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Benefits

  • May 21, 2025

    FTC Urges 8th Circ. Not To Pause In-House PBM Case

    The Eighth Circuit should once again say no to a request to pause the Federal Trade Commission's in-house case accusing three pharmacy benefit managers of hiking up the price of insulin to line their own pockets, the agency has told the appellate court.

  • May 21, 2025

    House Panel Advances Bills Easing Securities, Banking Regs

    The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee this week approved 25 bills largely aimed at reducing capital markets and banking regulations, moving the deregulatory proposals forward for consideration by the full House.

  • May 21, 2025

    6th Circ. Revives Yacht Co.'s ERISA Health Fee Claims

    The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday revived a Michigan yacht company's federal benefits lawsuit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, holding that a lower court wrongly tossed allegations that excessive healthcare fees breached fiduciary duties and caused prohibited transactions.

  • May 21, 2025

    Monster Beverage Fails In Bid To Nix Workers' 401(k) Fee Suit

    Monster Beverage can't escape a proposed class action alleging it allowed its employee 401(k) plan to be saddled with unreasonable recordkeeping costs and took excessive amounts from the plan to pad an Employee Retirement Income Security Act benefit account to treat it as a slush fund, a California federal judge has ruled. 

  • May 21, 2025

    Court Won't Revive Mental Health Class Suit Against Fla. Blue

    A Florida appeals court Wednesday declined to revive a proposed class suit by state employees enrolled in a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida healthcare plan alleging the insurer designed a claims process to obstruct approval and payment of claims for mental health care.

  • May 21, 2025

    Energy Co. Beats Retiree's Suit Over Pension Calculations

    A Florida federal judge tossed a retiree's suit claiming an energy company violated federal benefits law by failing to warn pension plan members that rising interest rates would reduce their lump sum payments, ruling the ex-worker is improperly asking the business to act as an advisor, not a fiduciary.

  • May 21, 2025

    Food Distribution Co. Must Face Tobacco Surcharge Suit

    Food distributor Performance Food Group must face a proposed class action claiming it unlawfully overcharged tobacco users hundreds of dollars for health benefits, with a Virginia federal judge ruling workers sufficiently alleged the company breached its responsibilities under federal benefits law.

  • May 20, 2025

    Trump Admin Rationale For HHS Firings Challenged By Judge

    A Rhode Island federal judge expressed skepticism Tuesday about the Trump administration's assertion that mass firings at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were lawful and intended to improve national health, saying during a preliminary injunction hearing that nothing in the record demonstrates "thoughtful work" behind these decisions.

  • May 20, 2025

    Cigna Accused Of Mismanaging Retirement Plan Funds

    Cigna has been unlawfully putting its own interests above those of a 401(k) plan's participants by using forfeited plan funds to reduce company contributions, despite experiencing "significant financial performance," a putative class action filed Tuesday in Pennsylvania federal court alleges.

  • May 20, 2025

    4th Circ. Won't Revive Md. Retirees' Drug Benefits Case

    The Fourth Circuit backed Maryland's defeat of a proposed class action alleging it broke promises made to retirees when it transitioned their prescription drug benefits to Medicare Part D, saying Tuesday that a lower court was right to toss the case.

  • May 20, 2025

    J&J Workers Reassert Drug Costs Resulted In Concrete Harm

    Johnson & Johnson workers are urging a New Jersey federal court to maintain their proposed class claims that the company botched the management of prescription drug costs in its employee healthcare plan by allowing excessive pharmacy costs, asserting that company mismanagement resulted in concrete harm.

  • May 20, 2025

    Ex-Worker Accuses TIAA Of Mismanaging 401(k) Plans

    An ex-worker accused the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America of violating federal benefits law by keeping costly and underperforming fund offerings in its two employee 401(k) retirement plans, in a proposed class action lodged Tuesday in New York federal court.

  • May 20, 2025

    Awardco Nabs $1B Valuation After $165M Equity Infusion

    Goodwin Procter LLP-led Awardco, an employee rewards and recognition software company, announced Tuesday it hit a $1 billion valuation after scoring a $165 million minority investment from two private equity firms. 

  • May 20, 2025

    Indirect Chicken Buyers' Attys Seek Additional $12M In Fees

    Attorneys for commercial and institutional indirect purchaser plaintiffs in sprawling antitrust litigation against the nation's top poultry producers asked an Illinois federal judge Monday to approve roughly $12 million in additional attorney fees after they secured more than $41 million in additional deals since a prior fee motion.

  • May 20, 2025

    Nursing Homes Facing 'Corporate Death Penalty' Owe $15.4M

    The companies behind two Pittsburgh-area nursing homes convicted of falsifying staffing records were ordered Tuesday to pay a total of $15.35 million in restitution to the federal government, though the corporations' attorney told the judge that they had already received a "corporate death penalty" for their conviction.

  • May 20, 2025

    Veterans Seek Certification For VA Consultant Fee Claims

    A proposed class of veterans urged a North Carolina federal judge to certify their claims against a consulting firm they allege charged them millions in illegal fees, arguing that the individual claims of thousands all hinge on a single statutory interpretation.

  • May 19, 2025

    Vanguard $40M Deal Rejected In Investors' Tax Fight

    A Pennsylvania federal judge on Monday rejected a $40 million proposed settlement between Vanguard and investors, blocking the investors' attorneys from netting $13 million in fees and embracing the objections of one investor who called out the deal — meant to compensate for surprise tax bills — as worthless. 

  • May 19, 2025

    Wells Fargo's 9th Circ. Cert. Challenge Gains SIFMA Backing

    A top securities industry group has voiced its support of Wells Fargo's appeal of class certification in an investor dispute alleging the bank conducted "sham" interviews to meet diversity quotas, which harmed the bank's stock price when the truth came to light.

