Former United States Senator, Oklahoma
Tom A. Coburn, M.D. was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 2, 2004. Dr. Coburn's priorities in the Senate included reducing wasteful spending, protecting your liberty, balancing the budget, improving health care access and affordability, protecting the sanctity of all human life - including the unborn - and representing traditional, Oklahoma values. As a citizen legislator, Dr. Coburn pledged to serve no more than two terms in the Senate and to continue to care for patients. He was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Committee on Finance.
As a Senator, Dr. Coburn offered more amendments than any of his colleagues. He offered amendments to eliminate funding for the "Bridge to Nowhere," the "Woodstock Museum" in New York and countless other special interests earmarks sponsored by members of both parties. Dr. Coburn also worked to make government more accountable and transparent. In 2006, he teamed up with then-Senator Barack Obama to create http://www.usaspending.gov/, an online database of all federal spending.
Prior to his election to the Senate, Dr. Coburn represented Oklahoma's Second Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2001. He was first elected in 1994, then re-elected in 1996 and 1998, becoming the first Republican to hold the seat for consecutive terms. Dr. Coburn retired from Congress in 2001, fulfilling his pledge to serve no more than three terms in the House.
In 1970, Dr. Coburn graduated with an accounting degree from Oklahoma State University. From 1970 to 1978, Dr. Coburn served as manufacturing manager at the Ophthalmic Division of Coburn Optical Industries in Colonial Heights, Virginia. Under his leadership, the Virginia division of Coburn Optical grew from 13 employees to more than 350 and captured 35 percent of the U.S. market.
After the family business was sold, Dr. Coburn changed the course of his life by returning to school to become a physician at the University of Oklahoma Medical School where he graduated in 1983. He then did his internship in general surgery at St. Anthony's Hospital in Oklahoma City and family practice residency at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith.
Dr. Coburn returned to Muskogee where he specialized in family medicine, obstetrics and the treatment of allergies. Dr. Coburn personally delivered more than 4,000 babies.
CoFounder, RightsClick
Steven’s extensive background in IP law and policy began as an attorney for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, after which, he served as senior counsel for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office and then as Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for the Global Intellectual Property Center of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Before co-founding RightsClick, he started the IP consultancy Sentinel Worldwide, and teaches copyright law at George Washington University Law School.
Grosscurth Professor of Law, University of Louisville
John Cross joined the Louisville faculty in 1987 after several years in private practice in Minneapolis. Since coming to Louisville, he has taught and published in a wide variety of areas, ranging from the first-year course in Civil Procedure to Animal Law. In recent years, however, he has increasingly focused his efforts in two broad areas: intellectual property law (both domestic and international), and the law governing court systems (Civil Procedure, Conflicts, Federal Jurisdiction, and Comparative Systems). Because of his exemplary work in the intellectual property field, Cross was named the Grosscurth Chair in Law in 2005.
His teaching interests reflect this same focus. He currently oversees the intellectual property curriculum at Louisville, and teaches many of the courses in that curriculum, including the Intellectual Property Survey, Trademark Law, Intellectual Property and Competition, Authors' and Performers' Rights, International Intellectual Property Law, Law and Computers, and Design Protection Law. He also continues to teach courses in court law, especially the first-year Civil Procedure Course and the capstone course in Federal Jurisdiction.
Cross' recent research parallels his teaching. This work has delved into various issues - both historic and contemporary - in intellectual property. For example, a recent article argues for the abolition of the current dual system of federal and state trademark law, proposing a unitary system in its place. Another article, published in a South African journal and reprinted in a German publication, argues that it is feasible to use an intellectual property model to protect folklore and traditional scientific knowledge. John is also a co-author of a casebook for the first year Civil Procedure course, along with Les Abramson at Louisville and Ellen Deason at Ohio State.
Because of the broad scope of Cross' research, his work has been recognized both in the United States and abroad. Most significantly, in 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws H.C. from the University of Turku in Finland, in recognition of his significant contributions to legal scholarship. He has also received two Fulbright awards (the maximum allowable), one in Finland (1995), the other in Ireland (2000). John has been invited to teach classes and/or give lectures in a number of foreign locales, including institutions in Argentina, Canada, Germany, England, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden. In January of 2008, he was a visiting professor at the University of Western Ontario.
