Coleman P. Burke Chair in Environmental Law, School of Law, Case Western Reserve University
Victor B. Flatt is the Coleman P. Burke Chair in Environmental Law and the Associate Director of the Burke Center for Environmental Law at Case Western University School of Law. He also holds an appointment as an Energy Fellow UH Energy at the University of Houston.
Professor Flatt is a recognized expert on environmental law, climate law and energy law, and the intersection of these areas. Since 2019, he has created and taught the first law school courses in the country concerning how law relates to sustainability planning and ESG policies in corporations, offering the courses at UHLC, Vermont Law School and Case Western University School of Law.
His research focuses on environmental legislation and enforcement, with particular expertise in the Clean Air Act, NEPA and Climate. He is co-author of a popular environmental law casebook, and has authored more than 50 law review articles, which have appeared in journals such as the Notre Dame Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, The Ohio State Law Journal, Washington Law Review, Houston Law Review and the Carolina Law Review. Seven of his articles have been recognized as finalists or winner of the best environmental law review article of the year, and one was recognized by Vanderbilt University Law School and the Environmental Law Institute as one of the three best environmental articles of 2010, leading to a seminar and panel on the article in a congressional staff briefing.
He has been a Visiting Law Professor at the University of Georgia Law School, the University of Washington Law School and Seattle University School of Law. He has been honored as a Distinguished Environmental Scholar in Residence at Vermont Law School, Pace Law School (Elisabeth Haub Distinguished Scholar) and Widener University Delaware Law School. He was previously the inaugural O’Quinn Chair in Environmental Law at UHLC from 2002-2009, and the Dwight Olds Chair in Law at UHLC from 2017-2023. Professor Flatt was also the inaugural Taft Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law and the Director of the Center for Climate, Energy, Environment, and Economics (CE3) at UNC Chapel Hill School of Law.
Professor Flatt has served on the AALS committees on Natural Resources and Environmental Law and was chair of the AALS Teaching Methods Section. He has served on many other board and committees in his career, including the national board of Lambda Legal and the Law School Admission Council’s Gay and Lesbian Interests section.
Professor Flatt received his B.A. in Chemistry and Math from Vanderbilt University where he was a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholar, and his J.D. from Northwestern University, where he was a John Henry Wigmore Scholar. After graduating from Northwestern, Professor Flatt clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs of the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Legal Director and Securities Specialist, Better Markets
Mr. Hall has been with Better Markets since its founding more than 10 years ago, and he serves as its Legal Director and Securities Specialist. His background includes extensive experience in securities and commodities regulation acquired through positions in the Federal government, private practice, and the nonprofit sector.
Mr. Hall oversees a highly accomplished legal team that files amicus briefs in important cases involving financial regulation; initiates litigation or intervenes in cases when necessary to advance the public interest; issues special reports on specific topics surrounding the law and financial regulation; and provides regulatory analysis in the areas of banking, securities, and consumer protection. And his team supports the work of other staff members at Better Markets as they fight for the public interest before the regulatory agencies.
Mr. Hall is one of Better Markets’ most prolific authors, having written or co-written more than 100 comment letters, reports and legal briefs in his nearly decade-long fight for the public interest at the organization.
A sought-after expert for his legal and regulatory expertise, Mr. Hall has testified before Congress and currently serves on the Commission on Sanctions and Fitness of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.
Prior to joining Better Markets in early 2011, Mr. Hall served as Senior Counsel to the Committee on Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives. During the Conference leading to passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Mr. Hall worked on the titles dealing with securities and derivatives. He also handled other legislative initiatives relating to securities, including corporate governance, limited offering exemptions, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Securities Investor Protection Act.
From 2001 through 2009, Mr. Hall served as counsel to the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. (NASAA), the association of state securities regulators. He supported all aspects of NASAA’s mission, including regulatory analysis, appellate advocacy, and enforcement. His written work included over 15 amicus briefs addressing a wide range of investor protection issues arising under State and Federal securities law, including four briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also advised NASAA on corporate governance and transactional matters.
Mr. Hall began his legal career at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he became Senior Trial Attorney and Associate Director of Enforcement. At the CFTC, he specialized in bringing injunctive actions in federal court against fraudulent commodity sales operations. And for almost a decade in private practice, he handled a wide range of civil litigation matters as well as transactional work in commercial real estate.
