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, BakerHostetler, Adjunct Fellow, The Manhattan Institute
Andrew Grossman leads BakerHostetler’s Appellate and Major Motion team. He has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, nearly all the federal courts of appeals, as well as some state appellate courts, litigating high-profile and complex commercial, administrative and constitutional issues.
Andrew works with practice groups across BakerHostetler to identify and tackle complex issues, advise on administrative law and strategy, tee up issues for appeal and tackle appeals. He has developed and implemented litigation and administrative strategies for clients in several fields and industries.
In addition to his practice, Andrew advises members of Congress on matters of constitutional and administrative law, having testified more than a dozen times before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. He has been a frequent legal commentator on radio and television, having appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR and its affiliates, CBN and elsewhere. His legal commentary has also appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times and many others.
Andrew is a Senior Legal Fellow at the Buckeye Institute, an Adjunct Fellow the Manhattan Institute and a member of the leadership of the Federalist Society. He previously served as an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. He clerked for Judge Edith H. Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Chair, Lex Politica; Of Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as Chair of Lex Politica's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice overseeing the firm’s strategic appellate litigation and critical motions practice in the trial courts. Erin is an experienced litigator who represents clients in constitutional, regulatory, and appellate matters in federal and state courts throughout the country.
Erin has represented dozens of clients before the Supreme Court of the United States, served as lead counsel in high-profile cases raising novel constitutional and statutory issues, and authored numerous successful petitions for certiorari and briefs in opposition. She has argued in state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Erin represents diverse clients in high-stakes litigation from state governments to faith-based nonprofits to Fortune 100 companies. She possesses expertise on a wide range of subject matters including administrative law, the First Amendment, religious liberty, federal jurisdiction, federal preemption, equitable jurisdiction, tax law, the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX.
Erin represents clients in cases where public communications strategy is paramount. She is a sought-after speaker and writer, has testified multiple times before Congress, and is a frequent presenter on constitutional and administrative law issues, including at the Oxford Union, the National Federalist Society Convention, and university campuses across the country. She is a frequent commentator to media outlets, including Fox News, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, WORLD, USA Today, the Federalist, and the Hill.
Erin previously oversaw Alliance Defending Freedom’s--where she still serves as Of Counsel--litigation strategies to empower women and protect the dignity of life, defend pregnancy centers’ First Amendment rights from government overreach, and safeguard Americans’ freedoms from the ever-encroaching administrative state.
Former Senator, State of Alabama
Luther J. Strange, III is a former Republican member of the U.S. Senate from the state of Alabama. Strange was first appointed to the Senate position by Gov. Robert Bentley on February 9, 2017. He replaced Jeff Sessions, who was confirmed as United States Attorney General.
Strange is the former Republican Attorney General of Alabama. He was first elected to the statewide position in 2010 and assumed office on January 17, 2011. Strange's first four-year term ended on January 19, 2015, and he won re-election to a second term on November 4, 2014.
Prior to his election as Attorney General, Luther Strange practiced law in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2010, U.S. News-Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" gave his firm a first-tier ranking, and the firm was named as one of the Top Ten Law Firms that Understand Economic Development by Southern Business & Development magazine.
Before establishing his own law firm, Strange was a partner with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP. During his time in private practice, he was recognized in Best Lawyers in America® , named Best of the Bar by the Birmingham Business Journal, and called one of the "Best Lawyers" in Alabama by Birmingham magazine.
His tenure in office was marked by a strong emphasis on fighting public corruption, including the conviction and removal from office of the Alabama House Speaker in June 2016. He was also a leader in opposing costly overregulation and the expansion of the federal government at the expense of the states.
Luther Strange served as the court-appointed Coordinating Counsel for the Gulf Coast States in the historic Deepwater Horizon Oil spill litigation. Strange was actively involved in trying the case, which led to a landmark settlement agreement to compensate Alabama for both economic and environmental damages as a result of that disaster.
Among many civic commitments, he has served on the Advisory Board of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and as a Trustee of Talladega College, Alabama’s oldest historically black college.
An Eagle Scout since he was 13 and a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America in 2011, Strange is passionate about encouraging young people in Alabama to become involved in public service.
Strange received both his undergraduate and law degrees from Tulane University. He was a scholarship basketball player while earning his undergraduate degree at Tulane. In June of 2016, he was inducted into the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor James W. Coleman is a scholar of energy law. He specializes in North American energy infrastructure, transport, and trade. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focused on energy policy.
