As employee benefit plans have come to be an increasingly important part of our nation’s economy, the number of lawsuits claiming violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), has multiplied. We have defended – and won – numerous ERISA lawsuits at both the trial and appellate levels, as well as in administrative and arbitral proceedings. Our clients in these matters have included insurers, employers, service-providers, bank trustees, and other plan fiduciaries.
Our ERISA litigation work includes defending individual claims for plan benefits, defending claims for breach of fiduciary duty, litigating ERISA claims in a bankruptcy context, and counseling clients on avoiding ERISA litigation. We have litigated against the Department of Labor numerous times and have tried and won cases involving stock values and fiduciary duties.
Our ERISA litigation practice handles all types of benefit disputes, from individual claims for long term disability benefits, severance benefits, medical benefits, and death benefits, to the most complex, high-exposure class action claims.
We defend these lawsuits by combining substantive knowledge of employee benefits law (and the overlapping fields of labor, employment, securities, health care, and insurance law) with the litigation skills of class action litigators and experienced trial lawyers. In each case, we can field a multi-disciplinary team with the expertise needed to achieve the optimal result. Our experienced ERISA trial lawyers draw regularly on the substantive knowledge and background of lawyers in our Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation, Banks and Financial Services, Tax, and Labor and Employment Practice Groups.