I enjoyed this post on a fundamental question in ERISA denial of benefit litigation, namely which of the many entities involved with a plan – employer, plan sponsor, fiduciary, claim administrator, insurer, and so on – is a proper defendant to such a claim. As the post points out, correctly, there is some ambiguity on
Should the DOL Further Regulate Derisking?
You know, I was just going to tweet about this article, but I realized I had too much to say on this to be limited to 140 characters (I always have too much to say to be limited to 140 characters, but I often cut myself off at that number anyway, or else I could
AAA Arbitrations Now Include an Appeal Process for Complex Commercial Disputes
Years of experience litigating in the federal courts on the one hand, and arbitrating before the AAA on the other, have left me skeptical of the idea that arbitration is somehow preferable to the courts for resolving complex business disputes. My own experience is that, for those types of cases, arbitration is often not less
Putting Limits on Patent Trolling: An Infringement Litigator’s Perspective
The whole question of patent trolling, and the concern over it, is an issue that has gnawed at me for some time, having defended small companies against patent infringement claims by competing manufacturers and having prosecuted licensing disputes on behalf of non-manufacturing, but inventive, patent holders. My latest bugaboo on this topic is the massive
Why Amara’s Expansion of Remedies Matters Now, But Not So Much in the Long Term
My small group of dedicated twitter followers know I was live tweeting last week from ACI’s ERISA Litigation conference in New York, at least for the first day of the conference. Tweeting allowed me to pass along ideas from the speakers and my own thoughts on their points in real time, which was, frankly, a
Cyber Insurance for Cyber Risks
I have maintained a healthy interest in cybercrimes, cyber risks and related liability exposures, for at least two reasons central to the topics of this blog. The first is that, other than credit card companies, probably no one holds more protected personal information than the entities involved with ERISA plans, from health insurers to mutual
Thoughts on Oral Argument in Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co.
Well, the oral argument in Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co. is fascinating, in that the Court’s questioning and counsels’ argument all focus on practicalities, in the sense of when should the time period run and how, and when, will any particular rule actually impact, in a negative way, either the plan
Opening Up the Courthouse Door: The Second Circuit Weighs in on Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies
If one theme has emerged from my numerous blog posts over the last seven years and across the various articles I have written on ERISA litigation during that time span, it is the centrality of operational competence in sponsoring and administering ERISA plans. I have, for instance, often argued that, when it comes to ERISA
A Called Shot: Mangiero Predicted the Public Pension Crisis 6 Years Ago
Last week, Thomas Clark was kind enough to point out in his FRA PlanTools blog that, in a series of posts and an article a few years back, I had guessed right on the future of excessive fee litigation in the courts. At the same time that he was writing that post, I was in
The International Paper Settlement and the Continued Vitality of Excessive Fee Claims
One of the first long articles I wrote on ERISA (I had already penned some opuses on patent infringement litigation and insurance coverage disputes) was on excessive fee litigation, and was based, at heart, on the Seventh Circuit’s then recent decision in Hecker v. Deere. Titled “Retreat from the High Water Mark: Breach