Employee Benefits and ERISA

Orrick lawyers evaluate and counsel clients on withdrawal liability exposure in multiemployer pension plans and on the effects of asset sales and corporate transactions on potential withdrawal liability. We also arbitrate disputes concerning withdrawal liability assessments and litigate a broad range of ERISA issues, including multi-plaintiff denial of benefit claim enforcement actions. We obtain administrative exemptions from the ERISA-prohibited transaction restrictions, counsel concerning issued raised by under-funded pension plans, and develop procedures for allocating fiduciary responsibilities under employee benefit programs.

Examples of our representations include the following cases:

• Abitibi Consolidated. Orrick lawyers have represented this Canadian-based company, the world’s largest manufacturer of newsprint, for the past ten years. In one case, we successfully defended Abitibi against a claim of breaches of fiduciary duty in connection with an investment of a 401K plan under ERISA.
• Gender Discrimination Benefits Action. We successfully handled a discrimination case for a telecommunications company faced with an action regarding its benefits policy, which gave same-sex domestic partners medical benefits. The plaintiff (an unmarried male employee who cohabited with a female domestic partner) alleged that the program discriminated against opposite-sex, unmarried couples who were denied benefits.
• Guidant Corp. Orrick obtained dismissal of ERISA-based claims for breach of fiduciary duty on summary judgment.
• Merrill Lynch. Orrick represents Merrill Lynch in ERISA-based claims concerning disability and other benefits programs.