Pravel, Hewitt, Kimball and Kreiger Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent Law, George Washington University Law School
Ralph Oman practices and teaches copyright law at The George Washington University Law School as the Pravel Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent law. He also serves as a Fellow on the faculty of the law school’s Creative and Innovative Economy Center. He has taught at The George Washington University Law School since 1993. From 1994 to 2008, he was counsel to the international law firm, Dechert LLP. He has more than 36 years of experience in intellectual property law and legislation.
Before entering private practice in 1994, Mr. Oman was the register of copyrights of the United States (1985-93), the chief government official charged with administering the national copyright law. During his tenure as register, he helped move the United States into the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the oldest and most prestigious international copyright treaty, a goal sought by U.S. Registers for 100 years.
Prior to his appointment as register, Mr. Oman served as chief counsel for the Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. In his total of 10 years on Capitol Hill working for Senator Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania and Senator Charles McCurdy Mathias of Maryland, he participated directly in many legislative enactments, most notably the 1976 revision of the copyright law. In 2002 he received the Jefferson Medal in recognition of his lifelong contribution to strong intellectual property protection.
Mr. Oman continues to promote intellectual property protection. He often serves in judicial proceedings as an expert witness, and he lectures frequently at venues around the world.
At Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Oman served as executive editor of the Journal of International Law. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable C. Stanley Blair of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Prior to law school, Mr. Oman was a Naval Flight Officer, and he spent two tours of duty in Vietnam with his squadron. He was also a Foreign Service Officer and served as the U.S. Vice Consul in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
Alston & Bird Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law
Professor Young teaches constitutional law, federal courts, and foreign relations law. He is one of the nation's leading authorities on the constitutional law of federalism, having written extensively on the Rehnquist Court's "Federalist Revival" and the difficulties confronting courts as they seek to draw lines between national and state authority. He also is an active commentator on foreign relations law, where he focuses on the interaction between domestic and supranational courts and the application of international law by domestic courts. Professor Young also writes on constitutional interpretation and constitutional theory. He has been known to dabble in maritime law and comparative constitutional law.
A native of Abilene, Texas, Professor Young joined the Duke Law faculty in 2008, after serving as the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, where he had taught since 1999. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1990 and Harvard Law School in 1993. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Michael Boudin of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (1993-94) and to Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court (1995-96). Professor Young practiced law at Cohan, Simpson, Cowlishaw, & Wulff in Dallas, Texas (1994-95) and at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. (1996-98), where he specialized in appellate litigation. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School (2004-05) and Villanova University School of Law (1998-99), as well as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center (1997).
Elected to the American Law Institute in 2006, Professor Young is an active participant in both public and private litigation in his areas of interest. He has been the principal author of amicus briefs on behalf of leading constitutional scholars in several recent Supreme Court cases, including Medellin v. Texas(concerning presidential power and the authority of the International Court of Justice over domestic courts) and Gonzales v. Raich (concerning federal power to regulate medical marijuana).
Grosscurth Professor of Law, University of Louisville
John Cross joined the Louisville faculty in 1987 after several years in private practice in Minneapolis. Since coming to Louisville, he has taught and published in a wide variety of areas, ranging from the first-year course in Civil Procedure to Animal Law. In recent years, however, he has increasingly focused his efforts in two broad areas: intellectual property law (both domestic and international), and the law governing court systems (Civil Procedure, Conflicts, Federal Jurisdiction, and Comparative Systems). Because of his exemplary work in the intellectual property field, Cross was named the Grosscurth Chair in Law in 2005.
His teaching interests reflect this same focus. He currently oversees the intellectual property curriculum at Louisville, and teaches many of the courses in that curriculum, including the Intellectual Property Survey, Trademark Law, Intellectual Property and Competition, Authors' and Performers' Rights, International Intellectual Property Law, Law and Computers, and Design Protection Law. He also continues to teach courses in court law, especially the first-year Civil Procedure Course and the capstone course in Federal Jurisdiction.
