Diana Defino advises clients on complex employee benefits and executive compensation matters, including in the context of acquisitions, dispositions, mergers, and executive transitions.
She has counseled clients on more than 70 completed transactions, including Alcoa's recent sale of its rolling mill business to Kaiser Aluminum for $670 million; Shiseido's acquisition of the Drunk Elephant skincare brand for $845 million; and LORD Corporation's acquisition by Parker Hannifin, valued at $3.675 billion.
Diana regularly prepares and negotiates employment, separation, bonus, and change-of-control agreements. She advises clients with respect to equity incentive arrangements and securities-related disclosures. She also counsels clients regarding the administration and compliance of employee benefit plans and arrangements with the Internal Revenue Code and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and drafts and reviews proxy and other disclosures for public company clients. She has also drafted disclosures related to the golden parachute payment tax implications of executive compensation arrangements in both private and public company transactions.
Diana serves as a chair of a subcommittee of the Diversity, Inclusion and Advancement Committee in the Pittsburgh Office. She is a member of the Friends Board of Sisters Place (a Pittsburgh-based charity that provides a supportive housing community to single parent families who are homeless), the Propel Schools Young Professionals Council (a team of young professionals dedicated to raising awareness and support for Propel Schools, which is a group of nonprofit charter schools in the Pittsburgh area), and she serves as a mentor in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Success in Law School Mentoring Program.
Experience
- Washington and Lee University (J.D. magna cum laude 2014; Staff Writer, Washington and Lee Law Review); University of Notre Dame (B.A. magna cum laude 2009)
- Pennsylvania