Benefits

  • August 01, 2024

    Employers Urge Justices Take Up Withdrawal Liability Fight

    The U.S. Supreme Court must resolve a circuit split over how to calculate the bills sent to companies that leave union pension plans, a group of employers has argued, fighting an argument by the trustees of an International Association of Machinists pension fund that the split is "tolerable."

  • August 01, 2024

    Pa. Workers' OT Claims Over Pensions Stand, Judge Says

    Federal labor law doesn't preempt some claims from unionized hospital workers in Pennsylvania over incorrect overtime pay, a federal judge determined, saying interpretation of a labor contract laying out the calculation of wage rates and pension contributions isn't necessary to resolve those allegations.

  • August 01, 2024

    House Workforce Chair Wants Mental Health Parity Regs Axed

    The Republican chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee told the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday it should not finalize regulations that aim to encourage employer compliance with a law requiring equitable mental health and substance use disorder treatments coverage, stating the rule burdens businesses.

  • August 01, 2024

    Chancery Denies Ex-InterMune CEO $6M Legal Fee Right

    Delaware's Chancery Court rejected on Thursday a bid by former InterMune CEO W. Scott Harkonen to escape demands to repay nearly $6 million in legal fees covered by biotech venture InterMune Inc. and insurers during his unsuccessful defense against a 2009 wire fraud conviction, denying all claims for legal fee indemnification.

  • August 01, 2024

    GE Retirees Reach Deal To Resolve Pension Benefits Dispute

    General Electric retirees announced Thursday they'd struck a deal with their former employer to resolve claims that GE improperly used a company spinoff to renounce responsibility for supplemental pension benefits reserved for senior executives, the plaintiff-side firm that represented the retirees said.

  • July 31, 2024

    Wells Fargo Let Workers' Prescription Costs Soar, Suit Says

    A group of former Wells Fargo employees have accused the banking giant of mismanaging its prescription drug benefits program, costing its Employee Retirement Income Security Act plan and employees millions of dollars in premiums and medication costs, according to a proposed class action in Minnesota federal court.

  • July 31, 2024

    Gov't Fights Doctor's Bid For New Trial In NBA Fraud Case

    Federal prosecutors are urging a New York district judge to reject a request for a retrial from a Seattle doctor found guilty for his role in a vast NBA fraudulent healthcare scheme, arguing that it properly admitted its evidence at trial, and it was more than enough to support the guilty verdict.

  • July 31, 2024

    Black Worker Says PBGC Didn't Promote Him Due To His Race

    The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. passed over a Black worker for a senior director role in favor of a less qualified white woman and retaliated against him for a previously filed race discrimination complaint, a lawsuit filed in D.C. federal court said.

  • July 31, 2024

    Honesty Worries Justify Gas Co. Worker Firing, 4th Circ. Says

    The Fourth Circuit upheld a Baltimore gas company's win over a former mechanic's lawsuit alleging he was unlawfully terminated for taking medical leave because of a diabetes-related condition, ruling Wednesday that suspicions of dishonesty provided a credible reason for letting him go.

  • July 31, 2024

    Saul Ewing Adds 2 Employee Benefits Attys On East Coast

    Saul Ewing LLP announced Wednesday that it has grown its employee benefits and executive compensation practice on the East Coast with two attorneys, one from Ivins Phillips & Barker and another from Hogan Lovells.

  • July 31, 2024

    Southern Co. Beats Retirees' Suit Over Mortality Data

    Federal benefits law doesn't mandate specific actuarial assumptions in the calculation of pension payments, a Georgia federal judge ruled as he tossed a proposed class action alleging that a Southern Co. subsidiary's use of decades-old mortality tables shorted retirees by thousands of dollars.

  • July 31, 2024

    Guatemalan Worker Says Paint Co. Fired Him For Injury

    A Guatemalan worker in the U.S. on a work visa is suing a Connecticut painting company in state court, saying it violated employment laws by failing to pay him his promised salary and firing him after a workplace injury prevented him from being able to do his job.

  • July 31, 2024

    Firms Must Justify $1.4M Fee Bid In State Street Settlement

    A Massachusetts federal judge who oversaw a yearslong attorney overbilling scandal and slashed a fee bid in another case over alleged false and misleading statements ordered a pair of firms to tell him why they should get one-third of a $4.3 million settlement with State Street Corp.

  • July 30, 2024

    Fla. Insurance Co. Accused Of Causing Black Mold Death

    A Florida insurance company was accused of wrongfully causing the death of a woman who died from black mold contamination in a state complaint brought by her sole descendant, who alleges the insurer didn't send a promised team to remediate the woman's home after it was damaged by Hurricane Ian.

  • July 30, 2024

    Atty Teams Wrestle In Chancery Over WWE Merger Suit Pick

    Two legal tag teams have pitched competing bids to lead a Delaware Court of Chancery suit aimed at World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and its $21.4 million merger with Ultimate Fighting Championship, with one stressing the depth of its complaint and the other, in part, stressing depth of experience in pressing sexual misconduct claims.

