President, The Free State Foundation
Randolph J. May is Founder and President of The Free State Foundation. The Free State Foundation is an independent, non-profit free market-oriented think tank founded in 2006.
From October 1999-May 2006, May was a Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank. Prior to joining PFF, he practiced communications, administrative, and regulatory law as a partner at major national law firms. From 1978 to 1981, May served as Assistant General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communication Commission.
May has held numerous leadership positions in bar associations. He is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Mr. May also has served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and currently is a Senior Fellow at ACUS.
Mr. May has published more than two hundred articles and essays on communications, administrative and constitutional law topics. He is author of A Call for a Radical New Communications Policy: Proposals for Free Market Reform, and co-author of #CommActUpdate: A Communications Law Fit for the Digital Age and The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property. Mr. May is editor of two books, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age: The Next Five Years and New Directions in Communications Policy. In addition, he is the co-editor of two other books, Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated? and Communications Deregulation and FCC Reform. In the past, Mr. May has written regular columns on legal and regulatory affairs for Legal Times and the National Law Journal, leading national legal periodicals.
He received his A.B. from Duke University and his J.D. from Duke Law School, where he serves as a member of the Board of Visitors.
Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
Tom has over 15 years’ experience in private practice and public service at the federal and state levels representing clients in high-stakes appellate and regulatory litigation matters. Tom has argued appeals in the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, D.C. and Federal Circuits, and the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Prior to joining Wiley, Tom was the General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where he served as the agency’s chief legal officer and briefed dozens of appeals – personally arguing two – in the federal courts of appeals in constitutional and administrative law challenges to the FCC’s orders. Tom managed a team of over 70 attorneys and staff and provided consultation and advice on a wide range of practice areas relating to the FCC’s work, including administrative law, appellate and trial litigation, bankruptcy, ethics, fiscal law, fraud, labor and employment, and public records requests. He has spent his career advising clients on all stages of federal agency rulemaking, adjudication, and litigation, in fields ranging from communications to environmental law to securities to labor and employment. He frequently speaks and writes on legal issues and his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Review, Forbes, and Newark Star-Ledger.
Professor, University of Miami
June Teufel Dreyer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, where she teaches courses on China, U.S. defense policy, and international relations. Professor Dreyer has lectured to, and taught a course for, National Security Agency analysts, consults for organizations including the National Geographic and Centra Technology. She is a senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a member of International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Formerly senior Far East specialist at the Library of Congress, Dr. Dreyer has also served as Asia policy advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations and as commissioner of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission established by the U.S. Congress. Dr Dreyer’s most recent book, Middle Kingdom and Empire of the Rising Sun: Sino-Japanese Relations Past and Present, was published by Oxford University Press in 2016. The tenth edition of her China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition, is scheduled for publication in 2018. Professor Dreyer received her BA from Wellesley College and her MA and PhD from Harvard, and has lived in China and Japan and paid numerous visits to Taiwan. She has served as a United States Information Agency lecturer, speaking in fourteen Asia-Pacific states. Professor Dreyer has published widely on the Chinese military, Asian-Pacific security issues, China-Taiwan relations, Sino-Japanese relations, ethnic minorities in China, and Chinese foreign policy. In 2017, she received the University of Miami’s faculty senate award as Distinguished Research Professor.
Maurice A. Deane Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law and Faculty Director of International Programs, Hofstra University School of Law
Professor Ku’s primary research interest is the relationship of international law to constitutional law. He has also conducted academic research on a wide range of topics including international dispute resolution, international criminal law, and China’s relationship with international law. He teaches courses such as U.S. constitutional law, U.S. foreign affairs law, transnational law, and international trade and business law. Since 2014, he has served as the faculty director of international programs, overseeing Hofstra Law’s study abroad, exchange and LL.M. programs. Professor Ku also teaches Constitutional Law in our online degree programs: Master of Laws in American Law and Master of Arts in American Legal Studies. He has also been selected as the John DeWitt Gregory Research Scholar and as a Hofstra Law Research Fellow. He is a member of the American Law Institute.
