Skip to main content

The Fellows Officers

Myles V. Lynk is Chair of The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. He is the Peter Kiewit Foundation Professor of Law and the Legal Profession at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (ASU), and a Faculty Fellow at ASU's Center for the Study of Law, Science and Technology. His research and teaching are in the areas of civil procedure, legal ethics, corporate governance and law and literature. In 2010 he received the Outstanding Faculty Member Award from the College of Law's Alumni Association. He is also an affiliated faculty member in Justice Studies in the School of Social Transformation, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU. He has also taught at the Duke University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, George Mason University Law School, George Washington University School of Law, and the University of Maryland School of Law.

Myles was a lawyer in private practice in Washington, DC, before joining ASU's faculty in 2000. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he served on the Legal Aid Bureau, he served as a law clerk to Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; as a special assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare; as an assistant director on the White House Domestic Policy Staff in 1979-1980; and as a counsel on the staff of the Special Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in 1982-1983.  From 1998 to 2004 Myles served two three-year terms on the Civil Rules Advisory Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Myles is an emeritus member of the governing Council of the American Law Institute. In the ABA, he chairs the Standing Committee on Professional Discipline, is chair-elect of the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, was a founder and co-chair of the ABA Section of Business Law's Committee on Community Economic Development, and is a past member of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession.  Myles is a past president of the District of Columbia Bar and was co-chair of the State Bar of Arizona's Task Force on Multijurisdictional Practice.

Contact Myles at .  


Don Slesnick is Chair-Elect of The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.  He is Managing Partner for the Law Offices of Slesnick & Casey, LLP. He has been in private practice specializing in “labor and employment” law since 1978, representing public sector employee organizations. Prior to this he held labor relations management positions with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the Miami-Dade County Police Department. In 2011 he concluded ten years as Mayor of Coral Gables, Florida.  He served as the 2009-10 President of the Florida League of Mayors. 

Don received a B.A. (Foreign Affairs) from the University of Virginia, a J.D. from the University of Florida and a M.P.A. from Florida International University. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985; is a Florida Bar Board Certified Specialist in Labor & Employment Relations and a Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediator. He is the Secretary of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers and a member of the Florida Academy of Professional Mediators.

In addition to his law practice, he has recently been named as Dean of the School of Public Administration of the newly chartered University of Southernmost Florida.

Active for many years in his profession, Don has been Chairman of the Florida Bar Labor & Employment Law Section and Co-Chairman of the ABA State and Local Government Bargaining and Employment Law Committee. He is presently serving as a member of the governing council of the ABA Labor & Employment Section and represents that Section in the ABA House of Delegates. He holds an ABA Presidential appointment to the Commission on Civic Education in the Nation’s Schools.

Don is a Vietnam veteran, a former U.S. Army advisor to NATO forces in Germany and retired from the Army as a Lt. Colonel.  He currently serves as an Army Reserve Ambassador. He has been active in numerous civic and business organizations which include the Orange Bowl Committee, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce (Founding Chairman of the award winning program for Ethics in Business & Government).  He has served as Chairman of both the Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Council and the Coral Gables Community Foundation.

Included among his awards he has received: the Bill Colson Community Leadership Award from Leadership Miami; the Distinguished Service Award - American Bar Association; the Miami-Dade County Medal of Merit for Leadership, in 2007 was included in the Sun Post's list of the “50 Most Influential Persons in South Florida”, was chosen in 2004 by South Florida CEO magazine as one of the “Top 101 Global Leaders of South Florida”, and was recently awarded the Friend of Foreign Service Medal by the Republic of China (Taiwan). Additionally, he has held the Martindale-Hubbel rating of “AV Preeminent” for over twenty-five years. He was included in the Best Lawyers In America”, has been designated as a Florida “Super Lawyer” and named as one of South Florida’s “Top Lawyers

 Contact Don at

 

Cheryl Niro  is the Secretary of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.  She is a principal at the professional responsibility firm of RobinsonNiro, LLC in Chicago, Illinois, and is AV rated by Martindale Hubbard.  Ms. Niro’s practice is focused on representing attorneys and law firms in matters involving professional responsibility, ethics, professionalism and consults in those areas as well.  Ms. Niro is also a prominent member of the national dispute resolution community, and mediates disputes nationally and internationally.  A well-known speaker and lecturer, Ms. Niro travels extensively and delivers keynote addresses and CLE programs to organized bar associations around the country.  She has studied and served as a teaching assistant in the Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers Mediation and Negotiation Workshops, and is frequently sought as a facilitator for organizational planning, problem solving and dispute resolution.  She was the inaugural executive director of the Illinois Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism, and the Illinois Supreme Court’s Committee on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.  Ms. Niro has served on selection committees for judicial nominees at the U.S. Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and judicial appointment committees for Justice MaryAnn McMorrow of the Illinois Supreme Court.

Cheryl Niro is the second woman elected president of the 30,000 member Illinois State Bar Association.  She is currently serving on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association and its Executive Committee, chairing the BOG Committee on Programs.  Ms. Niro has represented Illinois in the ABA House of Delegates for many years.  Ms. Niro served on the ABA Commission on MultiJurisdictional Practice, ABA Standing Committees on Professionalism, Bar Services and Activities, the council of the Dispute Resolution Section, and several leadership positions within the House of Delegates.  She is a former president of the National Caucus of State Bar Associations and has received awards for innovative projects serving the organized bar and society.  Ms. Niro began her service to the ABF as a member of the Research Advisory Committee.  She has been selected as one of American Lawyer Media’s Ten Most Influential Women Attorneys in Illinois, Today’s Chicago Woman magazine’s Women Making a Difference, and its Hall of Fame. 

Ms. Niro lives in historic Oak Park, Illinois with her husband, William Niro, an intellectual property attorney in Chicago.  She is a classically trained musician, and a founder of the Oak Park/River Forest Children’s Chorus.  Her community services includes the Governing Board of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Infant Welfare League of Oak Park/River Forest, the Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation, the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic Preservation Foundation.

Contact Cheryl at