July 1, 2025
Interviewer’s Note: This column about fiduciary issues affecting public pension systems is the general responsibility of Suzanne Dugan, who usually writes the column or invites guests to offer some helpful commentary. Suzanne is the founder and head of the firm’s Ethics and Fiduciary Counseling practice, one of the country’s most active and recognized practices providing trusted counsel to public pension trustees and staff. Suzanne was recently named President of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys (NAPPA). NAPPA is almost 40 years old and provides an important opportunity for public pension lawyers to come together to learn about the most critical matters affecting their work.
As Suzanne begins her one-year term as President of NAPPA, she thought this a good moment to flip the seats so she can share a little bit about her work on your behalf and as the leader of this group. Since she and I have spent the last couple of decades working on and discussing public pensions, I’ll serve as the foil in this conversation. Hope you enjoy.
Luke Bierman: You’ve been chosen by your peers to lead NAPPA. Tell us a bit about the organization—how you became involved, how it’s organized, and how NAPPA is different from other organizations that work with public pensions.
Suzanne M. Dugan: NAPPA is the only national professional association focused exclusively on public pension attorneys. The beauty of the organization is that it provides an opportunity to exchange information, advance knowledge and education, and foster best principles and sound practices in the field of public employee retirement systems. Public pension plans are a bit unique as they are not governed by ERISA but rather by provisions enacted in their home jurisdictions. These laws might be similar across states and municipalities, allowing members to share their experiences very neatly, but can also vary across the country, giving legal practitioners opportunities to learn about these differences and apply those lessons by analogy. NAPPA’s singular focus on public pensions and its approach of similarity and difference separates it from other organizations.
The organization hosts two educational programs each year. The Winter Seminar devotes a half-day each to NAPPA’s four sections—Benefits, Fiduciary and Plan Governance (my personal favorite), Investments, and Tax—as well as general interest topics on the final morning of the program. The Legal Education Conference, which runs for four days, focuses more about the law and legal issues affecting public pension plans on a wide range of topics and provides public pension attorneys with an opportunity to obtain continuing legal education credit. It is not unusual for several hundred lawyers to attend these programs, which are organized by the four sections I mentioned, as well as our education committees on topics such a cybersecurity and data privacy, funding challenges, public safety, securities litigation, and new member education. NAPPA also publishes a semi-annual newsletter, The NAPPA Report, that allows members to provide articles relevant for their peers in the public pension world.
I began my involvement as a member while working as Special Counsel for Ethics in the Office of the New York State Comptroller in the mid-2000s. After joining Cohen Milstein in 2011, I became involved with the section on Fiduciary and Plan Governance, presenting and organizing programs, and then was asked to assist with the New Member Education Committee. In 2024, I was thrilled when then-NAPPA President Laura Gilson, the General Counsel of the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System, asked me to serve as Vice President. I’ve been lucky to see NAPPA from the perspectives of both in-house and outside counsel to public pension plans, which I think enhances my capacity to have a positive impact as President.
What really distinguishes NAPPA members is their commitment to the mission. Protecting the retirement security of educators, public safety officers, and other government employees is critically important, especially at a time when it feels as though government employees are under attack. It’s meaningful work for these attorneys, whose efforts benefit millions of retirees and the beneficiaries who depend on public pensions. Indeed, I’m a member of a public pension system after 20 years of public service in New York State, so I fully appreciate how important that pension check is to the beneficiaries of our clients. It’s essential to ensure that those checks get to those who devoted their careers to public service. We’re all proud to play a role in that important work.
LB: I know what you mean: I get one of those checks every month and share your enthusiasm and commitment to the beneficiaries of the public pension systems. To keep up to date with your practice, you recently attended NAPPA’s annual summer conference, which is where you became President. What were the most salient issues on the agenda?
SMD: There are some issues that are perennial, so NAPPA covers them at each meeting–professional ethics, recent litigation, federal legislation, and tax changes, for example. Other topics are more, well, topical—dependent on current trends. For example, cybersecurity and data privacy is top of mind these days, and we had a panel on that topic. I moderated a panel discussing the challenges of public comment periods on Board meeting agendas, and how to craft written policies that satisfy the First Amendment while allowing boards to function efficiently and effectively. We had a very well-received panel with Julie Reiser, co-chair of the firm’s securities practice, discussing the implications for public pension plans wrought
by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron deference doctrine. It was a wide-ranging agenda designed to keep public pension attorneys well informed.
LB: How does your work, and now leadership, at NAPPA complement your practice?
SMD: The best part is getting to know lawyers from around the country doing public pension law. I have learned so much from these people over the years. Of course, as I’ve gotten to know them, I feel comfortable calling them to ask questions, finding out how they approach challenges, learning what is new and coming my way. And I do like to help other attorneys, especially the new generation of lawyers who will be representing public pension systems for decades to come; the trust funds at the heart of the public pension world are not just long-term investors but are essentially perpetual ones, so it is not that hard to imagine that some of these lawyers new to NAPPA will be leaders of NAPPA in 2050. I enjoy that aspect of the organization and I hope that will be a part of the membership initiative I can foster as President.
LB: Thanks, Suzanne, for sharing more about NAPPA. Good luck in leading the organization.