Gregory C. Braden is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Labor and Employment Practice and co-chair of the ERISA Litigation Practice. Mr. Braden concentrates his practice on ERISA litigation and has served as lead defense counsel in virtually every type of ERISA Title I class action claim, including 401(k) proprietary fund and fees claims, employer stock claims, defined benefit plan (including cash balance plan) claims, retiree benefits claims, severance pay claims, Title II based pension claims, and multiple employer welfare arrangement (MEWA) claims. He has appeared as counsel in more than 160 ERISA cases. Mr. Braden has also practiced in the area of employee benefits, focusing on complex transactional issues such as employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) transactions.
Mr. Braden is ranked nationally in Chambers USA 2014, which makes particular note of his ERISA class action successes. He is also listed in The Legal 500's 2014 edition, which describes him as "vastly experienced" and notes that he "has appeared as counsel in more than 140 ERISA cases." He is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers in Washington, D.C. (The Washington Post Magazine) under Employee Benefits; is peer rated "AV" by Martindale Hubbell; has been named one of the "Top Ten" most powerful ERISA attorneys in the U.S. by Human Resources Executive magazine; and has been named a "Super Lawyer" by Corporate Counsel magazine. He is a fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and has lectured extensively on ERISA litigation topics, giving presentations to the American Bar Association National Convention (New York), Taxation Section (Atlanta), the American Law Institute - American Bar Association (Washington, D.C., San Francisco), the national meeting of the Enrolled Actuaries (Washington, D.C.), the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) (Washington, D.C.), the Professional Liability Underwriters Society (Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta), the State Bars of Georgia and Colorado, the Law Education Institute, the ESOP Association (Savannah, Georgia), the Southern Employee Benefits Conference (Palm Beach, Atlanta), and several other trade and professional organizations.
Mr. Braden served as an adjunct professor at Emory University Law School and is a senior editor of the ABA's Employee Benefits Law treatise. He has written numerous articles on employee benefits topics that have appeared in the Benefits Law Journal, the Journal of Taxation and Regulation of Financial Institutions, the Journal of Compensation Planning and Compliance, and other trade publications. He has served as president of the Southern Employee Benefits Conference and is a member of the ESOP Association.
Mr. Braden earned his J.D., with honors, from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1982, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and received the Dean's Academic Achievement Award and American Jurisprudence Awards. He earned his B.A., with honors, in mathematical economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1979.
Mr. Braden is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Georgia and has appeared before the federal courts of 21 states and several U.S. Courts of Appeals.
