After nearly 25 years of service, Roger Stern retired from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in January 2014. He had been a partner in the firm's employee benefits and compensation practice.

Roger had focused on designing, reviewing, and implementing a wide range of benefit and compensation programs structured to suit growth companies, as well as other manufacturing and service businesses. This experience gave Roger special expertise in the tax, securities, and accounting considerations applicable to these programs, with a particular emphasis on the unique issues faced by start-up and growth companies. Roger worked with clients to structure compensation and benefit programs to cover the full range of equity and cash compensation arrangements, including stock options and purchase plans, 401(k) plans, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), cafeteria plans, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, and severance and other fringe-benefit arrangements. Roger also counseled clients on fiduciary duty issues with respect to employee benefit plans.

In addition to his work for clients, Roger wrote and spoke extensively on employee benefits and executive compensation issues.