Seyfarth Shaw Adds Labor & Employment Partner in San Francisco

Contact:
Kevin Livingston, National Director of Public Relations
(312) 460-6681 / (212) 218-5272, klivingston@seyfarth.com

Elisa Marks, Senior Public Relations Associate
(212) 218-5273, emarks@seyfarth.com

Experienced ERISA litigator D. Ward Kallstrom joins from Morgan Lewis

San Francisco, CA (January 10, 2011) — Adding to its deep California Labor & Employment practice, Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced that established ERISA and employee benefits lawyer D. Ward Kallstrom has joined the firm as a partner in the San Francisco office. He joins Seyfarth from Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.

Kallstrom focuses on ERISA and other employee benefit litigation, along with fiduciary counseling, and benefits and plan administration law. He represents employers, fiduciaries, insurance carriers, financial institutions, and third party administrators in preventing and defending ERISA and related employment law civil actions. 

He frequently works on matters involving ERISA preemption, compliance with ERISA’s fiduciary standards, retiree medical and life insurance benefits, and claim procedures. He has extensive knowledge of 401(k), profit sharing, cash balance and other defined benefit plans, ESOPs, Taft-Hartley trust funds and benefit plans, insured, trusteed, and self-funded health and welfare plans, COBRA arrangements, and severance pay plans.

Kallstrom, who was co-chair of Morgan Lewis’ ERISA litigation sub-practice group, has served as lead counsel on numerous class action ERISA fiduciary and benefit claims cases, many of them multi-state matters. He also authored and presented the first multiemployer 401(k) plan to receive a favorable IRS determination letter.

“As a premier practitioner in the country, Ward is a terrific addition to our practice – both nationally and in California,” said Lisa J. Damon, Chair of Seyfarth Shaw’s Labor & Employment Department. “He brings a thorough understanding of complex employment law and also strong experience in ERISA matters that will be an excellent complement to our work in the benefits area.”

Kallstrom is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and a Charter Fellow and former Governor of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. He also serves as a management member of the Council of the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association.

Kallstrom received his J.D. (with honors) from Duke University School of Law, where he was an editorial board member of the Duke Law Journal. He received his B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is admitted to practice in California.

“As one of the leading labor and employment practices in California, we welcome top-flight practitioners like Ward, who is highly accomplished in employment counseling and litigation. There is so much activity and new oversight in ERISA law that his arrival gives a tremendous boost to our West Coast practice,” said Nick C. Geannacopulos, Managing Partner of the firm’s San Francisco office.

“I’ve been watching Seyfarth Shaw’s steady growth into one of California’s leading labor practices,” said Kallstrom. “The firm’s dual platform in labor & employment and national litigation gives me a solid foundation to further build my practice.” 

In fact, Seyfarth has 130 Labor & Employment lawyers in California, the largest of any full-service law firm. Nationally, Seyfarth Shaw’s Labor & Employment Department consists of nearly 350 employment attorneys at all levels of experience, allowing seamless representation of the firm’s clients across jurisdictions. The firm’s labor and employment lawyers are organized to leverage their knowledge of specific industry experience and key workplace subspecialties.

Seyfarth Shaw’s San Francisco office opened in 1984 and has seen steady growth over the last few years. It is a full-service office and has lawyers with significant experience in labor and employment, international labor matters, real estate, litigation, government contracts, construction matters and bankruptcy.

Seyfarth Shaw has over 750 attorneys located in 10 offices throughout the United States, including: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Washington D.C., as well as internationally in London, U.K. and Brussels, Belgium. Seyfarth Shaw provides a broad range of legal services in the areas of labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, corporate, and real estate. The firm’s practice reflects virtually every industry and segment of the country’s business and social fabric. Clients include over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies, financial institutions, newspapers and other media, hotels, health care organizations, airlines and railroads. The firm also represents a number of federal, state and local governmental and educational entities. For more information, please visit www.seyfarth.com.