Confidential consultation
A private conversation with a partner to understand your position, your priorities, and the outcome you need. Protected, candid, and without obligation.
Established 1994 · New York & London
When your career is on the line, retain counsel that has never blinked.
We represent executives, founders, and senior professionals in the most consequential moments of their careers — severance and exit negotiations, wrongful termination, discrimination, and disputed equity.
Recognized by the profession's most exacting authorities
The American LawyerChambers USA — Band 1Legal 500 · Leading FirmBest Lawyers® 2025Super Lawyers · EmploymentFinancial Times · Innovative Lawyers
Practice Areas
A single-minded focus on the interests of the individual.
01
Severance & Exit Negotiation
Maximizing the terms of your departure — compensation, accelerated vesting, benefits continuation, and release terms that protect your future mobility.
Learn more02
Wrongful & Constructive Termination
Holding employers accountable when a dismissal breaches contract, public policy, or the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Learn more03
Discrimination & Retaliation
Discreet, forceful representation in matters of age, gender, race, disability, and retaliation for protected activity.
Learn more04
Executive Compensation & Equity
Disputes over deferred compensation, carried interest, RSUs, options, and clawback provisions — often the largest sums at stake.
Learn more05
Restrictive Covenants & Non-Competes
Non-competes, non-solicits, and trade-secret claims — defending your right to work and negotiating enforceable, reasonable terms.
Learn more06
Whistleblower Protection
Confidential counsel for executives reporting misconduct, with SEC, Dodd-Frank, and Sarbanes-Oxley exposure.
Learn more
The Approach
We do not represent companies. We represent you.
Most firms sit on the other side of the table — advising the very employers our clients face. Mercer & Beekman was built to be the counterweight: a boutique practice devoted entirely to the individual, and to the quiet, decisive resolution of career-defining disputes.
Discretion above all
Your matter is handled by partners, not passed to associates. Nothing leaves the room without your consent.
Leverage, then negotiate
We build the strongest possible position first — so that most matters resolve favorably without ever reaching a courtroom.
Aligned incentives
Transparent engagements structured around your outcome, with fee arrangements designed to keep our interests inseparable from yours.
The Engagement
A deliberate path from first call to final terms.
Assessment & strategy
We review every agreement, communication, and record — then build a clear-eyed assessment of your leverage and the path most likely to reach your goal.
Positioning & negotiation
We establish the strongest possible footing before we ever raise our voice, resolving the majority of matters quietly and on favorable terms.
Resolution or trial
When settlement serves you, we close decisively. When it does not, we are trial counsel prepared to see the matter through to judgment.
Representative Matters
Outcomes that speak in the only language that matters.
$14.2M
Severance settlement
Negotiated exit package for a departing CFO of a public technology company, including full equity acceleration.
Reinstated
Wrongful termination
Reversal of a retaliatory dismissal for a division president, with back pay and restored board standing.
Covenant voided
Non-compete dispute
Defeated a nationwide non-compete, freeing a managing director to join a competing fund within weeks.
$8.6M
Discrimination claim
Confidential resolution of a gender-discrimination and equal-pay matter for a senior executive.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Matters described are illustrative and presented with client permission or in anonymized form.
All resultsThe Partners
Counsel of consequence, at the table from the first call.
Every engagement is led personally by a partner. No hand-offs, no dilution — only the experience that has resolved the careers of the people who run companies.
In Their Words
“I walked in expecting a fight and a headline. They gave me neither — only a resolution that was better than I thought possible, handled with complete discretion.”
The Journal
Perspective for the moments that define a career.
Common Questions
Answered plainly, before you ask.
If your question is not here, a partner will answer it directly and in confidence.
All questionsEntirely. Every initial conversation is protected and handled by a partner. Nothing you share leaves the firm, and we take no matter that would compromise your discretion.
Yes. We act exclusively for executives and professionals — never employers. That singular focus removes any conflict and keeps our judgment squarely aligned with your interests.
Engagements are tailored to the matter. We offer hourly, fixed-fee, and contingency arrangements, and we agree the structure with you in writing before any work begins.
Rarely, and never without your direction. The overwhelming majority of our work resolves quietly through negotiation, precisely to protect your reputation and your future.
Time-sensitive matters — a severance deadline, a threatened termination — receive same-day partner attention. Reach out and we will respond promptly.
Confidential Consultation
A conversation, in complete confidence.
Tell us, in a sentence or two, what you are facing. A partner will respond personally, typically within one business day. Everything you share is privileged.
- Telephone
- +1 (212) 555 0140