Dechert LLP is pleased to announce today that John Schuch will join the firm’s employee benefits and executive compensation group as a partner based in New York. He joins Dechert from Bank of America, where as Associate General Counsel and Director of the Legal Department, he served for over a decade as the lead lawyer providing ERISA and related advice across the bank’s Global Banking and Market division.

Mr. Schuch has extensive experience advising on the ERISA fiduciary and prohibited transaction rules with respect to asset managers, investment advisers, banks, broker-dealers, and other financial intermediaries.

Previously, he was a lawyer in Morgan Stanley’s Legal Department where he was dedicated to covering their institutional banking, broker-dealer and investment management business lines as they involved retirement plan clients. Mr. Schuch is a graduate of Binghamton University and a summa cum laude graduate of Brooklyn Law School, where he was Notes and Comments Editor of the Brooklyn Law Review.

Steve Rabitz, co-chair of Dechert’s employee benefits and executive compensation group, said: “We have known and worked with John for years. His deep legal expertise and commercial approach will enable us to further build upon our first-class ERISA fiduciary practice. We are proud and excited to have him on board.”

Mr. Schuch added: “I’m thrilled to be joining Dechert and to be returning to private practice alongside colleagues I know and respect. I look forward to continuing to grow our ERISA practice and assisting our clients across a wide range of sophisticated transactions.”

Dechert’s employee benefits and executive compensation practice group serves a wide variety of clients, including large multinational corporations, high-technology start-ups and some of the world’s largest financial organizations. The firm, including the employee benefits and executive compensation group, has been recognized among leading law firms by Chambers USA and The Legal 500 US.