Ronald Stansbury practices in the area of employee benefits and executive compensation.
Ron represents entities ranging from publicly and privately held corporations to tax-exempt entities – including their boards of directors and trustees and compensation committees – to individual executives and executive teams. He partners with clients to develop and revise executive compensation arrangements and employee benefit plans in multiple situations, including within the context of initial public offerings, mergers, and acquisitions.
Ron has amassed a wealth of experience over his more-than-four-decade legal career, including having chaired the employee benefits committee of a major regional law firm for more than 20 years. In this role, Ron worked closely with senior human resources executives and other members of management to resolve compensation, employee benefits, and related issues from the employer perspective rather than merely as an outside consultant. Ron also has served in the employer role as board chair of a local private school. He currently serves on the board of the local chapter of a major charitable organization for which he previously served as chair during its merger with the national organization.
Ron’s ESOP experience includes a billion-dollar private placement and a billion-dollar public offering for a large ESOP, ESOPs of public companies funded with defined benefit plan surplus, collectively bargained ESOPs with joint labor/management boards of trustees, establishing 100% S corporation ESOPs for closely held businesses, and analyzing alternative ESOP plan structures and defending sponsors of ESOPs in connection with IRS and Department of Labor audits and investigations.
Ron’s experience in the health and welfare benefit area includes working with employers and others in the establishment and maintenance of individually designed self-insured major medical plans, PPOs, dental plans, cafeteria plans, and long-term disability plans. Ron also advises the employer sponsors of such plans regarding all manner of operational issues and legal compliance, including Affordable Care Act and HIPAA compliance, as well as the establishment and compliance of numerous voluntary employee beneficiary associations (VEBAs). In addition, Ron has assisted an employer coalition covering over two million individuals in negotiating pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) agreements with two national PBMs.
Ron’s experience in the nonprofit area includes advising benefit plan fiduciaries and officers and directors of tax exempt entities concerning governance and fiduciary issues.
Band 2-ranked in Chambers USA in the area of Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (Ohio), Ron is praised as a "tremendous benefits lawyer, who advocates for his clients very well." Another client comments that Ron is "diligent, effective, thoughtful and great to work with."