Summary: Experienced ERISA litigator Russ Buhite has joined Ogletree Deakins as a shareholder in the Tampa and Seattle litigation group.
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. has further expanded its ERISA Litigation Group. Russ Buhite will be working out of the Tampa and Seattle offices as a shareholder. Ogletree Deakins is one of the largest labor and employment law firms in the U.S. that focuses on representing management.
Buhite was the managing partner of the Tampa office of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, P.C. He brings over 25 years of experience in ERISA litigation and employment law to Ogletree. His practice will focus on life, disability, and health insurance coverage litigation, including benefit, compliance, and breach of fiduciary duty claims.
As a seasoned ERISA litigator, Buhite will advise employers on compliance matters like pension and welfare benefit. He has gone before state agencies, the EEOC, and state and federal courts to defend employers in employment law matters, insurance coverage, and bad faith litigation.
Kim Ebert, managing shareholder of Ogletree Deakins, states, “We are confident that Russ will establish a beachhead for benefits litigation in the Pacific Northwest and will add great value for our clients in Washington and throughout the West Coast.” Buhite will start out in the Tampa office but transition to the newly opened Seattle office by springtime.
He earned his J.D. from Washington University School of Law and his B.A. from Rice University.
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