Benefits

  • December 06, 2024

    Merrill Lynch Can't Beat Stock Loan Class Cert. Bid

    A New York federal judge on Friday overruled objections from Bank of America unit Merrill Lynch to certify a class of investors, with a slightly extended class period, in a suit alleging the financial institution colluded with other major banks to avoid modernizing the stock loan market.

  • December 06, 2024

    UPS Worker Can't Revive USERRA Retaliation Suit At 9th Circ.

    The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a UPS worker's suit claiming the delivery company stalled his efforts to get back to work after an injury because he sued the business alleging discrimination against service members, finding on Friday that company policy drove the delay.

  • December 06, 2024

    SAG-AFTRA Plan Left Data Exposed To Breach, Members Say

    The SAG-AFTRA Health Plan lacked adequate security to keep personal information safe from a September data breach, two members alleged in California federal court, saying a proposed class is at risk for a "full gamut of cyber-crimes," including identity theft and phishing scams.

  • December 06, 2024

    Anthem Wants Testing Lab's $3.8M Suit Axed Or Split Up

    Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut has asked a federal court to toss a testing lab's lawsuit seeking $3.8 million for allegedly unpaid bills, arguing that batches large and small of the more than 3,000 unpaid claims were preempted by federal law, filed years too late or barred from being assigned to the lab to collect.

  • December 06, 2024

    Missing Court Order Prompts Redo On Denied United Claim

    A patient whose coverage claim was denied by United Healthcare for a second time, even after a trial court and the Tenth Circuit found the first was unfair, secured a redo from a Utah federal judge who found the second denial was voided by a legal technicality.

  • December 06, 2024

    4 Big Developments In ERISA Cases From 2nd Half Of 2024

    The Sixth Circuit reopened a retirement plan mismanagement suit against Parker-Hannifin Corp. and revived a manufacturing company worker's disability benefits bid, while the nation's highest court declined to review a plan trustee's unsuccessful attempt to force an employee stock sale dispute into arbitration. Here, Law360 looks at four recent decisions in Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases that benefits attorneys should know.

  • December 06, 2024

    Freshfields Adds 2 Corporate Laterals In Silicon Valley

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP has expanded its offerings in Silicon Valley with the additions of a capital markets attorney from Cooley LLP and an employee benefits and executive compensation attorney from Goodwin Procter LLP.

  • December 05, 2024

    Fla. Labs Say Cigna's Trial 'Confession' Erases $7.3M Verdict

    Three Florida drug testing laboratories have urged a Connecticut federal court to undo a $7.3 million jury verdict for Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. over unjustified billings, arguing a new trial is warranted after the insurer allegedly made a "confession" during opening statements that it wasn't seeking damages for itself.

  • December 05, 2024

    Judge Recommends Axing Some Claims In X Severance Suit

    A Delaware federal judge on Thursday recommended pruning of a 14-count suit filed by six former Twitter employees accusing the company now known as X and Elon Musk of contract breaches and other claims in connection with Musk's takeover of the social media giant in 2022.

  • December 05, 2024

    DOL Says Court Erred In Tossing ESOP Claims Against Exec

    A medical equipment industry executive should continue facing claims that he ripped off workers by selling overpriced stock to his company's employee stock ownership plan, the U.S. Department of Labor told an Idaho federal judge Thursday, asking him to rethink letting the executive escape the allegations.

  • December 05, 2024

    Abbott Accused Of 'Last-Ditch Effort' To Halt Formula Suit

    Investors accusing Abbott Laboratories leaders of concealing known safety issues related to recalled infant formula urged an Illinois federal judge to reject the company's bid to stay the case because it belatedly formed a special litigation committee to investigate the allegations two years into the litigation.

  • December 05, 2024

    Quest Ex-Workers Ask 3rd Circ. To Revive 401(k) Suit

    Ex-workers for Quest Diagnostics Inc. urged the Third Circuit to revive their suit alleging mismanagement of their $5 billion 401(k) retirement plan, arguing a lower court shouldn't have handed Quest an early win on claims the company failed to properly monitor investment offerings.

  • December 05, 2024

    11th Circ. Won't Rethink $100M Credit For John Hancock

    The Eleventh Circuit won't reconsider its decision to let John Hancock Life Insurance Co. keep $100 million in foreign tax credits, leaving in place its October ruling against a Florida law firm retirement plan's trustees.

  • December 05, 2024

    IQVIA Gets Final OK For $3.5M Deal In Ex-Workers' 401(k) Suit

    A North Carolina federal judge on Thursday gave his final seal of approval to a $3.5 million settlement for a class of 9,000 employees who accused healthcare technology company IQVIA of mismanaging its $1.13 billion 401(k) plan.