He is the co-author, with John Yoo, of Taming Globalization: International Law, the U.S. Constitution, and the New World Order (Oxford University Press 2012). He also has published more than 40 law review articles, book chapters and symposia essays. He has given dozens of academic lectures and workshops at major universities and conferences in the United States, Europe and Asia.
He co-founded the leading international law weblog Opinio Juris, which is read daily by thousands worldwide. His essays and op-eds have been published in major news publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the NYTimes.com. He has been frequently interviewed for television news programs and quoted in print and electronic media. He has also signed or submitted amicus briefs to national and international courts and served as an expert witness in both domestic and international proceedings.
Before joining the Hofstra Law faculty, Professor Ku served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and as an Olin Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Virginia Law School. Professor Ku also practiced as an associate at the New York City law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, specializing in litigation and arbitration arising out of international disputes. He has been a visiting professor at the College of William & Mary Marshall- Wythe School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia; a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Law at East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, China; and a Taiwan Fellow at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. He is a member of the New York Bar and a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.
Attorney, Newsome International Law, LLC
Saul is passionate about international law. Since his creation of the international law practice group at Breazeale, Sachse, and Wilson, LLP, one of Louisiana’s oldest law firms, Saul has advised businesses on trade and investment incentives both locally and abroad. Saul has advised clients on importing, exporting, sanction regimes, and assisted clients in pursuing offshore manufacturing, license agreements, sales agreements and other business ventures. Saul has advised on foreign investment and trade regulations in the United States, including applications to the Committee on Foreign Investments to the United States (CFIUS), export and anti-boycott regulations (EAR), international traffic in arms regulations (ITAR), anti-bribery (FCPA), asset control regulations (OFAC) and customs regulations. Saul has also successfully released assets and transactions that were incorrectly frozen under foreign assets control regulation, and participated in official bilateral meetings with foreign governments.
Saul takes his profession seriously. He is the Secretary of International Law Section of the Louisiana Bar Association and participates in the Export Control and Sanctions Committee of the American Bar Association. Saul was also appointed by the Department of Commerce to serve as a member of the Louisiana District Export Council and sits on its outreach committee. He has achieved a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent peer review rating. In 2016, Saul was named one of Baton Rouge’s Top Forty under 40.
Saul earned his Juris Doctor of Civil Law from the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA and his Bachelor of Arts in both International Studies and Modern Languages and Cultures (Spanish) from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Saul is a heritage Spanish speaker. To further immerse himself in the language, Saul spent a semester of college studying at the University of Havana in Cuba and a semester of law school studying international business law in Bogotá, Colombia. He also worked at the law firm Francisco Reyes & Asociados, where he focused on foreign direct investment transactions and international comparative corporate law.
After graduating college, Saul commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps and worked as a Human Intelligence Officer. Saul deployed twice to Iraq where the teams he led supported infantry battalions and simultaneously trained the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police in intelligence operations. While attending law school, Saul transitioned to the Marine Corps Reserve and continued to lead and prepare Marines for intelligence and combat operations. During that time, Saul also continued foreign military training by deploying to Latin America and Africa.
Managing Director, Lexpat Global Services
Adam R. Pearlman is the Founder and Managing Director of Lexpat Global Services, an international law and consulting services firm specializing in security, defense, investigations, compliance, and training. A Special Advisor to and member of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s International and National Security Law Practice Group, he is National Security Law expert and a proven senior leader with more than fifteen years of experience across the U.S. Departments of Justice, Defense, and State, in the White House, and with the U.S. Federal Judiciary.
Most recently, he served as the Senior Advisor for Legal Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism, where he counseled senior officials on matters covering the entire spectrum of programs and operations to counter terrorism and violent extremism. While participating in sensitive diplomatic engagements and helping to coordinate military operations, he also advised in the development of sanctions policy and initiatives to build legal and operational capacity in partner nations. Mr. Pearlman also managed the Bureau’s participation in federal litigation and led U.S. delegations in multilateral forums concerning criminal justice and rule of law.
