Peter Mcclorey Kelly II

Peter Kelly has practiced employee benefits law exclusively since 1973, one year before ERISA. After 31 years in private practice (partner: McDermott, Will & Emery; Kirkland & Ellis; Bell, Boyd & Lloyd; and Ogletree Deakins (formerly Murphy, Smith & Polk)), he joined Blue Cross Blue Shield Association as Chief Employee Benefits Counsel.

Mr. Kelly is a Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel and served on its Board of Governors (2000-06) and has chaired its Writing Competition in recent years. He is a Past Chair and current Section Representative on The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits. He served over 20 years on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Employee Benefits Committee. He now chairs the ABA Real Property, Trust and Estate’s ERISA Fiduciary Committee and is an American Bar Foundation Life Fellow. He was one of 12 in-house 2008 Illinois Super Lawyers (only other in-house employee benefits attorney). He was selected again in 2009, the last year in-house attorneys were included. He has held Martindale’s highest rating (AV) for more than two decades.

Mr. Kelly taught pension and profit-sharing law at Loyola Law School and Indiana University School of Law (a total of nine semesters). He presented congressional or agency testimony on more than two dozen occasions and conducted full day training sessions for IRS/EP agents during three IRS National Training Programs. He received the “Hammer Award” from VP Gore’s Office of National Performance Review for “significant contributions” to “reinventing government," for his work on a PBGC negotiated rulemaking committee.