Julia Penny Clark
Julia Penny Clark is a member of Bredhoff & Kaiser, P.L.L.C., where she has practiced law since 1975. Penny has extensive experience in federal litigation, and focuses her practice in the employee-benefit area.
Penny is counsel to a number of large multiemployer pension and health-benefit plans, as well as multiemployer 401(k) plans and funds that provide training or legal services to employee participants, and to a public-employee pension plan. She also represents labor unions and groups of employees in benefits litigation.
Penny argued Beck v. PACE Int’l Union (No. 05-1448) in the United States Supreme Court in April 2007. Some of her other major litigation cases include suits to preserve health benefits for a class of retired Virginia truck assembly workers and for a class of retired North Carolina rubber workers, in both of which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed jury verdicts that the employers could not unilaterally reduce retiree health benefits under collective bargaining agreements, Quesenberry, et al. v. Volvo Group North America, LLC, 651 F.3d 437 (4th Cir. 2011); Trull, et al. v. Dayco Products, LLC, et al., 178 Fed. Appx. 247 (4th Cir. 2006); securing approval of class-action settlements to preserve medical benefits for General Motors and Ford retirees,UAW v. General Motors Corp., 235 F.R.D. 383(E.D. Mich. 2006), and UAW v. Ford Motor Co.,2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70471 (E.D. Mich. Jul. 13, 2006) (both argued in the Sixth Circuit June 2007); enforcing employer obligations to contribute to multiemployer funds under Section 515 of ERISA, Bakery & Confectionery Pension Fund v. Ralph’s Grocery Co., 118 F.3d 1018 (4th Cir. 1997); enforcing an “evergreen clause” requiring employers to continue making contributions to multiemployer benefit funds, UMWA 1974 Pension Trust v. Pittston Co., 984 F.2d 469 (D.C. Cir. 1993); and litigating disputes over employer withdrawal liability, Borden, Inc. v. Bakery & Confectionery Pension Fund, 974 F.2d 528 (4th Cir. 1992).Penny is a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and a member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, the American Bar Association, and the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia. From 1990 to 1996 she served on the Committee on Admissions and Grievances for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.Before joining the firm, Penny served as a law clerk to the Hon. Lewis F. Powell, Jr., of the U.S. Supreme Court, and to the Hon. J. Braxton Craven, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She obtained a J.D. with highest honors from the University of Texas Law School in 1973 and a B.A. with highest honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1969.