Laura Ferguson, Esq.
Laura Ferguson is a Partner in the Firm's Houston office where she assists clients with a wide variety of employee benefits, executive compensation, and privacy and cybersecurity matters. She regularly assists clients with drafting, reviewing and amending all types of retirement and welfare plans for compliance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Internal Revenue Code, and other applicable federal or state laws. Laura provides guidance on privacy and cybersecurity-related issues under applicable federal and state laws, including assisting clients with the development and implementation of comprehensive policies and incident response plans, as well as drafting and negotiating vendor contracts. Laura is also an IAPP Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US), a member of the firm’s Incident Response Team (where she assists clients with responding to data breaches), and a member of the firm's California Consumer Privacy Act Initiative (where she assists clients with navigating the compliance efforts needed for the CCPA).
Laura assists clients with identifying and resolving benefit plan document and/or operational failures through the preparation and submission of voluntary compliance program applications to the IRS and/or DOL. Laura also has experience in drafting equity compensation plans, deferred compensation plans and employment agreements, ensuring compliance with various laws, including Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. From a mergers and acquisitions perspective, she regularly works on employee benefits, executive compensation, and privacy and cybersecurity matters arising from transactions, including negotiating purchase agreements, navigating diligence issues (such as Code Sections 409A and 280G issues), drafting transition services agreements, and assisting with a variety of compensation agreements (e.g., transaction bonus, equity, employment, and retention agreements).