Eric Lechtzin

Eric Lechtzin is a founding Partner of Edelson Lechtzin LLP and he leads the firm's practices in the areas of ERISA Litigation, and Unpaid Overtime class actions. Mr. Lechtzin received his J.D. from the Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1991. Mr. Lechtzin's practice also includes consumer protection class actions and securities fraud litigation. 

Mr. Lechtzin has served as the Pennsylvania State Chair for the National Association of Consumer Advocates. He has been named a "Super Lawyer" in Pennsylvania for Class and Mass Tort Litigation every year since 2017, he is AV Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and he has received a perfect 10.0 rating by Avvo.com.

In the area of ERISA class actions, Mr. Lechtzin co-authored an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Retirement Plans Committee of IBM v. Jander, 140 S. Ct. 592 (2020), where he argued successfully that the Court should not alter the standard to plead claims against fiduciaries of an employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) alleging that such fiduciaries should have made earlier public disclosures of adverse insider information. Mr. Lechtzin's successful ERISA cases also include Wilcox v. Georgetown Univ., 987 F.3d 143 (D.C. Cir.) (in a successful appeal, an order dismissing the case was vacated by Court of Appeals and remanded to District Court); Daugherty v. Univ. of Chicago, 2018 WL 1805646 (N.D. Ill. 2018) ($6.5 million settlement of ERISA claims alleging breach of fiduciary duties by incurring excessive expenses and retaining underperforming funds); and Nicolas v. The Trustees of Princeton University, No. 3:17-cv-03695 (D. N.J.) (member of team that secured a $5.8 million settlement where plaintiffs alleged that fiduciaries of the 403(b) selected imprudent investments and caused the plan to incur unreasonable recordkeeping fees).

Mr. Lechtzin's successful representations in the area of unpaid wages and overtime cases include Arrington v. Optimum Healthcare IT, 2018 WL 5631625 (E.D. Pa. 2018), where the plaintiffs' litigation team obtained a $4.9 million settlement of class action that alleged failure to pay overtime compensation to IT consultants. In Meyer v. The LandTek Group, Inc., Case No. 2:17-cv-00161-AYS (E.D.N.Y.), Mr. Lechtzin successfully recovered wages for unpaid off-the-clock time on behalf of a group of construction laborers who were "engaged to wait" before their shifts.

In the area of securities fraud, Mr. Lechtzin was a member of the litigation team in In re: Oppenheimer Rochester Funds Group Securities Litigation, No. 09-md- 02063-JLK (D. Col.), which settled for $89.5 million. Mr. Lechtzin also served as lead or co-lead counsel in: In re Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. Sec. Litig., No. 03-CV-10165-RWZ (D. Mass.) (settled for $50 million after successfully obtaining class certification); The Eshe Fund Group v. Fifth Third Bancorp, No. 1:08-CV-539 (S.D. Ohio) ($16 million settlement); In re Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. Litig., 09-CV-5262-PD (E.D. Pa.) ($3.6 million settlement); In re RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. Secs. Litig., No. 1:05-CV-6764 (S.D.N.Y.) ($13.5 million settlement); In re Global Crossing Access Charge Litig., No. 04-MD-1630 (S.D.N.Y) ($15 million settlement); and In re Van der Moolen Holding N.V. Secs. Litig., No. 1:03-CV-8284 (S.D.N.Y.) ($8 million settlement).

Among his successful representations in the area of consumer protection litigation is Silver v. Fitness Intern., LLC, No. 10-cv-2326-MMB, 2013 WL 5429293 (E.D. Pa.), a class action against a national health club chain that resulted in substantial changes of the company's membership cancellation policies. Lechtzin was co-lead counsel in Stromberg v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, No. 15-04719, 2017 WL 2686540 (N.D. Cal. 2017), where he represented a group of California borrowers who alleged that certain lenders had failed to timely reconvey deed of trust documents, as required by Cal. Civ. Code § 2941(b), and ultimately obtained a settlement that paid each member of the class more than 66 percent of their total recoverable damages without the need to submit claim forms.