A former Associate Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Mr. Pearlman was agency counsel for complex civil and criminal national security matters in federal and military courts, and led the Supreme Court and appellate unit of the team dedicated to litigating classified counterterrorism cases. His earlier service in the Department of Justice spanned four litigating divisions and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. His diverse experience included reviewing complex international transactions and mergers, and advising on immigration removal proceedings, human rights abuses, and terrorist financing investigations. Mr. Pearlman also served with distinction in Iraq as an early advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal’s prosecution of Saddam Hussein. He was a law clerk for The Honorable Royce C. Lamberth, and during law school interned in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Mr. Pearlman is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Visiting Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, a member of the American Bar Association’s Africa Law Initiative Council, and a member of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Project on Nuclear Issues. He is a former National Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, vice chairman of the ABA Section of International Law’s committees on national security, and aerospace and defense, and also previously served as a liaison to the Board of Directors of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative. He has been co-editor of the U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook since 2011 and has published articles in the Harvard National Security Journal, Stanford Law & Policy Review, and Intelligence & National Security.
Mr. Pearlman earned his B.A., with honors, from UCLA, and his J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School, where he was a member of the International Law Review. He also earned a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence degree from the National Intelligence University, where he was the inaugural recipient of the Kornblum Award for national security law and ethics. Mr. Pearlman speaks and reads Portuguese at the intermediate level and holds certificates in international human rights law from the University of Oxford and in U.S. and international anti-corruption law from American University’s Washington College of Law. He is admitted to the State Bars of California and Virginia, as well as to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court.
Chair, Government Enforcement & Investigations Group, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC
Mr. Whitley represents clients nationally and internationally in white collar criminal matters and regulatory enforcement, corporate internal investigations, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and U.S. export controls and compliance. He also advises clients on corporate compliance, health care fraud and FDA-related matters.
Mr. Whitley has had a wide-ranging career in the Department of Justice (DOJ). During the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, he served as Acting Associate Attorney General, the third-ranking position at Main Justice. He was appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush, respectively, to serve as the U.S. Attorney in the Middle and Northern Federal Districts of Georgia. Throughout his career, Mr. Whitley served under five U.S. Attorneys General and four Presidents in a number of key operational and policy positions. Earlier in his career, Mr. Whitley served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit in Columbus, Georgia. Mr. Whitley maintains strong professional relationships with the state and federal law enforcement community.
In 2003, Mr. Whitley was appointed by President George W. Bush as the first General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the highest ranking legal official at DHS. He held that position for two years working for DHS Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, before returning to private practice.
Mr. Whitley leads a team of lawyers in the Firm's Government Enforcement and Investigations practice group who conduct sensitive high level investigations for both public and private sector institutions. Mr. Whitley's practice focuses on corporate defense and representation of clients in complex civil and criminal enforcement matters brought by the DOJ, other federal agencies, State Attorneys General and local prosecutors. He has represented numerous individuals and corporations in major government investigations throughout the United States and internationally. Mr. Whitley is a frequent speaker on white collar, compliance and corporate governance issues.
Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School
Tung Yin joined the Lewis & Clark Law School faculty in 2009. Before that, he taught for seven years at The University of Iowa College of Law, where was most recently professor and Claire Ferguson Carlson Faculty Fellow; practiced law from 1998-2002 with Munger Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles, where he specialized in white collar corporate criminal defense and employment law. He clerked for the late Hon. Edward Rafeedie, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the late Hon. William J. Holloway, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and the Hon. J. Clifford Wallace, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. While in law school at the University of California, Berkeley, he was a Notes and Comments Editor of the California Law Review and a member of the Moot Court Board.
Yin’s academic research focuses primarily on national security and terrorism law, and has ranged from legal issues arising out of indefinite military detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, to race and religion and the perception of terrorism, to drone terrorism, and more. His scholarship has been cited in judicial opinions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Ninth Circuits, the Florida and Georgia Supreme Courts, and other lower state and federal trial courts.
He frequently provides commentary for local and national media on high-profile criminal matters, including news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, The New York Daily News, Bloomberg News, The National Law Journal, The Oregonian, Bloomberg Radio, Oregon Public Broadcasting, KEX News, KXL News, KPAM News, “The Lars Larson Show,” “The Terry Boyd Show,” “The Mark and Dave Show,” and the local news affiliates for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. He also writes about running for the Run Oregon blog.
Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
Paul S. Atkins was sworn into office as the 34th Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 21, 2025, after being nominated by President Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 9, 2025.
