Partner
Los Angeles
Tel: +1.213.243.2560
Fax: +1.213.243.2539
Email: sgriffin@jonesday.com

Profile | Experience | Publications | Speaking Engagements

Related Services

• Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation
  • Compensation & Benefits Counseling for Employers
  • ERISA Plan Asset Investments
  • ESOPs & Other Stock-Based Plans
  • Executive Compensation
  • Institutional Fiduciary Services
  • Mergers & Acquisitions/Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation
  • ERISA & Other Employee Benefits Litigation
  • Governmental Employers & Public Pension Plans
  • Tax-Exempt Entities & Church Plans
• Health Care
  • Tax & Benefits/Health Care
• Financial Services

Sarah Griffin advises employers on the full range of tax and ERISA issues concerning the employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements they sponsor. She counsels in-house legal departments, plan committees, compensation and benefits specialists, investment advisors, and human resources professionals with respect to the design, governance, and administration of corporate benefit programs and the investment of employee benefit plan assets. She has extensive experience in welfare plans, including VEBAs, severance and retiree health, fringe benefits, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, and qualified retirement plans. In the context of M&A transactions, joint ventures, and financings, Sarah works with clients to achieve their overall transaction strategy, including with respect to executive employment agreements and compensation packages and transitioning of employee plans. She also advises California governmental entities and retirement systems regarding the state's pension laws and the common law of trusts.

Sarah's representative clients include Allergan, Los Angeles County, LAUSD, and Sempra Energy. She has advised a Fortune 500 company in the course of a significant Department of Labor investigation and settlement related to the reimbursement of expenses from plan assets.

Sarah is a member of the University of Colorado at Boulder Law School Alumni Board and is past president of the board of directors for the Los Angeles County Bar Association Foundation. She is a member of the ABA, the State Bar of California, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Chambers USA (2009) — recognized for labor & employment: benefits & compensation

Colorado and California

University of Colorado (J.D. 1984; Order of the Coif; Law Review); University of Southern California (B.A. 1976; Phi Beta Kappa)

Law Clerk to: Judge John C. Porfilio, United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit (1985 term) and former Justice William D. Neighbors, Colorado Supreme Court (1984 term)