For over 20 years, Mark Poerio has been in private practice with a focus on executive compensation and employee benefit matters, especially under the U.S. ERISA law. He works regularly with every Paul Hastings office, on a national and international level, and has significant pro bono representations for general corporate and tax matters.

In particular, Mr. Poerio has extensive experience with stock awards and performance-based incentive compensation, retirement and health plans, employment agreements, severance (including the U.S. WARN Act), and other employee benefits. For all of these areas, he advises employers about relevant corporate, tax, financial accounting, securities, labor, and litigation issues. Nearly half of Mr. Poerio’s time involves employment issues relating to corporate mergers and acquisitions, where he and his team handle ERISA due diligence, golden parachute issues and calculations, negotiation of the employment-related terms of acquisition agreements, transitional issues, and strategies for minimizing financial expense and taxation.

Mr. Poerio's recent publications include:

Mr. Poerio is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law School, where his current course (with Mark Borges) involves the business and securities aspects of executive compensation.

Mr. Poerio has served as Vice-Chair of the Maryland Association of Social Service Boards since 2004, and as a director and Board Chair of the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services since 1998.

Mr. Poerio is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, New York, and the District of Columbia. He graduated with honors from both the University of Virginia in 1980 and the Cornell Law School in 1984.