PHILADELPHIA - A lawyer who worked at the Philadelphia firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis claims in a new lawsuit that the firm used her retirement benefits to fund its operations.
Jo Bennett filed a class action lawsuit against Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, along with multiple individual defendants associated with the firm, on Feb. 7 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The firm dissolved last year.
The complaint alleges that the defendants, who are equity partners at the law firm and fiduciaries of the Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP Retirement and Savings Plan, have breached their fiduciary duties and engaged in prohibited transactions.
The action is brought pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
Among the allegations, which can be viewed in their entirety here, is that the Schnader equity partners required non-equity partners to defer a portion of their compensation instead of requiring Schnader to make employer contributions for up to 18 months at a time.
The deferred employee contributions were then used to fund Schnader's operations, the suit says.
Bennett now works at Culhane Meadows. She is represented by lawyers at The Garner Firm and Barton & Downs.