Clinical Professor of Law, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, Chapman University
Founder, President, and General Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty
Rick Esenberg is the founder and current President and General Counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a rapidly expanding law and policy organization headquartered in Milwaukee. Under Rick’s leadership, WILL has grown into one of the more active state-based think tanks and litigation centers in the country. Rick is a frequent litigator in state and federal courts and nationally recognized scholar and commentator on constitutional law, particularly the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and religion. He is one of the leading experts on the Wisconsin Constitution and a frequent advocate before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Rick’s work seeks to advance the rule of law and individual liberty, formed by a robust civil society that forms individual and community character, preserving the wisdom of the past and an openness to the future.
Rick’s commentary has been featured in such outlets as the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Weekly Standard, Real Clear Politics, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Washington Examiner. Formerly on the faculty of Marquette University Law School, his scholarship has appeared in such publications as the Harvard Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Wake Forest Law Review and William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. Back when they were a thing, he operated a blog called Shark and Shepherd where he tried to suggest something about the duality of man – “the Jungian thing.”
Rick holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and a B.A., summa cum laude, in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In addition to service on the Marquette Faculty, he was formerly a litigation partner at Foley & Lardner and General Counsel of an international manufacturing firm headquartered in Wisconsin. He lives in Mequon Wisconsin with his wife Karen, golden retrievers Cooper and Riley and more books than he can find places for.
Vice President, Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel, Copyright Alliance
Kevin Madigan is Vice President, Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel at the Copyright Alliance. Kevin joined the Copyright Alliance in early 2020 after four years at the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP) at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. Serving most recently as CPIP’s Deputy Director, Kevin conducted academic and policy work across all areas of intellectual property law. Before CPIP, Kevin worked as a research associate at Finnegan Henderson Garabow Garrett & Dunner, a law clerk at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and as an intern at the Recording Industry Association of America.
Kevin’s work in copyright includes drafting amicus briefs, regulatory comments, policy papers, and essays on diverse topics such as public performance rights, copyright office modernization, the Music Modernization Act, the CASE Act, and the European Copyright Directive. He has authored law review articles on patent and trade secret policy issues, and he blogs at mistercopyright.org. In addition to being a lawyer and advocate for the rights of creators, Kevin is a visual artist, musician, and registered copyright owner.
Kevin holds a B.A. from Boston College, a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law, and an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law from George Washington University Law School. He is admitted to practice law in Maryland and Washington, DC.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy, United States Department of Justice
GianCarlo Canaparo serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. He oversees the Office's regulatory work, assists the White House in the process of selecting nominees for federal judgeships and advises Department leadership on policy and legal matters.
Before joining the Department, Canaparo was a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies where he researched constitutional law, administrative law, and civil rights.
Canaparo’s scholarship has appeared in various law reviews and periodicals. His research has been cited by Justice Neil Gorsuch and featured in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
Canaparo co-hosted The Heritage Foundation’s SCOTUS 101 podcast, which followed the Supreme Court’s arguments and opinions and featured interviews with judges, advocates, and scholars.
After graduating Georgetown law, Canaparo spent three years at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and two years as a federal law clerk. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California at Davis.
Canaparo is a classical pianist.
Senior Labor and Employment Counsel, CHRO Association
Roger King is a highly regarded labor relations attorney, whose career spans more than 40 years. Roger recently retired as a partner with Jones Day law firm. He now serves as Senior Labor and Employment counsel for the Association.
Roger specializes in labor and employment, healthcare, collective bargaining, contract administration and representation campaigns. Roger represented the winning side as co-counsel in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case known as Noel Canning, which successfully challenged President Obama’s authority to make recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
After graduating from Cornell University Law School, he was a Captain and Legal Services Officer in the United States Air Force, on the Staff of United States Senator Robert Taft, Jr. and, subsequently, was appointed as Professional Staff Counsel to the United States Senate Labor Committee.
Roger has testified before both the U.S. Senate and House Labor Committees, is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and serves on the Advocacy Committee of the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Association (ASHHRA) and on the Executive Committee of the Ohio State Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section Council.
He is a nationally recognized author/speaker on employment matters and has represented employers regarding labor and employment issues both before administrative agencies and in federal and state courts. He has represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the HR Policy Association (HRPA), the National Manufactures Association (NAM), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) in federal courts regarding numerous labor law issues.
