Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Damien Schiff is a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. He leads its environmental practice group, a unique initiative that draws broadly from PLF’s expertise and success in property rights and separation of powers litigation. Over the years, Damien has represented hundreds of landowners and property rights advocates to defend their liberties against heavy-handed and unwarranted environmental and land-use regulation. His litigation experience includes Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a groundbreaking decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of landowners to challenge Clean Water Act compliance orders issued by EPA, and Contoski v. Norton, PLF’s successful effort to force the federal government to make good on its promise to delist the bald eagle from the Endangered Species Act.
Besides litigation, Damien has written academic articles on a variety of subjects, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, greenhouse gas torts, the duty to rescue, and international water law. He has appeared on a variety of television and radio programs and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s Magazine, and The Economist, among other publications.
He obtained his law degree magna cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law, and his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University. While at USD, he was a research assistant for Professor Bernard Siegan, a leading constitutional theorist and advocate for property rights and economic liberty. Immediately prior to joining PLF, Damien clerked for Judge (and former PLF attorney) Victor Wolski of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Damien credits the mentoring and examples of Professor Siegan and Judge Wolski for his decision to pursue a career in liberty-based public interest litigation.
Damien lives in Sacramento with his wife, two young sons, four chickens, and a cat named Princess. In his off hours he enjoys stamp collecting, Gregorian chant, and martinis—preferably at the same time.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Goldwater Institute
43rd President of the United States
George Walker Bush served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009, and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.
United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
Dennis Jacobs is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He became Chief Judge on October 1, 2006. At the time of his appointment in 1992, he was a partner in the New York law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Judge Jacobs received his B.A. degree from Queens College of the City University of New York in 1964; his M.A. degree from New York University in 1965; and his J.D. degree from the New York University School of Law in 1973.
Judge Jacobs was a lecturer in the English Department of Queens College of the City University of New York from 1967 until 1969. He was in private practice from 1973 with the New York law firm of Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett, serving as a partner there from 1980 until his judicial appointment.
In 1997-2004, Judge Jacobs was a member of the Committee on Judicial Resources of the Judicial Conference of the United States; starting in 1999 he was chair of that committee.
Judge Jacobs is a native of New York City.
Partner and Co-Chair, Constitutional and Appellate Law Practice Group, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Allyson N. Ho is a partner in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and co‐chair of the Firm’s nationwide Appellate and Constitutional Law practice group.
Mrs. Ho is “undoubtedly one of the premier appellate lawyers in the United States” (Chambers). She has presented over 100 oral arguments in federal and state courts nationwide, including multiple high‐stakes cases on behalf of business before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her most significant winning arguments include a U.S. Supreme Court reversal worth billions of dollars for unionized employers in the Sixth Circuit; a U.S. Supreme Court reversal limiting the power of federal regulators; a multi‐billion dollar environmental win in the Fifth Circuit; a multi‐billion dollar commercial victory for the founder of a technology company in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court; a billion dollar environmental win in the Houston Court of Appeals; a nine‐figure commercial victory in the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals; and a nine‐figure arbitration win in the Fifth Circuit.
Among her numerous accolades, Mrs. Ho is one of only a small group of appellate lawyers nationwide, and the only one in Texas, to be nationally ranked by Chambers every year for the past ten years (2012‐21). She is also one of the few appellate lawyers nationwide to be named to the BTI Client Service All‐Stars List, an honor bestowed by the corporate counsel community for lawyers “who stand above all the others in delivering the absolute best in client service.” She is also routinely named as a leading appellate lawyer by Benchmark, The Best Lawyers in America®, The Legal 500, Texas Super Lawyers, and D Magazine.
