Bien, Richard N.

Mr. Bien's litigation practice involves defense of class action claims and other claims for self-insured or partially insured entities, financial services companies, life, health and disability insurance defense, ERISA, general business and financial litigation, insurance professional liability litigation, insurance coverage litigation and real estate litigation.  Mr. Bien has served the firm as Chair of the Litigation Division and the Business Litigation Department.

Mr. Bien has defended dozens of class action matters involving benefit plans, financial services, insurance sales practices, consumer protection claims, warranty claims, merchandising practices and lending practices. Two notable cases were resolved on motions early in the case.  Recent reported cases in this area are S.G. Metals v. New England Life and Doll v. Chicago Title Insurance.

Mr. Bien has been in the forefront of ERISA/employee benefit litigation. He was lead counsel in the leading case concerning preemption of state "penalty" statutes. Additionally, he has handled over 300 matters defending claims handling activities by insurers, plan administrators and other ERISA fiduciaries.

Mr. Bien also has other business practice experience. He previously served as outside counsel for a national transportation firm and in this representation he was involved in corporate policy development (human resource, employee benefits, governance, insider trading, conflict of interests, antitrust, customer relations), transactions, litigation and litigation management, antitrust, regulatory and other business matters.