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Benefits
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March 26, 2025
Alerus Evades Challenge To $7.2M Employee Stock Plan Sale
A California federal judge cut employee stock ownership plan trustee Alerus Financial loose from a proposed class action brought by telecommunications company workers who claimed they got shortchanged when their shares were sold in a $7.2 million deal, saying they failed to connect Alerus to the sale.
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March 25, 2025
Ex-Masimo CEO Slams Bid To DQ His Hueston Hennigan Attys
Joe E. Kiani, founder and ex-CEO of Masimo Corp., has urged the Delaware Chancery Court to reject the medical technology company's bid to disqualify his attorneys from Hueston Hennigan LLP in its lawsuit over Kiani's quest for a $450 million payout, saying the request is being "weaponized for tactical gain."
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March 25, 2025
Amazon Slams 'Alternative Reading' Of ERISA In Worker Suit
Amazon on Monday urged a Washington federal court to throw out a worker's proposed class action alleging that Amazon used abandoned retirement plan funds to offset its own contributions, arguing that the suit's "alternative reading" of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act "flies in the face of" the well-established practice.
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March 25, 2025
Anthem Can't Escape Family's Mental Health Parity Claims
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield must face a Virginia family's claim that the company violated a federal benefits law by refusing to cover an adolescent girl's stay in a residential mental health facility, with a Virginia federal judge deeming the suit strong enough to survive a dismissal motion Tuesday.
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March 25, 2025
Industry Backs BlackRock Over States' 'Crippling' Coal Suit
Two leading financial industry groups are throwing their support behind BlackRock Inc. and two other asset managers fighting a state-backed antitrust suit over their coal company investments, with one group arguing that forcing the firms to divest would have "crippling effects" for tens of millions of American investors.
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March 25, 2025
Hershey Escapes Ex-Production Worker's Leave Bias Suit
Hershey defeated a former production operator's lawsuit claiming he was fired for taking time off to assist his wife with fertility treatments, a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled, saying there was nothing wrong with an internal investigation that found he was misusing the leave he'd been given.
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March 25, 2025
Media Cos. Want Docs Unsealed In X Workers' Layoff Suit
More than two dozen filings in a proposed class action alleging X unlawfully shorted laid-off workers on severance should be unveiled, several media companies told a Delaware federal court Tuesday in a bid to intervene in the case, arguing the public has a right to view those filings.
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March 25, 2025
Jenner & Block Latest BigLaw Firm Targeted In Trump Order
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at Jenner & Block LLP, suspending security clearances for its employees and taking other actions in response to the firm's pro bono work and a former partner's role as a top deputy to former special counsel Robert Mueller.
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March 25, 2025
Mich. Residents, Some Claims Cut From Frozen Benefits Case
A Michigan federal judge has slashed a union and claimants' lawsuit alleging the state's unemployment insurance agency improperly automatically denied or clawed back payments, finding that temporary COVID-19 pandemic assistance benefits are not constitutionally protected rights and the claimants received proper notice of an end to their benefits.
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March 25, 2025
Ogletree Hires Ex-Womble Bond Atty In Phoenix
Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC announced Monday that it has expanded its offerings in Arizona with the addition of a litigator from Womble Bond Dickinson.
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March 25, 2025
Hartford HealthCare Fights Disclosure Of Antitrust Settlement
Hartford HealthCare Corp. says it cannot be forced to reveal a confidential January antitrust settlement with another Connecticut hospital at the behest of a Teamsters health plan and a public transit agency separately accusing the consortium of creating a monopoly.
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March 24, 2025
UPS Retirees Call Co.'s Class Cert. Objections 'Baffling'
Retired UPS workers who say the logistics giant bilked them on their benefits payments urged a Georgia federal judge Friday to certify a proposed class of nearly 70,000 beneficiaries and ignore the company's calls to shoot down the certification bid over its allegedly faulty math.
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March 24, 2025
Chancery OKs Paramount Global Docs Suit For Interim Appeal
Citing unsettled issues covering the use of confidential sources and pre- or post-petition evidence in stockholder books and records cases, a Delaware vice chancellor on Monday asked Delaware's Supreme Court for mid-case review of a decision that revived a Paramount Global records demand suit.
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March 24, 2025
Wells Fargo Prescription Cost Suit Axed Over Standing
Wells Fargo has beaten back allegations that it violated federal benefits law by letting workers on its healthcare plan overpay for prescription drugs, with a Minnesota federal judge ruling Monday that the ex-workers behind the proposed class action lacked standing to sue.
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March 24, 2025
Prudential Settles Trauma Surgeon's Disability Benefits Suit
Prudential agreed to end a surgeon's lawsuit claiming the insurer unlawfully cut off her disability benefits after erroneously determining that she could return to work in a different capacity, according to a filing Monday in Texas federal court.
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March 24, 2025
NFL Blew Chance To Keep Atty Fees, Ex-Player Tells 5th Circ.
Former NFL player Michael Cloud, whose award of disability benefits by the league was reversed in 2023, told the Fifth Circuit that the league had forfeited its chance to reverse the awarding of attorney fees and should have its second attempt thrown out.