Mrs. Ho has received the Gregory S. Coleman Outstanding Appellate Lawyer Award (Texas Bar Foundation, June 22, 2018), been named a “Distinguished Leader” (Texas Lawyer, Sep. 1, 2017) and “Appellate MVP” (Law360, Nov. 23, 2015), and been recognized on the “Appellate Hot List” (National Law Journal, Nov. 16, 2015). In addition, she has been profiled in “Texas Powerhouse” (Law360, Aug. 2, 2021), “Texas Appellate Power Couple” (Texas Lawbook, January 7, 2021), “Litigators of the Week” (The American Lawyer, May 8, 2020), “Litigation Powerhouse” (Law360, Aug. 10, 2016), “Supreme Court Insider” (National Law Journal, July 21, 2016), “Supreme Court Specialists, Mostly Male, Dominated Arguments This Term” (National Law Journal, May 11, 2016), “Attorney of the Year Finalist” (Texas Lawyer, Nov. 2, 2015), “Litigation Department of the Year” (Texas Lawyer, June 1, 2015), “Employment Group of the Year” (Law360, Jan. 13, 2015), “A Supreme Month: Lawyer Credits Preparedness in Ability to Argue Two U.S. High Court Cases in Three Weeks” (Texas Lawyer, Dec. 8, 2014), “High Court Debuts for Two Lawyers” (National Law Journal, Nov. 3, 2014), “Women in Business Awards” (Dallas Business Journal, Aug 29, 2014), “Litigation Departments of the Year” (Texas Lawyer, June 2, 2014), “Winning Women” (Texas Lawyer, Aug. 22, 2011), and “High court practitioners: increasingly diverse” (National Law Journal, June 6, 2011).
Federal and State Appellate Practice
Mrs. Ho has argued a series of high stakes, landmark cases on behalf of the business community before the U.S. Supreme Court. National Law Journal called her a “Veteran SCOTUS Advocate” in the “upper echelons of Supreme Court practice.” Law360 named her a “Supreme Court Star” and “one of the nation’s preeminent appellate lawyers.” And EmpiricalSCOTUS.com ranked her among “the most successful attorneys that currently practice before the Court.” Mrs. Ho once argued two significant business cases before the Court within the span of 21 days—including a “significant ruling for employers” that “paved a new path for companies paying millions of dollars in retiree health care benefits” (Law360), as well as a landmark administrative law dispute in which “several justices agreed with Ho’s contention that SCOTUS should revisit and overrule its own precedent” (Law360). She also prevailed against the EEOC in a case that the employment defense bar called “good news for employers across the country.” And in “the most important patent case in modern history” according to patent law experts, her argument before the Court was credited for “pick[ing] up two votes that pundits thought unreachable.”
She has appeared before every federal court of appeals in the country, including en banc arguments before the Fourth and Sixth Circuits. She has successfully represented business clients in every circuit, including the First (Pruco Life Insurance Company), Second (Swiss Federation; Rite Aid), Third (Johnson & Johnson), Fourth (Genex Services), Fifth (United Space Alliance LLC; Elliott Co.; MERSCORP; 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc.; Stream Energy; Health Management Systems), Sixth (Deutsche Bank; American Airlines; M&G Polymers), Seventh (Expedia), Eighth (Cotter), Ninth (Boeing; JP Morgan Chase Bank), Tenth (Mitchell International), Eleventh (AstraZeneca), D.C. (FedEx), and Federal (Repros Therapeutics) Circuits.
In addition, Mrs. Ho regularly appears in state appellate courts across the country. She has argued numerous cases in the Texas Supreme Court, Texas appellate courts in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Eastland, and state appellate courts in Arizona, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, prevailing on behalf of Ford Motor Company, PepsiCo, International Paper, Tenet, GameStop, Deutsche Bank, and Unit.
Government and Public Service Experience
Mrs. Ho has a distinguished record of experience at the highest levels of the federal government. She served as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, Counselor to Attorney General John Ashcroft, and law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Her record of public service also includes appointments to various boards and commissions. Among the most notable are her election as a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a trustee of the United States Supreme Court Historical Society, and a trustee of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. She is also vice chair of the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, appointed by U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to evaluate potential appointments of all federal judges and U.S. Attorneys in Texas, and has previously served on the U.S. Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the Northern District of Texas.
Other Background Information
An active pro bono litigator, Mrs. Ho works most frequently with the First Liberty Institute and as amicus counsel for the State and Local Legal Center, the National Organization for Victim Assistance, and the National Crime Victim Law Institute. She is a frequent public speaker and active member of the Federalist Society, the American Law Institute, and the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Policy Advisory Board.