Professor Coleman has testified before Congress on steps to speed up energy infrastructure permits. He also worked with a team of experts as part of Alberta's Royalty Review to revise the Canadian province's management of its vast oil and gas resources.
Before joining Minnesota, Professor Coleman taught at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, the University of Calgary’s law and business schools, and Harvard Law School. Earlier, he practiced environmental and appellate law at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Honorable Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Professor Coleman received two degrees from Harvard University—a J.D. (cum laude) and B.A. in biology (magna cum laude with highest honors in the field). As a result of his undergraduate thesis on butterfly genetics, which required fieldwork in Central Asia, a species of lycaenid butterfly was named after him—Agrodiaetus ripartii colemani.
President and CEO, Frontiers of Freedom
Since 1998, George Landrith has served as the President and CEO of Frontiers of Freedom – a public policy think tank devoted to promoting a strong national defense, free markets, individual liberty, and constitutionally limited government. Frontiers of Freedom is recognized as a national leader on many of the most important issues facing America today – including: national security and defense, constitutional freedoms, market-based environmental solutions, energy, tax reform, property rights, and regulatory reform.
Previously, Landrith served as the Vice President and General Counsel to the National Legal Center for the Public Interest — now associated with the American Enterprise Institute. Landrith is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was the Business Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Politics. He also graduated, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University studying political science and economics. Landrith is admitted to the bar in Virginia and California and is a member of the United States Supreme Court bar.
In 1994 and 1996, Landrith was the Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District. He also served on the Albemarle County (Virginia) School Board from 1992 through 1995. He was appointed by then Governor George Allen and confirmed by the General Assembly to serve on the Virginia Workforce 2000 Advocacy Council. As an adjunct professor at the George Mason School of Law, Landrith has taught constitutional law, appellate advocacy, and legal writing. Landrith also teaches at the Leadership Institute’s candidate school.
Landrith appears frequently on television and radio news programs. He has been quoted or referenced in many of the nation’s leading newspapers, including: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Landrith’s work has been printed in over 100 newspapers across the nation, including: Washington Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Daily News, National Review, Sacramento Bee, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Providence Journal, Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Townhall, and Human Events. In 2004, Landrith published a book, On Politics and Policy: Views on Freedom from an American Conservative.
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.
Republican Staff Director, Worker and Family Support Subcommittee, Committee on Ways and Means, US House of Representatives
Anne DeCesaro has been the Republican Staff Director since 2016 of what is now the Worker and Family Support subcommittee, formerly Human Resources, of the Committee on Ways and Means. The subcommittee has jurisdiction over a range of domestic social programs including foster care and adoption, home visiting, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and the others. She previously served as professional staff for the subcommittee from 2011 to 2014, covering unemployment insurance, child support enforcement, and Supplemental Security Income. In between, she was the lead staffer on the House Agriculture Committee subcommittee on nutrition which oversees the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. Earlier in her career she spent a number of years at the Office of Management and Budget and the Social Security Administration, working on programs for low-income individuals and families. She received her bachelor’s degree from Saint Mary’s College and her master’s degree from The John Hopkins University.
Vice President, Networks, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Nathan Kaczmarek is Vice President for Networks at the Federalist Society. He began his legal career in Detroit representing nationwide clients in all phases of healthcare litigation and complex medical malpractice claims. He has since served as a Senior Legal and Policy Advisor in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Counsel for the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management in the U.S. Senate. Prior to overseeing the Networks, he was Director of the Practice Groups, the Regulatory Transparency Project, and the Article I Initiative for the Federalist Society.
Nathan holds degrees from Hillsdale College and Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is a Liaison Representative for The Administrative Conference of the United States. He also serves as Vice President of the Associates of St. John Bosco, a Virginia based non-profit dedicated to Catholic high school and college students.
Professorial Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University
Steve Redburn is a distinguished lecturer, budget advisor, and authority on financial management, government performance, and public policy with over 25 years of experience as a senior government official in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Since 2004, Professor Redburn has been a professorial lecturer in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy, where he teaches a course on the institutions and processes of federal budgeting. Dr. Redburn has directed fiscal studies for the Center of the Public Service in the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. As a participant in deliberations of the National Budgeting Roundtable since 2014, he has helped to lead research on reform of the federal government’s budget process. In 2017 and 2018, he consulted on budget processes in Indonesia for the World Bank. He co-authored a 2018 National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) white paper presenting a long-term strategy and recommendations to strengthen the federal government’s capacity to perform.
