Skadden has successfully defended numerous corporate and individual clients in litigation arising under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), including class actions and proceedings under other federal laws. We utilize an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the skills from lawyers with deep ERISA-related litigation experience coupled with the extensive backgrounds of our top-ranked compensation and benefits attorneys.

Our representations go well beyond the financial industry, spanning a wide range of sectors, for which we successfully have represented clients in trial and appellate courts nationwide on a wide variety of ERISA issues. Our team has deep experience with often-overlapping ERISA claims, securities class and derivative actions, and internal and government investigations. Our work includes counseling on, among other areas, ESOP and 401(k) plan stock-drop cases, cases alleging breaches of fiduciary duties, claims involving ERISA’s prohibited transactions provisions, challenges to ERISA plan amendments, ERISA preemption of state law claims and claims alleging fiduciary misrepresentation.

Skadden was named New York Law Journal’s 2021 Litigation Department of the Year, as well as a finalist in the general litigation category of its 2022 Litigation Department of the Year competition. In the BTI Litigation Outlook 2023, Skadden was again named to the BTI Consulting Group’s list of top litigation law firms: The BTI Fearsome Foursome. We were also named as a 2022 Securities Group of the Year by Law360. Additionally, members of our executive compensation and benefits practice repeatedly have been recognized as “leading lawyers” in their fields by, among others, Chambers USA, Chambers Global, The Best Lawyers in America and The Legal 500 U.S.