News & Analysis as of

Investment Department of Labor (DOL) Environmental Social & Governance (ESG)

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

So, How Can Participants Invest Their Retirement Money?

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Under the current administration, the Department of Labor has once again changed course on its view of permissible investing strategies for retirement plans, warming to crypto and private equity, and confirming their distrust...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

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

DOL Plans to Replace ESG Rule for Retirement Plan Fiduciaries

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) indicated in court documents that it intends to begin new rulemaking to replace a previous rule that permitted 401(k) plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG)...more

Ropes & Gray LLP

Trump DOL Withdraws Biden-Era ESG Rule and Crypto Guidance for ERISA Plans

Ropes & Gray LLP on

On May 28, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) began to articulate the Trump administration’s retirement policy priorities with its decisions to (i) end its defense of the Biden-era ESG rule in a long-running lawsuit...more

King & Spalding

U.S. Department of Labor Updates: Yes to Crypto and No to ESG?

King & Spalding on

On May 28, 2025, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) provided updated guidance on two employee benefit plan-related investment areas: (1) cryptocurrency and (2) environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) investing....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

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

Hall Benefits Law

Fifth Circuit Appears Skeptical of Invalidating ESG Rule Despite the Fall of Chevron

Hall Benefits Law on

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit panel appeared skeptical during oral arguments in which conservative states and Texas-based energy interests sought to reverse a district judge’s order upholding an environmental,...more

Crunched Credit

Embracing ESG (Carefully)

Crunched Credit on

I really don’t want to talk about ESG.  (Actually, I do but pretend I don’t to bolster my well-earned reputation for balance…Hah!).  ESG is so politically fraught…one person’s lodestar is another shibboleth.  Tribal totem of...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

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

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Update - DOL’s Final ESG Investing and Proxy Voting Regulation – Impact on ERISA Fiduciaries and Private Fund Managers

Certain portions of the Department of Labor's ESG regulation concerning investment and proxy voting decisions for ERISA fiduciaries will become effective on December 1, 2023 (our alert describing the regulation can be found...more

Mintz

Biden Administration's DOL Rule Enabling Investment Advisors to Consider ESG Factors Survives Judicial Challenge

Mintz on

On September 21, 2023, Judge Kacsmaryk (N.D. Texas), a famously conservative Trump-appointed jurist, upheld a Department of Labor rule promulgated by the Biden Administration that enables employee retirement plans to consider...more

Verrill

Update on the Debate over Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Investing

Verrill on

The debate over investment of retirement plan funds based on environmental, social, and corporate governance (“ESG”) factors continues to make waves. This post provides a high-level overview of the current state of play for...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Florida’s Response to ESG Investing

Governor DeSantis has signed a law prohibiting reliance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) for Florida’s funds. Banks and financial institutions could face administrative sanctions if found to discriminate...more

ArentFox Schiff

ESG Litigation Update: States’ Challenge to Department of Labor Investment Duties Rule Will Remain in Amarillo

ArentFox Schiff on

The past year has seen a new star become fixed in the judicial firmament. The US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, has found new prominence, most recently retaining a challenge 26 states...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Launch of State Alliance Against “ESG Investing”

On March 16, 2023 the Republican governors of 19 states announced an alliance led by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, to “push back against President Biden’s environmental, social, corporate governance (ESG) agenda that is...more

Mintz

President Biden Issues First Veto to Protect ESG Investing

Mintz on

Today, President Biden issued the first veto of his presidency. This action had been heavily telegraphed in advance and was widely expected. Nonetheless, this veto is extraordinarily significant....more

Mintz

President Biden Threatens First Veto Over Congressional Nullification of DOL Regulation Enabling Consideration of ESG Factors

Mintz on

Last fall, the Biden Administration's Department of Labor ("DOL") issued a regulation ("Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights") that, according to a White House press release,...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

President Biden Expected to Issue First Veto to Preserve DOL ESG Investment Rule

President Biden will likely issue the first veto of his presidency after Congress passed a measure that would repeal a Department of Labor rule that allows retirement plan fiduciaries to consider ESG-related factors in...more

Cozen O'Connor

Cozen Currents: The GOP's Political Awokening

Cozen O'Connor on

The Cozen Lens- •The GOP wants to say RIP to ESG as the fight against "woke capitalism" is prevalent in all corners of the Republican Party. •The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case regarding the constitutionality...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Texas AG Takes Next Step to Stop New DOL ESG Investing Rule

Troutman Pepper Locke on

On February 22, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) moved for a preliminary injunction as a next step after previously filing a multistate lawsuit against the Biden administration to stop a new Department of Labor (DOL)...more

Cozen O'Connor

The State AG Report – 2.2.2023

Cozen O'Connor on

Here are curated AG and federal regulatory news stories highlighting key areas in which state and federal regulators’ decisions are having an impact across the US: •AG Campbell Settles with Massachusetts Auto Dealer over...more

K&L Gates LLP

ESG Investing and Proxy Voting: DOL's New Final Rule

K&L Gates LLP on

Executive Summary: The Department of Labor released a final rule that addresses fiduciary duties when (1) considering ESG factors in selecting investments, and (2) considering whether and how to vote proxies, for plans...more

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