Lecturer in Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business
I spent more than 14 years in economic policy roles advising senior elected officials, including for a time as the senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush. As Deputy Director and then Director of the White House National Economic Council, I coordinated economic policy design and implementation for the President.
The last thirteen months of my time in the White House were by far the most intense, helping advise President Bush on his Administration’s response to the financial crisis.
In addition to that work, here are some of the major Presidential policies that I helped design, enact, and implement:
Before working for President Bush I was an aide to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS). I helped him enact economic legislation (and block other legislation) including the 1997 Balanced Budget Act and President Bush’s 2001 tax cut. I came to Senator Lott’s staff from the Senate Budget Committee staff, where I spent two years as a health and retirement economist working for the Chairman, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM).
I’ve got a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a B.A.S. in Math and Political Science from Stanford.
Chief Legal Officer & EVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Purdue Pharma L.P.
Marc Kesselman was appointed General Counsel of Purdue Pharma L.P. in July 2018, with responsibility for Purdue’s legal strategy, corporate governance, compliance, and government affairs. He has since been promoted to Chief Legal Officer and EVP Strategy & Corporate Affairs with added oversight of strategy, business development, human resources, security, and communications. Marc joined Purdue Pharma after the company came under intense scrutiny and is helping to engineer a corporate turnaround. Under Marc's leadership, Purdue has secured initial approval of its plan to emerge as a public-minded company dedicated to abating the opioid crisis, responsibly manufacturing and distributing opioid analgesics, and advancing a robust pipeline of non-opioid medicines with the promise of addressing serious medical conditions.
Prior to joining Purdue Pharma, Marc worked for YUM! Brands, Inc. where he served as Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary & Chief Public Policy Officer. In that role, he oversaw all aspects of legal, compliance, regulatory, government affairs, and sustainability agendas for one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, with more than 45,000 restaurants in 135 countries and territories. Marc joined Yum! from Dean Foods where he held a similar role. Previously, he was Senior Vice President & General Counsel at PepsiCo America’s Foods where he oversaw a wide variety of complex commercial, transactional, litigation, regulatory, and government affairs issues relating to PepsiCo's food businesses in North and South America.
From 2006 through 2008, Marc served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he advised the Secretary of Agriculture and directed all legal activity for the Department. For the previous three years, he served as Deputy General Counsel in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he handled a variety of regulatory, budgetary and legal policy matters. Marc also worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and as a Trial Attorney in its Civil Division. His work there earned him the John Marshall Award, the Attorney General’s highest recognition for trial of litigation.
Marc currently serves on the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, and the Penn Law Alumni Board of Managers. He has previously served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, on the Board of the Dallas Symphony, on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and as Chair of the DC Bar Administrative Law Section. He has been named as one of the most influential General Counsel in America by Chambers & Partners, and twice named to the D CEO list of the most influential business leaders in Dallas. In 2023, Marc was named a "Legend in the Law" by the Burton Awards in association with the American Bar Association and the Library of Congress.
Marc holds a JD with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Government magna cum laude from Cornell University.
Solicitor General, Attorney General of Texas
William Peterson was appointed by Attorney General Paxton as Solicitor General. Before joining the Office of the Attorney General, Mr. Peterson was a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. He previous served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Edith Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Mr. Peterson received a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and an undergraduate degree in Engineering and Applied Sciences from the California Institute of Technology.
Lecturer in Economics, Stanford Graduate School of Business
I spent more than 14 years in economic policy roles advising senior elected officials, including for a time as the senior White House economic advisor to President George W. Bush. As Deputy Director and then Director of the White House National Economic Council, I coordinated economic policy design and implementation for the President.
The last thirteen months of my time in the White House were by far the most intense, helping advise President Bush on his Administration’s response to the financial crisis.
In addition to that work, here are some of the major Presidential policies that I helped design, enact, and implement:
Before working for President Bush I was an aide to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS). I helped him enact economic legislation (and block other legislation) including the 1997 Balanced Budget Act and President Bush’s 2001 tax cut. I came to Senator Lott’s staff from the Senate Budget Committee staff, where I spent two years as a health and retirement economist working for the Chairman, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM).
I’ve got a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a B.A.S. in Math and Political Science from Stanford.
Chief Legal Officer & EVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Purdue Pharma L.P.
Marc Kesselman was appointed General Counsel of Purdue Pharma L.P. in July 2018, with responsibility for Purdue’s legal strategy, corporate governance, compliance, and government affairs. He has since been promoted to Chief Legal Officer and EVP Strategy & Corporate Affairs with added oversight of strategy, business development, human resources, security, and communications. Marc joined Purdue Pharma after the company came under intense scrutiny and is helping to engineer a corporate turnaround. Under Marc's leadership, Purdue has secured initial approval of its plan to emerge as a public-minded company dedicated to abating the opioid crisis, responsibly manufacturing and distributing opioid analgesics, and advancing a robust pipeline of non-opioid medicines with the promise of addressing serious medical conditions.
Prior to joining Purdue Pharma, Marc worked for YUM! Brands, Inc. where he served as Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary & Chief Public Policy Officer. In that role, he oversaw all aspects of legal, compliance, regulatory, government affairs, and sustainability agendas for one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, with more than 45,000 restaurants in 135 countries and territories. Marc joined Yum! from Dean Foods where he held a similar role. Previously, he was Senior Vice President & General Counsel at PepsiCo America’s Foods where he oversaw a wide variety of complex commercial, transactional, litigation, regulatory, and government affairs issues relating to PepsiCo's food businesses in North and South America.
