Local attorney ‘Skeeter’ Salim named to UL System board of supervisors

Natchitoches native Robert L. "Skeeter" Salim, who runs a highly-successful law practice locally and in Houston, has been appointed to the University of Louisiana System board of supervisors by Gov. Jeff Landry.

Salim, a 1972 Northwestern State University graduate, will be officially sworn in at the board's meeting next Thursday morning in Baton Rouge.

"Louisiana has the opportunity to turn our state around and that starts with transforming our education system," Salim told the Baton Rouge Advocate.

He replaces longtime ULS board member and Natchitoches resident Lola Walker Dunahoe, who died last month after a brief illness.

The UL System includes nine state universities with over 90,000 students enrolled. The member institutions include Northwestern, Louisiana Tech, Grambling and ULM in north Louisiana. Salim is appointed as an "at-large" board member.

A Natchitoches High graduate, Salim was a four-year letterman on the tennis team at Northwestern and a teammate of new NSU President James T. "Jimmy" Genovese before becoming one of the top trial lawyers in the country.

A founding member of The Class Action Trial Lawyers Association, Salim has been named to America's Top 100 High Stakes Litigators. He drew national media attention for suing his own health insurer over coverage of cancer treatment, and winning a fight of more than four years in 2023, with his lifelong friend and local attorney Ronald Corkern as lead attorney.

Salim earned a degree in political science and history from Northwestern. He was a Dean's List student. He attended Loyola Law School, graduated in 1976 and was admitted to the Louisiana State Bar. While in law school, he clerked for Dodd & Barker and Donald G. Kelly.

He is a member of the Natchitoches Parish Bar Association, Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, American Association for Justice, Immaculate Conception Church and a former member of Board of Governors of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Since 2007, he has been selected as one of the 100 Top Trial Lawyers as determined by The American Trial Lawyers Association.

Salim is one of the six men who will be inducted into Northwestern's Long Purple Line, the university's Alumni Hall of Distinction, next Friday during Homecoming festivities.

Salim has remained active in civic and university causes, and is noted for his generous support of local youth baseball programs and some of the sports teams at Northwestern.

His decades-long support of Demon baseball has been pivotal, resulting in significant enhancements to Brown-Stroud Field and advancement of the highly-successful program.. He also has been a significant supporter of NSU men's and women's basketball. His fundraising efforts and support of Northwestern athletics netted him the 2019 N-Club Hall of Fame's Distinguished Service Award.

While he has been a longtime donor to Northwestern, Salim has established four $100,000 endowments at the university over the past two years including scholarships in memory of Jerry Pierce, Richard Ware, Jack Brittain Jr., and H.N. and Inez Towry.