Cross' recent research parallels his teaching. This work has delved into various issues - both historic and contemporary - in intellectual property. For example, a recent article argues for the abolition of the current dual system of federal and state trademark law, proposing a unitary system in its place. Another article, published in a South African journal and reprinted in a German publication, argues that it is feasible to use an intellectual property model to protect folklore and traditional scientific knowledge. John is also a co-author of a casebook for the first year Civil Procedure course, along with Les Abramson at Louisville and Ellen Deason at Ohio State.
Because of the broad scope of Cross' research, his work has been recognized both in the United States and abroad. Most significantly, in 2006 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws H.C. from the University of Turku in Finland, in recognition of his significant contributions to legal scholarship. He has also received two Fulbright awards (the maximum allowable), one in Finland (1995), the other in Ireland (2000). John has been invited to teach classes and/or give lectures in a number of foreign locales, including institutions in Argentina, Canada, Germany, England, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden. In January of 2008, he was a visiting professor at the University of Western Ontario.
Pravel, Hewitt, Kimball and Kreiger Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent Law, George Washington University Law School
Ralph Oman practices and teaches copyright law at The George Washington University Law School as the Pravel Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent law. He also serves as a Fellow on the faculty of the law school’s Creative and Innovative Economy Center. He has taught at The George Washington University Law School since 1993. From 1994 to 2008, he was counsel to the international law firm, Dechert LLP. He has more than 36 years of experience in intellectual property law and legislation.
Before entering private practice in 1994, Mr. Oman was the register of copyrights of the United States (1985-93), the chief government official charged with administering the national copyright law. During his tenure as register, he helped move the United States into the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the oldest and most prestigious international copyright treaty, a goal sought by U.S. Registers for 100 years.
Prior to his appointment as register, Mr. Oman served as chief counsel for the Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. In his total of 10 years on Capitol Hill working for Senator Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania and Senator Charles McCurdy Mathias of Maryland, he participated directly in many legislative enactments, most notably the 1976 revision of the copyright law. In 2002 he received the Jefferson Medal in recognition of his lifelong contribution to strong intellectual property protection.
Mr. Oman continues to promote intellectual property protection. He often serves in judicial proceedings as an expert witness, and he lectures frequently at venues around the world.
At Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Oman served as executive editor of the Journal of International Law. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable C. Stanley Blair of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. Prior to law school, Mr. Oman was a Naval Flight Officer, and he spent two tours of duty in Vietnam with his squadron. He was also a Foreign Service Officer and served as the U.S. Vice Consul in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
CoFounder, RightsClick
Steven’s extensive background in IP law and policy began as an attorney for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, after which, he served as senior counsel for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office and then as Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for the Global Intellectual Property Center of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Before co-founding RightsClick, he started the IP consultancy Sentinel Worldwide, and teaches copyright law at George Washington University Law School.
Alston & Bird Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law
Professor Young teaches constitutional law, federal courts, and foreign relations law. He is one of the nation's leading authorities on the constitutional law of federalism, having written extensively on the Rehnquist Court's "Federalist Revival" and the difficulties confronting courts as they seek to draw lines between national and state authority. He also is an active commentator on foreign relations law, where he focuses on the interaction between domestic and supranational courts and the application of international law by domestic courts. Professor Young also writes on constitutional interpretation and constitutional theory. He has been known to dabble in maritime law and comparative constitutional law.
A native of Abilene, Texas, Professor Young joined the Duke Law faculty in 2008, after serving as the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, where he had taught since 1999. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1990 and Harvard Law School in 1993. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Michael Boudin of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (1993-94) and to Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court (1995-96). Professor Young practiced law at Cohan, Simpson, Cowlishaw, & Wulff in Dallas, Texas (1994-95) and at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. (1996-98), where he specialized in appellate litigation. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School (2004-05) and Villanova University School of Law (1998-99), as well as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center (1997).
Elected to the American Law Institute in 2006, Professor Young is an active participant in both public and private litigation in his areas of interest. He has been the principal author of amicus briefs on behalf of leading constitutional scholars in several recent Supreme Court cases, including Medellin v. Texas(concerning presidential power and the authority of the International Court of Justice over domestic courts) and Gonzales v. Raich (concerning federal power to regulate medical marijuana).