Prior to returning to the SEC, Chairman Atkins was most recently chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, a company he founded in 2009. Chairman Atkins helped lead efforts to develop best practices for the digital asset sector. He served as an independent director and non-executive chairman of the board of BATS Global Markets, Inc. from 2012 to 2015.
Chairman Atkins was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a Commissioner of the SEC from 2002 to 2008. During his tenure, he advocated for transparency, consistency, and the use of cost-benefit analysis at the agency. Chairman Atkins also represented the SEC at meetings of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets and the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council. From 2009 to 2010, he was appointed a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Before serving as an SEC Commissioner, Chairman Atkins was a consultant on securities and investment management industry matters, especially regarding issues of strategy, regulatory compliance, risk management, new product development, and organizational control.
From 1990 to 1994, Chairman Atkins served on the staff of two chairmen of the SEC, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt, ultimately as chief of staff and counselor, respectively. He received the SEC’s 1992 Law and Policy Award for work regarding corporate governance matters.
Chairman Atkins began his career as a lawyer in New York, focusing on a wide range of corporate transactions for U.S. and foreign clients, including public and private securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions. He was resident for 2½ years in his firm's Paris office and admitted as conseil juridique in France.
A member of the New York and Florida bars, Chairman Atkins received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1983 and was Senior Student Writing Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He received his A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, from Wofford College in 1980.
Originally from Lillington, North Carolina, Chairman Atkins grew up in Tampa, Florida. He and his wife Sarah have three sons.
Principal, Ely & Company, Inc.
Bert Ely has specialized in deposit insurance and banking structure issues since 1981. In 1986, he became an early predictor of the S&L crisis and a taxpayer bailout of the FSLIC. In 1991, he was the first person to correctly predict the non-crisis in commercial banking; in 1992, he predicted an eventual taxpayer bailout of the Japanese banking system.
Bert continuously monitors conditions in the banking and S&L industries, monetary policy, and the growing federalization of credit risk. He has helped to draft legislation to enact the cross-guarantee concept for privatizing banking regulation and its related deposit insurance and systemic risks. He has testified on numerous occasions before congressional committees on banking issues and he often speaks on these matters to bankers and others.
Bert first established his consulting practice in 1972. Before that, he was the chief financial officer of a public company, a consultant with Touche, Ross & Company, and an auditor with Ernst & Ernst. He received his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1968 and his Bachelor's degree in economics in 1964 from Case Western Reserve University.
Staff Attorney, National Right to Work Foundation
Aaron Solem is a staff attorney at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, where he represents both private and public sector employees in state and federal courts, as well as before administrative agencies.
Aaron was co-counsel in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448 (2018), a major Supreme Court case establishing that it violates the First Amendment to force public sector employees to pay compulsory fees. Additionally, Aaron’s track record in federal court includes being co-counsel in Stewart v. NLRB, 851 F.3d 21 (D.C. Cir. 2017); Tamosiunas v. NLRB, 892 F.3d 422 (D.C. Cir. 2018); and UNAP v. NLRB, 975 F.3d 34 (1st Cir. 2020). He was also lead counsel in Sands v. NLRB, 825 F.3d 778 (D.C. Cir. 2016), where he successfully vacated an unfavorable NLRB decision.
Aaron is also experienced in representing employees before the National Labor Relations Board. Aaron won a major victory in NABET, Local 51, 371 NLRB No. 15 (2021), establishing the unlawfulness of threatening evidence preservation letters under the National Labor Relations Act. He also frequently represents and advises decertification petitioners, including the decertification petitioners in Americold Logistics, 362 NLRB 493 (2015); Pinnacle Foods Grp., 368 NLRB No. 97 (2019); and Geodis Logistics, 371 NLRB No. 102 (2022).
Aaron earned his law degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame Law School and currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland.
Mike Jayne is an attorney for the U.S. Department of Education. Previously, he worked for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Author
Godfrey Hodgson was director of the Reuters' Foundation Programme at Oxford University, and before that the Observer's correspondent in the United States and foreign editor of the Independent. He is the author of The Myth of American Exceptionalism (Yale University Press, 2009).
