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Edward T. Searle has been an associate with the firm since June 1998 and is a member of the Investment Management Practice Group.
Investment Companies. Ed practices in the investment company arena. He represents mutual fund companies in routine matters such as registration of their securities, legal and regulatory compliance and contract negotiations. Ed’s practice includes advising investment company boards of directors/trustees on their responsibilities under federal securities laws and state laws related to fund governance. He has advised fund companies and their boards concerning their legal obligations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Ed has been involved in organizing new mutual fund companies and new portfolios of existing companies. Ed has represented mutual funds in several major reorganization transactions and assisted in advising a fund’s board members regarding their fiduciary duties in connection with the reorganization of their investment company into another fund complex.
Before embarking on his legal career, Ed had a sixteen-year business career, primarily in management positions in financial institutions. He began his career in 1976 in the accounting department of a savings and loan association in Reading, PA. After leaving the association in 1978, Ed was employed as an accountant for a public accounting firm in Philadelphia. Ed became assistant manager at Dana Pottstown Federal Credit Union (now Diamond Credit Union) in Pottstown, PA in July 1979. He was appointed chief executive officer of the credit union in September 1981 and served in that capacity until July 1992. Under Ed’s stewardship, the credit union expanded from a limited service organization with total assets of $7.5 million serving 3,000 members into a full service financial institution with assets of $45 million and a membership of nearly 15,000. The credit union’s staff grew during this period from six to more than thirty employees. Ed also oversaw the construction of a new full service headquarters office for the credit union and the installation of a ztate-of-the-art in-house computer system. | 