Associate, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC
Ms. Bates assists clients with a variety of litigation and appellate matters that encompass constitutional law, administrative law, and commercial litigation. Before joining the firm, Ms. Bates was a law clerk to Judge Kyle Duncan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She previously served as a Legal Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation, where she researched and wrote about the courts, judicial nominations, and various constitutional issues. She also co-hosted Heritage’s SCOTUS 101 podcast. She earned her B.A. magna cum laude in Politics from Hillsdale College, and her J.D. from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Ms. Bates is a member of the Virginia Bar.
Founding Partner, Benbrook Law Group
Brad has litigated business and public policy matters throughout the United States for over 25 years. He represents businesses of all sizes in civil litigation and disputes with administrative agencies. Brad also regularly represents individuals and groups in constitutional and public policy litigation in the trial and appellate courts. He regularly submits amicus briefs on behalf of clients at the Supreme Court of the United States on significant cases. Brad is often hired as special litigation counsel in complex family law, bankruptcy, and trust and estate litigation.
After graduating from law school, Brad worked as a judicial clerk for Judge J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta. Brad received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley after graduating from Stanford University, where he was a four-year letterman on the golf team.
Counsel, Schaerr Jaffe LLP
Stephanie Freudenberg is a litigator who has represented a broad range of public and private clients, including global financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies, in complex commercial litigation matters at all stages of litigation, from discovery at the trial court level through merits briefing on appeal. She has handled a wide range of cases involving securities litigation and enforcement, products liability, contractual disputes, antitrust, white collar defense, and other issues.
After law school, Stephanie clerked for the Honorable Robert B. Kugler on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Honorable Edith Brown Clement on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Following those clerkships, she spent over five years in litigation practice with the New York and Washington, D.C. offices of the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell.
Stephanie graduated from Harvard Law School, where she was deputy editor-in-chief for the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and the recipient of five Dean’s Scholar Prizes. She received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University.
She joined Schaerr Jaffe as counsel in November 2024.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Jacob Huebert is Senior Litigation Counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance. He previously served as President and Director of Litigation of the Liberty Justice Center, where he successfully litigated cases to protect constitutional rights, including the landmark Janus v. AFSCME case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld government employees’ First Amendment right to choose for themselves whether to pay money to a union. Jacob was also previously a Senior Attorney at the Goldwater Institute, where he litigated cases on free speech, property rights, and the Second Amendment.
Jacob and his work have appeared in numerous national media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Fox News Channel. He is also the author of a book, Libertarianism Today.
Jacob holds a B.A. in economics from Grove City College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, he served as a clerk to Judge Deborah Cook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Jacob has served as an adjunct law professor at several law schools, teaching courses in advanced appellate advocacy, the law of payments, legal writing, and jurisprudence. Before working in public interest law, Jacob was a litigator in private practice.
Deputy Attorney General, Legal Strategy, Texas
Ryan serves as Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy in the Texas Attorney General's Leadership Team. He most recently acted as Associate Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation. For the previous four years, Mr. Walters served in the Special Litigation Division—as Special Counsel, Deputy Chief, and eventually Chief. In those positions, he led the Attorney General's most significant litigation against the Biden Administration, including successful challenges to federal rules weakening immigration enforcement and those imposing gender-identity mandates on Texas's workplaces, schools, and hospitals. Prior to his tenure in the Office of the Attorney General, Mr. Walters served as an attorney with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, as an Assistant Attorney General in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, and as a commercial litigator at two international law firms. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University and holds law degrees from the University of Michigan Law School and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Randy Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He has argued before the United States Supreme Court, tried murder cases to juries as a prosecutor in Chicago, and appeared as a prosecutor in the feature film Inalienable. He is the author of numerous books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution, The Structure of Liberty, Our Republican Constitution, and The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. He has published two memoirs, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist, and Felony Review: Tales of True Crime and Corruption in Chicago. He is currently working on a new book, Freedom and Flourishing: Libertarianism for the Real World.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner with Boyden Gray PLLC. He previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mr. McCotter maintains an extensive appellate practice. He has considerable experience identifying and briefing cases that draw the Supreme Court’s attention, having persuaded the Court to grant certiorari in numerous cases raising issues of sovereignty, constitutional rights, due process, and criminal law. He has authored and submitted over 60 briefs at the Court.