Stu Bassin has been a leading figure in the federal tax arena for the past two decades. He founded the Bassin Law Firm following a long career as one of the U.S. Department of Justice’s top tax litigators and a stint as the national leader of the civil tax litigation practice of an AmLaw 100 law firm.
The U.S. Justice Department has recognized his skills by naming him an Outstanding Attorney on six different occasions. His work for private clients was recognized by U.S. News and World Report, which named his prior firm as one of the country’s top 15 tax litigation firms. During 2019, he was elected to the American College of Tax Counsel, an honorary society reserved for those at the top of the profession. He is recognized as a thought leader in the profession, frequently speaking at bar association events and publishing in leading professional journals.
Stu handles a wide variety of tax matters, particularly involving disputes with the IRS. He is one of the leading tax litigators in the country and has tried many of the most prominent cases of the past decade. He also has broad expertise in civil litigation, particularly complex cases and matters involving electronic discovery questions. Often, he advises small businesses on an array of general corporate and business issues.
He lives in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife, daughter, and dog. In his free time, he served on the board of his local high school crew club and is involved in other community affairs. He is admitted to practice in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and many federal courts.
Senior Counsel, Caplin & Drysdale; Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown Law
Professor Carney is a Senior Counsel with Caplin & Drysdale, Cht’d. in Washington, D.C. He served as a Trial Attorney for the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for six years, and was in private (law firm) tax practice for many years, specializing in IRS administrative practice, tax controversies (audit and IRS Appeals Office), and tax litigation. He also advised clients in a similar capacity as a partner in the National Tax Office of Ernst & Young LLP in Washington. He is a member of the District of Columbia bar, as well as the bars of the U.S. Tax Court, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, D.C Circuit, and Eleventh Circuit.
Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life, McKnight Presidential Professor in Law, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Harlan Albert Rogers Professor in Law, Associate Director, Corporate Institute, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor Kristin E. Hickman is the McKnight Presidential Professor in Law, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor, and Harlan Albert Rogers Professor in Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She also has taught at Harvard Law School and Northwestern University School of Law. Professor Hickman teaches and writes primarily in the areas of administrative law, tax administration, and statutory interpretation. Her articles on these topics have appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and other publications. She also co-authors the Administrative Law Treatise with Richard J. Pierce, Jr., and a casebook on federal administrative law with Pierce and Christopher J. Walker. Her scholarly work has been cited several times in opinions of the United States Supreme Court as well as regularly in lower court judicial opinions and court briefs.
In 2018-19, Professor Hickman served as Special Adviser to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in Washington, D.C. She presently serves as a Senior Fellow, and previously served as a public member and chair of the judicial review committee, for the Administrative Conference of the United States. She also is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.
Professor Hickman received her B.S. degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting and a secondary major in history from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. After practicing for several years as a certified public accountant, Professor Hickman earned her J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was awarded the Raoul Berger Prize and the Lowden Wigmore Prize for her scholarly writings. Following law school, Professor Hickman clerked for The Honorable David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and practiced law as an associate with the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, concentrating on corporate and international tax transactions and matters.
Counsel, International Trade; National Security; CFIUS, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Dan Gerkin advises on issues involving the transnational flow of goods, software, technology and services, as well as investments in the United States and abroad.
Specifically, Mr. Gerkin counsels a variety of U.S., international and multinational clients in matters concerning U.S. export controls, economic embargoes and sanctions, investment security reviews, customs, and trade remedies and other trade-related investigations, often in connection with mergers and acquisitions and other business transactions.
Mr. Gerkin represents clients regarding compliance with the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), including anti-boycott compliance, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the embargoes and sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and sanctions-related legislation. Additionally, he assists clients with commodity classification requests, commodity jurisdiction requests, advisory opinion requests, applications for licenses and other export authorizations, voluntary prior disclosures and responses to administrative subpoenas, and has created comprehensive export compliance policies and procedures manuals.
Mr. Gerkin has counseled clients in connection with matters implicating the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and has successfully led a number of clients through the CFIUS clearance process. His experience includes transactions in the energy, telecommunications, financial services and industrial sectors, among others.
