ERISA Litigation

Spencer Fane has represented employers, fiduciaries, trustees, and other employee benefits service providers in litigation involving benefit plans since before the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). From routine disputes involving claims for benefits to complex, class-action employer stock cases, our ERISA Litigation Practice Group provides local, regional, and national clients sophisticated representation in a cost-effective manner.

Experienced ERISA Litigators

Many firms have one or two attorneys with ERISA experience. Spencer Fane has a dedicated ERISA Litigation Practice Group consisting of eight attorneys whose practice is focused on this complicated area of the law. Our nationally-recognized expertise and substantial experience enable us to bring concentrated resources and practical considerations to bear for our clients. The result is superior outcomes at a lower cost.

Team Approach

Our ERISA Litigation Group uses a “team” approach. On each case, ERISA litigators partner with members of the firm’s Employee Benefits Practice Group, who provide ERISA and tax advice to benefit plan sponsors. Working together, we are able to identify and take advantage of claims and defenses that are hidden within the minutiae of ERISA and the Tax Code.

Benefits Litigation

With one of the largest ERISA litigation practices in the region, we have prosecuted and defended a wide variety of claims related to benefit plans, including individual and class-action lawsuits alleging breaches of ERISA’s fiduciary duty and prohibited transaction rules; challenges to plan denials of claims for benefits; actions challenging the investment of retirement plan assets; delinquent contribution and withdrawal liability claims arising under multiemployer plans; and claims involving retiree medical obligations. We successfully fashion innovative and practical settlements that yield significant cost savings and recoveries for our clients. Our experience includes:

  • Fiduciary Duty Claims – We have defended a number of claims alleging that our clients breached their obligations as plan fiduciaries, within ERISA’s special definition of that term, resolving many of those claims on pre-trial motions.
  • Claims for Benefits – Our attorneys have established a record of resolving challenges to benefit denials before trial, reducing our clients’ legal fees.
  • Employer Stock Claims – Spencer Fane attorneys served as local counsel in one of the largest employer stock cases in the country, and as lead counsel in the principal case addressing the responsibilities of directed trustees.
  • Claims Arising out of Reductions in Force – We recently prevailed at the trial and appellate court levels on multi-plaintiff claims under Section 510 of ERISA, alleging that our client interfered with the benefit rights of employees who were terminated during a reduction in force.
  • Claims in the Bankruptcy Context – Our ERISA litigators work closely with the firm’s bankruptcy attorneys on ERISA claims arising out of corporate insolvencies. We currently are lead counsel for a group of retirees who are challenging their bankrupt former employer’s attempt to eliminate over $1 billion in retiree health and other benefits.

Litigation Avoidance Strategies

Recent litigation involving employee benefit plans has renewed the focus of regulators and plan sponsors on the fiduciary obligations imposed by ERISA. Our unparalleled expertise in this area enables the Group to help clients avoid fiduciary liability. We have devised sophisticated plan governance structures to minimize our clients’ fiduciary risk. In an effort to help clients prevent fiduciary-related claims, we provide fiduciary education and training, and conduct comprehensive reviews of their existing fiduciary processes and procedures. On many occasions, the Group has successfully negotiated with Department of Labor officials to resolve fiduciary problems before formal action is taken against our clients.

Representative Success Stories

Geiler v. Jones 2006 Westlaw 407683 (D. Neb. Feb. 6, 2006)

Spencer Fane’s ERISA Litigation Group secured a major victory in a case arising from the Enron bankruptcy. After Enron allegedly failed to transfer the assets necessary to fund the VEBA of a former subsidiary, a group of participants in the new plan—along with the new plan’s trustee and the new plan sponsor’s administrative committee—sued the Enron plan’s trustee to compel a transfer of the disputed VEBA assets. Spencer Fane argued that none of the plaintiffs had standing to sue fiduciaries of the Enron plan, and the federal district court dismissed all of the claims.

Register v. Honeywell Federal, 397 F.3d 1130 (8th Cir. 2005)

Spencer Fane attorneys defended Honeywell against claims by former employees alleging that their employment was terminated in violation of ERISA Section 510. After obtaining summary judgment on these claims from the district court, we successfully defended our victory before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Weyerhaeuser et al. v. MFS Retirement Services, et al., (E.D. Wash. 2004)

Members of our ERISA Litigation Group prevailed on common-law negligence and misrepresentation claims we filed on behalf of a plan sponsor and its fiduciaries against two 401(k) plan service providers. Adopting our arguments that ERISA did not preempt these claims, the court denied defendants’ motions to dismiss, leading to a favorable settlement for this Fortune 100 client.

In re Sprint Corp. ERISA Litigation, 33 Employee Benefits Cases 2196 (D. Kan. 2004)

We served as local counsel representing Sprint in this putative class action involving fiduciary claims related to the decision to allow participants in three 401(k) plans to invest plan assets in employer stock.

Aks v. United Missouri Bank, 309 F. Supp. 2d 1275 (D. Kan. 2004)

Defending the directed trustee of a retirement plan against claims of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and misrepresentation, Group attorneys successfully removed the action to federal court and then prevailed on a motion to dismiss.

In re Wire Rope Corp. of America, Inc., 287 B.R. 771 (Bankr. W.D. Mo. 2002)

Spencer Fane represented a Chapter 11 debtor-employer which sought to terminate its obligations under its pension plans pursuant to ERISA’s “distress termination” provisions. The Bankruptcy Court approved our plan, allowing the employer to emerge from the bankruptcy proceedings as a going concern.

Ershick v. United Missouri Bank of Kansas City, 948 F.2d 660 (10th Cir. 1991)

Winning at both the trial and appellate levels, we defended the directed trustee of an ESOP against ERISA fiduciary claims related to the investment decisions of the plan administrator. This decision remains the leading case on the responsibilities of directed trustees under ERISA.