From 2006 through 2008, Marc served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he advised the Secretary of Agriculture and directed all legal activity for the Department. For the previous three years, he served as Deputy General Counsel in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he handled a variety of regulatory, budgetary and legal policy matters. Marc also worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and as a Trial Attorney in its Civil Division. His work there earned him the John Marshall Award, the Attorney General’s highest recognition for trial of litigation.
Marc currently serves on the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, and the Penn Law Alumni Board of Managers. He has previously served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, on the Board of the Dallas Symphony, on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and as Chair of the DC Bar Administrative Law Section. He has been named as one of the most influential General Counsel in America by Chambers & Partners, and twice named to the D CEO list of the most influential business leaders in Dallas. In 2023, Marc was named a "Legend in the Law" by the Burton Awards in association with the American Bar Association and the Library of Congress.
Marc holds a JD with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Government magna cum laude from Cornell University.
Solicitor General, Attorney General of Texas
William Peterson was appointed by Attorney General Paxton as Solicitor General. Before joining the Office of the Attorney General, Mr. Peterson was a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. He previous served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Edith Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Mr. Peterson received a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and an undergraduate degree in Engineering and Applied Sciences from the California Institute of Technology.
Senior Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP and Executive Chairma, The Chertoff Group
Michael Chertoff concentrates in the area of White Collar Defense and Investigations. In recent years, he has handled a series of federal investigations, including complex criminal and civil regulatory matters. He has advised major clients on SEC and Justice Department investigations and successfully served as the independent monitor of a major national healthcare company under criminal and civil investigation.
In addition to his legal work, Mr. Chertoff is Founder and Chairman of The Chertoff Group, a security and risk management firm, where he provides high-level strategic counsel to corporate and government leaders on a broad range of security issues, from risk identification and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery.
In April of 2012, Mr. Chertoff was elected as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of BAE Systems, Inc. He also sits on the board of directors or board of advisors of a number of companies and nonprofits.
Previously, Mr. Chertoff served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. As Secretary, he led a 218,000 person department with a budget of $50 billion. Mr. Chertoff developed and implemented border security and immigration policy; promulgated homeland security regulations; and spearheaded a national cyber security strategy. He also served periodically on the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet, Mr. Chertoff served from 2003 to 2005 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before becoming a federal judge, Mr. Chertoff was the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In that position, he oversaw the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and formed the Enron Task Force, which produced more than 20 convictions, including those of CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay.
Mr. Chertoff’s career includes more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, including service as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Chertoff investigated and personally prosecuted significant cases of political corruption, organized crime, and corporate fraud.
From 1994-2001, Mr. Chertoff represented major corporations and individuals in numerous white collar investigations and trials. Among other matters, he successfully represented the nation’s largest hospital company in a four year, multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil investigation, represented major corporations in corruption scandals, and obtained acquittals at trial for individual criminal defendants.
Mr. Chertoff has received numerous awards including the Department of Justice Henry E. Petersen Memorial Award (2006); the Department of Justice John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation (1987); NAACP Benjamin L. Hooks Award for Distinguished Service (2007); European Institute Transatlantic Leadership Award (2008); and two honorary doctorates. His trial experiences have been featured in over half a dozen books and many news articles.
Executive Vice President and Strategic Counselor, Blacklake Group
Jim Haynes is Executive Vice President and Strategic Counselor of Blacklake Group (a privately held holding company) and concurrently advises several early and mid-stage privately held emerging technology companies, Nichols Law, and the Torridon Group.
Twice a partner in a major national law firm, Jim also previously served as a corporate executive at four public companies: General Dynamics Corporation (as Staff Vice President and Associate General Counsel from 1996-1999), Chevron Corporation (as Chief Corporate Counsel from 2008-2012); Siga Technologies, Inc. (as EVP & General Counsel from 2012-2016); and CSRA Inc. (as EVP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary from 2016-2018, at the end of which the company was acquired for $9.7B.)
Jim has held two presidentially appointed offices requiring Senate confirmation: General Counsel of the Department of the Army from 1990-1993, and General Counsel of the Department of Defense from 2001-2008. Chief Legal Officer and Designated Agency Ethics Officer of both departments during highly consequential times, Jim also served as Director of the Defense Legal Services Agency from 2001-2008.
Jim earned degrees from Davidson College and Harvard Law School, and holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from Stetson Law School. After a judicial clerkship with Judge James B. McMillan (USDJ, WDNC), Jim served four years on active duty in the U.S. Army. He is the recipient of a significant number of awards and medals from the Departments of Defense, Justice, Army, Navy, and Air Force. Jim holds a patent issued in 2025: https://patents.justia.com/patent/12367458.
For several months in 1999, Jim worked in Almaty, Kazakhstan, volunteering assistance for Mercy Corps International in managing microcredit services across six countries in Central Asia. A former Eagle Scout, Jim served on the Board of Directors of the Greater New York City Councils of the Boy Scouts of America from 2013-2023. He has served as director or advisor on many other boards.
He currently is a director or trustee of three boards: Labrynth (labrynth.ai), the Supreme Court Historical Society, and the William T. Coleman, Jr. Foundation.
