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Stacy L. Fuller

Stacy Fuller is a partner in the asset management and investment funds practice group, based in the Washington, D.C. office. She is one of the founding members of the exchange-traded funds (ETF) sub-group within the asset management and investment funds practice group. Her practice focuses on the representation of ETFs, their sponsors and their boards of trustees. She also advises clients on complex affiliated transactions, investments in derivatives, changes of control and similar seminal corporate transactions.

Stacy works with investment company complexes and investment advisers of all sizes, counseling them on a wide range of regulatory, compliance, transactional and operational issues. She routinely guides clients who require novel or routine exemptive relief from the federal securities laws through the exemptive applications process at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Since joining the firm, she has helped clients organize over 20 new investment company registrants and launch over 200 new ETFs.

Since 2013, Stacy has been voted one of the leading U.S. lawyers for investment management by U.S. Best Lawyers, based on the views of peers. She is a member of the Speakers Bureau of Women in ETFs and appears frequently at industry events.

Stacy is one of the lead authors of The ETF Handbook. In 2018, she served as co-chair of the Drafting Committee for the comment letter of the American Bar Association (ABA) Subcommittee on Investment Companies and Investment Advisers, of the Committee on the Federal Regulation of Securities within the Business Law Section of the ABA, on the ETF rule, as then proposed and later adopted by the SEC.

From 2001 to 2007, Stacy worked at the SEC on novel ETF and fund-of-funds structures and statutory disqualifications. From 1999-2001, she worked closely with SEC Chairman Levitt to update the auditor independence rules following the collapse of Enron. 

  • Division of Investment Management, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2001 - 2007
  • Office of General Counsel, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 1999 - 2001
  • Associate, international law firm, Washington, D.C., 1997 - 1999
  • Listed in the Best Lawyers in America®, Mutual Funds Law (2013-2023)
  • ETFs Attorney of the Year in Washington D.C., Global Law Experts, 2021

Stacy speaks frequently on ETF issues. She is a regular faculty member at conferences sponsored by K&L Gates, the Mutual Fund Directors Forum (MFDF), the Investment Company Institute (ICI), the Independent Directors Council (IDC), ETFGI and Inside ETFs, and Exchange. Some of her recent presentations include:

  • Co-Leader: K&L Gates' ETF Think Tank, 2017 - 2022
  • “Impact of Regulatory Developments on ETFs," 2020 ETF Trading and Market Structure Conference Sponsored by ETFGI, July 29, 2020
  • Legal Issues and Board Considerations in ETF Conversions, MFDF Webinar, May 2019
  • “What’s New for ETFs?”, 2018 ICI Securities Law Developments Conference, October 25, 2018
Additional Thought Leadership Pages
  • “ETF Continued Listing Standards: Stepping into the Vacuum of Index Regulation,” The Investment Lawyer, Vol. 25, No.1, January 2018
  • “The Evolution of Actively Managed Exchange-Traded Funds,” The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, Vol. 41, No. 8, April 2008
Additional News & Event Pages
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