Lucericia Messiah
Associate
Duane Morris LLP
1540 Broadway
New York, NY 10036-4086
USA
Phone: +1 212 471 4725
Fax: +1 212 253 4037
Email: LMessiah@duanemorris.com

Lucericia Messiah practices in the areas of compensation, employee benefits, healthcare and employment law. Ms. Messiah's practice includes work with both public and private companies in a wide range of industries, including the following: banking, insurance, energy, manufacturing, biotechnology and technology, telecommunications, real estate and private equity. She has broad transactional experience advising clients in connection with domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, lending transactions, bankruptcy and securities offerings. She also regularly assists clients with regard to day-to-day compliance and design matters involving the full range of executive compensation and benefits matters, including employment agreements, change in control agreements, deferred compensation, equity-based compensation, welfare plans and IRC Section 409A. Ms. Messiah has also represented both investment fund sponsors and tax-qualified pension funds in connection with ERISA Title I matters involving pension plan investments in alternative investment vehicles. She focuses her pro bono work in the field of immigration and also in advising nonprofits.

Ms. Messiah is a 2004 magna cum laude graduate of Howard University School of Law and a cum laude graduate of Pace University.

Areas of Practice

• Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Corporate Compliance
• Securities

Representative Matters

• Represented SJR Group LLC, a digital marketing and strategy company, in the sale of substantially all of its assets to a subsidiary of WPP plc, the world's largest communications services group.
• Advised Synopsys, Inc., a world leader in electronic design automation, in its acquisition of Magma Design Automation Inc., a publicly traded provider of chip design software, for more than $500 million.
• Advised Datalogic S.p.A., a leading international producer of bar code readers and other data collection technologies headquartered in Bologna, Italy, in connection with its acquisition of Accu-Sort systems, Inc. from affiliates of Danaher Corporation.
• Advised Dell, Inc. in its acquisition of Compellent Technologies, Inc., a leading storage provider.
• Advised Synopsys, Inc. in connection with a complex acquisition of Optical Research Associates, which was wholly-owned by a United States tax-qualified employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).
• Advised JP Morgan and Anchorage Advisors in connection with their acquisition of a majority interest in Bally Total Fitness and the implementation of executive compensation arrangements as part of Bally’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Professional Activities

• American Bar Association
• The Bar of the City of New York
  - Member, Employee Benefits Committee
  - Secretary, Young Lawyers Committee (2010-2011)

Admissions

• New York

Education

• Howard University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 2004
• Pace University, B.A., cum laude, 2001

Experience

• Duane Morris LLP
  - Associate, 2012-present
• Dewey & LeBoeuf
  - Associate, 2007-2012
• Sullivan & Cromwell
  - Associate, 2004-2007

Honors and Awards

• Listed in New York Rising Stars - Metro Edition, 2011 and 2012
• Lisa Beth Deutsch Pro Bono Award (outstanding achievement relating to pro bono clients)

Selected Publications

• Co-author, "U.S. Supreme Court Decisions on DOMA and Same-Sex Marriage Have Far-Reaching Implications for Employers," Duane Morris Alert, June 28, 2013
• Author, "Supreme Court Rules on Higher Causation Standard in Employer Retaliation Claims Under Title VII," Duane Morris Alert, June 26, 2013
• Co-author, "What Are the Implications for Employers of the Supreme Court Decision Upholding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?" Duane Morris Alert, June 28, 2012

Selected Speaking Engagements

• Speaker, "Independent Contractors vs. Employees," Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project, 2013