March 28, 2005 — KSM Partners Daniel J. Kaiser and Henry L. Saurborn, Jr. won a ground-breaking decision in the area of retaliation, when the United States Court of Appeals ruled that, under section 510 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), an ERISA plan participant and fiduciary is protected against retaliation by her employer (the sponsor of a 401k plan) where she complained internally within the company that the 401k plan was being consistently underfunded. The appeals court overruled the district court, which had held that to be protected under ERISA, the complaints must be in connection with a formal inquiry made by an outside agency or governmental authority.

Nicolaou v. Horizon Media, Inc., 402 F. 3d 325 (2^nd Cir. 2005)