Senior Fellow, Independent Institute
Dr. Stephen P. Halbrook is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute. He has taught legal and political philosophy at George Mason University, Howard University, and Tuskegee Institute, and he received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and Ph.D. in social philosophy from Florida State University.
The winner of three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (Printz v. United States, United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Company, and Castillo v. United States), he has testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and House Committee on the District of Columbia.
A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, he is the author of the books, Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance; Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”; The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms; That Every Man Be Armed: Evolution of a Constitutional Right; A Right to Bear Arms; Firearms Law Deskbook: Federal and State Criminal Practice; Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms; State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees; and Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II. Dr. Halbrook’s scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, Drug Law Report, George Mason University Law Review, Journal of Air Law and Commerce, Journal of Law and Policy, Law & Contemporary Problems, National Law Journal, Northern Kentucky Law Review, St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary; Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, Tennessee Law Review, University of Dayton Law Review, Valparaiso University Law Review, Vermont Law Review, and William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal.
Dr. Halbrook's popular articles have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, National Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Kansas City Star, Washington Examiner, Shreveport Times, Sacramento Bee, Providence Journal, Tampa Tribune, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, History News Network, San Antonio Express-News, The Daily Caller, Detroit News, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Birmingham News, Environmental Forum, USA Today, and Washington Times. He has also appeared on numerous national TV/radio programs on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Court TV, NewsMax TV, CBN, Voice of America, and C-SPAN.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Principal, Gupta Wessler PLLC
Jonathan E. Taylor is a principal at Gupta Wessler PLLC in Washington, DC, where he focuses on representing plaintiffs and public-interest clients in Supreme Court, appellate, and constitutional litigation.
Since joining the firm in 2012, Jon has presented argument before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, and District of Columbia Circuits, as well as the Supreme Court of Alaska. He has also been a principal author of dozens of briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court and all levels of the state and federal judiciaries. His work has spanned a wide range of topics, including the First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Article III standing, class certification, civil rights, administrative law, and a broad array of issues involving consumers’ and workers’ rights.
Of particular relevance here, Jon presented argument in the First Circuit for the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts, successfully defending against a Second Amendment challenge to its restrictions on the public carry of firearms. He now serves as counsel to both Brookline and Boston in opposing a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court.
Jon has also represented Everytown for Gun Safety, the nation’s largest gun-violence-prevention organization. In that capacity, he has written over a dozen briefs in important Second Amendment cases, including New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. New York (U.S. Supreme Court), Worman v. Healy (First Circuit), Wilson v. Cook County (Seventh Circuit), Malpasso v. Pallozzi (Fourth Circuit), Wrenn v. District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit), Kolbe v. Hogan (en banc Fourth Circuit), Peruta v. San Diego (Ninth Circuit), Silvester v. Harris (Ninth Circuit), and Peña v. Lindley (Ninth Circuit). The briefs in these cases opposed constitutional challenges to state public-carry regulations, state prohibitions on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, and a state waiting period and “microstamping” law.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Senior Fellow, Independent Institute
Dr. Stephen P. Halbrook is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute. He has taught legal and political philosophy at George Mason University, Howard University, and Tuskegee Institute, and he received his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and Ph.D. in social philosophy from Florida State University.
The winner of three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court (Printz v. United States, United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Company, and Castillo v. United States), he has testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and House Committee on the District of Columbia.
A contributor to numerous scholarly volumes, he is the author of the books, Gun Control in Nazi-Occupied France: Tyranny and Resistance; Gun Control in the Third Reich: Disarming the Jews and “Enemies of the State”; The Founders’ Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms; That Every Man Be Armed: Evolution of a Constitutional Right; A Right to Bear Arms; Firearms Law Deskbook: Federal and State Criminal Practice; Securing Civil Rights: Freedmen, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Right to Bear Arms; State and Federal Bills of Rights and Constitutional Guarantees; and Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II. Dr. Halbrook’s scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, Drug Law Report, George Mason University Law Review, Journal of Air Law and Commerce, Journal of Law and Policy, Law & Contemporary Problems, National Law Journal, Northern Kentucky Law Review, St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary; Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal, Tennessee Law Review, University of Dayton Law Review, Valparaiso University Law Review, Vermont Law Review, and William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal.
Dr. Halbrook's popular articles have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, National Review, Investor’s Business Daily, Kansas City Star, Washington Examiner, Shreveport Times, Sacramento Bee, Providence Journal, Tampa Tribune, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, History News Network, San Antonio Express-News, The Daily Caller, Detroit News, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Birmingham News, Environmental Forum, USA Today, and Washington Times. He has also appeared on numerous national TV/radio programs on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Court TV, NewsMax TV, CBN, Voice of America, and C-SPAN.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Principal, Gupta Wessler PLLC
Jonathan E. Taylor is a principal at Gupta Wessler PLLC in Washington, DC, where he focuses on representing plaintiffs and public-interest clients in Supreme Court, appellate, and constitutional litigation.
