Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP

Andy has nearly 30 years of experience counseling and advising companies, both public and private, boards of directors, and executives and management, on the many and varied tax, ERISA, securities law, and corporate governance aspects of executive compensation and employee benefits. Andy has the ability to make highly technical and complex topics and issues more understandable and workable for clients dealing with executive compensation and employee benefits matters.

As Chair of the Compensation & Employment Group, Andy leads the firm’s executive compensation and employee benefits practice with skill and insight developed from years of counseling boards of directors, compensation committees, and senior management of both public and private companies. Whether relating to the design and implementation of equity and cash incentive programs, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, and tax-qualified retirement plans, or advising clients during their mergers, acquisitions, initial public offerings, and other business transactions, Andy is always at the ready to hone in on a wide range of issues with laser-like focus.

This broad experience includes the administration and compliance side of executive compensation and employee benefits matters. Andy regularly works with the legal, human resources, and finance functions of public and private companies to assist them with the various concerns commonly encountered in the day-to-day administration of compensation and benefits plans and arrangements, the correction of plan errors, ERISA’s fiduciary duty and prohibited transaction rules, and reviews by regulatory agencies, including DOL and IRS audits.

A frequent speaker at seminars on executive compensation and employee benefits, Andy is an adjunct professor in the Master of Science in Taxation Program at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. He is a former Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at, and continues to be regularly involved with, Merit School of Music, which is a nationally accredited music school located in Chicago’s West Loop with the primary goal of helping young people transform their lives and experience personal growth through high-quality music education.