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March 24, 2025
Patients Say UBH Limits On Mental Health Violated ERISA
Employee health benefit plan participants who sought coverage for mental health and substance use disorder treatments from United Behavioral Health urged a California federal court to rule that the company violated federal benefits law by implementing overly restrictive guidelines, arguing the insurer's interest in narrowing coverage wrongly limited patients' access.
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March 24, 2025
Residents Rip Hospital Co.'s 'Scorched-Earth' Sanctions Bid
A proposed class of Connecticut residents pursuing antitrust claims against Hartford HealthCare Corp. slammed the company's bid to sanction them for seeking judicial enforcement of a document exchange deal the parties had reached, arguing that sanctions would only complicate discovery rather than help it along.
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March 24, 2025
Trump Asks High Court To Halt Fed. Workers' Reinstatement
The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to pause a California federal court order reinstating tens of thousands of probationary federal workers who were fired from six agencies, arguing the band of nonprofit groups that obtained the order have no standing to challenge the firings.
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March 21, 2025
2nd Circ. Affirms Union Funds' Early Win In Oil Co. Audit Fight
The Second Circuit affirmed Friday an early win for a group of Teamsters local union benefit funds in a dispute against a heating oil transportation company, backing a lower court's action to force compliance with the union local's audit of contributions for covered work by the company's truck drivers.
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March 21, 2025
How King & Spalding Helped LGBTQ+ Vets Win Back Benefits
More than a decade after the U.S. Department of Defense repealed its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which kept LGBTQ+ troops in the closet, veterans who were kicked out for their sexual orientation have continued to suffer the effects of a scarlet letter placed on their discharge papers.
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March 21, 2025
Aerospace Co. Workers' 401(k) Suit Lacks Details, Judge Says
An aerospace technology company dodged a proposed class action Friday alleging its employee retirement plan was loaded with costly and underperforming investment options, with a California federal judge finding the workers leading the suit needed to provide more information about supposedly comparable plans.
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March 21, 2025
Ƶ Says Comerica Trying To Forestall Agency Suit
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a Texas federal judge on Friday that Comerica Bank was merely trying to use a lawsuit against the agency to forestall an enforcement action over the bank's handling of a government benefit card program.
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March 21, 2025
Ex-Hess Worker Sees Some Claims Trimmed In 401(k) Suit
A Texas federal judge kept alive Friday a former Hess Corp. worker's suit claiming the business irresponsibly retained high-cost investment funds in its $1 billion 401(k) plan, but nixed some allegations based on flimsy assertions that similar but cheaper funds existed in the market.
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March 21, 2025
Religious Groups Say Reproductive Health Law Hinders Hiring
A Catholic diocese and anti-abortion pregnancy center claim a new Illinois law impedes religious employers' ability to hire people aligned with their missions, urging a federal court to halt the law, which prohibits employers from discriminating against workers because of their reproductive health decisions.
Expert Analysis
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Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity
The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.
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American Airlines ESG Ruling Could Alter ERISA Landscape
The Spence v. American Airlines ESG trial, speeding toward a conclusion in a Texas federal court, could foretell a dramatic expansion in ERISA liability, with plan sponsors vulnerable to claims that they didn't foresee short-term dips in stock prices, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: July Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers cases touching on pre- and post-conviction detainment conditions, communications with class representatives, when the American Pipe tolling doctrine stops applying to modified classes, and more.
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How To Comply With Chicago's New Paid Leave Ordinance
Chicago's new Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance went into effect earlier this month, so employers subject to the new rules should update leave policies, train supervisors and deliver notice as they seek compliance, say Alison Crane and Sarah Gasperini at Jackson Lewis.
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Dueling Calif. Rulings Offer Insight On 401(k) Forfeiture Suits
Two recent decisions from California federal courts regarding novel Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims around 401(k) forfeitures provide early tea leaves for companies that may face similar litigation, offering reasons for both optimism and concern over the future direction of the law, say Ashley Johnson and Jennafer Tryck at Gibson Dunn.
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Loss Causation Ruling Departs From Usual Securities Cases
A California federal court recently dismissed Ramos v. Comerica, finding that the allegations failed to establish loss causation, but the reasoning is in tension with the pleading-stage approaches generally followed by both courts and economists in securities fraud litigation, say Jesse Jensen and Aasiya Glover at Bernstein Litowitz.
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Opinion
Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism
As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Accidental Death Ruling Shows ERISA Review Standard's Pull
The Eleventh Circuit’s recent accidental death insurance ruling in Goldfarb v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance illustrates how an arbitrary and capricious standard of review in Employee Retirement Income Security Act denial-of-benefits cases creates a steep uphill battle for benefit claimants, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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50 Years Later, ERISA Remains A Work In Progress
A look at the 50 years since the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s passage shows that while the law safeguards benefits through vesting rules, fiduciary responsibilities and anti-discrimination provisions, the act falls short in three key areas, says Carol Buckmann at Cohen & Buckmann.
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Series
Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.
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1st Gender Care Ban Provides Context For High Court Case
The history of Arkansas' ban on gender-affirming medical care — the first such legislation in the U.S. — provides important insight into the far-reaching ramifications that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti next term will have on transgender healthcare, says Tyler Saenz at Baker Donelson.
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Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice
The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.