The Complaint alleges that the terms of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP Retirement and Savings Plan (“the Plan”) did not require non-equity partners or counsel to make pre-tax salary deferred contributions to the Plan, but the Firm adopted a policy requiring those income partners and counsel to do so. The Complaint alleges that Schnader calculated the amount to be deferred every month for each non-equity partner in mid-January for that year and withheld the calculated amounts each month from non-equity partners’ compensation but does not timely contribute those amounts to the Plan.

Under ERISA and Department of Labor regulations, employers are required to pay employee contributions into the Plan at the earliest date in which the money can be reasonably segregated from the employer’s general assets. The Complaint alleges that the Firm, however, did not pay the employee contributions into the Plan at the earliest possible date and, instead, commingled employee contributions with Schnader’s general assets. The Complaint alleges thatthe employee contributions were commingled with other assets of the Firm and were used to fund Schnader’s operations and distributions to the firm’s equity partners. The Complaint alleges that typically, employee contributions were not paid into the Plan until September of the following year in which those contributions were withheld from non-equity partners’ paychecks.

The Complaint alleges that beginning in 2022, Schnader was experiencing a decline in operating revenue, but the firm’s financial circumstances, equity partners were not required to make capital contributions to the firm and they continued to take their normal pay from the firm.

In August 2023, Schnader announced its closing and some equity partners began to dissolve the firm. Soon after, the Complaint alleges that the liquidating equity partners informed the firm’s current and former non-equity partners that the firm would not pay the employee contributions into the Plan because it lacked the funds.

This lawsuit is brought on behalf of the following Class:

Participants in the Plan from (other than Equity Partners of Schnader) who had contributions deducted from their compensation between February 7, 2018 to the present and for whom such contributions were not contributed to the Plan within 15 days and the beneficiaries of such participants.

Excluded from the Class are the following persons: (a) the Defendants, (b) any equity partners of Schnader during the Class Period, (c) other persons who had decision-making or administrative authority relating to the administration, modification, funding or interpretation of the Plan, (d) the beneficiaries of such persons or the immediate family members of any of the foregoing excluded persons, and (e) the legal representatives, successors and assigns of any such excluded persons.

On February 7, 2024, Plaintiff filed the Class Action Complaint. Defendants have not yet answered or responded to the Complaint.

Order on Motion to Stay - October 29, 2024

Class Action Complaint - February 7, 2024

“Dissolved Law Firm Bungled Attorney Retirement Plan, Suit Says” Bloomberg Law News

“Ex-Schnader Harrison Atty Alleges Firm Mishandled Funds" Law360