Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Walter Olson is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and is known for his writing on the American legal system. His books include The Rule of Lawyers, on mass litigation, The Excuse Factory, on lawsuits in the workplace, and most recently Schools for Misrule, on the state of the law schools. His first book, The Litigation Explosion, was one of the most widely discussed general-audience books on law of its time. It led the Washington Post to dub him “intellectual guru of tort reform.” Active on social media, he is known as the founder and principal writer of what is generally considered the oldest blog on law as well as one of the most popular, Overlawyered.com. He has advised many public officials from the White House to town councils and in 2015 was named by Gov. Larry Hogan to be co-chair of the Maryland Redistricting Reform Commission, which issued its report recommendations later that year to acclaim across the state.
Before joining Cato, Olson was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an editor at the magazine Regulation, then edited by future Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Olson’s more than 400 broadcast appearances include all the major networks, NPR, the BBC, The Diane Rehm Show, and Oprah.
Partner, Schaerr | Jaffe LLP
Erik Jaffe has been involved in appeals on a broad range of legal issues, including First Amendment challenges to campaign finance reform, Commerce Clause challenges to Health Care Reform and other federal legislation, Equal Protection Clause challenges to affirmative action in education, First Amendment challenges to school vouchers, Fifth Amendment challenges to takings of property, Second Amendment challenges to restrictions on gun ownership, and a wide variety of cases involving patents, copyrights, ERISA, securities fraud, federal preemption, environmental regulation, and other state and federal constitutional and statutory matters. He has represented businesses and non-profit groups, Judges, Senators, former government officials, Nobel Prize winners, and a broad cross-section of private individuals. Mr. Jaffe has been involved in over 120 Supreme Court matters, including filing over 30 cert. petitions, representing half-a-dozen parties on the merits, and filing over 70 amicus briefs at both the cert. and merits stages.
A 1990 graduate of the Columbia University School of Law, Mr. Jaffe was a law clerk to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1990 to 1991. Following that clerkship he spent five years in litigation practice with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly. In the summer of 1996 he left Williams & Connolly to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. At the end of that clerkship he started his own practice, and he was a sole practitioner from 1997 to 2018. He joined the firm of Schaerr | Jaffe LLP in 2018.
Senior Associate General Counsel/Senior Legal Advisor, Office of Management and Budget/CFPB
Victoria Dorfman is a Senior Associate General Counsel at the Office of Management and Budget and is a Senior Legal Advisor at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. At the OMB, she advises on constitutional and statutory issues. At the CFPB, she is primarily responsible for Enforcement, Supervision, Fair Lending, Oversight, and the Bureau’s litigation.
Prior to entering government service, Victoria was a partner at Jones Day, in Washington, D.C. and in New York, where she represented clients in appellate and complex commercial litigation in U.S. courts and in international arbitration. She has successfully briefed cases at all stages of litigation and argued before federal and state courts of appeals.
Victoria's areas of in-depth experience include jurisdiction and civil procedure, arbitration, bankruptcy, antitrust, and general commercial litigation. She maintained an active First Amendment Establishment and Free Exercise practice and represents religious institutions. Victoria's representations included obtaining unanimous victories in intergovernmental tax immunity and forum non conveniens cases in the U.S. Supreme Court; bankruptcy confirmations, including in appellate and Supreme Court proceedings, of Chrysler, the City of Detroit, Caesar's, Adelphia, and Relativity Media; UNCITRAL and BIT arbitrations; victories for Bayer in antitrust patent challenges to agreements regarding a blockbuster drug's production; and a damages award for Chevron against the government, including a sanction for bad faith litigation conduct.
Prior to joining Jones Day, Victoria clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court and Judge Michael J. Luttig of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Victoria received her A.B. from Harvard College (cum laude) and J.D. from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude), where she was Articles, Books and Commentaries editor on Harvard Law Review.
Victoria is a native speaker of Russian, and is proficient in French and Portuguese. She published articles on Religion Clauses, bankruptcy, federal jurisdiction and statutory interpretation, and is a contributing author and editor of The Practitioner's Guide to Appellate Advocacy.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Partner, Wiley Rein, LLP
Megan L. Brown is a partner at Wiley Rein LLP. She has significant litigation, appellate and regulatory experience before state and federal courts and agencies.
Ms. Brown helps businesses respond to federal, state and local regulation and investigations raising administrative law, statutory interpretation, and constitutional issues, including the First Amendment.
partner, King & Spalding
Jeff S. Bucholtz is a partner in the Appellate Practice Group at King & Spalding. Mr. Bucholtz joined King & Spalding in 2009 after serving more than six years in leadership positions in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, including six months as Acting Assistant Attorney General. While at the Department of Justice, Mr. Bucholtz argued approximately 20 cases in the federal and state appellate courts as well as some of the government’s most sensitive cases in federal district court.
Prior to his tenure at the Department of Justice, Mr. Bucholtz was an associate with King & Spalding’s Litigation and Antitrust Practice Group. He drafted briefs for matters in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts, including FDA-related criminal and administrative law cases, antitrust and product liability cases, and appeals challenging punitive damage awards. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Bucholtz clerked for U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in the Central District of California and for now-Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. when Justice Alito was a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit.
