Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale College, summa cum laude, in 1980 and from Yale Law School in 1984, and clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, Amar joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26. He is Yale’s only living professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown — the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service.
Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than 50 cases — tops among scholars under age 70. According to both Fred Shapiro’s landmark 2021 study of lifetime scholarly citations and Heinonline’s most recent tabulation of lifetime law-review citations, Amar is America’s second most-cited legal scholar still under age 70. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has written widely for popular publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Atlantic. He was an informal consultant to the popular TV show The West Wing and his scholarship has been showcased on many broadcasts, including The Colbert Report, Morning Joe, AC360, Velshi, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Erin Burnett Outfront, and Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.
He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several books, including The Bill of Rights (1998 — winner of the Yale University Press Governors’ Award), America’s Constitution (2005 — winner of the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award), America’s Unwritten Constitution (2012 — named one of the year’s 100 best nonfiction books by The Washington Post), and The Constitution Today (2016 — named one of the year’s top ten nonfiction books by Time magazine). The first volume of his ambitious trilogy on American constitutional history from the Founding to the present, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, came out in May 2021. The second volume, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920, will be published in September 2025 and is already available for pre-order. All together, his nonfiction books have won two starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and three starred reviews from Kirkus—tops, it is believed, among legal scholars under age 70. Together with Vikram David Amar (YLS ’88), he has a bi-weekly column on the Supreme Court on the distinguished website SCOTUSblog. Along with Andy Lipka, he co-hosts a popular and free weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution, whose listeners are eligible for CLE credit in most American jurisdictions. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds and video links to many of his public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com.
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.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
William H. Pryor Jr. serves as Chief Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In 2013–18, he served on the United States Sentencing Commission and, in 2017–18, served as Acting Chair.
He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and previously taught as an adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University.
He served as the 45th Attorney General of Alabama from 1997 to 2004. When he took office, he was the youngest attorney general in the nation. In his reelection, he received the highest percentage of votes of any statewide candidate.
He graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School where he finished first in the common-law curriculum and was editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review. He then served as a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
He is a member of The American Law Institute and an Adviser for the RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW THIRD, CONFLICT OF LAWS. He is a coauthor with Bryan Garner, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and several other judges of a treatise, THE LAW OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Yale Law & Policy Review, George Mason Law Review, Florida Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, and Tulane Law Review. He has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Review, and USA Today. He has debated at National Lawyers’ Conventions of the Federalist Society (including on National Public Radio) and at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. And he is listed among several “widely admired judicial writers” in Bryan Garner’s The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.
He is a member of the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame and has received the Defender of the Constitution Award from the Heritage Foundation, the Jurist of the Year Award from the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and the St. Thomas More Award from the St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta. Judge Pryor is also a proud member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale College, summa cum laude, in 1980 and from Yale Law School in 1984, and clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, Amar joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26. He is Yale’s only living professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown — the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service.
Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than 50 cases — tops among scholars under age 70. According to both Fred Shapiro’s landmark 2021 study of lifetime scholarly citations and Heinonline’s most recent tabulation of lifetime law-review citations, Amar is America’s second most-cited legal scholar still under age 70. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has written widely for popular publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Atlantic. He was an informal consultant to the popular TV show The West Wing and his scholarship has been showcased on many broadcasts, including The Colbert Report, Morning Joe, AC360, Velshi, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Erin Burnett Outfront, and Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.
He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several books, including The Bill of Rights (1998 — winner of the Yale University Press Governors’ Award), America’s Constitution (2005 — winner of the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award), America’s Unwritten Constitution (2012 — named one of the year’s 100 best nonfiction books by The Washington Post), and The Constitution Today (2016 — named one of the year’s top ten nonfiction books by Time magazine). The first volume of his ambitious trilogy on American constitutional history from the Founding to the present, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, came out in May 2021. The second volume, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920, will be published in September 2025 and is already available for pre-order. All together, his nonfiction books have won two starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and three starred reviews from Kirkus—tops, it is believed, among legal scholars under age 70. Together with Vikram David Amar (YLS ’88), he has a bi-weekly column on the Supreme Court on the distinguished website SCOTUSblog. Along with Andy Lipka, he co-hosts a popular and free weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution, whose listeners are eligible for CLE credit in most American jurisdictions. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds and video links to many of his public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com.