Mrs. Ho graduated from Duke University magna cum laude with a B.A. in English, Rice University with an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature, and the University of Chicago Law School with high honors. She was a member of the Law Review and Order of the Coif. She and her husband Jim, a federal judge, have a twin daughter and son.
Former Adjunct Professor of Law; former Special Counsel to the President; former federal prosecutor, Georgetown Law (ret.)
Bill Otis is a former Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University, a one-time federal prosecutor, and a former Special White House Counsel for President George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Stanford Law School, he started his career in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, then became chief of appeals for the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. In the 1980's he served on the Department's "Train the Trainer" team, which taught US Attorneys Offices across the county how to implement the then-new Sentencing Reform Act. He has held several posts in the federal government, including Special Assistant to the Secretary of Energy and Counselor to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, in addition to the White House post. He has testified before Congress on issues in criminal procedure, illegal drugs, the US Sentencing Commission, and the death penalty, and has given numerous media interviews on those and other subjects. He currently teaches a seminar at Georgetown Law titled "Conservatism in Law in America" with his wife, Federalist Society co-founder Lee Liberman Otis.
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
Virginia Seitz is a partner in Sidley Austin’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice. On behalf of a wide range of clients, she has handled cases in the United States Supreme Court, in virtually all federal courts of appeals, and in state appellate courts. Virginia was counsel of record on the amicus brief on behalf of retired military officers in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), and Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003), which the Supreme Court cited at oral argument and in its opinion and which the New York Times piece noted “may have been the most influential amicus brief in the history of the Supreme Court.” She has handled an array of district court litigation involving important constitutional and federal law issues, including the Appropriations and Supremacy Clauses of the Constitution, the First Amendment, Title IX, Title VII, the Anti-Deficiency Act, ERISA, and federal labor laws.
Virginia returned to Sidley in 2014 after serving in the Senate-confirmed position of Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. She was the first woman to be confirmed to that position. As the leader of that Office, Virginia was responsible for providing legal advice to the President and Executive Branch departments and agencies on issues of particular difficulty and importance. Virginia previously served as an appointee of the Chief Justice on the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. In January 2017, she was elected to the American Law Institute. Earlier in her career, Virginia was confirmed by the Senate to the first Board of Directors of the Congressional Office of Compliance and served from May 1995 to 2000. Virginia has been recognized for her Appellate Law practice by Chambers USA, in The Legal 500 US in Litigation: Supreme Court and Appellate, and in The Best Lawyers in America.
Virginia clerked at the Supreme Court for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and before that for Judge Harry T. Edwards of the D.C. Circuit. She is a graduate of University at Buffalo Law School, received her M.A. from Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and received her B.A. from Duke University, summa cum laude with distinction.
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, McGuireWoods LLP
George Terwilliger is co-head of the firm's white collar practice and leads the firm's Strategic Response and Crisis Management practice group. Following his fifteen years of public service in the US Department of Justice, where he began as a law clerk and concluded as Acting Attorney General, George has provided counsel in government and internal investigations, agency enforcement proceedings and in civil and criminal litigation. He has represented many of the nation's and the world's largest corporations, including major financial institutions, energy companies, public institutions as well as leading business and government officials, including members of the US Senate and House as well as cabinet officials. He has also represented lawyers and corporate legal departments in investigations. As a result of both his private sector work and government positions, George is called upon to provide counsel as well as commentary to government officials, Congress and private organizations on national security, homeland defense, terrorism, and other public policy and legal issues. George's work regularly involves providing counsel in the executive suites and boardrooms of major corporations.
In private practice for international law firms, George has represented national and international financial, energy, telecommunications, industrial and healthcare companies. He is a recognized expert in leading credible corporate internal investigations and his experience designing and executing both targeted and global legal compliance reviews has involved work in more than 60 countries around the globe. George is an expert on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and regularly provides counsel to companies addressing FCPA issues. No stranger to high stakes litigation and crisis events, George helped lead the Bush-Cheney legal team in the 2000 Florida vote recount, served as special outside counsel to a Senate committee investigating vote fraud allegations, served as counsel to an executive commission on gambling, and has represented many clients in politically charged election law and similar cases. He has guided corporations and individual through high stakes matters of intense public interest. He represented an incumbent president in First Amendment litigation concerning the right to have an inaugural prayer said in a public ceremony.
At the Department of Justice, George served for 10 years as a frontline federal prosecutor, handling hundreds of investigations, trials and appeals, including in white collar and national security cases. President Ronald Reagan appointed him as a U.S. attorney, and he next served as the deputy attorney general and as acting attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration. As Deputy Attorney General, George ran the Justice Department's operations, overseeing all the nation's federal prosecutors, as well as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. He also had leadership responsibility in several national and international crises, including a hostage-taking in a federal prison and the federal law enforcement response to domestic unrest in Los Angeles. In several instances, he personally handled negotiations of high-profile criminal and civil matters in the United States and abroad.
Senior Fellow, Center for Equal Opportunity
Eastland is an accomplished journalist who was editor of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., before working in the Reagan administration as a speechwriter for Attorney General William French Smith and as director of public affairs for Attorney General Edwin Meese.
Eastland was later a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the editor of Forbes MediaCritic. In 2001, he became publisher of The Weekly Standard and, in 2013, an executive editor. He is now a contributing editor at the magazine. Eastland has published seven books, including two on race preferences, Counting by Race (1979) and Ending Affirmative Action (1996). "The Center has done exceptional work on matters involving race and ethnicity," said Eastland, "and I look forward to contributing to its efforts in behalf of equal protection under the law."
CEO president and general counsel Roger Clegg recalled his work with Eastland during their days together in the Reagan Justice Department: "Terry is an expert on the media, a skilled editor, and a brilliant writer." CEO chairman and founder Linda Chavez said, "Eastland's writing on affirmative action has been among the most incisive and compelling on the issue over the years and will add depth to CEO's work in this arena."
Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).
His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.
Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).
His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.
Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
William D. Warren Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Stephen Bainbridge is the William D. Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he currently teaches Business Associations, Advanced Corporation Law, and Mergers and Acquisitions. In past years, he has also taught Corporate Finance, Securities Regulation, Unincorporated Business Associations and Catholic Social Thought and the Law. Professor Bainbridge previously taught at the University of Illinois Law School (1988-1996). He has also taught at Harvard Law School as the Joseph Flom Visiting Professor of Law and Business (2000-2001), and as a visiting professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne (2005 and 2007) and at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo (1999).
In 2008, Bainbridge received the UCLA School of Law's Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1990, the graduating class of the University of Illinois College of Law voted him "Professor of the Year."
Professor Bainbridge is a prolific scholar, whose work covers a variety of subjects, but with a strong emphasis on the law and economics of public corporations. He has written over 100 law review articles which have appeared in such leading journals as the Harvard Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and Vanderbilt Law Review. Bainbridge has also written 19 books, including seven in multiple editions. His most recent books include: Outsourcing the Board: How Board Service Providers Can Improve Corporate Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2018) (with M. Todd Henderson); Business Associations: Cases and Materials on Agency, Partnerships, and Corporations (Foundation Press, 10th ed., 2018) (with Klein and Ramseyer); Mergers and Acquisitions: A Transactional Perspective (Foundation Press, 2017) (with Iman Anabtawi).
According to Gregory Sisk and Brian Leiter’s rankings of law professors by scholarly impact, Professor Bainbridge was the third most-frequently cited scholar in corporate and securities law for the period 2013-2017. According to Hein Online, Bainbridge is the 29th most frequently cited scholar in their database of legal publications over the last 10 years and the 23rd most cited for the period January 2018 through August 2019. In SSRN.com’s ranking of the top 3000 legal authors by all-time downloads, Bainbridge is ranked 10th. By that metric, he is the highest ranked member of the UCLA law school faculty. In SSRN.com’s ranking of the top 3000 legal authors by all-time citations to their work, Bainbridge is ranked 55th. By that metric, he is the second highest ranked member of the UCLA law school faculty.
Professor Bainbridge has been a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation, a member of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Corporate Laws, a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Markets and Morality, and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s Corporations, Securities & Antitrust Practice Group.
In May 2014, Professor Bainbridge was the Cameron Fellow at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law. He was the Francis G. Pileggi Distinguished Lecturer in Law at Widener University School of Law in September 2005, and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Maryland School of Law in November 2005.