Former United States Attorney General
Michael B. Mukasey is the former Attorney General of the United States, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. As Attorney General from November 2007 to January 2009, he oversaw the U.S. Department of Justice and advised on critical issues of domestic and international law.
From 1988 to 2006, Judge Mukasey served as a district judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming Chief Judge in 2000.
From 1972 to 1976, Judge Mukasey served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and as Chief of the Official Corruption Unit from 1975 to 1976. His practice consisted of criminal litigation on behalf of the government, including investigation and prosecution of narcotics, bank robbery, interstate theft, securities fraud, fraud on the government and bribery. From 1976 to 1987 and from 2006 to 2007 he was in private practice.
Judge Mukasey has received numerous honors, including the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Public Access to Information and Proceedings of the New York Bar Association from 1984 to 1987. He served on the Federal Courts Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from 1979 to 1982 and its Communications Law Committee from 1983 to 1986. Judge Mukasey was also a part-time lecturer at Columbia School of Law from January 1993 to May 2007, teaching trial advocacy.
He received his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1967 and his B.A. from Columbia College in 1963.
Senior Counsel, Steptoe & Johnson LLP
John Rizzo is Senior Counsel in Steptoe's Washington office, where he is a member of the National and Homeland Security practice and the firm’s International Department.
Mr. Rizzo provides legal advice and policy counsel to clients on matters related to national security. His work includes advising companies on the business risks related to their international operations; counseling companies involved in international mergers and acquisitions on the foreign investment review process conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States; and advising clients on the legal and policy-related aspects of working with the Intelligence Community.
Prior to joining Steptoe, Mr. Rizzo spent 34 years in the Office of General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where he provided legal counsel, policy guidance, and leadership on the most difficult and time sensitive national security issues facing the United States. From 2001 until 2002 and from 2004 to 2009, he served as the Chief Legal Officer at CIA and dealt with the most challenging legal issues in the post 9/11 era. During that time, he was responsible for all legal matters at CIA including national security and international law; administrative and contract law; and criminal and civil litigation. Also during his tenure, he served as the Deputy Director for the Office of Congressional Affairs and was the principal interlocutor with the House and Senate Congressional Committees investigating the Iran-Contra Affair. Early in his career, he was the principal drafter of the CIA regulations for the conduct of intelligence activities in the United States – regulations which remain in effect today.
He was the recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the highest recognition accorded to a career CIA officer. In 1996, he was awarded the Thomas C. Clark Award from the Federal Bar Association as the most outstanding lawyer in government, to date he was the only Intelligence Community attorney to receive the award.
Mr. Rizzo is a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is a frequent speaker and has served as a guest lecturer at a number of law schools around the country.
President, George W. Bush Presidential Center
Margaret Spellings is the president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. She oversees all aspects of Bush Center activities, including leadership of the George W. Bush Institute, management of Bush Center business operations, and collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Previously Spellings was president and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm that provided strategic guidance to philanthropic and private sector organizations. She also served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and was president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Prior to that, Spellings served in a variety of positions in the Bush Administration.
She served as U.S. Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009. In that role, she oversaw an agency with a nearly $70 billion budget and more than 10,000 employees and contractors. As a member of the President’s Cabinet, she led the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a historic national initiative to provide enhanced accountability for the education of 50 million U.S. public school students.
In 2005, Spellings launched a higher education national policy debate and action plan to improve accessibility, affordability and accountability in our Nation’s colleges and universities. Spellings initiated international outreach and collaboration by leading delegations on behalf of the President of the United States as well as overseeing the development and implementation of international education agreements with such countries as China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
As White House Domestic Policy Advisor, from 2001 to 2005, she managed the development of the President’s domestic policy agenda. Her achievements include oversight of the development of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the development of a comprehensive immigration plan to ensure long-term economic stability and to secure U.S. borders, and numerous other initiatives on health and human services, transportation, labor, justice and housing.
Prior to her service in the White House, Spellings was senior advisor to then-Governor George W. Bush of Texas, led governmental and external relations for the Texas Association of School Boards, and has served in key positions at Austin Community College and with the Texas Legislature.
She graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor's degree in political science.
John A. Sibley Professor in Corporate and Business Law, The University of Georgia School of Law
Larry D. Thompson has served on the University of Georgia School of Law’s faculty as the holder of the John A. Sibley Chair of Corporate and Business Law since 2011, noting he was on a leave of absence from June 2012 through 2014. He is presently a member of the Faculty Division of the law school's Dean Rusk International Law Center Council.
Thompson first retired from PepsiCo in May 2011. In June 2012, he rejoined the company as executive vice president, government affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary. His responsibilities included leading PepsiCo’s worldwide legal function, as well as its global government affairs and public policy group and its global citizenship and sustainability team. Thompson again retired from PepsiCo in December 2014.
Thompson has extensive leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. In 2001, Thompson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy attorney general of the United States. As deputy attorney general, Attorney General John Ashcroft named Thompson in 2002 to lead the Department of Justice’s National Security Coordination Council. Also in 2002, President George W. Bush named Thompson to head the government-wide Corporate Fraud Task Force.
From 1982 to 1986, he served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia where he led major political corruption and drug trafficking prosecutions brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As U.S. attorney, Thompson also led the Southeastern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Thompson has held other significant leadership positions in the public sector. In 1995, he was named independent counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Investigation. In 2000, he was selected by the U.S. Congress to chair the bi-partisan Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control.
