Daniel R. Salemi
Dan Salemi is the deputy practice group leader for the firm’s global employee benefits and executive compensation group. He counsels clients on the full range of issues related to retirement plans, health and welfare plans, multiemployer plans, fiduciary governance, benefit plan investments and deferred and equity-based compensation arrangements. Dan is known for helping clients navigate high-stakes, complex situations with clarity and confidence. He has been described in Chambers USA and other publications as “measured,” “very thorough,” “highly prepared,” and as having “a unique ability to make the most complex benefits and ERISA issues understandable.”
Dan works with clients to design and maintain state-of-the-art benefit plans and compensation arrangements to achieve each client’s unique operational goals. His broad background in the employee benefits area includes the representation of clients who are dealing with employee benefits and executive compensation issues in mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, restructuring, collective bargaining, and litigation. Dan represents clients across the United States in various industries, including public, private, and nonprofit organizations.
Among other types of clients, Dan works extensively with clients in the multiemployer plans space and has substantial experience with the wide variety of benefits and labor law issues that these clients face. In addition to serving as counsel to several large multiemployer pension and health plans, Dan represents and counsels clients on pension withdrawal liability and other issues related to participation in multiemployer pension and health/welfare plans. He advises clients on pension withdrawal liability issues in a variety of contexts, including collective bargaining, workforce restructuring, subcontracting, corporate transactions, and plant relocations and closures, and represents clients in any resulting litigation. Dan also regularly represents employer trustees to multiemployer plans in deadlock arbitrations, covering a variety of issues.
Dan serves on Institutional Investor’s Defined Contribution Institute Advisory Board.
- Advises clients on the design, funding, ongoing administration, and termination of retirement plans of all types (including defined benefit pension, cash balance, profit sharing, 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plans)
- Advises clients on compliance with all applicable federal and state laws, including the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA, COBRA, the Internal Revenue Code, and ERISA
- Represents clients in multiemployer pension withdrawal liability matters and deadlock arbitrations
- Assists clients with the design, funding, and administration of retiree health arrangements
- Represents clients in plan correction matters, plan audits, and other issues involving the US Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
- University of Notre Dame Law School, 2006, J.D., cum laude
- University of Dayton, 2003, B.A., economics, summa cum laude
- Illinois
- US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois


Ranked, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation, Illinois, Chambers USA (2018–2026)
Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law, Chicago (2020, 2022–2025)
Recommended, Labor and Employment: Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans: Transactional, The Legal 500 US (2023)
Recommended, Labor and Employment: Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans: Design, The Legal 500 US (2022)
Recommended, Labor and Employment: Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation and Retirement Plans: Transactional, The Legal 500 US (2019–2021)
Recognized, Emerging Lawyer, Law Bulletin Publishing (2012–2022)
Member, Practice Group of the Year, Benefits, Law360 (2022)
Member, Law Firm of the Year, Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation, Chambers USA (2019)
Member, Law Firm of the Year, Employee Benefits (ERISA Law), US News/Best Lawyers – Best Law Firms (2019)
Vice chair, Fiduciary Responsibility and Plan Investments Subcommittee, Employee Benefits Committee (Tax Section), American Bar Association (2011–2018)