The Lawletter Vol 39 No 10

Matt McDavitt, Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

     While many employers create severance contracts as incentives for employees to remain during mergers or sales of the company, few employers realize that some severance agreements are governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA") and that federal ERISA law preempts state law when such severance contracts are introduced during litigation.

     However, not all employer severance contracts are subject to preemption by federal ERISA law. The ERISA statutes do not define which severance agreements are governed by federal law; fortunately, a line of federal case law has clarified how this determination is made.