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.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
William H. Pryor Jr. serves as Chief Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In 2013–18, he served on the United States Sentencing Commission and, in 2017–18, served as Acting Chair.
He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and previously taught as an adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University.
He served as the 45th Attorney General of Alabama from 1997 to 2004. When he took office, he was the youngest attorney general in the nation. In his reelection, he received the highest percentage of votes of any statewide candidate.
He graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School where he finished first in the common-law curriculum and was editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review. He then served as a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
He is a member of The American Law Institute and an Adviser for the RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW THIRD, CONFLICT OF LAWS. He is a coauthor with Bryan Garner, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and several other judges of a treatise, THE LAW OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Yale Law & Policy Review, George Mason Law Review, Florida Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, and Tulane Law Review. He has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Review, and USA Today. He has debated at National Lawyers’ Conventions of the Federalist Society (including on National Public Radio) and at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. And he is listed among several “widely admired judicial writers” in Bryan Garner’s The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.
He is a member of the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame and has received the Defender of the Constitution Award from the Heritage Foundation, the Jurist of the Year Award from the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and the St. Thomas More Award from the St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta. Judge Pryor is also a proud member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Former Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court
Scott Bales served on the Arizona Supreme Court for fourteen years, including as Chief Justice from July 2014 until July 2019. After retiring from the Court, he was the Executive Director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver through July 2020. He now consults on appellate matters and internal investigations and serves as a neutral.
He is the immediate past Chair of the Council of the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and serves on the Council of the American Law Institute and the Board of Trustees for the National Conference of Bar Examiners. He previously chaired the Appellate Judges Conference of the ABA’s Judicial Division. Justice Bales has often taught courses at the law schools at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.
Before his appointment to the Court, he had practiced law in Arizona for nearly 20 years as a private and public lawyer. He was a partner in Phoenix firms that later became Osborn Maledon P.A. and Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie. He also served as Arizona’s Solicitor General from 1999-2001 and as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Policy Development from 1998-1999, a Special Investigative Counsel for the Justice Department’s Inspector General from 1995-97, and as a federal prosecutor.
He clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Joseph T. Sneed III on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. After graduating from Michigan State University with degrees in history and economics, he received a master’s degree in economics and his law degree from Harvard.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
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.
Oppenheim Professor Emeritus of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law, George Washington University Law School
Thomas D. Morgan is Oppenheim Professor of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law Emeritus at George Washington University. He was Dean of the Emory University School of Law and on the faculties of the University of Illinois and Brigham Young University. He is co-author of Problems and Materials on Professional Responsibility (14th Ed. 2022), with Professors Mitt Regan and John Dzienkowski. Professor Morgan served as an Associate Reporter for both the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law (Third): The Law Governing Lawyers and the American Bar Association’s Ethics 2000 Commission. He is an Executive Committee member of the Federalist Society’s Professional Responsibility and Legal Education Practice Group and a member of the ABA Business Law Section’s Professional Responsibility committee. His book, “The Vanishing American Lawyer” (2010), was published by Oxford University Press.
Shareholder, Webber & Thies PC
Mr. Thies has litigated complex commercial disputes and defended class actions throughout the state of Illinois, and in federal courts across the country, including the First, Second, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits. He has represented clients in numerous trials and arbitrations, including serving as part of a trial team winning a $64 million judgment after a jury verdict in the Northern District of New York.
Prior to joining Webber & Thies, Mr. Thies was an associate at Sidley Austin LLP (2013-2018) and clerked for Chief Judge James F. Holderman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (2011-2013) and for Judge Jerry Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (2010-2011).
Former Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court
Scott Bales served on the Arizona Supreme Court for fourteen years, including as Chief Justice from July 2014 until July 2019. After retiring from the Court, he was the Executive Director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver through July 2020. He now consults on appellate matters and internal investigations and serves as a neutral.
He is the immediate past Chair of the Council of the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and serves on the Council of the American Law Institute and the Board of Trustees for the National Conference of Bar Examiners. He previously chaired the Appellate Judges Conference of the ABA’s Judicial Division. Justice Bales has often taught courses at the law schools at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.
Before his appointment to the Court, he had practiced law in Arizona for nearly 20 years as a private and public lawyer. He was a partner in Phoenix firms that later became Osborn Maledon P.A. and Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie. He also served as Arizona’s Solicitor General from 1999-2001 and as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Policy Development from 1998-1999, a Special Investigative Counsel for the Justice Department’s Inspector General from 1995-97, and as a federal prosecutor.
He clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Joseph T. Sneed III on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. After graduating from Michigan State University with degrees in history and economics, he received a master’s degree in economics and his law degree from Harvard.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
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.
Oppenheim Professor Emeritus of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law, George Washington University Law School
Thomas D. Morgan is Oppenheim Professor of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law Emeritus at George Washington University. He was Dean of the Emory University School of Law and on the faculties of the University of Illinois and Brigham Young University. He is co-author of Problems and Materials on Professional Responsibility (14th Ed. 2022), with Professors Mitt Regan and John Dzienkowski. Professor Morgan served as an Associate Reporter for both the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law (Third): The Law Governing Lawyers and the American Bar Association’s Ethics 2000 Commission. He is an Executive Committee member of the Federalist Society’s Professional Responsibility and Legal Education Practice Group and a member of the ABA Business Law Section’s Professional Responsibility committee. His book, “The Vanishing American Lawyer” (2010), was published by Oxford University Press.
Shareholder, Webber & Thies PC
Mr. Thies has litigated complex commercial disputes and defended class actions throughout the state of Illinois, and in federal courts across the country, including the First, Second, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits. He has represented clients in numerous trials and arbitrations, including serving as part of a trial team winning a $64 million judgment after a jury verdict in the Northern District of New York.
Prior to joining Webber & Thies, Mr. Thies was an associate at Sidley Austin LLP (2013-2018) and clerked for Chief Judge James F. Holderman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (2011-2013) and for Judge Jerry Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (2010-2011).
Managing Partner, West Loop Ventures
Timing is everything, and no one knows this better than a trader. Jeff traded his own money at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and was on its board. In the mid-nineties, he was part of a group of equity owners that saw a huge opportunity and remade the entire exchange. When he joined the CME Board, it was worth less than $200 million and had less than $20 million in the bank. CME was the first exchange to demutualize, and the first to go public in November of 2002. Today it is a $55B company and the largest exchange in the world. In April of 2007, he used his market intuition and network to help found Hyde Park Angels. HPA is one of the most active angel groups in the United States. Jeff actively recruited like minded investors dedicated to fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout the Midwest. In 2017, He was an advisor to the G7 on the future of work, artificial intelligence and big data.
MBA Chicago Booth (2006)
BS Gies College of Business University of Illinois
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
Patrick Daugherty is a senior corporate and securities law partner of Foley & Lardner LLP, based in Chicago. He also is an adjunct professor of Cornell Law School, where he teaches in residence each Fall Term.
Mr. Daugherty is a member of the Bar in New York, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Michigan and Illinois. Credentialing organizations have named him “Lawyer of the Year” in both Michigan (2007) and Illinois (2022). A graduate of Northwestern University and of Cornell Law School (Class of 1981), he clerked for SDNY Chief Judge Lloyd F. MacMahon for a year before entering private practice. Mr. Daugherty also served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Edward H. Fleischman in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1989. An Emeritus Member of the American Law Institute, he is the author, co-author or editor of several books and many articles on securities regulation and new financial products.
Mr. Daugherty believes that he was the first lawyer inside the SEC to join the Federalist Society when he became a member in the late 1980s. A mainstay of the Chicago Lawyers Chapter, at the national level of the Society he serves on the Executive Committee for the Financial Services & E-Commerce Practice Group.
Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Clients trust Dan’s experience to help mitigate risks in the face of investigations and enforcement actions and to assess rules issued by financial agencies. From futures commission merchants to swap dealers to derivatives clearing organizations, he is well-positioned to advise on potential enforcement priorities, staff relief and exemptive orders, and submit comments on proposed financial agency rules. Dan has particular experience in handling fraud-related allegations under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and can help clients develop compliance practices for meeting regulatory requirements. He also has successfully challenged rulemakings by financial agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) first rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act regarding proxy access and the SEC’s attempt to regulate fixed indexed annuities.
In Dan’s role at the CFTC, he assisted with the creation and development of LabCFTC, the agency’s hub for engagement with the fintech community to promote innovation and fair competition. He is highly experienced with helping crypto exchanges, bank and other fintech entities in working with distributed ledger technologies. He also provides counsel on meeting regulatory requirements when bringing new products to market. Dan had a distinguished career at the CFTC, receiving the Chairman’s Award for Excellence in 2019. This award is the CFTC’s highest honor, given to one employee annually in recognition of extraordinary accomplishments and superior service dedicated to realizing the vision, mission and values of the CFTC.