Director of Equality and Opportunity Litigation, Pacific Legal Foundation
Joshua directs the litigation for PLF’s Equality and Opportunity Program, where he fights to dismantle unconstitutional barriers to opportunity, freeing individuals to rise based on their choices, character, and ability.
Joshua joined PLF as an attorney in 2007. His litigation practice has covered all PLF subject areas with a particular focus on equality and opportunity. Joshua argued PLF’s 13th case before the United States Supreme Court, Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, where the court ruled that a California regulation that allowed union organizers onto private property violated the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. Other litigation highlights of his include ending a decades-long racial quota in Hartford, Connecticut, lifting a ban on boys’ dancing in Minnesota, and vindicating an entrepreneur’s right to start a moving business in Kentucky.
Joshua’s writings have been published by the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. And his research has been published in journals such as Texas Review of Law & Politics, Alabama Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law Review, Journal of Civil Rights & Economic Development, and Northern Illinois University Law Review. He has appeared on national television and radio, including PBS Newshour, NPR’s All things Considered, Stossel, and Univision.
Joshua earned his BA with distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a triple major in political science, international relations, and German. He earned his JD cum laude from Michigan State College of Law where he was on the law review and trial practice institute. Joshua lives in Sacramento, California with his wife and three children. He loves playing chess and rooting for Wisconsin sports teams.
Joshua is a member of the bar only in the state of California.
Professor of Law, New England Law | Boston
Professor Friedman teaches Constitutional Law, Information Privacy Law, National Security Law, and State Constitutional Law. Before joining the New England Law faculty in 2004, he was a visiting assistant professor of law at Boston College Law School and a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School. Before teaching, he was an associate with Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston, focusing on environmental, land use, Internet, and government enforcement litigation. He was recently appointed to the Boston Bar Association’s Task Force on the Future of the Profession and is a former member of the Boston Bar Council. In addition, he is currently president of the board of directors of Massachusetts Appleseed, a center for law and justice that has several ongoing projects related to educating homeless children, keeping kids in school, and reducing the incidence of juvenile delinquency. He served as a law clerk with the New Hampshire Superior Court and then as law clerk to the Hon. John T. Broderick, Jr., of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. He has published numerous articles on constitutional law, the Massachusetts constitution, privacy law, and national security law.
Professor of Law, New England Law | Boston
Professor Victor Hansen teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, and Prosecutorial Ethics at New England Law ¦Boston. Before joining the New England Law faculty in 2005, he served a 20-year career in the Army, most of that time as a JAG Corps officer. In his last military assignment he served as a regional defense counsel for the United States Army Trial Defense Service. His previous assignments include work as a military prosecutor and supervising prosecutor. He has been involved in military capital litigation as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney. He also served as an associate professor of law at The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, VA. He is the author of several articles and books on criminal and military law, evidence, and national security issues, and is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
Ella A. and Ernest H. Fisher Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University Claude W. Pettit College of Law
Professor Lewis joined the Ohio Northern faculty in August, 2006. Lewis flew F-14's for the United States Navy in Operation Desert Shield, conducted strike planning for Desert Storm and was deployed to the Persian Gulf to enforce the no-fly zone over Iraq. He was a Topgun graduate in 1992 and was featured in a NOVA documentary on Topgun and aircraft carriers.
After his naval service, Lewis graduated from Harvard Law School, cum laude, was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company, and served as a litigation associate with McGuireWoods, LLP, in Norfolk, Virginia.
Professor Lewis published more than a dozen articles and essays on various aspects of the law of war and the conflict between the US and al Qaeda. His work has been cited by the Seventh, Ninth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has testified before Congress on the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen and on the civil liberties tradeoffs associated with trying some Al Qaeda members or terrorist suspects before military commissions. His op-eds have appeared in numerous media outlets including the LA Times and the New York Post and he has appeared on Public Radio International to discuss the increasing use of armed drones in warfare. He delivered scores of presentations and panel presentations before military and law school audiences alike including presentations to the international Military Operations Law conference in Queensland, Australia, the US Army's JAG School in Charlottesville, VA and law school events at Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, Duke, Texas and Northwestern among others.
Professor Lewis received the Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching for the 2007-08 academic year.
He taught Commercial Law, International Law, a Law of War Seminar and Torts. He also taught Corporate Finance and Accounting for Lawyers. His other teaching interests included Civil Procedure and Contracts.
Professor of Law, New England Law | Boston
Professor Friedman teaches Constitutional Law, Information Privacy Law, National Security Law, and State Constitutional Law. Before joining the New England Law faculty in 2004, he was a visiting assistant professor of law at Boston College Law School and a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School. Before teaching, he was an associate with Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston, focusing on environmental, land use, Internet, and government enforcement litigation. He was recently appointed to the Boston Bar Association’s Task Force on the Future of the Profession and is a former member of the Boston Bar Council. In addition, he is currently president of the board of directors of Massachusetts Appleseed, a center for law and justice that has several ongoing projects related to educating homeless children, keeping kids in school, and reducing the incidence of juvenile delinquency. He served as a law clerk with the New Hampshire Superior Court and then as law clerk to the Hon. John T. Broderick, Jr., of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. He has published numerous articles on constitutional law, the Massachusetts constitution, privacy law, and national security law.
