Practice
Sam Whitaker is a counsel in the Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits practice in the London office of Shearman & Sterling. He has a broad range of experience on both transactional and non-transactional employment and benefits matters including advising on the employment aspects of share and asset acquisitions and disposals (both UK-based and multi-jurisdictional transactions), managing UK and international redundancy exercises and related consultation requirements, the establishment of share incentive and bonus plans, employment litigation involving restrictive covenants, unfair and wrongful dismissal and discrimination issues and executive appointments and terminations.

Sam has been named as a Leading Individual in his field in Chambers UK 2011 guide.

• Ardagh Glass on the employment aspects of its acquisition of the Impress group of companies, including various executive terminations
• New England Sports ventures on the employment and benefit aspects of its acquisition of Liverpool Football Club
• American Sugar on the acquisition of the European sugar refining business of Tate & Lyle plc
• BE Aerospace, Inc on the acquisition of the Satair group of companies in Europe
• African Barrick Gold on its listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange
• Vector Capital on its bid for satellite navigation systems-maker Trafficmaster plc at an enterprise value of approximately US$125 million
• Fransisco Partners on the acquisition of the Grass Valley broadcast business from Thomson
• IntercontinentalExchange, Inc on its proposed £395 million acquisition of Climate Exchange plc.
• Manchester City Football Club on the employment arrangements of its new team manager
• Aabar Investments PJSC on the employment and pensions aspects of the acquisition by Aabar Investments PJSC and Daimler UK Plc of a majority shareholding in Brawn GP Limited Formula One Racing team
• Dassault Systèmes on the UK and EU employment aspects of its acquisition of IBM’s sales and client support operations as well as customer contracts and related assets for approximately US$600 million
• Dow Chemical Corporation on the employment and benefits aspects its attempted US$17.4 billion joint venture with PIC of Kuwait
• Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Limited on the employment aspects of its acquisition of Manchester City Football Club
• Credit Suisse in relation to its international share incentive and bonus plans
• Continental AG on redundancies in various of its UK operations
• Nokia Corporation in relation to the establishment of a joint venture with Siemens AG
• Safran SA in relation to a restructuring of its UK operations
• Aker Solutions ASA on the implementation of a cross-border employee stock purchase plan
• AAI Pharma Inc on various UK senior employment matters
• Depfa Bank plc on the employment aspects its merger with HRE by means of a scheme of arrangement
• Allianz AG on its offer to acquire Riunione Adriatica di Sicurta SpA (RAS), its subsequent conversion into a Single European Company and the required UK employee representation aspects of establishing a Single European Company
• Citibank N.A. on the outsourcing from Winterthur Financial Services UK Ltd to Citibank of key fund accounting and administration functions
• Citibank N.A. on the outsourcing to Shell International Petroleum Ltd of certain card operations in various jurisdictions
• Novartis AG’s divestment of its Nutrition & Sante business unit to ABN AMRO Capital France
• SICPA Holding SA/SICPA SA’s sale of its Printing Inks Business Unit to Siegwerk Druckfarben AG
• MorphoSys AG on its acquisition of Serotec Limited and stand-alone employment advice