Dan has the full range of litigation experience, having practiced in federal and state court, defending clients in arbitration and jury trial, and arguing ten cases before the federal courts of appeals. He excels at crisis litigation, having successfully obtained a rarely granted writ of mandamus on behalf of the CFTC. Dan uses his extensive litigation experience to advise clients on both litigation and regulatory matters.
Previously, Dan served as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division for the US Department of Justice. He also clerked for the Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg, Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. While in law school, Dan served as Executive Editor of The University of Chicago Law Review.
Chief Executive Officer, Typhon Capital Management, LLC
Mr. Koutoulas is the head of Typhon Capital Management, a NFA-registered Commodity Trading Advisor and Commodity Pool Operator. Typhon manages several CTA strategies, each isolated to a single asset class so that investors may select specific niche exposures that best suit their portfolios. Typhon also offers customized multi-strategy programs that are available either via cross-margined managed accounts, or in custom fund structures.
James has a broad background across the hedge fund industry, including alternative investment analysis, risk management, corporate finance, securities law, IT/software development, and marketing honed through his experience managing eight startups. He has supervised the trading of several alternative investment strategies, served as the COO and chief analyst of a boutique fund of funds provider, was the head of operations and software development at a market and operational risk firm, and ran an IT and management consulting company with national operations.
James earned his law degree from Northwestern Law where he specialized in securities law. He also has a degree in Finance from the University of Florida, where he was a National Merit Scholar and AP National Scholar.
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.
Managing Partner, West Loop Ventures
Timing is everything, and no one knows this better than a trader. Jeff traded his own money at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and was on its board. In the mid-nineties, he was part of a group of equity owners that saw a huge opportunity and remade the entire exchange. When he joined the CME Board, it was worth less than $200 million and had less than $20 million in the bank. CME was the first exchange to demutualize, and the first to go public in November of 2002. Today it is a $55B company and the largest exchange in the world. In April of 2007, he used his market intuition and network to help found Hyde Park Angels. HPA is one of the most active angel groups in the United States. Jeff actively recruited like minded investors dedicated to fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem throughout the Midwest. In 2017, He was an advisor to the G7 on the future of work, artificial intelligence and big data.
MBA Chicago Booth (2006)
BS Gies College of Business University of Illinois
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
Patrick Daugherty is a senior corporate and securities law partner of Foley & Lardner LLP, based in Chicago. He also is an adjunct professor of Cornell Law School, where he teaches in residence each Fall Term.
Mr. Daugherty is a member of the Bar in New York, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Michigan and Illinois. Credentialing organizations have named him “Lawyer of the Year” in both Michigan (2007) and Illinois (2022). A graduate of Northwestern University and of Cornell Law School (Class of 1981), he clerked for SDNY Chief Judge Lloyd F. MacMahon for a year before entering private practice. Mr. Daugherty also served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Edward H. Fleischman in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1989. An Emeritus Member of the American Law Institute, he is the author, co-author or editor of several books and many articles on securities regulation and new financial products.
Mr. Daugherty believes that he was the first lawyer inside the SEC to join the Federalist Society when he became a member in the late 1980s. A mainstay of the Chicago Lawyers Chapter, at the national level of the Society he serves on the Executive Committee for the Financial Services & E-Commerce Practice Group.
Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Clients trust Dan’s experience to help mitigate risks in the face of investigations and enforcement actions and to assess rules issued by financial agencies. From futures commission merchants to swap dealers to derivatives clearing organizations, he is well-positioned to advise on potential enforcement priorities, staff relief and exemptive orders, and submit comments on proposed financial agency rules. Dan has particular experience in handling fraud-related allegations under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and can help clients develop compliance practices for meeting regulatory requirements. He also has successfully challenged rulemakings by financial agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) first rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act regarding proxy access and the SEC’s attempt to regulate fixed indexed annuities.
In Dan’s role at the CFTC, he assisted with the creation and development of LabCFTC, the agency’s hub for engagement with the fintech community to promote innovation and fair competition. He is highly experienced with helping crypto exchanges, bank and other fintech entities in working with distributed ledger technologies. He also provides counsel on meeting regulatory requirements when bringing new products to market. Dan had a distinguished career at the CFTC, receiving the Chairman’s Award for Excellence in 2019. This award is the CFTC’s highest honor, given to one employee annually in recognition of extraordinary accomplishments and superior service dedicated to realizing the vision, mission and values of the CFTC.