Additionally, Mr. Gerkin represents U.S. importers before U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Court of International Trade in connection with a wide variety of customs matters, including tariff classification, import valuation, country of origin, country of origin marking, preferential programs and free trade agreements, drawback, reconciliation, temporary importations under bond, Foreign Trade Zones, and textile quota and visa requirements. He also represents foreign manufacturers and exporters and U.S. importers in traditional and nonmarket anti-dumping and countervailing duty proceedings, as well as in Section 201, 232 and 301 proceedings.
Professor and Co-Director of the Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, UNSW Law
Prof. Heng Wang is a professor and co-director of UNSW Law's Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre, the largest centre in this field outside China. He is also a co-director of Tsinghua-UNSW Joint Research Centre for International Commercial and Economic Law (JCICEL). Previously, as a professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law (SWUPL), China, he headed a WTO law center (established by the Department of Treaty and Law, the Ministry of Commerce and SWUPL) and has been the recipient of top research awards and several major grants, including the triennial China Outstanding Law Research Award, twice, (China Law Society) and the Outstanding Research Award in Humanities and Social Science (the Ministry of Education). He was a visiting professorial fellow at UNSW Law (2012-2015). Heng’s research interest focuses on the frontline of China’s international economic law practice (e.g. the Belt and Road Initiative, China-US economic relationship, free trade agreements, possible central bank digital currency), its rationale and implications. His recent papers study US-China trade war, and China’s approach to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Heng has spoken at the WTO Headquarters and over 50 universities in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, including Harvard University, Oxford University, Columbia University, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, the LSE, University of Paris 1 and Waseda University. He was a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow and a Max Weber Fellow at European University Institute. As a visiting professor, he taught at UNSW, University of Ottawa, Case Western Reserve University, Yokohama National University, Xiamen University, and China University of Political Science and Law. In 2019, he taught courses at National University of Singapore and Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen). Besides being a visiting professor at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies and the University of Cagliari, he conducted research at the WTO Secretariat and was the university professorial fellow at SWUPL.
Besides books, he published widely within and outside of China in journals including Journal of International Economic Law, Journal of World Trade, Cornell International Law Journal, Columbia Journal of Asian Law, and Tsinghua China Law Review. Heng was an Executive Council member of the Society of International Economic Law (2008-2015) and is a founding member of the Asian International Economic Law Network, a member of the Asian WTO Research Network, and an executive member of governing council of all three Chinese societies of international economic law or WTO law.
Heng has advised or provided training to the government, international organization (the APEC), and the private sector, and is an arbitrator of arbitration institutions in China and Europe.
He has been often interviewed by media in Australia, China, the US and elsewhere, including by the BBC, Reuters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the South China Morning Post, SBS, Australia Financial Review, and the Australian.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law
Professor Kreis joined the Chicago-Kent faculty in 2016 from the University of Georgia, where he recently completed a Ph.D. in political science and public administration. While working toward his Ph.D., he was an instructor at the University of Georgia (2014–16), a visiting lecturer at Georgia State University (2013–16), and a visiting scholar-in-residence at Emory University School of Law (2013). During his time at the University of Georgia, he earned four prestigious teaching awards. In 2016, Professor Kreis was recognized as one of the up-and-coming academics in family law by the University of Illinois College of Law's Family Law and Policy Program, which named him a Harry Krause Emerging Scholar. He teaches legal writing at Chicago-Kent.
Professor Kreis' research focuses on the law's treatment of vulnerable persons, especially with respect to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. His research lies primarily in the areas of family law, employment discrimination, and religious liberty. His other scholarly interests include legislation/regulation, torts, civil rights, legal history, legal ethics, and judicial institutions.
Professor Kreis has published articles in several law reviews, including the Illinois Law Review, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Emory Law Journal Online, and Yale Law Journal Online. He has also contributed many articles to popular newspapers and blogs, such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, Indianapolis Star, Huffington Post, Richmond Times Dispatch, Slate, SCOTUSBlog, and Election Law Blog.
