Michelle Mellon-Werch

Michelle Mellon-Werch advises pensions, benefits and investment plans on fiduciary duties, plan governance, administration and compliance. She has counseled government entities and other organizations on retirement plans and trust funds for 18 years. She has extensive experience analyzing legislative proposals and assisting systems with compliance with applicable Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations. Michelle’s experience includes more than 20 years of contract drafting, review and negotiations including technology and intellectual property concerns.

Before joining Nossaman, Michelle served as Assistant General Counsel for 14 years and Director of Communications for two years for the Texas Municipal Retirement System. As Assistant General Counsel, Michelle advised management on compliance issues, filing regulatory filings with the IRS, drafting regulations, policies and procedures and working with auditors and other outside consultants. At TMRS, she launched a data privacy program, directed the development of privacy policies and notices, as well as a data breach response plan. Michelle worked with subject matter experts to draft a request for proposal for a pension administration system. She negotiated a multi-million-dollar pension administration system implementation and professional services, license and subscription agreement and a maintenance and support agreement with a third-party vendor that executed on time and on budget. She also managed open records and open meetings compliance and implemented and managed the recovery of overpayments.

Michelle frequently presents to peers at the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys’ Legal Education Conference and has presented at the Center for American and International Law Institute for Law and Technology Conference, the Texas Municipal Retirement System Annual Conference and the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers’ Annual Conference.

Experience

• Prepared Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) filing, Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) filings and Self Correction Program (SCP) internal memoranda for large private sector employer and public pension systems for correction of errors due to Plan Failures and Operational Failures.
• Advised a Texas public pension system on the development of regulations and procedures related to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) requirements, overpayment policies and procedures, missing participant policy and procedures.
• Led a data privacy and cybersecurity assessment of a statewide public pension system using nationally accepted privacy frameworks. Established a data privacy program with an interdisciplinary team chartered to develop a system-wide data risk management program.
• Advised a large state-wide public pension system on the development of rules, policies and procedures regarding required minimum distributions (RMD), corrections of error, claims and appeals, qualified domestic relations orders (QDROs), funding policies, regulatory compliance, qualification issues, open records, open meetings and overpayments.
• Served as lead counsel in negotiations of multi-million-dollar technology licensing, professional services and maintenance and support agreements.

Publications

Speaking Engagements

News

Community & Professional

National Association of Pension Plan Attorneys – Benefits Section Committee, co-chair of Cybersecurity Education Committee and Member

Texas Association of Pension Plan Attorneys, Former President and Current Member

International Association of Privacy Professionals, Privacy Bar and Women Leading Privacy Sections, Member

Texas Bar College (2015-Present), Member

Temple Beth Shalom Sisterhood (2007-Present), President (2017-2024)

State Bar of Texas, Computer and Technology Section (2019-2022), Former Council Member

Temple Beth Shalom (2012-2017), Board of Directors

Honors & Recognitions

Certificate of Achievement, Public Plan Policy Employee Pensions (CAPPP), International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans