Last week we provided a Capital Hill Visit Recap and discussed the Upcoming August Recess Company Visit Opportunities. The Employee Ownership Blog discusses how the company visit is the most effective way to obtain support from your representatives and reminds you to Setup a Meeting with Your Member of Congress:

The ERISA Litigation Newsletter discusses Blankenship v. Chamberlain, 2009 WL 1421201 (E.D. Mo. May 20, 2009) and how the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri dismissed breach of fiduciary claims and ruled that a complaint must allege that the ESOP trustee was acting in a fiduciary capacity when engaging in alleged misconduct:

We recently discussed how a district court found that an ESOP-owned company could not advance the costs of defense as provided under corporate officer indemnification agreements because the participants had shown a "substantial likelihood of success" and would effectively lack recourse against the fiduciaries in Corporate Indemnification Limited to Amount Covered by Fiduciary Insurance?. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reconsidered the district court decision in Johnson v. Couturier, No. 08-17369 and concluded that it did not abuse discretion, but did remand the district court to set the terms and conditions of a surety bond:

Some ESOP Issues In Tough Economic Times discusses how one of the main consequences of an ESOP Partial Plan Termination is to increase (due to the 100% vesting requirement) and accelerate (due to terminations) the repurchase liability obligation and how delaying distributions can help minimize the impact on cash flow. It also discusses the fiduciary issues associated with refinancing an ESOP loan:

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) introduced H.R. 692 on January 26, 2009. Essentially, the bill would exempt from tax the value of company stock paid directly to an employee if the employee holds the stock for at least 10 years. This proposal would be most suitable for a publicly traded company. As such, H.R. 692 is the first to encourage employee ownership in a publicly traded company since a 2001 law. The 2001 law expanded the federal tax deduction for dividends paid on ESOP stock to permit a deduction for dividends reinvested by the employee back to the plan to acquire more company stock.

The July 15, 2009 Employee Ownership Update is online and discusses the following:

Our most recent discussion on valuation issues in the current economic environment was Considering Subsequent Events in the ESOP Appraisal. If you are looking for a rough estimate of how much your company is worth, Valuation Guide 2009 will give you a good starting point. The online guide incorporates the current economic conditions in valuing a business based on "2,168 transactions from January 1, 2007, to March 31, 2009, in 122 industries". It contains Median Valuation Multiples by Industry and a Calculate Your Company's Value worksheet.

Hang On To Your Records discusses two records retention guidelines, the "7-Year Rule" (business records) and the "6-Year Rule" (ERISA records):

Sotomayor's Second Circuit ERISA Cases provides commentary on five Second Circuit opinions authored by the Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, including one ESOP-related case, Henry v. Champlain Enterprises, Inc., 445 F.3d 610 (2d Cir. 2006):

The July 1, 2009 Employee Ownership Update is online and discusses the following: