Defending ERISA Class Actions Amid an Evolving Litigation Landscape: Best Practices for Counsel and Fiduciaries

Strafford

This CLE course will provide class action litigators and fiduciaries with a review of the trends and developments from 2021 to the present in ERISA class action litigation and the impact of recent Supreme Court rulings on the ERISA landscape. The panel will also outline key litigation strategies for defending ERISA class claims.

Description

Plan fiduciaries are increasingly the subject of suits alleging breach of fiduciary duty due to excessive fees, imprudent selection and monitoring of investment options, and underperforming plan investment options.

Under ERISA, fiduciaries who manage defined-contribution retirement plans have a duty of prudence requiring them to monitor investment options and remove imprudent ones. The recent Supreme Court ruling in Hughes v. Northwestern University significantly impacts the filing and defending against ERISA claims. The Court ruled that an ERISA fiduciary that offers some prudent investment options in a retirement plan is not protected against a claim that other options are imprudent.

The Court's ruling in Hughes v. Northwestern University can have significant consequences for retirement committees and other fiduciaries who must leverage plan assets to qualify for lower-cost share classes of plan offerings and lower-cost administrative and investment management services, choose less costly or better-performing investment options for the plan, and pursue reduced recordkeeping fees.

In this evolving landscape, ERISA class action litigators must keep abreast of emerging theories of liability, key settlement trends, case law developments in class certification, and other procedural issues like standing, preemption, pleading standards, and attorney fees.

Listen as our authoritative panel of ERISA litigators guides you through the recent developments in class action litigation, discusses the impact of recent Supreme Court rulings, and provides litigation strategies for defending class action claims.

Outline

1. Recent ERISA class action developments and trends
   • Retirement plan litigation
   • Fiduciary duty litigation
   • Plan administration and design litigation
   • Health and retiree benefit plans
2. Recent Supreme Court cases: impact on ERISA class action litigation
3. Litigation strategies and developments
   • Class certification
   • Standing
   • Exhaustion and preemption
   • Remedies
   • Pleading
   • Other issues

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