Here’s a great opinion, out of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, on QDROs, their statutory basis, their purpose, and how they should be structured. Notably, the court weighs in in a very sensible manner on the never ending question of whether, under ERISA, the divorce decree at issue must
You Say Securities, I Say ERISA
I have to admit I have found the Workplace Prof blog tough sledding since the site’s founding blogger, Paul Secunda, took retirement from the site, apparently to spend more time in the snow in Wisconsin. Without Paul, the blog has trended heavily towards labor law and lacks the type of frequent, insightful commentary
Excessive Fee Litigation and the Small Plan
It has become a given in any talk on 401(k) plans and fiduciary liability that I give these days – my comment that, when the market was always going up, up, up, no one cared that they might have made 15% instead of 14% but for some unresolved problem with a plan’s structure, but with
On the Patentability of Computer-Generated Inventions
So, so, so very far behind. Its even creeped onto the blog, and in particular into our serialization of The Genie In the Machine. Oh, well, better late than never. Here is the last and final installment of our semi-serialization of Robert Plotkin’s book on automated inventing, and its impact on patent law. Meanwhile
On Coverage for Financial Investigations, and an Echo from the Past
Little time to blog today – plus I still have to get up the latest chapter of our on-going serialization of Robert Plotkin’s book, The Genie in the Machine – but I did want to pass along, with a couple of brief comments, this excellent article on the question of whether there is coverage for
Do I Need a Coverage Lawyer?
I have written, in various blog posts, highly detailed, rational and analytical explanations of why parties to an insurance coverage dispute should retain experienced coverage counsel to represent them; I have given long, detailed, argumentative explanations of the same point in a number of seminars. Often the analysis revolves around the fact that, if the
If the Plan Fits, You Must Acquit (Or at Least Preempt)
Here’s an interesting case for you. Here in the First Circuit, we have plenty of case law making clear that theories of liability that serve as alternative enforcement mechanisms to those set forth in ERISA itself are preempted. What about the circumstance where the cause of action is not necessarily an alternative enforcement method but
American Conference Institute’s ERISA Litigation Conference
Here at this blog, we are all about being a modern media company, as you can tell from all the pop-ups and the banner ads you encounter when you come here to read the latest posts. Synergy, and book serialization and cross-marketing and all those other business page buzzwords – that’s what we’re about here.
On Preemption of Pay or Play Acts and the Supreme Court
File this, I suppose, in the department of inevitable events – lawyers representing the restaurant industry have filed to have the Supreme Court review the Ninth Circuit ruling finding that the San Francisco pay or play ordinance is not preempted by ERISA. This is one of those instances where you can bet how the case
The Impact of Automated Inventing on Patent Law – Round 2
Last week, we commenced our (quasi-) serialization of Robert Plotkin’s book, The Genie in the Machine: How Computer-Automated Inventing is Revolutionizing Law and Business. Here, as promised, is part 2 in the series.
Automated Inventing: The Challenge for Patent Law
As I explained in my previous entry, increasingly powerful computer software is being used