Of Counsel, Liskow & Lewis
Don Haycraft is of counsel at the firm of Liskow & Lewis in the New Orleans office. He has been a maritime attorney for almost 35 years. He is also an adjunct professor of maritime law at the Loyola Law School in New Orleans, teaching maritime personal injury and wrongful death. He is a 1983 Order of the Coif graduate of Virginia Law School where he served as an editor of the Law Review. He clerked for Judge James Michael, Western District of Virginia. Notably, he served as a trial counsel for BP in the multi-district litigation arising out of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. He authored an amicus brief in the Batterton case and attended the oral argument on March 25, 2019.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 7, 2025. Alongside Secretary Brooke L. Rollins, Deputy Secretary Vaden leads the Department’s operations and implements policies that support America’s food and farm systems. A native of Union City, Tennessee, Deputy Secretary Vaden brings expertise in agricultural policy, law, and rural development. Previously, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade and as General Counsel of USDA. Throughout Deputy Secretary Vaden’s time as General Counsel, he led successful Supreme Court litigation, advanced regulatory reform, and supported the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Vanderbilt University. A public servant with strong agricultural roots, Deputy Secretary Vaden is committed to revitalizing rural America and ensuring an abundant, affordable, and safe U.S. food supply.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 7, 2025. Alongside Secretary Brooke L. Rollins, Deputy Secretary Vaden leads the Department’s operations and implements policies that support America’s food and farm systems. A native of Union City, Tennessee, Deputy Secretary Vaden brings expertise in agricultural policy, law, and rural development. Previously, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade and as General Counsel of USDA. Throughout Deputy Secretary Vaden’s time as General Counsel, he led successful Supreme Court litigation, advanced regulatory reform, and supported the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Vanderbilt University. A public servant with strong agricultural roots, Deputy Secretary Vaden is committed to revitalizing rural America and ensuring an abundant, affordable, and safe U.S. food supply.
Representative, Mississippi House of Representatives
Representative Baker was born on May 13, 1962, and has been married for 29 years to the former Lady Collins, an English teacher at Brandon High School. They have one son, Chase, who is a public policy major in the Trent Lott Leadership Institute at the University of Mississippi. The Bakers are members of Lakeside Presbyterian Church.
Mark graduated from the University of Memphis in 1984 (B.A., Criminal Justice) and Mississippi College School of Law in 1987 (J.D., with distinction). He has been an active member of the Mississippi Bar since 1987 and currently engages in private practice in Brandon. He is admitted to practice law in all state and federal courts in the State of Mississippi, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. Rep. Baker has practiced law for over 30 years and has decades of courtroom experience as an attorney in private practice, a prosecutor and judge. He has litigated cases in trial courts throughout the state and has represented numerous clients before Mississippi’s appellate courts.
In addition to practicing law, Representative Baker is a licensed property and casualty insurance agent. He is a former member of the Rankin County Republican Executive Committee and is a member and past president of the Rankin County Bar Association and the Rankin County Rotary Club.
Representative Baker was first elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 2004, representing District 74 which currently includes parts of Rankin County and which previously also included parts of Madison County. As Republican Leader from 2007-2011, he coordinated the recruitment, fundraising and campaign efforts which led to a Republican majority in the Mississippi House of Representatives in 2012 for the first time in modern history. Representative Baker is Chairman of the House Judiciary En Bancand Judiciary A Committees and is a member of the Ways and Means, Banking and Finance, Transportation and Investigate State Offices Committees.
Legislative awards and recognitions include the 2012 State Legislative Achievement Award from the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, the 2012-2013 Champion for Children Award from Prevent Child Abuse Mississippi, Outstanding Legislator for 2013 by the Mississippi Association of Realtors, 2014 Legislator of the Year by the Mississippi Homebuilders Association, the 2015 Legislative Award from the Mississippi Municipal League, the 2019 MS Top 50 distinction as an elected official, and the 2019 Community Health Center Association of Mississippi’s Legacy Award.
