Ellen Coffey brings her background in pension plan investing to PEC, where she oversees contract administration, investor research and corporate compliance.  Ellen earned a BA with honors from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and a JD from the Duke University School of Law, where she was a member of the Editorial Board of the Duke Law Journal.    

 

Ellen practiced law in Washington, DC with Pierson, Ball & Dowd, and later Reed Smith LLP, as a member of those firms’ Employment and Benefits Departments.  While in private practice, Ellen’s experience involved a broad range of issues affecting employee benefit plans, as well as corporate transactions and drafting and negotiating contracts for the provision of investment management services. Representative projects included: Evaluating the applicability of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)’s Plan Asset Regulation to a variety of collective investment vehicles; assisting in the representation of employers, fiduciaries and service providers, including financial institutions, in DOL investigations; and drafting requests to the DOL for administrative relief from ERISA’s prohibited transaction restrictions. 

 

After private practice, Ellen served as an Assistant Counsel in the legal office of the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) in Harrisburg, PA, where she provided legal advice to the SERS investment office, as well as other departments within the agency.  She was principally involved in the review and negotiation of agency contracts as well as documents in connection with SERS’ investments in real estate and private equity partnerships. 

 

Since leaving the practice of law in 1995, in addition to her work with PEC Ellen has been an active and passionate volunteer serving many community organizations, including Renbrook School; the Hebrew Home & Hospital; the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center NICU at the University of Connecticut Health Center; the Village for Families and Children; Greater Hartford Legal Aid; and Congregation Kehilat Chaverim.

 

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