Briar L. McNutt

Attorney Briar McNutt brings more than 20 years of experience advising publicly traded and private companies on implementing equity-based compensation plans for executives and employees and ensuring compliance with securities laws and corporate governance best practices.

Clients regularly seek Briar’s counsel in designing executive compensation and broad-based employee compensatory plans involving equity incentive arrangements to satisfy registration requirements or exemptions, as well as related disclosure responsibilities under federal and state securities laws.

Briar advises public companies on maintaining compliance with SEC registration, reporting, and disclosure obligations; NYSE/NASDAQ shareholder approval requirements; and insider trading laws relating to executive compensation and equity incentive plans. Multinational public companies look to her for guidance in designing and launching employee stock purchase plans to comply with U.S. securities laws, including plans offering American Depositary Receipts to employees of U.S. subsidiaries.

Briar counsels boards of directors and committees, including those of Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations, on corporate governance best practices to carry out their responsibilities of establishing executive compensation programs and overseeing employee benefit plans. She also assists with SEC and corporate governance matters in workplace investigations and mergers and acquisitions involving publicly traded companies.

Additionally, Briar advises entrepreneurs, startups, and other closely held companies on structuring equity incentive arrangements for management and employees to reflect founders’ and investors’ controlling interests and rights. She also steers private companies through securities law compliance in raising capital through private placements.

Briar’s transactional and commercial experience is equally extensive. With her in-depth knowledge of general corporate and commercial laws, she regularly represents multinational corporations offering global supply chain and logistics services in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. She counsels and provides them with legal support for a wide variety of business transactions and drafts and negotiates distribution, supply, packaging, clinical trial support, and other service contracts.

Before joining Epstein Becker Green, Briar was a corporate, securities, and transactional partner of a national law firm.

Education

• New York University School of Law (J.D., 1994)
  • Staff Editor, Annual Survey of American Law (1992 to 1993)
• Williams College (B.A., cum laude, 1990)

Professional & Community Involvement

• New York State Bar Association, Health Law and Labor and Employment Law Sections