Employee Benefits Litigation
Employee Benefits Litigation
Our Employee Benefits Litigation practice regularly represents and counsels both public and private clients, offering a wide range of litigation and advisory services related to retirement and other benefits-related plans and plan sponsors. This includes alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, benefit claims and disability retirement disputes, actuarial funding challenges, Public Records Act demands, open meeting law compliance demands, cybersecurity, insurance, and general contract matters—particularly those involving service providers to the plan. We have substantive experience in litigation involving the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL), the Public Employees’ Retirement Law (PERL), the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), and the statutory and Constitutional provisions governing other “independent” city, county, and special district retirement plans.
We understand the fiduciary challenges that the governing boards and/or committees of retirement and other benefit plans face in administering plans, as well as the challenges that plan sponsors face in designing and funding retirement plans. We collaborate with our employee benefits attorneys, who regularly provide fiduciary, governance, plan design, benefit claims, and tax advice regarding retirement plans and plan sponsors. Our thoughtful, practical, and nuanced legal advice often helps clients avoid litigation. But when disputes arise, our record speaks for itself, as we have successfully represented our clients in administrative proceedings, in federal and state courts, including published appellate decisions on novel and precedent-setting legal issues, and in mediations and arbitrations.
Key Contacts
News & Resources
CalPERS Can’t Apply Rule Limiting PERSability of Special Compensation To State Members, Court of Appeal Rules
Court of Appeal rules that CalPERS can’t apply rule limiting PERSability of special compensation to State members.
New California Court of Appeal Decision Upholds Decisions Made By County Retirement System During Great Recession
O’Neal v. StanCERA, et al. provides helpful guidance to public retirement boards about the considerations relevant to the discharge of their fiduciary duties.
California Supreme Court Upholds Pension Reform Changes As Constitutional
The California Supreme Court held that changes to pension plans made by California's pension reform legislation affecting employees hired prior to the effective date of that legislation met Contract Clause requirements and did not violate those employees' Constitutional rights.