Eric Hilfers Eric W. Hilfers

Partner and Head of Executive Compensation and Benefits Department, Cravath, Swain & Moore

Eric W. Hilfers is Head of Cravath’s Executive Compensation and Benefits Department. Mr. Hilfers’ practice focuses on executive compensation and employee benefit matters faced by the Firm’s clients, principally in connection with mergers and acquisitions and other business transactions. Clients value his “expansive knowledge” and “comprehensive understanding of the business and legal challenges and opportunities” in compensation and benefits matters, leading one to affirm, “he’s not just a lawyer—I view him more as an adviser.”

Mr. Hilfers’ representations include the hiring of chief executives and other officers; the design and implementation of compensation programs; the crafting of public disclosures regarding executive pay; and the management of the many legal and regulatory concerns generated by compensation practices, such as securities law, tax, ERISA and financial accounting.
Mr. Hilfers has extensive experience providing executive compensation and benefits counsel in connection with M&A transactions.

Notable matters include representing:

  • Disney in its $85 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
  • FS Investments in its pending combination with Portfolio Advisors, creating a $73 billion alternative investment firm.
  • Occidental Petroleum in its $57 billion acquisition of Anadarko.
  • Mylan in its $50 billion combination with Upjohn, a division of Pfizer.
  • Viacom’s transaction committee in the $30 billion merger with CBS.
  • Thermo Fisher Scientific in its $20.9 billion acquisition of PPD.
  • AXA in its $15.3 billion acquisition of XL Group.
  • Amazon in its $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM.
  • Global Blood Therapeutics in its $5.4 billion acquisition by Pfizer.
  • ADT in its $1.2 billion equity investment from State Farm.

Mr. Hilfers has been repeatedly recognized as one of the country’s leading practitioners in employee benefits and executive compensation by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US and The Best Lawyers in America. In 2019, he was named to The Legal 500 US Hall of Fame in the Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans: Transactional category. Mr. Hilfers was also cited as being one of the top 100 corporate employment attorneys in the country by HR Executive magazine and one of the nation’s top 20 employee benefits lawyers by Lawdragon magazine. He has spoken on a panel entitled “New Rules on Compensation” at “The Paradigm of Employment Law” conference, presented by the International Bar Association, and at the Practising Law Institute’s executive compensation program on “The Effect of Legislative Activism on Compensation Practices.”

Mr. Hilfers is currently a member of the Executive Compensation Task Force of CompensationStandards.com. He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association Tax Section and has served as Co-Chair of its Employee Benefits Committee. Mr. Hilfers was born in Olivia, Minnesota. He received an A.B. from Princeton University in 1995 and a J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998, where he was a member of the University of Chicago Legal Forum. Mr. Hilfers joined Cravath in 1998 and was elected a partner in 2005.

Related Sessions

Current Issues in Executive Compensation Location: RM 280A, Classroom Building, Stanford Law School Date: June 28, 2023 Time: 11:35 am - 12:35 pm View session

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