Overview

Dave Radelet has practiced law for more than three decades, representing private sector employers across the country in a wide variety of labor and employment matters. His clients have included manufacturing, transportation and retail industry leaders, multi-employer associations, and a variety of firms in the service sector.

Dave’s labor and employment practice is broad-based. He has represented employers in scores of collective bargaining negotiations, arbitrations, union organizing and decertification situations around the U.S., and related NLRB and court proceedings. He has also handled a diverse assortment of employment litigation before various state and federal courts and government agencies.

Additionally, Dave provides general employment counseling and compliance advice on a wide variety of labor and employment matters, such as drafting and enforcing employment contracts and restrictive covenants, strategizing asset transfers, structuring indirect service relationships, developing employee handbooks and policy manuals, and many other issues impacted by the increasingly complex and daunting array of federal and state employment statutes.

Dave has been particularly active in advising employers as they define the labor and employment elements of their core business strategies. He assists mature union-represented employers in developing and implementing next-generation business strategies for new product development, complexity reduction, facility shutdown or relocation, and other essential strategic initiatives.

Among his vast strategic planning and litigation experience, Dave co-represented a Fortune 100 company in a massive declaratory class action in federal court relating to a $1 billion reduction in retiree health benefits affecting nearly 100,000 retirees and dependents in 49 states.

Recognition

Named, The Best Lawyers in America®

2020-2025

Ranked, Labor & Employment

Chambers USA

2018-2024

Speaking Engagements

Behind the Headlines: The Real State of Union Organizing and What Employers Should Be Doing

Littler Executive Employer Conference, Phoenix, AZ

May 11, 2023

Education

  • J.D., University of Michigan Law School, 1981
  • B.A., Michigan State University, 1978With High Honors

Bar Admission

Illinois

Courts

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
  • U.S. District Court, Central District of Illinois
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Indiana
  • U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana