Originally working out of the Buffalo office during law school, Ben Kallos was hired as an Associate at the New York office of Gorlick, Kravitz, and Listhaus. In this role I supported collective bargaining and removing criminal elements from labor organizations using trusteeships, conducted elections, and served ERISA funds. Ben's ERISA work included advising on prohibited transactions, facilitating solicitations, bids, and awards, drafting executive compensation agreements, defending employment matters, as well as ensuring employer payments to the funds.
It is in this role as an ERISA litigator that Ben worked with auditors to obtain digital copies of audits in order to automate the process by creating a knowledge management system. This started with automatically determining of damages, generating demand letters and Federal complaints, and even handling much of the discovery process. Due to Federal question on all ERISA matters, Ben practiced exclusively in the Federal Courts. Ben was also able to identify bad decisions in case law, that Ben actively worked to change, winning my clients additional payouts based on my new theories of law. Ultimately, the work of multiple associates was given to Ben as he managed all new ERISA cases for the firm.
Ben is particularly proud to have worked on the Delphi Bankruptcy, where the firm represented the International Union of Operating Engineers. The membership of the local unions had dwindled to single digits at some job sites. Our role in the litigation was to prove that Delphi had failed to even communicate with these small bargaining units prior to seeking to be relieved of their pension obligations under Chapter 11.