Ashley Dunning Recognized as a “Top 100” Lawyer

Ashley Dunning was recognized as one of the “Top 100” (subscription required) lawyers in California for 2022 by the Daily Journal, California’s leading legal newspaper. The “Top 100” list annually recognizes California lawyers whose work has a profound impact at both the state and national level.

The Daily Journal noted Ashley’s current clients "include the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the New York State Teacher’s Retirement System, the majority of the 20 California retirement systems governed by the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 and the city retirement systems in Fresno, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles. Collectively, the retirement systems she serves hold over $1 trillion in trust assets.”

Her recent victory for the Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association (ACERA) was highlighted as well. The Daily Journal noted, “In May, [Ashley] won a five-year legal battle on behalf of…ACERA, its board of retirement and its chief executive officer.”

The Daily Journal added that in the case, Ashley “won a motion for summary judgment, asserting that the current way contribution rates are calculated is a common and well-accepted methodology for funding multiple employer-defined benefits plans nationally and in California” and the “court concluded that there was no basis in law for [Alameda Health Systems’] demand to reassign $100 million in pension liabilities to the county of Alameda, nor was there any basis for the court to order the ACERA board to do another actuarial study.”

Commenting on the case, Ashley said, “One of the most important responsibilities of a public retirement system is to make sure that they timely collect the amount of money needed to pay for the retirement benefits due to people when they retire." She added, “It's a very high-stakes and important issue for a retirement board to be able to prudently manage the funding of its plan, and not be dictated to by the employers about how that should work."