Choosing a Trustee: Navigating the Complexities and Key Considerations
Five Tips for a New Public Company Director
Sunday Book Review: June 15, 2025. The Books on Corporate Governance Edition
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Forfeitures Under Fire
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Navigating Fiduciary Responsibilities in a Tide-Turning ESG Era
How ERISA Litigators Strengthen Plan Compliance and Risk Management: One-on-One with Jeb Gerth
What happens when a majority owner makes a bad-faith capital call?
#WorkforceWednesday®: New DOL Guidance - ERISA Plan Cybersecurity Update - Employment Law This Week®
John Wick - What You Need To Know about the Corporate Transparency Act
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ERISA Forfeiture Litigation
Once Removed Episode 24: Expressing Goals and Intent for the Trust
Episode 322 -- Checking in on Caremark Cases
What Can A Tax Attorney Do For You? A Podcast With Janathan Allen
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Federal Rule Aims to Hold Investment Advisors to a Higher Standard
A Primer On Trusts - A Podcast with Janathan Allen
Podcast - Deberes fiduciarios de los administradores
New SEC Private Funds Rules – What Is Happening and What You Need to Know - Troutman Pepper Podcast
Podcast Episode 189: Adding Context to Compliance and Color To Your Legal Practice
BVI Companies and M&A
Basics of Impact Investing: A Conversation About Investment Policies and Evaluation Metrics For ESG Investors
Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) are unique employee benefit plans designed to invest primarily in the stock of the sponsoring employer....more
Happy Spring from the Kaufman & Canoles ESOPs, Benefits & Compensation team! We hope you’re shaking off the winter blues and ready for another round of benefits updates. ...more
At least four lawsuits have recently been filed against employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciaries alleging a failure to prudently invest cash held in the ESOP trust. While scrutiny of investments in company stock has...more
Key Takeaways: Board’s Duty to Monitor the Trustee: A company’s board of directors has a fiduciary duty to monitor the ESOP trustee’s actions in an ESOP transaction, ensuring that the trustee is acting in the exclusive...more
On January 20, 2025, an executive order froze two new pieces of proposed employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) guidance announced in a notice of proposed rulemaking and originally set for publication in the Federal Register on...more
On February 6, 2025, a Pennsylvania federal judge gave preliminary approval to a $2.1 million settlement resolving a class action involving the Pride Mobility ESOP. This case is one of six brought so far—and the second to...more
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
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Jan. 16, 2025, released its long-awaited proposed regulation interpreting the definition of "adequate consideration" as applied to private company stock acquired or sold by an employee...more
On January 16, 2025, the US Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) released two pieces of guidance that, if finalized, would dramatically change the landscape for fiduciaries responsible...more
On January 16, the Department of Labor released long-awaited guidance on how to determine the value of employer stock in purchase and sale transactions involving an ESOP. Unfortunately for those in the ESOP community hoping...more
On January 16, 2025, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) at the Department of Labor (DOL) released drafts of long-awaited proposed regulations seeking to clarify the definition of “adequate consideration” as...more
The following checklist highlights key issues for corporate counsel with respect to employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements....more
As 2024 winds down, many are wondering what 2025 may bring in the world of compensation and benefits. Our ERISA attorneys use their decades of experience and crystal balls to predict what may be on horizon in plan design and...more
In a recent court ruling, the US Department of Labor (DOL) prevailed against corporate directors and shareholders for claims related to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) transaction. ...more
On October 4, 2024, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Cunningham v. Cornell University. The case involves the standard for a plaintiff to plead a “prohibited transaction” claim under ERISA and the burden of proving...more
As the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) celebrates its 50th anniversary, it offers us an opportunity to reflect on its transformative impact on employee benefits and retirement security. Signed into law on...more
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas issued its written decision in Shipp v. Central States Manufacturing, Inc. on July 5, 2024, declining to dismiss the case against Central States Manufacturing Inc....more
Recently, the Second Circuit became the latest circuit refusing to enforce individual arbitration of an ERISA class action, joining the Third, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits. The Ninth Circuit, by contrast, has held that class...more
All qualified retirement plans are subject to a myriad of requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is charged with enforcing the...more
The decision in Bolton v. Inland Fresh Seafood Corp. of America Inc., No. 22-cv-4602 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 5, 2023)should serve as a reminder to all ERISA practitioners that, if litigating in courts of the Eleventh Circuit,...more
A federal district court judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky has enforced an ESOP’s arbitration clause, sending P.L. Marketing Inc. employees’ breach of fiduciary duty claims on behalf of a putative class to individual...more
In Rose v. PSA Airlines, Inc., 80 F.4th 488 (4th Cir. 2023), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that ERISA § 502(a)(3), which permits a claim for “other appropriate equitable relief,” does not allow claims...more
ESOPs can pay fair market value for the stock: Stock purchased by an ESOP must be appraised by an independent third party expert working with a trustee for the ESOP who must also be independent from the seller. The ESOP is...more
Courts have been mixed regarding the enforceability of arbitration provisions in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) retirement plans since the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2019 decision in Dorman v. Charles...more
Recently, several appellate-level court decisions have affirmed dismissals of ERISA fiduciary-breach claims involving 401(k) plans. These decisions followed the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in a 403(b) case, in...more