Other clients Roger has represented include the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Catholic Health Partners, MedStar Health, HCA, Texas Health Resources, Unity Point Health, UHS, Trinity Health, National Beef, General Cable, Orlando Health, ProMedica, Premier Health, Cedars-Sinai, Yale New Haven Health System, McLaren Health Care Corporation, Ohio, California and American Hospital Associations, Bon Secoure Health System, Kaleida Health, Sisters of Levenworth Health System, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Clarion Clinic, Fisher-Titus Medical Center, Saint Joseph Health System, Benefis Healthcare, Community Health Systems, American Water Works, Macy’s Inc., Verizon and General Motors.
Tammy McCutchen is a leading authority on federal and state wage-hour laws and prevailing wage laws. She counsels businesses on wage-hour compliance, including conducting internal audits on independent contractor status, overtime exemptions, and other pay practices. She also represents employers during investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor and serves as an expert witness in wage-hour class actions. She was a founding officer of ComplianceHR, a law and technology company, where she created AI-based applications to evaluate independent contractor and overtime exempt status.
Ms. McCutchen served as Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2001. She was the primary architect of the 2004 revisions to the overtime exemption regulations, the first major changes to the regulations in 55 years.
Before joining DOL, she was senior counsel for the Hershey Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Ms. McCutchen has been a volunteer leader of the Federalist Society since 1989. She served in leadership roles for the Northwestern Student Chapter and Chicago Lawyers Chapter. She currently serves in leadership for the Labor & Employment Practice Group, the Regulatory Transparency Project, and the Knoxville, TN Lawyers Chapter. She served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Law360, the Labor Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Legal Advisory Board of the National Federation of Independent Business, and a Policy Fellow at the ACU Foundation.
Ms. McCutchen is a graduate of Western Illinois University and Northwestern University School of Law. She clerked for the Hon. Daniel Manion on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Chair, International Trade & National Security Practice Group, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
Mr. Pickard counsels U.S. and international clients on the laws and regulations governing international trade, with particular emphasis on import remedy, anti-bribery, national security, and export control issues. He represents and advises clients in matters related to trade remedy investigations (including antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard cases), U.S. economic sanctions, export controls, anti-boycott measures, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Mr. Pickard provides comprehensive international trade law compliance guidance, including assessing and resolving sensitive national security matters; developing corporate compliance programs; establishing compliance with the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) and mitigating Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI) issues; conducting internal investigations relating to potential violations; and appearing before the relevant agencies in connection with investigations, licensing, and enforcement actions. He also teams with the firm’s Election Law & Government Ethics Group to provide guidance pertaining to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Mr. Pickard represents clients before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and International Trade Administration (ITA), the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Security Service (DSS), the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Partner, International Trade, King & Spalding LLP
Stephen P. Vaughn is a Partner in the International Trade Team of King & Spalding who works primarily on international trade litigation and policy matters. In April 2019, Stephen completed more than two years of service as the General Counsel for the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In that position, he managed a team of government attorneys representing U.S. interests in both trade negotiations and trade litigation. During two months in early 2017, Stephen also served as the acting U.S. Trade Representative. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on current U.S. trade policy, as well as one of the most talented U.S. trade remedy litigators.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC
Jason Torchinsky is a partner at Holtzman Vogel Josefiak PLLC, specializing in campaign finance, election law, lobbying disclosure and issue advocacy groups. Politico recently named him one of the “50 Politicos to Watch,” and in 2007, Campaigns and Elections Magazine named him a “Rising Star of Politics.”
In addition to his practice counseling clients on compliance with campaign finance, ethics laws, lobbying disclosure and election laws, Mr. Torchinsky has served as lead counsel in a number of litigation matters. Representative matters in the redistricting area include Louisiana House of Representatives v. Holder (D.D.C.) (Section 5 pre-clearance action), City of Sandy Springs v. Holder (D.D.C.) (Section 5 bailout action), and Fletcher v. Lamone (D. Md.) (challenging Maryland’s Congressional Districting map). In the campaign finance context, he is currently representing clients in Alliance for America’s Future v. State (Nevada Supreme Court) and Van Hollen v. Federal Election Commission (D.D.C.) (Representing intervenor defendants). He has also represented Virginia candidates in recounts and voter registration challenges before various Virginia Circuit Courts.
