District Court Relies on Analysis of Compass Lexecon Affiliate Kenneth M. Lehn in Denying Class Certification in Computer Sciences Corporation ERISA Litigation

On April 26, 2016, United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III denied Plaintiffs' motion for class certification and granted Defendants' motion for summary judgment in an ERISA case brought against Computer Sciences Corporation ("CSC"). Plaintiffs in this matter are former executives and current participants in a deferred compensation plan for key executives, who sought to invalidate an amendment to the plan that they allege harms their interests. Plaintiffs moved to certify a class action including all similarly situated former employees of CSC whom the challenged amendment affected.

In reaching its decision on Plaintiffs' motion for class certification, the Court quoted, cited and relied on Compass Lexecon Affiliate Professor Kenneth M. Lehn's analysis, which showed that at least some members of the proposed class had benefited financially from the amendment to date, and that it would not be possible to determine whether a particular participant would receive more or less under the amendment than under the prior plan because of the uncertainty of the performance of participants' investment choices. The Court also granted summary judgment to CSC.

Professor Lehn was supported by a Compass Lexecon team led by David Ross that included Joseph Goodman and Eugenia Vinogradsky in our Chicago office. CSC was successfully represented by Deborah S. Davidson, Christopher A. Weals, Andrew G. Sakallaris, and Matthew A. Russell from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.