Skip to Main Content
Our Commitment to Diversity
Stacy L. Fuller

Stacy Fuller is a partner in the asset management and investment funds practice group and is based in the Washington, D.C. office. She is one of the founding members of the exchange-traded funds (ETF) sub-practice group within the asset management and investment funds practice group, and her practice focuses on the representation of ETFs, their sponsors and their boards of trustees.

Stacy works with investment company complexes and investment advisers of all sizes, counseling them on a wide range of regulatory, compliance, transactional and operational issues. She routinely guides clients who require novel or routine exemptive relief from the federal securities laws through the exemptive applications process at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Over the last decade, she has helped clients organize over a dozen new investment company registrants and launch over 100 new ETFs.

Since 2013, Stacy has been voted one of the leading U.S. lawyers for investment management by U.S. Best Lawyers, based on the views of peers. She is an active member of the Speakers Bureau of Women in ETFs and appears frequently at industry events.

Stacy is one of the lead authors of The ETF Handbook (Second Edition) and was instrumental in the publication of the First Edition pursuant to a partnership with Toppan Merrill. In 2018, she served as co-chair of the Drafting Committee for the comment letter of the American Bar Association (ABA) Subcommittee on Investment Companies and Investment Advisers, of the Committee on the Federal Regulation of Securities within the Business Law Section of the ABA, on an ETF rule proposed by the SEC.

From 1999 to 2007, Stacy worked at the SEC on novel ETF and fund-of-funds structures and statutory disqualifications. During her tenure at the SEC, she also worked closely with SEC Chairman Levitt on auditor independence rules. Since joining the firm in 2007, she has advised clients on complex affiliated transactions, investments in derivatives, and change of control and similar seminal transactions in the operation of a registered fund.

  • Division of Investment Management, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2001 - 2007
  • Office of General Counsel, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 1999 - 2001
  • Associate, international law firm, Washington, D.C., 1997 - 1999
  • Best Lawyers in America, Mutual Funds Law (2013-2022)
  • ETFs Attorney of the Year in Washington D.C., Global Law Experts, 2021

Stacy speaks frequently on ETF issues. She is a regular faculty member at conferences sponsored by K&L Gates, the Mutual Fund Directors Forum (MFDF), the Investment Company Institute (ICI), ETFGI and Inside ETFs. Some of her recent presentations include:

  • Co-Leader: K&L Gates' ETF Think Tank, 2017 - 2021
  • “Impact of Regulatory Developments on ETFs," 2020 ETF Trading and Market Structure Conference Sponsored by ETFGI, July 29, 2020
  • Legal Issues and Board Considerations in ETF Conversions, MFDF Webinar, May 2019
  • “What’s New for ETFs?”, 2018 ICI Securities Law Developments Conference, October 25, 2018
Additional Thought Leadership Pages
  • “ETF Continued Listing Standards: Stepping into the Vacuum of Index Regulation,” The Investment Lawyer, Vol. 25, No.1, January 2018
  • “The Evolution of Actively Managed Exchange-Traded Funds,” The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, Vol. 41, No. 8, April 2008
Additional News & Event Pages
Return to top of page

Email Disclaimer

We welcome your email, but please understand that if you are not already a client of K&L Gates LLP, we cannot represent you until we confirm that doing so would not create a conflict of interest and is otherwise consistent with the policies of our firm. Accordingly, please do not include any confidential information until we verify that the firm is in a position to represent you and our engagement is confirmed in a letter. Prior to that time, there is no assurance that information you send us will be maintained as confidential. Thank you for your consideration.

Accept Cancel