He has also personally argued more than fifteen federal appeals across the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Federal, and D.C. Circuits—including once arguing three separate appeals in just four days. He has also twice argued before the 17-judge en banc Fifth Circuit. He has been counsel in over 50 other appeals raising matters from FOIA and the APA to constitutional rights and statutory construction.
As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Mr. McCotter oversaw DOJ’s Civil Appellate and Federal Programs branches, which are responsible for defending nearly all major litigation against the federal government. During his three years as a federal trial attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” Mr. McCotter won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
During his DOJ tenures, Mr. McCotter also assisted with the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices and over a dozen lower-court judges.
Mr. McCotter served as an inaugural clerk to the Hon. Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Michael D. Ramsey is Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and International Law. He is the author of The Constitution’s Text in Foreign Affairs (Harvard University Press), co-editor of International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change (Cambridge University Press), and co-author of two casebooks, Transnational Law and Practice (2d ed., Aspen) and International Business Transactions: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook (14th ed., West). His scholarly articles have appeared in publications such as the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal and the American Journal of International Law. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and his J.D. summa cum laude from Stanford Law School. Prior to teaching, he served as a judicial clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, and practiced law with the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he specialized in international finance and investment. He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Political Science and at the University of Paris – Sorbonne, in the Department of Comparative Law.
Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Ilan Wurman is the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches administrative law and constitutional law. He previously taught at Arizona State University. He writes primarily on the Fourteenth Amendment, administrative law, separation of powers, and constitutionalism. His academic writing has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the Texas Law Review among other journals.
Professor Wurman is the author of a casebook, Administrative Law Theory and Fundamentals: An Integrated Approach (Foundation Press 2d ed. 2024). He is also the author of A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism (Cambridge 2017), and The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (Cambridge 2020). His next book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, is also forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.
Professor Wurman practices law with the firm Tully Bailey. He has litigated a variety of administrative law and constitutional law cases, including cases involving COVID-19 restrictions, transmission lines, and Appointments Clause challenges. He also devised winning public nuisance theories to force city governments to address the increasingly challenging public camping crises throughout the country.
Founder and Managing Attorney, Baughman Law PC
Krista is a trial lawyer specializing in First Amendment, defamation, and civil liberties work. She is the founder and managing attorney of Baughman Law PC. Krista’s cases have extended fair procedure rights to students wrongly expelled for their lawful speech, eradicated unconstitutional policies that stifled citizens at city council meetings, obtained multi-million-dollar verdicts for victims of online defamation, and achieved a landmark settlement to ensure the First Amendment rights of students at UC Berkeley.
Outside the courtroom, Krista is a frequent speaker, writer, and advisor in free speech and civil liberties matters. She is honored to serve on the Executive Committees of The Federalist Society’s Free Speech section and the San Francisco Bar Association’s Litigation section, and as the Membership Chairperson of the First Amendment Lawyers Association.
Krista is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States; the California, New York, and District of Columbia bars; the United States Courts of Appeal for the Ninth, Sixth, and Eleventh Circuits; as well as numerous federal trial courts.
Legal Counsel, Appellate Advocacy Team, Alliance Defending Freedom
Mathew Hoffmann serves as legal counsel on the Appellate Advocacy Team at Alliance Defending Freedom, where he represents ADF clients before state and federal appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Previously, he served in ADF’s Center for Free Speech and Center for Academic Freedom. He has represented clients in free expression cases across the country and has argued before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Seventh and Ninth Circuits and the Alabama Supreme Court.
Before joining ADF, Hoffmann clerked for the Honorable Robert J. Luck of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and served as an associate at a large law firm.
Hoffmann earned his J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School in 2018. He graduated summa cum laude and served as an editor for the Notre Dame Law Review. He is a 2016 Blackstone Fellow. Before law school, Hoffmann graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science with honors in chemistry and a double major in government.
Hoffmann is admitted to practice before the District of Columbia and Virginia bars, as well as numerous federal appellate and trial courts.
Senior Fellow, Forum for Intellectual Property, Hudson Institute
Devlin Hartline is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute’s Forum for Intellectual Property. His research agenda spans a broad spectrum of doctrinal and political issues in intellectual property law, with particular focus on advancing and protecting the rights of creators and innovators. The Forum for Intellectual Property supports data-driven research and promotes evidence-based policy discussions about the key role of intellectual property in growing innovation economies and flourishing societies.
