Benefits

  • January 27, 2025

    Chimney Co. Can't Beat Suit Alleging Inflated $25M ESOP Sale

    An Indiana federal judge declined to toss a suit claiming a chimney product manufacturer had its employee stock ownership plan purchase company shares through an inflated $25 million deal, ruling there's enough detail showing the leaders of the business may have known the deal was flawed.

  • January 27, 2025

    Suit Over Gender Dysphoria Rule Frozen After Trump Order

    A Texas federal judge paused a Republican lawsuit challenging a former President Joe Biden-era U.S. Health and Human Services rule defining gender dysphoria as a disability, after the agency said it needed to evaluate the impact of a new executive order targeting "gender ideology."

  • January 27, 2025

    Wesco Will Pay $2.25M To End 401(k) Fee Suit

    Electrical equipment company Wesco Distribution Inc. will pay $2.25 million to end a proposed class action from employee 401(k) plan participants who alleged their retirement plan was mismanaged, after the Third Circuit had revived the suit in May.

  • January 27, 2025

    Steel Company's ERISA Suit Booted For Lack Of Specifics 

    A Florida federal judge dismissed a proposed class action alleging a steel manufacturer loaded its employee 401(k) plan with exorbitant fees and risky investment options, ruling the worker leading the suit needed to provide more information about his efforts to raise concerns to the plan's committee.

  • January 25, 2025

    Trump Revives Federal Anti-Abortion Policies

    President Donald Trump issued two executive orders Friday targeting abortion inside and outside the United States, reinstating a ban on federal funding for certain international family planning groups and revoking a pair of Biden-era directives supporting abortion access.

  • January 24, 2025

    Ill. Justices OK Workers' Injury Suits Over Dormant Diseases

    The Illinois Supreme Court answered the Seventh Circuit's call on Friday to clarify the state's Workers' Occupational Diseases Act in a widow's wrongful death lawsuit against Goodrich Corp., finding the statute can apply to claims for asbestos-related cancer and other diseases that manifest belatedly despite the statute's other temporal restrictions.

  • January 24, 2025

    J&J Escapes Part Of Worker's Drug Benefits Suit, For Now

    A suit alleging Johnson & Johnson overcharged employees through a prescription drug benefits program was partially tossed Friday, with a New Jersey federal judge ruling the suing worker failed to show the court could provide any remedies on her claims that plan members overpaid for medicine.

  • January 24, 2025

    Employer Groups Back Tossing Pension Annuity Suit In NY

    Three employer trade groups are backing Bristol-Myers Squibb and investment manager State Street as they fight claims brought by retirees of the pharmaceutical giant that the companies violated federal benefits law by converting workers' pension benefits into annuity insurance contracts.

  • January 24, 2025

    5th Circ. Upholds Tossing Medicare Rate Policy Challenge

    A Fifth Circuit panel said it agrees with a Texas federal judge that a lawsuit brought by four anesthesia practices claiming a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services policy will cost them $4 million in reduced reimbursements is statutorily barred.

  • January 24, 2025

    10 AGs Target Major Banks Over DEI, ESG Initiatives

    Major financial institutions in the United States, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, could have made business decisions to follow political agendas, attorneys general from 10 states said, urging them to tackle a series of questions about their diversity and inclusion policies.

  • January 24, 2025

    Lutnick Settles Chancery Suit Ahead Of Commerce Hearing

    Billionaire Howard L. Lutnick, President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of commerce, has settled a Delaware Court of Chancery derivative suit accusing the Newmark Inc. principal executive officer of "blowing smoke" around his part in a $500 million stock-value gain in order to receive a $50 million bonus.

  • January 24, 2025

    Dentons Adds 2 Healthcare Attys From Katten In NY

    Dentons announced that it has added two attorneys with extensive experience in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, regulatory compliance and False Claims Act defense as New York-based partners in its healthcare practice.

  • January 23, 2025

    Wells Fargo Workers Score Class Cert. In Stock Option Suit

    Former employees of Wells Fargo & Co. have received certification for their proposed class in litigation in Minnesota federal court alleging the bank used dividends earned by its employee stock ownership fund to defray its 401(k) matching obligations.

