Eric has served as counsel in significant class actions across the country, including the following:
- Probst v. Eli Lilly & Co. (S.D. Ind. 2023). Defended Eli Lilly in an ERISA class action alleging that the fiduciaries of the company’s 401(k) plan allowed the plan to pay too much in recordkeeping fees and engaged in self-dealing by reimbursing the company for the salaries of employees who provided services to the plan. The case was dismissed with prejudice; plaintiff did not appeal.
- Rokowsky v. Vericity, Inc. (N.D. Ill. 2022) Successfully defended Vericity, along with its officers and directors, certain affiliates, and others, against a putative class action challenging the conversion of a mutual insurance company into a publicly listed stock company. The case was dismissed, and plaintiff did not appeal.
- Herron v. Marathon Petroleum Company, LP (N.D. Ohio 2022). Defended Marathon Petroleum and other defendants in an ERISA class action alleging that defendants overpaid for recordkeeping services and permitted an imprudent investment option to remain in the company’s 401(k) plan. Plaintiff dismissed the claim after Sidley filed a motion to dismiss.
- Aronstein v. Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins. Co., 15 F.4th 527 (1st Cir. 2021). Represented MassMutual in a putative class action alleging that the company sold deferred annuities with a promise of a higher minimum guaranteed interest rate than the company actually provided. We defeated class certification, and that victory was affirmed on appeal.
- Trzeciak v. Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Co. (E.D. Mich. 2021). Represented Allstate in a class action alleging that our client improperly implemented discriminatory insurance premium pricing based on the perceived propensity of a customer to leave Allstate for a competitor. The case was dismissed; plaintiff did not appeal.
- Beardsall v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc., 953 F.3d 969 (7th Cir. 2020). Obtained a victory in the Seventh Circuit in a consumer class action over the quality of aloe gels sold by Walgreen Co., CVS Pharmacy, Inc., Target Corporation, Walmart Inc., and Fruit of the Earth, Inc. The trial found that the evidence did not support a claim of consumer deception and entered summary judgment in favor of the defendants, and that ruling was affirmed on appeal.
- Pincus v. Speedpay, Inc. (11th Cir. 2018). Represented Speedpay in a class action alleging that Speedpay acted as an unlicensed “money transmitter” in violation of Florida law. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of our client.
- In re Takata Airbag Litigation (S.D. Fla.). Represents American Honda Motor Co., Inc. in class actions alleging defects in Takata-manufactured airbags.
Eric has successfully resolved ERISA class actions and has helped set precedent across the full spectrum of ERISA issues, at times overcoming the objections of the Department of Labor. In covering the McCaffree case described below, Bloomberg BNA reported, “The Labor Department is now 0-3 in its attempt to persuade the federal appeals courts to impose ERISA fiduciary liability on 401(k) service providers.” Eric argued the appeals in two of the referenced cases and wrote an amicus brief in support of the prevailing party in the third. In addition to the ERISA cases above, other notable cases include:
- Romano v. John Hancock Life Insurance Co. (U.S.A.) (2023). Assisted the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) with two amicus briefs in support of insurance company defendants before the Fifth Circuit and Eleventh Circuits.
- McCaffree v. Principal Life Ins. Co. (8th Cir. 2016). Eric argued the appeal in this class action alleging that a retirement plan service provider violated fiduciary duties under ERISA. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the judgment in favor of our client, rejecting plaintiff’s theories of fiduciary status and creating helpful precedent for defendants about the need to show a nexus between the alleged violations and the actions leading to the defendant’s status as an alleged fiduciary.
- Leimkuehler v. American United Life Insurance Co., 713 F.3d 905 (7th Cir. 2013). Eric argued the motion for summary judgment and argued the appeal in this class action alleging that “revenue sharing” violates ERISA. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the judgment in favor of our client, rejecting plaintiff’s theories of fiduciary status under ERISA as well as another, novel theory of fiduciary status offered by the Department of Labor.
- Loomis v. Exelon Corp., 658 F.3d 667 (7th Cir. 2011). Eric represented the defendants and argued the appeal in this ERISA class action alleging breach of fiduciary duty by allowing participants in 401(k) plan to pay excessive fees. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of all claims against all defendants.
- Fry v. Exelon Corp. Cash Balance Pension Plan, 571 F.3d 644 (7th Cir. 2009). Represented defendants in class action alleging that pension plan’s definition of “normal retirement age” violated ERISA. In the first Court of Appeals opinion on the issue, the Seventh Circuit upheld the dismissal of plaintiff’s claims.
A former newspaper reporter, Eric has also handled media law issues during his career, including defamation, privacy, copyright and reporter’s privilege matters. He was listed in Chambers USA as a leader in Illinois media law (2007–2016). From 1999 through 2013, he served as a co-author of the Illinois chapter of the Media Law Resource Center’s annual 50-State Survey on Employment Libel and Privacy Law. Representative cases in this area include the following:
- Chicago Tribune Co. v. Cook County Assessor’s Office, 2018 IL App (1st) 170455. Eric represented the owner of the Chicago Tribune in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit the newspaper brought against the Cook County Assessor’s Office. The lawsuit sought to compel the release of records the Assessor’s Office uses when calculating property values for property tax purposes. A state appeals court affirmed a decision ordering the release of the records and rejected defendant’s argument that the records qualified for FOIA’s “deliberative process” exemption. The court also upheld the award of attorneys’ fees in favor of the Tribune.
For many years, Eric has proudly served as counsel for his law school alma mater, Northwestern University, and has represented Northwestern on a variety of matters.