In the private sector, in addition to his leadership roles at PepsiCo, Thompson was a partner in the Atlanta law firm of King & Spalding. He was the founding co-chair of the firm’s special matters and government investigations practice.
Thompson has received numerous awards for his professional achievements, including the Edmund Jennings Randolph Award for outstanding contributions to the accomplishment of the Department of Justice’s mission, the Outstanding Litigator Award from the Federal Bar Association and a Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pace University in New York. He has also been recognized by Atlanta’s Gate City Bar Association as a member of its hall of fame.
Thompson is an elected Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. In 2014, Ethisphere magazine recognized him by noting that as “the outgoing General Counsel of one of the world’s most well-recognized corporations [Thompson] has set the bar high for GC’s everywhere. [His] background in both public and private sectors earned him the trust and respect of his peers worldwide as he demonstrated how ethics and integrity are essential components of business success.”
In 2004, Thompson served as a Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Thompson speaks and writes frequently on a number of legal topics. His recent publications include:
● “The Responsible Corporation: Its Historical Roots and Continuing Promise" in 29 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy 199 (2015).
● “In-sourcing Corporate Responsibility for Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" in 51 American Criminal Law Review 199 (2014).
● “Keynote Speech: The Reality of Overcriminalization” in 7 George Mason University Journal of Law, Economics and Policy 577 (2011).
Thompson holds a B.A. from Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, a M.A. from Michigan State University and a law degree from the University of Michigan.
Senior Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP and Executive Chairma, The Chertoff Group
Michael Chertoff concentrates in the area of White Collar Defense and Investigations. In recent years, he has handled a series of federal investigations, including complex criminal and civil regulatory matters. He has advised major clients on SEC and Justice Department investigations and successfully served as the independent monitor of a major national healthcare company under criminal and civil investigation.
In addition to his legal work, Mr. Chertoff is Founder and Chairman of The Chertoff Group, a security and risk management firm, where he provides high-level strategic counsel to corporate and government leaders on a broad range of security issues, from risk identification and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery.
In April of 2012, Mr. Chertoff was elected as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of BAE Systems, Inc. He also sits on the board of directors or board of advisors of a number of companies and nonprofits.
Previously, Mr. Chertoff served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. As Secretary, he led a 218,000 person department with a budget of $50 billion. Mr. Chertoff developed and implemented border security and immigration policy; promulgated homeland security regulations; and spearheaded a national cyber security strategy. He also served periodically on the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet, Mr. Chertoff served from 2003 to 2005 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before becoming a federal judge, Mr. Chertoff was the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In that position, he oversaw the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and formed the Enron Task Force, which produced more than 20 convictions, including those of CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay.
Mr. Chertoff’s career includes more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, including service as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Chertoff investigated and personally prosecuted significant cases of political corruption, organized crime, and corporate fraud.
From 1994-2001, Mr. Chertoff represented major corporations and individuals in numerous white collar investigations and trials. Among other matters, he successfully represented the nation’s largest hospital company in a four year, multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil investigation, represented major corporations in corruption scandals, and obtained acquittals at trial for individual criminal defendants.
Mr. Chertoff has received numerous awards including the Department of Justice Henry E. Petersen Memorial Award (2006); the Department of Justice John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation (1987); NAACP Benjamin L. Hooks Award for Distinguished Service (2007); European Institute Transatlantic Leadership Award (2008); and two honorary doctorates. His trial experiences have been featured in over half a dozen books and many news articles.
Executive Vice President and Strategic Counselor, Blacklake Group
Jim Haynes is Executive Vice President and Strategic Counselor of Blacklake Group (a privately held holding company) and concurrently advises several early and mid-stage privately held emerging technology companies, Nichols Law, and the Torridon Group.
Twice a partner in a major national law firm, Jim also previously served as a corporate executive at four public companies: General Dynamics Corporation (as Staff Vice President and Associate General Counsel from 1996-1999), Chevron Corporation (as Chief Corporate Counsel from 2008-2012); Siga Technologies, Inc. (as EVP & General Counsel from 2012-2016); and CSRA Inc. (as EVP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary from 2016-2018, at the end of which the company was acquired for $9.7B.)
Jim has held two presidentially appointed offices requiring Senate confirmation: General Counsel of the Department of the Army from 1990-1993, and General Counsel of the Department of Defense from 2001-2008. Chief Legal Officer and Designated Agency Ethics Officer of both departments during highly consequential times, Jim also served as Director of the Defense Legal Services Agency from 2001-2008.
Jim earned degrees from Davidson College and Harvard Law School, and holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from Stetson Law School. After a judicial clerkship with Judge James B. McMillan (USDJ, WDNC), Jim served four years on active duty in the U.S. Army. He is the recipient of a significant number of awards and medals from the Departments of Defense, Justice, Army, Navy, and Air Force. Jim holds a patent issued in 2025: https://patents.justia.com/patent/12367458.
For several months in 1999, Jim worked in Almaty, Kazakhstan, volunteering assistance for Mercy Corps International in managing microcredit services across six countries in Central Asia. A former Eagle Scout, Jim served on the Board of Directors of the Greater New York City Councils of the Boy Scouts of America from 2013-2023. He has served as director or advisor on many other boards.
