CLE Speakers
Matthew S. Bowman, Esq., serves as Legal Counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund at its Washington, D.C. Regional Service Center, where he is a key member of the Life Litigation Project to protect the sanctity of human life.
Since joining ADF in 2006, Bowman has focused his litigation efforts on life issues. He recently helped obtain injunctions against the City of New York as well as Montgomery County, Maryland, for imposing restrictive ordinances against pro-life pregnancy centers. He successfully litigated the case In re: Richardson, obtaining a settlement that saved the life of a young woman who was nearly starved to death in a situation similar to that of Terri Schiavo. He also filed an administrative complaint against Vanderbilt University which caused it to cease pro-life nurses from applying to Vanderbilt’s nurse residency program. A federal court issued a favorable decision in 2009 to Bowman’s client in the lawsuit Trewhella v. City of Findlay, securing the free speech rights of pro-life advocates to share their message on a public sidewalk. In addition, he has filed several lawsuits protecting the rights of pro-life students to share their opposition to abortion with their public school classmates. Bowman also sued and secured a settlement protecting a pro-life Coast Guard member’s right to equal treatment in objecting to a vaccine derived from aborted babies.
In 2003, Bowman earned his J.D. from Ave Maria School of Law, where he was class valedictorian, graduated summa cum laude, and received the St. Thomas More Award for Virtue and Academic Excellence. Prior to serving with ADF, he clerked for two federal judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, including The Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and The Honorable Michael A. Chagares. Bowman also clerked for The Honorable John M. Roll in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. He is a member of the Christian Legal Society, National Lawyers Association, Federalist Society, and Knights of Columbus. He earned his B.S. in Physics from the University of Dayton in 1997.
Bowman has been practicing law since 2003 and is admitted to the bar in the state of Michigan, the U.S. Supreme Court, the District of Columbia, and several U.S. Courts of Appeals and U.S. District Courts. He lives with his wife and three children near Washington, D.C., attends a Catholic parish there.
Nikolas T. Nikas is President and General Counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund. Nikas has directed national legal strategy on the issues of human cloning/embryonic stem cell research, abortion and end-of-life issues since 1992. Nikas leads bioethics litigation efforts by providing strategic counsel to state attorneys general and by directly litigating federal court challenges to enacted legislation when appointed by state officials. Nikas has served as a special assistant attorney general for the state of Arizona in its partial-birth abortion litigation, and as special deputy Maricopa County attorney in the currently pending constitutional challenge to Arizona’s abortion clinic regulation law. He has also litigated ballot initiatives regarding human cloning and embryonic stem cell research, and healthcare rights of conscience. Nikas consulted with members and legal staff of the President’s Council on Bioethics in Washington, D.C., and has testified before the U.S. Senate on abortion and First Amendment rights.
Before dedicating his law practice to bioethics issues, Nikas was associated with two of the largest firms in Arizona, focusing on civil litigation in Arizona federal and state courts. Nikas received his B.A. (1979) in government and international relations, and his M.A. (1981) in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He received his juris doctor, magna cum laude, in 1986 from Arizona State University College of Law. Nikas lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and their five children.
Steven R. Zielinski, M.D., J.D., is a long-time pro-life activist whose involvement stretches back to the 1970s. He wrote the medical briefs for the Hyde Amendment Cases, Williams v. Zbaraz and Harris v. McRae. He was Medical Consultant for Lewis vs. Indiana, the first criminal prosecution of an abortionist to reach the US Supreme Court since Roe. His public challenge to Geraldine Ferraro during her 1984 Vice-Presidential effort literally stopped her campaign and resulted in the only private meeting between Ferraro and pro-life individuals. He served as the Medical Consultant in the Alliance Defense Fund Brief in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood, a reprise of the original Hyde challenge. Most recently he served as an advisor to NRLC on the 2010 Nebraska “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”, now law in 5 states. In 1984 Dr. Zielinski co-authored with Thomas Marzen and Dr. Vincent Collins, “Abortion and Fetal Pain: The Medical Evidence.” He is a 1982 graduate of Northwestern University Medical School Honors Program in Medical Education. In 1991 he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois College of Law. He is a board certified internal medicine physician. In his many years of professional work he has served in many capacities, including as a teaching fellow at the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, Institute for Health Law, and as assistant medical examiner for Morrow County, Oregon.
