Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Eric Kadel is engaged in a wide variety of corporate, transactional and regulatory matters. He is a member of the Firm’s Corporate and Finance, Financial Services, Investment Management, Alternative Investment Management, Cybersecurity, and Commodities, Futures and Derivatives Groups. With regard to financings, Mr. Kadel regularly represents participants in capital markets transactions, and dealers and end users in connection with structuring and documenting a wide variety of swaps and other derivatives, including equity, credit default and commodity swaps, options and forwards. Mr. Kadel’s work in the investment management area includes advising public and private investment companies and investment advisers on a wide variety of transactional, regulatory, compliance and other matters, including registration and regulation. Mr. Kadel also advises clients of the Firm regarding developments in the laws regulating the financial services industry and on cybersecurity issues. Mr. Kadel is currently an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School.
In addition, Mr. Kadel is one of the principal partners in the Firm’s International Trade and Investment practice. He counsels and represents clients on questions about U.S. economic sanctions, including those administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), United States antiboycott requirements under the Export Administration Regulations administered and enforced by the Commerce Department’s Office of Antiboycott Compliance within the Bureau of Industry and Security, Bank Secrecy Act/anti‐money laundering laws and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Mr. Kadel’s practice includes analysis of proposed transactions and business relationships; due diligence and design and review of compliance procedures and strategies; and internal investigations, voluntary disclosures and government enforcement actions. Mr. Kadel also regularly advises clients regarding questions arising under Exon-Florio and the transaction review process administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), and has represented clients before CFIUS on many national security reviews.
Partner & Chair, National Security Practice, Wiley Rein LLP
Of Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
A member of the Firm’s Financial Services Group, Adam Szubin focuses his practice on financial services and national security, with particular emphasis on economic sanctions, export controls, money laundering and counter terrorism.
Prior to joining Sullivan & Cromwell, Mr. Szubin served for two years as Acting Treasury Department Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. During his nearly 13 year tenure at the Treasury, Mr. Szubin served as the Director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for nine years and Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
As the Acting Under Secretary, he led the policy, enforcement, regulatory, and intelligence functions of the Treasury Department aimed at combating threatening states, international terrorist organizations, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics traffickers, and others posing a threat to U.S. national security or foreign policy. As the lead national security official at the Treasury Department, Mr. Szubin also advised the Treasury Secretary and National Security Council on a wide range of economic and security issues, including select matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Earlier in his career, Mr. Szubin served as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice where he also worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Division and was a member of the Terrorism Litigation Task Force.
Chief Oversight Counsel, Senate Committee on Finance
Chris Armstrong is Deputy Chief Oversight Counsel to Chairman Orrin G. Hatch on the Senate Committee on Finance. He previously worked for Chairman Dave Camp on the House Committee on Ways and Means and Senator Charles E. Grassley. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group. The views expressed herein are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Chairman Hatch or the Finance Committee.
Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Michael Bopp is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is Chair of the Public Policy Practice Group and a member of the Firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations and Crisis Management Practice Groups, where he chairs the firm’s Congressional Investigations Subgroup. He also chairs the firm’s Financial Markets Crisis Group, a multi-disciplinary group formed to address client concerns stemming from the credit and capital markets crisis. Mr. Bopp’s practice focuses on congressional, internal corporate, and other government investigations, public policy consulting in a variety of fields, and managing and responding to major crises involving multiple government agencies and branches.
From 2006-2008, Mr. Bopp served as Associate Director of OMB and was responsible for overseeing budgets and coordinating regulatory, legislative, and other policy for approximately $150 billion worth of spending for various government agencies, including the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security, Transportation, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce, the General Services Administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
From 2003 to 2006, he served as Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, one of the Senate's largest committees and most expansive in terms of jurisdiction. He oversaw more than 100 hearings, led numerous investigations and was a primary drafter of key legislation, including the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the most significant reform of the intelligence community in more than 50 years, and 2006 legislation strengthening port security and overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He also directed a 50-person investigation of the failure of preparations and response to Hurricane Katrina. The investigation included 22 hearings, 325 witnesses, more than 800,000 pages of documents and an 800 page report.
Mr. Bopp served as Legislative Director and General Counsel to Senator Susan Collins of Maine from 1999 to 2003. He was Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1998 to 1999, where he investigated alleged improper activities undertaken by Teamsters' officials. Before that, he worked on the Congressional investigation of campaign finance abuses as senior investigative counsel to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight and as counsel for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. He also previously served as counsel on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Mr. Bopp served as outside general counsel to the campaign to re-elect Senator Susan Collins.
Mr. Bopp received his law degree cum laude in 1992 from Harvard Law School where he was Articles Editor on the Journal of Law and Public Policy. He graduated magna cum laude, with honors, in public policy from Brown University in 1987.
General Counsel, Office of Speaker Mike Johnson
Ashley Callen has served in the legislative and executive branches for nearly 25 years. Currently, she serves as General Counsel to Speaker Mike Johnson. Prior to her current role, she was General Counsel to Majority Leader Steve Scalise. She got to know Leader Scalise during the 117th Congress serving as the top staffer on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as well as serving then-Ranking Member James Comer as Deputy Staff Director of the Oversight and Reform Committee. Ashley has also served as a top oversight and investigations staffer at the House Agriculture Committee (Chairman Mike Conaway), the Science Space and Technology Committee (Chairman Lamar Smith), and the House Judiciary Committee (Ranking Member Doug Collins). She began her career on the Senate side working for her home state senator, Strom Thurmond. After the Senator retired in 2003, Ashley worked for the Air Force General Counsel’s Office. Ashley earned her BA in English at the University of South Carolina and her JD at the Antonin Scalia Law School. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and three children
Chief Investigative Counsel, Senate Finance Subcommittee
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Allison Murphy is a partner in the Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Allison has been a legal and strategic counselor on high-profile investigations with broad reach across the government and private sector, including as White House Associate Counsel under President Obama. She has managed congressional investigations from all angles. Most recently, Allison was Chief Oversight Counsel of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Majority Staff. She also served in the Senate as Counsel for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Previously, Allison was Attorney Advisor to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Division of Enforcement. She began her legal career as an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr.
Chief Oversight Counsel, Senate Committee on Finance
Chris Armstrong is Deputy Chief Oversight Counsel to Chairman Orrin G. Hatch on the Senate Committee on Finance. He previously worked for Chairman Dave Camp on the House Committee on Ways and Means and Senator Charles E. Grassley. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group. The views expressed herein are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Chairman Hatch or the Finance Committee.
Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Michael Bopp is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is Chair of the Public Policy Practice Group and a member of the Firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations and Crisis Management Practice Groups, where he chairs the firm’s Congressional Investigations Subgroup. He also chairs the firm’s Financial Markets Crisis Group, a multi-disciplinary group formed to address client concerns stemming from the credit and capital markets crisis. Mr. Bopp’s practice focuses on congressional, internal corporate, and other government investigations, public policy consulting in a variety of fields, and managing and responding to major crises involving multiple government agencies and branches.