He currently is a director or trustee of three boards: Labrynth (labrynth.ai), the Supreme Court Historical Society, and the William T. Coleman, Jr. Foundation.
Former United States Attorney General
Michael B. Mukasey is the former Attorney General of the United States, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. As Attorney General from November 2007 to January 2009, he oversaw the U.S. Department of Justice and advised on critical issues of domestic and international law.
From 1988 to 2006, Judge Mukasey served as a district judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming Chief Judge in 2000.
From 1972 to 1976, Judge Mukasey served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and as Chief of the Official Corruption Unit from 1975 to 1976. His practice consisted of criminal litigation on behalf of the government, including investigation and prosecution of narcotics, bank robbery, interstate theft, securities fraud, fraud on the government and bribery. From 1976 to 1987 and from 2006 to 2007 he was in private practice.
Judge Mukasey has received numerous honors, including the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Public Access to Information and Proceedings of the New York Bar Association from 1984 to 1987. He served on the Federal Courts Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from 1979 to 1982 and its Communications Law Committee from 1983 to 1986. Judge Mukasey was also a part-time lecturer at Columbia School of Law from January 1993 to May 2007, teaching trial advocacy.
He received his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1967 and his B.A. from Columbia College in 1963.
Senior Counsel, Steptoe & Johnson LLP
John Rizzo is Senior Counsel in Steptoe's Washington office, where he is a member of the National and Homeland Security practice and the firm’s International Department.
Mr. Rizzo provides legal advice and policy counsel to clients on matters related to national security. His work includes advising companies on the business risks related to their international operations; counseling companies involved in international mergers and acquisitions on the foreign investment review process conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States; and advising clients on the legal and policy-related aspects of working with the Intelligence Community.
Prior to joining Steptoe, Mr. Rizzo spent 34 years in the Office of General Counsel at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where he provided legal counsel, policy guidance, and leadership on the most difficult and time sensitive national security issues facing the United States. From 2001 until 2002 and from 2004 to 2009, he served as the Chief Legal Officer at CIA and dealt with the most challenging legal issues in the post 9/11 era. During that time, he was responsible for all legal matters at CIA including national security and international law; administrative and contract law; and criminal and civil litigation. Also during his tenure, he served as the Deputy Director for the Office of Congressional Affairs and was the principal interlocutor with the House and Senate Congressional Committees investigating the Iran-Contra Affair. Early in his career, he was the principal drafter of the CIA regulations for the conduct of intelligence activities in the United States – regulations which remain in effect today.
He was the recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the highest recognition accorded to a career CIA officer. In 1996, he was awarded the Thomas C. Clark Award from the Federal Bar Association as the most outstanding lawyer in government, to date he was the only Intelligence Community attorney to receive the award.
Mr. Rizzo is a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is a frequent speaker and has served as a guest lecturer at a number of law schools around the country.
President, George W. Bush Presidential Center
Margaret Spellings is the president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. She oversees all aspects of Bush Center activities, including leadership of the George W. Bush Institute, management of Bush Center business operations, and collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Previously Spellings was president and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm that provided strategic guidance to philanthropic and private sector organizations. She also served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and was president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Prior to that, Spellings served in a variety of positions in the Bush Administration.
She served as U.S. Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009. In that role, she oversaw an agency with a nearly $70 billion budget and more than 10,000 employees and contractors. As a member of the President’s Cabinet, she led the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a historic national initiative to provide enhanced accountability for the education of 50 million U.S. public school students.
In 2005, Spellings launched a higher education national policy debate and action plan to improve accessibility, affordability and accountability in our Nation’s colleges and universities. Spellings initiated international outreach and collaboration by leading delegations on behalf of the President of the United States as well as overseeing the development and implementation of international education agreements with such countries as China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
As White House Domestic Policy Advisor, from 2001 to 2005, she managed the development of the President’s domestic policy agenda. Her achievements include oversight of the development of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the development of a comprehensive immigration plan to ensure long-term economic stability and to secure U.S. borders, and numerous other initiatives on health and human services, transportation, labor, justice and housing.
Prior to her service in the White House, Spellings was senior advisor to then-Governor George W. Bush of Texas, led governmental and external relations for the Texas Association of School Boards, and has served in key positions at Austin Community College and with the Texas Legislature.
She graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor's degree in political science.
John A. Sibley Professor in Corporate and Business Law, The University of Georgia School of Law
Larry D. Thompson has served on the University of Georgia School of Law’s faculty as the holder of the John A. Sibley Chair of Corporate and Business Law since 2011, noting he was on a leave of absence from June 2012 through 2014. He is presently a member of the Faculty Division of the law school's Dean Rusk International Law Center Council.
Thompson first retired from PepsiCo in May 2011. In June 2012, he rejoined the company as executive vice president, government affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary. His responsibilities included leading PepsiCo’s worldwide legal function, as well as its global government affairs and public policy group and its global citizenship and sustainability team. Thompson again retired from PepsiCo in December 2014.
Thompson has extensive leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. In 2001, Thompson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy attorney general of the United States. As deputy attorney general, Attorney General John Ashcroft named Thompson in 2002 to lead the Department of Justice’s National Security Coordination Council. Also in 2002, President George W. Bush named Thompson to head the government-wide Corporate Fraud Task Force.
