Professor of Law and Executive Director, Law and Economics Center, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Donald Kochan is Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Law & Economics Center (LEC). Professor Kochan is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves as an Adviser to ALI's Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property project. Professor Kochan is a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for the Constitution at Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Visiting Scholar in residence during Fall 2018. Before joining the Antonin Scalia Law School faculty, he was the Parker S. Kennedy Professor in Law at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law from 2004 to 2020. From 2003 to 2004, Professor Kochan was an Olin Fellow at the University of Virginia School of Law. During 2002-2003, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason’s Scalia Law School.
Professor Kochan’s scholarship focuses on areas of property law, constitutional law, administrative law, local government law, natural resources and environmental law, and law & economics. He has published several books and more than 50 scholarly articles and essays in well-regarded law journals. His work has been cited in more than a dozen state and federal court opinions, in more than 75 briefs filed in state and federal courts including more than 25 filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, in dozens of books and treatises, and in more than 800 scholarly articles.
Professor Kochan received his JD from Cornell Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics and managing editor of the Cornell International Law Journal. During law school, he also served as editor and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy symposium issues in 1997 and 1998. He received his BA from Western Michigan University, magna cum laude, with majors in both political science and philosophy, where he studied as the John W. Gill Medallion Scholar and was honored as the Presidential Scholar (awarded to the top graduate in the political science department).
After graduating from law school, Professor Kochan was a law clerk to The Honorable Richard F. Suhrheinrich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Professor Kochan was an associate with the firm of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in natural resources & environmental law as well as tort, products, and consumer civil litigation & legislative affairs.
Partner, Williams & John LTD
David L. Applegate is a partner of Williams & John Ltd., where he chairs the firm's intellectual property practice group and is a member of the commercial litigation practice group. He focuses his practice on patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, and business litigation and arbitration, and on U. S. Supreme Court and related amicus brief practice.
Mr. Applegate is a Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America, the Intellectual Property Institute, and the Diversity Law Institute; a Senior Master Member of the Richard Linn American Inn of Court; a Past President of the Chicago Lincoln American Inn of Court; and a Legal Policy Advisor to The Heartland Institute. He is "AV Preeminent" peer review rated by Martindale-Hubbell, reflecting the highest peer recognition for both ethical standards and legal ability, and has been named by his peers for inclusion in Illinois Leading Lawyers and IllinoisSuper Lawyers in both commercial and intellectual property litigation for decades.
Throughout his career, Mr. Applegate has represented corporations and individuals as both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal litigation at the trial and appellate levels. He has tried multiple cases to verdict in both jury and bench trials nationwide and has argued appeals in the Illinois appellate courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh and Federal Circuits; his amicus brief was cited twice in the U. S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 majority opinion in the Janus case. Mr. Applegate also has extensive commercial arbitration and private mediation experience in both national and international dispute resolution forums, and is a former member of the Chicago International Dispute Resolution Association. In 2001, the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association recognized him for his outstanding individual commitment to pro bono service to indigent clients throughout the Northern District of Illinois.
In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Applegate has written and spoken frequently on matters of law and public policy, including on both local and national television and radio. He is an avid collector and amateur historian of original comic strip and editorial cartoon art, and has written extensively in that field as well for over three decades.
Arun Chandra focuses his practice on patent litigation. He has also litigated copyright, trademark, unfair competition, false advertising, and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) disputes. In addition, Arun’s practice has included giving legal opinions on patent infringement and validity as well as drafting software licenses and non-disclosure agreements. He has also prepared and prosecuted patent applications for electronic and software inventions.
Arun has represented clients in a wide range of technological areas, including pharmaceutical products, medical devices, wireless telecommunication equipment, semiconductor devices, and computer hardware and software.
Prior to joining Hogan & Hartson, Arun served as a law clerk to The Honorable William H. Pauley III, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York. During law school, he was the executive editor of the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal.
M.S., Stevens Institute of Technology, 2001 J.D., cum laude
Yeshiva University, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 1998 B.S.