From 2006-2008, Mr. Bopp served as Associate Director of OMB and was responsible for overseeing budgets and coordinating regulatory, legislative, and other policy for approximately $150 billion worth of spending for various government agencies, including the Departments of Treasury, Homeland Security, Transportation, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce, the General Services Administration, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
From 2003 to 2006, he served as Staff Director and Chief Counsel of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, one of the Senate's largest committees and most expansive in terms of jurisdiction. He oversaw more than 100 hearings, led numerous investigations and was a primary drafter of key legislation, including the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the most significant reform of the intelligence community in more than 50 years, and 2006 legislation strengthening port security and overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He also directed a 50-person investigation of the failure of preparations and response to Hurricane Katrina. The investigation included 22 hearings, 325 witnesses, more than 800,000 pages of documents and an 800 page report.
Mr. Bopp served as Legislative Director and General Counsel to Senator Susan Collins of Maine from 1999 to 2003. He was Chief Counsel to the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Education and the Workforce in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1998 to 1999, where he investigated alleged improper activities undertaken by Teamsters' officials. Before that, he worked on the Congressional investigation of campaign finance abuses as senior investigative counsel to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight and as counsel for the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. He also previously served as counsel on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Mr. Bopp served as outside general counsel to the campaign to re-elect Senator Susan Collins.
Mr. Bopp received his law degree cum laude in 1992 from Harvard Law School where he was Articles Editor on the Journal of Law and Public Policy. He graduated magna cum laude, with honors, in public policy from Brown University in 1987.
General Counsel, Office of Speaker Mike Johnson
Ashley Callen has served in the legislative and executive branches for nearly 25 years. Currently, she serves as General Counsel to Speaker Mike Johnson. Prior to her current role, she was General Counsel to Majority Leader Steve Scalise. She got to know Leader Scalise during the 117th Congress serving as the top staffer on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as well as serving then-Ranking Member James Comer as Deputy Staff Director of the Oversight and Reform Committee. Ashley has also served as a top oversight and investigations staffer at the House Agriculture Committee (Chairman Mike Conaway), the Science Space and Technology Committee (Chairman Lamar Smith), and the House Judiciary Committee (Ranking Member Doug Collins). She began her career on the Senate side working for her home state senator, Strom Thurmond. After the Senator retired in 2003, Ashley worked for the Air Force General Counsel’s Office. Ashley earned her BA in English at the University of South Carolina and her JD at the Antonin Scalia Law School. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and three children
Chief Investigative Counsel, Senate Finance Subcommittee
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Allison Murphy is a partner in the Government, Regulatory & Internal Investigations Practice Group in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Allison has been a legal and strategic counselor on high-profile investigations with broad reach across the government and private sector, including as White House Associate Counsel under President Obama. She has managed congressional investigations from all angles. Most recently, Allison was Chief Oversight Counsel of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, Majority Staff. She also served in the Senate as Counsel for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Previously, Allison was Attorney Advisor to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Division of Enforcement. She began her legal career as an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr.
United States Attorney, Eastern District of Kentucky
Robert M. Duncan, Jr. is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on August 3, 2017, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 2017.
Prior to his appointment, Duncan had served for more than a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Beginning in 2011 and continuing until his appointment as United States Attorney, Duncan focused on the prosecution of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force cases, working with federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel to disrupt and dismantle complex drug trafficking and money laundering organizations operating in the District and elsewhere. From 2007 to 2013, Duncan served as coordinator of the office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, a Department of Justice initiative to reduce gun and gang crime through education, community outreach, and prosecution.
Attorney, Sheehey Furlong & Behm P.C.
Christina E. Nolan, the former United States Attorney for Vermont, is a principal in the firm. She focuses on complex civil litigation, defense of government enforcement actions, false claims act defense and enforcement, white collar and serious felony criminal defense, and internal investigations. Having previously served as a state and federal prosecutor, Christina has tried more than a dozen cases to juries, regularly handled evidentiary hearings before federal and state trial courts, and appeared several times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Christina, a native Vermonter, was employed from 2010 to 2021 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont (USAO), serving first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for nearly 8 years, and then leading the office as U.S. Attorney from November 2017 until March 2021. Following the bipartisan recommendation of Senator Patrick Leahy and Governor Phil Scott, Christina was nominated for the chief law enforcement officer post by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Christina supervised all federal criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions in Vermont, served as chief spokesperson for federal law enforcement and the USAO, and partnered with community leaders and government officials to promote criminal justice policies and launch community-based and law enforcement initiatives.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr selected Christina as one of a dozen U.S. Attorneys to sit on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which advises the Attorney General on all aspects of criminal and civil policy. Christina chaired the Advisory Committee’s Controlled Substances Subcommittee (CSS), and was a member of its Health Care Fraud and Domestic Violence Working Groups. Christina also cochaired the Justice Department’s initiative to combat sexual harassment in housing during the pandemic and helped lead the Attorney General’s effort to implement police reform pursuant to the 2020 Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities. In her capacity as leader of the CSS, Christina testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee concerning fentanyl enforcement policy and proposed fentanyl legislation. In Vermont, Christina sat on Governor Scott’s Opioid Coordination, Substance Misuse, and Emergency Preparedness Councils and cochaired the Vermont Human Trafficking Task Force.
As U.S. Attorney, Christina actively supervised a range of criminal and civil cases involving drug trafficking; firearms and violence; human trafficking; organized crime; child exploitation; wire, health care, bank, and securities fraud; embezzlement and money laundering; government contracting fraud; medical malpractice; and federal False Claims Act enforcement. Under Christina’s leadership, the USAO resolved criminal felony antikickback charges and civil False Claims Act claims against Purdue Pharma L.P. as part of the largest criminal resolution ever reached against a pharmaceutical company; charged the largest fraud case in Vermont history relating to the EB-5/Jay Peak financial scandal in the Northeast Kingdom and obtained a guilty plea from the lead defendant; and secured unprecedented False Claims Act civil and criminal settlements against healthcare companies that garnered national attention.
As a federal prosecutor, Christina investigated and prosecuted financial, narcotics, violent, child exploitation, and other crimes. She tried six federal cases to juries, each trial resulting in conviction. Among her most notable cases was the prosecution and conviction of Richard Monroe for the drug-related murder of University of Vermont student, Kevin DeOliveira, in Burlington. Monroe is serving a 25-year sentence. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, Christina was also tasked with oversight of all opioid trafficking prosecutions and investigations in Eastern Vermont and served as the USAO’s Violent Crime Coordinator.
Before joining the USAO, Christina served as an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, where she tried numerous cases to juries and prosecuted a variety of state crimes, including DUI, drug trafficking, firearms, and domestic violence matters. From 2005 to 2009, Nolan worked as a litigation associate at Goodwin Procter, LLP, a large Boston law firm. In that role, she represented white collar defendants, conducted internal investigation, supervised complex civil litigation, and played a managerial role in the representation of a corporate executive in a high-profile federal securities fraud prosecution. The securities fraud case ended in dismissal of charges against the client.