Mr. Hall is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and he received his law degree from Georgetown University.
Policy Fellow, Regulatory Policy, Americans for Prosperity Foundation
Marc Marie is a fellow for regulatory policy at Americans for Prosperity, where he focuses on energy, land use, and the administrative state. Before joining Americans for Prosperity, Marc advised early-stage energy companies on regulatory strategy. His government service includes senior counsel at the Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division; acting deputy solicitor at the Department of the Interior; and counsel to Sen. Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Antitrust Subcommittee.
He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland and a bachelor's degree from Kenyon College.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner with Boyden Gray PLLC. He previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mr. McCotter maintains an extensive appellate practice. He has considerable experience identifying and briefing cases that draw the Supreme Court’s attention, having persuaded the Court to grant certiorari in numerous cases raising issues of sovereignty, constitutional rights, due process, and criminal law. He has authored and submitted over 60 briefs at the Court.
He has also personally argued more than fifteen federal appeals across the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Federal, and D.C. Circuits—including once arguing three separate appeals in just four days. He has also twice argued before the 17-judge en banc Fifth Circuit. He has been counsel in over 50 other appeals raising matters from FOIA and the APA to constitutional rights and statutory construction.
As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Mr. McCotter oversaw DOJ’s Civil Appellate and Federal Programs branches, which are responsible for defending nearly all major litigation against the federal government. During his three years as a federal trial attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” Mr. McCotter won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
During his DOJ tenures, Mr. McCotter also assisted with the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices and over a dozen lower-court judges.
Mr. McCotter served as an inaugural clerk to the Hon. Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Coleman P. Burke Chair in Environmental Law, School of Law, Case Western Reserve University
Victor B. Flatt is the Coleman P. Burke Chair in Environmental Law and the Associate Director of the Burke Center for Environmental Law at Case Western University School of Law. He also holds an appointment as an Energy Fellow UH Energy at the University of Houston.
Professor Flatt is a recognized expert on environmental law, climate law and energy law, and the intersection of these areas. Since 2019, he has created and taught the first law school courses in the country concerning how law relates to sustainability planning and ESG policies in corporations, offering the courses at UHLC, Vermont Law School and Case Western University School of Law.
His research focuses on environmental legislation and enforcement, with particular expertise in the Clean Air Act, NEPA and Climate. He is co-author of a popular environmental law casebook, and has authored more than 50 law review articles, which have appeared in journals such as the Notre Dame Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, The Ohio State Law Journal, Washington Law Review, Houston Law Review and the Carolina Law Review. Seven of his articles have been recognized as finalists or winner of the best environmental law review article of the year, and one was recognized by Vanderbilt University Law School and the Environmental Law Institute as one of the three best environmental articles of 2010, leading to a seminar and panel on the article in a congressional staff briefing.
He has been a Visiting Law Professor at the University of Georgia Law School, the University of Washington Law School and Seattle University School of Law. He has been honored as a Distinguished Environmental Scholar in Residence at Vermont Law School, Pace Law School (Elisabeth Haub Distinguished Scholar) and Widener University Delaware Law School. He was previously the inaugural O’Quinn Chair in Environmental Law at UHLC from 2002-2009, and the Dwight Olds Chair in Law at UHLC from 2017-2023. Professor Flatt was also the inaugural Taft Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law and the Director of the Center for Climate, Energy, Environment, and Economics (CE3) at UNC Chapel Hill School of Law.
Professor Flatt has served on the AALS committees on Natural Resources and Environmental Law and was chair of the AALS Teaching Methods Section. He has served on many other board and committees in his career, including the national board of Lambda Legal and the Law School Admission Council’s Gay and Lesbian Interests section.
Professor Flatt received his B.A. in Chemistry and Math from Vanderbilt University where he was a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholar, and his J.D. from Northwestern University, where he was a John Henry Wigmore Scholar. After graduating from Northwestern, Professor Flatt clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs of the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Legal Director and Securities Specialist, Better Markets
Mr. Hall has been with Better Markets since its founding more than 10 years ago, and he serves as its Legal Director and Securities Specialist. His background includes extensive experience in securities and commodities regulation acquired through positions in the Federal government, private practice, and the nonprofit sector.