During his time in the legislature, Representative Baker has been endorsed by interest groups such as Mississippi Right to Life and the National Rifle Association and has received highly favorable ratings from various conservative, agriculture, education and pro-business groups such as Americans for Prosperity, the American Conservative Union, the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation, Empower Mississippi, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the Business and Industry Political Education Committee (BIPEC).
Executive Vice-President and Provost, William Carey University
Dr. Scott Hummel has been the Executive Vice President and Provost at William Carey University since 2013. From 2008-2013 he was the Vice President for Advancement and Church Relations as well as the Director of the Carey Scholars program. Before coming to Carey, he was Professor of Biblical Studies and Chair of the Department of Biblical Studies and Christian Ministries at LeTourneau University from 1998-2008. After completing a B.A. in Biblical Studies at William Carey College in 1987, Scott received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel for a year. He completed his M.Div. and Ph.D. in Biblical Backgrounds and Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Scott has published numerous articles in several publications. Scott has served churches and the community in numerous capacities. He has served as the interim pastor of several churches in Mississippi and Texas. As a Rotarian he has served as the past president of both the Longview-Greggton Rotary Club and the Hattiesburg Rotary Club. He has also served on the boards of the United Way of Southeast Mississippi and R3SM. His wife, Starr, teaches biology at Sumrall High School, and they have three daughters.
Member, Taggart Rimes & Graham, PLLC
Prior to the creation of Taggart, Rimes & Graham, Andy Taggart had maintained his own law practice for several years. He was previously a partner in the state’s largest law firm, and Chief of Staff to former Governor Kirk Fordice.
Andy’s practice is focused in the areas of business and corporate counsel, transactions and strategies; healthcare; selected litigated matters; and government, elections and political law.
He has held an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell® for twenty years.
Andy has served as Chairman of the Greater Jackson (MS) Chamber Partnership, and was named by Governor Phil Bryant as Co-Chairman of the Mississippi Department of Corrections Task Force on Contract Review and Procurement, to provide advice and recommendations for restoring public confidence and trust in the operations of state government in the wake of public corruption charges. Andy is also a gubernatorial appointee to the Mississippi Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee.
Andy is the co-author of two popular books. Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2008, re-released in 2009, was first published by the University Press of Mississippi in November of 2006 and earned two literary awards in the first year of publication. His lighter book of political anecdotes, Mississippi Fried Politics: Tall Tales from the Back Rooms, was released in November of 2008. Andy has authored or co-authored works published by The University of Mississippi Law Journal, The Mississippi Lawyer, The Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, The Journal of Mississippi History, and is a frequent contributor to business and trade periodicals.
He was elected to a term of service on the Madison County, Mississippi, Board of Supervisors, beginning a four-year term in 2003. Andy was elected President of the Board in January 2007, where he served until the end of his term in early 2008.
He also served as president and CEO of the Mississippi Technology Alliance from August 2002 through October 2005. He led the company to both regional and national recognition.
Andy first commenced the practice of law in 1985. When asked to serve as chief of staff to Governor Kirk Fordice, he left his law practice in 1991 and served in that capacity until 1994 where he was instrumental in the ramp up of Mississippi’s first Republican administration in the twentieth century.
During the 1990s, Taggart taught as an adjunct professor of history and political science at Mississippi College, his undergraduate alma mater, and is often called on as a guest lecturer still.
A long-time presence in the governmental, policy, and political arenas, he served as a member of the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the United States Civil Rights Commission from 1988 to 1993; served as the executive director of the Mississippi Republican Party in 1984; and as the political director of the Mississippi Republican Party in 1980 and 1981.
Andy serves on the Board of Trustees of Mississippi College, where he is Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee. Previously, he served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, and as a member of the Board of Trustees of FamilyNet, Inc., the television and radio broadcasting subsidiary of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He served four years as a gubernatorial appointee to the Mississippi Arts Commission.