In 2010 and 2011, Redburn directed a project on budget process reform for the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he supervised preparation of the Commission’s December, 2010, report, Getting Back in the Black, recommending comprehensive reform of the U.S. federal government budget process, and edited a series of papers on additional reform options in 2011. From January to August 2007 Dr. Redburn served as Senior Budget Advisor on the USAID Kosovo V project, where he assisted the Ministry of Finance and Economy on a range of issues and advised the budget director and staff. From 2008 to May 2014, he was a scholar and study director for the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. He directed a study of high rates of incarceration in the U.S. in 2013-2014 and co-edited the final report. In 2008 – 2009, he directed a study of the fiscal future of the U.S. for NAS and NAPA, developing and assessing spending, revenue, and process reform options to put the U.S. on a sustainable budget path; the final study report, Choosing the Nation’s Fiscal Future, was published in November, 2009.
Dr. Redburn is an elected fellow and member of the board of directors (2013 – 2018) of the National Academy of Public Administration. As a Senior Executive in the Executive Office of the President (OMB) until his retirement from the federal service in 2006, Steve Redburn advised the President's senior staff on all aspects of budget, policy, legislation, program design and performance, and regulations concerning major Federal agencies and programs.
Senior Fellow - Governance Studies, Brookings Institution
Molly Reynolds is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings. She studies Congress, with an emphasis on how congressional rules and procedure affect domestic policy outcomes.
She is the author of the book, "Exceptions to the Rule: The Politics of Filibuster Limitations in the U.S. Senate," which explores creation, use, and consequences of the budget reconciliation process and other procedures that prevent filibusters in the U.S. Senate. Current research projects include work on oversight in the House of Representatives, congressional reform, and the congressional budget process. She also supervises the maintenance of "Vital Statistics on Congress," Brookings’s long-running resource on the first branch of government.
Reynolds received her Ph.D. in political science and public policy from the University of Michigan and her A.B. in government from Smith College, and previously served as a senior research coordinator in the Governance Studies program at Brookings. In addition, she has served as an instructor at George Mason University.
Founder and Executive Director, National Security Institute; Assistant Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jamil N. Jaffer is the Founder and Executive Director of the National Security Institute at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University where he also serves as an Assistant Professor of Law, Director of the National Security Law and Policy Program, and Director of the Cyber, Intelligence, and National Security LLM Program. Jamil also teaches classes on counterterrorism, intelligence, surveillance, cybersecurity, and other national security matters, as well as a summer course held abroad with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch. Jamil is also affiliated with Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and previously served as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2016 to 2019.
Jamil is also a Venture Partner with Paladin Capital Group, where he assists the firm with investments across the full range of its themes and theses, including a focus on dual-use national security technologies. Jamil also serves on the board of directors of RangeForce, a cybersecurity training and readiness platform startup and Tozny, a digital identity startup, and on the advisory boards of U.S. Strategic Metals, North America’s largest primary producer of cobalt, a critical mineral used in EV batteries, aerospace, and other national security applications; and Constella Intelligence, a deep and dark web intelligence startup. Jamil also serves as an advisor to Beacon Global Strategies, a strategic advisory firm and Duco, a technology platform startup that connects corporations with geopolitical and international business experts. Jamil is also the managing director of Trigraph Caveat Capital, a private investment vehicle.
Among other things, Jamil currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Board of Advisors for the Global Cyber Alliance, and the Advisory Board of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Center on Cyber and Tech Innovation, the Executive Committee of the Reagan Institute Strategy Group. Jamil is also a Fellow at the Academy for Judaic, Christian, and Islamic Studies, an advisor to the Concordia Summit, and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Intelligence Policy, the Board of Directors of Speech First, and the Executive Committee of the International Law and National Security Practice Group of the Federalist Society.
