Experience
ERISA and ERISA Litigation
Ms. Soubly has extensive experience representing employers, fiduciaries, plans, and plan sponsors in ERISA class actions, including fiduciary breach litigation, retiree insurance litigation (involving both collectively bargained retirees and salaried retirees), cash balance plan litigation, and ERISA §510 class litigation. She has reviewed, revised and designed early retirement incentive programs and other ERISA plans for force reductions, severance pay plans, ERISA welfare benefit plans, and executive compensation plans. She has routinely counseled employers and plan administrators regarding benefit denials and plan procedures and has represented plan administrators during intraplan procedures.
Employment Law and Employment Litigation
Ms. Soubly also has extensive experience in litigation avoidance, training, counseling, agency proceedings, mediations, and litigation of single- and multiple-plaintiff employment law and employment discrimination cases, including class actions involving federal and state employment statutes. She has conducted high-level investigations of alleged discriminatory conduct (including sexual harassment) and has served as a mediator and an arbitrator in discrimination cases, including a class action case which the EEOC requested that she arbitrate.
In-house Experience
From 1997-2000, Ms. Soubly served as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Litigation of Comerica Incorporated. In that position, she was responsible for all of Comerica's litigation, domestic and international, with particular attention to high profile and/or high exposure matters. As Deputy General Counsel, she focused on all facets of offensive and defensive litigation for Comerica, including employment and employee benefits litigation, class action litigation, commercial litigation, trust and breach of fiduciary duty litigation, lender liability and workout litigation, securities litigation, consumer litigation, NASD proceedings, premises liability litigation, and appellate litigation. She also interfaced with various federal agencies on behalf of Comerica, including the Department of Labor.
Publications
"Establishing the Employment Relationship," chapter in Employment Law in Michigan, Institute for Continuing Legal Education (1995-2005)
"Developments in Collectively Bargained VEBAs," Employee Benefits Law Journal (Summer 2009)
"State Law Alert: Probable Circuit Split on ERISA Preemption and Pay or Play Statutes," Employee Benefits Law Journal (Winter 2008)
"VEBAs: Old Wine in New Bottles?" Employee Benefits Law and Compensation Newsletter (December 2007)
"Works in Progress: 'Pay or Play' Statutes and ERISA Preemption Revisited," Employee Benefits Law Journal (Autumn 2007)
"New 'Pay or Play' Statutes: Promise or Preemption?" Employee Benefits Law Journal (Summer 2006)
"Protected Rights Under §510 of ERISA: Avoiding Something for Nothing," Employee Benefits Law Journal (Autumn 1988)
Speeches and Presentations
"ERISA's Interaction with the Bermuda Triangle — FMLA, Workers' Comp and the ADA," (co-presenter) American Conference Institute's Compensation and Benefits Boot Camp (January 25, 2011)
"Family Responsibilities 2.0: Workplace Issues Beyond the FMLA," (co-presenter) Schiff Hardin LLP webinar (May 19, 2010)
"Rightsizing in Challenging Economic Times," American Benefits Council Board of Directors Conference (February 2008)
"Significant Developments in ERISA Litigation," American Petroleum Labor Lawyers Conference (October 2007)
"ERISA Preemption and Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act," MCLE Conference (June 2007)
"Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act and ERISA Preemption," MCLE Conference (June 2006)
"In the Aftermath of Circuit City: Is Alternative Dispute Resolution An Idea Whose Time Has Come?" (Lorman Education Services) (2003)
"ERISA Litigation," Lorman Education Services (June 2004)
"He Said; She Said — Trends in Sexual Harassment Litigation," National CLE Conference Labor and Employment Law, Law Education Institute and BNA, Vail, Colorado (1998)
"Diversity in the Work Place," National CLE Conference Labor & Employment Law, Law Education Institute and BNA, Vail Colorado (1997)
"Till Death Do Us Part?: Modification of Retiree Insurance Benefits," Institute of Continuing Legal Education 19th Annual Labor and Employment Law Seminar, Detroit, Michigan (1994)
Awards and Honors
Best Lawyers In America, Litigation – Labor and Employment; Employment – Management
Leading Lawyer — Employment: Labor and Employment, Chambers USA - America's Leading Lawyers for Business
Martindale-Hubbell — A/V Rated
Who's Who Legal USA — Management Labour & Employment
Fellow, College of Labor and Employment Lawyers (prior chair of College's Sixth Circuit Credentials Committee)
Member, American Employment Law Council
Member, American Benefits Council Board of Directors