A frequent speaker at major events, Andy has offered the Summer Commencement address at Mississippi College, and was named an Otho Smith Fellow by the University of Mississippi School of Business Administration. He has been named a Leading Edge Lecturer by the Mississippi Universities Center, and was selected as Spring Commencement speaker at Belhaven College.
Andy received his Juris Doctor cum laude from Tulane University in 1984, where he served on the Senior Editorial Board of the Tulane Law Review. To study at Tulane, Andy was awarded the Hale Boggs Scholarship, a full three year scholarship awarded to the entering student with the highest overall record. A 1979 graduate of Mississippi College, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with High Honors and Distinction.
Former Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Federal Claims
Judge Braden was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims on July 14, 2003, by President George W. Bush, after being confirmed by unanimous consent of the United States Senate. She was sworn into office by Senator Jeff Sessions. Her investiture was conducted on October 24, 2003 by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
On January 28, 2015, Judge Braden was appointed by the American Law Institute as one of seven Judicial Advisors to the Restatement of the Law on Copyright. In 2013, Judge Braden was appointed to the Judges Special Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and was named as Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Advisory Council of the United States Court of Federal Claims. On March 23, 2012, Judge Braden received the Linn Inn Alliance Distinguished Service Medal at the New York Intellectual Property Lawyers Association Annual Dinner for her work with the American Inns of Court, dedicated to intellectual property law. On February 7, 2012, Judge Braden was appointed as Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Intellectual Property Law Task Force to consider how to more efficiently adjudicate "small" patent infringement cases. During 2010-2011, Judge Braden served as President of the Giles S. Rich American Inn of Court, which is affiliated with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She was recognized at a ceremony in the United States Supreme Court in November 2011, when she received the American Inns of Court’s Platinum Distinction Award. Judge Braden also served as a Member of the Editorial Board of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.
In July 2009, Judge Braden was appointed as a Member of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility-Judges Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association, on which she served until 2012. On February 14, 2007, Judge Braden was elected as a Member of the American Law Institute and was active in drafting Restatement of Law Third, Restitution and Unjust Enrichment. On October 22, 2004, she was inducted as a Senior Fellow of the ABA’s Administrative Law and Regulatory Section by Justice O’Connor at a ceremony held at the United States Supreme Court.
Prior to joining the bench, Judge Braden litigated complex federal and administrative law cases in private practice in trial and appellate courts. In particular, her work in the intellectual property area received favorable notice in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, National Law Journal, and the Journal of the American Bar Association, and was featured in Interfaces on Trial: Intellectual Property and Interoperability In The Global Software Industry. In 1996, Judge Braden was honored by the Computer Law Association for winning multiple decisions in the Eastern District of New York, the Eastern District of Texas, the Second Circuit, and a certified question to the Supreme Court of Texas in Computer Assocs. Int’l, Inc. v. Altai Inc., a landmark case that changed the application of copyright law to computer software. In 1998, she also won a companion case brought in France before the Cour de Appel de Paris.
In private practice, Judge Braden represented a wide variety of client interests before almost every major department and federal agency, testified before the United States Congress on a variety of matters, and was a principal lobbyist for the Emergency Oil and Steel Loan Guarantee Act of 1999, that established a $1 billion federal loan guarantee program to assist bankrupt and troubled steel mills and small oil companies.
Judge Braden received a B.A. degree (1970) and J. D. degree (1973) from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She also attended post graduate courses at the Harvard Law School in the summer of 1978.
National Affairs Columnist, National Review
John Fund is National Affairs Columnist for National Review magazine and a on-air analyst on the Fox News Channel. He is considered a notable expert on American politics and the nexus between politics and economics.
He previously served as a columnist and editorial board member for The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of several books, including Who's Counting: Bow Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote At Risk (Encounter Books, 2012); Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy (Encounter Books, 2008) and The Dangers of Regulation Through Litigation (ATRA Press, 2008). He worked as a research analyst for the California Legislature in Sacramento before beginning his journalism career as a reporter for the syndicated columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak.
Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, called him "the Tom Paine of the modern Congressional reform movement." He has won awards from the Institute for Justice, The School Choice Aliance and the Warren Brooks award for journalistic excellence from the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
Victor Schwartz chairs the firm's Public Policy Practice Group, which focuses on integrating litigation, government affairs and public relations. The group seeks to be the vanguard of developing public policy issues that will help improve our civil justice system. Mr. Schwartz also has an active appellate practice and advises product manufacturers on liability prevention, litigation and public relations issues.
Sought by print and broadcast media, Mr. Schwartz is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times. He has appeared on Oprah, 60 Minutes and leading news programs. The Legal Times of Washington has named Mr. Schwartz one of Washington’s Top 30 “Visionary” lawyers, and The National Law Journal named Mr. Schwartz one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States in March 2013.
Mr. Schwartz is on the Board of Directors of the Searle Civil Justice Institute at George Mason University School of Law. He is a frequent participant in judicial education programs. Mr. Schwartz serves as General Counsel to the American Tort Reform Association.
Prior to entering the full time practice of law, Mr. Schwartz was a professor and dean at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He currently serves on the College’s Board of Visitors. In 2012, the College established the Professor Victor E. Schwartz Chair in Tort Law.
Mr. Schwartz, while at the U.S. Department of Commerce, served as chair of the Federal Inter-Agency Task Force on Product Liability, and the Federal Inter-Agency Council on Insurance. He was the principal author of the Uniform Product Liability Act and the Federal Risk Retention Act. He received the Secretary of Commerce’s Award for Professional Excellence.
Mr. Schwartz is co-author of the most widely used torts casebook in the United States, Prosser, Wade and Schwartz’s Torts (12th ed. 2010). He is author of the leading text Comparative Negligence (5th ed. 2010).
Mr. Schwartz has been an advisor for each of the American Law Institute’s (ALI) Restatement (Third) of Torts projects; Products Liability, Apportionment of Liability, and Liability for Physical Injury and Emotional Harm. He is a life member of the ALI.
Mr. Schwartz’s law review articles have analyzed almost every major subject of modern tort and civil justice public policy issues. His articles are frequently cited by both state and federal courts.
Partner, WilmerHale and former United States Solicitor General
Universally considered to be among the country's premier Supreme Court and appellate advocates, Seth Waxman served as Solicitor General of the United States from 1997 through January 2001. In addition to leading the firm's appellate practice, Mr. Waxman engages in a broad litigation and counseling practice, with particular emphasis on complex challenges involving governments or public policy, intellectual property, regulatory, criminal and commercial issues.
A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Mr. Waxman also is a widely respected trial litigator. In January 2016, The American Lawyer named him "Litigator of the Year." Mr. Waxman was also named Appellate/Litigation "Lawyer of the Year" for 2018, Litigation - Intellectual Property "Lawyer of the Year" for 2016 and Litigation - First Amendment Law and Regulatory Enforcement Law "Lawyer of the Year" for 2015 by Best Lawyers in America, and, in 2014, Super Lawyers deemed him the "number one" lawyer in Washington DC. Mr. Waxman has been accorded both "star" rating by Chambers USA and "leading lawyer" ranking in PLC's Global Counsel Handbook.
Mr. Waxman's practice spans both federal and state trial and appellate courts. He has delivered 80 oral arguments in the United States Supreme Court and many more in the lower federal and state courts. Mr. Waxman's clients range from financial institutions to technology, consumer, industrial and media companies, universities and Indian tribes, and he leads the firm's efforts to counsel tribal governments. He also represents a number of local, state and national governments and prominent business and government executives and professionals. The recipient of numerous professional awards and honors, Mr. Waxman is among a small handful of practicing attorneys elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds several honorary degrees, as well as the Jefferson Medal in Law, an honor awarded once a year and only rarely to an attorney in private practice. In recognition of exceptional service to law enforcement, Mr. Waxman holds the extraordinary status of permanent honorary Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Distinguished Senior Fellow and Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Edward Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021.
