Bard Brockman is a partner in the Business Litigation and Arbitration practice group, and is the leader of the firm’s ERISA Litigation practice.  Bard devotes much of his practice to representing employers, plan sponsors, plan administrators, third-party administrators, individual fiduciaries, and independent trust companies in ERISA cases.  He has substantial experience in handling ERISA class actions, benefits disputes, fiduciary claims, subrogation actions, and government investigations.  Bard also frequently litigates executive compensation cases, including change-in-control and severance disputes.  The remainder of his practice is devoted to handling a variety of complex commercial disputes, both in litigation and arbitration. 

Bard’s recent representations include:  

• Obtained summary judgment (and an award of attorneys’ fees) for an independent trust company on claims for breach of fiduciary duty and violations of ERISA.
  
  
• Obtained summary judgment for an company-sponsored ESOP and its trustees on claims for violation of ERISA’s Anti-Cutback and Significant Detriment Rules.
  
  
• Prosecuted a defendant class action for a Fortune 100 client as trustee of pension funds subject to competing claims of its unionized workers.
  
  
• Represented a large public university in a class action suit brought by former employees to recover early retirement benefits.
  
  
• Negotiated a substantial subrogation recovery for a company-sponsored medical plan in connection with a medical malpractice suit brought by a plan beneficiary.
  
  
• Successfully defended a major insurance company in an arbitration matter on severance and change-in-control claims brought by a former executive.
  
  
• Successfully defended a computer services company in a lengthy arbitration involving a purchase price adjustment based on a complicated earn-out formula.
  
  
• Obtained summary judgment for a major telecommunications corporation in three separate actions in which former contractors asserted claims for fraud and racial discrimination.
  
  
• Successfully tried a factually complex garnishment case involving claims of corporate “alter ego” and “piercing the corporate veil”.
   
• Successfully negotiated several substantial settlements in preference actions in connection with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of a major consumer products retailer.

Bard is married to the former Kathryn Wilkins, and they have two terrific sons.  They are all active members of Glenn United Methodist Church.