Dan has the full range of litigation experience, having practiced in federal and state court, defending clients in arbitration and jury trial, and arguing ten cases before the federal courts of appeals. He excels at crisis litigation, having successfully obtained a rarely granted writ of mandamus on behalf of the CFTC. Dan uses his extensive litigation experience to advise clients on both litigation and regulatory matters.
Previously, Dan served as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division for the US Department of Justice. He also clerked for the Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg, Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. While in law school, Dan served as Executive Editor of The University of Chicago Law Review.
Chief Executive Officer, Typhon Capital Management, LLC
Mr. Koutoulas is the head of Typhon Capital Management, a NFA-registered Commodity Trading Advisor and Commodity Pool Operator. Typhon manages several CTA strategies, each isolated to a single asset class so that investors may select specific niche exposures that best suit their portfolios. Typhon also offers customized multi-strategy programs that are available either via cross-margined managed accounts, or in custom fund structures.
James has a broad background across the hedge fund industry, including alternative investment analysis, risk management, corporate finance, securities law, IT/software development, and marketing honed through his experience managing eight startups. He has supervised the trading of several alternative investment strategies, served as the COO and chief analyst of a boutique fund of funds provider, was the head of operations and software development at a market and operational risk firm, and ran an IT and management consulting company with national operations.
James earned his law degree from Northwestern Law where he specialized in securities law. He also has a degree in Finance from the University of Florida, where he was a National Merit Scholar and AP National Scholar.
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.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Stephanos Bibas is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Bibas was previously a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As director of the Penn Law Supreme Court Clinic, he argued six cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and filed briefs in dozens of others. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1989 with a B.A. in political theory and from Oxford University in 1991 with a B.A. in jurisprudence. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1994.
After graduating from Yale Law, Judge Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court and was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, Judge Bibas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted the world’s leading expert in Tiffany stained glass for hiring a grave robber to steal priceless Tiffany windows from cemeteries. Before his tenure at Penn Law, Judge Bibas taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Iowa College of Law and was a research fellow at Yale Law School. He has published two books and seventy scholarly articles.
Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Middle East and International Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
Professor of Law Eugene Kontorovich is one of the world’s preeminent experts on universal jurisdiction and maritime piracy, as well as international law and the Israel-Arab conflict. He is also the Director of Scalia Law School's Center for the Middle East and International Law. Professor Kontorovich joined the Scalia Law School from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law where he was a Professor of Law from 2011 to 2018 and an Associate Professor from 2007 to 2011. Previously, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago from 2005 to 2007 and an Assistant Professor at George Mason School of Law from 2003 to 2007.
Professor Kontorovich has published over thirty major scholarly articles and book chapters in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed journals in the United States and Europe, including the American Journal of International Law, International Review of Law & Economics, Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Virginia Law Review. His scholarship has been cited in leading foreign relations and international law
His expertise is often sought out and quoted by major news organizations such the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR News, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and numerous television and radio programs. Prof. Kontorovich’s popular writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, POLITICO, Commentary, Haaretz, and numerous other leading publications. He is also a regular contributor to the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy legal blog.
He attended the University of Chicago for college and law school. After law school, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He has been honored with a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, in 2011-12, and with the Federalist Society’s prestigious Bator Award, given annually to a young scholar (under 40), for outstanding scholarship and teaching.
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.
Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Michael D. Ramsey is Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and International Law. He is the author of The Constitution’s Text in Foreign Affairs (Harvard University Press), co-editor of International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change (Cambridge University Press), and co-author of two casebooks, Transnational Law and Practice (2d ed., Aspen) and International Business Transactions: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook (14th ed., West). His scholarly articles have appeared in publications such as the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal and the American Journal of International Law. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and his J.D. summa cum laude from Stanford Law School. Prior to teaching, he served as a judicial clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, and practiced law with the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he specialized in international finance and investment. He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Political Science and at the University of Paris – Sorbonne, in the Department of Comparative Law.
