Insights
Kent Mason Comments on the Use of Common-Interest Agreements by DOL with Plaintiffs’ Firms with Bloomberg Law
Davis & Harman Partner Kent Mason was featured in the Bloomberg Law article, “Lawmakers Probe Labor Agency Sharing Pact with Plaintiffs’ Firm” to discuss DOL’s use of information sharing agreements
Bloomberg Law recently released an article discussing the House Education and the Workforce Committee’s unearthing of information sharing agreements between the Department of Labor (DOL) and plaintiffs’ law firms, suggesting a link between federal benefits enforcement action and private-sector litigation brought by plaintiffs’ firms. DOL’s involvement in private-sector litigation was uncovered in a fiduciary breach lawsuit against Envision Management Holding Inc.’s employee stock ownership plan.
Kent Mason was quoted as outside counsel for the American Benefits Council noting that DOL has broad subpoena power to force companies to hand over data that could be used against them in court.
Mason is further quoted to say:
“Plan sponsors are voluntarily providing benefits; it is wholly inappropriate for the government to secretly help plaintiffs lawyers sue them. . .Congress and the Administration need to know the extent to which DOL is helping accelerate this dangerous trend.”
A link to the full article can be found here