  • January 23, 2025

    Retired Pittsburgh Cops Overpaid For Healthcare, Panel Rules

    Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court has ruled that the city of Pittsburgh overcharged retired police officers for healthcare benefits, rejecting the city's argument to overturn an arbitrator's award in favor of the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge as too expansive.

  • January 23, 2025

    Advanced Auto Parts Gets Brakes Tapped On Investor Suit

    Advanced Auto Parts beat back a proposed class action on Thursday that accused the company and its top brass of misleading investors about the failure of a new pricing strategy and purposefully inflating the impact of price reductions, with a North Carolina federal judge finding that the suit failed to plead knowledge of wrongdoing.

  • January 23, 2025

    Del. Justices Won't Revive Skechers Inc. Aircraft Use Suit

    Delaware's top court on Thursday grounded with scant comment a derivative suit appeal filed on behalf of a stockholder of comfort shoemaker Skechers USA Inc. seeking revival of a dismissed lower court case alleging failure to control top executives' use of corporate aircraft for personal travel.

  • January 23, 2025

    Yellow Corp. Says It Acted In Good Faith With WARN Notices

    Defunct trucking company Yellow Corp. told a Delaware bankruptcy judge on Thursday that its last delivery was made the day before it laid off 22,000 union workers, making it a "liquidating fiduciary" that would not be liable for inadequate mass-layoff notices under the WARN Act.

  • January 23, 2025

    Fla. Insurer Tries To Toss Suit Blaming It For Black Mold Death

    A Sunshine State insurer accused of wrongfully causing the death of a woman who died from black mold contamination after it didn't send a promised team to her home to fix hurricane damage has urged a Florida judge to dismiss the suit, calling it a bad-faith case in disguise trying to get around an already pending contract dispute.

  • January 23, 2025

    7th Circ. Says Ex-Manager's Noncompete Allowed Clawback

    The Seventh Circuit reopened an auto parts company's lawsuit seeking to recover proceeds a plant manager got from selling shares he was granted, saying Delaware's top court has made clear that a lower court shouldn't have analyzed whether the forfeiture-for-competition provisions of the stock agreements were reasonable.

  • January 23, 2025

    AT&T, Fidelity Beat Retiree's Suit Over Mistaken Benefits

    A retiree who claimed he was misled by AT&T and Fidelity into thinking he was owed more retirement benefits than he received cannot proceed with his suit, a Colorado federal judge ruled, stating that the snafu resulted in a miscommunication, not a violation of federal benefits law.

  • January 23, 2025

    UnitedHealthcare Settles Proton Beam Coverage Suit

    UnitedHealthcare has agreed to resolve a proposed class action claiming it unlawfully denied coverage of a proton beam cancer treatment after wrongly labeling it as experimental, the insurance company and plan participants told a Massachusetts federal court.

  • January 22, 2025

    Boeing Rips Investors' Class Cert Bid In 737 Max Blowout Suit

    Boeing told a Virginia federal judge that pension funds cannot reverse-engineer sweeping securities fraud claims based on last year's Alaska Airlines midair blowout incident, saying their bid to certify a class of investors who were purportedly misled by Boeing's assurances of the 737 Max jets' safety must be rejected.

  • January 22, 2025

    Justices Seem Willing To Reopen Cornell Workers' ERISA Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed inclined to revive a federal benefits lawsuit from Cornell University workers alleging their retirement plan was mismanaged and charged excessive fees, with several justices appearing open to arguments that the Second Circuit overreached when it shut down the case.

  • January 22, 2025

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Express Scripts Generics Dispute

    A Ninth Circuit panel won't renew a suit accusing Express Scripts of shortchanging a Seattle pharmacy on reimbursements for the generic version of HIV/AIDS drug Truvada, finding that only the name-brand prescription was listed in their contract as a "covered specialty medication" entitled to a higher payback rate.  

