The American Bar Foundation (ABF) welcomes Michael H. Byowitz as the new president of the ABF’s Board of Directors. His two-year term began September 1, 2026, following his service as Vice President.
Byowitz is a nationally recognized antitrust and competition lawyer who spent more than thirty years as a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and has now served as counsel to the firm for the past ten years. He has advised major domestic and international mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and corporate takeovers and has consulted on antitrust matters across numerous jurisdictions. Before joining Wachtell Lipton, he served as a senior trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice.
Read a Fellows Spotlight interview with Byowitz here.
In addition to serving as Vice President of the ABF Board of Directors, Byowitz has also founded and chairs an ABA task force supporting Afghan judges, lawyers, and prosecutors seeking to rebuild their legal careers in the United States.
Byowitz is a Philanthropist Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He said, “Research on law, legal institutions, and the legal profession is more important than ever. As the ABF approaches its seventy-fifth anniversary, we have an opportunity both to reflect on its extraordinary history and to consider how its research can help make the legal system more accessible and responsive in the years ahead. I look forward to working with the Board, the ABF faculty and staff, and the Fellows, whose support and advocacy champion this important work.”
The ABF would also like to thank Sandra J. Chan for her service as ABF Board President the past two years. During her tenure, the ABF launched its 2024–2029 Strategic Plan and conducted a search for its next Executive Director, which concluded with the appointment to that position of longtime ABF Research Professor Laura Beth Nielsen.
Said Chan, “Serving as President of the ABF Board of Directors has been a privilege. Thanks to the contributions of so many on the ABF Board, faculty, and staff, I am proud of the progress the ABF has made during my tenure. Under the leadership of Laura Beth Nielsen, our first woman Executive Director, and new President Byowitz, I am confident the ABF will continue to expand its important and groundbreaking research and broaden its impact.”
Lauren Robel, who served the past two years as Secretary, will succeed Byowitz as Vice President while Board Members Ellen Jakovic and Jo Ann Engelhardt will join the Board leadership as Treasurer and Secretary, respectively.
Lauren Robel is the Val Nolan Professor of Law Emerita at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where she served as Dean from 2002 to 2012. She has clerked for the Honorable Jesse Eschbach at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and has served as President of the Association of American Law Schools. She is a Visionary Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Read a Fellows Spotlight interview with Robel here.
Ellen M. Jakovic is Of-Counsel and a retired Partner at Kirkland and Ellis’s Antitrust Practice Group. Jakovic headed the firm’s Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (HSR) filing practice and advised clients on the antitrust aspects of complex mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. She is a Leadership Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Read a Fellows Spotlight interview with Jakovic here.
Jo Ann Engelhardt is the Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Bessemer Trust in Palm Beach. In this role, she leads a team responsible for providing clients with proactive, highly personalized advice across Investment, Wealth Planning, and Family Office Services. She is a Visionary Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the President’s Club of the ABA Fund for Justice and Education.
Read a Fellows Spotlight interview with Engelhardt here.
Finally, there are a number of additions to the ABF Board, those being:
Shayda Zaerpoor Le will move from her current role as Special Advisor to Board Member.
Laura Farber will rejoin the Board of Directors as the President-Elect of the ABA.
Aurora Austriaco will succeed Jonathan Cole as Chair of the ABA House of Delegates.
September also brings a new slate of Fellows Officers, who will serve as Board Members in an ex officio capacity.
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About the American Bar Foundation
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is the world’s leading research institute for the empirical and interdisciplinary study of law. The ABF seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. To further this mission the ABF will produce timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and internationally. The ABF’s primary funding is provided by the American Bar Endowment and the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.