Active in law reform efforts, Professor Kreis has served as a consultant on cases and legislation related to same-sex marriage in several states and has testified numerous times before the Georgia General Assembly about issues related to marriage equality, civil rights, employment discrimination, LGBT rights, and the Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Professor Kreis has also partnered with state chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal to study pressing legal challenges facing the LGBT community. From 2012 to 2014, he was political co-chair for the Atlanta Steering Committee of the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that advocates for LGBT civil rights. With the Human Rights Campaign, Professor Kreis helped to assess federal judiciary nominees' qualifications and to strategize efforts concerning judicial nominees before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In addition to his Ph.D., Professor Kreis earned a law degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he mentored new students as a Frederic Kirgis Fellow and was named a Local Government Attorneys of Virginia Scholar. Professor Kreis graduated with distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a bachelor's degree in political science.
Vice President & Senior Counsel, Becket
Luke Goodrich is the author of Free to Believe: The Battle over Religious Liberty in America and vice president and senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
While at Becket, Luke has argued and won precedent-setting cases in the Third, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, and has helped Becket win four major Supreme Court cases in the last seven years: including victories for the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby against the contraception mandate, a victory for a Muslim prisoner under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and a unanimous victory in the Supreme Court’s first decision ever on the ministerial exception, which The Wall Street Journal called one of “the most important religious liberty cases in a half century.”
He frequently discusses religious freedom on networks such as CNN, Fox News, ABC, and NPR, and in publications like the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and New York Times magazine. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, where he teaches constitutional law.
Before joining Becket, he clerked for Judge Michael W. McConnell on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with high honors as a member of the Law Review and the Order of the Coif.
Professor of Law, Michigan State University (currently serving as FCC General Counsel)
Professor Candeub joined the MSU Law faculty in fall 2004. He is also a Fellow with MSU's Institute of Public Utilities. Prior to joining MSU, he served as an advisor at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). From 1998 to 2000, Professor Candeub was a litigation associate for the Washington D.C. firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and also has served as a corporate associate with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, also in Washington, D.C. Immediately following law school, he clerked for Chief Judge J. Clifford Wallace, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. While in law school, Professor Candeub was an articles editor for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
Professor Candeub's scholarly interests focus on the law and regulation of communications, internet, technology. His numerous law review articles and scholarly papers have placed him at the center of legal and policy controversies, and he often writes for popular outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and US News. Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have cited and relied upon his work.
He joined the Trump administration in 2019 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications and Information and assumed the role of Acting Assistant Secretary. He later joined the Department of Justice as Deputy Associate Attorney General.
Professor Candeub is a senior fellow at the D.C.-based Center of Renewing America.
Head of AI Policy, Abundance Institute
Neil Chilson is the Head of AI Policy at the Abundance Institute. Prior to this position, he served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity. Chilson is a lawyer, computer scientist, and author of the book “Getting Out of Control: Emergent Leadership in a Complex World.”
Chilson was previously the senior research fellow for Technology and Innovation at Stand Together, where he guided efforts to understand and promote the legal and cultural paradigms that best enable people to discover, innovate, and improve all our lives.
Before Stand Together, Chilson was the Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, where he focused on the economics of privacy and blockchain-related issues. Previously, he was an attorney advisor to Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen. In both roles he advised Chairman Ohlhausen and worked with staff on nearly every major technology-related case, report, workshop, or other FTC proceeding since January 2014. Neil joined the FTC from telecom firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer. Neil is frequently quoted by the press and his work has appeared in numerous news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USAToday, and Newsweek. Neil has a J.D. from The George Washington Law School, a M.S. in computer science from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a B.S. in computer science from Harding University.
Founder, C. A. Goldberg PLLC
Carrie Goldberg is a victims’ rights attorney who has built a team that provides cutting edge legal help for clients under attack by pervs, assholes, psychos, and trolls. Her book Nobody’s Victim was published in August 2019.
Carrie’s work includes:
Carrie is admitted to practice law in New York State, 1st Appellate Department and the Eastern and Southern New York Districts of United States District Court. She is also admitted to The Supreme Court of the United States, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Eastern District of New York, Southern District of New York and has been admitted pro hac vice in California, Florida, and Massachusetts. She is also a member of the bar in New York State.
She is the recipient of 2017’s Privacy Champion Award from Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Education:
Background:
Prior to opening her firm in 2014, Carrie was the Associate Director of Legal Services at The Vera Institute of Justice, Inc. Guardianship Project and was a case manager for Nazi victims and Holocaust survivors with Selfhelp Community Services in Manhattan.
