Daniel J. Bartnicki has been named an attorney-advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), Erhard R. Chorlé. At the time of his appointment, Mr. Bartnicki was the Executive Assistant to the agency’s General Counsel and also served as a general attorney. He had been in that position since 2014, and had also served as acting director of the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals during the first half of 2017.
In his new position, Mr. Bartnicki will advise and assist the Chairman in reviewing legal matters concerning coverage of employers and employees under the railroad retirement system, appeals of benefit decisions, pending litigation, legislative and regulatory issues, and matters involving agency organization, policy and procedures.
Before joining the RRB as a general attorney in 2007, Mr. Bartnicki was an associate at two northwest Indiana law firms starting in 2005. Previously, he served three years as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps, stationed at Quantico, Virginia, earning the Naval Achievement Medal for outstanding service and superior performance. Before becoming a Marine, he worked as a project manager for the Indiana Secretary of State for one year.
Originally from Griffith, Indiana, he graduated in 1998 from Wabash College with a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in business. He earned his juris doctorate in 2001 from the Indiana University School of Law, where he was a moot court finalist and national competitor, along with serving as the student speaker at commencement.
Mr. Bartnicki is the co-author of a scholarly article published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law in 2012 concerning the inadvisability of defining “parental alienation syndrome” as a diagnosable mental illness.
He is a member of the bar in the State of Indiana, as well as for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana and the U.S Courts of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and the District of Columbia Circuit. Mr. Bartnicki is also certified under Articles 27b and 42a of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Mr. Bartnicki is a past chair of the Young Lawyers Section of the Lake County Bar Association in Indiana, and also serves as a volunteer soccer coach at Nativity Junior High in Portage, Indiana, and a volunteer academic team coach for Marquette High School in Michigan City, Indiana.
Mr. Bartnicki currently resides in Portage, Indiana, with his wife, Anna, and his two children, Aidan and Leah.
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An independent federal agency headquartered in Chicago, the RRB administers about $13.3 billion a year in benefits under the federal Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts covering the nation’s railroad workers and their families.