After law school, Christina clerked for The Honorable F. Dennis Saylor, IV of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Christina graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School in 2004, where she served a Senior Editor on the Boston College Law Review. She earned her Bachelor’s degrees in political science and history from the University of Vermont, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy, The University of Chicago
Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and directs the Becker Friedman Institute’s Program on Foundational Research in Health Care Markets and Policies within the Health Economics Initiative. He is also an associate member of the Department of Economics and a former senior lecturer at the Law School. His research focuses on health economics, and he teaches master's and PhD courses in microeconomics and health economics at the University.
Philipson is a US citizen but was born and raised in Sweden where he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Uppsala University. He received his MA and PhD in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting faculty member at Yale University and a visiting senior fellow at the World Bank.
Philipson has served in several public sector positions. He served in the second Bush Administration as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration and subsequently as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He served as a health care advisor to Senator John McCain during his campaign for President of the United States. He was appointed by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to the Key Indicator Commission created by the Affordable Care Act. He has served as a scientific advisor to Congress on the 21st Century Cures legislation and on the steering committee of Vice President Biden's Cancer Moon Shot Initiative.
Philipson is the recipient of numerous international and national research awards. He has twice been the recipient of the highest honor of his field: the Kenneth Arrow Award of the International Health Economics Association (for best paper in the field of health economics). In addition, he was awarded the Garfield Award by Research America, The Prêmio Haralambos Simeonidisand from the Brazilian Economic Association, and the Distinguished Economic Research Award from the Milken Institute. Philipson has been awarded numerous grants and awards from both public and private agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Philipson is a founding editor of the journal Forums for Health Economics & Policy of Berkeley Electronic Press and has been on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics and The European Journal of Health Economics. His research has been published widely in all leading academic journals of economics such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Health Economics, Health Affairs, and Econometrica.
Philipson is a fellow, board member, or associate of a number of other organizations outside the University of Chicago, including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute (where he was chairman of Project FDA), the Heartland Institute, the Milken Institute, the RAND Corporation, and the USC Shaeffer Center for Health Economics and Policy. At the University of Chicago, he is affiliated with the John M. Olin Program of Law & Economics, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, the Population Research Center, and NORC. He has served on the University-wide Council on Research and on the Advisory Committee to the University's Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer.
Philipson has done executive consulting for both private corporations, including many US Fortune 100 companies, as well as government organizations domestically and internationally. This has included work for the President's Council on Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences, and the UK National Health Service. It has also included work for multi-lateral organizations such as the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the OECD. In 2007 he co-founded Precision Heath Economics LLC, which was sold in 2015 to Precision for Medicine Group LLC.
Philipson’s research is frequently disseminated through the popular press. He is a monthly op-ed contributor for Forbes magazine and frequently appears in numerous popular media outlets such as CNN, CBS, FOX News, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, The Economist, Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, and USA Today. He is a frequent keynote speaker at many domestic and international health care events and conferences.
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Jeffrey A. Singer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and works in the Department of Health Policy Studies. He is principal and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics Ltd., the largest and oldest group private surgical practice in Arizona, and has been in private practice as a general surgeon for more than 35 years.
He is also a visiting fellow at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Singer is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health. From 1994 to 2016, he was a regular contributor to Arizona Medicine, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University from 2014 to 2018 and is an adjunct instructor in the Program on Political History and Leadership at ASU. He writes and speaks extensively on regional and national public policy, with a specific focus on the areas of health care policy and the harmful effects of drug prohibition.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and his MD from New York Medical College. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
United States Attorney, Eastern District of Kentucky
Robert M. Duncan, Jr. is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on August 3, 2017, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 2017.
Prior to his appointment, Duncan had served for more than a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Beginning in 2011 and continuing until his appointment as United States Attorney, Duncan focused on the prosecution of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force cases, working with federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel to disrupt and dismantle complex drug trafficking and money laundering organizations operating in the District and elsewhere. From 2007 to 2013, Duncan served as coordinator of the office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, a Department of Justice initiative to reduce gun and gang crime through education, community outreach, and prosecution.
Attorney, Sheehey Furlong & Behm P.C.
Christina E. Nolan, the former United States Attorney for Vermont, is a principal in the firm. She focuses on complex civil litigation, defense of government enforcement actions, false claims act defense and enforcement, white collar and serious felony criminal defense, and internal investigations. Having previously served as a state and federal prosecutor, Christina has tried more than a dozen cases to juries, regularly handled evidentiary hearings before federal and state trial courts, and appeared several times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Christina, a native Vermonter, was employed from 2010 to 2021 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont (USAO), serving first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for nearly 8 years, and then leading the office as U.S. Attorney from November 2017 until March 2021. Following the bipartisan recommendation of Senator Patrick Leahy and Governor Phil Scott, Christina was nominated for the chief law enforcement officer post by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Christina supervised all federal criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions in Vermont, served as chief spokesperson for federal law enforcement and the USAO, and partnered with community leaders and government officials to promote criminal justice policies and launch community-based and law enforcement initiatives.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr selected Christina as one of a dozen U.S. Attorneys to sit on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which advises the Attorney General on all aspects of criminal and civil policy. Christina chaired the Advisory Committee’s Controlled Substances Subcommittee (CSS), and was a member of its Health Care Fraud and Domestic Violence Working Groups. Christina also cochaired the Justice Department’s initiative to combat sexual harassment in housing during the pandemic and helped lead the Attorney General’s effort to implement police reform pursuant to the 2020 Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities. In her capacity as leader of the CSS, Christina testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee concerning fentanyl enforcement policy and proposed fentanyl legislation. In Vermont, Christina sat on Governor Scott’s Opioid Coordination, Substance Misuse, and Emergency Preparedness Councils and cochaired the Vermont Human Trafficking Task Force.
As U.S. Attorney, Christina actively supervised a range of criminal and civil cases involving drug trafficking; firearms and violence; human trafficking; organized crime; child exploitation; wire, health care, bank, and securities fraud; embezzlement and money laundering; government contracting fraud; medical malpractice; and federal False Claims Act enforcement. Under Christina’s leadership, the USAO resolved criminal felony antikickback charges and civil False Claims Act claims against Purdue Pharma L.P. as part of the largest criminal resolution ever reached against a pharmaceutical company; charged the largest fraud case in Vermont history relating to the EB-5/Jay Peak financial scandal in the Northeast Kingdom and obtained a guilty plea from the lead defendant; and secured unprecedented False Claims Act civil and criminal settlements against healthcare companies that garnered national attention.