Immediately prior to his current positions, from 2015-2021, Jamil served as a senior business leader at IronNet Cybersecurity, helping take the company from a bootstrapped first-year technology products startup through two rounds of venture capital fundraising, growing from 40 employees to over 300, and through its listing on New York Stock Exchange. In his role as IronNet's Senior Vice President for Strategy, Partnerships & Corporate Development, Jamil worked directly for the co-CEOs of the company, Gen (ret.) Keith B. Alexander, the former Director of the National Security Agency and Founding Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, and Bill Welch, the former COO of Zscaler and Duo; in that role, Jamil led all of the company’s strategic and technology partnership efforts, including developing go-to-market and technology integration plans with some of the largest cloud platforms and cybersecurity companies in the market, evaluating potential acquisition targets, and developing overall corporate strategy and thought leadership around collective security and collaborative defense in the cyber arena.
Prior to his time at IronNet, Jamil served on the leadership team of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as Chief Counsel and Senior Advisor under Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN), where he worked on key national security and foreign policy issues, including leading the drafting of the proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Force against ISIS in 2014 and 2015, the AUMF against Syria in 2013, and revisions to the 9/11 AUMF against al Qaeda. Jamil was also the lead architect of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act and two sanctions laws against Russia for its first intervention in Ukraine.
Prior to joining SFRC, Jamil served as Senior Counsel to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) where he led the committee’s oversight of NSA surveillance, NRO intelligence issues, and NGA analytic and collection matters, as well as intelligence community-wide counterterrorism issues. Jamil was also the lead architect of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the nation’s first cyber threat intelligence sharing legislation that was signed into law in 2015.
In the Bush Administration, Jamil served in the White House as an Associate Counsel to the President, handling Defense Department, State Department, and intelligence community matters, and serving as one of the White House Counsel’s primary representatives to the National Security Council Deputies Committee.
Prior to the White House, Jamil served on the leadership team of the Justice Department’s National Security Division as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, where he focused on counterterrorism and intelligence matters. At NSD, Jamil helped lead the division’s work on In re: Directives, the first ever two-party litigated matter in the FISA Court and the second case before the FISA Court of Review in its 30-year history. Jamil also led NSD’s efforts on the President’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), including the drafting of NSPD-54/HSPD-23, and related classified matters, and advised the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command’s predecessor organization, the Joint Function Component Command for Network Warfare (JFCC-NW), on matters related to cyber intelligence collection and offensive cyber activities. For his work on these matters, Jamil was awarded the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Special Initiative and was among the group of lawyers awarded the Director of National Intelligence’s 2008 Legal Award (Team of the Year – Cyber Legal).
Jamil also served in other positions in the Justice Department, including in the Office of Legal Policy, where he worked on the confirmations of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to the United States Supreme Court.
Jamil also served as a lawyer in private practice at Kellogg Huber, a Washington, DC-based litigation boutique, as a policy advisor to Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and as a staff member or senior advisor on a number of political campaigns, including two presidential campaigns and a presidential transition team. While in law school, Jamil was a member of the University of Chicago Law Review, managing editor of the Chicago Journal of International Law, and National Symposium Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, Jamil served as a law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and, later in his career, as a law clerk to then-Judge Neil M. Gorsuch when he first joined the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit as well as a law clerk to Justice Neil Gorsuch when he joined the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jamil has published multiple op-eds and academic articles on national security, foreign policy, cybersecurity, counterterrorism, encryption, and intelligence matters, and is the co-author of a book chapter with former NSA Director Gen. (Ret.) Keith B. Alexander on national security and the press in National Security, Leaks, and the Freedom of the Press: The Pentagon Papers Fifty Years On (2021) and a book chapter with former CIA Director Gen. (ret.) Mike Hayden on ISIS, al Qaeda, and other international terrorist groups in Choosing to Lead: American Foreign Policy for a Disordered World (2015). Jamil has also written book chapters on cybersecurity and surveillance, as well as op-eds and policy papers with former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Matt Olsen, and Congressman Mike Waltz (R-FL), among others.
Jamil has previously taught graduate-level courses in intelligence law and policy at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and the National Intelligence University, served an outside advisor to the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and has recently testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on China, cybersecurity, counterterrorism, and other national security matters. Jamil has also recently appeared on a range of national television and radio outlets including CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, Bloomberg, PBS, Voice of America, and National Public Radio, and in various print and online publications, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Washington Post on a range of national security matters including cybersecurity, counterterrorism, surveillance, encryption, privacy, and foreign policy issues.
Jamil holds degrees from UCLA (BA, cum laude), the University of Chicago Law School (JD, with honors), and the United States Naval War College (MA, with distinction).
