Navigating Pension Risk Transfer Challenges and Claims: Recent Cases, Article III Standing, Fiduciary Standards, and More

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.

Ms. Kohn is a partner in the firm’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation group. She counsels small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, individual owners, boards of directors, unsecured creditors’ committees and plan sponsors on qualified and nonqualified retirement plans, multiemployer (union) plans and health plans with a specific focus on bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions and corporate planning. Ms. Kohn assists her clients in finding practical and valuable solutions regarding plan mergers and spinoffs, plan de-risking transactions, plan terminations, plan corrections, overfunded plans and corporate transactions and reorganizations involving retirement and health plans. She also counsels her clients on matters related to multiemployer plan issues, including withdrawal liability and benefits litigation. Ms. Kohn advises private funds and benefit plan investors on ERISA compliance issues, particularly with regard to disclosure, plan investment issues and negotiations.

Ms. Reagan concentrates her practice in the area of employee benefits, with a focus on ERISA litigation. She represents plan sponsors, trustees, and other fiduciaries in a wide range of employee benefits cases, including 401(k) class action litigation, claims for medical, disability, and pension benefits, and cases involving executive compensation. In addition to her litigation practice, Ms. Reagan counsels clients on a variety of matters, including fiduciary responsibility and regulatory compliance. She also represents plan fiduciaries in Department of Labor investigations.