Lea Anne Copenhefer

Partner

Lea Anne Copenhefer’s practice focuses primarily on the representation of registered funds and their advisers and independent directors. Clients include the American Funds and their independent directors, the Brandes Funds and their independent directors, Canyon Partners, the Legg Mason Funds, Pacific Heights Asset Management (adviser to The Permanent Portfolio), the Transamerica Funds, and the independent directors of AXA Equitable’s mutual funds.

Lea Anne also performs special projects for mutual funds and fund directors, including complex restructurings, acquisitions, regulatory reviews and investigations, and litigation. Lea Anne has been responsible for significant portions of large-scale compliance program reviews.

Before joining Morgan Lewis, Lea Anne was a partner in the investment management practice of another international law firm, where she was a former member of the firm committee.

The University of Chicago Law School, 1985, Juris Doctor
Yale University, 1982, Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, with Honors

Massachusetts
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
US District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Recognized, Top 10 Masterminds in Massachusetts' Hedge & Mutual Funds Law, Business Today (2023)

Ranked, Registered Funds, USA, Chambers Global (2025)

Ranked, Investment Funds: Registered Funds, USA, Chambers Global (2020–2024)

Ranked, Hedge & Mutual Funds, Massachusetts, Chambers USA (2019–2025)

Ranked, Registered Funds, Nationwide, Chambers USA (2019–2025)

Recommended, Investment fund formation and management: Mutual/registered/exchange-traded funds, The Legal 500 US (2008–2010, 2012, 2014, 2016–2019, 2022–2024)

Member, Best ETF Law Firm, ETF Express US Awards (2021, 2022)

Member, Practice Group of the Year, Asset Management, Law360 (2017)

Member, American Bar Association

Member, Boston Bar Association

Member, Massachusetts Bar Association

Phi Beta Kappa, Yale University

Publications