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Benefits
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April 21, 2025
DOL Tells 5th Circ. It May Rescind Biden-Era ESG Rule
The U.S. Department of Labor told the Fifth Circuit on Monday it's considering rescinding a Biden-era rule allowing retirement fiduciaries to consider issues like climate change and social justice when choosing investments, according to filings in a suit challenging the rule from conservative states and energy companies.
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April 21, 2025
AG Accuses NJ Luxury Tower Contractors Of Labor Violations
New Jersey's attorney general on Monday announced a lawsuit against a general contractor and a group of subcontractors for shorting workers on wages and benefits during the construction of a Jersey City luxury high-rise.
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April 21, 2025
Trucking Co. Still Owes Most Of $10M Pension Bill, Court Told
A Michigan-based trucking company has stopped making payments toward a $10 million bill owed to a Teamsters pension fund after partially withdrawing from the plan, the fund said in a complaint filed Monday in Illinois federal court.
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April 21, 2025
X Gets Arbitral Awards Booted From Workers' Severance Case
The arbitration awards a group of X workers tried to present to a Delaware federal court don't add anything to their suit claiming the social media platform owes them additional severance payments, the court ruled, striking them from the docket.
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April 21, 2025
Unions Score Block On Orders To Fire Probationary Workers
A California federal judge blocked the Office of Personnel Management from ordering federal agencies to fire probationary employees and stopped several agencies from heeding its directives, but he declined to order them to rehire the workers they've already let go.
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April 21, 2025
Justices Mull 5th Circ. Redo In ACA Preventive Care Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared skeptical of a Fifth Circuit ruling that found members of a task force setting preventive services coverage requirements under the Affordable Care Act were unconstitutionally appointed, with multiple justices suggesting kicking the case back down to the circuit court for additional arguments.
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April 21, 2025
High Court Wants SG's Input On Home Depot ERISA Case
The nation's highest court asked the U.S. solicitor general Monday to opine on whether it should hear a retirement plan mismanagement case from Home Depot workers who say the Eleventh Circuit wrongly required them to link financial losses to alleged breaches of fiduciary duty.
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April 19, 2025
Up Next At High Court: Preventive Healthcare, LGBTQ Books
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in five cases this week, including disputes over the constitutionality of a task force that sets preventive healthcare coverage requirements, a school district's introduction of LGBTQ-themed storybooks and whether parties can establish standing based on harms affecting third parties.Â
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April 18, 2025
High Court's Cornell Ruling Eases Path For ERISA Suits
The U.S. Supreme Court's revival of Cornell University workers' class action alleging excessive retirement plan fees will likely spur a rise in lawsuits zeroing in on employers' arrangements with recordkeepers and other service providers, and could make those cases tougher to knock out of court, attorneys say.
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April 18, 2025
Whole Foods Strikes Deal In Sweeping 401(k) Fee Suit
Whole Foods reached an agreement to end a class action alleging its failure to keep its 401(k) plan's administrative fees in check cost a class of roughly 97,000 workers millions of dollars in retirement savings, the Amazon-owned grocer told a Texas federal court.
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April 18, 2025
'Bizarre' Santos Posts Show He's Still 'Unrepentant,' Feds Say
Prosecutors told a Brooklyn federal judge that former U.S. Rep. George Santos' social media activity shows that he's "unrepentant" for his admitted crimes, reiterating their request for a prison sentence of more than seven years.
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April 18, 2025
PBMs Press 8th Circ. Bid To Pause FTC Case
The nation's "Big Three" pharmacy benefit managers are asking the Eighth Circuit to pause the Federal Trade Commission's in-house insulin price-fixing case against them, saying that their constitutional challenge to the commission's administrative proceeding process should be fully heard before the in-house case moves forward.
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April 18, 2025
Buchanan Ingersoll Faces DQ Bid Over Former GC's Role
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC attorneys defending Amerilife should be disqualified for allegedly running "roughshod" over ethical rules by using a former general counsel of a retirement planning agency to gain an upper hand in a dispute in a Florida federal court, according to a bid to boot the firm from the case.
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April 18, 2025
Mass General Inks $8.25M Deal To End Retirement Fee Suit
Boston-based healthcare system Mass General Brigham Inc. agreed to pay $8.25 million to settle a proposed class action alleging it unlawfully allowed its employee retirement plan to pay excessive administrative fees, according to a filing in Massachusetts federal court.
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April 17, 2025
Judge Warns Rocket Cos. Investor: Seek Cert. At 'Own Peril'
A Michigan federal judge on Thursday said a pension fund trying to take over as lead plaintiff in a suit against mortgage business Rocket Companies Inc. does not need the court's permission to file a renewed class certification motion, but it "does so at its own peril."
