Complex ERISA Fiduciary and Prohibited Transaction Issues

Andrew L. Oringer is a partner and the co-chair of the Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group at Dechert LLP.  He is the co-chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the American Bar Association’s Business Section, the Emerging Issues Coordinator of the Employee Benefits Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation, a former co-chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association and chair of the NYSBA’s Committee on Attorney Professionalism.  Mr. Oringer is a charter member of the Practical Law Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Advisory Board and was a long-standing member of the Advisory Board for the Bloomberg BNA Benefits Resource Practice Center and for the Tax Management Compensation Planning Journal.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, a Senior Fellow from Practice for the Regulatory Compliance Association and an adjunct professor at the Maurice A. Deane Law School at Hofstra University.  He is co-editor of a leading treatise on ERISA fiduciary law and has authored a chapter in a leading treatise on the taxation of nonqualified deferred compensation.  Mr. Oringer is highly rated by a number of key ranking organizations, is included in a widely disseminated list of the Top 100 lawyers in New York City across all practice areas and is a member of The Legal 500 Hall of Fame.

Mr. Ryan is President and Chief Fiduciary Officer of Newport Trust Company, and served as President and Chief Fiduciary Officer of Evercore Trust Company, N.A., prior to the acquisition of Evercore Trust’s institutional trustee and independent fiduciary business by Newport Trust in 2017. Prior to Evercore Trust, Mr. Ryan was with Morgan Stanley, where he was an Executive Director in the Legal and Compliance Division and Head of ERISA Law, responsible for coordinating ERISA and qualified tax issues for Morgan Stanley’s Institutional Securities Group (Institutional Brokerage), Morgan Stanley Investment Management (Asset Management), and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (Retail Brokerage). Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Ryan was the Chief ERISA/Benefits Counsel for Prudential Financial, Inc. from 1995 through 2004, handling ERISA-related HR, compensation and product issues for Prudential Insurance, and was in private practice in New York from 1987 through 1995, specializing in ERISA issues. On behalf of various industry groups, Mr. Ryan has met with and testified before the U.S. Department of Labor, the Treasury Department, the White House, and various state regulators on fiduciary and other retirement issues. He has also served on various industry groups, including the SIFMA Retirement Committee (where he served as co-chair from 2010-2013). Mr. Ryan holds an A.B. Degree in History from Princeton University in 1984, a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1987 (where he was an editor of the Stanford Law Review), and a Masters in Taxation (LL.M.) from New York University School of Law in 1995.

John W. Schuch is a Director and AssociateGeneral Counsel at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Mr. Schuch joined the Bank in 2011 and is the lead ERISA Counsel for its Global Banking and Markets division. Mr. Schuch is responsible for advising the Bank with respect to ERISA and other pension related rules in connection with its global institutional banking, custody, broker-dealer, and trading platforms.

Prior to joining the Legal Department of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Mr. Schuch spent several years in the legal department at another major financial institution advising on ERISA legal issues and in ERISA/employee benefits/executive compensation groups at two major law firms.

Mr. Schuch received a J.D., summa cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School in 2002 and a B.S. from Binghamton University in 1998.

Emma is Senior Forum Director and Financial Services Lead at Cambridge Executive Connections (CEC), a subsidiary of Cambridge Forums, Inc. Naturally curious and a lifelong learner, Emma has developed and managed a variety of meetings in both the profit and non-profit sectors. Before joining Cambridge, Emma was Assistant Vice President, Global Marketing at State Street in Canada, where she spent close to two decades of her career, offering her a great depth of knowledge and understanding of the financial and investment sectors. In Emma’s current role, she leads CEC’s Financial Services portfolio, including programs for institutional investors, banking, private funds, risk, and governance professionals.