Visiting Fellow, The National Security Institute
Norman T. Roule served for 34-years in the Central Intelligence Agency, managing significant programs relating to the Middle East. Mr. Roule’s service in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations included roles as Division Chief, Deputy Division Chief and Chief of Station. He has held multiple senior assignments in Washington as well as during more than 15 years of overseas work. He served as the National Intelligence Manager for Iran (NIM-I) at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from November 2008 until September 2017. As NIM-I, he was the principal Intelligence Community (IC) official responsible for overseeing national intelligence policy and activities related to Iran and Iran-related issues, to include IC engagement on these topics with senior policymakers in the National Security Council, the Department of State and Congress. Mr. Roule received multiple national security awards during his career.
Mr. Roule currently works as a business consultant on Middle East political, security, economic, and energy issues with an emphasis on the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Iran. He also serves as Senior Adviser to the Counter Extremism Project, United Against Nuclear Iran, the Nuclear Threat Initiative and as a member of the Advisory Board of the Arabia Foundation. Mr. Roule is currently also a non-resident Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is frequently asked to speak on Middle East issues and has appeared on Al-Hurra Television, BBC, Bloomberg Radio and Television, CBS, CNBC, CNN, Fox, Israeli international television (I24), NPR, Saudi 24, Sky News, Sky News Arabia, and the podcast “Intelligence Matters.” He is a frequent contributor to The Cipher Brief and has written for U.S. and international print media.
Senior Fellow, The Washington Institute
Dana Stroul is a senior fellow in The Washington Institute's Beth and David Geduld Program on Arab Politics.
Research Fellow, American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
Katherine Zimmerman is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the research manager for AEI’s Critical Threats Project. As AEI’s senior analyst studying terrorist groups, she focuses on the global al Qaeda network and covers the Salafi-jihadi movement and related trends in the Middle East and Africa. She also specializes in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Yemen, al Shabaab in Somalia, and al Qaeda in the Sahel.
Assistant Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
Jennifer Daskal joined American University Washington College of Law (WCL) in 2013 as an Assistant Professor of Law. She teaches and writes in the fields of criminal law, national security law, and constitutional law. From 2009-2011, Prof. Daskal was counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice and, among other things, served on the Secretary of Defense and Attorney General-led Detention Policy Task Force. Prior to joining DOJ, she was the senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, worked as a staff attorney for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and clerked for the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff. She spent two years before joining WCL’s faculty as a national security law fellow and adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center.
Prof. Daskal is a graduate of Brown University, Harvard Law School, and Cambridge University, where she was a Marshall Scholar. Recent publications include The Un-Territoriality of Data, 326 Yale L.J. 326 (2015); Pre-Crime Restraints: The Explosion of Targeted, Non-Custodial Prevention, 99 Cornell L. Rev. 327 (2014); After the AUMF, 5 Harvard Nat'l Sec. L. J. 115 (2014) (co-authored with Steve Vladeck); and The Geography of the Battlefield: A Framework for Detention and Targeting Outside the ‘Hot’ Conflict Zone, 171 Penn. L. Rev. 1165 (2013). Prof. Daskal has published op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, L.A. Times, and Salon.com, and she has appeared on BBC, C-Span, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR, among other media outlets. She is an Executive Editor of and regular contributor to the Just Security blog.
Professor of the Practice of Law and Executive Director, Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, Duke University Law School
Charles J. Dunlap Jr. joined the Duke Law faculty in July 2010 where he is currently a professor of the practice of law and Executive Director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security. His teaching and scholarly writing focus on national security, law of armed conflict, the use of force under international law, civil-military relations, cyberwar, airpower, military justice, and ethical issues related to the practice of national security law.
Dunlap retired from the Air Force in June 2010, having attained the rank of major general during a 34-year career in the Judge Advocate General Corps. In his capacity as Deputy Judge Advocate General spanning from May 2006 to March 2010, he assisted the Judge Advocate General in the professional supervision of more than 2,200 judge advocates, 350 civilian lawyers, 1,400 enlisted paralegals, and 500 civilians around the world. In addition to overseeing an array of military justice, operational, international, and civil law functions, he provided legal advice to commanders and civilian leaders at all levels.
