Biography
Jim Singer focuses his practice on Employee Benefits and Private and Public Sector Labor Unions. Jim received his law degree from Northwestern University Law School in 1975 (J.D., cum laude) where he served on the editorial board of the Law Review. Jim came to the Firm after working as an attorney with the United States Department of Transportation (Washington, D.C.) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 14th Region (St. Louis). Jim is a charter fellow, past officer and past board member of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. Jim was appointed to serve as a delegate to the 2002 National Summit on Retirement Savings. He served as Union Co-Chair of the Committee on Employee Benefits of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association (ABA) (1990 - 1993), as Co-Chair of the Senior Editors of the Second Edition of the Employee Benefits Law, and as a Senior Editor for the First and Third Editions of Employee Benefits Law.
In 2013, Jim was nominated by the AFL-CIO, and appointed by the Secretary of the United States Department of Labor to serve a 3-year term on the Department's ERISA Advisory Council (Council). In 2013, Jim served on the Council's Team investigating and reporting on pension plan lost participants. In 2014, Jim served as the Council's Team Chair investigating and reporting on the disclosure of compensation/fees of prescription benefit managers (PBMs) for ERISA health care plans. In 2015, Jim served as the Council's Team Chair investigating and reporting on recommended participant disclosures for risk shifting (de-risking) transactions by employer sponsored defined benefit plans.
From 2017 to 2019, Jim served as adjunct faculty at St. Louis University Law School and taught two three-credit courses on Employee Benefits Law to law students.
From 2016 to 2021, Jim served for five years as a St. Louis County appointed trustee of the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District.
In the Spring of 2020, the Missouri Historical Society published a legal history article written by Jim and his co-author Ellen Kunkelmann on a civil rights dispute from the 1950’s between the City of Creve Coeur, Missouri and Dr. and Mrs. Howard Venable in Gateway: The Magazine of the Missouri Historical Society, vol. 40, no. 1, Spring 2020, pp. 6-17 which is available at: "Reckoning in Creve Coeur: Venable Park."
In March 2023, Jim was appointed to serve on the Board of the St. Louis County Clinical Consumers Majority Board which was established to assist St. Louis County in obtaining FQHC status for the County’s three public health clinics, and in the administration of the clinics.
Practice Areas
- Employee Benefits
- Private and Public Sector Labor Unions
Education
- Northwestern University School of Law, Chicago, Illinois
- J.D. - 1975
- Honors: cum laude
Bar Admissions
- Missouri
- Illinois
- U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit


