.jpg)
ERISA Watch with Elizabeth Hopkins
ERISA stands for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and governs most of our employee benefits. While this area of law may not seem as engrossing as other areas of law such as criminal law, the impact labor laws have on our lives are just as compelling and the stakes are just as high.
ERISA law blankets areas such as mental health, long-term disability, retirement accounts, life insurance, and more. ERISA watch will tell stories of individuals whose lives have been dramatically affected and show why ERISA law matters. Elizabeth Hopkins is a partner at Kantor & Kantor LLP and leads their Retirement Benefits team, is a highly regarded lawyer on ERISA class action lawsuits and is an expert analyst with Law360.
Enjoy hearing Elizabeth and her guests dig deep and discuss the behind-the-scenes stories on these important cases. Real talk about real legal cases!
ERISA Watch with Elizabeth Hopkins
The Aftermath
In this special episode, host Elizabeth Hopkins acknowledges the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001. This episode is also a check in on how well Congress is living up to its promises to more than 24,000 first responders and heroes.
Introduced in 2006 and finally signed into law on January 2, 2011, the World Trade Center Health Program was designed to provide for the physical and mental healthcare for first responders. It should come as no surprise that the program was outsourced to a private, for profit company (United Healthcare). How has this worked 20 years later?
Elizabeth has a conversation with Michael Gavin, a paramedic from Boston who is among the thousands of heroes called into duty that day. Mike tells us his harrowing story of that day, and the weeks of 12-hour shifts as he and his fellow responders worked endlessly to help in any way they could.
As anyone could imagine, Mike suffered for his time at Ground Zero, experiencing substance abuse disorder, PTSD, and ultimately Hodgkins Lymphoma, which happens to be most diagnosed cancers among the 9/11 survivors.
Listening to Mike's journey from that day two decades ago to the present, it is almost unbelievable to hear about the re-traumatization Mike and others are experiencing.
For more on Mike's experience, you can find his book "Facing It: Unseen Injuries of a 9/11 First Responder," on Amazon https://amzn.to/39W9oix
Thank you for listening and look for Episode 8 on November 5.