The Heritage Foundation, Associate Director and Research Fellow, B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies
Arthur Milikh conducts research on America’s founding principles. As associate director of The Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies, he oversees the center’s research portfolio and gives talks on the tenets of the American political tradition to policymakers, political leaders, and the public.
Before joining Heritage in 2014, Milikh worked for the House Armed Services Committee and at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. He has published articles in a variety of outlets.
He received a bachelor of arts degree in political science and philosophy from Emory University and a master’s degree in political theory from University of Chicago. He is a doctoral candidate at the Catholic University of America.
Milikh currently resides in Washington with his wife.
John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School; Former President, American Civil Liberties Union
Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Professor Emerita and Senior Fellow at FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), was national President of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008. An internationally acclaimed free speech scholar and advocate, who regularly addresses diverse audiences and provides media commentary around the world, Strossen is also the Host and Project Consultant for Free To Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series distributed on public television in 2023. Her books about free speech include: Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know® (Oxford University Press 2023); HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (Oxford University Press 2018); and Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights (Scribner 1995), which was republished with a new Preface in 2024 as part of the NYU Classics Series. Her many honors and awards include the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech. She serves on the Advisory Boards of several organizations that do free speech work, including: ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin.
Professor of Law, Notre Dame University
Roger P. Alford joined the Notre Dame Law faculty in January 2012. Alford teaches and writes in a wide range of subject-matter areas, including international trade, international arbitration, international antitrust, and comparative law.
Alford earned his B.A. with Honors from Baylor in 1985, his J.D. with Honors from New York University, and his LL.M. from Edinburgh University. Before entering the legal academy, he served as a law clerk to Judge James Buckley of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Richard Allison of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. He practiced law with Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells) in Washington, D.C., and was also a senior legal advisor to the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Activities in Zurich, Switzerland.
In addition to publishing widely in leading law reviews and journals, Alford is the general editor of Kluwer Arbitration Blog and on the Executive Committee of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration.
He is Concurrent Professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs, a Faculty Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and a Faculty Fellow at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. He was the Academic Director of the London Global Gateway from 2016-2017 and Associate Dean for Graduate and International Programs from 2013-2017.
He served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for International Affairs with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2017-2019.
Partner, Labaton Sucharow LLP
Jay Himes is a partner in the New York office of Labaton Sucharow LLP and co-chair of the Firm's Antitrust and Competition Litigation Practice. With more than 40 years of experience, Jay is experienced in all facets of antitrust and complex litigation generally. He focuses on representing plaintiffs in price-fixing class action cases and protecting businesses from anticompetitive activities.
A past recipient of the New York State Bar Association’s William T. Lifland Service Award for distinguished service, Jay has been described by Chambers USA as “a walking encyclopedia of case law…thoughtful, well read and a first-rate lawyer," and The Legal 500 called him "a very solid and highly experienced antitrust lawyer."
Jay was appointed by United States District Judge Orrick to serve as the monitoring trustee under the final judgment in United States of America v. Bazaarvoice, Inc. Upon completion of the four-year appointment, the Court thanked him for having “diligently and effectively monitored the defendant’s compliance,” and for having “worked through innumerable complex issues . . . with obvious skill and sensitivity.”
A regular speaker at conferences focusing on such subjects as antitrust, class actions, international litigation and arbitration, trade law and data protection, Jay has authored many conference papers and published articles. He has lectured annually on U.S. cartel and private action enforcement at the Zurich University of Applied Science's international competition and compliance programs, offered in Geneva, Winterthur and Zurich, Switzerland, to foreign competition law officials and practitioners. He also has presented at conferences in Europe (Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, Krakow, Lisbon, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna, Winterthur, and Zurich), Latin America (Antigua and Sao Paolo), and the Far East (Hanoi, Seoul, and Tokyo), as well as in Montreal and the United States.
Prior to joining Labaton Sucharow, Jay served for nearly eight years as the Antitrust Bureau Chief in the New York Attorney General's office. In that role, he was the States’ principal representative in the marathon 2001 negotiations that led to settlement of the governments’ landmark monopolization case against Microsoft. Thereafter, Jay partnered with US DOJ officials to lead the Microsoft judgment monitoring and enforcement effort, an activity that continued throughout his time at the Attorney General's office.
