Practice Areas: Employee Benefits/Executive Compensation Litigation

Your company invests a great deal of resources in its employees. When one of them decides to sue the company, it’s not pleasant. When multiple employees bring a class action suit, it’s a potential crisis.

McGuireWoods is the ideal choice to help in these matters. We have a rare combination of ERISA expertise, nationwide reach, and litigation experience. We regularly defend employers and insurers against claims involving denial of retirement, health, life, disability, and severance benefits, alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, and alleged misrepresentations regarding benefits.

Lawyers on our benefits litigation team come from the firm’s labor and employment, employee benefits, and commercial litigation groups. Our litigation capabilities are enhanced by our broad ERISA, tax, and securities expertise and experience with retirement and welfare benefit plans, service contracts, and plan administration.

Our practice is national in scope. We have experienced benefits litigation attorneys in offices in major commercial centers such as New York, Chicago, Charlotte and Atlanta, as well as Washington D.C. and Richmond, and we can field a team to represent a client in any jurisdiction in the country.

The firm uses extensive resources and technology to stay current with recent legislative and regulatory developments affecting employee benefit plans. One of our partners is a member of the ABA Labor Section's Employee Benefits Committee, and several have been named among the "Best Lawyers in America."

Relevant Experience

McGuireWoods lawyers strive to end ERISA litigation at the earliest stage possible and have succeeded in numerous instances including the following:

• Summary judgment for a technology company against 56 former employees seeking severance benefits, statutory penalties, and damages for alleged § 510 discrimination.
• A successful motion to dismiss on a claim against a large chemical company for alleged violations of "rollover" plan distribution notice rules under 29 U.S.C. § 402(d), affirmed on appeal.
• Summary judgment on class action claims under ERISA for early retirement incentive benefits, breach of fiduciary duty, and claims for statutory penalties for failing to produce plan documents.
• Summary judgment on fiduciary breach claims in connection with annuity withdrawals and allegedly resulting tax losses.
• Summary judgment in a class action alleging breach of ERISA fiduciary duties with respect to change of control provisions in ESOP plan.