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Expert Analysis

• How Budget Bill Could Affect Employer Health, Benefit Plans

  

  Following the House's recent passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion spending bill — the Build Back Better Act — employers should carefully consider several of the proposal’s health care and benefits provisions, which could pose immediate compliance challenges if the act is signed into law this year, say Anne Hall and Tim Kennedy at Hall Benefits Law.

• New ERISA Rulings Diverge On Civil Procedure

  

  The Third Circuit’s recent decision in Noga v. Fulton Financial Employee Benefit Plan, which applied administrative law principles in reinstating a claimant’s Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefits, deviates from a rising chorus of judicial voices and fails to help repair ERISA's civil procedure, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Sherman.

• Why New Phase I Site Standard Matters For Real Estate

  

  As an update to the preeminent standard for Phase I environmental site assessments — an essential part of transactional due diligence — is rolled out, parties to real estate transactions should adopt the new standard if they wish to claim liability protections under the Superfund law, say Lorene Boudreau at Ballard Spahr and Mitchell Wiest and Sara Redding at Roux.

• The Implications Of COP26 For Legal Practitioners

  

  Developments at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference will create both opportunities and risks for lawyers — with many new laws, regulations and industry best practices to track, and a growing pipeline of new energy and infrastructure projects to facilitate, say Caroline May and Charles Winch at Norton Rose.

• Infrastructure Act Measures Could Affect Holiday Shipping

  

  While some measures in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will take time to have an impact on shipping, other aspects of the law have the potential to help ease supply chain snarls quickly enough to expedite the movement of goods for the holiday shopping season, say Samuel Basch and Joseph Goldberg at Cole Scott.

• Early ESG Due Diligence Can Minimize Risk, Maximize Reward

  

  Companies can no longer afford to ignore environmental, social and corporate governance due diligence — the risks and rewards have become too great when it comes to pre-deal merger and acquisition transactions, supply chain audits, routine company audits and beyond, says Kimberly Jaimez at Pillsbury.

• 6th Circ. ERISA Ruling Highlights Dubious Court Practices

  

  A recent concurring opinion from Sixth Circuit Judge Eric Murphy in Card v. Principal Life Insurance is the first to question remands in Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases, opening a long-overdue dialogue on several questionable court practices that deviate from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Sherman.

• Alleging An LLC's Citizenship With Imperfect Information

  

  Determining a limited liability company's citizenship to establish diversity jurisdiction and remove a case from state court can be difficult when the LLC's owners are unclear, and the Corporate Transparency Act will likely offer only limited help when it takes effect — but the right steps can still get a case to a federal courtroom, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

• 9th Circ. Jurisdiction Ruling Guides On Class Action Strategy

  

  The Ninth Circuit's recent decision revoking class certification in Moser v. Benefytt punted on personal jurisdiction questions left by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bristol-Myers decision, but provides some guidance on how to raise jurisdictional defenses in nationwide class actions, say attorneys at Dechert.

• Humana FLSA Case Shows Risks Of Nurse Misclassification

  

  The recent settlement in O'Leary v. Humana Insurance, a Wisconsin federal court case over the Fair Labor Standards Act employment status of 200 registered nurses, demonstrates the potential long-term and unexpected costs of erroneously classifying employees, says John Dudrey at Stoel Rives.

• FCA Ruling Deepens Circuit Split Over Qui Tam Dismissals

  

  The recent Third Circuit ruling in Polansky v. Executive Health Resources Inc. further widens a split over the standard for government-initiated motions to dismiss qui tam actions under the False Claims Act, and evinces increased scrutiny for motions filed after a defendant has entered the fray, say Kenneth Abell and Katherine Kulkarni at Abell Eskew.

• 4 Economic Takeaways From 6th Circ. ProMedica Decision

  

  The Sixth Circuit's recent decision to let ProMedica Health drop insurance contracts with its competitor St. Luke's Hospital highlights economic questions to consider when assessing alleged monopolization, particularly through provider network formation, say Loren Smith and Josephine Duh at The Brattle Group.

• Disability Claim Ruling Holds ERISA Fiduciary Duty Lessons

  

  A Massachusetts federal court’s recent disability claim ruling in Host v. First Unum Life Insurance admonished the defendant for breaching its Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duties when it failed to conduct an independent claim investigation, signaling that plan administrators should be wary of relying solely on employer communications, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Sherman.