As a federal prosecutor, Christina investigated and prosecuted financial, narcotics, violent, child exploitation, and other crimes. She tried six federal cases to juries, each trial resulting in conviction. Among her most notable cases was the prosecution and conviction of Richard Monroe for the drug-related murder of University of Vermont student, Kevin DeOliveira, in Burlington. Monroe is serving a 25-year sentence. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, Christina was also tasked with oversight of all opioid trafficking prosecutions and investigations in Eastern Vermont and served as the USAO’s Violent Crime Coordinator.
Before joining the USAO, Christina served as an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, where she tried numerous cases to juries and prosecuted a variety of state crimes, including DUI, drug trafficking, firearms, and domestic violence matters. From 2005 to 2009, Nolan worked as a litigation associate at Goodwin Procter, LLP, a large Boston law firm. In that role, she represented white collar defendants, conducted internal investigation, supervised complex civil litigation, and played a managerial role in the representation of a corporate executive in a high-profile federal securities fraud prosecution. The securities fraud case ended in dismissal of charges against the client.
After law school, Christina clerked for The Honorable F. Dennis Saylor, IV of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Christina graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School in 2004, where she served a Senior Editor on the Boston College Law Review. She earned her Bachelor’s degrees in political science and history from the University of Vermont, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy, The University of Chicago
Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and directs the Becker Friedman Institute’s Program on Foundational Research in Health Care Markets and Policies within the Health Economics Initiative. He is also an associate member of the Department of Economics and a former senior lecturer at the Law School. His research focuses on health economics, and he teaches master's and PhD courses in microeconomics and health economics at the University.
Philipson is a US citizen but was born and raised in Sweden where he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Uppsala University. He received his MA and PhD in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting faculty member at Yale University and a visiting senior fellow at the World Bank.
Philipson has served in several public sector positions. He served in the second Bush Administration as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration and subsequently as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He served as a health care advisor to Senator John McCain during his campaign for President of the United States. He was appointed by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to the Key Indicator Commission created by the Affordable Care Act. He has served as a scientific advisor to Congress on the 21st Century Cures legislation and on the steering committee of Vice President Biden's Cancer Moon Shot Initiative.
Philipson is the recipient of numerous international and national research awards. He has twice been the recipient of the highest honor of his field: the Kenneth Arrow Award of the International Health Economics Association (for best paper in the field of health economics). In addition, he was awarded the Garfield Award by Research America, The Prêmio Haralambos Simeonidisand from the Brazilian Economic Association, and the Distinguished Economic Research Award from the Milken Institute. Philipson has been awarded numerous grants and awards from both public and private agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Philipson is a founding editor of the journal Forums for Health Economics & Policy of Berkeley Electronic Press and has been on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics and The European Journal of Health Economics. His research has been published widely in all leading academic journals of economics such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Health Economics, Health Affairs, and Econometrica.
Philipson is a fellow, board member, or associate of a number of other organizations outside the University of Chicago, including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute (where he was chairman of Project FDA), the Heartland Institute, the Milken Institute, the RAND Corporation, and the USC Shaeffer Center for Health Economics and Policy. At the University of Chicago, he is affiliated with the John M. Olin Program of Law & Economics, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, the Population Research Center, and NORC. He has served on the University-wide Council on Research and on the Advisory Committee to the University's Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer.
Philipson has done executive consulting for both private corporations, including many US Fortune 100 companies, as well as government organizations domestically and internationally. This has included work for the President's Council on Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences, and the UK National Health Service. It has also included work for multi-lateral organizations such as the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the OECD. In 2007 he co-founded Precision Heath Economics LLC, which was sold in 2015 to Precision for Medicine Group LLC.
Philipson’s research is frequently disseminated through the popular press. He is a monthly op-ed contributor for Forbes magazine and frequently appears in numerous popular media outlets such as CNN, CBS, FOX News, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, The Economist, Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, and USA Today. He is a frequent keynote speaker at many domestic and international health care events and conferences.
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Jeffrey A. Singer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and works in the Department of Health Policy Studies. He is principal and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics Ltd., the largest and oldest group private surgical practice in Arizona, and has been in private practice as a general surgeon for more than 35 years.
He is also a visiting fellow at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Singer is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health. From 1994 to 2016, he was a regular contributor to Arizona Medicine, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University from 2014 to 2018 and is an adjunct instructor in the Program on Political History and Leadership at ASU. He writes and speaks extensively on regional and national public policy, with a specific focus on the areas of health care policy and the harmful effects of drug prohibition.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and his MD from New York Medical College. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
University Professor of Law and Executive Director, Liberty & Law Center, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
David Bernstein holds a University Professorship chair at the Antonin Scalia Law School, where he has been teaching since 1995. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, Georgetown University, William & Mary, Brooklyn Law School, the University of Turin, and Hebrew University. Professor Bernstein teaches Constitutional Law, Evidence, and Products Liability.
A prolific author, Professor Bernstein often challenges the conventional wisdom with prodigious research and sharp, original analysis. He is the author of five books, and coauthor of two more. Professor Bernstein’s book Rehabilitating Lochner was praised across the political spectrum as “intellectual history in its highest form,” a “fresh perspective and a cogent analysis,” “delightful and informative,” “sharp and iconoclastic,” and “a terrific work of historical revisionism.” Columnist George Will praised Bernstein’s most recent book, Classified, The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America, as “perhaps the most consequential American book of 2022.”
Professor Bernstein has also written dozens of articles and essays published in major law reviews, including the California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and Yale Law Journal. An article he coauthored, Defending Daubert: It’s Time to Amend Federal Rule of Evidence 702, directly inspired a pending amendment to Rule 702.
Professor Bernstein blogs at the Instapundit.com, the Times of Israel, and the Volokh Conspiracy. He is a graduate of the Yale Law School, where he was senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and a John M. Olin Fellow in Law, Economics, and Public Policy.
Editor, The Weekly Standard
William Kristol is the editor of The Weekly Standard. He is also a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday, a contributor for the Fox News Channel, and a monthly columnist for the Washington Post. Before starting the Weekly Standard in 1995, Mr. Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. Prior to that, Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle during the first Bush Administration, and to Education Secretary William Bennett under President Reagan. Before coming to Washington in 1985, Mr. Kristol was on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Founder, Eagle Forum
Phyllis Schlafly was a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She created the pro-family movement in 1972, when she started her national volunteer organization called Eagle Forum. In a ten-year battle, Mrs. Schlafly led the pro-family movement to victory over the principal legislative goal of the radical feminists, called the Equal Rights Amendment. An articulate and successful opponent of the radical feminist movement, she debated on college campuses more frequently than any other conservative. She was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the Ladies’ Home Journal.
Mrs. Schlafly’s monthly newsletter called The Phyllis Schlafly Report was published for fifty years. At her request, the monthly newsletter was renamed after her death to the Eagle Forum Report: the Successor to The Phyllis Schlafly Report. Eagle Forum is the publisher of the Eagle Forum Report.
Her syndicated column appeared in 100 newspapers, and on many conservative websites.