Andrea Mitchell University Professor in Law, Political Science and Business Ethics, Penn Law
Simmons is best known for her research on international political economy during the interwar years, policy diffusion globally, and her work demonstrating the influence that international law has on human rights outcomes around the world. Two of her books, Who Adjusts? Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policy During the Interwar Years (1994) and Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (2009) won the American Political Science Association’s Woodrow Wilson Award for the best book published in the United States on government, politics, or international affairs. The latter was also recognized by the American Society for International Law, the International Social Science Council and the International Studies Association as the best book of the year in 2010. She is currently conducting research in three areas: global performance assessments as informal governance mechanisms in international affairs; international border crossings, and especially evidence of their “thickening” in recent decades in many parts of the world; and international and transnational crime. Simmons has spent a year working at the International Monetary Fund, directed the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard, is a past president of the International Studies Association, and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Randy Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He has argued before the United States Supreme Court, tried murder cases to juries as a prosecutor in Chicago, and appeared as a prosecutor in the feature film Inalienable. He is the author of numerous books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution, The Structure of Liberty, Our Republican Constitution, and The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. He has published two memoirs, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist, and Felony Review: Tales of True Crime and Corruption in Chicago. He is currently working on a new book, Freedom and Flourishing: Libertarianism for the Real World.
Cary Fields Professor of Law; Co-Director, Center for Law and Religion, St. John's University School of Law
Professor DeGirolami has research interests in law and religion, freedom of speech, constitutional law, tort law, and criminal law. His book, The Tragedy of Religious Freedom, was published by Harvard University Press in 2013. His papers have been or will be published in various law journals including Notre Dame Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Stanford Law and Policy Review, Constitutional Commentary, Legal Theory, Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Boston College Law Review, San Diego Law Review, Alabama Law Review, and St. John's Law Review, among others. He has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, First Things, Commonweal, and The Library of Law and Liberty. He is the Cary Fields Professor of Law and the Co-director of the Center for Law and Religion.
Following law school, Professor DeGirolami clerked for Judge William E.Smith of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and Judge Jerome Farris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His professional experience includes service as an Assistant District Attorney in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to joining the St. John's faculty, he was an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School, and Visiting Assistant Professor and Scholar in Residence at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law. He was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University in 2019, in the Department of Politics’ James Madison Program. He was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University in 2019, in the Department of Politics' James Madison Program, and a Visiting Professor at Notre Dame Law School in Spring 2020.
At St. John's, he teaches or has taught Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Criminal Law, courses in Law and Religion, Professional Responsibility, and Torts.
Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Joshua Kleinfeld teaches and writes about political, legal, and moral philosophy, criminal law, and criminal procedure. He also practices law in Northwestern's Juvenile Criminal Defense Clinic. He is a full professor with tenure at the Northwestern Pritzker School of the Law and (by courtesy) in Northwestern’s philosophy department. In 2017-18, he was a visiting professor at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools. He is the recipient of the Bator Award, given annually to one American law professor under the age of 40 who has demonstrated "excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact."
In philosophy, Kleinfeld's research focuses on the idea of "embodied ethical life," as developed in the socio-theoretic tradition of Hegel, Weber, and Durkheim. This tradition aims to understand and critique social life by bringing to light the normative ideas implicit in social practices and institutions. In law, this means that the most interesting philosophical concepts are often those reflected or actualized in legal practice – in the law as judges and lawyers think of it and wield it.
In criminal law and procedure, Kleinfeld has developed a theory known as "reconstructivism," which holds that the chief office of criminal law is not to dole out retributive justice, nor to optimize crime and cost control, but to reconstruct a violated normative order in the wake of a crime. This work, which draws on the thought of Hegel, Durkheim, Jean Hampton, and Antony Duff, develops an alternative to retributive and utilitarian theories of criminal law by focusing on the distinctive social function and sense of justice at work in the criminal system.
Kleinfeld is also involved in practical criminal justice reform. In this vein, he defends children accused of homicide in the Northwestern Juvenile Criminal Defense clinic and assists in litigation efforts meant to reform American criminal law through the courts. He has also developed a view of criminal justice reform known as "democratization," which holds that the root of the American criminal justice crisis is a set of bureaucratic attitudes, structures, and incentives divorced from the American public’s concerns and sense of justice, and that the primary solution is to make criminal justice more community-focused and responsive to lay influences. Working with others, he has developed a number of policy proposals meant to reform American criminal justice in a democratic direction.
Kleinfeld holds a JD from Yale Law School, a PhD in philosophy from the Goethe University of Frankfurt (supervised by Axel Honneth, Klaus Günther, and Rainer Forst), and a BA in philosophy from Yale College. He clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; Judge Janice Rogers Brown on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; and President (chief justice) Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel. He worked as an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in Frankfurt, Germany, in the area of corporate criminal law. Before law school, he worked as a Senior Research Analyst at the White House’s Council on Bioethics.
