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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

  • work Practice Area

    ERISA

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Wednesday, January 15, 2020

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE course will provide guidance to ERISA counsel on key issues in the application of employee releases in ERISA claims and litigation. The panel will discuss recent court cases applying and interpreting employee release provisions in employment and severance agreements, ERISA requirements and key challenges, fiduciary liability, and best practices for ERISA counsel and plan sponsors in enforcing employee releases.

Faculty

José M. Jara
Counsel
Fox Rothschild LLP

Mr. Jara has over 20 years of ERISA and employee benefits experience, ranging from governmental compliance, fiduciary liability insurance, to the application of ERISA’s fiduciary standards and prohibited transaction provisions. Mr. Jara has extensive experience resolving issues for corporate plan sponsors and multiemployer plans before the U.S. Department of Labor, where he was formerly a senior pension law specialist and investigator.

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Nancy B. Pridgen
Founding Member
Pridgen Bassett Law, LLC

Ms. Pridgen focuses her practice on employment litigation in the federal courts, and has handled, in some capacity, nearly every type of employment law matter that exists. She sub-specializes in ERISA litigation, and has litigated scores of ERISA benefits claims and fiduciary cases throughout the country.

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Description

Severance or settlement agreements often include employee releases to limit plan participants from pursuing ERISA claims against fiduciaries. ERISA counsel and plan sponsors must ensure that release provisions satisfy ERISA requirements and implement adequate procedures to enforce such provisions.

Generally, releases are enforceable if executed by the plaintiff knowingly and voluntarily based on a totality of circumstances of a variety of factors the courts take into account. With ERISA claims, counsel must consider whether or not benefits have vested, what applications are being waived, and if the claim is on behalf of the individual or the plan.

In Innis v. Bankers Trust Co. of South Dakota, the court entered summary judgment against the plaintiff because she signed a severance agreement and received severance pay and job-transition services, which barred her claims against the ESOP trustee based on the broad language of the release. However, under similar circumstances, the same claim could be pursued against a fiduciary by the benefit plan itself.

Overly broad or ambiguous language can cause a release to be unenforceable. ERISA counsel and plan sponsors must understand the strict requirements of release language in severance or settlement agreements and methods to enforce them to minimize claims.

Listen as our panel discusses critical factors considered by courts in the application of employee releases for ERISA claims and drafting effective provisions in severance agreements and similar documents, as well as offers litigation techniques in the enforcement of employee releases.

Outline

  1. Background and guidance for employee releases under ERISA
  2. Recent case law; Innis v. Bankers Trust Co. of South Dakota
  3. Drafting effective release language to limit claims
  4. Best fiduciary practices

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • What are the critical factors considered by a court in applying or interpreting the release of claims and arbitration language?
  • What are the provisions in plan documents and severance agreements that ERISA counsel and plan sponsors must consider?
  • What are the challenges under ERISA where employee releases or arbitration language are at issue?
  • What litigation tactics are available to fiduciaries when enforcing release or arbitration provisions?