Mrs. Schlafly was the author or editor of 27 books on subjects as varied as family and feminism (The Power of the Positive Woman and Feminist Fantasies); the judiciary (The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It); religion (No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom); nuclear strategy (Strike From Space and Kissinger on the Couch); education (Child Abuse in the Classroom); child care (Who Will Rock the Cradle?); and phonics (First Reader and Turbo Reader).
Mrs. Schlafly was a lawyer and served as a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1985-1991, appointed by President Ronald Reagan. She testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues.
Mrs. Schlafly was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington University, received her Master’s in Political Science from Harvard University, and received her J.D. from Washington University Law School. In 2008, Washington University/St. Louis awarded Phyllis Schlafly an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
Phyllis Schlafly was America’s best-known advocate of the dignity and honor that we as a society owe to the role of fulltime homemaker. The mother of six children, she was the 1992 Illinois Mother of the Year.
Author, Journalist, Researcher, and Consultant
Karl Zinsmeister is an experienced executive, original researcher, and productive author with deep analytical, communications, public-policy, creative, and marketing skills—including high-level experience managing a range of publications, businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies. He is currently a consultant to major business figures and wealth creators as a designer of large-scale philanthropy projects, historian of American civil society, and expert on social reform and culture change.
He has written a dozen books—embedded war reporting, histories, political analysis, reference works, a novel, literary collections, academic volumes, a storytelling cookbook, even a book-length Marvel comic book. Two of his works have recently been optioned for development into a television series and a documentary film. He has edited or co-produced many other books.
Zinsmeister's magazine and newspaper journalism totals several hundred articles. These have been published in a wide range of national publications, from cover stories for The Atlantic to essays in the Wall Street Journal, where he is a frequent contributor. Karl also has more than two decades of experience as an Editor in Chief, managing writing, artistic, and business teams producing nationally circulated magazines of thought and culture.
He created The Almanac of American Philanthropy—the authoritative 1,342-page reference on private giving that is often referred to as “the bible” documenting America's distinctive tradition of solving major problems through civil society and voluntary action. Between cash contributions and volunteer labor, philanthropy is approaching the trillion-dollar level as an annual undertaking in the U.S., and it is one of our country's most potent sources of social innovation and improvement.
Zinsmeister established the nation's first independent advisory on philanthropy for veterans and servicemembers. He raised $15 million and designed an unprecedented randomized-control experiment to prove out better ways of assisting men and women injured during military service.
He created the “Sweet Charity” podcast, presenting 5-10 minute stories on important achievements in philanthropic creativity. He wrote and edited a series of “Wise Giver's Guides” offering donors practical help in specific fields. The volumes he authored himself include one analyzing charter schools, and another on the relationship between philanthropy and public policy.
In response to national concern over polarization and government stalemate, Zinsmeister researched and released a political/historical work What Comes Next?, describing how America can be dramatically improved by private actors even amidst political gridlock, documented by encouraging examples from our past.
From 2006 to 2009 Zinsmeister served in the West Wing as President George W. Bush’s chief domestic policy adviser. His responsibilities stretched across many issues: the formulation of new immigration policies, the mortgage and student-loan credit crises, stem-cell and biotechnology innovation, improving care for military veterans, school reform, issues in health, transportation, environmental quality, and national competitiveness.
Earlier in his career Karl was a U.S. Senate aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He has been an adviser to many public policy groups, and has testified before Congressional committees and Presidential commissions on topics including family issues, economic policy, and the Iraq war.
For more than a decade, Zinsmeister occupied the J. B. Fuqua Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, a premier Washington, D.C. think tank, where he researched economic, demographic, and cultural topics. While there he created an acclaimed national monthly magazine of politics, business, and culture, The American Enterprise. Author and former Cabinet Secretary William Bennett called it “one of America’s finest magazines.... intellectually interesting, well-written, lively, wide-ranging, and above all useful.” Zinsmeister wrote nearly 300 articles for the magazine, and conducted interviews with public figures extending from Rudy Giuliani to Pat Moynihan, Andres Duany to Rupert Murdoch.
In concert with his wife, Zinsmeister conceived and produced a feature documentary film entitled Warriors that aired nationally on PBS in 2007. The film won $450,000 of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in a major international competition. It presented personal profiles of America’s fighting forces via on-the-scene footage that Zinsmeister and two combat cameramen shot in Iraq. The New York Times described Warriors as “entirely compelling.” Footage from the film was used as a plot item in the final week of the HBO television series The Sopranos.
In the private sector, Zinsmeister was an executive in his native region of upstate New York at the Stickley company—an historic firm that designs, manufactures, and markets iconic American Arts & Crafts furniture designs worldwide. His responsibilities included marketing and sales, advertising, catalogs, photography, websites, communications, the Stickley Museum, some product design, and the modernization of many business and data systems. Zinsmeister has also operated his own businesses over a period of years, including designing, financing, renovating, and building eight properties with historic appeal, in Washington and New York.
A graduate of Yale University, Zinsmeister did further studies at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. During college he won national rowing championships in both the U.S. and Ireland. He has given hundreds of public lectures, originated a weekly radio commentary syndicated to 100 stations, and appeared often on a wide variety of national television and radio programs. He has lived, worked, or traveled in 40 countries, and nearly every U.S. state. He holds the highest U.S. security clearance.
Zinsmeister is married and has three grown children. He is an active outdoorsman, enjoys extended wilderness backpacking trips, and swims, bicycles, sculls, skis, and hikes often. He has been an avid photographer, woodworker, gardener and keeper of hens, taught Sunday school, and sung in church choirs. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. on a houseboat he designed and built himself.
Writer, Historian, and Lecturer
Elizabeth Ann Fox-Genovese (May 28, 1941 – January 2, 2007) was an American historian best known for her works on women and society in the Antebellum South. A Marxist early on in her career, she later converted to Roman Catholicism and became a primary voice of the conservative women's movement. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2003.
Voss-Bascom Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School
Jane Larson (1958–2011) was the Voss-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Jane was born in Omaha, Neb., the oldest daughter of Donald G. and Wilma M. Larson. She graduated from Alameda West High School in Pleasanton, Calif. She received her undergraduate degree Phi Beta Kappa with a specialization in women's history from Macalester College in 1980. She received her law degree with high honors from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1985. She worked as a judicial clerk for Justice Rosalie Wahl of the Minnesota Supreme Court and for Judge Theodore McMillian of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. From 1987 to 1990, she was an associate at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy.
In 1990, she joined the law faculty at Northwestern University School of Law, where she published a series of noted articles on legal history, property rights and social regulation, with particular emphasis on the rights of women and the poor (for example, "Free Markets Deep in the Heart of Texas," Georgetown Law Journal, 1995.) In 1996, she joined the faculty of University of Wisconsin Law School, where she continued her writing and lecturing on feminist legal theory and property law. Her academic writing has been called "a model of how to integrate the history of doctrine with the surrounding social values." She was an inspiring teacher, a self-taught decoder of Oriental rugs, and a jazz aficionado who requested Coltrane in lieu of epidural during the birth of her son, Simon. When she retired in October 2011, she was the Voss-Bascom Professor of Law.