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.
Associate Professor of Government; Pre-Law Advisor, Patrick Henry College
Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
Professor Mulligan teaches Internet law, intellectual property law, and trusts & estates. Her research addresses efforts to adapt intellectual property law for the digital age, the relationship between law and technology, and theories of constitutional interpretation. Recently, she has written about the Internet of Things, robot punishment, and early translations of the Constitution.
While at Brooklyn, Professor Mulligan researched as a visiting scholar at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and taught as a visiting associate professor at Yale Law School. Previously, she taught at the University of Georgia and was a postdoctoral associate and lecturer in law at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Her scholarship has been published in a variety of journals and law reviews, including Georgia Law Review, SMU Law Review, and Constitutional Commentary.
Professor Mulligan earned her bachelor’s degree cum laude and her law degree cum laude from Harvard University, where she worked as a production and article editor for the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology. Before entering academia, she served as a law clerk for Judge Charles F. Lettow of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Randy Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He has argued before the United States Supreme Court, tried murder cases to juries as a prosecutor in Chicago, and appeared as a prosecutor in the feature film Inalienable. He is the author of numerous books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution, The Structure of Liberty, Our Republican Constitution, and The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. He has published two memoirs, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist, and Felony Review: Tales of True Crime and Corruption in Chicago. He is currently working on a new book, Freedom and Flourishing: Libertarianism for the Real World.
Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Randall Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Race, Crime, and the Law, Mr Kennedy writes for a wide range of scholarly and general interest publications. His other books are For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law (2013), The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency (2011), Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal (2008), Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption (2003), and Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (2002). A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy is also a Trustee emeritus of Princeton University.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Kenneth Kiyul Lee is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He was appointed in June 2019 and is based in San Diego, California.
Prior to his appointment, he was a partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block in Los Angeles. Judge Lee previously served as an Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush and as Special Counsel to Senator Arlen Specter, then-chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He started his legal career at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York.
Judge Lee received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, and his A.B. from Cornell University, summa cum laude. He clerked for Judge Emilio M. Garza of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
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.
John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School; Former President, American Civil Liberties Union
Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Professor Emerita and Senior Fellow at FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), was national President of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008. An internationally acclaimed free speech scholar and advocate, who regularly addresses diverse audiences and provides media commentary around the world, Strossen is also the Host and Project Consultant for Free To Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series distributed on public television in 2023. Her books about free speech include: Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know® (Oxford University Press 2023); HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (Oxford University Press 2018); and Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights (Scribner 1995), which was republished with a new Preface in 2024 as part of the NYU Classics Series. Her many honors and awards include the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech. She serves on the Advisory Boards of several organizations that do free speech work, including: ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin.
Former President & CEO, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Eugene B. Meyer, former President and CEO of the Federalist Society, has served as Executive Director, CEO, and/or President of the organization for more than 40 years. He is responsible for shepherding the organization from a small group of law students to a community of 90,000 lawyers, law students, academics, judges, and others interested in the rule of law. The Society now includes a Student Chapter at nearly every ABA-accredited law school in the country and Lawyers Chapters in 220 major cities across the nation. Gene earned his B.A. in history at Yale in 1975 and his M.A. in political science from the London School of Economics in 1976. Gene currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Chess Center, the Holman Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the advisory board of the Adam Smith Society. He holds the title of International Chess Master.
Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Randy Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He has argued before the United States Supreme Court, tried murder cases to juries as a prosecutor in Chicago, and appeared as a prosecutor in the feature film Inalienable. He is the author of numerous books, including Restoring the Lost Constitution, The Structure of Liberty, Our Republican Constitution, and The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. He has published two memoirs, A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist, and Felony Review: Tales of True Crime and Corruption in Chicago. He is currently working on a new book, Freedom and Flourishing: Libertarianism for the Real World.
Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Randall Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Race, Crime, and the Law, Mr Kennedy writes for a wide range of scholarly and general interest publications. His other books are For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law (2013), The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency (2011), Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal (2008), Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption (2003), and Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (2002). A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy is also a Trustee emeritus of Princeton University.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Kenneth Kiyul Lee is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He was appointed in June 2019 and is based in San Diego, California.
Prior to his appointment, he was a partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block in Los Angeles. Judge Lee previously served as an Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush and as Special Counsel to Senator Arlen Specter, then-chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He started his legal career at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York.