In 2008, 2011, and 2012, Professor Bainbridge was named by the National Association of Corporate Directors' Directorship magazine to its list of the 100 most influential people in the field of corporate governance.
His blog, ProfessorBainbridge.com, was named by the ABA Journal as one of the Top 100 Law Blogs of 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Director of Policy and Special Counsel, AFL-CIO
Damon A. Silvers is the Director of Policy and Special Counsel for the AFL-CIO. He joined the AFL-CIO as Associate General Counsel in 1997.
Mr. Silvers serves on a pro bono basis as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the state of New York. Mr. Silvers is also a member of the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department’s Financial Research Advisory Committee, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Standing Advisory Group and its Investor Advisory Group.
Mr. Silvers served as the Deputy Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP from 2008 to 2011. Between 2006 and 2008, Mr. Silvers served as the Chair of the Competition Subcommittee of the United States Treasury Department Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession and as a member of the United States Treasury Department Investor’s Practice Committee of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
Prior to working for the AFL-CIO, Mr. Silvers worked for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers, and as a law clerk at the Delaware Court of Chancery for Chancellor William T. Allen and Vice-Chancellor Bernard Balick.
Special Counsel, Gordon, Fournaris & Mammarella, PA and former C, Delaware Supreme Court
E. NORMAN VEASEY joined the Wilmington law firm of Gordon, Fournaris & Mammarella, P.A. in January 2014. He is the former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, having served a 12-year term through May 2004. After his retirement from the Supreme Court, he was a Senior Partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, until the end of 2013.
At GFM, he will concentrate on serving as an arbitrator, mediator, special master, and provide other neutral services in complex corporate, contract, and commercial litigation. Chief Justice Veasey is listed on the National Roster of Arbitrators and Mediators of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and as a distinguished neutral of the Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).
During his tenure as Chief Justice, and thereafter, the United States Chamber of Commerce ranked Delaware’s courts first in the nation for their fair, reasonable, and efficient litigation environment. Chief Justice Veasey has been credited with leading nationwide programs to restore professionalism to the practice of law and to adopt best practices in the running of America’s courts. In 2004, his final year of service in the Delaware Supreme Court, he was awarded the Order of the First State by the Governor of Delaware, the highest honor for meritorious service the State’s governor can grant.
As Senior Partner at Weil, he served as a strategic adviser to the firm’s roster of prominent global clients on a wide range of issues related to mergers & acquisitions, restructuring, and litigation. He also advised on corporate governance issues involving the responsibilities of corporate directors in complex financial transactions and crisis management.
He was President of the Conference of Chief Justices, Chair of the board of the National Center for State Courts, Chair of the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association (ABA), Chair of the ABA Special Commission on Evaluation of the Rules of Professional Conduct (Ethics 2000), Chair of the Committee on Corporate Laws of the ABA Section of Business Law, and President of the Delaware State Bar Association.
During 1992-93, Chief Justice Veasey was the editor of Volume 48 of The Business Lawyer, the scholarly legal journal published by the Section of Business Law of the ABA. He is co-author, with Weil’s Christine Di Guglielmo, of a book, published by Oxford University Press, on the challenges of modern-day corporate general counsel. The book is entitled, E. Norman Veasey & Christine T. Di Guglielmo, Indispensable Counsel: The Chief Legal Officer in the New Reality (2012). The Wall Street Journal recently called it “a field manual to aid [chief legal officers] with their new tasks.” (March 9, 2012)
He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers; included in Best Lawyers in America; a director of the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania; a member of the American Law Institute; a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation; a frequent panelist and lecturer on the corporation law, corporate governance, ethics, and professionalism; and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he teaches a course entitled, “The Real World of Ethical Corporate Lawyering.” He served in previous years as an Adjunct Professor teaching this course at New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law, and at Wake Forest University School of Law.
He is a graduate of Dartmouth College (A.B. 1954) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (LLB 1957). He has been awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from the University of Delaware and Widener University.
