The Briefing – Late Night, Early Dismissal: The Santos-Kimmel Copyright Case
(Podcast) The Briefing – Late Night, Early Dismissal: The Santos-Kimmel Copyright Case
Fifth Circuit Affirms District Court’s Striking of Class Allegations
Eighth Circuit Reverses Dismissal of Putative Class Claims
Nota Bene Episode 98: The U.S. Supreme Court’s Mark on U.S. Antitrust Law for 2020 with Thomas Dillickrath and Bevin Newman
Class Action Suit Against Instagram for New Terms of Service Dismissed
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued its decision in Matney v. Barrick Gold of North America, et al. on Sept. 6, 2023, finding that participants in an employer-sponsored defined contribution retirement plan...more
An appellate court in Illinois upheld a trial court’s dismissal of claims that franchisor was vicariously liable for the alleged actions of its franchisees. Shavers v. The UPS Store, Inc., 2023 IL App (1st) 221407-U (Ill....more
A district court in New York recently dismissed a putative class action challenging retirement plan recordkeeping and investment management fees. The case is Singh v. Deloitte LLP, No. 21-cv-8458, 2023 WL 186679 (S.D.N.Y....more
On Friday, for the second week in a row, the Ninth Circuit reversed dismissal of a 401(k) plan excessive fee litigation challenging the offering of retail share classes of mutual funds instead of cheaper institutional share...more
In a unanimous decision that should serve as a wakeup call to those administrating employee retirement plans, the Supreme Court just reaffirmed and highlighted the ongoing duty of ERISA plan fiduciaries to monitor investment...more
In December 2021, the Jerusalem District Court dismissed two motions to certify a class action against the leading dairy manufacturer in Israel, Tnuva, for charging excessive prices. Both the motion and the dismissal are part...more
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has dismissed a putative class action lawsuit brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) by a participant of 401(k) plan against the...more
On September 27, 2019, following a two-week bench trial, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed an action brought by mutual fund shareholders under Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act...more
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a comprehensive post-trial ruling on September 30, 2019 in Chill v. Calamos Advisors LLC, holding that Plaintiffs failed to meet their burden to show that...more
In this issue, we summarize regulatory, litigation and industry developments from May to September 2019 impacting the investment management sector, including SEC action on standards of conduct for broker-dealers and...more
On July 31, 2019, Judge George H. Wu of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California released tentative findings of fact and conclusions of law dismissing an excessive fee claim brought under Section 36(b)...more
In an opinion unsealed on July 3, 2019, Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment to a mutual fund adviser and dismissed an excessive fee claim brought...more
Over the past several years, the ERISA plaintiffs’ bar has targeted university-sponsored 403(b) plans, arguing that the plan fiduciaries breached their fiduciary duties and engaged in prohibited transactions in connection...more
The Ninth Circuit agreed that the employer-members of Montana’s Chamber of Commerce failed to state a claim for breach of fiduciary duty under ERISA § 502(a)(2) and violations of ERISA’s prohibited transaction rules under...more
Casino is an underrated movie and it had a great line on the poster that said: “no one stays on top forever.” It’s a great tagline and I find it to be true. Just look at the New York Yankees between 1965 and 1976. Dien Ben...more
New Rules, Proposed Rules, Guidance and Alerts – SEC STAFF GUIDANCE AND ALERTS – OCIE Publishes Risk Alert on Compliance Issues Relating to Best Execution – On July 11, 2018, the Office of Compliance Inspections and...more
Within recent weeks, there have been three noteworthy court rulings in pending Section 36(b) cases, with one court granting a motion to dismiss and two different courts fully granting substantive motions for summary judgment....more
On February 14, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan issued a decision dismissing a complaint brought under Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, that...more
A federal district court in Georgia dismissed claims by participants in Delta Air Lines, Inc.’s 401(k) plan who alleged that Delta breached its ERISA fiduciary duties by allowing the plan to invest in funds that allegedly...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Since August 2016, sixteen elite colleges and universities have faced class action lawsuits related to management of their retirement plans. After five cases previously survived motions to dismiss, the...more
On August 7, 2017, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) issued a Risk Alert providing a summary of the staff’s observations from sweep exams of broker-dealers, investment advisers and funds...more
This quarter’s issue includes summaries and associated court opinions of selected cases principally decided between February 2017 and April 2017. The cases address developing trends in class actions, ERISA, fiduciary duties,...more
A federal district court in North Carolina dismissed claims by BB&T Corp.’s 401(k) plan participants that Cardinal Investment Advisors, LLC, the plan’s outside investment advisor, breached its ERISA fiduciary duties by...more
Following a four-day bench trial, Judge Renee Marie Bumb of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled in favor of an adviser on claims brought under Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act by investors...more
Editor’s Overview - In 2016, we saw a considerable uptick in the number and variety of excessive fee lawsuits commenced against plan fiduciaries of defined contribution plans. We begin the year by taking a look at these...more