Nossaman Attorneys Noted By Law360 For MCERA Win In Pensions Dispute

Pensions, Benefits & Investments (PB&I) Group Co-Chair and Partner Ashley Dunning and PB&I Group member and Of Counsel Michael Toumanoff were noted as counsel for the Marin County Employees’ Retirement Association (MCERA) and the MCERA Board of Retirement in the Law360 story, Pensions Can Be 'Reasonably' Lowered, Calif. Panel Says.  The article reported on the unanimous ruling by a three judge panel for California’s First District Court of Appeal that found the Legislature could legally alter the formula used for calculating active public employees’ pensions to narrow their expected pension benefits so long as it made sure those employees still receive a reasonable, albeit reduced pension, and that boards of local retirement systems such as MCERA’s could implement those changes prospectively without violating the Federal or State constitutions.  According to Law360, the decision could legally curtail a practice known as ‘pension spiking’ when public employees use various ploys to inflate their income and retirement benefits, as long as the workers are still offered reasonable benefits.  Dunning and Toumanoff co-authored a Nossaman eAlert published on August 29, 2016, which discusses some of the key aspects of this important Court of Appeal ruling to California public retirement systems, and their members and other stakeholders.  News of the decision and its impact was also reported in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Moody’s, Bond Buyer, Breitbart.com, the Sacramento Bee and many local papers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You can read the full article here.