Recent Honors include Josiah Marvel Cup presented by the Delaware Chamber of Commerce, January, 2014, presented annually to a citizen of Delaware who has given outstanding service to the state, community, and society; Common Cause of Delaware Good Government award, November 2014; named “Corporate Governance Lawyer of the Year” in 2009-2012; Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award; Daniel L. Herrmann Professional Conduct Award; Order of the First State-2004; Annual Ethics Award from ACCA-2002; Paul C. .Reardon Award from the National Center for State Courts-2002; St. Thomas More Society Award; Alumni of Merit Award from the University of Pennsylvania; Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Award for Professionalism and Ethics from the American Inns of Court Foundation-1996; Class of 1954 Award from Dartmouth College.
From 1957 until he took office as Chief Justice in 1992, he practiced law with the Wilmington, Delaware, law firm of Richards, Layton & Finger, where he concentrated on business law, corporate transactions, litigation, and counseling. He served at various times as managing partner and the chief executive officer of the firm. During 1961-63, he was Deputy Attorney General and Chief Deputy Attorney of the State of Delaware, and from 2011 to 2014 he served the State of Delaware as Independent Counsel and Special Deputy Attorney General to investigate campaign funding law violations.
Chief Justice Veasey and his wife, Suzanne, live in Wilmington, Delaware. They have four grown children and eleven grandchildren.
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh was born in Washington, D.C., on February 12, 1965. He married Ashley Estes in 2004, and they have two daughters - Margaret and Liza. He received a B.A. from Yale College in 1987 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1990. He served as a law clerk for Judge Walter Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1990-1991, for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1991-1992, and for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1993 Term. In 1992-1993, he was an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. From 1994 to 1997 and for a period in 1998, he was Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel. He was a partner at a Washington, D.C., law firm from 1997 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, he was Associate Counsel and then Senior Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush. From 2003 to 2006, he was Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary for President Bush. He was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006. President Donald J. Trump nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on October 6, 2018.
William D. Warren Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Stephen Bainbridge is the William D. Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he currently teaches Business Associations, Advanced Corporation Law, and Mergers and Acquisitions. In past years, he has also taught Corporate Finance, Securities Regulation, Unincorporated Business Associations and Catholic Social Thought and the Law. Professor Bainbridge previously taught at the University of Illinois Law School (1988-1996). He has also taught at Harvard Law School as the Joseph Flom Visiting Professor of Law and Business (2000-2001), and as a visiting professor at La Trobe University in Melbourne (2005 and 2007) and at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo (1999).
In 2008, Bainbridge received the UCLA School of Law's Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1990, the graduating class of the University of Illinois College of Law voted him "Professor of the Year."
Professor Bainbridge is a prolific scholar, whose work covers a variety of subjects, but with a strong emphasis on the law and economics of public corporations. He has written over 100 law review articles which have appeared in such leading journals as the Harvard Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and Vanderbilt Law Review. Bainbridge has also written 19 books, including seven in multiple editions. His most recent books include: Outsourcing the Board: How Board Service Providers Can Improve Corporate Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2018) (with M. Todd Henderson); Business Associations: Cases and Materials on Agency, Partnerships, and Corporations (Foundation Press, 10th ed., 2018) (with Klein and Ramseyer); Mergers and Acquisitions: A Transactional Perspective (Foundation Press, 2017) (with Iman Anabtawi).
According to Gregory Sisk and Brian Leiter’s rankings of law professors by scholarly impact, Professor Bainbridge was the third most-frequently cited scholar in corporate and securities law for the period 2013-2017. According to Hein Online, Bainbridge is the 29th most frequently cited scholar in their database of legal publications over the last 10 years and the 23rd most cited for the period January 2018 through August 2019. In SSRN.com’s ranking of the top 3000 legal authors by all-time downloads, Bainbridge is ranked 10th. By that metric, he is the highest ranked member of the UCLA law school faculty. In SSRN.com’s ranking of the top 3000 legal authors by all-time citations to their work, Bainbridge is ranked 55th. By that metric, he is the second highest ranked member of the UCLA law school faculty.
Professor Bainbridge has been a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation, a member of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Corporate Laws, a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Markets and Morality, and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s Corporations, Securities & Antitrust Practice Group.
