Biglaw firm Husch Blackwell — a firm with $707,800,000 gross revenue last year, making it #78 on the Am Law 100 ranking — is defending itself against a purported class action lawsuit alleging the firm misused retirement funds. According to the lawsuit, filed in Missouri federal court, the firm “routinely withheld funds from employee paychecks for the purpose of contributing those funds to employees’ accounts in the plan,” but all of those funds did not go directly into the retirement accounts. The complaint alleges some of the money was placed into a general account used for firm operating expenses for “months at a time,” in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
According to the lawsuit, “The Husch Blackwell defendants’ breaches of fiduciary duty arise from a deliberate scheme to use their employees’ retirement plan contributions for the firm’s own benefit.”
The named plaintiff in the matter is Tyler Paetkau, a former attorney at Husch and currently the founding attorney of Paetkau Law Group. The complaint purports to represent a class of all participants of the retirement plan whose contributions were not sent to the retirement plan within the statutorily mandated timeframe, dating back to September 16, 2019. The class is estimated to have ~400 members.
Paetkau’s attorney, Charles Field of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Fell Law, told Law.com his firm has brought other ERISA matters against employers:
Field said he has a process for analyzing financial data and assessing the performance of funds to determine whether a proposed class action is warranted. This one against Husch met the bar.
“This one was pretty easy to deconstruct,” he said. “The law is clear. By the 15th day of the following month, those funds need to be in the 401(k) plan. We looked to see if there was something we were missing. We couldn’t find anything, exhausted our due diligence, and filed the claim.”
Husch Blackwell has not commented on the lawsuit.
Read the complaint below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
The post Biglaw Firm Accused Of Raiding Employee Retirement Funds appeared first on Above the Law.
Biglaw firm Husch Blackwell — a firm with $707,800,000 gross revenue last year, making it #78 on the Am Law 100 ranking — is defending itself against a purported class action lawsuit alleging the firm misused retirement funds. According to the lawsuit, filed in Missouri federal court, the firm “routinely withheld funds from employee paychecks for the purpose of contributing those funds to employees’ accounts in the plan,” but all of those funds did not go directly into the retirement accounts. The complaint alleges some of the money was placed into a general account used for firm operating expenses for “months at a time,” in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
According to the lawsuit, “The Husch Blackwell defendants’ breaches of fiduciary duty arise from a deliberate scheme to use their employees’ retirement plan contributions for the firm’s own benefit.”
The named plaintiff in the matter is Tyler Paetkau, a former attorney at Husch and currently the founding attorney of Paetkau Law Group. The complaint purports to represent a class of all participants of the retirement plan whose contributions were not sent to the retirement plan within the statutorily mandated timeframe, dating back to September 16, 2019. The class is estimated to have ~400 members.
Paetkau’s attorney, Charles Field of Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Fell Law, told Law.com his firm has brought other ERISA matters against employers:
Field said he has a process for analyzing financial data and assessing the performance of funds to determine whether a proposed class action is warranted. This one against Husch met the bar.
“This one was pretty easy to deconstruct,” he said. “The law is clear. By the 15th day of the following month, those funds need to be in the 401(k) plan. We looked to see if there was something we were missing. We couldn’t find anything, exhausted our due diligence, and filed the claim.”
Husch Blackwell has not commented on the lawsuit.
Read the complaint below.
2388000-2388673-0916hbDownload
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
