Ashley Dunning is Co-Chair of the Public Pension and Investments Group at Nossaman LLP and is a member of the Firm's Litigation Group. She is a longtime fiduciary advisor to public pension boards, with nearly two decades of experience advising and representing such boards in adjudicated and non-adjudicated matters. Ms. Dunning currently serves as general counsel to MarinCERA, and provides fiduciary and/or litigation counsel services to the majority of the twenty retirement systems governed by the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) and to the three Los Angeles City retirement systems.
Representative Work
Representative Services
Ms. Dunning advises on issues involving fiduciary obligations, governance, and California's public retirement, conflict of interest, open meetings, and public records laws. She appears regularly before boards of trustees and in court proceedings throughout California on these issues. Ms. Dunning also regularly provides training on these topics to clients and at conferences throughout the country. In addition, she has taught "Ethics for Public Officials" for many years at the Principles of Pension Management for Trustees conference sponsored by the California Association of Public Retirement Systems (CalAPRS).
Ms. Dunning's retirement system related cases that have resulted in published decisions include the California Supreme Court decision, Lexin v. Superior Court (2010) 47 Cal. 4th 1050, and lower Court of Appeal decisions, Shelden v. Marin County Employees' Retirement Assoc. (2010) 189 Cal. App. 4th 458, Block v. Orange County Employees' Retirement System (2008) 161 Cal. App. 4th 1297, San Ramon Valley Fire Protection Distr. v. CCCERA (2004) 125 Cal.App.4th 343 and In re Retirement Cases (2003) 110 Cal. App. 4th 426.
After serving for several years as Chair of the Fiduciary and Governance Section of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys (NAPPA), Ms. Dunning was elected in 2014 to the Executive Board of NAPPA. She presents regularly at the Legal Education Conference and Section Sessions of NAPPA on fiduciary, administrative and related issues of public pension law. She also has presented at the General Assembly of CalAPRS and regularly presents at the CalAPRS Trustees and Attorneys Roundtables on these issues. Ms. Dunning also presents regularly at conferences of the State Association of County Retirement Systems (SACRS) on issues regarding public pension law.
Representative Clients
Ms. Dunning has served as fiduciary and/or litigation counsel for most public retirement systems in California, including (in alphabetical order): Alameda County Employees' Retirement Association, California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS); California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS); Contra Costa County Employees' Retirement Association; Fresno County Employees' Retirement Association; Kern County Employees' Retirement Association; Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System; Los Angeles County Employees' Retirement Association; Marin County Employees' Retirement Association (MarinCERA); Mendocino County Employees' Retirement Association; Merced County Employees' Retirement Association; Sacramento County Employees' Retirement System; San Bernardino County Employees' Retirement Association; San Diego City Employees' Retirement System; San Diego County Employees' Retirement Association; Sonoma County Employees' Retirement Association; Tulare County Employees' Retirement Association; Ventura County Employees' Retirement Association. Ms. Dunning also has provided fiduciary training to the Board of the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association.
Ms. Dunning currently serves as general counsel to MarinCERA, and provides fiduciary and/or litigation counsel services to nearly half of the twenty retirement systems governed by the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL).
