Alison McCalla Patel is an ERISA attorney with extensive experience in a wide range of employee benefits and executive compensation matters for a broad base of clients, including public and private companies and tax-exempt and governmental entities of all sizes. Much of her employee benefits practice is focused on the design, implementation and administration of various forms of retirement and welfare plans, including 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, 457 plans, profit sharing plans, health plans, and severance plans.
She also devotes a significant amount of her practice to representing clients in the design of executive compensation arrangements, including equity-based compensation alternatives such as stock options and restricted stock, which frequently involves advanced tax matters, including golden parachute payments and 409A compliance matters.
Alison frequently represents clients in dealings with the Internal Revenue Service, including plan audits, governmental reporting, requests for determinations and voluntary compliance programs. In addition, she has extensive experience handling the employee benefit and executive compensation aspects of corporate mergers and acquisitions.
She is a frequent speaker and author on employee benefits topics, including as a guest legal columnist for The Journal Record business newspaper and a contributing author to the Oklahoma Employment Law Letter.