Professor of Law, New England Law | Boston
Professor Victor Hansen teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, and Prosecutorial Ethics at New England Law ¦Boston. Before joining the New England Law faculty in 2005, he served a 20-year career in the Army, most of that time as a JAG Corps officer. In his last military assignment he served as a regional defense counsel for the United States Army Trial Defense Service. His previous assignments include work as a military prosecutor and supervising prosecutor. He has been involved in military capital litigation as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney. He also served as an associate professor of law at The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, VA. He is the author of several articles and books on criminal and military law, evidence, and national security issues, and is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
Ella A. and Ernest H. Fisher Professor of Law, Ohio Northern University Claude W. Pettit College of Law
Professor Lewis joined the Ohio Northern faculty in August, 2006. Lewis flew F-14's for the United States Navy in Operation Desert Shield, conducted strike planning for Desert Storm and was deployed to the Persian Gulf to enforce the no-fly zone over Iraq. He was a Topgun graduate in 1992 and was featured in a NOVA documentary on Topgun and aircraft carriers.
After his naval service, Lewis graduated from Harvard Law School, cum laude, was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company, and served as a litigation associate with McGuireWoods, LLP, in Norfolk, Virginia.
Professor Lewis published more than a dozen articles and essays on various aspects of the law of war and the conflict between the US and al Qaeda. His work has been cited by the Seventh, Ninth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has testified before Congress on the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen and on the civil liberties tradeoffs associated with trying some Al Qaeda members or terrorist suspects before military commissions. His op-eds have appeared in numerous media outlets including the LA Times and the New York Post and he has appeared on Public Radio International to discuss the increasing use of armed drones in warfare. He delivered scores of presentations and panel presentations before military and law school audiences alike including presentations to the international Military Operations Law conference in Queensland, Australia, the US Army's JAG School in Charlottesville, VA and law school events at Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, Penn, Duke, Texas and Northwestern among others.
Professor Lewis received the Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching for the 2007-08 academic year.
He taught Commercial Law, International Law, a Law of War Seminar and Torts. He also taught Corporate Finance and Accounting for Lawyers. His other teaching interests included Civil Procedure and Contracts.
Chancellor Professor, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School of Law
Peltz-Steele received his law degree from Duke University and a bachelor’s in journalism and Spanish from Washington & Lee University. Peltz-Steele has won awards in teaching, research, and public service. He practiced commercial law in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and taught law for more than thirteen years before coming to UMass Law in 2011.
Peltz-Steele is author, co-author, or co-editor of qualitative and quantitative research in law and mass communication in journals and books, of treatises in law and development and access to information, and of textbooks in tort law and freedom of information. He is especially active in international media law and policy, having presented papers on five continents and having published in foreign journals and multinational collaborations. His current research focuses on comparative transparency in the context of development and in the private sector. Peltz-Steele serves in various roles in public service organizations, including the legal education committee of the American Bar Association, International Law Section.
Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America
Walter K. Olson
Professional Responsibility & Legal Education Practice Group
How well do law schools today actually prepare law school students for the practice of...
Nevada Commission on Ethics v. Carrigan - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Erik S. Jaffe
SCOTUScast 05-06-11 featuring Erik S. Jaffe
On April 27, 2011, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Nevada Commission on Ethics...
Staub v. Proctor Hospital - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Victoria Dorfman
SCOTUScast 05-03-11 featuring Victoria Dorfman
On March 1, 2011, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Staub v. Proctor Hospital....
AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Brian T. Fitzpatrick
SCOTUScast 05-02-11 featuring Brian T. Fitzpatrick
On April 27, 2011, the Supreme Court announced its decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion....
American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Megan L. Brown
SCOTUScast 04-27-11 featuring Megan L. Brown
On April 19, 2011, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in American Electric Power Company...
Astra USA v. Santa Clara County - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Jeffrey S. Bucholtz
SCOTUScast 04-26-11 featuring Jeffrey S. Bucholtz
On March 29, 2011, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Astra USA v. Santa...
Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Joshua Paul Thompson
SCOTUScast 04-25-11 featuring Joshua P. Thompson
On April 4, 2011, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Arizona Christian School Tuition...
Predator Drones, Targeted Killings and the Law of Armed Conflict
Christopher Chadzutko, Lawrence Friedman, Victor Hansen, Michael W. Lewis
New England Student Chapter
Does the President have the legal authority to target a U.S. citizen? May unmanned aerial...
Predator Drones, Targeted Killings and the Law of Armed Conflict
Christopher Chadzutko, Lawrence Friedman, Victor Hansen, Michael W. Lewis
New England Student Chapter
Does the President have the legal authority to target a U.S. citizen? May unmanned aerial...
FCC v. AT&T and Milner v. Department of the Navy - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Richard J. Peltz-Steele
SCOTUScast 04-20-11 featuring Richard J. Peltz
On March 1, 2011, the Supreme Court announced its decision in FCC v. AT&T, a...