Female lawyers dominate tax partner promotions at Latham & Watkins

Latham & Watkins LLP has announced that 25 associates have been elected to the partnership and 31 associates have been promoted to the role of counsel, effective January 1, 2016.

New Tax Partners:

Michelle Carpenter is based in the Los Angeles office.

She focuses on executive compensation and employee benefits matters and advises on a broad range of compensation arrangements and benefit plans in a variety of industries, with extensive experience working with real estate investment trusts. Ms. Carpenter represents public and private companies:

• Counseling on employee benefits and compensation aspects of mergers and acquisitions, financings, IPOs, spin-offs and other corporate transactions
• Structuring various types of executive compensation arrangements, including employment agreements, separation / severance agreements, equity compensation arrangements and deferred compensation programs
• Preparing executive compensation disclosures for proxy statements and other securities filings
• Counseling on tax, securities, ERISA and corporate law issues as they relate to executive compensation and employee benefits arrangements

Ms. Carpenter is fluent in Swedish.

Andrea A. Ramezan-Jackson sits in the Washington office and focuses her practice on representing public and private companies and private equity sponsors in US federal income tax matters in connection with domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, Up-C transactions, joint venture transactions, reorganizations, restructurings, private equity investments and financing transactions. She received her JD from the West Virginia University College of Law in 2004 and an LLM in Taxation from the New York University School of Law in 2005.

Lori D. Goodman is a member of the Tax Department in New York and advises clients on executive compensation and employee benefits matters, often in the context of M&A and corporate finance transactions. She regularly counsels public and private companies in connection with employment agreements, severance agreements, change in control agreements, award agreements, equity and non-equity compensation plans, and executive compensation disclosures for proxy statements and other securities filings. Goodman received her JD from Harvard Law School in 2003.

Austin Ozawa is based in the New York office and also focuses on executive compensation and employee benefits matters for both public and private companies.

He has particular experience handling executive employment agreements, equity and non-equity incentive compensation plans and arrangements, ERISA issues related to debt and equity financing transactions, and executive compensation and disclosure issues for public companies. He received his JD from the Columbia University School of Law in 2007.

New Counsel (Tax):

Eric Cho is a member of the Tax Department in LA and focuses his practice on US federal income tax matters. He has considerable experience advising a diverse client base on the tax aspects of M&A and joint venture transactions, reorganizations, restructurings, private equity investments and financing transactions. Cho received his JD from Harvard Law School in 2006.

Rifka M. Singer is a member of the Tax Department in New York and focuses her practice on executive compensation and employee benefits matters. She has extensive experience in the negotiation, design and implementation of compensation plans, agreements and arrangements for senior executives, and she advises public and private company clients on the employee benefits, executive compensation and labor and employment issues that arise in the context of corporate transactions. She received her JD from the Columbia University School of Law in 2007.