October Program

Never Fail to Negotiate:
How Assertiveness Helps You Succeed
Speaker: Cheryl I. Niro
Areas of Practice:
Complex Litigation
Appellate Practice
Governmental Relations
Alternative Dispute Resolution

Cheryl I. Niro joined Quinlan & Carroll as a partner in June 1999. She previously served as Special Counsel to the Illinois Attorney General. Niro is also a leader of the Illinois State Bar Association, serving as its President during 1999-2000.

Niro is an experienced attorney with extensive background in advising, counseling, and negotiating a broad range of disputes. She began her legal career in Labor Relations in the Chicago firm of Pope, Ballard, Shepard, & Fowle, representing major corporations in labor arbitrations. As a sole practitioner, she advised and represented individuals and businesses in diverse matters including appeals in the federal court. As a nationally recognized leader in the field of alternative dispute resolution, Niro brings to her practice the ability to integrate ADR processes into complex litigation, effectively and efficiently achieving the best results for her clients.

Niro has taught extensively. She served as a guest lecturer at Harvard Law School and has been a teaching assistant in the Harvard Program of Instruction for Lawyers Workshops in Negotiation and Mediation. She has taught trial skills, and created Mock Trials which are used in lawyer training programs across the country. A consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice and Education, she is a founding director of the National Center for Conflict Resolution Education. She designed and conducted the training program for judges and lawyers to mediate high end civil cases in the first court annexed project in Illinois. She serves on the Illinois Judicial Conference ADR Coordinating Committee.

As only the second woman president of the Illinois State Bar Association, Niro chaired the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee, worked on the recodification of Illinois Revised Statutes, and developed a nationally recognized Mock Trial program. Cheryl is a member of several professional panels, including the London Court of International Arbitration, and the US Copyright Office Copyright Arbitration Panel. She was selected by Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine as “100 Women Making a Difference, 2000” and American Lawyer Media’s list of “Ten Most Influential Women Lawyers in Illinois, 2000.”