Steven G. Schaffer is Chairman of the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice for the Firm. His practice involves the design of pension, profit sharing and employee benefit plans, as well as the legal aspects of plan administration. He has extensive experience in plan audits and problem resolution through Internal Revenue Service programs. Mr. Schaffer has significant experience in negotiating employment arrangements for executives, both on behalf of employers and executives. He has represented clients with respect to employee benefit and executive compensation issues in mergers and acquisitions and leveraged buyouts. He also represents companies, trustees and fiduciaries in leveraged employee stock ownership plan transactions. Mr. Schaffer has significant experience in the design of investment funds suitable for pension plan investors by virtue of the ERISA "plan assets" rules and venture and real estate operating company exemptions. His other areas of concentration include tax planning and corporate transactions.

Mr. Schaffer's clients include publicly and privately held companies throughout the United States. He represents a number of multinational corporations based both in the United States and overseas in structuring the benefit plans of their numerous and varied operations to conform with the requirements of United States tax laws, including the separate lines of business rules.

Mr. Schaffer is a frequent speaker and is the co-author of an article entitled "Retirement & Estate Planning Through the Use of Employee Stock Ownership Plans," Estate Planning & Administrative Service.

Mr. Schaffer has been selected for the 2007 and 2008 editions of The Best Lawyers in America for Employee Benefits Law. Additionally, he has been recognized by Atlanta Magazine as a 2007 and 2008 Georgia Superlawyer. Mr. Schaffer has also been selected to be included in the 2007 edition of Who's Who Legal: Georgia 2007.