Think a big bundle of stock options will send you skipping down the yellow brick road to Internet riches? D'Alessio will neither admit nor deny wrongdoing in the 's trading scandal. A lawyer for a former exchange broker claims the exchange not only was aware of but encouraged the practice of 'flipping. In response to a motion filed by TheStreet.

The European exchange has just 62 listed companies. Mulling the options Examples of Recent Litigation Concerning Employee Stock Options Think again. If you still need convincing, just ask former DoubleClick DCLK software engineers Nikolay Butvin and Mehran Sedaghatpour.

When Butvin and Sedaghatpour signed on with the fledgling DoubleClick in and , they were given pre-IPO options -- 25, shares between them. But last week, as shares of the Internet ad concern rose to almost -- up sixfold from the company's initial public offering at 17 in February -- the two weren't counting the riches from their employee options packages.

Instead, they are two more names on two more lawsuits challenging a former employer for firing them before they could reap the full proceeds of their options.

The suits, which DoubleClick declined to comment on, represent one of the more contentious trends to emerge from the Internet boom, and one whose course is difficult to chart because case law provides few clues to how these disputes might end. Big Stakes With more employees receiving stock options as part of their compensation than ever before and markets booming, millions of dollars are at stake for individual workers.

But an increasing number of employees, seeing fabled stock option wealth evaporate in disputes with their employers, are filing lawsuits to recoup losses. And with huge sums dangling before workers and their lawyers, that trend is bound to increase in coming years, legal experts predict. So far, this is largely uncharted legal territory and the legal standing of both the companies and the employees they grant options to is murky. Shortly after DoubleClick went public, but well before most of their options vested, the company fired them.

Butvin learned of his firing one day before the IPO. The dismissals turned their hoped-for stock wealth into ether. The company claimed the options that hadn't yet vested were only valid as long as they remained employees. Butvin and Sedaghatpour now have filed separate federal lawsuits in the U.

District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking compensation from DoubleClick for gains they weren't able to realize from the options. The two computer software engineers are claiming they were recruited by the company with promises of stock option wealth that never materialized. Their lawyer declined to comment on the case. DoubleClick also declined to comment. DoubleClick, in its response in the court proceedings, claims the two software engineers both signed agreements that made the options contingent on continued employment with the firm.

But Butvin and Sedaghatpour aren't alone.

In at least a half dozen other lawsuits filed in state and federal courts across the country, employees of Internet start-up and technology companies are claiming they lost out on potentially valuable stock options because they were fired. Employees of another technology firm have filed a suit claiming their rights to exercise stock options were curtailed when their company was sold to a new owner.

In yet another case, female workers at a publishing company sued, claiming their male colleagues at the firm were given disproportionately large stock option allotments.

McDonald says the law on stock options is in an embryonic stage because using such devices for broad employee compensation became a popular phenomenon only in recent years. As a result, few lawsuits on the issue have reached the appellate courts, where legal precedent is set.

There's sure to be plenty of fodder, though.

Job Loss And Your Stock Grants (Part 1): Options, Restricted Stock, And ESPPs - ucujaluxu.web.fc2.com

Between 7 million and 10 million employees now have been given stock options in the U. That's 10 times more than had a decade earlier, the group says. Once a benefit extended chiefly to top executives, stock ownership and options now are regularly offered to employees much further down the company ranks, the center says. The fact that this is being done with options doesn't bode well for the American workplace, says Andrew Ross, director of the American Studies Program at New York University.

And he says he's not surprised lawsuits have resulted. One element that's become popular with employers is what's called a clawback provision.

PERSONAL BUSINESS; More Fired Workers Are Suing for Stock Options - The New York Times

It requires employees who leave a company not only to forgo stock options that haven't been exercised yet, but also to return some proceeds of stock options an employee exercised while with the company.

IBM IBM includes such a provision in stock option agreements with its employees, requiring them to forfeit proceeds of any stock options they exercise within six months before leaving the company to take work with a competitor.

IBM won rulings in two cases last year -- one in California and another in New York -- upholding the provision. Action Alerts PLUS is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc. You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for Most Recent Trade Alert. Subscribe Access insights and guidance from our Wall Street pros.

Find the product that's right for you. Mar 15, 9: May 1, 9: Top NYSE Officials to Take Stand A lawyer for a former exchange broker claims the exchange not only was aware of but encouraged the practice of 'flipping. Apr 26, 6: Judge Orders Unsealed Depositions of Top NYSE Officials in Trading Scandal Suit In response to a motion filed by TheStreet.

Apr 10, 7: Nasdaq Pushes Into Europe With Hopes to Build Up the Small Easdaq The European exchange has just 62 listed companies.

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Examples of Recent Litigation Concerning Employee Stock Options.