Prior to joining Hudson Institute, Mr. Hartline was an assistant professor of law at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia, where he taught intellectual property law, including copyright, patent, and trademark law. Mr. Hartline also served as director of communications at the law school’s Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property, where he led the center’s communications and academic advocacy efforts, working closely with scholars to publicize and promote rigorous research on the law, economics, and history of intellectual property.
Mr. Hartline holds a JD, cum laude, from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and an LLM with concentrations in intellectual property and constitutional law from Tulane University Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr. Hartline also holds a BA in mathematics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Associate Professor, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law
Zvi S. Rosen is an Associate Professor at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law and the Faculty Director of the Franklin Pierce Society for Intellectual Property. He has served as a Assistant Professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Law, as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, and as a Visiting Scholar and Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University School of Law.
In 2015-2016, he was the Abraham L. Kaminstein Scholar in Residence at the U.S. Copyright Office. Mr. Rosen received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 2005 and LLM in Intellectual Property in 2006 from the George Washington University Law School. He has practiced at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP as well as smaller firms and his own practice, and clerked for the Hon. Thomas B. Bennett of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He has written extensively on the development of modern copyright and trademark law, as well as on bankruptcy law.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Free Speech
Brett Nolan is a Senior Attorney at the Institute for Free Speech, a public interest law firm that defends the First Amendment rights of those engaged in political speech and advocacy around the country.
Before joining the Institute, Brett served as the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of Kentucky, where he represented the Commonwealth in a wide variety of high-stakes litigation at every level of state and federal court. In that role, Brett led a successful challenge against the Department of Treasury over the constitutionality of a federal law limiting the ability of states to modify their tax codes, and he helped secure a U.S. Supreme Court victory that upheld a state’s constitutional right to defend its interests in federal court.
Prior to that, Brett served as the Deputy General Counsel to the former Governor of Kentucky, where he advised the governor and other executive branch officials on legal and policy issues and represented them in litigation. Brett clerked for Judge John Nalbandian of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Karen K. Caldwell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Between clerkships, he worked in private practice. Brett received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with High Honors and was an editor of The University of Chicago Law Review.
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Eli Nachmany is an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in the Washington, DC, office. He clerked for Judge Steven J. Menashi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Eli graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Prior to law school, Eli served as the speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and as a domestic policy aide in the White House Office of American Innovation. He graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a B.S. in Sports Management. Eli’s scholarship on administrative law and executive power has appeared in the BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum.
Counsel, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Senior Competition Counsel, TechFreedom
Bilal Sayyed represents clients before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) in significant merger, civil and criminal antitrust matters. A significant portion of his practice involves representing investment funds on antitrust and Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act compliance matters; he has also provided expert witness services related to HSR compliance. Bilal also counsels clients before the FTC in consumer protection and privacy investigations. He maintains an active amicus and appellate brief writing practice in antitrust litigation and antitrust merger matters.
Prior to joining Cadwalader, Bilal was the Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning (OPP) (2018-2021). In that role, he provided legal and policy advice to the Chairman and Commissioners on antitrust and consumer protection matters and worked closely with the senior and career leadership of the FTC’s Bureaus of Competition, Consumer Protection, and Economics. Bilal previously served as an Attorney Advisor to FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris from 2001 to 2004. In that role, Bilal advised the Chairman on matters involving a wide spectrum of industries, including chemical and mining, petroleum and natural gas, health care and pharmaceutical, defense and transportation, gaming, various consumer products and retail operations, and professional associations and standard-setting organizations.
Bilal has taught antitrust and competition law at the George Mason University School of Law since 2011.
Bilal received his B.A. from Case Western Reserve University, and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the State of New York, as well as before the U.S. District Courts for the District of Colorado and the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bilal is the host of Rethinking Antitrust, a podcast published by TechFreedom that examines the economics, institutions, law, legislation, and policy goals of antitrust enforcement.
Clinical Instructional Fellow, Religious Freedom Clinic, Harvard Law School
Steven is an instructional fellow at the Religious Freedom Clinic. Before joining the clinic, he clerked in his hometown, San Diego, CA, for the Honorable Patrick J. Bumatay on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he participated in Stanford’s Religious Liberty Clinic, and was Managing Editor of the Stanford Law & Policy Review. Before law school, Steven was a software engineer at Google, first in Mountain View, CA, and then in New York City. Steven received a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in Linguistics from Stanford University.
Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Prior to coming to First Liberty, Nate was the Founder and Chief Counsel of the Center for Religious Expression.
For over 3 decades, Nate has defended religious liberty in courtrooms all over the country. He has handled more than 500 litigated cases and 50 appeals before various federal appellate courts regarding, winning numerous landmark decisions, including Brindley v. City of Memphis, Johnson v. Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, Boardley v. Dept. of Interior and Brown v. Polk County.
Nate is also a sought after speaker and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including Huckabee, Hannity, Fox and Friends, and the Hugh Hewitt show. He has been frequently quoted in major print media, like Time magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and USA Today. He has also written op-eds and articles for various media outlets, including Townhall, American Thinker, One News Now, and was a regular contributor for the Christian Post.
Nate earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi, graduating with honors in 1988. He is admitted to state bars in Tennessee and Mississippi, as well as numerous federal appellate courts.
Nicholas Anthony is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, a fellow at the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), and a member of the Economic Inclusion Group’s Advisory Board. Anthony’s research covers a wide range of topics within the field of monetary and financial economics, including central bank digital currency (CBDC), financial privacy, cryptocurrency, and the use of money in society. Anthony is the author of Digital Currency or Digital Control? Decoding CBDC and the Future of Money and his work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Business Insider, and numerous other outlets. Anthony has testified before Congress and maintains the HRF CBDC Tracker, which documents CBDC development and civil liberties concerns around the world.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Rob Johnson is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, where he litigates to protect private property, free speech, and other individual rights. Rob is a nationally-recognized expert on civil forfeiture. He previously represented a series of small business owners who had their entire bank accounts seized by the IRS, and he launched an initiative that resulted in the IRS reopening hundreds of closed forfeiture cases and returning millions of dollars. He has also litigated cases challenging the constitutionality of civil forfeiture procedures, and he scored a victory striking down a forfeiture program as a violation of due process.
Beyond civil forfeiture, Rob has litigated cases defending a range of constitutional rights. He was part of teams that successfully challenged occupational licensing requirements for tour guides in Savannah and Charleston. He also developed a class action lawsuit fighting the NYPD’s use of a draconian “no-fault eviction” statute to coerce residents to waive their constitutional rights, which led New York City to reform the challenged law.
Rob’s writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and Reason, among other venues. Rob has testified about occupational licensing before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and has twice testified about civil forfeiture before the House Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee. He has also testified before state legislatures across the country.
From 2014-2017, Rob served as IJ’s first Elfie Gallun Fellow for Freedom and the Constitution. In that role, Rob wrote and spoke about the vital role the U.S. Constitution plays in protecting our most precious freedoms. He is currently at work on a book about the Fourteenth Amendment.
Rob studied literature and anthropology at Columbia University, and he studied law at Harvard Law School. Upon graduation, he clerked for Chief Judge Alex Kozinski on the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
Rob lives in Cleveland with his wife and two daughters—all named after characters in Shakespeare plays—and is an amateur large format photographer.
Consultant, American Edge Project and U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Senior Fellow, Technology Policy, Cato Institute
Jennifer’s research focuses on the intersection of emerging technology and law with a particular interest in the interactions between technology and the administrative state. Her work covers topics including judicial deference, liability protection for Internet platforms, autonomous vehicles and other disruptive transportation technologies, the regulation of data privacy, and the benefits of technology and innovation. Her work has appeared in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Sacramento Bee, the Washington Times, Real Clear Policy, and U.S. News and World Report. Jennifer has a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law and a BA in political science at Wellesley College.
Counsel, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Senior Competition Counsel, TechFreedom
Bilal Sayyed represents clients before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) in significant merger, civil and criminal antitrust matters. A significant portion of his practice involves representing investment funds on antitrust and Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act compliance matters; he has also provided expert witness services related to HSR compliance. Bilal also counsels clients before the FTC in consumer protection and privacy investigations. He maintains an active amicus and appellate brief writing practice in antitrust litigation and antitrust merger matters.
