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Benefits
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October 04, 2024
Pool Equipment-Maker Sinks Shareholder Suit, For Now
A New Jersey federal judge Wednesday dismissed a proposed investor class action against pool supply company Hayward Holdings Inc. over claims that the company concealed it was struggling with ballooning inventory and lowered demand, saying the investors do not sufficiently explain why the alleged misstatements cited in the complaint are actionable.
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October 04, 2024
High Court Bar's Future: Jenner & Block's Adam Unikowsky
In many ways, Adam G. Unikowsky of Jenner & Block LLP has traveled a tried-and-true path — Harvard, elite clerkships, BigLaw — to the upper echelons of U.S. Supreme Court advocacy. But his route to the forefront of the bar's next generation has been less conventional than it might appear, and he spoke with Law360 about how he's climbed so high — and how he excels by avoiding rhetoric that "judges really, really hate."
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October 04, 2024
4 Benefits Appellate Arguments To Watch In October
The Fourth Circuit will consider a drugmaker's challenge to a West Virginia state law restricting access to the abortion drug mifepristone and Ohio pension funds are seeking to revive an investor class action at the Second Circuit, while the First and Ninth Circuits will take up executive compensation disputes. Here are four appellate arguments in October involving employee benefits that attorneys may want to keep on their radar.
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October 04, 2024
Up First At High Court: Civil Rights, Ghost Guns, Atty Fees
The U.S. Supreme Court reconvenes Monday to start a brand-new term, with the justices first hearing arguments related to prerequisites for litigating federal rights in state courts, ghost gun regulations, and whether a death row inmate is entitled to a new trial after a state admits that prosecutorial misconduct might have led to his conviction.
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October 04, 2024
Justices Take Up Cornell University Workers' ERISA Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear Cornell University employees' push to revive a class action alleging their retirement plan was mismanaged, giving the high court a chance to weigh in on the pleading standards for a prohibited transaction claim under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
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October 03, 2024
Texas Transgender Health Rule Suit Paused For Gov't Appeal
A Texas federal judge said he'd stay a lawsuit from Texas and Montana challenging new federal protections for transgender healthcare while the Biden administration appeals the court's July order freezing the new rule.
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October 03, 2024
Ex-Twitter Exec's Advice May Sink Bonus Suit Class Cert. Bid
A California federal judge on Thursday appeared flabbergasted that a former X Corp. executive seeking class certification in a suit over unpaid bonuses had previously advised Elon Musk against paying out the compensation, telling the former executive's lawyer, "I seriously wonder if perhaps you've put him in legal jeopardy."
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October 03, 2024
11th Circ. Rejects Bid To Block Fla. Law Banning Trans Care
The Eleventh Circuit said Thursday it would not reconsider a decision that allowed a Florida law that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors and restricts it for adults to take effect.
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October 03, 2024
3rd Circ. Upholds Insurer's Win In Construction Co. Wage Row
An insurer for a paving and construction company has no duty to defend it against two class actions accusing the company of underpaying its employees, the Third Circuit ruled Thursday, finding an exclusion barring coverage for "wage and hour violations" is applicable.
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October 03, 2024
3rd Circ. Backs Added Payout For Late Royal Bank CEO
The Third Circuit on Thursday backed a lower court's decision that Royal Bank of America's retirement plan must add another $368,000 onto the roughly $4 million lump-sum payment already given to the financial institution's late former chief executive officer, calling the plan's arguments it need not pay that amount "nonsensical."
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October 03, 2024
4th Circ. Orders Damages Redo In Metal Worker Benefits Fight
The Fourth Circuit ruled Thursday that a Maryland-based sheet metal manufacturer violated federal benefits law by underpaying contributions it owed to a group of union benefit plans, but said a trial court needs to take another shot at calculating damages.
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October 03, 2024
12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar
One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.
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October 03, 2024
Okla. Campus Police Officer Gets Trial In Age Bias Suit
An Oklahoma federal judge on Thursday teed up for trial a former campus police officer's claims alleging a school district refused to rehire him because he was 65 and had lodged complaints about a superior, but threw out his allegation that he was deprived of his due process rights.