Writer, Historian, and Lecturer
Elizabeth Ann Fox-Genovese (May 28, 1941 – January 2, 2007) was an American historian best known for her works on women and society in the Antebellum South. A Marxist early on in her career, she later converted to Roman Catholicism and became a primary voice of the conservative women's movement. She was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2003.
Editor, The Weekly Standard
William Kristol is the editor of The Weekly Standard. He is also a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday, a contributor for the Fox News Channel, and a monthly columnist for the Washington Post. Before starting the Weekly Standard in 1995, Mr. Kristol led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. Prior to that, Mr. Kristol served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle during the first Bush Administration, and to Education Secretary William Bennett under President Reagan. Before coming to Washington in 1985, Mr. Kristol was on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the Department of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Voss-Bascom Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School
Jane Larson (1958–2011) was the Voss-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Jane was born in Omaha, Neb., the oldest daughter of Donald G. and Wilma M. Larson. She graduated from Alameda West High School in Pleasanton, Calif. She received her undergraduate degree Phi Beta Kappa with a specialization in women's history from Macalester College in 1980. She received her law degree with high honors from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1985. She worked as a judicial clerk for Justice Rosalie Wahl of the Minnesota Supreme Court and for Judge Theodore McMillian of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. From 1987 to 1990, she was an associate at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy.
In 1990, she joined the law faculty at Northwestern University School of Law, where she published a series of noted articles on legal history, property rights and social regulation, with particular emphasis on the rights of women and the poor (for example, "Free Markets Deep in the Heart of Texas," Georgetown Law Journal, 1995.) In 1996, she joined the faculty of University of Wisconsin Law School, where she continued her writing and lecturing on feminist legal theory and property law. Her academic writing has been called "a model of how to integrate the history of doctrine with the surrounding social values." She was an inspiring teacher, a self-taught decoder of Oriental rugs, and a jazz aficionado who requested Coltrane in lieu of epidural during the birth of her son, Simon. When she retired in October 2011, she was the Voss-Bascom Professor of Law.
Founder, Eagle Forum
Phyllis Schlafly was a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She created the pro-family movement in 1972, when she started her national volunteer organization called Eagle Forum. In a ten-year battle, Mrs. Schlafly led the pro-family movement to victory over the principal legislative goal of the radical feminists, called the Equal Rights Amendment. An articulate and successful opponent of the radical feminist movement, she debated on college campuses more frequently than any other conservative. She was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the Ladies’ Home Journal.
Mrs. Schlafly’s monthly newsletter called The Phyllis Schlafly Report was published for fifty years. At her request, the monthly newsletter was renamed after her death to the Eagle Forum Report: the Successor to The Phyllis Schlafly Report. Eagle Forum is the publisher of the Eagle Forum Report.
Her syndicated column appeared in 100 newspapers, and on many conservative websites.
Mrs. Schlafly was the author or editor of 27 books on subjects as varied as family and feminism (The Power of the Positive Woman and Feminist Fantasies); the judiciary (The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It); religion (No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom); nuclear strategy (Strike From Space and Kissinger on the Couch); education (Child Abuse in the Classroom); child care (Who Will Rock the Cradle?); and phonics (First Reader and Turbo Reader).
Mrs. Schlafly was a lawyer and served as a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1985-1991, appointed by President Ronald Reagan. She testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues.
Mrs. Schlafly was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington University, received her Master’s in Political Science from Harvard University, and received her J.D. from Washington University Law School. In 2008, Washington University/St. Louis awarded Phyllis Schlafly an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
Phyllis Schlafly was America’s best-known advocate of the dignity and honor that we as a society owe to the role of fulltime homemaker. The mother of six children, she was the 1992 Illinois Mother of the Year.
Author, Journalist, Researcher, and Consultant
Karl Zinsmeister is an experienced executive, original researcher, and productive author with deep analytical, communications, public-policy, creative, and marketing skills—including high-level experience managing a range of publications, businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies. He is currently a consultant to major business figures and wealth creators as a designer of large-scale philanthropy projects, historian of American civil society, and expert on social reform and culture change.
He has written a dozen books—embedded war reporting, histories, political analysis, reference works, a novel, literary collections, academic volumes, a storytelling cookbook, even a book-length Marvel comic book. Two of his works have recently been optioned for development into a television series and a documentary film. He has edited or co-produced many other books.
Zinsmeister's magazine and newspaper journalism totals several hundred articles. These have been published in a wide range of national publications, from cover stories for The Atlantic to essays in the Wall Street Journal, where he is a frequent contributor. Karl also has more than two decades of experience as an Editor in Chief, managing writing, artistic, and business teams producing nationally circulated magazines of thought and culture.
He created The Almanac of American Philanthropy—the authoritative 1,342-page reference on private giving that is often referred to as “the bible” documenting America's distinctive tradition of solving major problems through civil society and voluntary action. Between cash contributions and volunteer labor, philanthropy is approaching the trillion-dollar level as an annual undertaking in the U.S., and it is one of our country's most potent sources of social innovation and improvement.
Zinsmeister established the nation's first independent advisory on philanthropy for veterans and servicemembers. He raised $15 million and designed an unprecedented randomized-control experiment to prove out better ways of assisting men and women injured during military service.
He created the “Sweet Charity” podcast, presenting 5-10 minute stories on important achievements in philanthropic creativity. He wrote and edited a series of “Wise Giver's Guides” offering donors practical help in specific fields. The volumes he authored himself include one analyzing charter schools, and another on the relationship between philanthropy and public policy.
In response to national concern over polarization and government stalemate, Zinsmeister researched and released a political/historical work What Comes Next?, describing how America can be dramatically improved by private actors even amidst political gridlock, documented by encouraging examples from our past.
From 2006 to 2009 Zinsmeister served in the West Wing as President George W. Bush’s chief domestic policy adviser. His responsibilities stretched across many issues: the formulation of new immigration policies, the mortgage and student-loan credit crises, stem-cell and biotechnology innovation, improving care for military veterans, school reform, issues in health, transportation, environmental quality, and national competitiveness.
Earlier in his career Karl was a U.S. Senate aide to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He has been an adviser to many public policy groups, and has testified before Congressional committees and Presidential commissions on topics including family issues, economic policy, and the Iraq war.
For more than a decade, Zinsmeister occupied the J. B. Fuqua Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, a premier Washington, D.C. think tank, where he researched economic, demographic, and cultural topics. While there he created an acclaimed national monthly magazine of politics, business, and culture, The American Enterprise. Author and former Cabinet Secretary William Bennett called it “one of America’s finest magazines.... intellectually interesting, well-written, lively, wide-ranging, and above all useful.” Zinsmeister wrote nearly 300 articles for the magazine, and conducted interviews with public figures extending from Rudy Giuliani to Pat Moynihan, Andres Duany to Rupert Murdoch.