  • May 19, 2025

    Electric, Nuclear Valve Co. Escape Pension Dispute

    A federally owned electric company and a contractor were not required to make pension fund contributions to a plumbers and steamfitters union because the contracted valve work was an exempt specialty contract, a Tennessee federal judge ruled in a lawsuit Monday.

  • May 19, 2025

    Conn. Con Man Admits To New $1.9M Medicaid Scam

    A Connecticut man has admitted to a federal charge in connection with a Medicaid scam he ran with a now-former state employee that netted nearly $1.9 million, federal prosecutors said, noting that some of the criminal activity took place while he was in prison for a different healthcare ripoff.

  • May 19, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Family's Win In Suit Over Denied Benefits

    The Ninth Circuit declined to upend a guild member's win in his lawsuit challenging his healthcare plan's decision to deny coverage for his son's mental health treatments, but said a lower court was wrong to award the family additional damages on their breach of fiduciary duty claim.

  • May 19, 2025

    Coast Guard Told To Revisit Forced Retirees' Service Dates

    The U.S. Coast Guard can't retroactively apply a policy to speculate that a class of 200-plus service members who were involuntarily retired through an unlawful process would have been involuntarily retired anyway, a Court of Federal Claims judge said Friday.

  • May 19, 2025

    Atty Says Texas Firm Fired Her For Taking Protected Leave

    A former associate at a prominent Texas personal injury firm who claims she was fired after she took medical leave for a disabling eye condition and bereavement leave upon her mother's death has brought a disability discrimination suit against the firm and associated entities in federal court in Houston.

  • May 19, 2025

    X Failed To Pay Promised Severance, Ex-Workers Say

    X, the company formerly known as Twitter, illegally reneged on its promise to keep in place its policy to provide certain severance payments to terminated employees after Elon Musk took over the social media company, a lawsuit filed in Washington federal court said.

  • May 19, 2025

    Ex-Litigator Settles Disability Bias Suit Against Wilson Elser

    A former Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP litigator on Monday agreed to permanently drop his federal disability bias suit against the firm, after the sides came to a confidential resolution.

Expert Analysis

  • Plan Sponsors Must Prep For New Mental Health, Drug Rules

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    To comply with newly published health insurance rules requiring parity between access to mental health and substance use services compared to medical and surgical services, employers with self-insured plans will need to update third-party administrator agreements and collect data, among other compliance steps, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

  • How Cos. Can Protect Supply Chains During The Port Strike

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    With dock workers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts launching a strike that will likely cause severe supply chain disruptions, there are several steps exporters and importers can take to protect their businesses and mitigate increased costs, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • FTC Focus: How Scrutiny Of PBMs And Insulin May Play Out

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    Should Express Scripts' recent judicial challenge to the Federal Trade Commission succeed, any new targets could add litigation and choice of forum to their playbooks, and potential FTC court action on insulin could be forced to parallel venues as the issues between the commission and PBMs evolve, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • Series

    Round-Canopy Parachuting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Similar to the practice of law, jumping from an in-flight airplane with nothing but training and a few yards of parachute silk is a demanding and stressful endeavor, and the experience has bolstered my legal practice by enhancing my focus, teamwork skills and sense of perspective, says Thomas Salerno at Stinson.

  • SEC Settlement Holds Important Pay-To-Play Lessons

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent fine of an investment adviser, whose new hire made a campaign contribution within a crucial lookback period, is a seasonable reminder for public fund managers to ensure their processes thoroughly screen all associates for even minor violations of the SEC’s strict pay-to-play rule, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Why Now Is The Time For Law Firms To Hire Lateral Partners

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    Partner and associate mobility data from the second quarter of this year suggest that there's never been a better time in recent years for law firms to hire lateral candidates, particularly experienced partners — though this necessitates an understanding of potential red flags, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Considering Possible PR Risks Of Certain Legal Tactics

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    Disney and American Airlines recently abandoned certain litigation tactics in two lawsuits after fierce public backlash, illustrating why corporate counsel should consider the reputational implications of any legal strategy and partner with their communications teams to preempt public relations concerns, says Chris Gidez at G7 Reputation Advisory.

  • It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers

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    Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.

  • Basics Of Collective Bargaining Law In Principle And Practice

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    Rebecca Bernhard and Jennifer Service at Barnes & Thornburg discuss the nuts and bolts of what the National Labor Relations Act requires of employers during collective bargaining, and translate these obligations into practical steps that will help companies prepare for, and succeed during, the negotiation process.

  • Missouri Injunction A Setback For State Anti-ESG Rules

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    A Missouri federal court’s recent order enjoining the state’s anti-ESG rules comes amid actions by state legislatures to revise or invalidate similar legislation imposing disclosure and consent requirements around environmental, social and governance investing, and could be a blueprint for future challenges, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • Employers Should Not Neglect Paid Military Leave Compliance

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    An August decision from the Ninth Circuit and the settlement of a long-running class action, both examining paid leave requirements under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, are part of a nationwide trend that should prompt employers to review their military leave policies to avoid potential litigation and reputational damage, says Bradford Kelley at Littler.

  • Opinion

    Congress Must Do More To Bolster ERISA Protections

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    As the Employee Retirement Income Security Act turns 50 this month, we applaud Congress for championing a statute that protects worker and retiree rights, but further action is needed to ban arbitration clauses in plan provisions and codify regulations imperiled by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Chevron ruling, say Michelle Yau and Eleanor Frisch at Cohen Milstein.

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