Employee Benefits & ERISA Litigation

Our national ERISA and employee benefits litigation team has demonstrated experience in all aspects of benefits litigation, including complex class actions alleging breach of fiduciary duties, unilateral modification of retiree benefits for collectively bargained and salaried retirees, cash balance plan design flaws, failures to comply with severance pay and other employee welfare plans, early retirement incentive plan design flaws and violations, challenges to defined benefit plan terminations, failures to comply with COBRA and WARN, prohibited transactions, and other improper conduct resulting in precipitous stock value decreases or increases. Our national team has also successfully litigated claims involving reporting and disclosure issues, pension and welfare plan interpretation and benefit application, executive compensation, stock options, Taft-Hartley plans, and multiemployer plans.

We represent employers, plans, administrators and fiduciaries, including independent fiduciaries in courts at all levels, from state and district courts to the U.S. Supreme Court. We have defeated class certification, obtained summary judgment, and represented clients at trial in significant employee benefits matters. Many of our cases, which number in the hundreds, are regarded as leading cases in this area. We constantly strive to identify and respond to novel issues and legal theories to help avoid or successfully defend litigation. As a result of our early identification of revenue sharing as the “next wave” of litigation (following 401(k) employer stock drop cases), we now represent several plan sponsors and fiduciaries in class action litigation and regulatory investigations relating to 401(k) plan fee issues.