Mr. Whelan directs EPPC’s program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture. His areas of expertise include constitutional law and the judicial confirmation process. As a contributor to National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog, he has been a leading commentator on nominations to the Supreme Court and the lower courts and on issues of constitutional law. He has written essays and op-eds for leading newspapers—including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post—opinion journals, and academic symposia and law reviews. The National Law Journal has named Mr. Whelan among its “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C.
Mr. Whelan is co-editor of three volumes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s work: Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (Crown Forum, 2017), a New York Times bestselling collection of speeches by Justice Scalia; On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer (Crown Forum, 2019), a collection of Justice Scalia’s writings on faith and religion; and The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law (Crown Forum, 2020), a collection of Justice Scalia’s views on legal issues.
Mr. Whelan, a lawyer and a former law clerk to Justice Scalia, has served in positions of responsibility in all three branches of the federal government. From just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, until joining EPPC in 2004, Mr. Whelan was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions. Mr. Whelan previously served on Capitol Hill as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to clerking for Justice Scalia, he was a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In 1981 Mr. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard College and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1985 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.
For more on Mr. Whelan’s background, see this interview.
President and General Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
NCLA’s President and General Counsel, Mark Chenoweth, has observed the administrative state up close and personal from perches in all four branches of the federal government. Mark served as the first chief of staff to Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mark has worked in several different roles in the private sector as well. He began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He then returned to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries. Most recently he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.
Mark is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Chicago Law School, where he co-founded the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and became a Tony Patiño Fellow. Mark has been widely quoted and/or published in newspapers and websites including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New Hampshire Union Leader, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. He has also had recurring op-eds in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and at Forbes.com.
Tammy McCutchen is a leading authority on federal and state wage-hour laws and prevailing wage laws. She counsels businesses on wage-hour compliance, including conducting internal audits on independent contractor status, overtime exemptions, and other pay practices. She also represents employers during investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor and serves as an expert witness in wage-hour class actions. She was a founding officer of ComplianceHR, a law and technology company, where she created AI-based applications to evaluate independent contractor and overtime exempt status.
Ms. McCutchen served as Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2001. She was the primary architect of the 2004 revisions to the overtime exemption regulations, the first major changes to the regulations in 55 years.
Before joining DOL, she was senior counsel for the Hershey Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Ms. McCutchen has been a volunteer leader of the Federalist Society since 1989. She served in leadership roles for the Northwestern Student Chapter and Chicago Lawyers Chapter. She currently serves in leadership for the Labor & Employment Practice Group, the Regulatory Transparency Project, and the Knoxville, TN Lawyers Chapter. She served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Law360, the Labor Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Legal Advisory Board of the National Federation of Independent Business, and a Policy Fellow at the ACU Foundation.
Ms. McCutchen is a graduate of Western Illinois University and Northwestern University School of Law. She clerked for the Hon. Daniel Manion on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Partner, Jones Day
Christopher DiPompeo's practice focuses on complex litigation and appellate advocacy in the context of business restructurings and chapter 11 bankruptcies. He has significant experience across a variety of industries, including financial services, government contracts, gaming, and municipal government. Chris regularly counsels clients in connection with issues relating to bankruptcy jurisdiction and venue, the automatic stay, post-petition financing, and complex commercial contracts.
In 2013 and 2014, Chris was a member of the Jones Day team representing the City of Detroit, Michigan in its historic chapter 9 bankruptcy case. He played a significant role in many aspects of the chapter 9 case, including litigation over the City's eligibility for bankruptcy, its request to obtain post-petition financing, and confirmation of its plan of adjustment. Chris also played a lead role in the City's lawsuit challenging the legality of $1.4 billion of pension obligation certificates of participation issued by the City in 2005 and 2006. Most recently, he has represented major creditors of Energy Future Holdings Corp., Caesars Entertainment Operating Company, General Motors, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Prior to joining Jones Day, Chris served as a law clerk for the Chief Justice of the United States, John G. Roberts Jr., and for Judge Paul V. Niemeyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In 2012, he was awarded a Temple Bar Scholarship, through which he traveled to London to work alongside some of the most senior members of the English bar and judiciary.
