News & Analysis as of

Fiduciary Duty Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) Department of Labor (DOL)

Latham & Watkins LLP

US Government Reopens Discussion of Private Pension Investments Expectations

Latham & Watkins LLP on

The Department of Labor has taken two recent actions that indicate where the approach to retirement investment policy may go under the new administration....more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

US Administration Announces Intent to Replace Biden-Era ESG Rule

The US Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) position on the appropriateness of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing strategies in ERISA-regulated retirement plans has ping-ponged for decades (as we’ve covered...more

Goodwin

DOL Abandons ESG Rule in Investment Duties Regulation; Rescinds Cryptocurrency Guidance

Goodwin on

On May 28, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) took two major steps that signal a shift in its approach to fiduciary oversight under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA)....more

Ary Rosenbaum - The Rosenbaum Law Firm P.C.

Here we go again

Here’s the short version: the Department of Labor’s decision to reopen the Biden-era ESG rule is overdue—and welcome....more

K&L Gates LLP

United States: Department of Labor ESG and Cryptocurrency-Related Matters

K&L Gates LLP on

The Department of Labor will engage in new rulemaking to replace Biden era regulations labeled “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights” that allowed plan fiduciaries may consider...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

New DOL Guidance for Retirement Plans on Cryptocurrency and ESG Investments

The new administration has recently taken steps to revise guidance with respect to two retirement plan investment options: cryptocurrency, and funds focusing on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors. These two...more

A&O Shearman

Crypto in and ESG out—DOL changes to 401(k) plan governance

A&O Shearman on

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced two significant changes to 401(k) plan investments, signaling an increase in latitude for fiduciaries who wish to make available cryptocurrency investments in their plans...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Labor Department Shifts Positions on ESG Investments and Cryptocurrencies in 401(k) Plans

As anticipated, the Department of Labor (DOL) recently changed its position with respect to certain investment choices that 401(k) plan fiduciaries sometimes consider or make available to plan participants, including...more

Carlton Fields

DOL ESG Rule Withstands Demolition of Chevron Deference

Carlton Fields on

In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council Inc., leaving the doctrine of Chevron deference in rubble. The doctrine stated that, when a...more

A&O Shearman

Texas court upholds Biden administration’s rule on ESG Investing for ERISA fiduciaries

A&O Shearman on

In a recent decision by the U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas, Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk ruled that the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2022 Rule (the 2022 Rule) on environmental, social, and governance (ESG)...more

ArentFox Schiff

ESG Update: Texas Federal Court Cites Loper Bright in Upholding Biden-Era ESG 401(k) Investing Rule

ArentFox Schiff on

A Biden-era US Department of Labor (DOL) Rule permitting consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when choosing investments as a “tiebreaker” was recently upheld by Texas federal Judge Matthew...more

Lathrop GPM

The “Deregulatory Initiative” Executive Order: Impact on Employee Benefit Plans

Lathrop GPM on

A February 19 Executive Order, titled “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative,” is aimed at directing the “Administration to focus the...more

Mintz

Biden Administration's DOL Rule Permitting ESG Investments Survives Legal Challenge

Mintz on

4 Last week, a federal district judge in the Northern District of Texas upheld a rule promulgated by the Biden Administration's Department of Labor enabling ESG-focused investing. Specifically, the court determined that the...more

Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL

Benefits Monthly Minute - January 2025

The January Monthly Minute highlights a recent Texas court decision holding ESG investing violated ERISA and a new development in the J&J prescription drug case that found plaintiff lacked standing to sue, and also digs into...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

401(k) Plan Fiduciaries Breached ERISA’s Duty of Loyalty By Allowing ESG Interests To Influence Management Of The Plan

Last week, Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, issued the first-of-its-kind ruling on the merits pertaining to environmental, social, and corporate governance (“ESG”) investing...more

Ropes & Gray LLP

State ESG Update and Analysis for Asset Managers and Financial Institutions

Ropes & Gray LLP on

As we discussed in our white paper “ESG and Public Pension Investing in 2023: A Year-to-Date Recap and Analysis”, there was a surge in legislative activity in 2023 among red states curtailing the use of environmental, social...more

Nossaman LLP

Relying on Loper, Fifth Circuit Sends Chevron-based decision Back to District Court, calling ESG Rule into Question

Nossaman LLP on

On July 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (“Fifth Circuit”) vacated a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (“District Court”) that upheld the U.S. Department of Labor’s...more

Goodwin

Minding the Store: Unanticipated ESG Issues Affecting ERISA Fiduciary Supervision

Goodwin on

A recent summary judgment decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in an ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) class action challenging the alleged impact of environmental, social,...more

Paul Hastings LLP

Pecuniary vs. Nonpecuniary Factors: Understanding the Potential Scope of Anti-ESG Restrictions in U.S. State Laws

Paul Hastings LLP on

Executive Summary and Overview- State anti-ESG lawmakers have enacted legislation aimed at restricting investors from considering ESG factors in their investment strategies and decisions by requiring state financial...more

Morgan Lewis

ESG Investing: The US Regulatory Perspective

Morgan Lewis on

As companies increasingly encounter dialogue regarding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, they and their investors and other stakeholders face the task of navigating the sometimes-contradictory web of...more

ArentFox Schiff

Airline 401k Decision Illustrates Continued Takeoff of ESG Litigation

ArentFox Schiff on

A Texas federal judge recently permitted an environmental, social, and governance- (ESG) related Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) case filed by an airline pilot against his employer and its benefits plan to...more

Mintz

New Hampshire Legislators Propose Laws to Criminalize Investing Based on ESG Criteria

Mintz on

Recently, a pair of bills were proposed in the New Hampshire state legislature that would make it a felony to knowingly invest state or taxpayer funds based upon ESG criteria in violation of fiduciary duty. Specifically, the...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Texas Federal Judge: DOL ESG Investing Rule Does Not Violate ERISA

On September 21, 2023, a Texas federal court dismissed an action commenced by more than two dozen Republican state attorneys general challenging a 2022 Department of Labor (DOL) Rule that addressed consideration of ESG...more

Cozen O'Connor

Republican AGs Appeal to the Fifth Circuit on Labor Department’s ESG Investment Rule

Cozen O'Connor on

A coalition of 25 Republican AGs filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in their lawsuit against the Department of Labor that challenges the implementation of a rule permitting retirement plan...more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

Department of Labor’s “ESG” Rule Survives Challenge in Federal District Court

Since its effective date in February 2023, the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) rule officially titled Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights, and colloquially called the “ESG rule,”...more

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