  • July 30, 2024

    Florida Residents Urge 11th Circ. Keep Block On Gender Law

    Transgender adults and children in Florida on Monday urged the Eleventh Circuit to reject the state's attempt to enforce a law restricting gender-affirming treatment for transgender minors and adults while the case is on appeal.

  • July 30, 2024

    Utility Co. Denied Injunction In Row Over Apprentice Workers

    A Michigan federal judge has denied a utility construction and maintenance company's bid for an injunction against a joint labor-management committee supervising apprentice line workers in the company's antitrust suit, finding that the company is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its claim.

  • July 30, 2024

    PBMs Urge Justices To Reject Review Of Okla. Law Dispute

    An industry trade group representing pharmacy benefits managers urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to disturb its Tenth Circuit victory, which held that an Oklahoma statute regulating PBMs ran afoul of preemption provisions in both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and Medicare Part D.

  • July 30, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Backs Ga. ALJ's Firing For 'Unbecoming' Conduct

    The Federal Circuit has upheld the removal of a Georgia administrative law judge over a pattern of "deficiencies" uncovered in his rulings, insubordination, and a workplace tirade in which he reportedly told a supervisor she was "worse than a Nazi," the court said Tuesday.

  • July 30, 2024

    9th Circ. Revives Union Carpenters' Retirement Fight

    The Ninth Circuit revived a suit by carpenters alleging union pension trustees broke federal benefits law by investing retirement plan assets in dicey index funds that lost over $250 million in the 2020 market downturn, finding Tuesday that the workers' mismanagement claims should proceed to discovery.

  • July 30, 2024

    Financial Co. To Pay $20M To Resolve DOL Embezzlement Suit

    A financial planner agreed to pay $20 million to 17 retirement plans it manages to resolve a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Labor accusing it of improperly shuffling money between accounts and embezzling at least $5 million in plan assets, a filing in Pennsylvania federal court said.

  • July 29, 2024

    9th Circ. Axes Limit On DOL Denying Calif. Agencies Grants

    The U.S. Department of Labor can shut California transit agencies out of a federal grant because of a conflict between a state pension law and a federal transit law, with the Ninth Circuit lifting a ban Monday on the agency denying grant applications because of that conflict.

  • July 29, 2024

    4 Takeaways After Courts Block ERISA Advice Regs

    Two Texas federal judges' takedowns of the U.S. Department of Labor's recently expanded definition of a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act has limited the agency's authority to oversee certain kinds of retirement investment advice, attorneys say, including some rollover situations. Here, Law360 looks at four things benefits lawyers have taken away from the decisions.

  • July 29, 2024

    Magistrate Eyes Cuts To Norfolk Southern Investors' Suit

    A New York federal magistrate judge has recommended tossing a portion of a securities suit filed against Norfolk Southern Corp. in the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, reasoning that the retirement funds serving as lead plaintiffs fell short of pleading standards.

  • July 29, 2024

    Amazon Defeats Class Status Push In Military Leave Suit

    A Washington federal judge refused Monday to greenlight a class action accusing Amazon of demoting or firing workers who took time off for military service, saying they hadn't shown the thousands of would-be class members had enough in common.

Expert Analysis

  • How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case

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    The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.

  • Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content

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    From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.

  • Series

    Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.

  • How HHS Discrimination Rule Affects Gender-Affirming Care

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new final rule, which reinterprets the Affordable Care Act's anti-discrimination provision, greatly clarifies protections for gender-affirming care and will require compliance considerations from sponsors and administrators of most group health plans, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance

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    A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.

  • Series

    Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

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    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • Asset Manager Exemption Shifts May Prove Too Burdensome

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    The U.S. Department of Labor’s recent change to a prohibited transaction exemption used by retirement plan asset managers introduces a host of new costs, burdens and risks to investment firms, from registration requirements to new transition periods, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • 7 Effects Of DOL Retirement Asset Manager Exemption Rule

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    The recent U.S. Department of Labor amendment to the retirement asset manager exemption delivers several key practical impacts, including the need for managers, as opposed to funds, to register with the DOL, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Kansas Workers' Comp. Updates Can Benefit Labor, Business

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    While the most significant shake-up from the April amendment to the Kansas Workers Compensation Act will likely be the increase in potential lifetime payouts for workers totally disabled on the job, other changes that streamline the hearing process will benefit both employees and companies, says Weston Mills at Gilson Daub.

  • Del. Ruling Highlights M&A Deal Adviser Conflict Disclosures

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    The Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed the Court of Chancery's dismissal of challenges to Nordic Capital's acquisition of Inovalon, demonstrating the importance of full disclosure of financial adviser conflicts when a going-private merger seeks business judgment rule review, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • How FTC's Noncompete Rule May Affect Exec Comp Packages

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    In the event the Federal Trade Commission's final noncompete rule goes into effect as currently contemplated, companies will need to take stock of how they structure post-employment executive compensation arrangements, such as severance agreements and clawbacks, says Meredith O'Leary at King & Spalding.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Opinion

    SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.

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