Dan Halem
Deputy Commissioner, Baseball Administration and Chief Legal Officer
Dan Halem was promoted to Deputy Commissioner, Baseball Administration by Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. on Dec. 11, 2017. He remains MLB's Chief Legal Officer, the capacity in which he has served since Dec. 4, 2014. Halem oversees all of the Office of the Commissioner's legal affairs, labor relations, baseball operations, human resources, diversity efforts, the Department of Investigations and other areas.
Halem directs the administration of the revenue sharing system, the debt-service rule, the competitive balance tax, the salary arbitration system and the amateur draft support program, among other projects. Halem has played a key role in all collective bargaining issues with the MLB Players Association, including the renewals of the Basic Agreement in 2011 and 2016, as well as the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. He also manages the bargaining relationship with the World Umpires Association.
Halem was named MLB's Executive Vice President, Labor Relations, by Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig on Dec. 12, 2013. In that role, he reported directly to Manfred. He first joined MLB in September 2007 as Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Labor.
Before joining MLB, Halem worked as a partner in the Labor and Employment Law Department at the New York office of Proskauer, where he represented employers in collective bargaining, arbitration and administrative proceedings as well as in state and federal litigations. As a part of Proskauer's Sports Law Group, Halem counseled MLB on collective bargaining issues related to its players and umpires and he represented individual Clubs in salary arbitration. Halem also represented and counseled the National Basketball Association, the Women's National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the New York Jets of the National Football League prior to joining MLB.
Halem graduated from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1988 and from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, in 1991. He grew up in New Jersey and now resides with his family in New York.
