Bob is actively involved in the operations of the St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy. Having been instrumental in the pharmacy's creation, he has served on the Board of Directors from day one.

Bob is a partner and member of the Firm’s Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits Group.

His practice focuses on design, structure, implementation and regulatory compliance of all types of executive compensation programs and employee benefits plans, as well as trouble shooting when controversies, operational errors, and government audits (IRS, DOL) arise. Bob enjoys helping employers of all sizes (as well as tax-exempt entities) design and maintain competitive, market-driven compensation and benefit line-ups to enhance recruitment, retention and performance of key managers and executive officers.

Common plan types include: equity-based incentive compensation plans (phantom stock, stock options, stock appreciation rights, performance share units, etc.); short-term and long-term performance plans; stay/retention bonus programs; pension, 401(k), profit sharing; ESOPs; deferred compensation plans; change in control and severance agreements; group medical/life/disability/long term care programs; and cafeteria, wellness; medical/dental/dependent care spending accounts, health savings accounts, and healthcare reimbursement accounts.

Bob also consults with clients on employer withdrawal liability under union-sponsored pension plans and health care reform issues. He helps negotiate the benefits/compensation points in business transactions. With a practical approach and in-depth knowledge and experience in tax and employee benefits law, and their interplay with labor /employment law, his focus is always on helping clients creatively position benefit plans and compensation vehicles to recruit and retain talent.

Based on the grading and comments of his peers, Bob is recognized with an AV Rating, the highest rating given to lawyers by Martindale-Hubbell. He has also been selected by his peers each year for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for his work in Employee Benefits/Executive Compensation Law.

Education

Xavier University, A.B., Honors Program, Classics, Economics, 1977

University of Kentucky College of Law, J.D., 1980

Boston University School of Law, LL.M., Taxation, 1984

Distinctions

Award, AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell

Listed, The Best Lawyers in America® – Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law (2025)

Professional Activities

• Cincinnati Bar Association - Member
• Kentucky Bar Association - Member
• Northern Kentucky Bar Association - Member
• Leadership Cincinnati
• Leadership Northern Kentucky
• Board Member, former Board Chair, St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy
• Class Rep, Covington Latin School Alumni Association
• Former Board Chair; Volunteer, Brighton Center
• Former Board Chair; Volunteer, Mariemont Schools Foundation

Resource Centers

Blog Posts

Bob Saelinger was No. 7 of 10. His father was born in the house where they all grew up, up the holler in rural eastern Campbell County, Kentucky. They had a 200-odd-acre dairy/produce/everything farm across the Ohio from old River Downs.

Most everything on the Saelinger table, the Saelingers tended and harvested. They worked the fields and the orchards, butchered their own hogs and steers, raised chickens, collected eggs, churned their own butter. Hard work was second nature. Bob looks back on those years as a remarkably rich, formative time – a stream of memories from an all-but-forgotten America.

One enduring memory, at least one, is the Saelinger egg route. Their dad ran an egg route every Saturday. They would pack the fresh harvest, country hams, sausage, sauerkraut, eggs, butter and whatever else they had to sell in the big truck and take two of the kids on the day-long route to Ft. Thomas and Newport. One kid would help with regular customers. The other was assigned to do cold calls. “That’s how you learned about business, how to approach people, how to get them to buy your stuff. You learned to smile and deal with people, starting at age 6.”

Bob and his brothers would be up at 5 a.m. to help with the morning milking.  After school, one of his jobs was to bring the cows back to the barn for the evening milking.  The farm was not quite all vertical hills and ridge tops, but nearly.  That’s what got him started, chasing Holsteins up and down those hills.

He ran track at Covington Latin and kept his running up through Xavier, law school in Lexington and tax school in Boston where he only spectated The Boston Marathon.  He was running shorter races when he signed on with Graydon.  “Nothing serious,” he says, quite earnestly.

He ran his first marathon, the 1994 New York City Marathon, through an outreach called Team in Training to benefit the Leukemia Society.  A quarter century later, Bob had done 30 marathons in all.  Among them: three New York Cities, four Chicagos, Berlin, two Twin Cities, a trough of Flying Pigs, and eight Bostons.

He downplays the running. “It’s just something I do, mostly to keep the mind clear.”  But he definitely sees the connection between his running and his work.  “It’s about toeing up to the line, competing, dogged to go the distance, and achieving the result that’s fulfilling for the client.  Because that’s where I find fulfillment as a lawyer.”

These are the values Bob brings to his practice.  He is concerned with getting it right.

“I love our firm.  It’s always client first. We don’t overdo.  We don’t throw lawyers at an issue for the sake of keeping lawyers busy. I look at it, and if I need someone else, we team up.”

“We’re lean in a good way. Not because we’re stingy, but because we know how to get the job done with what we have. It’s the kind of thing you learn on an egg route.”