During his tenure as New York's chief antitrust official, Jay also led significant, high-profile antitrust investigations and enforcement actions. These cases included: In re Buspirone Antitrust Litigation ($100 million settlement); In re Cardizem CD Antitrust Litigation ($80 million settlement); and In re Compact Disc Antitrust Litigation ($67 million settlement). Under Jay's leadership, the New York Bureau secured the two largest antitrust civil penalties recoveries ever achieved under the State's antitrust statute.
Before serving in the Attorney General's office, Jay practiced complex litigation for 25 years at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. There, he represented the 12 Federal Reserve Banks as plaintiffs in a price-fixing case against the nation's leading armored car companies, and defended a Revlon healthcare company in a series of price-fixing cases that spanned nearly a decade. Additionally, Jay handled a wide range of litigation, including securities class actions as well as contract, construction, constitutional, entertainment, environmental, real property, and tax litigation. Active in pro bono matters, Jay worked with the New York Civil Liberties Union, NAACP, and National Coalition for the Homeless, while also representing inmate and immigration asylum clients.
Jay is a member of the American Antitrust Institute advisory board, the U.S. advisory board of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law's Institute of Consumer Antitrust Studies, the MLex advisory board, the editorial advisory group of the Antitrust Chronicle, the steering committee of the American Economic Liberties Project, and the board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Effective June 1, 2020, Jay will chair the New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA’s) International Section, which has more than 2,000 members worldwide. Jay is a representative to NYSBA’s sections caucus, and co-chairs the antitrust committees of both the State Bar's Commercial and Federal Litigation and International sections. Jay is also a member of antitrust, litigation, and intellectual property groups in the American Bar Association. He also is a past chair of NYSBA’s Antitrust Section, and served a four-year term as the Section's delegate to the House of Delegates.
Jay earned his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he served as the Articles Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review. Following law school, he pursued independent study at the University of Oxford in England.
Charles Klein Professor of Law and Government, Director of the LL.M. in Asian Law, Temple University School of Law
Professor Salil Mehra joined the Temple Law faculty in 2000. His research focuses on antitrust/competition law and technology. A sample of Professor Mehra’s publications can be found below and on his publications page.
Professor Mehra is a past Chair of the AALS Section on Antitrust and Economic Regulation, and is a nongovernmental advisor to the International Competition Network. He is a former Abe Fellow of Japan’s Center for Global Partnership and the Social Science Research Center.
Prior to his career with Temple Law, Professor Mehra clerked for Chief Judge Juan R. Torruella of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and then worked at the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and then subsequently at the New York law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where his practice included antitrust, first amendment, and takeover defense litigation.
Professor Mehra graduated with honors, Order of the Coif, from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was on the law review and was named an Olin Student Fellow. In 2016, Professor Mehra won the University Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.
John H. Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science; Founding Director, Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Christopher S. Yoo is the John H. Chestnut Professor of Law and a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and in the Computer & Information Science Department of School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also the Founding Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition. He is the author of over one hundred scholarly works and has taught at over a dozen universities around the world. Professor Yoo received his A.B. from Harvard, his M.B.A. from UCLA, and his J.D. from Northwestern University. Before entering the academy, Professor Yoo clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and practiced law with the predecessor firm to Hogan Lovells under the supervision of now-Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. Before joining the University of Pennsylvania, he taught for eight years at the Vanderbilt Law School. He is frequently called to testify before the U.S. Congress, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Federal Communications Commission, foreign governments, and international organizations.
Acting Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Office of Professional Responsibility, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Brian M. Fish is currently the Senior Advisor to the General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security where he works on immigration and law enforcement issues. Previously, he was a trial attorney with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where he represented the Department of Homeland Security in removal hearings before the U.S. Immigration Court. Additionally, he was a Special Assistant United States Attorney and a Baltimore City homicide prosecutor. He is a member of the Federalist Society's Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Executive Committee and the President of its Baltimore Lawyers Chapter. He earned his B.A. from LaSalle University in 1992 and his J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 1998.
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