From 1982 to 1986, he served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia where he led major political corruption and drug trafficking prosecutions brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As U.S. attorney, Thompson also led the Southeastern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Thompson has held other significant leadership positions in the public sector. In 1995, he was named independent counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Investigation. In 2000, he was selected by the U.S. Congress to chair the bi-partisan Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control.
In the private sector, in addition to his leadership roles at PepsiCo, Thompson was a partner in the Atlanta law firm of King & Spalding. He was the founding co-chair of the firm’s special matters and government investigations practice.
Thompson has received numerous awards for his professional achievements, including the Edmund Jennings Randolph Award for outstanding contributions to the accomplishment of the Department of Justice’s mission, the Outstanding Litigator Award from the Federal Bar Association and a Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pace University in New York. He has also been recognized by Atlanta’s Gate City Bar Association as a member of its hall of fame.
Thompson is an elected Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. In 2014, Ethisphere magazine recognized him by noting that as “the outgoing General Counsel of one of the world’s most well-recognized corporations [Thompson] has set the bar high for GC’s everywhere. [His] background in both public and private sectors earned him the trust and respect of his peers worldwide as he demonstrated how ethics and integrity are essential components of business success.”
In 2004, Thompson served as a Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Thompson speaks and writes frequently on a number of legal topics. His recent publications include:
● “The Responsible Corporation: Its Historical Roots and Continuing Promise" in 29 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy 199 (2015).
● “In-sourcing Corporate Responsibility for Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" in 51 American Criminal Law Review 199 (2014).
● “Keynote Speech: The Reality of Overcriminalization” in 7 George Mason University Journal of Law, Economics and Policy 577 (2011).
Thompson holds a B.A. from Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, a M.A. from Michigan State University and a law degree from the University of Michigan.
Partner, Millbank LLP
Mr. Katyal, the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, focuses on appellate and complex litigation. He has argued 54 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
He has extensive experience in matters of antitrust, corporate, constitutional, securities, technology, criminal, patent, copyright, trademark, ERISA, products liability, labor, employment and tribal law. In the 2022-23 Supreme Court term, he argued five separate cases (nearly 10% of the docket), including winning the landmark voting case Moore v. Harper, which Judge Michael Luttig described as “the most important case for American democracy in the almost two and a half centuries since America’s founding.” Judge Luttig also said Mr. Katyal’s argument “was the single best oral argument I have ever heard made in the Supreme Court of the United States.” His cases include successfully striking down the Guantanamo military tribunals, successfully defending the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act and successfully defending the Peace Cross in Maryland. His 2017 win in Bristol Myers Squibb v. Superior Court was a landmark victory for personal jurisdiction law and his 2006 win in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld was described by former Acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger as “simply the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law ever. Ever.”
From 2010 to 2011, Mr. Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States, where he argued several major Supreme Court cases involving a variety of issues, such as his successful defense of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his victorious defense of former Attorney General John Ashcroft for alleged abuses in the war on terror, his unanimous victory against eight states who sued the nation's leading power plants for contributing to global warming, and a variety of other matters. As Acting Solicitor General, he was responsible for representing the federal government of the United States in all appellate matters before the US Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals throughout the nation. He served as Counsel of Record hundreds of times in the US Supreme Court. He was also the only head of the Solicitor General's office to argue a case in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, on the important question of whether certain aspects of the human genome were patentable.
After graduating from Yale Law School, Mr. Katyal clerked for The Honorable Guido Calabresi of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as well as for The Honorable Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the US Supreme Court. He also served in the Deputy Attorney General's Office at the Justice Department as National Security Advisor and as Special Assistant to the Deputy Attorney General during 1998-1999.
Mr. Katyal is a best-selling New York Times author and has published dozens of scholarly articles in law journals (including several in the Harvard Law Review and Yale Law Journal), as well as many op-ed articles in publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He has testified numerous times before various committees of both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.
Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law (Retired)
Gail Heriot is a recently retired law professor from the University of San Diego. She also served as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2007 to 2025. She is also the chairman of the board of the American Civil Rights Project and the chair emerita of the Civil Rights practice group at the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy.
Professor Heriot is a prolific writer in the area of civil rights. She is the author of many law review articles. She is also the editor (along with Maimon Schwarzschild) of the 2021 anthology, A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education. Her upcoming book is entitled, Why We Walk on Eggshell: How Our Civil Rights Laws Helped Bring About the Woke Era—And the Trump Era, Too.
Her writings for a general audience have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the National Review and many other newspapers and magazines.
In 1996, she co-chaired the successful “Yes on Proposition 209” campaign, which amended the California Constitution to prohibit state-sponsored discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. In 2020, she co-chaired the “No on Proposition 16” campaign, which successfully prevented Proposition 209’s repeal.
Partner, Arnold & Porter
John Elwood is the head of Arnold & Porter’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice. He has argued before the Supreme Court nine times, and appeared before most of the federal courts of appeals. He has successfully argued cases across a broad cross-section of subjects, with particular experience in environmental law, the False Claims Act, government contracting, and federal criminal law
Mr. Elwood’s work has earned him recognition as one of Washington’s top Supreme Court lawyers (Washingtonian, 2013), as one of “a small group of lawyers” with an “outsized influence at the U.S. Supreme Court” (Reuters, 2014), and as one of the country’s most innovative lawyers (Financial Times, 2014). Chambers USA reports that “[t]he much-admired John Elwood is praised for his advocacy skills” (2013), and describes Mr. Elwood as “phenomenal” (2014), “incredibly talented” (2012), and “a much-loved and widely respected lawyer who is quick on his feet” (2010).