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October 03, 2024
Texas Takes Aim At Insulin Manufacturers For Price-Gouging
Texas sued several major insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers in Texas state court on Thursday, accusing the companies of running quid pro quo deals to bump insulin prices by as much as 1,000% and violating Texas laws around deceptive trade practices.
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October 03, 2024
Sens. Question If Payouts Taint Execs' Push For US Steel Deal
Two U.S. senators wrote to U.S. Steel's president and CEO on Wednesday seeking guarantees that a $72 million "golden parachute" deal wasn't driving the executive's willingness to support a $14.1 billion merger with Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel.
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October 03, 2024
Jones Day Parental Leave Bias Claims Must Go To Jury
Jones Day will have to defend its family leave policy at trial against claims from married ex-associates who say it is discriminatory and violates District of Columbia law, a D.C. federal judge said Thursday in concluding such bias allegations were a close call.
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October 03, 2024
American Airlines Uses Outdated Mortality Data, Retiree Says
American Airlines used decades-old mortality data and interest rates to calculate retirees' pension payments, collectively costing them millions of dollars in retirement benefits, a former employee has told an Illinois federal court.
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October 03, 2024
Chancery Tosses Barry Diller From Match.com Class Suit
Media mogul Barry Diller escaped for a second time a Delaware Court of Chancery stockholder challenge to Match.com's $30 billion reverse spinoff from IAC Interactive, in a post-U.S. Supreme Court remand decision that also kept alive related, previously dismissed claims against five allegedly Diller-loyal "dual fiduciaries."
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October 03, 2024
Citgo Will Increase Pensions $10M To End Mortality Table Suit
Citgo will increase the value of pensioners' retirements by $10 million to settle a class action alleging it shorted early retirement payouts by basing the allowances on outdated mortality tables that used data from the 1970s, according to filings in Illinois federal court.
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October 02, 2024
EXp Investors Accuse Execs Of Ignoring Sex Assault Culture
Shareholders of eXp World Holdings Inc. have hit the real estate brokerage company's top-brass with a derivative lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court Wednesday, claiming they intentionally ignored repeated reports that its top "influencers" were drugging and sexually assaulting real estate agents at company events, thereby exposing the company to millions in liabilities.
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October 02, 2024
Ex-PBM Worker Says He Bribed Co-Workers In $160M Fraud
A former employee of a pharmacy benefit manager told a Texas federal jury on Wednesday that he accepted more than $180,000 in bribes over five years from a Houston man accused of running a multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud, testifying that he would often accept money to bribe his co-workers with.
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October 02, 2024
10th Circ. Affirms Microsoft, Premera Tab For ERISA Violations
The Tenth Circuit upheld a six-figure award for a family that claimed Microsoft and Premera Blue Cross unlawfully refused to cover their son's stay at a residential treatment center, but struck down the family's trial court win on their mental health parity claim.
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October 02, 2024
Class Cert. In Bonus Suit Against X On The Verge Of Failure
A California federal judge appeared inclined to deny a former X Corp. employee's class certification bid in his suit claiming the social media platform failed to pay promised bonuses after Elon Musk took over, urging the parties to tackle whether a renewed motion is necessary.
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October 02, 2024
Nvidia Inks Deal In 401(k) Mismanagement Suit
Nvidia struck a deal with a group of former employees to end a proposed class action in California federal court alleging the technology company shirked federal benefits law by failing to decrease recordkeeping fees and investment costs in its $1 billion 401(k) plan.
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October 01, 2024
Convicted CEO Narrows Fee Bid Against Conn. Utility Co-Op
A former Connecticut utility CEO has dropped some attorney fee claims against his onetime employer following a jury conviction for stealing public funds, telling a federal judge on Tuesday to focus on a bid for fees should prosecutors choose to litigate a second indictment.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State
On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.
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How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts
As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.
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2nd Circ. ERISA Ruling May Help Fight Unfair Arb. Clauses
The Second Circuit recently held that a plaintiff seeking planwide relief under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act cannot be compelled to individual arbitration, a decision that opens the door to new applications of the effective vindication doctrine to defeat onerous and one-sided arbitration clauses, say Raphael Janove and Liana Vitale at Janove.
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Series
Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.
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Opinion
Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron
The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.
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3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron
The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.