ANN ARBOR—Dana Muir, associate professor of business law at the University of Michigan Business School, has been named to the U.S. Department of Labor‘s Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Plans.

Muir, a specialist in employee benefits law, was appointed by Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao to a three-year term as the council’s general public representative. She is one of five new members named to the 15-person council.

Established by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the council makes recommendations to the Department of Labor on current employee benefit issues. Members represent various constituencies with interests in ERISA plans, such as employers, employees and the general public, as well as the actuarial, accounting, corporate trust, investment counseling and management and insurance fields.

Muir, who previously worked in human resource management at Chrysler Corp. and practiced law for Dykema Gossett in Bloomfield Hills and Winston & Strawn in Chicago, has taught at the U-M Business School since 1993. Her research has focused on issues involving private-sector employee benefit plans.

Other new council appointees include David Wray, president of the Profit Sharing and 401(k) Council; John Szczur, director of investments for the Central Pension Fund of the International Union of Operating Engineers and Participating Employers; Michele Weldon, director in the Financial Services Industry Practice group of PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Judy Weiss, vice president in charge of retirement and savings business matters for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.