Since joining the firm in 2012, Jon has presented argument before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, and District of Columbia Circuits, as well as the Supreme Court of Alaska. He has also been a principal author of dozens of briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court and all levels of the state and federal judiciaries. His work has spanned a wide range of topics, including the First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Article III standing, class certification, civil rights, administrative law, and a broad array of issues involving consumers’ and workers’ rights.
Of particular relevance here, Jon presented argument in the First Circuit for the Town of Brookline, Massachusetts, successfully defending against a Second Amendment challenge to its restrictions on the public carry of firearms. He now serves as counsel to both Brookline and Boston in opposing a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court.
Jon has also represented Everytown for Gun Safety, the nation’s largest gun-violence-prevention organization. In that capacity, he has written over a dozen briefs in important Second Amendment cases, including New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. New York (U.S. Supreme Court), Worman v. Healy (First Circuit), Wilson v. Cook County (Seventh Circuit), Malpasso v. Pallozzi (Fourth Circuit), Wrenn v. District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit), Kolbe v. Hogan (en banc Fourth Circuit), Peruta v. San Diego (Ninth Circuit), Silvester v. Harris (Ninth Circuit), and Peña v. Lindley (Ninth Circuit). The briefs in these cases opposed constitutional challenges to state public-carry regulations, state prohibitions on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, and a state waiting period and “microstamping” law.
Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor of Law & Faculty Director, Constitutional Law Institute, University of Chicago Law School
William Baude is a Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches federal courts, constitutional law, and conflict of laws. His current research interests include different aspects of the Fourteenth Amendment (particularly both Section One and Section Three) and the nature of judicial discretion.
Among his other activities Baude is: the co-editor of two textbooks, The Constitution of the United States and Hart & Wechsler's Federal Courts in the Federal System; an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism; a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance; a member of the American Law Institute; an occasional blogger at The Volokh Conspiracy; and a podcaster on Divided Argument. He also recently served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Baude received his BS in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and his JD from Yale Law School. He then clerked for then-Judge Michael McConnell on the United States Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice John Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. Before joining the Chicago faculty, he was a fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, and a lawyer in Washington, DC.
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law.
Prior to assuming this position, from 2008-2017, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at University of California, Irvine School of Law, with a joint appointment in Political Science. Before that he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University from 2004-2008, and from 1983-2004 was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School, including as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science. He also has taught at DePaul College of Law and UCLA Law School.
He is the author of eleven books, including leading casebooks and treatises about constitutional law, criminal procedure, and federal jurisdiction. His most recent books are, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century (Picador Macmillan) published in November 2018, and two books published by Yale University Press in 2017, Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and Free Speech on Campus (with Howard Gillman).
He also is the author of more than 200 law review articles. He writes a regular column for the Sacramento Bee, monthly columns for the ABA Journal and the Daily Journal, and frequent op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court.
In 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, National Jurist magazine again named Dean Chemerinsky as the most influential person in legal education in the United States.
Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Joshua Kleinfeld teaches and writes about political, legal, and moral philosophy, criminal law, and criminal procedure. He also practices law in Northwestern's Juvenile Criminal Defense Clinic. He is a full professor with tenure at the Northwestern Pritzker School of the Law and (by courtesy) in Northwestern’s philosophy department. In 2017-18, he was a visiting professor at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools. He is the recipient of the Bator Award, given annually to one American law professor under the age of 40 who has demonstrated "excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact."
In philosophy, Kleinfeld's research focuses on the idea of "embodied ethical life," as developed in the socio-theoretic tradition of Hegel, Weber, and Durkheim. This tradition aims to understand and critique social life by bringing to light the normative ideas implicit in social practices and institutions. In law, this means that the most interesting philosophical concepts are often those reflected or actualized in legal practice – in the law as judges and lawyers think of it and wield it.
In criminal law and procedure, Kleinfeld has developed a theory known as "reconstructivism," which holds that the chief office of criminal law is not to dole out retributive justice, nor to optimize crime and cost control, but to reconstruct a violated normative order in the wake of a crime. This work, which draws on the thought of Hegel, Durkheim, Jean Hampton, and Antony Duff, develops an alternative to retributive and utilitarian theories of criminal law by focusing on the distinctive social function and sense of justice at work in the criminal system.
