning qualified domestic relations orders – In re Marriage of Oddino
- Assisted a number of employers in ensuring that benefit plan coverage was not inadvertently extended to contingent workers, such as independent contractors and “leased” employees
- Represented a significant employer before the Internal Revenue Service in the correction of excessive payments to retirees for the employer’s pension plan
- Represented Phase II Systems with respect to the retirement and exit incentive programs for numerous public agencies
- Provides ongoing advice concerning pension, 401(k), stock option, employee stock purchase plans, health plans, and other benefit programs for numerous publicly and privately held companies
Professional Activities
Admitted to Practice, U.S. Tax Court
Member, Western Pension and Benefits Conference; American Bar Association, Taxation Section; Orange County Bar Association, Taxation Section
Lecturer, ERISA Litigation Conference, Western Pension and Benefits Conference; National Institute of Pension Administrators; Los Angeles County Bar Association, Tax Section, Employee Benefits Committee; Prentice Hall Law and Business Employee Benefits Compliance Conference
Honors, Named as one of the “The Best Lawyers in America” (2007)