Contracts and Negotiations

Executive compensation methods are established mostly via employment contract that are heavily negotiated. Always remember who you represent. If you represent the company, then you cannot discuss your thoughts about an executive’s contract with them. Such a statement may seem obvious but when you represent a company, you deal with its executives on a regular basis. When it is contract renewal time, you will be drafting the employment contract and it is possible the executive will reach out to you to ask your thoughts. This has happened to me more than once and while the temptation is there to help someone that you deal with so regularly, and may even consider your friend, you may not do so without violating your professional responsibility rules. That is not to say that you cannot explain contractual language. It means that you cannot explain how that language may affect the executive.

💡 Revisit what you’ve learned in this Unit and make a list of what you would negotiate for if you were representing an executive and then do the same if you were representing the company.