Julie K. Stapel

Partner

Julie K. Stapel is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice. Ms. Stapel focuses her practice on the investment and management of employee benefit plan assets. She advises and counsels a wide variety of clients on ERISA's fiduciary and prohibited transaction rules, with a focus on the application of these rules to investment products and services. Ms. Stapel represents both plans and financial service providers in complying with ERISA's fiduciary and prohibited transaction rules. She also negotiates investment management agreements, trust agreements, securities lending agreements, transition management agreements, ISDA agreements, and other investment-related agreements and documentation on behalf of both plans and financial service providers.

In addition, Ms. Stapel counsels clients on plan fiduciary governance structures, including the formation and operation of plan fiduciary committees. She counsels clients on best practices to help fiduciaries comply with ERISA and effectively manage risk. She also advises clients on ERISA's ever-changing reporting and disclosure obligations.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Ms. Stapel was a partner in the employee benefits and executive compensation departments of an international law firm, resident in Chicago. She was also formerly general counsel for a registered investment adviser, where she became well versed on the implications of ERISA for investment managers and collective investment funds. Ms. Stapel regularly counsels clients on the application of ERISA's plan asset rules to funds and the implications of ERISA plan asset status. She counsels the managers of ERISA-governed plan asset funds on all aspects of ERISA compliance. Ms. Stapel also assists investment managers with employee benefit plan disclosures and documentation. In addition, she represents private equity managers and investors in the application of the ERISA plan asset rules applicable to them.

Ms. Stapel received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Indiana University, Maurer School of Law in 1996, where she was editor-in-chief of the Indiana Law Journal, first-place winner of the Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition, and named to the Order of the Coif. She earned her B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan in 1992.