  • December 04, 2024

    GAO Finds Limited Oversight, Data On Crypto In 401(k)s

    Though crypto assets make up a small part of the 401(k) market, their limited federal oversight might leave workers responsible for monitoring the volatile investment options, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

  • December 04, 2024

    Jackson's 'Quite Worried' About Equal Protection Precedent

    The U.S. Supreme Court's Republican-appointed justices' apparent willingness Wednesday to rule that a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors didn't rely on sex-based classifications worried Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who warned that such a decision would undermine decades of the court's equal protection clause precedent.

  • December 04, 2024

    Uber Investors' Attys Awarded $58M In $200M IPO Suit Deal

    A California federal judge granted final approval Wednesday to Uber's $200 million deal settling class claims from investors accusing it of making false and misleading statements ahead of its initial public offering, and also awarded $58 million for attorney fees that he called quite "substantial" but "warranted."

  • December 04, 2024

    Homeless Vets Tell 9th Circ. To Deny Parking Access To UCLA

    A class of homeless, disabled military veterans fought the Regents of the University of California's appeal of its rejected stay motion, arguing in the Ninth Circuit that the lower court made the right decision because the veterans urgently need supportive housing on a Los Angeles campus.

  • December 04, 2024

    Schnader Harrison Pension Deal Reached After Prior Setback

    A former Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP partner and the now-shuttered firm have reached a settlement in the attorney's proposed ERISA class action after the prospect for a deal had seemed to fizzle out, the parties told a Pennsylvania federal court Wednesday.

  • December 04, 2024

    Justices Seem To Back Ban On Transgender Youth Care

    The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority on Wednesday seemed poised to greenlight a Tennessee ban on minors receiving gender-affirming care, despite arguments from the court's liberal block that finding the law constitutional would fly in the face of the court's equal-protection precedents.

  • December 03, 2024

    Investor Attys Seek $6.6M Cut Of $20M Metal Price-Fixing Deal

    Attorneys for investors settling platinum and palladium price-fixing claims against Goldman Sachs and others for $20 million have asked a New York federal judge to award them fees equivalent to a third of the settlement amount, or more than $6.6 million, a below-lodestar request that they said is, "clearly, not a windfall situation."

  • December 03, 2024

    9th Circ. Ponders AIDS Generic Drug Reimbursement

    A Ninth Circuit panel heard arguments Tuesday on a Seattle pharmacy's dispute with a benefits manager over reimbursements for the generic version of the HIV/AIDS drug Truvada, with one judge asking if the pharmacy was stuck with a lopsided deal, but also questioning if the contract obligated the payments.

  • December 03, 2024

    NJ Appeals Court Axes Fire Union's Leave Arbitration Win

    A New Jersey appeals court scrapped an arbitration award favoring a firefighters union reached with the city of Newark over concerns that it cut vacation time from its firefighters terminal leave benefit calculations, after finding Tuesday the arbitrator didn't address the core issue of the dispute.

  • December 03, 2024

    Kimberly-Clark Strikes $2.25M Deal To End 401(k) Fee Suit

    Consumer goods company Kimberly-Clark Corp. has agreed to pay $2.25 million to resolve a proposed class action claiming it loaded its $4 billion 401(k) plan with excessive recordkeeping costs, workers leading the suit told a Texas federal court.

  • December 03, 2024

    Judge Suspects Citigroup 401(k) Suit May Unnerve Fiduciaries

    Allowing discovery in a proposed class action over allegedly imprudent investments in Citigroup Inc.'s employee 401(k) plan may signal to fiduciaries that their decisions are subject to judicial second-guessing, a Hartford federal judge observed Tuesday amid oral argument on the company's motion to dismiss.

Expert Analysis

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • 2 Rulings Show How Courts Assess Health Benefit Denials

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    Two recent decisions from federal appeals courts offer important insights into how courts are assessing denials of health benefit claims brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, including guidance on how plan administrators should evaluate claims and what documents must be disclosed, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Mental Health Parity Rules: Tips For Plans And Issuers

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    Following federal agencies' release of final mental health parity rules, plan sponsors and health insurance issuers should develop protocols for preparing compliant nonquantitative treatment limitation comparative analyses, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Opinion

    FTC's Report Criticizing Drug Middlemen Is Flawed

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    The Federal Trade Commission's July report, which claims that pharmacy benefit managers are inflating drug costs, does not offer a credible analysis of PBMs, and its methodology lacks rigor, says Jay Ezrielev at Elevecon.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Plan Sponsors Must Prep For New Mental Health, Drug Rules

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    To comply with newly published health insurance rules requiring parity between access to mental health and substance use services compared to medical and surgical services, employers with self-insured plans will need to update third-party administrator agreements and collect data, among other compliance steps, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

  • How Cos. Can Protect Supply Chains During The Port Strike

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    With dock workers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts launching a strike that will likely cause severe supply chain disruptions, there are several steps exporters and importers can take to protect their businesses and mitigate increased costs, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

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