Photo of Kate Napalkova

Kate Napalkova is a partner in the Tax Department and a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group.

Kate advises public and private companies, private investment funds, executives and boards on a broad range of compensation and employee benefits matters. Kate’s practice includes the compensation and employee benefits aspects of mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, spin-offs, initial public offerings, financings and other corporate transactions. Kate’s practice further focuses on advising clients across various industries on the negotiation, structuring and implementation of benefits and compensation plans and executive compensation arrangements; golden parachutes; securities reporting, registration and disclosure compliance; and corporate governance matters.

While in law school, Kate served as the editor-in-chief of the Fordham International Law Journal.

Kate is fluent in Russian.

On January 14, 2021, the California Supreme Court decided, at the request of the Ninth Circuit, that its decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, 4 Cal.5th 903 (2018) applies retroactively. Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc. (SC S258191 1/14/21). Dynamex adopted the “ABC test” for determining whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor for purposes of the obligations

On Monday, Uber, Postmates and two of their drivers filed a lawsuit in federal court in the Central District of California, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and a determination that AB-5 is unconstitutional.

AB-5 is set to become effective on Wednesday, January 1st and will have a major impact on California’s freelance workforce as well as most other companies that have workers located in