In the course of his career, Dunlap has been involved in various high-profile interagency and policy matters, including his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives concerning the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
Dunlap previously served as the senior lawyer (staff judge advocate) at Air Combat Command Headquarters at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, at Air Education and Training Command Headquarters at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, and at U.S. Strategic Command, Omaha, Nebraska, among other leadership posts. Additionally, he served on the faculty of the Air Force Judge Advocate General School where he taught various civil and criminal law topics. An experienced trial lawyer, he also spent two years as a military trial judge for a 22-state circuit. He served tours in the United Kingdom and Korea, and deployed for operations in the Middle East and Africa. He also led military-to-military delegations to Colombia, Uruguay, South Africa, and the Czech Republic.
A prolific author and accomplished public speaker, Dunlap’s commentary on a wide variety of national security topics has been published in leading newspapers and military journals. His 2001 essay written for Harvard University’s Carr Center on “lawfare,” a concept he defines as “the use or misuse of law as a substitute for traditional military means to accomplish an operational objective,” has been highly influential among military scholars and in the broader legal academy.
Dunlap is also the author of the prize-winning essay, “The Origins of the Military Coup of 2012”, originally published in 1992, which was selected for the 40th Anniversary Edition of Parameters (Winter 2010-2011).
Dunlap’s legal scholarship has been published in the Stanford Law Review, the Yale Journal of International Affairs, the Harvard Law’s National Security Journal, the Wake Forest Law Review, the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, the University of Nebraska Law Review, the Texas Tech Law Review, Temple Law’s Journal of International & Comparative Law, the University of North Carolina’s Journal of International Law, the Connecticut Law Review, the Tennessee Law Review, and the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, among others.
He’s also authored numerous articles and opinion pieces in a range of publications including The Atlantic, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Washington Times, the Air Force Times, Strategic Studies Quarterly, the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Business Insider, the Journal of Genocide Research, The Hill, Small Wars Journal, and the blogs, Lawfare and Just Security.
Maj Gen Dunlap founded his blog Lawfire in 2015 and has since written over 300 posts on a wide variety of subjects.
Dunlap's wife, Joy, was a vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, and later a deputy director of Government Relations for the Military Officers Association of America. She served as the elected president of Duke Campus Club, and is a recipient of the prestigious Order of the Emerald by Kappa Delta sorority. Her blog, Speaking Joyfully, won 3rd place in the blog category at the 2021 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. They reside in Durham.
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Gates Corporation
Matthew R. A. Heiman joined the Company in May 2026 and has served as the Company’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary since June 2026. As Chief Legal Officer, Mr. Heiman is responsible for all legal functions for Gates, including securities and corporate governance, M&A, litigation, commercial, regulatory, compliance, patents and trademarks, real estate, employment and labor, sustainability and environmental matters. Prior to joining Gates, Mr. Heiman held senior legal leadership roles at Waystar, where he served as Chief Legal & Administrative Officer from 2023 to 2025 and as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary from 2020 to 2023. Prior to that, he was with Johnson Controls, where he served as Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Associate General Counsel. Mr. Heiman has been a Senior Fellow for the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law since 2018.
Professor Emeritus of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jeremy A. Rabkin is a Professor Emeritus of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. Before joining the faculty in June 2007, he was for over two decades a professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Professor Rabkin serves on the board of directors of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously he was a board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the board of academic advisors of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Rabkin’s books include Law Without Nations? (Princeton University Press, 2005). He authored “If You Need a Friend, Don’t Call a Cosmopolitan,” a chapter in Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship (Sigal R. Ben-Porath & Rogers M. Smith eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in major law reviews and political science journals and his journalistic contributions in a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
John O. McGinnis is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He also has an MA degree from Balliol College, Oxford, in philosophy and theology. Professor McGinnis clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. From 1987 to 1991, he was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. He is the author of Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Government Through Technology (Princeton 2013) and Originalism and the Good Constitution (Harvard 2013) (with M. Rappaport). He is a past winner of the Paul Bator award given by the Federalist Society to an outstanding academic under 40. He has been listed by the United States on the roster of panelists who may be called upon to decide World Trade Organization Disputes.
Professor of Law, University of Liege (Belgium)
Professor Nicolas Petit is Professor of Law at Liege University, Belgium and a Research Professor at the School of Law of the University of South Australia in Adelaide (UniSA).
Professor Nicolas Petit’s research focuses on antitrust law, intellectual property, and law in a context of technological change. His recent written works deal with the legal challenges created by the introduction of artificial intelligence and robotics in society. He is also working on a book on technology platforms’ competition.
