PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - ERISA Forfeiture Litigation
Since September 2023, plaintiffs have filed numerous class action lawsuits alleging that the use of 401(k) forfeitures to offset future employer contributions violates the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974...more
In the recent Wigdor v Facebook Canada Ltd. and Meta Platforms, Inc., 2025 ONSC 4051 decision (the “Decision”), which has not yet been reported, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice upheld the enforceability of restricted...more
Background - In a wave of class-action litigation beginning around 2023, plaintiffs have alleged violations of fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and prohibited transaction rules in...more
Since September 2023, ERISA plaintiff’s firms have filed approximately 60 class action lawsuits challenging the longstanding practice of plan sponsors using plan forfeitures to offset their employer contributions in 401(k)...more
Another week, another Adams v. Goliath story in the world of ERISA litigation—and this time, Goliath is Cigna. The company is now facing its second lawsuit in as many months over how it handled forfeitures in its $13 billion...more
On July 9th, the Secretary of Labor filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit relating to the appeal of Hutchins v. HP, Inc. In that case, a participant claimed that forfeitures should have been used to offset plan...more
On June 4, 2024, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed Senate Bill 6990 into law, making significant changes to the state’s asset seizure and forfeiture statutes by expressly including virtual currency and digital wallets as...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently clarified the scope of the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (MNAA). In Susan Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc., the SJC held the MNAA does not apply where a...more
Hello all. Below is the May 2025 edition of the Fifth Circuit criminal and civil case summaries, with a special focus on cases of interest to white-collar practitioners. This past month, the Fifth Circuit issued published...more
U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals - Lamonaco v. Experian - arbitration - Labriola v. Miami-Dade - employment, First Amendment - Wood v. Fla DOE - school, transgender, § 1000.071, First Amendment - USA v....more
On June 13, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued a significant decision in Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc. (SJC-13697) confirming that the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (the “MNAA”) does...more
ERISA is filled with traps for the unwary. Some are complex, hiding in layers of regulatory nuance. Others are deceptively simple—like plan forfeitures. Yes, I’m talking about those dollars left behind when participants fail...more
In Thompson Street Capital Partners IV, L.P. v. Sonova United States Hearing Instruments, LLC,1 the Delaware Supreme Court recently adopted a complex framework for determining when noncompliance or partial compliance with a...more
UBS has found itself the latest target in the growing wave of ERISA litigation surrounding the handling of forfeitures in 401(k) plans. In Czakoczi v. UBS AG et al., filed in the District of New Jersey, the allegations mirror...more
Although the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act expressly excludes nonsolicitation agreements from its definition of “noncompetition agreements,” the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently responded to a...more
On Friday, June 13, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in Miele v. Foundation Medicine, Inc., SJC-13967, holding that forfeiture clauses tied to non-solicitation agreements were definitively...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court just clarified that non-solicitation agreements aren’t subject to the Commonwealth’s strict noncompetition law just because they contain forfeiture provisions, handing businesses a...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) has ruled that a forfeiture clause triggered by a breach of a non-solicitation agreement is not a "forfeiture for competition agreement" under the Massachusetts Noncompetition...more
Imagine you’re a private equity firm. You buy a company, and you want to retain and incentivize key employees, so you give them some equity in the form of incentive units. You also want to prevent them from running off and...more
If there’s a Mount Rushmore of ERISA class-action litigators, you better believe Jerry Schlichter’s face is carved into it—probably right next to a 408(b)(2) disclosure and a stack of mutual fund fee charts. And once again,...more
In Lawson v. Spirit AeroSystems, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the forfeiture of certain stock awards for violating a covenant not to compete. Like the Seventh Circuit in LKQ Corp. v....more
In North American Fire Ultimate Holdings, LP v. Alan Doorly, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that the restrictive covenants included in an incentive unit grant agreement were unenforceable when the units received by the...more
This Federal Circuit opinion analyzes claim construction arguments and requests for remittitur in the context of preserving issues for appeal. Background - Belanger is a manufacturer of car wash systems. Belanger owns...more
LKQ Corp. v. Rutledge, C.A. No. 110, 2024 (Del. Dec. 18, 2024) - In this en banc decision, the Delaware Supreme Court answered a certified question from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit...more
On Friday, May 16th, plaintiff’s counsel in the Rodriguez v. Intuit Inc. case filed a motion to support a settlement of $1,995,000. The motion appears to reflect a good compromise between the parties … and as they say, a...more