Judge Lee received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, and his A.B. from Cornell University, summa cum laude. He clerked for Judge Emilio M. Garza of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
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.
Former President & CEO, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Eugene B. Meyer, former President and CEO of the Federalist Society, has served as Executive Director, CEO, and/or President of the organization for more than 40 years. He is responsible for shepherding the organization from a small group of law students to a community of 90,000 lawyers, law students, academics, judges, and others interested in the rule of law. The Society now includes a Student Chapter at nearly every ABA-accredited law school in the country and Lawyers Chapters in 220 major cities across the nation. Gene earned his B.A. in history at Yale in 1975 and his M.A. in political science from the London School of Economics in 1976. Gene currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Chess Center, the Holman Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the advisory board of the Adam Smith Society. He holds the title of International Chess Master.
John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School; Former President, American Civil Liberties Union
Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Professor Emerita and Senior Fellow at FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), was national President of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008. An internationally acclaimed free speech scholar and advocate, who regularly addresses diverse audiences and provides media commentary around the world, Strossen is also the Host and Project Consultant for Free To Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series distributed on public television in 2023. Her books about free speech include: Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know® (Oxford University Press 2023); HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (Oxford University Press 2018); and Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights (Scribner 1995), which was republished with a new Preface in 2024 as part of the NYU Classics Series. Her many honors and awards include the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech. She serves on the Advisory Boards of several organizations that do free speech work, including: ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin.
I: Were the Founders Themselves Originalists? (Panel)
Akhil Reed Amar, John O. McGinnis, William H. Pryor
2022 National Student Symposium
Theories of originalism and living constitutionalism currently vie for approval in the courts. Originalists find...
I: Were the Founders Themselves Originalists? (Panel)
Akhil Reed Amar, John O. McGinnis, William H. Pryor
2022 National Student Symposium
Theories of originalism and living constitutionalism currently vie for approval in the courts. Originalists find...
ABA Law School Accreditation Standards
Scott Bales, Gregory G. Katsas, John O. McGinnis, Thomas D. Morgan, Daniel R. Thies
2021 National Lawyers Convention
The 2021 National Lawyers Convention took place November 11-13, 2021 at the Mayflower Hotel in...
ABA Law School Accreditation Standards
Scott Bales, Gregory G. Katsas, John O. McGinnis, Thomas D. Morgan, Daniel R. Thies
2021 National Lawyers Convention
The 2021 National Lawyers Convention took place November 11-13, 2021 at the Mayflower Hotel in...
Digital Assets in 2021
Jeffrey R. Carter, Patrick Daugherty, Daniel J. Davis, James Koutoulas, Matt Lisle, John O. McGinnis
Chicago Lawyers Chapter
Hear from a panel of experts who will discuss key legal and regulatory issues surrounding...
Digital Assets in 2021
Jeffrey R. Carter, Patrick Daugherty, Daniel J. Davis, James Koutoulas, Matt Lisle, John O. McGinnis
Chicago Lawyers Chapter
Hear from a panel of experts who will discuss key legal and regulatory issues surrounding...
Panel IV: How Beneficial is International Human Rights Law?
Stephanos Bibas, Eugene Kontorovich, John O. McGinnis, Michael D. Ramsey, Beth Simmons
2021 National Student Symposium
International human rights law has expanded greatly since World War II. Its advocates see it...
Panel: Originalism & Its Discontents
Randy E. Barnett, Marc DeGirolami, Joshua Kleinfeld, John O. McGinnis, Jesse Merriam, Christina M. Mulligan
23rd Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
Originalism & Its Discontents11:00 am - 12:30 pm This panel will discuss some of the...
Showcase Panel I: Law, Social Justice, Wokeness and the Protests: Where Do We Go From Here?
Randy E. Barnett, Randall Kennedy, Kenneth Kiyul Lee, John O. McGinnis, Nadine Strossen, Eugene B. Meyer
2020 National Lawyers Convention
On November 12, 2020, the Federalist Society hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National...
Showcase Panel I: Law, Social Justice, Wokeness and the Protests: Where Do We Go From Here?
Randy E. Barnett, Randall Kennedy, Kenneth Kiyul Lee, John O. McGinnis, Eugene B. Meyer, Nadine Strossen
2020 National Lawyers Convention
On November 12, 2020, the Federalist Society hosted a virtual panel for the 2020 National...