< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

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Kenneth Feinberg
Managing Partner / The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg
Last year’s rank: Not ranked

Kenneth Feinberg has tackled some tough challenges. A Washington-based attorney and onetime chief of staff for former senator Ted Kennedy, Feinberg specializes in mediation and dispute resolution. He famously oversaw the compensation fund for victims of the 9/11 attacks, working pro bono for 33 months. In 2010 the U.S. Treasury Department appointed him to oversee the compensation plans of financial firms that had received federal bailout money. In June, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew asked Feinberg to oversee the pension-restructuring program for troubled Taft-Hartley union pension plans that came out of the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (see Randy DeFrehn, No. 23). Qualified funds that are dangerously underfunded submit a restructuring proposal to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., to be reviewed by Treasury, the PBGC and the Department of Labor. Feinberg weighs in on those proposals; if he finds them unacceptable, they may be sent back to the union. If changes are approved but rejected by union members, Feinberg can override that vote for funds that are “systemically important” — meaning that a takeover would cost the PBGC $1 billion or more. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund became the first plan to file under the new law when it submitted its restructuring proposal in September. “We have 225 days by statute to conduct a comprehensive review of the proposed plan and the retirement benefit cuts,” says Feinberg, 70. “Then I’ll either approve the plan or reject it.” He recognizes the effect pension cuts may have on beneficiaries. “They bargained for this; they expect it,” he says of promised pension benefits. “This [Central States] plan, which calls for average cuts of 50 percent on retirement benefits, could have a huge impact.” This puts Feinberg in a unique position: In a few years he has gone from annoying the U.S.’s biggest bankers to potentially stirring the wrath of union leaders like Teamsters general president James Hoffa.

 

 
The 2015 Pension 40

1. Bruce Rauner Illinois 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation Sponsored Podcast- Capturing Alpha: A Bridge Between Quantitative and Fundamental Disciplines Sponsored by Fidelity Investments October 21, 2025 3. Chris Christie New Jersey 4. Randi Weingarten AmericanFederation of Teachers 5. Phyllis Borzi U.S. Department of Labor

6. Kevin de León California 7. Alejandro García Padilla Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico 8. Laurence Fink BlackRock 9. Rahm Emanuel Chicago 10. Sean McGarvey North AmericanBuilding Trades Unions

11. John Kline Minnesota 12. J. Mark Iwry U.S. TreasuryDepartment 13. Damon Silvers AFL-CIO 14. Jeffrey Immelt General Electric Co. 15. Joshua Gotbaum Brookings Institution

16. Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. 17. Mark Mullet Washington 18. Terry O'Sullivan Laborers' International Union of North America 19. Raymond Dalio Bridgewater Associates 20. Ted Wheeler Oregon

21. Thomas Nyhan Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund 22. Karen Ferguson & Karen Friedman Pensions Rights Center 23. Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee forMultiemployer Plans 24. Robert O'Keef Motorola Solutions 25. Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley

26. Kenneth Feinberg The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg 27. Orrin Hatch Utah 28. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University 29. Ian Lanoff Groom Law Group 30. Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business

31. Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees' Retirement System 32. Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services 33. Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research 34. Denise Nappier Connecticut 35. W. Thomas Reeder Jr. Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp.

36. Hank Kim National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems 37. Paul Singer Elliott Management Corp. 38. Bailey Childers National PublicPension Coalition 39. Amy Kessler Prudential Financial 40. Judy Mares U.S. Labor Department