ERISA Pension Class Actions
Gottesdiener Law Firm has pioneered a number of innovative pension
benefit class actions championing employee-participant rights,
including a case that The New York Times described as
potentially “one of the most significant brought in the 25
years since Congress enacted the [ERISA statute].”
The Firm has, singly or working with pension lawyers, successfully concluded
class actions filed against some of the largest plans in the country (e.g.,
Enron, New York Life, AT&T), recovering hundreds of millions of dollars
for the affected participants. We are currently prosecuting claims against
pension plans sponsored by Bank of America, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and
Colgate-Palmolive. The Firm welcomes inquiries from anyone
interested in our work or in specific cases.
The Firm's currently pending cases include:
- A pension benefits and 401(k) case involving, among other things, a $3 billion transfer of 401(k) plan assets to a pension plan, pursuant to which the participants were stripped of their right to the gains earned through the investment of their 401(k) accounts. Pender v. Bank of America Corp., 269 F.R.D. 589 (W.D.N.C. 2010) (lead counsel).
- A cash balance
pension benefit class action against PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
(“PwC”). The key contention here is that PwC used a
fictitious definition of “retirement” to evade the
law’s lump sum distribution requirements and short-change
employees when they left the Firm and requested a cash-out of their
plan benefit. See Laurent v.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, et al., 06-2280 (JPO) (S.D.N.Y.)
(lead counsel).
- A cash balance lump sum underpayment (or “whipsaw”) case involving two plans with an equity-based interest crediting rate. Thompson v. Retirement Plan for Employees of S.C. Johnson & Sons, Inc., 265 F.R.D. 405 (E.D. Wis. 2010) (lead counsel).
- A pension benefits case involving a variety of miscalculation claims against Colgate-Palmolive. In re: Colgate-Palmolive Co. ERISA Litig., No. 07-9515 (S.D.N.Y.) (co-lead counsel).
- Another “whipsaw” case involving a plan substantially similar to those involved in Thompson. Ruppert v. Alliant Energy Cash Balance Pension Plan, 255 F.R.D. 628 (W.D. Wis. 2009) (lead counsel).
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