The State University of New York, University at Buffalo, 1995
Professor, Cumberland School of Law, Samford University
Michael DeBow joined the Cumberland faculty in 1988. He regularly teaches courses in Property, Business Organizations, Administrative Law, Legislation, and Local Government.
Professor DeBow is a native of Tupelo, Mississippi. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from the University of Alabama (1976, 1978). He graduated from the Yale Law School in 1980, and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.
DeBow's career included a stint in private practice in Washington, D.C., followed by a judicial clerkship with Judge Kenneth W. Starr of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1983-84. DeBow then served as an attorney-advisor to Federal Trade Commission chairman James C. Miller III (1984-85), and a special assistant to Assistant Attorney General Douglas Ginsburg, in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (1985-86). He began his teaching career at the University of Georgia business school, where he taught for two years prior to coming to Samford.
From 2000 to 2004, DeBow also acted in a part-time capacity as special assistant for legal policy to Alabama attorney general Bill Pryor. He was a visiting professor of law at George Mason University in 1999. He was a (nonresident) Salvatori Fellow of The Heritage Foundation during 1993-95, and a member of the executive committee of the Association of Private Enterprise Education during 1995-99. DeBow attended summer institutes in quantitative methods for law professors (George Mason Law & Economics Center, 1990), Austrian economics (NYU Department of Economics, 1997), and the study of freedom (Templeton Foundation Freedom Project, 2000). In 2008 he was named an Adjunct Fellow of the Alabama Policy Institute.
Professor DeBow has taught several undergraduate courses at Samford, including one which received a supporting grant from the John Templeton Foundation. Most recently, he taught an undergraduate course in law and economics for the Samford's Brock School of Business. He has also taught public health law for the UAB School of Public Health on several occasions.
DeBow's articles have appeared in such journals as the Texas Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Regulation, Policy Review, The Freeman, and the Journal of Law & Politics. He co-edits the Federalist Society's Pre-Law Reading List and its annotated bibliography of conservative and libertarian legal scholarship.
South Dakota's Eminent Domain Experiment to Curb Private Condemnation by Railroads
Donald J. Kochan
The government’s eminent domain power is an extreme one, grounded in the nature of sovereignty...
U.S. Supreme Court Jurisprudence on Implied Private Rights of Action: The Pendlum Swings Back
Brian J. Leske
Congress often does not explicitly provide for a private right of action when it enacts...
Supreme Court 2001-2002 Term: Summary of Decisions on Federalism and Separation of Powers
Sovereign ImmunityFed. Maritime Comm’n v. S.C. State Ports Auth., 122 S. Ct.1864 (2002).Decided May 28,...
Racial Profiling of Borrowers: An Idea Fraught With Peril
James M. Rockett
In the early 1970s, during my first days as a banking lawyer, I was anxious...
Free Speech War on the Range: Legal Challenges to Nation's Commodity Checkoff Programs
Eric Schippers
Got Milk? The question may sound innocuous, but for many of America’s independent farmers...
Constitutional and Policy Issues Regarding Domestic U.S. Enforcement of the Proposed Biological Warfare Convention Inspection Protocol
Thomas C. Wingfield, Michael McDavid Coyne
The first wave of targeted biological warfare attacks on the United States has driven the...
Eldred v. Ashcroft: Just Another Mickey Mouse Copyright Case?
David L. Applegate
Currently on the Supreme Court’s docket is the case of Eldred v. Ashcroft, which challenges...
Case Notes: The Holmes Group, Inc. v. Wornado Air Circulation Systems, Inc.
Arun Chandra
A significant portion of the patent bar was caught off-guard when the Supreme Court recently...
The Imperfection of Language: Festo Sets a Forseeability Bar for Presecution History Estoppel
David B. Walker
In its recent decision in Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co., Ltd (“Festo...
The Supreme Court Limits State Censorship of Judicial Campaign Speech
Michael DeBow
The election of state judges has been controversial at least since the Progressive Era. For...