Mr. Hall oversees a highly accomplished legal team that files amicus briefs in important cases involving financial regulation; initiates litigation or intervenes in cases when necessary to advance the public interest; issues special reports on specific topics surrounding the law and financial regulation; and provides regulatory analysis in the areas of banking, securities, and consumer protection. And his team supports the work of other staff members at Better Markets as they fight for the public interest before the regulatory agencies.
Mr. Hall is one of Better Markets’ most prolific authors, having written or co-written more than 100 comment letters, reports and legal briefs in his nearly decade-long fight for the public interest at the organization.
A sought-after expert for his legal and regulatory expertise, Mr. Hall has testified before Congress and currently serves on the Commission on Sanctions and Fitness of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.
Prior to joining Better Markets in early 2011, Mr. Hall served as Senior Counsel to the Committee on Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives. During the Conference leading to passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Mr. Hall worked on the titles dealing with securities and derivatives. He also handled other legislative initiatives relating to securities, including corporate governance, limited offering exemptions, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Securities Investor Protection Act.
From 2001 through 2009, Mr. Hall served as counsel to the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. (NASAA), the association of state securities regulators. He supported all aspects of NASAA’s mission, including regulatory analysis, appellate advocacy, and enforcement. His written work included over 15 amicus briefs addressing a wide range of investor protection issues arising under State and Federal securities law, including four briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also advised NASAA on corporate governance and transactional matters.
Mr. Hall began his legal career at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he became Senior Trial Attorney and Associate Director of Enforcement. At the CFTC, he specialized in bringing injunctive actions in federal court against fraudulent commodity sales operations. And for almost a decade in private practice, he handled a wide range of civil litigation matters as well as transactional work in commercial real estate.
Mr. Hall is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and he received his law degree from Georgetown University.
Policy Fellow, Regulatory Policy, Americans for Prosperity Foundation
Marc Marie is a fellow for regulatory policy at Americans for Prosperity, where he focuses on energy, land use, and the administrative state. Before joining Americans for Prosperity, Marc advised early-stage energy companies on regulatory strategy. His government service includes senior counsel at the Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division; acting deputy solicitor at the Department of the Interior; and counsel to Sen. Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Antitrust Subcommittee.
He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland and a bachelor's degree from Kenyon College.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner with Boyden Gray PLLC. He previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mr. McCotter maintains an extensive appellate practice. He has considerable experience identifying and briefing cases that draw the Supreme Court’s attention, having persuaded the Court to grant certiorari in numerous cases raising issues of sovereignty, constitutional rights, due process, and criminal law. He has authored and submitted over 60 briefs at the Court.
He has also personally argued more than fifteen federal appeals across the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Federal, and D.C. Circuits—including once arguing three separate appeals in just four days. He has also twice argued before the 17-judge en banc Fifth Circuit. He has been counsel in over 50 other appeals raising matters from FOIA and the APA to constitutional rights and statutory construction.
As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Mr. McCotter oversaw DOJ’s Civil Appellate and Federal Programs branches, which are responsible for defending nearly all major litigation against the federal government. During his three years as a federal trial attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” Mr. McCotter won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
During his DOJ tenures, Mr. McCotter also assisted with the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices and over a dozen lower-court judges.
Mr. McCotter served as an inaugural clerk to the Hon. Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Associate Deputy Attorney General, United States Department of Justice
Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Luke A. Wake is an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation. Prior to joining PLF, he was a senior staff attorney at the NFIB Small Business Legal Center.
Wake has particular expertise on environmental and land use issues, and has worked on numerous other constitutional issues and matters of importance to small business owners. He is an ardent defender of private property rights, which he believes are essential to the free enterprise system and the foundation of American liberty. As a strong advocate of individual rights and economic liberties, he has built his career defending small business interests.
Wake has focused on a whole host of issues, from employment law matters to regulatory compliance. In addition to serving as a resource for small business owners, Wake is committed to ensuring that the voice of small business is heard in the nation’s courts. As an appellate practitioner, Wake has focused particularly on informing the courts on matters of administrative law and on issues under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. He is also working to advance small business interests in law review articles, and was recently published in the Berkeley Journal of Law & Ecology. See R.S. Radford & Luke A. Wake, Deciphering and Extrapolating: Searching for Sense in Penn Central, 38 Ecology L.Q. 731, 746-747 (2011).
Before joining the Legal Center’s team, Wake completed a prestigious two-year fellowship as an attorney in the Pacific Legal Foundation’s College of Public Interest Law. Wake is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland Ohio, and is a member of the California Bar. He completed his undergraduate studies at Elon University in North Carolina in 2006 where he focused on political theory and corporate communications.
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.
Associate, Wiley Rein LLP
Joel S. Nolette is an associate at Wiley Rein LLP, where he advocates on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of complex litigation matters. In 2017, Joel graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as the Editor in Chief of Volume 15 of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. From 2019 to 2021, Joel clerked for the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; and from 2021 to 2022, he clerked for the Honorable Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Before attending law school, Joel graduated summa cum laude from Gordon College in Wenham, MA, with his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies and worked as a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service.
Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Kannon is the head of our Supreme Court & Appellate practice. He has argued 39 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has argued more than 150 appeals in courts across the country, including every federal court of appeals and numerous state courts.
Kannon is ranked as a “Star Individual” in appellate law by Chambers USA, where a client notes, “It’s hard to think of enough superlatives to describe his talent, his judgment, his ability, his experience – he is as good as it gets.” Legal 500 U.S. recognizes Kannon in its Hall of Fame for appellate work. A client shares, “His work is the best in the business, and he is a wonderful human being in addition to being a world-class appellate litigator.”
In 2024 and 2022, Kannon was a finalist for the American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Year” award. He was named “Appellate Litigator of the Year” by Benchmark Litigation in 2021 and was a 2026 finalist for that recognition.
Before entering private practice, Kannon served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Partner, Cooper & Kirk, PLLC
Pete Patterson is a partner at Cooper & Kirk. His practice includes appellate litigation, constitutional litigation, commercial litigation, and administrative law. In addition, Mr. Patterson for a number of years taught an appellate litigation clinic at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Mr. Patterson has argued in the U.S. Supreme Court and in nearly every regional federal circuit court of appeals.
Mr. Patterson has extensive experience in complex matters involving important questions of constitutional, statutory, and administrative law. He frequently has represented plaintiffs in cases alleging constitutional or statutory violations by federal, state, and local government officials. He also has represented plaintiffs in class action litigation against corporations and the federal government.
Mr. Patterson joined the firm in 2009. Prior to arriving at Cooper & Kirk, he served as a law clerk to Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Patterson typically works from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Mr. Patterson received his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2006, earning Order of the Coif honors for finishing in the top 10% of his class. There, he was a member of the Stanford Law Review, serving as an Articles Editor. He also participated in litigation before the United States Supreme Court through the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.
Mr. Patterson graduated with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University in 2000 with a B.S. in Information and Decision Systems. While at Carnegie Mellon, he wrote a regular column for the student newspaper and was a member of the football team.
Partner, Cooper & Kirk, PLLC
Pete Patterson is a partner at Cooper & Kirk. His practice includes appellate litigation, constitutional litigation, commercial litigation, and administrative law. In addition, Mr. Patterson for a number of years taught an appellate litigation clinic at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Mr. Patterson has argued in the U.S. Supreme Court and in nearly every regional federal circuit court of appeals.
Mr. Patterson has extensive experience in complex matters involving important questions of constitutional, statutory, and administrative law. He frequently has represented plaintiffs in cases alleging constitutional or statutory violations by federal, state, and local government officials. He also has represented plaintiffs in class action litigation against corporations and the federal government.
Mr. Patterson joined the firm in 2009. Prior to arriving at Cooper & Kirk, he served as a law clerk to Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Patterson typically works from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Mr. Patterson received his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2006, earning Order of the Coif honors for finishing in the top 10% of his class. There, he was a member of the Stanford Law Review, serving as an Articles Editor. He also participated in litigation before the United States Supreme Court through the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.
Mr. Patterson graduated with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University in 2000 with a B.S. in Information and Decision Systems. While at Carnegie Mellon, he wrote a regular column for the student newspaper and was a member of the football team.
Climate Disclosure Litigation: Examining Legal Battles Against California and the SEC
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Climate Disclosure Litigation: Examining Legal Battles Against California and the SEC
Victor Flatt, Stephen Hall, Marc Marie, Trent McCotter
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