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The 2015 Pension 40: Kenneth Feinberg

No. 26 Kenneth Feinberg, Managing Partner / The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg

By Tyler Davies

December 22, 2015

< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

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