Columnist
Charles Krauthammer wrote a syndicated column for The Washington Post which appeared in more than 400 newspapers worldwide and for which he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize. He was a FOX News commentator, appearing nightly on FOX's evening news program, Special Report with Bret Baier.
His book Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics, a #1 New York Times bestseller, has sold more than a million copies. His book The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors is now available for order.
Born in New York City and raised in Montreal, Krauthammer was educated at McGill University (B.A. 1970), Oxford University (Commonwealth Scholar in Politics) and Harvard (M.D. 1975). While serving as chief resident in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he co-discovered a form of bipolar disease.
In 1978, he quit medical practice, came to Washington to help direct planning in psychiatric research in the Carter administration. In 1980, he served as a speechwriter to Vice President Walter Mondale. He joined The New Republic in 1981. Three years later his New Republic essays won the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism.
From 2001 to 2006, he served on the President's Council on Bioethics. He was president of The Krauthammer Foundation and chairman of Pro Musica Hebraica, an organization dedicated to the recovery and performance of lost classical Jewish music. He was also a member of Chess Journalists of America.
In his last column, he announced his terminal illness and reflected on his remarkable life. He passed away on June 21, 2018.
Essayist, Editor, and Publisher
Irving Kristol (born Jan. 20, 1920, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 18, 2009, Arlington, Va.), American essayist, editor, and publisher, best known as an intellectual founder and leader of the neoconservative movement in the United States. His articulation and defense of conservative ideals against the dominant liberalism of the 1960s influenced generations of intellectuals and policymakers and contributed to the resurgence of the Republican Party in the late 1960s and its electoral successes in the 1980s.
Emeritus Professor of Law, George Mason University
As a professor of law and economics, Gordon Tullock brought the experience of a rich and varied professional career with him to George Mason University and the Mercatus Center. He was a member of the United States Foreign Service from 1947 until 1956, serving in China, Hong Kong, and Korea. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Thomas Jefferson Center for Political Economy at the University of Virginia and a member of the faculties of the University of South Carolina, the University of Virginia, and Rice University, as well as a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Professor Tullock was the Holbert R. Harris University Professor at George Mason University from 1983-1987 and was the Karl Eller Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of Arizona prior to joining the faculty of George Mason School of Law. He is a member of and has held offices in a variety of professional associations and has been the recipient of numerous honors over the course of his career.
Professor Tullock was the first recipient of the Lastly T. Wilkins Award, received the 1992 Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy, and was presented with the 1993 Adam Smith Award. In 1996, Professor Tullock was named a member of the American Political Science Review Hall of Fame and also was honored with an Award for Outstanding Contributions in the field of law and economics by George Mason University School of Law. In January 1998, he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. From founding the Public Choice Society, he has been a member of the Board and is a past president. He is also a past president of the Western Economic Association and the Southern Economic Association. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Association of Asian Studies, the Mont Pelerin Society, and the usual collection of economic associations.
Professor Tullock received his education at Yale University (Chinese, 1949-1951), Cornell University (Chinese, 1951-1952), and at the University of Chicago Law School (JD, 1947). He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Chicago in 1992. He also holds honorary doctorates from Basel and Universidad Francisco Marroquin.
Author
Godfrey Hodgson was director of the Reuters' Foundation Programme at Oxford University, and before that the Observer's correspondent in the United States and foreign editor of the Independent. He is the author of The Myth of American Exceptionalism (Yale University Press, 2009).
Columnist
Charles Krauthammer wrote a syndicated column for The Washington Post which appeared in more than 400 newspapers worldwide and for which he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize. He was a FOX News commentator, appearing nightly on FOX's evening news program, Special Report with Bret Baier.
His book Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics, a #1 New York Times bestseller, has sold more than a million copies. His book The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors is now available for order.
Born in New York City and raised in Montreal, Krauthammer was educated at McGill University (B.A. 1970), Oxford University (Commonwealth Scholar in Politics) and Harvard (M.D. 1975). While serving as chief resident in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he co-discovered a form of bipolar disease.
In 1978, he quit medical practice, came to Washington to help direct planning in psychiatric research in the Carter administration. In 1980, he served as a speechwriter to Vice President Walter Mondale. He joined The New Republic in 1981. Three years later his New Republic essays won the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism.