Professor Petit holds a PhD from the University of Liege (Belgium), an LL.M from the College of Europe (Bruges), a Master’s degree from the University of Paris II and an LLB from the University of Paris V. He practiced law with a leading US law firm in Brussels and he also served as a Clerk at the Commercial Chamber of the French Supreme Court. In 2005 he attended Harvard Law School’s Visiting Researchers Programme.
Professor Petit is the co-author of EU Competition Law and Economics (Oxford University Press, 2012) and the author of Droit européen de la concurrence (Domat Montchrestien, 2013), a monograph which was awarded the prize for the best law book of the year at the Constitutionnal Court in France. In 2017, he received the GCR award for academic excellence.
Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1986. After receiving his B.S. from Cornell University in 1970, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973, he clerked on the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court. Thereafter, Judge Ginsburg was a professor at the Harvard Law School, the Deputy Assistant and then Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as well as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Concurrent with his service as a federal judge, Judge Ginsburg has taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the New York University School of Law. Judge Ginsburg is currently a Professor of Law at the George Mason University and a visiting professor at University College London, Faculty of Laws.
Judge Ginsburg is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Global Antitrust Institute at the Law and Economics Center of the George Mason University School of Law. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of: Competition Policy International; the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; the Journal of Competition Law and Economics; the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy; the Supreme Court Economic Review; the University of Chicago Law Review; the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty; and, at University College London, both the Centre for Law, Economics and Society and the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics.
In 2020, Judge Ginsburg was the 11th recipient of the John Sherman Award, presented by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in recognition of the awardee’s Lifetime Contributions to Antitrust Law and Policy.
In 2014, Judge Ginsburg received the Lifetime Achievement Award given annually by the Global Competition Review.
He is the author or co-author of several books and more than 100 articles on competition and regulation, including, most recently, Growing Convergence: The Limited Role of Antitrust in Standard Essential Patent Disputes, in CPI Antitrust Chronicle, Summer 2021, Vol. 1, No. 2.
Vice President, Charles River Associates
Joanna Tsai is vice president in the Antitrust & Competition Economics Practice of Charles River Associates in Washington, DC. She has over 15 years of experience in antitrust and intellectual property matters, and has held positions in private practice, academia, and government. Dr. Tsai’s consulting practice includes advising clients on the competitive and economic implications of mergers and acquisitions in a variety of industries, and evaluating and analyzing the economic aspects of antitrust claims. While serving as economic advisor at the Federal Trade Commission from 2013-2015, she advised on a broad range of competition, intellectual property, and consumer protection issues. She is a frequent speaker at academic and industry conferences and has published articles in the Antitrust Source, Antitrust Magazine, Antitrust Law Journal, Antitrust Bulletin, and CPI Antitrust.
Dr. Tsai has also served as faculty at Stanford University’s Hoover IP Squared Summer Institute, visiting professor at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, and is currently adjunct professor at the Scalia Law School of George Mason University. Dr. Tsai holds a PhD and MA in Economics from Cornell University, and is Co-Chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of Antitrust Law.
GCR’s Who’s Who Legal recognized Dr. Tsai as a Future Leader (under 45 years old) in the Competition Economist category in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In particular, in 2018, she ranked #1 as the “most highly regarded” competition economist in North America. One of the sources GCR interviewed noted that “Joanna offers a great balance of being insightful in her analysis, practical in her dealings with clients and clear in her advocacy.”
Deputy Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty
Lucas Vebber is deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty ("WILL") in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At WILL he litigates cases in state and federal courts where he focuses on separation of powers and regulatory issues. His litigation efforts have won several national awards, and he has been named a Legal All Star by the Wisconsin Law Journal.
Before joining WILL Lucas worked in a variety of roles in Madison, most recently serving as General Counsel and Director of the Litigation Center at Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s chamber of commerce and manufacturers’ association. Prior to that Lucas worked for the state in both the legislature and executive branch.
Lucas has a bachelor’s degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee and a law degree from the University of Saint Thomas in Minneapolis.
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All the President's Budgets: Who should be setting federal budget priorities?
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Panel 2: US Policy in Syria: Stay In, Get Out, or Triple Down?
Jamil N. Jaffer, Norman Roule, Dana Stroul, Katherine Zimmerman
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Panel 1: Legal Authorities for the U.S. Role in Syria: Does Congress Need to Weigh In?
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