Kleinfeld is also involved in practical criminal justice reform. In this vein, he defends children accused of homicide in the Northwestern Juvenile Criminal Defense clinic and assists in litigation efforts meant to reform American criminal law through the courts. He has also developed a view of criminal justice reform known as "democratization," which holds that the root of the American criminal justice crisis is a set of bureaucratic attitudes, structures, and incentives divorced from the American public’s concerns and sense of justice, and that the primary solution is to make criminal justice more community-focused and responsive to lay influences. Working with others, he has developed a number of policy proposals meant to reform American criminal justice in a democratic direction.
Kleinfeld holds a JD from Yale Law School, a PhD in philosophy from the Goethe University of Frankfurt (supervised by Axel Honneth, Klaus Günther, and Rainer Forst), and a BA in philosophy from Yale College. He clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; Judge Janice Rogers Brown on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; and President (chief justice) Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel. He worked as an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in Frankfurt, Germany, in the area of corporate criminal law. Before law school, he worked as a Senior Research Analyst at the White House’s Council on Bioethics.
Leitner Family Professor of International Law and Co-Founder & Co-Director of the Center on Asian Americans & the Law, Fordham University School of Law
Thomas H. Lee is the Leitner Family Professor of International Law at Fordham, where he teaches civil procedure, constitutional law, federal courts, international law, and the U.S. law of civil-military relations. His meticulously researched and historically-grounded scholarship has argued that the Eleventh Amendment reflected the classical international law principle that only a sovereign state—not its citizens or subjects— has rights against other sovereign states; that the Alien Tort Statute was a national-security peacekeeping statute, not an international human-rights statute, enacted in 1789 when the United States was a militarily weak state; and that the Natural Born Citizen Clause regarding presidential eligibility reflected natural-law principles of membership by descent as well as domestic birthplace. His current research examines the nature of Article III judicial power and the role of the federal courts in American society.
He is Co-Director of the Center on Asian Americans and the Law, Special Counsel at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, and a Member of the American Law Institute. He was Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense, a Member of the ICSID Panel of Conciliators, Adviser to the Constitutional Court of Korea, and Visiting Professor at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Virginia law schools, as well as Faculty Director of International and Graduate Studies at Fordham from 2006 to 2019. Before his academic career, Lee clerked for Judge Michael Boudin of the First Circuit and Justice David Souter of the Supreme Court and served as an active-duty U.S. naval cryptology officer, afloat on submarines and surface combatants and ashore in Korea, Japan, and with the National Security Agency. He holds A.B. (summa cum laude), A.M. (Regional Studies—East Asia), and J.D. degrees from Harvard, where he was Articles Chair of the Harvard Law Review and a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in Government.
Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor of Law & Faculty Director, Constitutional Law Institute, University of Chicago Law School
William Baude is a Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches federal courts, constitutional law, and conflict of laws. His current research interests include different aspects of the Fourteenth Amendment (particularly both Section One and Section Three) and the nature of judicial discretion.
Among his other activities Baude is: the co-editor of two textbooks, The Constitution of the United States and Hart & Wechsler's Federal Courts in the Federal System; an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism; a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance; a member of the American Law Institute; an occasional blogger at The Volokh Conspiracy; and a podcaster on Divided Argument. He also recently served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Baude received his BS in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and his JD from Yale Law School. He then clerked for then-Judge Michael McConnell on the United States Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice John Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. Before joining the Chicago faculty, he was a fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, and a lawyer in Washington, DC.
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law.
Prior to assuming this position, from 2008-2017, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at University of California, Irvine School of Law, with a joint appointment in Political Science. Before that he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University from 2004-2008, and from 1983-2004 was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School, including as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science. He also has taught at DePaul College of Law and UCLA Law School.
He is the author of eleven books, including leading casebooks and treatises about constitutional law, criminal procedure, and federal jurisdiction. His most recent books are, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century (Picador Macmillan) published in November 2018, and two books published by Yale University Press in 2017, Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and Free Speech on Campus (with Howard Gillman).
He also is the author of more than 200 law review articles. He writes a regular column for the Sacramento Bee, monthly columns for the ABA Journal and the Daily Journal, and frequent op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court.
In 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, National Jurist magazine again named Dean Chemerinsky as the most influential person in legal education in the United States.
Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Joshua Kleinfeld teaches and writes about political, legal, and moral philosophy, criminal law, and criminal procedure. He also practices law in Northwestern's Juvenile Criminal Defense Clinic. He is a full professor with tenure at the Northwestern Pritzker School of the Law and (by courtesy) in Northwestern’s philosophy department. In 2017-18, he was a visiting professor at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools. He is the recipient of the Bator Award, given annually to one American law professor under the age of 40 who has demonstrated "excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact."
