Proskauer Benefits Brief: Legal Insight on Compensation & Benefits

In this first installment of a two-part conversation, Neil Shah and Rob Projansky unpack one of ERISA’s most talked-about “cheat codes”: Section 4204.

They explain how a properly structured asset sale can avoid triggering withdrawal liability, why the rule exists, and the three core pillars that must be satisfied, including contribution continuity, secondary liability, and bonding requirements. The episode also explores the roles o...

In the second part of their discussion on bankruptcy and withdrawal liability, Neil Shah and Daniel Desatnik examine what plans can recover on withdrawal liability claims in bankruptcy and how debtors may push back.

Listen as they cover interest, fees and present value calculations, administrative and priority disputes, distressed employer defenses, third-party releases and successor liability risks in asset sales. For multiemploye...

In this first episode of a two-part conversation, senior counsel Neil Shah is joined by partner Daniel Desatnik of our Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group to examine how withdrawal liability claims change when bankruptcy enters the picture. Together, they discuss the automatic stay, arbitration versus bankruptcy court, proof of claim strategy, priority and administrative expense issues, and the practical steps plans should take to p...

What happens at the bargaining table may lead an employer to close a facility, exit a line of business, go non-union, or opt for an entirely different compensation mix for its employees. All of these can trigger the employer's obligation to pay withdrawal liability.

In this episode of our multi-part series on withdrawal liability, senior counsel Neil Shah and partner Josh Fox unpack the w...

In the second part of a two-episode segment, senior counsel Neil V. Shah and partner Anthony Cacace walk through the five additional federal pathways that can extend withdrawal liability beyond the withdrawing employer. Together, Neil and Anthony cover single employer, alter ego, successor, evade-or-avoid, and combined theories of liability, explaining how plans build their cases to hold others liable under these theories and wh...

In the second episode of their multipart series on withdrawal liability, senior counsel Neil Shah and partner Justin Alex walk through the various deadlines that apply in the withdrawal liability lifecycle, from a plan’s initial notice and demand to an employer’s review, arbitration, and potential litigation. They explain why these timing rules matter, how they affect employers, plans, and actuaries alike, and the potential risks o...

In this episode of The Proskauer Benefits Brief, David Teigman, partner in the Tax Department and a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group, Josh Apfelroth, partner in the Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions Group and Nick LaSpina, senior counsel in the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group discuss shareholder activism in the public company context and more specifically within the f...

In this episode of The Proskauer Benefits Brief, David Teigman, partner in the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group, Simon Sharpe, partner and member of our Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions groups and Nick LaSpina, senior counsel in the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group discuss rep and warranty insurance (RWI) in the mergers and acquisitions context. They also focus on certain aspects of this...

In this episode of The Proskauer Benefits Brief, Proskauer partners Ira Bogner and Adam Scoll and law clerk Tanusha Yarlagadda discuss the Department of Labor’s final ESG rules issued on November 22, 2022, and how those rules affect the consideration by ERISA fiduciaries of environmental, social, and governance or “ESG” factors when making investment decisions and exercising shareholder rights, such as voting proxies.  Although the...

In this episode of The Proskauer Benefits Brief, partner David Teigman, senior counsel Nick LaSpina, and special international labor & employment counsel Nicola Bartholomew, discuss differences between asset sales in the US and the UK, with respect to transfers of employees.  In short, there are significant differences that are not necessarily intuitive to US practitioners.  In the US, parties will have commercial freedom to make o...

In this episode of The Proskauer Benefits Brief, Proskauer partner David Teigman, senior counsel Nick LaSpina, and special guest Michelle Garrett, a principal at the compensation consulting firm Semler Brossy, discuss employee retention. It seems like there is an article almost every day talking about the “great resignation.”  In a nutshell, there have been far more job transitions recently than there have been in the past. Tune in...

In this episode of The Proskauer Benefits Brief, Myron D. Rumeld, partner and co-chair of Proskauer’s ERISA Litigation group and senior associate Tulio D. Chirinos, review the current state of affairs with respect to the litigation challenging the fees charged and investments offered in defined contribution plans; and The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Hughes v. Northwestern University where the court reversed and remanded the ...

This episode is the final installment of our three-part series on a new special financial assistance program created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for troubled multiemployer plans and the interim guidance issued by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation regarding the program. Be sure to listen as Rob Projansky and Justin Alex cover the special rules that apply to plans that receive the assistance and other details inclu...