Alison E. Wright

Wright’s practice involves advising a broad spectrum of employers on their employee benefit plans as well as executive compensation and equity programs.

“I spend a lot of time on the phone with employers talking about their stock options or other equity compensation programs, complying with the applicable tax law or the applicable securities law,” Wright said.

She noted that her practice required fine tuning and walking through program designs to provide the greatest level of motivation for employees.

“I work with such a broad array of employers from hospitals to publicly traded heavy duty construction and then I also do a lot of tech work because we’re in San Francisco and Silicon Valley,” Wright said.

She recently worked with a software company that was acquired on issues related to employee benefit plan due diligence, the payment of retention bonuses and transaction bonuses to the employees of the target company.

“Technology companies are employee-oriented,” Wright said. “It gives them a unique perspective and ability to offer different kinds of employee benefits that you normally wouldn’t see.”

Other merger and acquisition work Wright has recently been involved in has included representing Ellation Inc. in its acquisition by Otter Media LLC, advising on employee benefit plans and whether or not those plans have been operated in compliance with the law.

Wright represents a large East Bay hospital and said that working for a nonprofit organization presents unique challenges.

“Employee benefits is important to attract and retain employees at the hospital, but it’s not the single most important thing they’re doing,” Wright said, adding that she assists with everything from benefit plan design to advising on Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duties.

Wright is also chair of the Audit Committee of the National Center for Employee Ownership and a member of the Retirement Plan Committee for the Bar Association of San Francisco.

She was recently named as a fellow to the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity which brings together U.S. corporations as well as law firms in promoting diversity among the leaders in the legal community.

— Chase DiFeliciantonio