In philosophy, Kleinfeld's research focuses on the idea of "embodied ethical life," as developed in the socio-theoretic tradition of Hegel, Weber, and Durkheim. This tradition aims to understand and critique social life by bringing to light the normative ideas implicit in social practices and institutions. In law, this means that the most interesting philosophical concepts are often those reflected or actualized in legal practice – in the law as judges and lawyers think of it and wield it.
In criminal law and procedure, Kleinfeld has developed a theory known as "reconstructivism," which holds that the chief office of criminal law is not to dole out retributive justice, nor to optimize crime and cost control, but to reconstruct a violated normative order in the wake of a crime. This work, which draws on the thought of Hegel, Durkheim, Jean Hampton, and Antony Duff, develops an alternative to retributive and utilitarian theories of criminal law by focusing on the distinctive social function and sense of justice at work in the criminal system.
Kleinfeld is also involved in practical criminal justice reform. In this vein, he defends children accused of homicide in the Northwestern Juvenile Criminal Defense clinic and assists in litigation efforts meant to reform American criminal law through the courts. He has also developed a view of criminal justice reform known as "democratization," which holds that the root of the American criminal justice crisis is a set of bureaucratic attitudes, structures, and incentives divorced from the American public’s concerns and sense of justice, and that the primary solution is to make criminal justice more community-focused and responsive to lay influences. Working with others, he has developed a number of policy proposals meant to reform American criminal justice in a democratic direction.
Kleinfeld holds a JD from Yale Law School, a PhD in philosophy from the Goethe University of Frankfurt (supervised by Axel Honneth, Klaus Günther, and Rainer Forst), and a BA in philosophy from Yale College. He clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; Judge Janice Rogers Brown on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; and President (chief justice) Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel. He worked as an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in Frankfurt, Germany, in the area of corporate criminal law. Before law school, he worked as a Senior Research Analyst at the White House’s Council on Bioethics.
Leitner Family Professor of International Law and Co-Founder & Co-Director of the Center on Asian Americans & the Law, Fordham University School of Law
Thomas H. Lee is the Leitner Family Professor of International Law at Fordham, where he teaches civil procedure, constitutional law, federal courts, international law, and the U.S. law of civil-military relations. His meticulously researched and historically-grounded scholarship has argued that the Eleventh Amendment reflected the classical international law principle that only a sovereign state—not its citizens or subjects— has rights against other sovereign states; that the Alien Tort Statute was a national-security peacekeeping statute, not an international human-rights statute, enacted in 1789 when the United States was a militarily weak state; and that the Natural Born Citizen Clause regarding presidential eligibility reflected natural-law principles of membership by descent as well as domestic birthplace. His current research examines the nature of Article III judicial power and the role of the federal courts in American society.
He is Co-Director of the Center on Asian Americans and the Law, Special Counsel at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, and a Member of the American Law Institute. He was Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense, a Member of the ICSID Panel of Conciliators, Adviser to the Constitutional Court of Korea, and Visiting Professor at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Virginia law schools, as well as Faculty Director of International and Graduate Studies at Fordham from 2006 to 2019. Before his academic career, Lee clerked for Judge Michael Boudin of the First Circuit and Justice David Souter of the Supreme Court and served as an active-duty U.S. naval cryptology officer, afloat on submarines and surface combatants and ashore in Korea, Japan, and with the National Security Agency. He holds A.B. (summa cum laude), A.M. (Regional Studies—East Asia), and J.D. degrees from Harvard, where he was Articles Chair of the Harvard Law Review and a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in Government.
L. Q. C. Lamar Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
Thomas C. Arthur holds degrees from Yale Law School and Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Before coming to Emory, he practiced law for eleven years with the Washington, DC office of Kirkland & Ellis. In 1982, he left his law firm partnership to join the Emory Law faculty.
Arthur teaches antitrust, civil procedure, and administrative law, and he has been active on the executive committee of the Antitrust Section of the Association of American Law Schools. His articles in the California and Tulane law reviews have been credited with the founding of a new, "statutory" school of antitrust analysis. His 1991 Emory Law Journal article (co-authored with Professor Richard D. Freer) provoked a nationally noted debate over an important new statute governing the jurisdiction of federal courts. A major antitrust article, "The Costly Quest for Perfect Competition: Kodak and Nonstructural Market Power," was published in the New York University Law Review (vol. 69, April 1994).
Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Einer Elhauge is the Petrie Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Founding Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics. He served as Chairman of the Antitrust Advisory Committee to the Obama Campaign. He teaches a gamut of courses ranging from Antitrust, Contracts, Corporations, Legislation, and Health Care Law. Before coming to Harvard, he was a Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, and clerked for Judge Norris on the 9th Circuit and Justice Brennan on the Supreme Court. He received both his A.B. and his J.D. from Harvard, graduating first in his law school class.
