Stephen R. Miller is counsel in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm’s Chicago office. He focuses his practice on employee benefits matters for corporations, limited liability companies, and self-employed individuals, including the adoption, amendment, and qualification of pension and profit sharing plans (including cash balance and 401(k) plans), employee welfare benefit plans and trusts, non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements, SERPs, and other executive compensation matters. Stephen’s work in the qualified plan area includes dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in obtaining rulings, advisory opinions, prohibited transaction exemptions and other matters. He also has extensive experience addressing fiduciary issues under ERISA, modifying retiree medical benefits, and handling employee benefit issues arising in business transactions, including multi-employer pension plan issues under the MEPPAA.
Stephen has team-taught a graduate-level tax course on deferred compensation at John Marshall Law School, and has spoken on employee pension and welfare benefit topics before organizations such as the National Association of Accountants, the American Academy of Hospital Attorneys, the Midwest Benefits Council and the Chicago Bar Association. Stephen has written on employee benefits matters in the Employee Benefits Journal and the Journal of Pension Planning and Compliance and in Firm newsletters (available on the “Publications” page of the Firm’s website).
Stephen is admitted to the Illinois Bar, and is a member of the WEB Network of Benefits Professionals, the Lawyers Club of Chicago, the Nordic Law Club, and the American and Chicago Bar Associations. Stephen is AV-rated in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, and is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in American Law. He has been recognized as a leading lawyer in his field in the Best Lawyers in America, and was named an Illinois Super Lawyer in the 2010-2012 issues of Illinois Super Lawyers magazine and an Illinois Leading Lawyer by Law Journal Publishing Company’s Leading Lawyer magazine.
Stephen served on the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Task Force on Post-Employment Benefits Other Than Pensions, and on the elected Management Committee of the Firm. He is a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and served on its "President's Circle" and previously chaired the Membership Development Subcommittee. He has served as a trustee of the Village of Wilmette Police Pension Board and as a member of the Board of Trustees and Chancellor of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.
Stephen is active in the Firm’s pro bono program, coordinating the Firm’s participation in an inner city high school college-focused mentoring program, and tutoring at a West Side Grammar School.
Education
- Cornell Law School, J.D., 1975
- Yale University, B.A., 1972
