Photo of Donald P. Sullivan

Donald P. Sullivan is a principal in the San Francisco, California, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. Donald has more than 20 years of experience defending and counseling employers, as well as fiduciaries, sponsors, and insurers of employee benefit plans, in state and federal courts and before state and federal agencies, including the United States Department of Labor, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and California’s Departments of Industrial Relations and Fair Employment and Housing.

In his employee benefits practice, Donald regularly advises and represents both pension and welfare benefit plans and their fiduciaries in class action and single-participant litigation. With respect to pension plans, Donald defends plans and fiduciaries against lawsuits alleging imprudent investments in employer securities, imprudent selection of investment options, excessive administrative fees, and entitlement to benefits. With respect to welfare plans, Donald defends plans, fiduciaries, and insurers of insured benefit plans in both ERISA and non-ERISA actions seeking the payment of short and long-term disability, life and medical benefits. Donald also frequently represents employee benefit plans and their fiduciaries in investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor.

In his employment practice, Donald defends clients in cases alleging violations of the California Labor Code related to the payment of wages, as well as in lawsuits alleging discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age and disability in violation of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and federal statutes, including Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA. He has extensive experience defending both single-plaintiff and class action ERISA and California wage and hour lawsuits. Integral to Donald’s practice are the privacy protections afforded to individuals under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Donald’s interest and commitment to the employment and employee benefits practice has very deep roots. In college, he worked for the Office of Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining for Washington, D.C. He worked for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission while in law school. After law school, he began representing employers and management in employment and labor disputes, while developing a sub-specialty in employee benefits, ERISA, and healthcare. Donald was a law clerk for the Honorable Everett A. Martin, Fourth Judicial Circuit of Virginia, 1996-1997. Before joining Jackson Lewis, Donald practiced in the Chambers USA awarding-wining labor and employment group of a national Philadelphia-based law firm.

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the 2024 Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rate.

Employers with employees located in California are generally required to withhold and send state disability contributions to the EDD.

Of note, Senate Bill (SB) 951, which was signed in 2022, eliminated the Maximum Contribution and Taxable

The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rates for 2023.

Employers with employees located in California are generally required to withhold and send state disability contributions to the EDD.

The 2023 rates are as follows:

“Employee Contribution Rate”0.9%
“Taxable Wage Ceiling” (per employee per year)

In 2016 California passed legislation that employers who do not sponsor an employee-retirement plan must participate in a state-run retirement program. This program became known as CalSavers.

While there have been legal challenges to CalSavers, the program persists. CalSavers provides an opportunity for employees to defer wages, through payroll deductions by the employer,

With an alarming number of American workers lacking adequate retirement savings, California and a handful of other states began implementing state-sponsored retirement savings programs.  The CalSavers Retirement Savings Program (CalSavers) was first launched as a pilot program in 2018 and then expanded to all eligible employers in the state in July 2019 in order to

Northrop Grumman has agreed to pay $12,375,000 to settle a class action brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) by participants in its 401(k) plan. The parties reached the initial terms of this settlement last year minutes before the start of the trial.

The plaintiffs alleged in their complaint that the company’s administration