Mr. Torchinsky frequently lectures on campaign finance redistricting and ethics related subjects and provides commentary to the media on election related matters.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Torchinsky was Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice. During the 2004 election cycle, he served as Deputy General Counsel to Bush-Cheney ’04 and Deputy General Counsel to the 2005 Presidential Inaugural Committee.
He holds a B.A. in Government and Public Policy from the College of William and Mary and a J.D. from the College of William and Mary School of Law. He is a member of the Virginia Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, the Republican National Lawyers Association and the Federalist Society.
Senior Associate, Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky PLLC
Drew Watkins is a senior associate with Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky PLLC, providing counsel in the areas of campaign finance and election law, lobbying and ethics compliance, and tax-exempt organizations.
Prior to joining the firm, Drew served as a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph R. Goeke, Senior Judge of the United States Tax Court in Washington, D.C., and worked in the Office of General Counsel for the Governor of Kentucky, Matthew G. Bevin. While in law school, Drew served as a law clerk for the Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission and interned for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in his office in Washington, D.C.
Drew graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.S. in Justice Administration. He earned his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Kentucky College of Law and was a member of the Order of the Coif. During law school, he served as a senior staff editor on the Kentucky Law Journal and authored a published student note on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. He is a member of the Kentucky, D.C. and Virginia bars and the Federalist Society.
Harry Elwood Warren Scholar and Professor of Law, Boston University Law School
Jack Beermann’s scholarship focuses on two areas: civil rights litigation and administrative law. He is an authority on the circumstances under which state and local officials, and local governments, should be held liable for their constitutional violations. “What particularly fascinates me is studying the values underlying our public law system and how social movements and history have affected those values,” he says.
Professor Beermann has authored or co-authored four books on administrative law, including a widely-used casebook and the Emanuel Law Outline on the subject. He has also written extensively on the degree to which federal courts should defer to the legal determinations of federal agencies, on the problem of midnight rulemaking, in which outgoing administrations promulgate dozens of regulations at the end of their administrations and on the legal aspects of the funding crisis facing public employee pension funds in the United States.
His articles have appeared in prominent American journals such as the Stanford Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and Boston University Law Review, and in foreign law journals including Germany’s Rechtstheorie and China’s Administrative Law Review. Recent articles include “The Public Pension Crisis” in the Washington & Lee Law Review, “Congressional Administration” in the San Diego Law Review and the “Constitutional Law of Presidential Transition” in the North Carolina Law Review. In 1998, he co-authored an article that examined civil rights violations in the popular television drama NYPD Blue and in 1993 he wrote “The Supreme Court’s Narrow View on Civil Rights” for the prestigious Supreme Court Review.
Before joining the Boston University faculty in 1984, Professor Beermann clerked for Judge Richard Cudahy of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. In 2017, he was appointed as a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. In 2008, 2011 and 2014 he was visiting professor at Harvard Law School and in 1997, he was distinguished visiting professor at DePaul Law School. In 2004, 2005 and 2007, he taught at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel, and in 2002, he taught at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. He has lectured in Israel, Germany, Australia, Morocco, Portugal and Canada. At BU Law, Professor Beermann teaches administrative law, civil rights litigation, and constitutional law. In recent years, he has also taught introduction to American law (for foreign LLM students) and local government law.
Senior Policy Analyst, GW Regulatory Studies Center
Daniel is a senior policy analyst at the GW Regulatory Studies Center. His professional experience includes work as a private sector energy analyst, where he studied the outcomes and regulatory environment of state-owned oil companies. Daniel’s research interests include privacy, effects of regulation on international trade and investment, the international energy market, and national security. Daniel is also a PhD. student at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration.
Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance, American Enterprise Institute; Executive Director, Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State
Adam J. White is the Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the Supreme Court and the administrative state. He also directs the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.
He writes on regulation and constitutional government for a variety of publications. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., after clerking for the D.C. Circuit's Judge David Sentelle. He also has been chairman of the ABA's Administrative Law Section.
