Stephanie served as in-house counsel for a municipality with a workforce of over 14,000 employees, and more than 1,680,000 residents. In that role, Stephanie developed particular expertise in pensions, fiduciary trust governance, benefits administration management, and employee compensation. One of Stephanie’s core expertises is the management of pension and deferred compensation funds. Her work has ranged from answering day-to-day benefits administration questions, to advising on fiduciary responsibilities of the trustee boards, to providing answers on legal and regulatory implications of plan amendment and investment policies.
Representative Matters
- Coordinated with clients and investment risk department to advise on alignment with pooled fund and client investment policies with relevant legislation.
- Advised retirement fund staff on interpretation of plan document to determine proper beneficiaries.
- Advised retirement fund staff on applicability and legality of benefits affecting documents such as powers of attorney and divorce decrees.
- Advised medical retirement committee on grants of early retirement for medical reasons.
- Formal and informal presentations – frequently prepared and presented policy briefing notes and PowerPoint presentations for executive management, City Council, and trust boards to explain benefits issues.
- Data breaches – advised on duty of and developed action plan for pension fund and employer to pension plan beneficiaries in the wake of a data breach.
- Worked with IRS and outside counsel to ensure plan received tax status qualification.
- Oversight of outside counsel on litigation matters affecting the benefits plans.
