regulatory & compliance | litigation Q L uestion A of Liability When the rash of litigation yields scant legal precedent, what can advisers take away? itigation in the retirement plan industry has increased in the last decade, with plaintiffs' firms increasingly recruiting plan participants to make allegations against plan sponsors and providers. What does this mean for retirement plan advisers? PLANADVISER Managing Editor Judy Faust Hartnett recently spoke with Alison Douglass, a litigator and partner at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston, about her outlook on current litigation trends. For instance, can adviser clients be sued for offering certain types of participant advice, and will advisers be increasingly vulnerable to lawsuits as more take on 3(38) roles? Douglass represents a wide range of plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries and service providers in connection with Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) litigation and prelitigation counseling concerning employee benefit plans. She also represents clients in regulatory investigations and government proceedings, including before the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 20 | planadviser.com January-February 2021 Art by Kati Lackerhttp://www.planadviser.com