From 2001 to 2006, he served on the President's Council on Bioethics. He was president of The Krauthammer Foundation and chairman of Pro Musica Hebraica, an organization dedicated to the recovery and performance of lost classical Jewish music. He was also a member of Chess Journalists of America.
In his last column, he announced his terminal illness and reflected on his remarkable life. He passed away on June 21, 2018.
Essayist, Editor, and Publisher
Irving Kristol (born Jan. 20, 1920, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 18, 2009, Arlington, Va.), American essayist, editor, and publisher, best known as an intellectual founder and leader of the neoconservative movement in the United States. His articulation and defense of conservative ideals against the dominant liberalism of the 1960s influenced generations of intellectuals and policymakers and contributed to the resurgence of the Republican Party in the late 1960s and its electoral successes in the 1980s.
Emeritus Professor of Law, George Mason University
As a professor of law and economics, Gordon Tullock brought the experience of a rich and varied professional career with him to George Mason University and the Mercatus Center. He was a member of the United States Foreign Service from 1947 until 1956, serving in China, Hong Kong, and Korea. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Thomas Jefferson Center for Political Economy at the University of Virginia and a member of the faculties of the University of South Carolina, the University of Virginia, and Rice University, as well as a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Professor Tullock was the Holbert R. Harris University Professor at George Mason University from 1983-1987 and was the Karl Eller Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of Arizona prior to joining the faculty of George Mason School of Law. He is a member of and has held offices in a variety of professional associations and has been the recipient of numerous honors over the course of his career.
Professor Tullock was the first recipient of the Lastly T. Wilkins Award, received the 1992 Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy, and was presented with the 1993 Adam Smith Award. In 1996, Professor Tullock was named a member of the American Political Science Review Hall of Fame and also was honored with an Award for Outstanding Contributions in the field of law and economics by George Mason University School of Law. In January 1998, he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. From founding the Public Choice Society, he has been a member of the Board and is a past president. He is also a past president of the Western Economic Association and the Southern Economic Association. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Association of Asian Studies, the Mont Pelerin Society, and the usual collection of economic associations.
Professor Tullock received his education at Yale University (Chinese, 1949-1951), Cornell University (Chinese, 1951-1952), and at the University of Chicago Law School (JD, 1947). He was awarded an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Chicago in 1992. He also holds honorary doctorates from Basel and Universidad Francisco Marroquin.
Professor of Law, UC Irvine School of Law
Mehrsa Baradaran is a Professor of Law at UC Irvine School of Law.
Previously, she was the Robert Cotten Alston Chair in Corporate Law and Associate Dean for strategic initiatives with a focus on diversity and inclusion efforts and national and international faculty scholarship recognition at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Baradaran writes about banking law, financial inclusion, inequality, and the racial wealth gap. Her scholarship includes the books How the Other Half Banks and The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, both published by the Harvard University Press. The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap was awarded the Best Book of the Year by the Urban Affairs Association, the PROSE Award Honorable Mention in the Business, Finance & Management category. Baradaran was also selected as a finalist at the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year Awards for the book in the category of history/biography.
Baradaran has also published articles including "Jim Crow Credit" in the Irvine Law Review, "Regulation by Hypothetical" in the Vanderbilt Law Review, "It's Time for Postal Banking" in the Harvard Law Review Forum, "Banking and the Social Contract" in the Notre Dame Law Review, "How the Poor Got Cut Out of Banking" in the Emory Law Journal, "Reconsidering the Separation of Banking and Commerce" in the George Washington Law Review and "The ILC and the Reconstruction of U.S. Banking" in the SMU Law Review. Of note, her article "The New Deal with Black America" was selected for presentation at the 2017 Stanford/Harvard/Yale Junior Faculty Forum.
Baradaran and her books have received significant national and international media coverage and have been featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Slate, American Banker, the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times; on National Public Radio’s “Marketplace,” C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” and Public Broadcasting Service’s “NewsHour;” and as part of TEDxUGA. She has advised U.S. Senators and Congressmen on policy, testified before the U.S. Congress, and spoken at national and international forums like the U.S. Treasury and the World Bank.
