Isabel C. Safie

Partner

Isabel Safie, a partner in Best Best & Krieger’s Employee Benefits practice group, primarily focuses on issues relating to employee benefits, pensions and other post-employment benefits.

Isabel regularly counsels public and private sector clients on the design of employee benefit programs and issues presented by the retirement programs and welfare benefit plans they establish and maintain for their employees. She counsels clients on applicable tax requirements as well as on fiduciary obligations under ERISA and state and local pension laws. Isabel also works with public employers to identify their options to modify or reduce the costs of pension and retiree health benefits under California’s “vested rights” doctrine. She works closely with CalPERS member agencies to understand the distinction between a common law employee and an independent contractor, and to comply with the rules on employing CalPERS retirees under PEPRA and the Public Employees’ Retirement Law. In addition, Isabel has substantial experience in designing tax-favored funding vehicles for post-retirement benefits and health benefits, such as Section 115 trusts, VEBAs, Section 125 cafeteria plans and health reimbursement arrangements for both private and public employers.

Isabel graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. In her third year of law school she was the editor-in-chief of the Chicano-Latino Law Review. Prior to that she also served as an associate editor and managing editor for the same journal, and was also an associate editor for the Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs.

She received her bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in human biology from Stanford University. Isabel currently serves on the board of directors for a nonprofit organization known as the Quest Scholars Program, which works to ensure that the nation’s most talented under-served students have access to the top universities in the United States. She is a member of the State Bar of California, the Riverside County Bar Association, the San Bernardino County Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Isabel is a gradute of Leadership Riverside. She is fluent in Spanish.

Education

• University of California, Los Angeles, J.D.
• Stanford University, B.A.

Bar Admissions

• California (2005)

Awards

• Super Lawyers “Southern California Rising Star,” Employee Benefits (2015-2016)