Leonard Carder has over five decades of experience representing employee benefit trust funds. We are counsel to over two dozen pension and welfare benefit plans that cover approximately 75,000 union members in industries ranging from shipping to hospitality. We also advise our public sector clients regarding issues arising under CalPERS and other state and local pension and benefit plans.
Our firm handles all compliance, transactional and litigation matters that face trustees for pension and welfare funds. These matters include plan drafting and qualification, preparation of summary plan descriptions, review of investment and other service provider contracts, fiduciary liability policies and investment policy guidelines, review of benefit claims and appeals, review of Qualified Domestic Relations Orders, assistance with plan audits, withdrawal liability matters, plan mergers and terminations, trust fund arbitration and litigation, collection actions and bankruptcy matters.
Our trust fund litigation is extensive: in addition to a full caseload of collection and lien and subrogation matters, we have handled numerous cases in federal district and appellate courts involving novel issues under ERISA and other federal and state laws. Some of these cases include: IBEW Local 1245 v. Citizen’s Telecommunications Co., 549 F. 3d 781 (9th Cir. 2008) (upholding expedited arbitration related to a reduction of future retiree benefits for active employees); Manufacturers Life Insurance Company v. East Bay Restaurant and Tavern Retirement Plan, 57 F. Supp.2d 921 (N.D. Cal. 1999) (a case of first impression holding that state escheat laws applied to pension plans are preempted by ERISA), and Barncord v. San Francisco Culinary, Bartenders and Service Employees Pension Fund, 60 F. App’x 40, 2003 WL 678141 (9th Cir. 2003) (upholding a plan amendment to its disability retirement provisions against a participant challenge). The firm has also litigated numerous cases on behalf of a self-funded health plan involving health care providers seeking to circumvent preemption as well as affirmative cases seeking recoupment of overpaid benefits to fraudulent providers. We have also participated as co-counsel in securities fraud actions brought by pension trust funds and in class actions against pharmaceutical providers. For our public sector clients, we have litigated multiple cases challenging the constitutionality of changes to vested pension or retiree healthcare benefits, including cases before the California Supreme Court. See, e.g., IBEW Local 1245 v. City of Redding, 210 Cal.App.4th 1114 (2012); Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Assn., 19 Cal.App.5th 61 (2018).
We have assisted in the design and negotiation of several innovative Taft-Hartley benefit plans, including multiemployer profit sharing/401(k) savings, “supplemental welfare” (to fund retiree cost of living increases), child/elder care, education and training, legal services, disability and retiree health plans. In 2005, we worked closely with the BART unions and management in the design of a new type of public sector retiree health benefits plan.
Attorneys from our firm have also participated in advisory councils and committees such as the U.S. Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council and spoken on numerous occasions regarding benefit trust funds and related matters, including before the National Employment Lawyers Association, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, and the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance.