Law Firm Objects to Defendant Class in Nationwide 401(k) Suit

A Colorado law firm is fighting an effort to make it the “involuntary representative” of a defendant class of retirement plan sponsors that are accused of charging high fees through bad deals with Nationwide Life Insurance Co.

Andrus Wagstaff—a Denver-based mass tort firm with fewer than 60 employees—says it has no way of shouldering the “Herculean” and costly task of representing a class of thousands of small retirement plan sponsors accused of violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Forcing the firm to represent thousands of other plan sponsors would compromise its ability to defend itself from the ERISA claims ...