Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri
Biography
Josh Divine was most recently the Solicitor General of Missouri, where he oversaw the office's appellate and special litigation divisions. As Solicitor General, Mr. Divine led Missouri's trial and appellate teams to some of its most significant victories. Mr. Divine was lead counsel in blocking $700 billion in student loan bailouts attempted by the federal government. He was lead counsel in obtaining a $25 billion judgment against China for antitrust violations. And he was lead counsel in successfully defending the Missouri law that prohibits gender transition interventions in minors, making Missouri the only state in the nation to prevail at trial against an equal protection challenge to one of these laws. In addition, Mr. Divine's work at the trial court in Missouri v. Biden (restyled Murthy v. Missouri) helped expose systemic violations of the First Amendment by the federal government, which the trial court found was unconstitutionally pressuring social media companies to suppress millions of free speech posts.
Before serving as Solicitor General, Mr. Divine was Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, where he oversaw all legal issues, managed matters related to the Judiciary Committee, and developed tech policy. Mr. Divine clerked on the Supreme Court for Justice Thomas and on the Eleventh Circuit for Judge William Pryor. He received a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Northern Colorado. His recent legal scholarship has appeared in the Virginia Law Review and the Hastings Law Journal.
Jenna Lorence currently serves as Alaska’s State Solicitor General. Prior to this role, she served as Deputy Solicitor General in the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, where she represented the State in constitutional and appellate matters. Lorence previously served as Assistant Solicitor General for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and practiced appellate and complex litigation at Baker & Hostetler LLP. A graduate of the Washington and Lee University School of Law, she also clerked for Judge Allison Jones Rushing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In her current role, Lorence oversees Alaska’s appellate strategy and works with state attorneys general across the country on significant constitutional and public policy issues.