US companies have been granting various forms of share-based awards to employees around the globe for many years, and companies in other countries are increasingly following suit. Because share-based awards are ubiquitous, and for many companies an important part of the total pay package, we are now also seeing an increasing number of lawsuits and other disputes involving such awards. The Claims Broadly, these disputes can be categorized as follows: Entitlement Claims These can arise…
Two more federal Circuit Courts have weighed in on whether mandatory arbitration provisions with class action waivers are enforceable under the U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”). With recent rulings in Cedeno v. Sasson, 100 F.4th 386 (2d Cir. 2024) and Parker v Tenneco, 2024 WL 3873409 (6th Cir. Aug 1, 2024), the Second and Sixth Circuits now join the Third, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits in holding that arbitration provisions…
We have been following the progress of a number of plaintiff shareholder suits alleging Exchange Act Section 16(b) short swing profits based on “discretionary” share withholding on equity awards. Just under a year ago we were happy to report the first district court dismissal of one of these claims, although that case is currently on appeal to the Fifth Circuit. On January 26, 2018, a second such claim was thrown out via summary judgment, this…