Russell Hirschhorn > Proskauer Rose LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

Proskauer Rose LLP
11 TIMES SQUARE
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10036-8299
NEW YORK
United States
Russell Hirschhorn photo

Work Department

ERISA Litigation

Position

Russell L. Hirschhorn is co-head of Proskauer’s premier ERISA Litigation Group, which is a significant component of the firm’s ERISA Practice Center and globally renowned Labor and Employment Law Department. Russell’s practice focuses on employee benefits issues arising under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), including class action and complex litigation, U.S. Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service investigations, and counseling clients on best practices to avoid litigation.

Russell has more than two decades of experience representing plan sponsors, fiduciaries, trustees, and service providers across the country. His work on behalf of clients has included all types of plans, including 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, defined benefit plans, employee stock ownership plans, executive compensation plans, health and welfare plans, multiemployer plans, multiple employer plans, and severance plans. And, it has included the full gamut of claims arising under ERISA, including excessive investment and plan administration fees and investment underperformance claims; cash balance plan litigation; claims for benefits; company stock fund cases; claims for delinquent contributions; ERISA § 510 claims; ERISA statutory claims; ESOP litigation; executive compensation claims; independent contractor claims; independent fiduciary representations; multiemployer fund litigation; plan service provider claims; recoupment of plan overpayments; retiree benefits claims; severance plan claims; and withdrawal liability claims.

His pro bono work has included serving as lead litigation counsel in several impact litigations: on behalf of social security recipients whose benefits were unlawfully suspended based on an outstanding warrant, deaf and hard of hearing prisoners in Louisiana prisons seeking disability accommodations, and Swartzentruber Amish in upstate New York to obtain religious exemptions from certain building code requirements. Russell also was a principal drafter of several amicus briefs for the Innocence Project, a legal non-profit committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people.

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Labor and employment > ERISA litigation

(Leading partners)

Russell HirschhornProskauer Rose LLP

Proskauer Rose LLP fields a deep bench focused on ERISA litigation, with the team benefiting from its close collaboration with its employee benefits and executive compensation group and appellate practice group across five different US offices. Lawyers are skilled in handling employee benefits cases nationwide, as well as in bet-the-company ERISA lawsuits, 401(k) and 403(b) plan participant claims, and government investigations. Myron Rumeld, who is known for his ‘effective representation of defendants or plaintiffs, without any inherent bias toward either side,’ covers a full range of ERISA litigation, both at trial and appellate level, including representations of 401(k) plan fiduciaries and class action stock and excessive fee claims. Russell Hirschhorn is experienced in representing a range of clients in federal trial and appellate courts, as well as in investigations commenced by the US Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service, while Joseph Clark aids clients in defense of class action claims seeking benefits, or alleging ERISA fiduciary breaches. Neil Shah is noted for being instrumental in a NBA players’ pension plan, as well as in representing plan sponsors and fiduciaries in ERISA stock-drop options. All lawyers mentioned are based in New York.