In May 2014, Professor Bainbridge was the Cameron Fellow at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law. He was the Francis G. Pileggi Distinguished Lecturer in Law at Widener University School of Law in September 2005, and a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Maryland School of Law in November 2005.
In 2008, 2011, and 2012, Professor Bainbridge was named by the National Association of Corporate Directors' Directorship magazine to its list of the 100 most influential people in the field of corporate governance.
His blog, ProfessorBainbridge.com, was named by the ABA Journal as one of the Top 100 Law Blogs of 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
Director of Policy and Special Counsel, AFL-CIO
Damon A. Silvers is the Director of Policy and Special Counsel for the AFL-CIO. He joined the AFL-CIO as Associate General Counsel in 1997.
Mr. Silvers serves on a pro bono basis as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the state of New York. Mr. Silvers is also a member of the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department’s Financial Research Advisory Committee, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Standing Advisory Group and its Investor Advisory Group.
Mr. Silvers served as the Deputy Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP from 2008 to 2011. Between 2006 and 2008, Mr. Silvers served as the Chair of the Competition Subcommittee of the United States Treasury Department Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession and as a member of the United States Treasury Department Investor’s Practice Committee of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
Prior to working for the AFL-CIO, Mr. Silvers worked for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers, and as a law clerk at the Delaware Court of Chancery for Chancellor William T. Allen and Vice-Chancellor Bernard Balick.
Special Counsel, Gordon, Fournaris & Mammarella, PA and former C, Delaware Supreme Court
E. NORMAN VEASEY joined the Wilmington law firm of Gordon, Fournaris & Mammarella, P.A. in January 2014. He is the former Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, having served a 12-year term through May 2004. After his retirement from the Supreme Court, he was a Senior Partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, until the end of 2013.
At GFM, he will concentrate on serving as an arbitrator, mediator, special master, and provide other neutral services in complex corporate, contract, and commercial litigation. Chief Justice Veasey is listed on the National Roster of Arbitrators and Mediators of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and as a distinguished neutral of the Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).
During his tenure as Chief Justice, and thereafter, the United States Chamber of Commerce ranked Delaware’s courts first in the nation for their fair, reasonable, and efficient litigation environment. Chief Justice Veasey has been credited with leading nationwide programs to restore professionalism to the practice of law and to adopt best practices in the running of America’s courts. In 2004, his final year of service in the Delaware Supreme Court, he was awarded the Order of the First State by the Governor of Delaware, the highest honor for meritorious service the State’s governor can grant.
As Senior Partner at Weil, he served as a strategic adviser to the firm’s roster of prominent global clients on a wide range of issues related to mergers & acquisitions, restructuring, and litigation. He also advised on corporate governance issues involving the responsibilities of corporate directors in complex financial transactions and crisis management.
He was President of the Conference of Chief Justices, Chair of the board of the National Center for State Courts, Chair of the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association (ABA), Chair of the ABA Special Commission on Evaluation of the Rules of Professional Conduct (Ethics 2000), Chair of the Committee on Corporate Laws of the ABA Section of Business Law, and President of the Delaware State Bar Association.
During 1992-93, Chief Justice Veasey was the editor of Volume 48 of The Business Lawyer, the scholarly legal journal published by the Section of Business Law of the ABA. He is co-author, with Weil’s Christine Di Guglielmo, of a book, published by Oxford University Press, on the challenges of modern-day corporate general counsel. The book is entitled, E. Norman Veasey & Christine T. Di Guglielmo, Indispensable Counsel: The Chief Legal Officer in the New Reality (2012). The Wall Street Journal recently called it “a field manual to aid [chief legal officers] with their new tasks.” (March 9, 2012)
He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers; included in Best Lawyers in America; a director of the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania; a member of the American Law Institute; a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation; a frequent panelist and lecturer on the corporation law, corporate governance, ethics, and professionalism; and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he teaches a course entitled, “The Real World of Ethical Corporate Lawyering.” He served in previous years as an Adjunct Professor teaching this course at New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law, and at Wake Forest University School of Law.
He is a graduate of Dartmouth College (A.B. 1954) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (LLB 1957). He has been awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from the University of Delaware and Widener University.
