ERISA Litigation

•           Guidant Corporation ERISA Litigation, The firm was co-lead counsel in this class action brought against directors and officers of the former Guidant Corporation, alleging that these defendants breached their fiduciaries duties to the company’s ERISA plan and plan participants by, among other things, continuing to hold and to allocate new shares of Guidant common stock during a period in which they knew or should have known that such stock was an unsuitable and imprudent investment for the plan.  Plaintiffs successfully fought in the Seventh Circuit to have the district court’s dismissal of the action overturned, and settled the claims for a cash recovery of $7 million.

•           CVS Corporation ERISA Litigation:  The firm was principal counsel in this class action brought against directors and certain officers of CVS Corporation alleging they breached their fiduciary duties under ERISA to participants in the company’s 401(k) Plan and Employee Stock Ownership Plan (the “Plans”) by using employer and employee contributions to the Plans to purchase CVS stock at a time when that stock was an unsuitable and imprudent investment for the Plans.  The firm was responsible for the settlement of this action, which included payment of $3 million, as well as the adoption by the company of substantial governance reforms that directly affected the fiduciaries’ duties and responsibilities in the oversight and administration of the Plans.