John Burgess

John Burgess is an attorney and CPA with Jackson Lewis P.C. who helps business owners and executives with retirement plans and executive compensation. He is one of Florida’s leading experts on employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), which constitute most of his practice. In recent years, he has been involved in representing companies in all types of industries in the establishment of about 15 new ESOPs per year, and after the ESOP is established, he helps those businesses along their journey as an ESOP company, using his experience in representing several mature ESOP companies. He also regularly advises ESOP trustees during the course of an ESOP transaction. He helped to establish the Florida Center for Employee Ownership and is on its Board of Directors. He has also been the Vice President of Programming for the Florida Chapter of the ESOP Association.In addition, John helps employers, from startups to public companies, establish and maintain executive compensation plans, particularly equity-based compensation programs. He is experienced in helping owners and executives in understanding, choosing and implementing the program that works best for them, including profits interests, restricted stock, stock options, restricted stock units and stock appreciation rights.John’s practice also involves working with companies on 401(k) plans and has worked with plans of all sizes, ranging from those sponsored by small, local companies with a few dozen participants to large, multi-national corporations with over 10,000 participants and billions in plan assets. He has also successfully represented several plan sponsors before the IRS and the DOL, including numerous applications under the IRS Voluntary Correction Program.Although these topics are complex, John always makes a point of taking a practical approach to solving problems to help clients get to the best results.John is also active with GrowFL, a non-profit organization which is dedicated to helping the CEOs of second-stage companies get their businesses to the next level, and sponsors the annual Florida Companies to Watch awards, which recognizes 50 of the best ascending businesses in the state.i