He is an author of numerous pieces on range of topics even broader than he teaches, including antitrust, public law, corporate law, patents, the legal profession, and health law policy. His most recent books include: Obamacare on Trial (2012), available at www.amazon.com; Research Handbook on the Economics of Antitrust Law (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. 2013); The Fragmentation of U.S. Health Care: Causes and Solutions (Oxford University Press 2010); Statutory Default Rules (Harvard University Press 2008); U.S. Antitrust Law and Economics (Foundation Press 2011); Global. Antitrust Law and Economics (Foundation Press 2011); and Global Competition Law and Economics (Hart Publishing 2011). For his website and publications, see http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/elhauge/.
Charles L. Denison Professor of Law and Co-Director, Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program, New York University School of Law
Harry First is the Charles L. Denison Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and Co-Director of the law school's Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program. From 1999-2001 he served as Chief of the Antitrust Bureau of the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York. Professor First's teaching interests include antitrust, regulated industries, international and comparative antitrust, business crime, and innovation policy. Professor First is the co-author of the casebook Free Enterprise and Economic Organization: Antitrust (7th Ed. 2014) (with John Flynn and Darren Bush), as well as a casebook on regulated industries (with John Flynn). He was twice a Fulbright Research Fellow in Japan and taught antitrust as an adjunct professor at the University of Tokyo.
Professor First’s most recent scholarly work has focused on various aspects of antitrust enforcement and theory. These include: The Microsoft Antitrust Cases: Competition Policy for the Twenty-first Century (with Andrew I. Gavil) (MIT Press, 2014), winner of the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award for Antitrust Scholarship; “Exploitative Abuses of Intellectual Property Rights” in The Cambridge Handbook of Antitrust, Intellectual Property, and High Tech (2017); “Philadelphia National Bank, Globalization, and the Public Interest” (Antitrust Law Journal, 2015) (with Eleanor M. Fox); “Your Money and Your Life: The Export of U.S. Antitrust Remedies” in Global Competition Law and Economics (Stanford Univ. Press, 2013); “Antitrust’s Democracy Deficit” (with Spencer Weber Waller) (Fordham Law Review, 2013), winner of the Institute of Competition Law’s 2014 Antitrust Writing Award for Best General Antitrust Academic Article; and two chapters in The Design of Competition Law Institutions: Global Norms, Local Choices (Oxford Univ. Press, 2013), one dealing with the United States (with Eleanor Fox and Daniel Hemli), the other with Japan (with Tadashi Shiraishi). First is also the author of a casebook on business crime and of “Business Crime and the Public Interest: Lawyers, Legislators, and the Administrative State” (University of California Irvine Law Review, 2012).
Professor First is a contributing editor of the Antitrust Law Journal, foreign antitrust editor of the Antitrust Bulletin, a member of the executive committee of the Antitrust Section of the New York State Bar Association, and a member of the advisory board and a Senior Fellow of the American Antitrust Institute.
Senior Fellow and Academic Director, Penn Carey Law School
Gus Hurwitz is a Senior Fellow and the Academic Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where he is working to develop academic and scholarly programs at the intersecution of law, technology, and policy.
He is also Director of Law & Economics Programs at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), a think tank based in Portland, Oregon, where he directs its law and economics-focused research program and helps to translate academic research into applied policy issues.
Hurwitz's research focuses on the regulation of technology, including administrative and regulatory law, antitrust law, torts and products liability, and media law - alongside cognate fields. Inrecent years he has worked on an AI standardization initiative with Seoul National University, a UNICEF-organized study of broadband deployment to public schools in Rwanda, and a book on conglomerate and ecosystems theories of antitrust.
He has published over 30 articles and book chapters, two books (one on cybersecurity law & policy, one on media regulation in the digital era) and have two more in process, over 100 shorter writings (op-eds, shorter analyses, blog posts, &c), hosted over 100 podcast episodes, and regularly appear or am quoted in popular media (including the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Associated Press). His work has been cited by legislators, federal courts of appeals, and federal regulatory agencies.
He was previously a full professor and founding director of the Governance & Technology Center at the University of Nebraska, prior to which he was the inaugural research fellow at the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition (CTIC). From 2007 to 2010, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in the Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section.
He also is, or has been, affiliated with the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University School of Law, the National Security Institute at George Mason University, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Before attending law school, Hurwitz worked at Los Alamos National Lab and interned at the Naval Research Lab. During this time his work was recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Los Alamos National Lab, IEEE & ACM, Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, R&D Magazine, and even the Guinness Book of World Records.