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April 17, 2025
Arkansas Bans PBMs From Owning Pharmacies
Pharmacy benefit managers operating in Arkansas will soon be prohibited from owning pharmacies in the state after Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill that lawmakers say is meant to minimize conflicts of interest and safeguard patients.
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April 17, 2025
Carlton Fields Adds Eversheds Retirement Atty To DC Team
Carlton Fields has hired a longtime Eversheds Sutherland financial services partner, according to an announcement Wednesday, who is bringing a practice focused on ensuring clients comply with retirement plan laws and their fiduciary duties.
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April 17, 2025
Akerman Sues To Block Malpractice Claim, Secure $750K Fees
Akerman LLP sued the healthcare services company Rennova Health Inc. and three medical laboratories in Florida state court this week, alleging that they owe the firm about $750,000 in unpaid fees and are now threatening to sue the firm for malpractice even though they have already released any claims.
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April 17, 2025
Justices Revive Cornell Workers' ERISA Fee Suit
The U.S. Supreme Court revived a class action Thursday from Cornell University workers who said their retirement plans were saddled with excessive fees, finding the Second Circuit shouldn't have nixed their claim that the plans' arrangements with recordkeepers violated federal benefits law.
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April 16, 2025
Southwest Moves Union's Sick Leave Fight To Federal Court
Southwest Airlines has moved a union lawsuit challenging its sick leave settlement with the state of Colorado to federal court, after the union amended its complaint to add a proposed class of flight attendants also challenging the deal.
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April 16, 2025
Computer Equipment Co. Wants Suit Over Sales Decline Axed
Cloud network equipment company Extreme Networks Inc. has asked a federal judge in California to toss a lawsuit alleging it misled investors about its financial prospects and declining client demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing the existence of undisclosed information, by itself, is not misleading.
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April 16, 2025
Koch, Chicken Buyers Spar Over $75M Deal Challenge
Restaurants challenging $75 million in settlements inked in the broiler chicken price-fixing litigation with Koch Foods Inc. and House of Raeford Farms Inc. told the Seventh Circuit the appeal should succeed because it includes more detail than a recently rejected challenge of a smaller deal with Simmons Foods Inc.
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April 16, 2025
Workers Hit Fast-Food Co. With Nicotine Fee Suit
The parent company of popular fast-food chains Arby's, Sonic and Dunkin' has been hit with a proposed class action from workers alleging that the company's fee on the health plans of employees who self-disclosed using nicotine violated federal benefits law.
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April 16, 2025
IRS Owes Worker A Refund On 401(k) Loan, Suit Says
The IRS is refusing to send money back to a worker who said a paid-off 401(k) loan was mistakenly counted as income in his tax return, according to a suit filed in Missouri federal court.
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April 16, 2025
Pa. Judge Cuts Atty Fees To $950K In ERISA Deal Final OK
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that counsel representing two union elevator industry workers should be awarded $950,000 in legal fees, down from the attorneys' initial request of $1.7 million for settling a nearly 30,000-member class action over the management of a union 401(k) plan.
Expert Analysis
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Missouri Injunction A Setback For State Anti-ESG Rules
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.
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How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations
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.
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Employers Should Not Neglect Paid Military Leave Compliance
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.
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Opinion
Congress Must Do More To Bolster ERISA Protections
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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How Fund Advisers Can Limit Election Year Pay-To-Play Risks
With Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz now the Democratic candidate for vice president, politically active investment advisers should take practical steps to avoid triggering strict pay-to-play rules that can lead to fund managers facing mutli-year timeouts from working with public funds after contributing to sitting officials, say attorneys at Dechert.
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Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles
Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.
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How NJ Temp Equal Pay Survived A Constitutional Challenge
The Third Circuit recently gave the New Jersey Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights a new lease on life by systematically dismantling multiple theories of the act's unconstitutionality brought by staffing agencies hoping to delay their new equal pay and benefits obligations, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.
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6th Circ. Ruling Highlights Complexity Of ERISA Preemption
The Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in Standard Insurance v. Guy — that the defendant couldn't collect his mother’s life insurance after being convicted of murdering his parents — illustrates how courts must engage in mental gymnastics to avoid the broad reach of Employee Retirement Income Security Act preemption, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond
As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.
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Series
Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer
My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.
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How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'
Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process
Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.
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What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires
Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: August Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers certification cases touching on classwide evidence of injury from debt collection practices, defining coupon settlements under the Class Action Fairness Act, proper approaches for evaluating attorney fee awards in class action settlements, and more.