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Benefits
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May 06, 2024
Mass General Eyes Retirement Plan Fee Suit Settlement
The Mass General healthcare system in Boston and a proposed class of its workers are in the process of negotiating an agreement to resolve the employees' claims that they were charged excessive administrative fees for their retirement plan, the parties told a Massachusetts federal court.
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May 06, 2024
Citgo Retirees' Mortality Table Data Suit Heads To Trial
An Illinois federal judge refused Monday to grant Citgo a win in three retirees' proposed class action accusing the fuel company of shortchanging retirees by using outdated metrics to calculate early retirement payouts, saying the questions that remain are best suited for trial.
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May 06, 2024
Mass. Justices Wary Of Spiking Uber, Lyft Ballot Questions
Justices on Massachusetts' highest court appeared unlikely Monday to strike down ballot proposals to reinvent app-based drivers' relationships with Uber, Lyft and the like, commenting that the scattershot ideas for voters in March all carry the underlying theme of creating a carveout from the state's worker-friendly employee classification law.
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May 06, 2024
Salesforce Inks 11th Hour ERISA Deal With Up To 50K Workers
Salesforce has inked an eleventh-hour settlement with a certified class of up to 50,000 employees alleging the company violated ERISA by allowing its 401(k) plan to be filled with expensive and poorly performing investment options, preempting a bench trial scheduled for Monday, a court clerk told Law360.
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May 06, 2024
JPMorgan Accused Of Failing To Protect Account Data
JPMorgan Chase & Co. failed to protect sensitive personal information for individuals whose retirement accounts it administered, causing at least 451,000 people to have identifiable data stolen over the past three years, according to a proposed class action filed in New York federal court.
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May 06, 2024
Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court
A record $100 million settlement, a fishy Facebook decision, a canceled Amazon delivery and an upended $7.3 billion sale dispute topped the news out of Delaware's Court of Chancery last week. There were also new cases involving Hess, Microsoft and the 2022 World Cup.
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May 06, 2024
FDIC, OCC Gear Up For Another Shot At Banker Bonus Rules
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Monday revived an Obama-era proposal to set restrictions on incentive-based pay for executives at big banks, a lingering item of unfinished Dodd-Frank Act business, and for now, the Federal Reserve is sitting out.
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May 06, 2024
Auto Parts Co. Strikes Deal To End Suit Over $1.6B 401(k) Plan
Auto parts supplier Magna International agreed to settle a class action covering about 20,000 workers who claimed to have lost millions in retirement savings because the company failed to cut underperforming and costly investments from their $1.6 billion retirement plan.
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May 03, 2024
9th Circ. Orders 2nd Look At Stay In PG&E Wildfire Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Friday told a lower court to reconsider its order staying claims PG&E investors brought against officers, directors and others over wildfire liability, saying more factors should have been considered before the stay was granted.
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May 03, 2024
Boeing Can't Avoid Pre-Conception Toxic Birth Defect Claims
A Washington state judge said Friday that the child of two Boeing factory workers can sue the aerospace giant for negligence based on harm he allegedly suffered before he was conceived, allowing him to accuse the company of failing to warn his parents about toxic chemicals they were exposed to on the job.
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May 03, 2024
Cruise Contractors Aim To End $2.8M Union Fund Debt Row
Two cruise ship contractors and a union pension fund told a Louisiana federal judge Friday that they're winding down their dispute over the contractors' $2.8 million debt to the fund, asking him to toss the case but let them reopen it if they can't settle the last outstanding issue.
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May 03, 2024
DuPont, Corteva Want 'Schrödinger's Cat' Class Decertified
DuPont and Corteva Inc. asked a Pennsylvania federal court Friday to undo class certification for former employees who claim they were wrongly denied an "optional retirement" when DuPont de Nemours Inc. and Corteva's parent companies merged and they were spun off, arguing that the two class representatives' claims clash with the rest of the class.
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May 03, 2024
Railways Cos. Dodge Suit Claiming Pension Evasion Scheme
A Pennsylvania federal judge tossed a suit Friday claiming Transtar railways systematically fired workers whose pensions were about to vest in order to dodge payments, stating that the employees' complaint lacks enough detail to prove they were subjected to an illegal scheme.
