Christina L. Hennecken

Christina Hennecken is a partner in the firm’s top-ranked Consumer Financial Services Litigation and Enforcement and ERISA Litigation practices.  Her nationwide practice focuses on defending large financial institutions, fintech companies, and ERISA plan sponsors in consumer class actions and government enforcement proceedings.  

As part of her practice, Christina regularly counsels clients facing proceedings by various federal administrative agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), in matters relating to federal banking and consumer finance regulations concerning an array of financial services and products.  In her CFPB practice specifically, Christina has represented some of the nation’s largest financial institutions in several high-profile CFPB enforcement investigations.  She has also litigated against the CFPB in federal court.

In her ERISA Litigation practice, Christina specializes in defending plan sponsors and service providers in large-scale ERISA class actions in federal court.  She has represented some of the largest companies in the country in litigations challenging the discharge of fiduciary duties, including excessive fee litigation and matters involving proprietary investments. 

Christina’s recent experience includes:

Consumer Financial Services Enforcement and Litigation

• Currently representing multiple financial institutions and fintech companies in confidential federal regulatory enforcement proceedings 
• Representation of large financial institution in enforcement proceedings by the CFPB regarding compliance with the CFPA and UDAAP prohibitions
• Representation of large bank in CFPB investigation regarding compliance with EFTA and Regulation E
• Defeated class certification of a putative nationwide class of individuals seeking recovery under the TCPA based on calls allegedly marketing residential home mortgage modifications. Newhart v. Quicken Loans Inc. (S.D.Fla.)
• Defeated class certification of putative nationwide class of individuals seeking recovery under the TCPA. Jacobs v. Quicken Loans Inc. (S.D. Fla.)
• Representation of national mortgage servicer in investigation by the Department of Justice regarding compliance with the SCRA

ERISA Litigation

• Currently representing multiple large plan sponsors and service providers in ERISA class actions alleging breaches of fiduciary duty with respect to investment monitoring and administrative fees
• Representation of several financial services companies in ERISA class actions alleging that investment options in employee retirement plans had excessive fees and poor performance. These include actions challenging mutual fund companies’ use of their own products as investment options in their own retirement plans
• Successfully secured dismissal of a putative class action alleging that a plan’s target date fund and certain other investments were excessively expensive and underperformed. The court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss with leave to amend, and plaintiffs subsequently voluntarily dismissed the complaint. Locascio et al. v. Fluor Corp. et al., 2023 WL 320000 (N.D. Tex. 2023)
• Successfully secured denial of a motion to certify a class in a case in which two named plaintiffs alleged that Stadion Money Management, LLC (Stadion) violated certain provisions of ERISA based on its provision of managed account services to certain ERISA retirement plans whose plan sponsors or responsible plan fiduciaries selected Stadion’s service for their individual plans. The case was then voluntarily dismissed. Davis v. Stadion Money Management, LLC, No. 8:19-cv-556 (D. Neb.)
• On trial team in Wildman v. American Century, 362 F. Supp. 3d 685 (W.D. Mo. 2019) where the Court, after a three-week trial, rendered a full defense verdict on all claims that plan fiduciaries violated ERISA by utilizing primarily actively-managed, proprietary mutual funds in the first such case in over a decade to go to full verdict

Christina is a contributor to Goodwin's ERISA Litigation Update, as well as its Consumer Finance Insights blog, the marketplace’s first resource for real-time reporting on the full range of public federal and state consumer finance enforcement activity. 

• Speaker, “The Regulators are Coming: Gearing Up to Respond to the Next Wave of Enforcement,” ALM’s Women, Influence & Power in Law, September 24, 2024
• Speaker, “ERISA Fiduciary Duty Litigation: Recent Developments and Court Rulings, Strategies for Counsel,” Strafford, April 9, 2024
• Co-Author, "CFPB Reports Highlight Medical Financing and Billing Risks," Law360, June 14, 2023
• Co-Author, "Mini-TCPA Laws You Should Know and That May Be Coming Soon in 2023", Westlaw Today, March 10, 2023
• Keynote Speaker, "ERISA Litigation Update,” Pensions & Investments Defined Contribution Investment Lineup Conference, May 2022
• Speaker, "ERISA Fiduciary Litigation Update," Strafford 2022