In 2021, he served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, where he criticized “Court packing” and other efforts to restructure the Supreme Court.
James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Albert Clark Tate, Jr., Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Professor Saikrishna Prakash’s scholarship focuses on separation of powers, particularly executive powers. He teaches Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and Presidential Powers at the Law School.
Prakash’s most recent book, “The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers,” was published by Harvard Belknap Press in 2020. He also authored “Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive” (Yale University Press, 2015). The former book focuses on the modern presidency while the latter considers the presidency of the Founders.
Prakash has authored over 75 law review articles. Among them are “Of Synchronicity and Supreme Law” in the Harvard Law Review, “The Indefensible Duty to Defend” in the Columbia Law Review, and “50 States, 50 Attorneys General and 50 Approaches to the Duty to Defend” and “The Executive Power Over Foreign Affairs” in the Yale Law Journal.
Prakash has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. At the request of Democrats and Republicans, he has testified before Congress on matters of presidential removal, the Mueller Report and how Congress might better check the presidency. He is currently a Miller Center Senior Fellow. In 2015, he received the Roger Traynor award for faculty scholarship. In the same year, he received an honorable mention from the American Society of Legal Writers for his book “Imperial from the Beginning.” He has given named lectures at William & Mary Law School, Princeton University and Toledo Law School, and keynote addresses at several conferences.
Prakash majored in economics and political science at Stanford University. At Yale Law School, he served as senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and received the John M. Olin Fellowship in Law, Economics and Public Policy. He subsequently clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. After practicing in New York for two years, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and as an associate professor at Boston University School of Law. He then spent several years at the University of San Diego School of Law as the Herzog Research Professor of Law. Prakash has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. He also has served as a James Madison Fellow at Princeton University and Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution of War & Peace at Stanford University.
Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, The Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also the Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023. Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War; Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare; and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.
He is a co-author of volumes 1 and 2 of R. Rossum, G. Tarr, V. Munoz & J. Yoo American Constitution Law (Routledge, 2026), and a co-editor of the eight-volume series on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, We Hold These Truths, with Yuval Levin and Adam White of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court. He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.
Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government. He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership, Seoul National University, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Keio University, Trento University, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center. He also serves on the boards of Founding Forward, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Ulysses Grant Institute, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Originalism Lectureship.
Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
State Court Docket Watch: People v. R.D.
Anthony (Tom) Caso
State Court Docket Watch: 2020 Edition
The U.S. Supreme Court has long acknowledged that “true threats” are not protected speech under...
State Court Docket Watch: Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm
Rick M. Esenberg
State Court Docket Watch: 2020 Edition
In May, Wisconsin became the only state to emerge from a gubernatorial “stay-at-home” order by...
Should Congress Close the “Streaming Loophole”?
Kevin Madigan
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Video
Copyright infringement laws dictate serious penalties for digital works that have been reproduced and downloaded....
State Docket Watch: Elkhorn Baptist Church v. Brown
GianCarlo Canaparo
State Court Docket Watch: 2020 Edition
On June 12, 2020, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down a preliminary injunction that had...
COVID-19 Labor and Employment Teleforum Series #2
G. Roger King, Tammy Dee McCutchen
Employers are increasingly being faced with difficult issues with respect to COVID-19, including challenging labor...
The U.S. and the World Trade Organization (WTO): Predictions for What Comes Next – A Virtual Conversation with Stephen Vaughn
Daniel B. Pickard, Stephen P. Vaughn
The World Trade Organization (WTO) was intended to be the principal forum for setting the...
State Court Docket Watch: Bailey v. South Carolina State Election Commission
Jason Torchinsky, Andrew Watkins
State Court Docket Watch: 2020 Edition
In Bailey v. South Carolina State Election Commission, the Supreme Court of South Carolina, accepting...
Minutes to Midnight, or Teeing Up a Second Term?
Jack Beermann, Daniel R. Pérez, Adam White
Regulatory Policy in the Fourth Year of a Presidential Term
The next presidential inauguration will be on January 20, 2021. The six months between then...
The True Extent of Executive Power
Saikrishna Prakash, John C. Yoo
In this Teleforum, two of the nation’s leading scholars of presidential power — and former...
Topics
The Federal Judicialization of the Homelessness Crisis
The 2018 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Martin v....