Benefits

  • August 28, 2024

    Teamsters Can't Arbitrate Sysco Pension Spat, Judge Says

    A Teamsters local can't take its challenges about a monthly early retirement benefit to arbitration, a Michigan federal judge determined Wednesday, finding that the grievance process under a collective bargaining agreement doesn't cover the dispute.

  • August 28, 2024

    Engineering Co. Says Overpriced 401(k) Fee Suit Lacks Proof

    An engineering company urged a Virginia federal judge to toss a former employee's proposed class action alleging it automatically enrolled workers into a pricey managed account program in its $5.1 billion retirement plan, arguing that her suit hinges on a problematic "apples-to-oranges comparison."

  • August 28, 2024

    11th Circ. Trans Health Redo May Spark Supreme Court Fight

    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision to rehear Georgia county officials' appeal seeking to exclude gender-confirmation surgery from its employee healthcare coverage rekindles an appellate debate on the extent to which Title VII protects transgender workers that could soon reach the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys say.

  • August 28, 2024

    'Big Baby' Scores Delayed Prison Date In Health Fraud Case

    Former Boston Celtics forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis won approval from a Manhattan federal judge Wednesday to push back his prison surrender date on healthcare fraud charges so he can wrap up production of a documentary film.

  • August 28, 2024

    Insurer Avoids Covering $1.9M Conn. Securities Judgment

    A Liberty Mutual unit has no duty to cover an approximately $1.9 million stipulated judgment a couple won after alleging that certain officials of a company Liberty insured defrauded them into investing, a Connecticut state court ruled, finding that covering the judgment would violate state public policy.

  • August 28, 2024

    Conn. Investment Firm Withheld Pay, Commissions, Suit Says

    Six former employees of Connecticut investment advisory firm Excel Wealth Management LLC have sued the company and its members in state court seeking hourly wages or commissions they claimed they were never paid, with some alleging they were terminated for speaking out about their compensation.  

  • August 28, 2024

    Class Attys Seek Review Of Del. Magistrate's Doc Suit Toss

    Stockholder attorneys probing Paramount Global's allegedly conflicted Skydance Media merger in Delaware's Chancery Court have challenged as unsupportable and unprecedented a magistrate's rejection of anonymously sourced news reports in a dismissal of their bid for court-ordered document access.

  • August 28, 2024

    Ga. Appeals Court Says Worker Should Get Pandemic Aid

    The Georgia Court of Appeals overturned a superior court order affirming the denial of pandemic unemployment assistance benefits to a college student who worked part-time at a Chick-fil-A, saying both the trial court and the Georgia Department of Labor's review board wrongly found he quit his job for personal reasons.

  • August 28, 2024

    Auto Parts Co. Secures Initial OK For $2.9M 401(k) Deal

    A Michigan federal judge gave an initial green light Wednesday to a $2.9 million agreement to resolve a class action accusing auto parts manufacturer Magna International of failing to remove flawed investment options from its retirement plan and costing workers millions of dollars in retirement savings.

  • August 28, 2024

    Conn. Dental Practices Settle False Claims Case For $1.7M

    Three dental practices in Connecticut and their owners have paid a $1.7 million settlement after federal and state authorities accused them of using an illegal patient recruiting tactic and paying kickbacks that ripped off Medicaid.

  • August 28, 2024

    DOL Backs IBM Retirees' Bid To Revive Suit At 2nd Circ.

    The U.S. Department of Labor urged the Second Circuit to revive a proposed class action alleging IBM shorted retirees on pension payments through the use of outdated mortality data, stating the lower court's ruling tossing the case "flies in the face" of U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • August 27, 2024

    'Big Baby' Asks To Wrap Documentary Before Going To Prison

    Former Boston Celtics forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis asked a Manhattan federal judge Tuesday to delay the start of his 40-month prison sentence for his role in a scheme to submit fraudulent invoices to an NBA healthcare plan in order to finish filming a documentary about his life.

  • August 27, 2024

    Deutsche Bank, Rabo Beat Antitrust Suit Over Euro Bonds

    A New York federal judge has tossed an antitrust suit against Deutsche Bank AG and Rabo Securities USA, alleging they conspired to fix the price of European government-issued euro-dominated bonds sold throughout the U.S. between 2005 and 2016, saying the plaintiffs lack standing.

  • August 27, 2024

    Bank Seeks To End Claims It Mismanaged Treasury Program

    A bank is seeking to permanently dismiss a suit accusing it of misleading an investor about its oversight of a U.S. Department of Treasury contract, saying despite amending its case three times, the investor hasn't connected any sustained stock loss to contract issues.

  • August 27, 2024

    Judges Upend Alaska Airlines Loss, Blame Jury Instruction

    A Washington state appeals court on Tuesday threw out a jury verdict granting an Alaska Airlines flight attendant workers' compensation for catching COVID-19 while away from home for her job, in an opinion that said a jury instruction misstated a legal doctrine covering traveling workers.

  • August 27, 2024

    AT&T Tells Justices 9th Circ. Erred In Reviving 401(k) Suit

    AT&T urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit ruling that upended its defeat of a class action alleging the company mismanaged its employee 401(k) plan, saying Tuesday the appeals court deepened a circuit split that threatens to cause chaos for plan administrators.

  • August 27, 2024

    Salesforce To Pay $1.35M To 50K-Plus ERISA Class

    Salesforce will pay $1.35 million to more than 50,000 employees who accused the company, its board and its investment committee of violating the Employee Income Retirement and Security Act by picking expensive investment options and underperforming funds, according to a preliminary approval motion filed in California federal court.

