The Uncertain Future of Multiemployer Benefit Plans

Multiemployer benefit plans, writes Paul Secunda, “once represented one of the greatest triumphs in American labor relations in providing employee benefits to workers of small employers in itinerant industries (such as in building and construction, trucking, retail, and the entertainment industry).” In a new paper on SSRN, Paul explores three major challenges facing multiemployer plans. First, in the wake of the global recession of 2007-2009, “benefit plans are increasingly underfunded and in danger of becoming insolvent.” Second, as a result of health benefits that are perceived as overly generous, some plans may face a large new excise tax under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Finally, recent judicial decisions have created uncertainty and increased liability risks when plan trustees deny claims.

Paul considers a variety of policy responses to some of these challenges, but it appears there are no easy fixes.

Paul’s paper, entitled “The Forgotten Employee Benefit Crisis: Multiemployer Benefit Plans on the Brink,” will appear in the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.

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New Issue of IP Law Review

The latest issue of the Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review is now out in print.  The contents include:

  • Mark Lemley’s Nies Lecture, “Can the Patent Office Be Fixed?”
  • Ysolde Gendreau’s lecture on copyright reform in Canada, “Canada and the Three-Step Test: A Step in Which Direction?”
  • Dalila Hoover’s article, “Coercion Will Not Protect Trademark Owners in China, but an Understanding of China’s Culture Will: A Lesson the United States Has to Learn”
  • Benedetta Ubertazzi’s article, “Intellectual Property Rights and Exclusive (Subject Matter) Jurisdiction: Between Private and Public International Law”
  • Brian Jacobs’ comment on intellectual property as security for financing
  • Colin Shanahan’s comment on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
  • Syvil Shelbourne’s comment on rule of reason patent misuse analysis
  • Nicholas Smith’s comment on Medimmune v. Genentech

Abstracts and links for full-text downloads are here.  Congratulations to the editors for bringing Volume 15 to a successful conclusion!

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Seventh Circuit Reaffirms Conviction of Gov. Ryan

As the Casey Anthony trial/cultural moment/media feeding frenzy reached its denouement last week, two of the biggest trials of 2006 collided in the Seventh Circuit.  Five years ago, Illinois Gov. George Ryan and Enron President Jeffrey Skilling were both convicted of mail fraud.  From there, the two cases took quite different paths.  Ryan’s conviction was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit, and the Supreme Court denied certiorari, but Skilling managed to win a partial reversal in the Supreme Court a year ago, as the Court substantially narrowed the reach of the mail-fraud statute.  Ryan immediately sought another review of his conviction through a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, arguing that the jury in his case was improperly instructed in light of Skilling.  The district court denied relief, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed the decision last Wednesday.  Ryan v. United States (No. 10-3964).

The court did not stake out any new ground legally in Ryan, but the opinion does provide a helpful roadmap of some of the opportunities and pitfalls that face defendants who try to take advantage of a new, narrowing construction of a criminal statute after their direct appeals have been exhausted.

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