Ed Rayner Law

We are a boutique law firm specializing in Employment and Severance Agreements, Executive Compensation, ERISA Fiduciary Matters and ERISA Withdrawal Liability. Ed Rayner ("Ed") is the founder and owner of Ed Rayner Law.

After graduating first in his class from NYU?s prestigious Masters of Tax Law program, Ed spent the next decade of his career working in the Executive Compensation and ERISA groups at Simpson Thacher and Milbank Tweed, two of the most prominent law firms in the country, and played key roles in many of the largest and most significant national transactions during those years. Starting in 2005, Ed became a partner and focused on building his own Executive Compensation practice, while continuing to support his firms' funds and M&A practices. From 2010 through 2019, Ed served as the Chair of Pryor Cashman?s Executive Compensation, ERISA and Employee Benefit Group. In late 2019, Ed started his own firm to assist clients with their Executive Compensation & ERISA needs.

Since 2005, many of the most distinguished firms in the country have been referring their clients' senior executives to Ed for his assistance in connection with various executive compensation matters, such as employment, severance, and separation agreements, as well as, various equity and phantom equity arrangements, including options and profits interests. These firms are a veritable who?s who of the New York bar and include Davis Polk, Cleary Gottlieb, Skadden Arps, Dechert, Proskauer and many others.

For the past 20 years, Ed has assisted hedge funds, their managers, as well as various financial institutions, in complying with ERISA?s complicated and convoluted fiduciary requirements. While representing prominent hedge funds and some of the largest financial institutions in the world in connection with ERISA fiduciary matters, Ed became a nationally recognized expert in these issues, speaking at prominent industry conferences, such as Marhedge and prominent legal conferences, such as those sponsored by the Practising Law Institute (PLI). Ed is an active member in ERISA fiduciary groups where the practices in these areas are often established.

While working with Pryor Cashman?s Hospitality Practice, Ed found that withdrawal liability issues were starting to become a significant concern in various hotel transactions and, due to the severe underfunding of various union pension funds, union pension funds were becoming increasingly aggressive in assessing significant withdrawal liability, often in the $5 to $10 million range, in connection with common transactions, such as changing managers, renovating properties, reducing employee headcount and selling hotels. Through repeated exposure to these issues, Ed became an expert and started playing an active role in structuring transactions to avoid and/or reduce the risk of an ERISA withdrawal liability assessment, as well as, assisting clients in disputing, arbitrating and litigating these withdrawal liability assessments. At Pryor Cashman, Ed also represented a number of union pension funds and advised those funds on various issues relating to withdrawal liability as well.

For each of the past 14 years, Ed has been named as one of the country?s top lawyers by the Best Lawyers in America (2008-2021) and as a New York Super Lawyer (2007-2020) for ERISA & Employee Benefits.

Ed is admitted in New York & Connecticut and is an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association?s Employment and Multiemployer Pension Plan panels.

Practice Areas	No. of Attorneys
Labor & Employment	1