Pension Funds

BLA Schwartz believes it is the only law firm with a national practice that has substantial experience in providing independent, conflict-free advice to pension funds on securities and class action litigation, given that we do not act as class counsel and have committed not to do so to our client, the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board of Massachusetts ("PRIM").

BLA Schwartz commenced its representation of pension funds in 2005, when it was hired by National Automatic Sprinkler Industry Pension Fund ("NASI") to evaluate proposals made by prospective class counsel that NASI agree to serve as class representative. Since that time, BLA Schwartz has advised and represented NASI in a variety of related contexts, including decisions whether to opt out of class settlements, and scrutinizing class settlements to assure procedural and economic fairness to NASI and other class members. BLA Schwartz has appeared for NASI and other clients as objector counsel in multiple actions since 2005 and has succeeded in preserving almost $4 million in common funds for the classes in two of these cases by exposing unsupportable aspects of fee applications. In addition, BLA Schwartz recovered for NASI's welfare (health benefit) funds, approximately $600,000 (in addition to the settlement proceeds) as an objector on appeal of the settlement of a drug price fixing class action.

In 2010, the Hartford Financial Services Group ("The Hartford") retained BLA Schwartz to assist it in recovering approximately $1.8 million associated with the Enron class action settlement. While BLA Schwartz cannot disclose the details of this engagement, in general, The Hartford was holding claims that had been disallowed by the Enron class action settlement administrator, which The Hartford strongly believed were valid claims. BLA Schwartz utilized contacts developed through its work for NASI to informally approach the settlement administrator and determine the source of the disagreement. After obtaining an answer to this issue, BLA Schwartz then aggressively pursued the missing information to resolve that disagreement. This caused the Enron settlement administrator to reverse its disallowance of the claim in dispute and hold the amount in dispute in escrow pending documentation.

In 2011, PRIM hired BLA Schwartz by RFP to provide it independent advice in all aspects of securities litigation monitoring and recovery. Among other services, BLA Schwartz evaluated numerous potential foreign securities cases, advised PRIM on the merits of joining at least six foreign cases, and negotiated retainer agreements for those foreign cases that PRIM elected to join, and advised PRIM on various aspects of class action settlements. In addition, in December 2012, BLA Schwartz proposed to PRIM a wholly new securities monitoring and collection protocol, which PRIM approved after a six-month pilot program.

In 2014, California State Teachers Retirement System ("CalSTRS") hired BLA Schwartz to advise it on securities litigation issues with respect to its portfolio. Thus far, BLA Schwartz has advised CalSTRS on two foreign securities litigation and is taking steps to implement the monitoring and collection protocol that it developed for PRIM.