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Brian Hodges is a Senior Attorney at PLF’s Pacific Northwest office in Bellevue, Washington. Brian focuses his practice on defending of the right of individuals to make reasonable use of their property, free of unnecessary and oppressive regulations.
In 2013, Brian second-chaired Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District before the U.S. Supreme Court, a case that placed constitutional limits on the government’s common practice of demanding that landowners fund unrelated public projects in exchange for a permit approval. And in the 2008 case, Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights v. Sims, Brian successfully challenged a Seattle-area ordinance that required all rural property owners to dedicate at least half their land as conservation areas as a mandatory condition of any new development without any showing that rural development would impact the environment.
Brian graduated from Seattle University of Law in 2001 with honors. After which, he served as a judicial clerk at the Washington State Court of Appeals, then entered private practice where he focused on appellate advocacy for several years before joining PLF in 2006.
Brian came to the liberty movement by an uncommon route: the arts. Brian played guitar and keyboards in several Seattle-area bands before eventually studying music composition and literature at the University of Washington—earning two Bachelor’s Degrees and a Master of Arts. Through that experience, he came to firmly believe that the goal of art—indeed, the goal of any creative ambition—is to maximize individual freedom and expression, tempered by personal responsibility and ownership, rather than outside oversight or arbitrary restriction. Carrying that philosophy into law school naturally led him to fight for individual rights.
President and General Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
NCLA’s President and General Counsel, Mark Chenoweth, has observed the administrative state up close and personal from perches in all four branches of the federal government. Mark served as the first chief of staff to Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mark has worked in several different roles in the private sector as well. He began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He then returned to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries. Most recently he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.
Mark is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Chicago Law School, where he co-founded the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and became a Tony Patiño Fellow. Mark has been widely quoted and/or published in newspapers and websites including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New Hampshire Union Leader, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. He has also had recurring op-eds in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and at Forbes.com.
Courthouse Steps Decision Teleforum: The Dutra Group v. Batterton
Don Haycraft
On June 24, 2019, the Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Justice Alito, decided...
Deep Dive Episode 62 – An Update on Kisor v. Wilkie
Stephen Alexander Vaden, Karen Harned
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
Last week the Supreme Court decided the much-anticipated Kisor v. Wilkie case. The Court had...
Judicial Deference Determined: Kisor v. Wilkie
Karen Harned, Stephen Alexander Vaden
This morning the Supreme Court decided the much-anticipated Kisor v. Wilkie case. The Court had granted...
Mississippi Attorney General Candidate Forum
Mark Baker, Scott Hummel, T. Russell Nobile, Andy Taggart
Mississippi Gulf Coast Lawyers Chapter
On June 5, 2019, the Federalist Society's Mississippi Gulf Coast Lawyers Chapter hosted a forum...
ALI: Unbiased Analyzer or Agenda Driver?
Susan G. Braden, John Fund, Victor E. Schwartz, Seth P. Waxman, Edward Whelan
Litigation Practice Group Event
On June 5, 2019, the Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group hosted a panel at the...
Deep Dive Episode 61 – Gundy v. United States: Revisiting the Nondelegation Doctrine, or Not?
Mark Chenoweth
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Gundy v. United States disappointed some observers who were hoping...
One Year Later: Impact of Encino Motorcars on FLSA Litigation
Tammy Dee McCutchen
Just over a year ago, in a case involving an obscure car dealership exemption from...
Courthouse Steps Decision Teleforum: The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
Christopher DiPompeo
For decades, the law surrounding the constitutionality of monuments and memorials has been in disarray,...
Litigation Update: Yim v. City of Seattle
Brian T. Hodges
On June 11, 2019, the Washington State Supreme Court heard back-to-back arguments in a pair...
Gundy v. United States: Revisiting the Nondelegation Doctrine, or Not?
Mark Chenoweth
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Gundy v. United States disappointed some observers who were hoping...