A current list of Hurwitz’s publications is available on his website: GusHurwitz.net.
L. Q. C. Lamar Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
Thomas C. Arthur holds degrees from Yale Law School and Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Before coming to Emory, he practiced law for eleven years with the Washington, DC office of Kirkland & Ellis. In 1982, he left his law firm partnership to join the Emory Law faculty.
Arthur teaches antitrust, civil procedure, and administrative law, and he has been active on the executive committee of the Antitrust Section of the Association of American Law Schools. His articles in the California and Tulane law reviews have been credited with the founding of a new, "statutory" school of antitrust analysis. His 1991 Emory Law Journal article (co-authored with Professor Richard D. Freer) provoked a nationally noted debate over an important new statute governing the jurisdiction of federal courts. A major antitrust article, "The Costly Quest for Perfect Competition: Kodak and Nonstructural Market Power," was published in the New York University Law Review (vol. 69, April 1994).
Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Einer Elhauge is the Petrie Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Founding Director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics. He served as Chairman of the Antitrust Advisory Committee to the Obama Campaign. He teaches a gamut of courses ranging from Antitrust, Contracts, Corporations, Legislation, and Health Care Law. Before coming to Harvard, he was a Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, and clerked for Judge Norris on the 9th Circuit and Justice Brennan on the Supreme Court. He received both his A.B. and his J.D. from Harvard, graduating first in his law school class.
He is an author of numerous pieces on range of topics even broader than he teaches, including antitrust, public law, corporate law, patents, the legal profession, and health law policy. His most recent books include: Obamacare on Trial (2012), available at www.amazon.com; Research Handbook on the Economics of Antitrust Law (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. 2013); The Fragmentation of U.S. Health Care: Causes and Solutions (Oxford University Press 2010); Statutory Default Rules (Harvard University Press 2008); U.S. Antitrust Law and Economics (Foundation Press 2011); Global. Antitrust Law and Economics (Foundation Press 2011); and Global Competition Law and Economics (Hart Publishing 2011). For his website and publications, see http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/elhauge/.
Charles L. Denison Professor of Law and Co-Director, Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program, New York University School of Law
Harry First is the Charles L. Denison Professor of Law at New York University School of Law and Co-Director of the law school's Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program. From 1999-2001 he served as Chief of the Antitrust Bureau of the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York. Professor First's teaching interests include antitrust, regulated industries, international and comparative antitrust, business crime, and innovation policy. Professor First is the co-author of the casebook Free Enterprise and Economic Organization: Antitrust (7th Ed. 2014) (with John Flynn and Darren Bush), as well as a casebook on regulated industries (with John Flynn). He was twice a Fulbright Research Fellow in Japan and taught antitrust as an adjunct professor at the University of Tokyo.
Professor First’s most recent scholarly work has focused on various aspects of antitrust enforcement and theory. These include: The Microsoft Antitrust Cases: Competition Policy for the Twenty-first Century (with Andrew I. Gavil) (MIT Press, 2014), winner of the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award for Antitrust Scholarship; “Exploitative Abuses of Intellectual Property Rights” in The Cambridge Handbook of Antitrust, Intellectual Property, and High Tech (2017); “Philadelphia National Bank, Globalization, and the Public Interest” (Antitrust Law Journal, 2015) (with Eleanor M. Fox); “Your Money and Your Life: The Export of U.S. Antitrust Remedies” in Global Competition Law and Economics (Stanford Univ. Press, 2013); “Antitrust’s Democracy Deficit” (with Spencer Weber Waller) (Fordham Law Review, 2013), winner of the Institute of Competition Law’s 2014 Antitrust Writing Award for Best General Antitrust Academic Article; and two chapters in The Design of Competition Law Institutions: Global Norms, Local Choices (Oxford Univ. Press, 2013), one dealing with the United States (with Eleanor Fox and Daniel Hemli), the other with Japan (with Tadashi Shiraishi). First is also the author of a casebook on business crime and of “Business Crime and the Public Interest: Lawyers, Legislators, and the Administrative State” (University of California Irvine Law Review, 2012).
Professor First is a contributing editor of the Antitrust Law Journal, foreign antitrust editor of the Antitrust Bulletin, a member of the executive committee of the Antitrust Section of the New York State Bar Association, and a member of the advisory board and a Senior Fellow of the American Antitrust Institute.
Senior Fellow and Academic Director, Penn Carey Law School
Gus Hurwitz is a Senior Fellow and the Academic Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where he is working to develop academic and scholarly programs at the intersecution of law, technology, and policy.
He is also Director of Law & Economics Programs at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), a think tank based in Portland, Oregon, where he directs its law and economics-focused research program and helps to translate academic research into applied policy issues.
