Mark Poerio is a partner in the Employment department in the Washington D.C. office of Paul Hastings. For nearly 25 years, Mr. Poerio has been in private practice with a focus on executive compensation and employee benefit matters, especially from a business and corporate governance and securities perspective. He works regularly with every Paul Hastings office, on a national and international level, and has significant pro bono representations relating to not-for-profit business, executive compensation, and tax matters. Mr. Poerio is also an adjunct professor with the Georgetown Law School, where he designed and teaches both “Executive Pay and Loyalty” and “The Business and Securities Aspects of Executive Compensation”.

Mr. Poerio regularly assists the global client base of Paul Hastings with the corporate, tax, financial accounting, securities, labor, and litigation issues that relate to executive compensation, especially as it relates to stock plans and awards, performance-based incentive compensation, and the design and structure of clawback and forfeiture provisions relating to loyalty covenants (such as non-competition and confidentiality agreements). Mr. Poerio’s practice also includes the fiduciary and compliance issues relating to retirement and health plans, and the design of executive employment agreements. Nearly half of Mr. Poerio’s practice has generally involved the employment and benefit issues relating to corporate mergers and acquisitions, where he and his team handle ERISA due diligence, golden parachute issues and calculations, transitional issues, and strategies for minimizing financial expense and taxation.

Mr. Poerio's recent publications include the following for which he was the sole or primary author:

• Executive Pay and Loyalty: From Velvet Fist to Iron Glove (Corporate Governance Advisor, 1/2010).
• Executive Compensation 2010: Action Items (BNA Pension & Benefits Daily, 11/24/2009).
• Avoiding Personal Liability for 401(k) and Retirement Plan Losses (Bloomberg, 6/15/2009).
• Executive Remuneration: The Future of Financial Sector Pay (Employment Law Journal, 6/15/2009).
• Global Prescription for Executive Compensation: From Diagnosis to Remedy (RiskMetrics, 1/12/2009).
• What to Do with Underwater Stock Options (Law360, 1/5/2009).
• Executive Insecurity – No Better Time for Employer Attention (Featured Article in Bloomberg Labor & Employment Law Reports, 10/6/2008).
• Switching 401(k) and Other ERISA Plan Vendors – Inherent Risks for Employers and Plan Fiduciaries (BNA, 9/30/2009).
• Global Handcuffs and Claw-backs: Getting Tough with Cross-border Protections (Law.com, 9/18/2008).
• Long-term Incentives and Golden Handcuffs in China (Human Resources - China, June 2008 edition).
• Say Hello to Smart Goodbyes (Legal Times, 6/17/2008).
• Clawback Policies Hit Errant Executives (National Law Journal, 3/12/2007).
• Risk Management and Clawbacks of Executive Compensation (Thomson West BNA Securities & Litigation Reporter, 1/10/2007).
• Damned if You...Don't: Bank Directors Called to Account for Incentive Compensation (BNA Pension & Benefits Daily, 7/13/2010).

Mr. Poerio has served as Vice-Chair and counsel to 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 the District of Columbia. He graduated with honors from both the University of Virginia in 1980 and the Cornell Law School in 1984.