ISBA Past President Niro joins ABA Board of Governors

Cheryl Niro, long a leader of Illinois’ legal community, today became a member of the American Bar Association Board of Governors. Niro is a principal in the law firm of RobinsonNiro, LLC, which provides advice, expert witness services and training on issues involving legal ethics. Just beginning a 3-year term as one of only 38 members of the Board of Governors, Niro will help oversee administration and management of the ABA.  She represents the association’s Seventh District, comprising Illinois and Ohio.  The association represents lawyers from every corner of the country, practicing in every field of law and working in every professional capacity. Niro has worked in legal circles in Illinois since 1981, with her career alternating the private practice of law with public service.  She was executive director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism during 2006-09; a special counsel to the Attorney General of Illinois in 1996-99; and the executive director of the Illinois Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, a project of the state supreme court, in 1985-88.  While practicing in a law firm under her own name, she also founded the National Center for Conflict Resolution Education, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education. Niro is a past president of the Illinois State Bar Association, and has chaired or been a member of state bar entities devoted to a range of issues, from meeting the legal needs and interests of children in the state to the impact of international trade agreements on the practice of law.  As a hands-on leader, she worked with the state bar’s participation in national high school mock trial competitions and supported a project to revise and update the Illinois Revised Statutes.  She worked on issues of internal bar significance, but also those affecting the public, such as developing alternatives to litigation for resolving legal disputes.  She also is as past president of the Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation, which works to meet the legal needs of the county’s indigent, and of the Illinois Supreme Court Legal Historical Society. Among the many other organizations in which Niro has played a leadership role are the Our Children in the Court Foundation, the National Center for Institutions and Alternatives, the Chicago Council of Lawyers Panel on Child Support Enforcement, the Child Support Advisory Committee of the Illinois Department of Public Aid, The Voice for Illinois Children Planning Commission and the John Howard Association Lawyers’ Committee for Prison Reform.  She was among founders of the Oak Park/River Forest Children’s Chorus, and served on the Governing Board of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cook County Government Trade Mission to Cork County, Ireland, and the board of the University of Chicago Lying-In Hospital. In the ABA, Niro was a member of the policy-making House of Delegates, representing the state bar, for fifteen years, served on association-wide entities addressing medical professional liability, legal practice on a multi-jurisdictional level, and lawyer regulation.  She was a member of the governing council of the Section of Dispute Resolution, and was active in the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division and the Section of Labor and Employment Law.  She is a Fellow of The American Bar Foundation and serves on its research advisory committee.  She also has been active in the National Conference of Bar Presidents. As a nationally-recognized leader in the profession, Niro frequently lectures in continuing legal education programs, and at law schools both in Illinois and outside the state.