  • August 27, 2024

    Grocery Co. Appeals Union Pension Fund's Win To 7th Circ.

    A grocery retailer will appeal its Illinois federal court loss to the Seventh Circuit in a dispute over union pension fund withdrawal liability, after the court in July backed an arbitrator's decision that upheld the union's calculation of what was owed as compliant with federal benefits law.

  • August 27, 2024

    Travel Co. Inks $1.7M Deal To End 401(k) Mismanagement Suit

    A travel company has agreed to pay $1.7 million to end a Nevada federal lawsuit alleging it loaded down its workers' $370 million 401(k) plan with excessive recordkeeping fees and costly investment funds in violation of its fiduciary duties under federal benefits law.

  • August 27, 2024

    Hospital CEO Says President Lied About Co.'s Financial State

    The former CEO of a Nevada-based psychiatric hospital company claims the company's president knowingly transferred contracts to his own business so he could later claim the hospital company didn't have the money to honor the CEO's agreements, according to a lawsuit filed in Colorado federal court.

  • August 27, 2024

    11th Circ. Allows Fla. Law Banning Trans Care To Take Effect

    The Eleventh Circuit has said a Florida law can take effect that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors and restricts it for adults, granting the state's bid to scrap an injunction barring the law while it appeals a lower court ruling that found the statute unconstitutional.

  • August 27, 2024

    6th Circ. Reverses Geico's Win In Agents' Benefits Suit

    The Sixth Circuit upended Geico's win in a lawsuit from insurance agents accusing it of misclassifying them as independent contractors and forcing them to lose out on benefits, saying more evidence is needed to determine if the insurer relied on unauthentic documents to get the suit tossed.

  • August 27, 2024

    Vt. High Court Affirms Denial Of Benefits To Marijuana Patient

    The Vermont Supreme Court has affirmed an administrative law judge's decision not to issue a declaratory ruling whether off-duty medical cannabis use counts as misconduct for the purposes of terminating and denying benefits to a former transportation company employee.

  • August 26, 2024

    Banks' $20M Platinum Traders Antitrust Deal Gets Initial OK

    A New York federal judge preliminarily approved Saturday a $20 million deal to resolve a nearly decade-old putative class action alleging Goldman Sachs, German industrial company BASF and two other banks fixed platinum and palladium prices.

  • August 26, 2024

    Funds Say Norfolk Southern Can't Ditch Derailment Fraud Suit

    Pension funds have told a Georgia federal judge that they've laid out in exacting detail their allegations that Norfolk Southern eroded safety standards by embarking on risky cost-cutting moves and slashing its workforce, culminating in last year's fiery derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and ultimately backfiring on investors.

Expert Analysis

  • To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef

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    To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?

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    Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • Perspectives

    Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys

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    As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.

  • Series

    Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.

  • How Attys Can Avoid Pitfalls When Withdrawing From A Case

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    The Trump campaign's recent scuffle over its bid to replace its counsel in a pregnancy retaliation suit offers a chance to remind attorneys that many troubles inherent in withdrawing from a case can be mitigated or entirely avoided by communicating with clients openly and frequently, says Christopher Konneker at Orsinger Nelson.

  • Using A Children's Book Approach In Firm Marketing Content

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    From “The Giving Tree” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” most children’s books are easy to remember because they use simple words and numbers to tell stories with a human impact — a formula law firms should emulate in their marketing content to stay front of mind for potential clients, says Seema Desai Maglio at The Found Word.

  • Series

    Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.

  • How HHS Discrimination Rule Affects Gender-Affirming Care

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new final rule, which reinterprets the Affordable Care Act's anti-discrimination provision, greatly clarifies protections for gender-affirming care and will require compliance considerations from sponsors and administrators of most group health plans, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance

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    A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.

  • Series

    Teaching Yoga Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Being a yoga instructor has helped me develop my confidence and authenticity, as well as stress management and people skills — all of which have crossed over into my career as an attorney, says Laura Gongaware at Clyde & Co.

  • A Vision For Economic Clerkships In The Legal System

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    As courts handle increasingly complex damages analyses involving vast amounts of data, an economic clerkship program — integrating early-career economists into the judicial system — could improve legal outcomes and provide essential training to clerks, say Mona Birjandi at Data for Decisions and Matt Farber at Secretariat.

  • Asset Manager Exemption Shifts May Prove Too Burdensome

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    The U.S. Department of Labor’s recent change to a prohibited transaction exemption used by retirement plan asset managers introduces a host of new costs, burdens and risks to investment firms, from registration requirements to new transition periods, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • 7 Effects Of DOL Retirement Asset Manager Exemption Rule

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    The recent U.S. Department of Labor amendment to the retirement asset manager exemption delivers several key practical impacts, including the need for managers, as opposed to funds, to register with the DOL, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Kansas Workers' Comp. Updates Can Benefit Labor, Business

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    While the most significant shake-up from the April amendment to the Kansas Workers Compensation Act will likely be the increase in potential lifetime payouts for workers totally disabled on the job, other changes that streamline the hearing process will benefit both employees and companies, says Weston Mills at Gilson Daub.

  • Del. Ruling Highlights M&A Deal Adviser Conflict Disclosures

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    The Delaware Supreme Court recently reversed the Court of Chancery's dismissal of challenges to Nordic Capital's acquisition of Inovalon, demonstrating the importance of full disclosure of financial adviser conflicts when a going-private merger seeks business judgment rule review, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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