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May 03, 2024
Ex-Spirit Flight Attendant Drops FMLA Suit
A Florida federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit a former flight attendant lodged against Spirit Airlines accusing it of firing her after she complained that its medical leave policies ran afoul of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
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May 03, 2024
Lennar Workers Say 2nd Circ. Ruling Backs Their ERISA View
Workers who sued Lennar Corp. in a proposed class action over mismanaging their $1.2 billion retirement plan have urged a Florida federal court to deny the company's motion for dismissal, saying a recent appellate ruling doesn't allow the employer to enforce an arbitration provision because it violates federal pension law.
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May 03, 2024
Chancery OKs Record-Breaking $100M Pattern Energy Deal
A $100 million settlement ending state and federal court litigation over Pattern Energy Group Inc.'s $6.1 billion go-private sale in 2020 got the nod from Delaware's Court of Chancery on Friday, along with a requested $26 million fee award and two $25,000 incentive awards for the lead shareholder plaintiffs.
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May 03, 2024
Aetna To Pay $2M To End LGBTQ Fertility Coverage Suit
A group of Aetna policyholders said Friday that the insurance giant has agreed to pay $2 million and revise certain health insurance guidelines to settle a proposed class action alleging its definition of infertility made it difficult and expensive for LGBTQ couples to obtain coverage for fertility treatments.
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May 03, 2024
Car Loan Co. Strikes Deal In Employee Stock Valuation Suit
A car loan company has agreed to resolve a proposed class action alleging it violated federal benefits law when it revalued its stock at the start of the pandemic and forced retirees to sell their shares at a lower value, according to a California federal court filing.
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May 02, 2024
Chicken Buyers Request $37M More In Price-Fixing Deal Fees
Direct broiler chicken purchasers who've inked more than $284 million in price-fixing settlements are asking an Illinois federal judge for more than $37 million in what would be a third distribution of fees and reimbursed costs to their co-lead counsel in the massive case.
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May 02, 2024
6th Circ. Appears Reluctant To Kick 401(k) Suit To Arbitration
A Sixth Circuit panel seemed likely Thursday to deny two auto part companies' bid to compel arbitration of a lawsuit from workers who say their retirement savings were mismanaged, though the judges appeared divided on the broader question of whether retirement plans may force planwide claims into individual arbitration.
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May 02, 2024
DOL Hit With First Lawsuit Over New Investment Advice Regs
The U.S. Department of Labor was hit with a lawsuit Thursday in Texas federal court seeking to invalidate recently finalized regulations that broaden who qualifies as a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, marking the first-filed legal challenge since the agency's late-April final release.
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May 02, 2024
Colo. Panel Says COVID Can Trigger Workers' Compensation
A Colorado appellate court panel on Thursday ruled for the first time that COVID-19 can be considered an "occupational disease" under the state's workers' compensation law and affirmed the award of benefits to a woman whose husband died of the novel coronavirus while working at a skilled nursing facility.
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May 02, 2024
4th Circ. Revives Workers' Suit Over SC Plant Explosion
The Fourth Circuit on Thursday revived claims from three workers burned in an explosion at a plastic recycling plant, saying the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Law can't deprive the federal courts of diversity jurisdiction in a case where they would otherwise have it.
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May 02, 2024
4th Circ. Finds Judge Appointment Legit In Black Lung Case
The Fourth Circuit ruled that an administrative law judge who presided over a black lung benefits case was properly reappointed by the U.S. Department of Labor, rejecting Dominion Coal Corp.'s contention that his seating violated the Constitution's appointments clause.
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May 02, 2024
Davis Wright Brings On MoFo Appellate Litigator In San Fran
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has brought on a former Morrison Foerster LLP partner in San Francisco, strengthening its appellate practice with an experienced appellate litigator who clerked for a U.S. Supreme Court justice, a California Supreme Court justice and other judges, the firm announced Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
Congress Needs To Enact A Federal Anti-SLAPP Statute
Although many states have passed statutes meant to prevent individuals or entities from filing strategic lawsuits against public participation, other states have not, so it's time for Congress to enact a federal statute to ensure that free speech and petitioning rights are uniformly protected nationwide in federal court, say attorneys at Skadden.
