Biglaw agency Husch Blackwell — a agency with $707,800,000 gross income final 12 months, making it #78 on the Am Regulation 100 rating — is defending itself in opposition to a purported class motion lawsuit alleging the agency misused retirement funds. In keeping with the lawsuit, filed in Missouri federal courtroom, the agency “routinely withheld funds from worker paychecks for the aim of contributing these funds to workers’ accounts within the plan,” however all of these funds didn’t go instantly into the retirement accounts. The grievance alleges a few of the cash was positioned right into a basic account used for agency working bills for “months at a time,” in violation of the Worker Retirement Earnings Safety Act.
In keeping with the lawsuit, “The Husch Blackwell defendants’ breaches of fiduciary responsibility come up from a deliberate scheme to make use of their workers’ retirement plan contributions for the agency’s personal profit.”
The named plaintiff within the matter is Tyler Paetkau, a former legal professional at Husch and at present the founding legal professional of Paetkau Regulation Group. The grievance purports to signify a category of all contributors of the retirement plan whose contributions weren’t despatched to the retirement plan throughout the statutorily mandated timeframe, courting again to September 16, 2019. The category is estimated to have ~400 members.
Paetkau’s legal professional, Charles Discipline of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Fell Regulation, told Law.com his agency has introduced different ERISA issues in opposition to employers:
Discipline stated he has a course of for analyzing monetary knowledge and assessing the efficiency of funds to find out whether or not a proposed class motion is warranted. This one in opposition to Husch met the bar.
“This one was fairly straightforward to deconstruct,” he stated. “The legislation is evident. By the fifteenth day of the next month, these funds must be within the 401(ok) plan. We seemed to see if there was one thing we have been lacking. We couldn’t discover something, exhausted our due diligence, and filed the declare.”
Husch Blackwell has not commented on the lawsuit.
Learn the grievance beneath.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Regulation, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are one of the best, so please join along with her. Be at liberty to electronic mail her with any suggestions, questions, or feedback and comply with her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