Prior to joining Cadwalader, Bilal was the Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning (OPP) (2018-2021). In that role, he provided legal and policy advice to the Chairman and Commissioners on antitrust and consumer protection matters and worked closely with the senior and career leadership of the FTC’s Bureaus of Competition, Consumer Protection, and Economics. Bilal previously served as an Attorney Advisor to FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris from 2001 to 2004. In that role, Bilal advised the Chairman on matters involving a wide spectrum of industries, including chemical and mining, petroleum and natural gas, health care and pharmaceutical, defense and transportation, gaming, various consumer products and retail operations, and professional associations and standard-setting organizations.
Bilal has taught antitrust and competition law at the George Mason University School of Law since 2011.
Bilal received his B.A. from Case Western Reserve University, and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the State of New York, as well as before the U.S. District Courts for the District of Colorado and the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bilal is the host of Rethinking Antitrust, a podcast published by TechFreedom that examines the economics, institutions, law, legislation, and policy goals of antitrust enforcement.
President, Center for American Rights
Daniel Suhr serves as president of the Center for American Rights, where he spends every day on the front lines of the fight to preserve our rights and liberties. The Center's mission is to advance free speech, free enterprise, and parental freedom in education through strategic, precedent-setting litigation.
Daniel formerly worked as policy director for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, as chief of staff for Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and as a law clerk for Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He holds a B.A. and J.D. from Marquette University, and master’s degrees from Georgetown and the University of Missouri.
Shareholder, Kirton McConkie
Christopher Bates is co-chair of the firm’s Appellate section and a member of the Litigation and First Amendment and Religious Organizations sections. His practice focuses on appeals and critical motions in complex cases. He has argued dozens of cases in courts across the country, including the Utah Supreme Court, Utah Court of Appeals, and eleven of the thirteen federal circuits. He has also handled a variety of dispositive motions in both state and federal court. Chris’s subject matter experience includes a range of constitutional, regulatory, and commercial issues.
Chris has significant experience in senior positions in both state and federal government. Before joining Kirton McConkie, Chris served as deputy solicitor general for Utah. In that position, he managed complex ligation for the state on a range of topics and routinely appeared in both appellate and trial courts. He also led the state’s amicus efforts in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals. Prior to that, Chris served as senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he defended agency rulemakings and other administrative actions against statutory and constitutional challenges.
Earlier in his career, Chris was chief counsel to U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that role, he served as Senator Hatch’s chief legal advisor on intellectual property, antitrust, and criminal law. He led introduction and passage of several key pieces of legislation and staffed the senator at two Supreme Court confirmation hearings. He brings this legislative experience to bear in analyzing complex statutes and building coalitions in multiparty litigation.
Chris began his career by serving as a law clerk to Judge Thomas B. Griffith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He was then a litigation associate in Sidley Austin’s Supreme Court and Appellate Practice in Washington, DC. He has also taught college-level courses on constitutional law and legal studies.
Principal, Spero Law LLC
Christopher Mills is the founder of Spero Law LLC. He was previously a partner at a national law firm and a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court during October Term 2018. He also clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle, then-Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has authored briefs and motions in the Supreme Court, courts of appeals, and trial courts, and successfully argued before the D.C. Circuit. He has served as special counsel to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, and is an Adjunct Professor at the Charleston School of Law.
A 2012 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Christopher was a senior editor of the Harvard Law Review, an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and served on the Executive Board of the Harvard Federalist Society. In 2009, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a degree in economics from Furman University.
Christopher lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife, children, and golden retriever.
A Seat at the Sitting - January 2026
Tiffany H. Bates, Bradley A. Benbrook, Stephanie Lee Freudenberg, Jacob H. Huebert, Ryan Daniel Walters
The January Docket in 90 Minutes or Less
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Randy E. Barnett, Trent McCotter, Michael D. Ramsey, Ilan Wurman
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Krista Lee Baughman, Mathew Walter Hoffmann
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Courthouse Steps Oral Argument: Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment
Devlin Hartline, Zvi Rosen
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Brett Nolan
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Eli Nachmany, Bilal Sayyed
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Steven Burnett, Nathan Kellum
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Nicholas Anthony, Robert E. Johnson
On April 1, 2025, the Texas Association of Money Services Businesses filed suit in the...
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Asheesh Agarwal, Jennifer Huddleston, Bilal Sayyed, Daniel Suhr
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Courthouse Steps Oral Argument: First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin
Christopher Bates, Christopher E. Mills
In First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin, the New Jersey Attorney General, Matthew...