Before joining the firm, Mr. Elwood served in senior-level positions in the U.S. Department of Justice. Beginning as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and continuing with the firm, he has briefed more than 20 merits cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, and has briefed approximately 135 cases at the certiorari stage. As the senior Deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel, he advised the White House and federal agencies on a range of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory issues.
Edward Rood Eminent Scholar Chair, Professor of Law, and Senior Fellow, Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Stinneford researches, teaches, and consults about legal ethics, criminal law, criminal procedure, and constitutional law. His work has been cited by the United States Supreme Court, several state supreme courts and federal courts of appeal, and numerous scholars. It has been published in numerous scholarly journals including the Georgetown Law Journal, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the William & Mary Law Review. The Stanford-Yale Junior faculty forum selected one of his articles as the best paper in the category of Constitutional History, and the AALS Criminal Justice Section named another article as the best paper in its Junior Scholars Paper Competition. In the fall of 2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Georgetown Law Center, Center for the Constitution.
John Stinneford was the inaugural Director and serves as a Senior Fellow of the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. The Hamilton Center is a new academic unit whose mission is to promote civic education and civic discourse and to foster intellectual diversity. Its core purpose is to help students develop the knowledge, habits of thought, analytical skills, and character to be citizens and leaders in a free society. It will do so through curriculum, public programming, and (in conjunction with the Florida Department of Education) teacher training. Its curriculum will focus primarily on the Western intellectual tradition and the American founding.
Before joining the Florida faculty in 2009, Stinneford clerked for the Hon. James Moran of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, served as an Assistant United States Attorney, and practiced law with Winston & Strawn in Chicago. Stinneford teaches first-year courses in Criminal Law and Constitutional Law, and upper-level courses in Professional Responsibility, Criminal Procedure, Federal Criminal Law, Law & Literature, and White Collar Crime.
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.
Supreme Court Correspondent, The New York Times
Adam Liptak covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times. Liptak’s column on legal affairs, “Sidebar,” appears every other Tuesday.
A graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, Liptak practiced law at a large New York City law firm and in the legal department of The New York Times Company before joining the paper’s news staff in 2002.
Liptak was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting in 2009 for “American Exception,” a series of articles examining ways in which the American legal system differs from those of other developed nations. He received the 2010 Scripps Howard Award for Washington reporting for a five-part series on the Roberts Court.
He is the author of “To Have and Uphold: The Supreme Court and the Battle for Same-Sex Marriage.”
His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Business Week and Rolling Stone, and he has published articles in The Arizona Law Review, The Michigan Law Review and The New York University Annual Survey of American Law.
Liptak has taught courses at Yale, Columbia, the University of Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Southern California and U.C.L.A. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Founder, Law Office of Eileen J. O'Connor PLLC
After nearly 30 years as a national tax specialist with the IRS and major accounting firms, Eileen J. O’Connor, now an attorney in private practice, was Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division for six years during the administration of President George W. Bush and a member of then-President-elect Trump’s Treasury Department Transition Team. She focuses on federal administrative and tax law.
Distinguished University Chair and Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Michael Stokes Paulsen is Distinguished University Chair & Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas, where he has taught since 2007. Professor Paulsen was previously the McKnight Presidential Professor of Law & Public Policy and Associate Dean at the University of Minnesota Law School, where he taught from 1991-2007. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, Yale Law School, and Yale Divinity School. He has served as a federal prosecutor, as Attorney-Advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, and as counsel for the Center for Law & Religious Freedom.
Paulsen has taught as a visiting professor at Princeton University, Pepperdine University, Georgetown University, Bethel University, Uppsala University (Sweden), Daystar University (Kenya), and University of the Andes (Chile). He has been a guest lecturer at universities around the nation, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Penn, NYU, Georgetown, Virginia, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan, University of Chicago, and Northwestern.
Professor Paulsen is the author of more than ninety scholarly articles and book chapters on a wide variety of constitutional law topics, published in law journals including the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the Northwestern University Law Review. He is the author or co-author of three books, including The Constitution: An Introduction (Basic Books, 2015) (co-authored with Luke Paulsen) and the casebook The Constitution of the United States, now in its fifth edition with Foundation Press, co-authored with Michael McConnell, Samuel Bray, and Will Baude.
Chair, Global Antitrust Law Practice Group, Morrison Foerster
Alex Okuliar is Co-Chair of Morrison Foerster’s Global Antitrust Law Practice Group. He is the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Antitrust Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Justice and a former advisor at the Federal Trade Commission.
Alex’s practice spans merger review, civil litigation, and criminal investigations. Over his twenty-five-year career, Alex has worked on nearly one thousand deals. He has deep experience guiding clients through the complex global merger clearance process and has litigated agency merger challenges through trial. He has also helped clients succeed in a wide range of federal and state cases, including class actions and private party disputes alleging price fixing, monopolization, group boycotts, market allocation, and tying. His understanding of the agency processes from the inside allows him to offer expert, timely, and practical advice to clients navigating merger and conduct investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, state Attorneys General, and foreign agencies. Alex’s work has been recognized by leading industry publications such as Chambers, The Legal 500 U.S., and Global Competition Review.