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ERISA Ruling Shows Why Insurers Must Justify Claim Denials
The Tenth Circuit's recent decision in D.K. v. United Behavioral Health imposed a long-overdue measure of accountability on health insurers by holding that Employee Retirement Income Security Act compliance requires responding to the medical opinions of the beneficiary's treating doctors before denying claims, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Takeaways From New Fla. Pharmacy Benefit Manager Rules
A recently passed Florida law imposes several new requirements on pharmacy benefit managers, necessitating practical considerations that range from potential license application delays to possible trade secret exposure, say Thomas Range and Bruce Platt at Akerman.
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Roadblocks For Cannabis Employers Setting Up 401(k) Plans
Though the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act generally allow cannabis businesses to establish 401(k) plans for their employees, companies must still pick their way through uncertainties around tax deductions and recruiting reliable vendors, say attorneys at Shipman & Goodwin.
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Some Client Speculations On AI And The Law Firm Biz Model
Generative artificial intelligence technologies will put pressure on the business of law as it is structured currently, but clients may end up with more price certainty for legal services, and lawyers may spend more time being lawyers, says Jonathan Cole at Melody Capital.
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Revenue Sharing Argument Might Save Barrick In 401(k) Case
During recent oral arguments before the Tenth Circuit, Barrick Gold presented revenue sharing as an obvious alternative explanation for the selection of higher-cost share classes in its ex-workers’ 401(k) plan, establishing that dismissal of the case would be consistent with U.S. Supreme Court pleading standard precedent, say Emily Costin and Blake Crohan at Alston & Bird.
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Now More Than Ever, Fiduciaries Must Revisit ERISA Origins
Given increasing political pressures, including legislation on ESG investing, fiduciaries should have a firm grasp on the historical foundations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, especially its allocation and delegation provision — the act's most important fiduciary duty shield, says Jeff Mamorsky, a Cohen & Buckmann partner who helped draft the statute.
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A Lawyer's Guide To Approaching Digital Assets In Discovery
The booming growth of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens has made digital assets relevant in many legal disputes but also poses several challenges for discovery, so lawyers must garner an understanding of the technology behind these assets, the way they function, and how they're held, says Brett Sager at Ehrenstein Sager.
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Opinion
High Court's Ethics Statement Places Justices Above The Law
The U.S. Supreme Court justices' disappointing statement on the court's ethics principles and practices reveals that not only are they satisfied with a status quo in which they are bound by fewer ethics rules than other federal judges, but also that they've twisted the few rules that do apply to them, says David Janovsky at the Project on Government Oversight.
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Opinion
Time For Law Schools To Rethink Unsung Role Of Adjuncts
As law schools prepare for the fall 2023 semester, administrators should reevaluate the role of the underappreciated, indispensable adjunct, and consider 16 concrete actions to improve the adjuncts' teaching experience, overall happiness and feeling of belonging, say T. Markus Funk at Perkins Coie, Andrew Boutros at Dechert and Eugene Volokh at UCLA.
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4th Circ. Ruling Reveals 2 Layoff Pitfalls To Avoid
The Fourth Circuit's recent decision in Messer v. Bristol Compressors serves as a reminder that employers have a continuing obligation to keep employees informed about mass layoffs, and that employees do not need to show prejudice to succeed on Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act claims, say Kevin White and Steven DiBeneditto at Hunton.
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Opinion
Duty To Oversee ESG Risks Would Erode Biz Judgment Rule
Imposing a duty to oversee ESG business risks on directors and officers is the exact kind of second-guessing that the business judgment rule is supposed to protect against, and it could expose corporate leaders to ruinous liability and disincentivize serving on public company boards, say Stephen Leitzell and Richard Horvath at Dechert.
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Tips For In-House Legal Leaders In A Challenging Economy
Amid today's economic and geopolitical uncertainty, in-house legal teams are running lean and facing increased scrutiny and unique issues, but can step up and find innovative ways to manage outcomes and capitalize on good business opportunities, says Tim Parilla at LinkSquares.
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How Cities Can Tackle Post-Pandemic Budgeting Dilemmas
Due to increasing office vacancies around the country, cities may consider politically unpopular actions to avoid bankruptcy, but they could also look to the capital markets to ride out the current real estate crisis and achieve debt service savings to help balance their budgets, say attorneys at Cadwalader.
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What Associates Need To Know Before Switching Law Firms
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
The days of staying at the same firm for the duration of one's career are mostly a thing of the past as lateral moves by lawyers are commonplace, but there are several obstacles that associates should consider before making a move, say attorneys at HWG.