Recent Honors include Josiah Marvel Cup presented by the Delaware Chamber of Commerce, January, 2014, presented annually to a citizen of Delaware who has given outstanding service to the state, community, and society; Common Cause of Delaware Good Government award, November 2014; named “Corporate Governance Lawyer of the Year” in 2009-2012; Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award; Daniel L. Herrmann Professional Conduct Award; Order of the First State-2004; Annual Ethics Award from ACCA-2002; Paul C. .Reardon Award from the National Center for State Courts-2002; St. Thomas More Society Award; Alumni of Merit Award from the University of Pennsylvania; Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Award for Professionalism and Ethics from the American Inns of Court Foundation-1996; Class of 1954 Award from Dartmouth College.
From 1957 until he took office as Chief Justice in 1992, he practiced law with the Wilmington, Delaware, law firm of Richards, Layton & Finger, where he concentrated on business law, corporate transactions, litigation, and counseling. He served at various times as managing partner and the chief executive officer of the firm. During 1961-63, he was Deputy Attorney General and Chief Deputy Attorney of the State of Delaware, and from 2011 to 2014 he served the State of Delaware as Independent Counsel and Special Deputy Attorney General to investigate campaign funding law violations.
Chief Justice Veasey and his wife, Suzanne, live in Wilmington, Delaware. They have four grown children and eleven grandchildren.
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh was born in Washington, D.C., on February 12, 1965. He married Ashley Estes in 2004, and they have two daughters - Margaret and Liza. He received a B.A. from Yale College in 1987 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1990. He served as a law clerk for Judge Walter Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1990-1991, for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1991-1992, and for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1993 Term. In 1992-1993, he was an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. From 1994 to 1997 and for a period in 1998, he was Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel. He was a partner at a Washington, D.C., law firm from 1997 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, he was Associate Counsel and then Senior Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush. From 2003 to 2006, he was Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary for President Bush. He was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2006. President Donald J. Trump nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat on October 6, 2018.
Should We Keep this Court? An Economic Examination of Recent Decisions Made by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
Matthew T. Yanni, Kristen M. Leddy, Russell S. Sobel
There has been much discussion lately about whether West Virginia’s economy could be bolstered by...
The Modern California Supreme Court: Progressivism and Practical Constraints
Damien Michael Schiff, Timothy Sandefur
The California Supreme Court decides legal issues affecting a population of more than 30 million...
Should We Keep this Court? An Economic Examination of Recent Decisions Made by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals
Matthew T. Yanni, Kristen M. Leddy, Russell S. Sobel
There has been much discussion lately about whether West Virginia’s economy could be bolstered by...
Remarks by the President on Judicial Accomplishments and Philosophy
George W. Bush
Transcript
Hilton Cincinnati Netherland PlazaCincinnati, Ohio 3:02 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. (Applause.) ...
Speech by Judge Dennis G. Jacobs
Dennis Jacobs
Transcript
The following remarks were delivered by Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs of the United States Court...
A Preview of the Supreme Court October 2008 Term - Audio/Video
Allyson Newton Ho, William G. Otis, Virginia Seitz, Kannon K. Shanmugam, George J. Terwilliger, Terry H. Eastland
October 6th marks the opening of the new Supreme Court Term. The Court has already...
A More Modest Court: The Ohio Supreme Court's Newfound Judicial Restraint
Jonathan H. Adler, Christina M. Adler
The Ohio Supreme Court has changed significantly over the past six years. Significant turnover on...
A More Modest Court: The Ohio Supreme Court's Newfound Judicial Restraint
Jonathan H. Adler, Christina M. Adler
The Ohio Supreme Court has changed significantly over the past six years. Significant turnover on...
Stockholders at the Wheel: Shareholder Access Rule
Stephen Bainbridge, John Olson, Damon A. Silvers, E. Norman Veasey, Brett M. Kavanaugh
Corporations, Securities, and Antitrust Practice Group
On November 28, 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to adopt an amendment to...
Stockholders at the Wheel: Shareholder Access Rule
Stephen Bainbridge, John Olson, Damon A. Silvers, E. Norman Veasey, Brett M. Kavanaugh
Corporations, Securities, and Antitrust Practice Group
On November 28, 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to adopt an amendment to...