Share and Download ERISA Litigation
Key Contacts
Experience
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Defense of Recordkeepers
- Securing dismissal of ERISA breach of prudence claims against a recordkeeper on the grounds that the recordkeeper was not an ERISA fiduciary in connection with rollover advice to a plan participant. The court held that the recordkeeper’s affiliate did not render investment advice on a regular basis to the plan, viewing the advice to rollover to the managed account product as a single act.
- Representation of a leading financial services company in an action asserting a novel theory of “knowing participation” liability for alleged fiduciary violations by thousands of plan sponsors with respect to the cross-marketing of retail products and services to plan participants.
- Representation of recordkeeper in ERISA actions challenging execution time on plan transactions.
- Represented a leading financial services company in litigation challenging alleged waste of plan assets because of multiple mailings to plan participants.
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Defense of Plan Sponsors and Plan Fiduciaries
- Representation of a leading financial services company and recordkeeper, as well as its plan committee and individual members, in action alleging “self-dealing” and prohibited transactions with respect to the proprietary investments selected for, and recordkeeping fees paid by, the company’s retirement plan.
- Representation of plan sponsor regarding inclusion of company stock in the plan, recordkeeping fees, and use of forfeitures.
- Represented plan sponsors in actions alleging breaches of the duties of prudence and loyalty asserted by participants in ESOPs following a decline in the respective plan sponsor’s stock price.
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Defense of Investment Advisers
- Securing dismissal of ERISA breach of prudence and loyalty claims against the investment adviser to a Trust Fund that participated in securities lending. The court held that plaintiff, a defined contribution plan, lacked Article III standing because it had not suffered any actual injury.
- Represented a leading financial institution in class actions alleging violations of ERISA’s fiduciary duty and prohibited transaction provisions. Plaintiffs alleged that the financial institution took unreasonable and excessive compensation for providing securities lending services to its commingled investment trusts and failed to satisfy applicable exemptions promulgated by the Department of Labor.
- Representation of an investment adviser in action brought by putative class of retirement plan participants who alleged that the investment adviser negligently misrepresented the quality of its investment portfolio in regulatory filings and public statements, causing a drop in the investment adviser’s stock price and damages to the participants’ investments in the plan’s ESOP.
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Defense of Custodians
- Representation of a prominent financial company in action brought by plan participants on behalf of themselves and all similarly situated participants in ERISA plans for which the company served as the custodian of the plan assets, alleging that the custodian overcharged for certain categories of expense.