David T. Harmon

David T. Harmon, Co-Chair of the firm’s Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Practice Group and a member of the firm’s Management Committee, focuses his practice on the areas of executive compensation, employment, and business law.

David represents senior-level employees of both public and private companies in the negotiation of their employment packages and all associated agreements, whether at the commencement of the employment relationship through offer letters and employment agreements or at termination through severance agreements.  His successful negotiation of employment and severance packages for clients includes employment and post-employment compensation, confidentiality, non-compete, non-solicitation, non-poach, and garden leave covenants, the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, change of control provisions, and benefits and protections within the structures and strategies for those packages.

His representation also includes providing advice and counsel to employers in the preparation and negotiation of employment and severance packages with their employees, the design of human resources compliance programs, including employee policy manuals, and counseling and training concerning the implementation of those policies. David also provides neutral investigative services in employment matters.

David provides comprehensive employment evaluations, strategic solutions, and coaching within a variety of industries, including financial services, marketing, advertising, health care, design, branding, publishing, fashion, engineering, real estate, and pharmaceutical, among others.

David’s practice includes representation in FINRA, AAA, and JAMS arbitrations and mediations involving employment and customer disputes, FINRA and other regulatory investigations, disciplinary matters, as well as Forms U4 and U5 expungement and related employment matters.

David also serves as outside general counsel and strategist for small and medium-sized companies in their general business, employment, and transactional matters.

David is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Wall Street Technology Association. He is a member of the Business Law and Labor & Employment Sections of the New York State and American Bar Associations.

David has published many articles and frequently speaks on various legal topics.  David is also frequently quoted, most recently in Advisor Hub, Ladders, FundFire, and The Wall Street Journal.  He has also been quoted in Broker’s World, a Dow Jones Newswire Publication, the Hedge Fund Law Report, the definitive source of actionable intelligence on hedge funds, and in the annual advisor compensation report in Registered Rep., the financial professionals’ source for breaking news, advice, and what is happening in the industry. He also co-authored a chapter entitled, “Perspectives for Management and Executives on Structuring and Negotiating the Package: It’s not Just About the Dollars,” for a book entitled, Inside the Minds: Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Plans, for Aspatore Books, a Thomson Business Publisher. David maintains a blog, Transitions in Employment, which focuses on developments in employment agreements, offer letters, severance packages, garden leaves, and non-compete and non-solicitation restrictions, confidentiality agreements, changes in control, deferred compensation, stock options, bonuses, commissions, equity, benefits, and other employment and business developments.

Following a clerkship in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, David began his career at the Wall Street law firm of Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon.