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Benefits
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May 17, 2024
Industry Emboldened After Justices Galvanize Agency Attacks
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court said "extraordinary" and "far-reaching" attacks on administrative enforcers can skip agency tribunals and go straight to federal district court, ambitious challenges to regulatory powers are rapidly gaining traction, and the high court is poised to put them on an even firmer footing.
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May 17, 2024
3rd Circ. Seeks Briefing On Wesco's Impact In 401(k) Fee Suit
The Third Circuit asked a digital services business and employees who sued the company alleging it saddled their retirement plan with excessive recordkeeping fees to explain whether the workers' bid to revive their tossed suit should be kicked to a lower court in light of a recent precedential ruling.
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May 17, 2024
Many Plans Already In Front Of 11th Circ. Trans Health Ruling
The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision that a county health plan's coverage exclusion for gender transition surgery violated federal anti-discrimination law likely won't have a big impact on plans because they have already made adjustments for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling the appeals court applied, experts say.
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May 16, 2024
Ex-Pistons Guard Denied Bail For Healthcare Scheme Appeal
A former Detroit Pistons point guard was denied bail Thursday while he appeals his conviction and 18-month prison sentence in a case where prosecutors accused ex-players of defrauding the NBA's healthcare plan.
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May 16, 2024
3rd Circ. Revives Wesco Retirees' ERISA Fee Case
The Third Circuit reinstated a proposed class action Thursday accusing Wesco Distribution Inc. of letting its employee retirement plan pay exorbitant administrative fees, ruling a trial court's "partly valid" criticisms of the suit weren't enough to warrant dismissal.
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May 16, 2024
IQVIA To Pay $3.5M To Resolve Ex-Workers' 401(k) Suit
Healthcare technology company IQVIA agreed to pay $3.5 million to end a 9,000-member class action accusing it of choosing investments that consistently underperformed and had excessive risk and expense for its $1.13 billion 401(k) plan, a filing in North Carolina federal court said.
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May 16, 2024
DOL Unveils Long-Delayed Abandoned Retirement Plan Rules
After being sidelined for more than a decade, a plan for expanding U.S. Department of Labor rules for terminating retirement plans abandoned by employers are moving forward again, the agency reported Thursday, along with a long-delayed role in the process for bankruptcy trustees.
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May 16, 2024
Citgo Retirees Win Class Cert. In Mortality Table Data Suit
An Illinois federal judge on Thursday conditionally granted class certification to Citgo retirees accusing the fuel company of shortchanging retirees by using outdated metrics to calculate early retirement payouts, but said the class definition must be narrowed further.
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May 16, 2024
Fla. Seeks To Halt Biden's ACA Trans Discrimination Rule
Florida urged a federal court to stop recently finalized regulations clarifying gender identity-based discrimination under the Affordable Care Act from taking effect, saying the new rules would force the state to abandon its health and safety laws or lose funding from the federal government.
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May 16, 2024
3 Firms Assist As AIG Sells $3.8B Corebridge Stake To Nippon
Latham & Watkins LLP is guiding Japan's Nippon Life Insurance Co. on a new deal to buy 120 million shares of Corebridge Financial Inc. common stock from AIG for $3.8 billion, with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP guiding Corebridge and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz representing AIG, the purveyors of insurance products said Thursday.
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May 15, 2024
Chancery Nixes BuzzFeed Worker Arbitration Bid
Delaware's Court of Chancery dismissed from an arbitration access dispute on Wednesday 85 BuzzFeed Media Enterprises employees who sued for arbitration of a stock conversion right, rejecting claims that company employment agreements require Delaware courts to handle the issue.
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May 15, 2024
UnitedHealth Concealed DOJ Merger Investigation, Suit Says
UnitedHealth Group has been hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging that it failed to disclose that the U.S. Department of Justice had reopened an antitrust investigation into the health insurance giant following its acquisition of a healthcare data company, and that top executives had sold more than $120 million of shares knowing about the investigation before a news report revealed it to the public.
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May 15, 2024
Lawmakers Move To Kill DOL's ERISA Fiduciary Regs
A group of 16 mostly Republican senators introduced a resolution Wednesday to overturn the U.S. Department of Labor's new rule broadening who qualifies as a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, saying the regulations threaten Americans' ability to save for retirement.
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May 15, 2024
Minn. Health System To Pay $800K To End 401(k) Suit
A health system agreed to pay $800,000 to end a proposed class action accusing it of failing to remove costly and underperforming investment funds from its $1.7 billion retirement plans, a filing Wednesday in Minnesota federal court said.
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May 15, 2024
Anthem Blue Cross Owes $3.8M For COVID Tests, Lab Says
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut should be forced to pay nearly $3.8 million for medical laboratory work, including COVID-19 tests, that the insurer either denied, underpaid or failed to acknowledge, according to a federal lawsuit by a New Jersey-based company with facilities in Pennsylvania.
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May 15, 2024
Arizona Judge Revives Opendoor Investors' Securities Suit
An Arizona federal judge has revived a consolidated securities class action accusing real estate company Opendoor Technologies Inc. of misleading investors about the benefits of its pricing algorithm software in order to go public in a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.
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May 15, 2024
2nd Circ. Backs AT&T's Win In Retirees' Early Benefits Suit
The Second Circuit declined Wednesday to undo a win for AT&T in a proposed class action brought by two retirees who sought retroactive pay after finding out they could have applied for retirement benefits earlier, ruling the denial of their bid for backdated benefits was on solid ground.
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May 15, 2024
Tesla Fires Back At Claims It Bullied Retired Law Professor
Tesla has pushed back against allegations that it tried to bully a retired law professor out of weighing in on an investor suit over CEO Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation plan, according to new filings in Delaware.
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May 15, 2024
Schnader Harrison Moves To Halt Retirement Class Action
Shuttered law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP has urged a Pennsylvania federal judge to toss a former partner's proposed class claim the firm mismanaged employee retirement money, saying the complaint misclassifies the firm's payments to the retirement fund.
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May 15, 2024
Pet Telehealth Startup Canned Vet After Bite Injury, Suit Says
A Massachusetts veterinarian says she was lured to a mobile pet care startup but replaced months later by a younger vet after she claimed workers' compensation for a dog bite suffered on the job.
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May 15, 2024
Toss Of Bonus Bias Claim Too Short On Details, 5th Circ. Says
The Fifth Circuit has reinstated a Hispanic salesman's claim that he was denied $160,000 in bonuses by a construction contractor out of racial bias after he was fired, ruling the lower court didn't adequately explain why it nixed that allegation.
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May 14, 2024
Asset Manager Cops To $1.2B Venezuelan Oil Co. Fraud
An asset manager pled guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in a $1.2 billion scheme to embezzle money from Venezuela's state-owned oil company and launder it through false investment schemes in the U.S. and abroad.
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May 14, 2024
Apache Investors Get First OK On $65M Deal In Drilling Suit
A U.S. magistrate judge has given the first green light to a $65 million settlement resolving a lawsuit against oil and gas company Apache Corp. filed by investors alleging they were deceived by promises of a potentially lucrative drilling project that ultimately led to a $3 billion write-down when it went bust.
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May 14, 2024
Kraft Heinz Seeks To Ax Teamsters' Retiree Benefit Grievance
Kraft Heinz asked a Delaware federal judge Tuesday to step in and stop a Teamsters unit's healthcare grievance from going to arbitration, saying the union must use the dispute resolution process outlined in the company healthcare plan, not the grievance and arbitration process outlined in the union contract.
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May 14, 2024
New Ruling Aids In-Court 401(k) Suit Bid, DOL Tells 6th Circ.
The U.S. Department of Labor urged the Sixth Circuit to heed a decision out of the Second Circuit refusing to compel arbitration in a federal benefits lawsuit, arguing that the appellate panel should join four other circuits in rejecting an employer's attempt to force claims out of court.
Expert Analysis
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2nd Circ. Goldman Ruling May Hinder Securities Classes
The Second Circuit's recent Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v. Goldman Sachs decision, decertifying a class of investors and seemingly resolving a decadelong dispute, makes it substantially more difficult for plaintiffs to certify securities classes based on generic misstatements — a significant win for the defense bar, say attorneys at Willkie.
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Perspectives
More States Should Join Effort To Close Legal Services Gap
Colorado is the most recent state to allow other types of legal providers, not just attorneys, to offer specific services in certain circumstances — and more states should rethink the century-old assumptions that shape our current regulatory rules, say Natalie Anne Knowlton and Janet Drobinske at the University of Denver.
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Opinion
10th Circ. Remand Of ERISA Claims To Insurer Is Problematic
The Tenth Circuit recently gave the defendant another bite at the apple in David P. v. United Healthcare by remanding Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims for reprocessing, but the statute lacks any provision authorizing remands of ERISA cases, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Identifying Trends And Tips In Litigation Financing Disclosure
Growing interest and controversy in litigation financing raise several salient concerns, but exploring recent compelled disclosure trends from courts around the country can help practitioners further their clients' interests, say Sean Callagy and Samuel Sokolsky at Arnold & Porter.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Judge Elrod On 'Jury Duty'
Though the mockumentary series “Jury Duty” features purposely outrageous characters, it offers a solemn lesson about the simple but brilliant design of the right to trial by jury, with an unwitting protagonist who even John Adams may have welcomed as an impartial foreperson, says Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod.
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4 Business-Building Strategies For Introvert Attorneys
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Introverted lawyers can build client bases to rival their extroverted peers’ by adapting time-tested strategies for business development that can work for any personality — such as claiming a niche, networking for maximum impact, drawing on existing contacts and more, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.
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Opinion
3 Ways Justices' Disclosure Defenses Miss The Ethical Point
The rule-bound interpretation of financial disclosures preferred by U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — demonstrated in their respective statements defending their failure to disclose gifts from billionaires — show that they do not understand the ethical aspects of the public's concern, says Jim Moliterno at the Washington and Lee University School of Law.
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Caregiver Flexibility Is Crucial For Atty Engagement, Retention
As the battle for top talent continues post-pandemic, many firms are attempting to attract employees with progressive hybrid working environments — and supporting caregivers before, during and after an extended leave is a critically important way to retain top talent, says Manar Morales at The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance.
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How A Union Fight Played A Key Role In Yellow's Bankruptcy
Finger-pointing between company and union representatives appears to be front and center at the early stages of trucking company Yellow’s bankruptcy case, highlighting the failed contract negotiations' role in the company's demise, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.
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In-Office Engagement Is Essential To Associate Development
As law firms develop return-to-office policies that allow hybrid work arrangements, they should incorporate the specific types of in-person engagement likely to help associates develop attributes common among successful firm leaders, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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SEC Focus On Perks Offers Insights On Cooperation
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent settlement with Stanley Black & Decker is the latest example of the SEC's continued focus on executive perquisites and highlights what type of cooperation may be required to avoid a civil money penalty, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Perspectives
A Judge's Pitch To Revive The Jury Trial
Ohio state Judge Pierre Bergeron explains how the decline of the jury trial threatens public confidence in the judiciary and even democracy as a whole, and he offers ideas to restore this sacred right.
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How To Recognize And Recover From Lawyer Loneliness
Law can be one of the loneliest professions, but there are practical steps that attorneys and their managers can take to help themselves and their peers improve their emotional health, strengthen their social bonds and protect their performance, says psychologist and attorney Traci Cipriano.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Disclosure Should Be Mandatory
Despite the Appellate Rules Committee's recent deferral of the issue of requiring third-party litigation funding disclosure, such a mandate is necessary to ensure the even-handed administration of justice across all cases, says David Levitt at Hinshaw.
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4 Employer Action Steps For New Mental Health Parity Rules
A recently released guidance under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act reiterated that employers contracting with outside service providers to administer their health plans are not relieved of their compliance obligations — so all employers sponsoring a group health plan should consider four action items for success, say attorneys at Ice Miller.