In concert with his wife, Zinsmeister conceived and produced a feature documentary film entitled Warriors that aired nationally on PBS in 2007. The film won $450,000 of funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in a major international competition. It presented personal profiles of America’s fighting forces via on-the-scene footage that Zinsmeister and two combat cameramen shot in Iraq. The New York Times described Warriors as “entirely compelling.” Footage from the film was used as a plot item in the final week of the HBO television series The Sopranos.
In the private sector, Zinsmeister was an executive in his native region of upstate New York at the Stickley company—an historic firm that designs, manufactures, and markets iconic American Arts & Crafts furniture designs worldwide. His responsibilities included marketing and sales, advertising, catalogs, photography, websites, communications, the Stickley Museum, some product design, and the modernization of many business and data systems. Zinsmeister has also operated his own businesses over a period of years, including designing, financing, renovating, and building eight properties with historic appeal, in Washington and New York.
A graduate of Yale University, Zinsmeister did further studies at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. During college he won national rowing championships in both the U.S. and Ireland. He has given hundreds of public lectures, originated a weekly radio commentary syndicated to 100 stations, and appeared often on a wide variety of national television and radio programs. He has lived, worked, or traveled in 40 countries, and nearly every U.S. state. He holds the highest U.S. security clearance.
Zinsmeister is married and has three grown children. He is an active outdoorsman, enjoys extended wilderness backpacking trips, and swims, bicycles, sculls, skis, and hikes often. He has been an avid photographer, woodworker, gardener and keeper of hens, taught Sunday school, and sung in church choirs. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. on a houseboat he designed and built himself.
Thomas B. Pahl is the Retired Deputy Director of the CFPB where he served from July 2020 through January 2021. Before his term at the CFPB, Pahl served as Policy Associate Director for Research, Markets, and Regulations beginning in April 2018. Previously, Pahl was the Acting Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission.
From 2013–2016, Tom served as Managing Counsel for the Office of Regulations at the CFPB. He has also held previous roles at the FTC focused on enforcement, rulemaking, and policy on financial services matters, including Assistant Director of the Division of Financial Practices. Pahl received his BA from the College of St. Thomas and his JD from Northwestern University School of Law.
Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
David Silberman has been involved in consumer finance issues from a wide range of perspectives for over three decades. As President and CEO of Union Privilege, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, he led the development and oversaw the delivery of a range of consumer financial products and services to union members. After leaving Union Privilege, Mr. Silberman served as General Counsel and Executive Vice President of the Kessler Financial Services, a privately-held company providing marketing and advisory services to financial institutions and their affinity-group partners.
Following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, Mr. Silberman joined the implementation team for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and in 2011 was named the Associate Director for the Division of Research, Markets, and Regulations. In 2016-2017, he also served as the Acting Deputy Director for the CFPB. Mr. Silberman retired from the CFPB in 2020, and now serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Responsible Lending , Senior Advisor to the Financial Health Network, and an Adjunct Professor at the McCourt School for Public Policy at Georgetown University. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation and as a member of the Advisory Committee of FinRegLab.
Mr. Silberman is a graduate of Brandeis University and of the Harvard Law School. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Chief Judge David Bazelon of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Before becoming involved with consumer financial services, Mr. Silberman was a labor lawyer with the firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser and as Deputy General Counsel of the AFL-CIO.
Managing Director, Banking Supervision and Regulation Group, Patomak Global Partners
Brian Johnson is Managing Director in the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group at Patomak Global Partners.
In this role, Mr. Johnson spearheads projects related to the regulation of consumer financial products under Keith Noreika, Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group and former acting Comptroller of the Currency.
Prior to joining Patomak, Mr. Johnson was a partner in Alston & Bird LLP’s financial services and products group. There, he advised financial institutions on consumer finance regulatory issues relating to product compliance, examination, enforcement investigations, and compliance management systems, and on strategic engagement with independent federal regulatory agencies and with Congress.
Mr. Johnson previously served as Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where he oversaw the agency’s rulemaking, supervision, and enforcement activities. He conceived and led the creation of high-profile agency initiatives, including the Office of Innovation, Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law, policy symposia series, and Start Small, Save Up emergency savings program. He also served as the CFPB representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council Deputies’ Committee and advised on interagency matters involving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Mr. Johnson held various positions on Capitol Hill, including policy director and chief financial institutions counsel on the House Committee on Financial Services, where his portfolio covered consumer protection and credit, mortgage origination, credit reporting, banking, and data security. His efforts on the committee involved drafting legislation to provide regulatory relief to bank, credit union, and nondepository financial institutions, as well as conducting oversight of the activities of the CFPB, Financial Stability Oversight Council, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Financial Research, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve System, and National Credit Union Administration.
Mr. Johnson received his juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law and his bachelor’s in economics from the University of Virginia.
John J. Flynn Endowed Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Christopher Peterson is the John J. Flynn Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law. He previously served as a Special Advisor in the Office of the Director at the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as a Special Advisor in the Office of Legal Policy for Personnel and Readiness in the United States Department of Defense, and as Senior Counsel for Enforcement Policy and Strategy in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Enforcement. Professor Peterson has written dozens of scholarly articles and published three books on consumer finance. He has frequently testified in Congressional hearings and has presented his research to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and at the White House in both Democratic and Republican administrations. He is a fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, the American Bar Association's Consumer Financial Services Committee, and serves on the community advisory board of the American Fintech Council. Professor Peterson is a recipient of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators’ Consumer Advocate of the Year award and the Pentagon’s Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence.
Partner, Alston & Bird
Nanci Weissgold is a co-leader of both Alston & Bird's Financial Services & Products Group and the firm’s Consumer Financial Services Team. As an acknowledged authority in her field, Nanci maintains a national practice on matters relating to consumer financial products and services and represent clients (including residential mortgage servicers, as well banks, non-bank consumer lenders, technology providers for the consumer financial services industry, AMC’s, and investors) in federal and state regulatory, supervisory, and enforcement matters. Nanci acts as regulatory counsel in connection with investments or acquisitions and perform compliance due diligence. Nanci is frequently called upon to provide litigation support and assist in the development of compliance management systems.
Nanci is a frequent speaker and presenter at legal and industry conferences and webinars, and has published numerous articles on mortgage banking, valuation, and consumer finance related topics. She served as articles editor of the Administrative Law Journal at American University. Nanci is a Fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers and serves on the nominating committee for the Board of Regents. She is peer rated in the Martindale-Hubbell® directory as AV Preeminent®, the highest level of professional excellence. Nanci is nationally ranked by Chambers USA in Financial Services Regulation: Consumer Finance (Compliance), and in 2018, she was honored by the Burton Awards as a recipient of a “Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award.”
