401(k) and 403(b) Plan Litigation: Recent Cases, Investment Offerings, Issues for Plan Sponsors and Fiduciaries

Mr. Bokert is co-chair of the firm's Benefits + Compensation Practice Group. His practice encompasses nearly all aspects of executive compensation and employee benefits, including matters related to equity plans, deferred compensation plans, phantom equity plans, qualified retirement plans and welfare plans. He has extensive experience in Section 409A and deferred compensation arrangements. He has extensive experience in counseling plan committees on their fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA.

With 17 years of experience as a labor and employment litigator with Seyfarth Shaw, Ms. Dolph is an advisor to clients in the airline, retail, healthcare and manufacturing industries. Her practice focuses on advice and counsel and innovative litigation involving complex procedural defenses, including preemption of state law claims under ERISA, Railway Labor Act, Airline Deregulation Act, Federal Aviation Act, and the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance Act (SGLIA); Article III and statutory standing; statute of limitations; and administrative exhaustion requirements, among others; Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) claims, prevailing as lead counsel in the first BIPA case to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; whistleblower claims under state law, AIR21, Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley; discrimination claims in state and federal jurisdictions across the country, including under Title VII, ADA, Section 1981, and the ADEA, and their state law counterparts, including systemic actions brought by the EEOC; ERISA single, multi-plaintiff and class action matters involving denial of health, disability, life, pension and 401(k) benefits, including defense of high profile “stock drop,” retiree medical and 401(k fee class actions.

Mr. Lempert has engaged in litigating several complex ERISA class actions, including cutting-edge legal cases asserting that many non-profit healthcare systems in the United States wrongfully claim their benefit plans are exempt from ERISA regulation under the church plan exemption and cases involving selection, retention, and monitoring of underperforming and expensive 401(k) plan investments by conflicted employers. Mr. Lempert has over 20 years of experience litigating complex commercial class actions on behalf of employees, retirees, and consumers in retiree benefits, employment, consumer protection, and antitrust matters.