Outside of client work, Alex is a prolific thought leader and was recognized as a 2024 Top Author for Antitrust & Trade Regulation by JD Supra’s Readers’ Choice Awards. He currently serves as the co-chair of the ABA Antitrust Law Section’s Joint Conduct Committee and is the former chair of the Section’s Intellectual Property Committee and co-chair of the 2023 Antitrust Fall Forum on Artificial Intelligence. He is also a member of the Corporations, Securities & Antitrust Executive Committee of The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Before law school, Alex co-founded and sold an online technology company. Alex received his B.S. in economics and B.A. with distinction in history from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School.
Partner, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.
After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.
In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.
To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.
Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.
Nonresident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Ajit Pai, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on issues pertaining to technology and innovation, telecommunications regulatory policy, and market-based incentives for investment in broadband deployment. Concurrently, he is a partner at Searchlight Capital Partners, a global investment firm.
Mr. Pai’s distinguished career at the FCC includes two leadership roles following presidential appointments. He was appointed commissioner by President Barack Obama in 2012, designated chairman by President Donald Trump in 2017, and twice confirmed by the US Senate. While at the helm of the FCC, Mr. Pai had a transformative impact on the future of US technology and communications policy, implementing major initiatives to help close the digital divide; advance US leadership in 5G and other wireless technologies; promote innovation; protect consumers, public safety, and national security; and make the agency itself more open, transparent, and data-driven.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Pai served in various public-sector positions in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel, the US Department of Justice, the US Senate Judiciary Committee, and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He also worked as a partner at Jenner & Block and associate general counsel at Verizon Communications.
Mr. Pai graduated with honors from Harvard University, where he received a bachelor’s degree, and from the University of Chicago Law School, where he received a law degree and was an editor on the University of Chicago Law Review.
Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Constitutional Law Center, Stanford Law School
Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 2002 to 2009, he served as a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican, and confirmed by a Democratic Senate by unanimous consent. McConnell has previously held chaired professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, and visiting professorships at Harvard and NYU. He teaches courses on constitutional law, constitutional history, First Amendment, and interpretive theory. He has published widely in the fields of constitutional law and theory, especially church and state, equal protection, and separation of powers. His book, “The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution,” was published by Princeton University Press in 2020, based on the Tanner Lectures in Human Values, which he delivered at Princeton in 2019. His latest book, co-authored with Nathan Chapman, “Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience,” was published by Oxford University Press in mid-2023. McConnell has argued sixteen cases in the United States Supreme Court, most recently Carney v. Adams (2020). defending a provision of the Delaware Constitution requiring political balance on that state’s courts. More recently, he was co-counsel in Gonzalez v. Google. He earned his B.A. from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago, and has received honorary degrees from Notre Dame University and Michigan State. He served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and D.C. Circuit Chief Judge J. Skelly Wright. He has been Assistant General Counsel of the Office of Management & Budget, Assistant to the Solicitor General of the Department of Justice, and a member of the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board. He is Senior of Counsel to the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, and is co-chair of Meta’s Oversight Review Board.
Interview: The 2008 Financial Crisis
Keith Hennessey, Marc Kesselman, William Peterson
2015 Texas Chapters Conference
On September 19, 2015, The Federalist Society hosted the 2015 Texas Chapters Conference at the George...
Interview: The 2008 Financial Crisis
Keith Hennessey, Marc Kesselman, William Peterson
2015 Texas Chapters Conference
On September 19, 2015, The Federalist Society hosted the 2015 Texas Chapters Conference at the George...
Welcome & Panel I: The War on Terror
Michael Chertoff, William J. Haynes, Michael B. Mukasey, John Rizzo, Margaret Spellings, Larry D. Thompson
2015 Texas Chapters Conference
On September 19, 2015, The Federalist Society hosted the 2015 Texas Chapters Conference at the George...
Welcome & Panel I: The War on Terror
Michael Chertoff, William J. Haynes, Michael B. Mukasey, John Rizzo, Margaret Spellings, Larry D. Thompson
2015 Texas Chapters Conference
On September 19, 2015, The Federalist Society hosted the 2015 Texas Chapters Conference at the George...
Supreme Court Preview: What Is in Store for October Term 2015? - Audio/Video
Neal K. Katyal, Gail L. Heriot, John P. Elwood, John F. Stinneford, Edward Whelan, Adam Liptak
Co-Sponsored by the Faculty Division and the Practice Groups
October 5th will mark the first day of the 2015 Supreme Court term. Thus far,...
Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell
Eileen J. O'Connor
Short Video on Little Sisters of the Poor and the Contraceptive Mandate
The Honorable Eileen J. O’Connor, partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, explains the impact...
The Constitution: An Introduction
Michael Stokes Paulsen, Luke Paulsen
Short Video about the Constitution
Constitutional scholar Michael Stokes Paulsen and his son, Luke Paulsen, discuss the project of their...
Tale of Two Agencies – Overlapping Jurisdiction of the FCC and FTC - Audio/Video
Alexander P. Okuliar, Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Ajit V. Pai
Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group
With the adoption of the Open Internet Order, the Federal Communications Commission has potentially waded...
What DON’T you know about Alexander Hamilton?
Michael W. McConnell
Short video on Alexander Hamilton
Stanford Law School Professor Michael McConnell discusses some of the surprising facts you might not...
Art at the Federalist Society
Daniel Mahdavian
The Federalist Society celebrates the richness of the American constitutional system with artwork that showcases...