  • January 22, 2025

    Unum Unlawfully Cut Disability, Hughes Hubbard Worker Says

    Insurance company First Unum Life Insurance unlawfully halted a Hughes Hubbard and Reed LLP manager's long-term disability benefits and decided to solely follow in-house doctors' recommendations, a suit filed in New Jersey federal court claims.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Teaching Scuba Diving Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    As a master scuba instructor, I’ve learned how to prepare for the unexpected, overcome fears and practice patience, and each of these skills – among the many others I’ve developed – has profoundly enhanced my work as a lawyer, says Ron Raether at Troutman Pepper.

  • A Guide To Long-Term, Part-Time Employee Determinations

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    With final regulations under the Secure Act requiring 401(k) retirement benefits for long-term, part-time employees expected soon, Amy Sheridan and David Guadagnoli at Sullivan & Worcester look at how the proposed rules would shift the risk-reward calculus on excluding categories of employees, and what plan sponsors would need to consider when designing retirement plans.

  • Lawyers Can Take Action To Honor The Voting Rights Act

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    As the Voting Rights Act reaches its 59th anniversary Tuesday, it must urgently be reinforced against recent efforts to dismantle voter protections, and lawyers can pitch in immediately by volunteering and taking on pro bono work to directly help safeguard the right to vote, says Anna Chu at We The Action.

  • Series

    After Chevron: ERISA Challenges To Watch

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    The end of Chevron deference makes the outcome of Employee Retirement Income Security Act regulatory challenges more uncertain as courts become final arbiters of pending lawsuits about ESG investments, the definition of a fiduciary, unallocated pension forfeitures and discrimination in healthcare plans, says Evelyn Haralampu at Burns & Levinson.

  • Justices' Intent Witness Ruling May Be Useful For Defense Bar

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    At first glance, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Diaz v. U.S. decision, allowing experts to testify to the mental state of criminal defendants in federal court, gives prosecutors a new tool, but creative white collar defense counsel may be able to use the same tool to their own advantage, say Jack Sharman and Rachel Bragg at Lightfoot Franklin.

  • How To Grow Marketing, Biz Dev Teams In A Tight Market

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    Faced with fierce competition and rising operating costs, firms are feeling the pressure to build a well-oiled marketing and business development team that supports strategic priorities, but they’ll need to be flexible and creative given a tight talent market, says Ben Curle at Ambition.

  • Why Calif. Courts Are Split On ERISA Forfeited Contributions

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    A split between two California federal courts, in deciding whether an employer’s use of forfeited retirement plan contributions to offset future costs violates the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, suggests employers should soon expect more ERISA cases to advance this novel legal theory when making anti-inurement and breach of fiduciary duty claims, says Blake Crohan at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Rock Climbing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Rock climbing requires problem-solving, focus, risk management and resilience, skills that are also invaluable assets in my role as a finance lawyer, says Mei Zhang at Haynes and Boone.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Dance The Legal Standard Two-Step

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    From rookie brief writers to Chief Justice John Roberts, lawyers should master the legal standard two-step — framing the governing standard at the outset, and clarifying why they meet that standard — which has benefits for both the drafter and reader, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Series

    Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.

  • Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity

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    The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • American Airlines ESG Ruling Could Alter ERISA Landscape

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    The Spence v. American Airlines ESG trial, speeding toward a conclusion in a Texas federal court, could foretell a dramatic expansion in ERISA liability, with plan sponsors vulnerable to claims that they didn't foresee short-term dips in stock prices, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers cases touching on pre- and post-conviction detainment conditions, communications with class representatives, when the American Pipe tolling doctrine stops applying to modified classes, and more.

  • How To Comply With Chicago's New Paid Leave Ordinance

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    Chicago's new Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance went into effect earlier this month, so employers subject to the new rules should update leave policies, train supervisors and deliver notice as they seek compliance, say Alison Crane and Sarah Gasperini at Jackson Lewis.

  • Dueling Calif. Rulings Offer Insight On 401(k) Forfeiture Suits

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    Two recent decisions from California federal courts regarding novel Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims around 401(k) forfeitures provide early tea leaves for companies that may face similar litigation, offering reasons for both optimism and concern over the future direction of the law, say Ashley Johnson and Jennafer Tryck at Gibson Dunn.

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