Partner, Barr & Klein PLLC
Steve Klein, a partner at Barr & Klein PLLC, is an experienced free speech attorney who has successfully fought for the First Amendment rights of his clients against local, state and federal regulators. As a lobbyist, Steve’s advocacy has led to the successful amendment of state laws to respect political engagement and prevented the enactment of laws that burden it. Steve has published articles in several legal journals, and his commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Detroit News, and other outlets. Steve earned a bachelors degree in politics at Hillsdale College and a law degree from Ave Maria School of Law, where he served as Managing Editor of the Ave Maria Law Review. He is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Illinois and Michigan.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy, Department of Justice
GianCarlo Canaparo serves as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. There, he oversees the Office's regulatory work and is the Department's liaison to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He also assists the White House in the process of selecting nominees for federal judgeships and advises Department leadership on policy and legal matters.
Before joining the Department, Canaparo was a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies where he researched constitutional law, administrative law, and civil rights.
Canaparo’s scholarship has appeared in various law reviews including the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Notre Dame Law Review, the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Texas Review of Law and Politics, and the Administrative Law Review. His research has been cited by Justice Neil Gorsuch and featured in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. His analysis has appeared in Law & Liberty, Civitas, Fox News, The National Review, Law 360, FedSoc Blog, and other outlets.
Canaparo co-hosted The Heritage Foundation’s SCOTUS 101 podcast, which follows the Supreme Court’s arguments and opinions and features interviews with judges, advocates, and scholars.
After graduating Georgetown law, Canaparo spent three years at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and two years as a federal law clerk. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California at Davis.
Canaparo is a classical pianist and organist.
Legal Fellow and Manager, Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program, The Heritage Foundation
Zack is a Legal Fellow and Manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Attorney, DJ Chapman Law, P.C.
David Chapman is a solo lawyer with DJ Chapman Law, P.C., in Fargo, ND, and is a 1995 graduate of the University of North Dakota School of Law. He previously practiced with two private firms in Fargo, and served as in-house General Counsel for Global Electric Motorcars, LLC, when that company was a subsidiary of what was previously DaimlerChrysler Corporation. David has taught continuing legal education courses on immigration law as well as attorney ethics and professional responsibility, and he has authored articles and materials on immigration law and attorney ethics. David has also appeared as a guest on radio and television to discuss legal and policy issues. He currently serves as a member of the US Commission on Civil Rights and a past member of the North Dakota State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He and his wife live in West Fargo with their son.
Senior Associate, Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky PLLC
Drew Watkins is a senior associate with Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky PLLC, providing counsel in the areas of campaign finance and election law, lobbying and ethics compliance, and tax-exempt organizations.
Prior to joining the firm, Drew served as a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph R. Goeke, Senior Judge of the United States Tax Court in Washington, D.C., and worked in the Office of General Counsel for the Governor of Kentucky, Matthew G. Bevin. While in law school, Drew served as a law clerk for the Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission and interned for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in his office in Washington, D.C.
Drew graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.S. in Justice Administration. He earned his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Kentucky College of Law and was a member of the Order of the Coif. During law school, he served as a senior staff editor on the Kentucky Law Journal and authored a published student note on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. He is a member of the Kentucky, D.C. and Virginia bars and the Federalist Society.
Associate, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
Erica is an associate in the Issues and Appeals group at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP. She assists clients with appeals before federal and state courts involving a wide range of issues, including questions of constitutional, administrative, and environmental law.
Before joining Hunton, Erica served for three years in the Solicitor General’s division of the Office of the West Virginia Attorney General. In that role, she represented the State of West Virginia in administrative, constitutional, environmental, and criminal law matters before the US Supreme Court, US Courts of Appeals, and the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Erica served as a law clerk for Judge Elizabeth L. Branch of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She received her J.D. from George Mason University and her B.A. from American University.
Director, Faculty Relations, The Federalist Society
Katie McClendon is the Director of Faculty Relations at the Federalist Society, where she has worked since 2015.
Katie holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from Biola University, where she was a member of the Torrey Honors Institute. She is a fellow of the John Jay Institute and the Blackstone Legal Fellowship. Katie is originally from Los Angeles, and she now lives with her husband and four children in Atlanta.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Peggy Little, Senior Counsel at New Civil Liberties Alliance, a new public interest law firm challenging the administrative state founded in 2017 by Professor Philip Hamburger, has over three decades of experience as a trial and appellate litigator in complex, high-stakes regulatory, mass-tort, class-action, products liability, securities, commercial and civil rights litigation representing individuals and high-profile litigants including Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, public companies, and universities in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
Peggy is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to starting her own trial and appellate law firm in 1997, where she was appellate consulting counsel to the New Haven firefighters in Ricci v.DeStefano, a landmark 2009 United States Supreme Court decision, Peggy was a partner at Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2004 to early 2018, Peggy directed, part-time, the Federalist Society Pro Bono Center.
Peggy has participated in many national conferences and symposia addressing issues of current importance in constitutional law – specifically state and federal constitutional questions regarding the separation of powers and the first amendment – and regularly speaks, blogs and publishes on the topic of the unconstitutional exercise of governmental power. In May of 2017, she presented her paper, Pirates at the Parchment Gates, to a conference of state and federal judges at the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School. Her work has been published by law reviews, legal publications, the Federalist Society, the Wall Street Journal, Law and Liberty and the Manhattan Institute.
Recent publications include: How the SEC silences its critics, The SEC should listen to Sen. Cotton, Lucia v. SEC, Opening Salvos in the Opioid Litigation Wars, Straight Dope on the Opioid Crisis
State Court Docket Watch: Yurish v. Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
Stephen R. Klein
West Virginia High Court Affirms First Amendment Defense for Innocent Third Party Receipt and Publication of Illegal Audio Recordings
In 2001, in Bartnicki v. Vopper, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a third party...
State Court Docket Watch: Rogers v. Honorable Mroz
GianCarlo Canaparo
By GianCarlo Canaparo
On February 1, 2022, the Arizona Supreme Court held that the First Amendment barred a...
State Court Docket Watch: AZ School Boards Association et al. v. State of Arizona
Zack Smith
Arizona’s Constitution requires that each bill passed by its Legislature contain only one subject and...
State Court Docket Watch: Smith v. Isakson
David J. Chapman
Docket Watch: Smith v. Isakson The right to a trial by jury has been a...
State Court Docket Watch: State of Alaska v. The Alaska Legislative Council
Andrew Watkins
Most are familiar with the United States Senate’s “advice and consent” role in confirming Executive...
State Court Docket Watch: Justice v. West Virginia AFL-CIO
Erica Peterson
In Justice v. West Virginia AFL-CIO, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the state’s...
The Federalist Paper, Winter 2022
The Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention was held in November and, as always, it was...
Federalist Society Review, Volume 22
Katie McClendon
The Federalist Society Review is the legal journal produced by the Federalist Society for Law & Public...
State Court Docket Watch: Corman v. Acting Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health
Margaret A. Little
On December 10, 2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously affirmed,[1] on expedited direct appeal, a...
State Court Docket Watch: 2021 Edition
In an effort to increase dialogue about state court jurisprudence, the Federalist Society presents State...