George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
TODD J. ZYWICKI is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and Research Fellow of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. During the Fall 2023 semester he served as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the Bruce Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado-Boulder. From 2020-2021 he was Chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. In 2021 he was inducted to the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. He is also a Senior Fellow of the F.A. Hayek Program for the Advanced Study of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at George Mason University and a former Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute. From 2015-2017 he was Executive Director of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. He served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review from 2006-2017. From 2003-2004, Professor Zywicki served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. He has also taught at Vanderbilt University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Mississippi College School of Law, and China University of Political Science and Law.
Professor Zywicki clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and worked as an associate at Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia, where he practiced bankruptcy and commercial law. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Tax Review and John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics. Professor Zywicki also received an M.A. in Economics from Clemson University and an A.B. cum Laude with high honors in his major from Dartmouth College.
Professor Zywicki is also a Lone Mountain Fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center, a Fellow of the International Centre for Economic Research in Turin, Italy, and a former Senior Fellow of the Goldwater Institute. During the Fall 2008 Semester Professor Zywicki was the Searle Fellow of the George Mason University School of Law and was a 2008-09 W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the Arch W. Shaw National Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. He has lectured and consulted with government officials around the world, including Iceland, Italy, Japan, and Guatemala. In 2006 Professor Zywicki served as a Member of the United States Department of Justice Study Group on “Identifying Fraud, Abuse and Errors in the United States Bankruptcy System.”
Professor Zywicki is the author of more than 130 articles in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed economics journals. He is one of the Top 10 most-cited law professors in the field of Commercial Law and one of the Top 25 law professors on Twitter as measured by engagement levels. He is one of the Top 50 Most Downloaded Law Authors at the Social Science Research Network. He has testified multiple times before Congress on issues of consumer bankruptcy law and consumer credit and is a frequent commentator on legal issues in the print and broadcast media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Nightline, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Neil Cavuto Show, Fox & Friends, Smerconish, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg News, BBC, The Diane Rehm Show, Lou Dobbs Show, Jerry Doyle Show, and The Laura Ingraham Show.
Professor Zywicki is former Chairman and a current member of the Board of Directors of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Humane Studies, Bill of Rights Institute, the Executive Committee for the Federalist Society's Financial Institutions and E-Commerce Practice Group, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment. He formerly served on the Governing Board and the Advisory Council for the Financial Services Research Program at George Washington University School of Business. He is currently the Chair of the Academic Advisory Council for the following organizations: The Bill of Rights Institute, the film “We the People in IMAX,” and the McCormick-Tribune Foundation “Freedom Museum” in Chicago, Illinois. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Ralston College and was a member of the Board of Trustees of Yorktown University. From 2005-2009 he served as an elected Alumni Trustee of the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees.
Managing Director, Banking Supervision and Regulation Group, Patomak Global Partners
Brian Johnson is Managing Director in the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group at Patomak Global Partners.
In this role, Mr. Johnson spearheads projects related to the regulation of consumer financial products under Keith Noreika, Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group and former acting Comptroller of the Currency.
Prior to joining Patomak, Mr. Johnson was a partner in Alston & Bird LLP’s financial services and products group. There, he advised financial institutions on consumer finance regulatory issues relating to product compliance, examination, enforcement investigations, and compliance management systems, and on strategic engagement with independent federal regulatory agencies and with Congress.
Mr. Johnson previously served as Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where he oversaw the agency’s rulemaking, supervision, and enforcement activities. He conceived and led the creation of high-profile agency initiatives, including the Office of Innovation, Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law, policy symposia series, and Start Small, Save Up emergency savings program. He also served as the CFPB representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council Deputies’ Committee and advised on interagency matters involving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Mr. Johnson held various positions on Capitol Hill, including policy director and chief financial institutions counsel on the House Committee on Financial Services, where his portfolio covered consumer protection and credit, mortgage origination, credit reporting, banking, and data security. His efforts on the committee involved drafting legislation to provide regulatory relief to bank, credit union, and nondepository financial institutions, as well as conducting oversight of the activities of the CFPB, Financial Stability Oversight Council, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Financial Research, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve System, and National Credit Union Administration.
Mr. Johnson received his juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law and his bachelor’s in economics from the University of Virginia.
Foreign Policy in the Biden Administration
Eric J. Kadel, Nazak Nikakhtar, Adam J. Szubin
International & National Security Law Practice Group Teleforum
This virtual event examined current national security issues, including relations with China, as well as...
Congressional Oversight and Investigations: New Developments and Outlook for the 117th Congress
Chris Armstrong, Michael D. Bopp, Ashley Callen, Daniel J. Goshorn, Allison Murphy
Article I Initiative and Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group Teleforum
With Democrats holding power in both houses of Congress and the White House, how will...
Congressional Oversight and Investigations: New Developments and Outlook for the 117th Congress
Chris Armstrong, Michael D. Bopp, Ashley Callen, Daniel J. Goshorn, Allison Murphy
Article I Initiative and Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group Teleforum
With Democrats holding power in both houses of Congress and the White House, how will...
Opioids in 2021: Enforcement Strategies and Policy Prescriptions
Robert M. Duncan, Christina E. Nolan, Tomas J. Philipson, Jeffrey A. Singer
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Teleforum
Opioid deaths in the US rose 29% during the course of the recent COVID pandemic....
Opioids in 2021: Enforcement Strategies and Policy Prescriptions
Robert M. Duncan, Christina E. Nolan, Tomas J. Philipson, Jeffrey A. Singer
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Teleforum
Opioid deaths in the US rose 29% during the course of the recent COVID pandemic....
Allgeyer v. Louisiana [SCOTUSbrief]
David Bernstein
Short video featuring David Bernstein
While Allgeyer v. Louisiana is often regarded as the first Supreme Court decision to endorse...
Family Law and Individual Responsibility [Archive Collection]
William Kristol, Phyllis Schlafly, Karl Zinsmeister, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Jane E. Larson
1991 Annual Lawyers Convention
On September 13-14, 1991, the Federalist Society hosted its fifth annual National Lawyers Convention at...
Family Law and Individual Responsibility [Archive Collection]
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, William Kristol, Jane E. Larson, Phyllis Schlafly, Karl Zinsmeister
1991 Annual Lawyers Convention
On September 13-14, 1991, the Federalist Society hosted its fifth annual National Lawyers Convention at...
Panel 1: What is the CFPB's Legacy?
Thomas B. Pahl, David Silberman, Brian C. Johnson
The CFPB Turns 10: Evaluating America’s Youngest Federal Financial Regulator
On July 19, 2021, the Federalist Society's Financial Services and E-Commerce Practice Group sponsored an...
Panel 2: What Does the CFPB's Future Hold?
Christopher L. Peterson, Nanci L. Weissgold, Todd J. Zywicki, Brian C. Johnson
The CFPB Turns 10: Evaluating America’s Youngest Federal Financial Regulator
On July 19, 2021, the Federalist Society's Financial Services and E-Commerce Practice Group sponsored an...