She earned her bachelor's degree cum laude from Brigham Young University and her law degree cum laude from NYU, where she served as a member of the New York University Law Review.
Executive Director, Government Affairs, Goldman Sachs
Diego Zuluaga serves as Executive Director, Government Affairs at Goldman Sachs.
Previously Zuluaga served as a Principal at Fingleton. Prior to joining Fingleton, Zuluaga was an associate director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, where he covered financial technology and consumer credit. Before joining Cato, Zuluaga was Head of Financial Services and Tech Policy at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. While at the IEA, he wrote on international capital mobility, multi-sided platform regulation, and price controls on consumer credit, among other subjects.
Zuluaga is the author of “Should Cryptocurrencies Be Regulated like Securities?” and “The Community Reinvestment Act in the Age of Fintech and Bank Competition.” He has previously testified on the impact of restrictions on short-term lending before the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions. Zuluaga's work has featured in print and broadcast media, such as Politico, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, American Banker, the London Times, and the Daily Telegraph. Zuluaga is a prolific public speaker as well as a former lecturer in economics at the University of Buckingham.
Originally from Bilbao in northern Spain, Zuluaga holds a BA in economics and history from McGill University, and an MSc in financial economics from the University of Oxford.
Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice
T. Elliot Gaiser is the Office of Legal Counsel’s 27th Assistant Attorney General. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on April 29, 2025, confirmed by the United States Senate on July 30, 2025, and sworn in as AAG by Attorney General Pam Bondi on August 4, 2025.
Prior to joining the Office of Legal Counsel, Mr. Gaiser served as the 11th Solicitor General of Ohio. In that role, he represented his home state and its agencies before the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the Supreme Court of Ohio, and other state and federal courts. He also advised Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on significant legal and constitutional matters important to the people of Ohio.
Mr. Gaiser clerked for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Neomi Rao of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In the private sector, Mr. Gaiser worked at the law firms Jones Day, Boyden Gray, and Gibson Dunn. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and Hillsdale College. He is also a husband and father.
Broadcast Journalism and the First Amendment: A Conversation with the FCC’s General Counsel
Randolph May, Thomas M. Johnson
Broadcasters—not the FCC—are responsible for selecting the material that they air. This is why the...
China-Taiwan Relations and International Law in a Post-COVID World
June Teufel Dreyer, Julian Ku, Saul R. Newsome
This teleforum will provide a wide-ranging discussion on the recent developments in the China-Taiwan relationship....
Watching the Terror Watchlist
Adam R. Pearlman, Joe D. Whitley, Tung Yin
Watchlisting people with known or suspected ties to terrorism has long been a key tool...
COVID-19: Actions Taken by the Federal Reserve
Paul S. Atkins, Bert Ely
Financial Services & Commerce Teleforum
Paul Atkins, Patomak Global Partners CEO, and banking consultant Bert Ely will discuss the numerous programs...
The National Labor Relations Board’s New Election Rules: Do they Protect or Undermine Employee Free Choice?
Aaron Becket Solem
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has used rulemaking only a few times through the...
As Far As Reasonably Practicable: Reimagining the Role of Congress in Agency Rulemaking
Mike Jayne
Federalist Society Review, Volume 21
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
Panel V: The Virtues and Vices of Democracy in Conducting Foreign Affairs [Archive Collection]
Godfrey Hodgson, Charles Krauthammer, Irving Kristol, Gordon Tullock
Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
On November 6-7, 1987, The Federalist Society held a symposium at the Grand Hyatt Hotel...
Panel V: The Virtues and Vices of Democracy in Conducting Foreign Affairs [Archive Collection]
Godfrey Hodgson, Charles Krauthammer, Irving Kristol, Gordon Tullock
Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
On November 6-7, 1987, The Federalist Society held a symposium at the Grand Hyatt Hotel...
Constitutionality of Proposed Federal Liability Limitations for COVID-19 Exposure Claims
By Michael A. Carvin & Yaakov M. Roth Over the past weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic...
Deep Dive Episode 110 – Community Reinvestment Act: Remedy or Relic?
Mehrsa Baradaran, Diego Zuluaga, T. Elliot Gaiser
Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977, intending to encourage depository institutions to help...