Hurwitz's research focuses on the regulation of technology, including administrative and regulatory law, antitrust law, torts and products liability, and media law - alongside cognate fields. Inrecent years he has worked on an AI standardization initiative with Seoul National University, a UNICEF-organized study of broadband deployment to public schools in Rwanda, and a book on conglomerate and ecosystems theories of antitrust.
He has published over 30 articles and book chapters, two books (one on cybersecurity law & policy, one on media regulation in the digital era) and have two more in process, over 100 shorter writings (op-eds, shorter analyses, blog posts, &c), hosted over 100 podcast episodes, and regularly appear or am quoted in popular media (including the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Associated Press). His work has been cited by legislators, federal courts of appeals, and federal regulatory agencies.
He was previously a full professor and founding director of the Governance & Technology Center at the University of Nebraska, prior to which he was the inaugural research fellow at the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition (CTIC). From 2007 to 2010, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in the Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section.
He also is, or has been, affiliated with the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University School of Law, the National Security Institute at George Mason University, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Before attending law school, Hurwitz worked at Los Alamos National Lab and interned at the Naval Research Lab. During this time his work was recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Los Alamos National Lab, IEEE & ACM, Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, R&D Magazine, and even the Guinness Book of World Records.
A current list of Hurwitz’s publications is available on his website: GusHurwitz.net.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Senior Fellow and Academic Director, Penn Carey Law School
Gus Hurwitz is a Senior Fellow and the Academic Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where he is working to develop academic and scholarly programs at the intersecution of law, technology, and policy.
He is also Director of Law & Economics Programs at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), a think tank based in Portland, Oregon, where he directs its law and economics-focused research program and helps to translate academic research into applied policy issues.
Hurwitz's research focuses on the regulation of technology, including administrative and regulatory law, antitrust law, torts and products liability, and media law - alongside cognate fields. Inrecent years he has worked on an AI standardization initiative with Seoul National University, a UNICEF-organized study of broadband deployment to public schools in Rwanda, and a book on conglomerate and ecosystems theories of antitrust.
He has published over 30 articles and book chapters, two books (one on cybersecurity law & policy, one on media regulation in the digital era) and have two more in process, over 100 shorter writings (op-eds, shorter analyses, blog posts, &c), hosted over 100 podcast episodes, and regularly appear or am quoted in popular media (including the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Associated Press). His work has been cited by legislators, federal courts of appeals, and federal regulatory agencies.
He was previously a full professor and founding director of the Governance & Technology Center at the University of Nebraska, prior to which he was the inaugural research fellow at the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition (CTIC). From 2007 to 2010, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in the Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section.
He also is, or has been, affiliated with the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University School of Law, the National Security Institute at George Mason University, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Before attending law school, Hurwitz worked at Los Alamos National Lab and interned at the Naval Research Lab. During this time his work was recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Los Alamos National Lab, IEEE & ACM, Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, R&D Magazine, and even the Guinness Book of World Records.
A current list of Hurwitz’s publications is available on his website: GusHurwitz.net.
Associate Professor of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Professor Nelson joined the Villanova Law School faculty in 2017 as the Associate Professor of Law (Business Ethics), and she holds a courtesy appointment in the Management & Operations Department of Villanova Business School. A scholar, legal consultant, and start-up advisor, Professor Nelson teaches and writes on issues related to business law, ethics, and white collar crime. She also works collaboratively with two of the Law School’s Centers of Excellence—the John F. Scarpa Center for Law and Entrepreneurship and the David F. and Constance B. Girard-diCarlo Center for Ethics, Integrity, and Compliance—to advance legal scholarship and teaching that lie at the intersection of ethics and business. Professor Nelson came to Villanova from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she has served since 2015 as a Senior Fellow at the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research. She also was an advisor in the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies for the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Professor Nelson has received numerous awards from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, including its 2016 Ralph Bunche Outstanding International Paper and its 2015 Outstanding Proceedings awards. Her scholarship has been published in both legal and business journals, including Harvard Law Review, Berkeley Business Law Journal, Journal of Management Inquiry, Cardozo Law Review, Journal of Legal Studies in Business (forthcoming), and The Georgetown Law Journal. Her book co-authored with Lynn Stout, Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know, will be published by the Oxford University Press in 2018.
In addition to her roles at Penn and Stanford, Professor Nelson previously taught at the Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, the Mihaylo School at Cal State Fullerton, and was a faculty mentor at the Haas Business School of the University of California at Berkeley.
Prior to her work in academia, Nelson served as staff counsel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and clerked for the Honorable David M. Ebel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable William H. Yohn Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She previously worked as a deputy district attorney and as a business litigator in Denver, Colorado. Nelson is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was the Supreme Court Co-Chair of the Harvard Law Review. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with honors and distinction in the major from Yale University.
Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law
Hannibal Travis teaches and conducts research in the fields of cyberlaw, intellectual property, antitrust, international and comparative law, and human rights. He joined FIU after several years practicing intellectual property and Internet law at O’Melveny & Myers in San Francisco, California, and at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. He has also served as the Irving Cypen Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Florida, a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Villanova University, and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford. He graduated summa cum laude in philosophy from Washington University, where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as a teaching assistant in philosophy classes taught at Harvard College. After law school, Professor Travis clerked for the United States District Court in Los Angeles, California. Professor Travis has published articles on copyright, trademark, and antitrust law in a variety of journals and books. He has also published works on antitrust law, telecommunications law, and net neutrality in American University Law Review, Hofstra Law Review, and Santa Clara Law Review.
His works have focused on the intellectual property implications of new technologies and user-generated content, as well as antitrust law as applied to broadband and Wi-Fi Internet access markets. He has contributed to symposia and edited volumes on the international and comparative law of copyright and performers’ rights, including a piece on software contracts and copyright that was selected by West Group as one of the best articles relating to intellectual property law that was published in 2010. Professor Travis has also published widely on genocide, cultural survival, and human rights. He is currently an editorial advisory board member of Genocide Studies International (University of Toronto Press), and has served as a peer reviewer for manuscripts submitted to Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Routledge, and Genocide Studies and Prevention (the journal of the International Association of Genocide Scholars). He has coached FIU’s Jessup International Law Moot Court team, Lefkowitz Trademark Law Moot Court team, and BMI Copyright Law Moot Court team. He is a member of the Copyright Society of the USA and the American Law and Economics Association.
Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Founder/Director, Tech Startup Clinic, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Aaron Wright is an expert in corporate and intellectual property law, with extensive experience in Internet and new technology issues. Before joining Cardozo's faculty, he sold a company to Wikia, the for-profit sister project of Wikipedia, where he ran Wikia’s New York office, served as General Counsel and Vice President of Product and Business Development, and helped build an open source search engine. Wright has clerked for the Honorable William J. Martini of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and worked as an associate at several prominent New York law firms, including Patterson Belknap and Jenner & Block. He received his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Cardozo Law Review. He has a forthcoming book about blockchain technology and the law (co-authored with Primavera De Filippi) that will be published by Harvard University Press.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Senior Fellow and Academic Director, Penn Carey Law School
Gus Hurwitz is a Senior Fellow and the Academic Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where he is working to develop academic and scholarly programs at the intersecution of law, technology, and policy.
He is also Director of Law & Economics Programs at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), a think tank based in Portland, Oregon, where he directs its law and economics-focused research program and helps to translate academic research into applied policy issues.
Hurwitz's research focuses on the regulation of technology, including administrative and regulatory law, antitrust law, torts and products liability, and media law - alongside cognate fields. Inrecent years he has worked on an AI standardization initiative with Seoul National University, a UNICEF-organized study of broadband deployment to public schools in Rwanda, and a book on conglomerate and ecosystems theories of antitrust.
He has published over 30 articles and book chapters, two books (one on cybersecurity law & policy, one on media regulation in the digital era) and have two more in process, over 100 shorter writings (op-eds, shorter analyses, blog posts, &c), hosted over 100 podcast episodes, and regularly appear or am quoted in popular media (including the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Associated Press). His work has been cited by legislators, federal courts of appeals, and federal regulatory agencies.
He was previously a full professor and founding director of the Governance & Technology Center at the University of Nebraska, prior to which he was the inaugural research fellow at the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition (CTIC). From 2007 to 2010, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in the Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section.
He also is, or has been, affiliated with the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University School of Law, the National Security Institute at George Mason University, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Before attending law school, Hurwitz worked at Los Alamos National Lab and interned at the Naval Research Lab. During this time his work was recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Los Alamos National Lab, IEEE & ACM, Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, R&D Magazine, and even the Guinness Book of World Records.
A current list of Hurwitz’s publications is available on his website: GusHurwitz.net.
Associate Professor of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Professor Nelson joined the Villanova Law School faculty in 2017 as the Associate Professor of Law (Business Ethics), and she holds a courtesy appointment in the Management & Operations Department of Villanova Business School. A scholar, legal consultant, and start-up advisor, Professor Nelson teaches and writes on issues related to business law, ethics, and white collar crime. She also works collaboratively with two of the Law School’s Centers of Excellence—the John F. Scarpa Center for Law and Entrepreneurship and the David F. and Constance B. Girard-diCarlo Center for Ethics, Integrity, and Compliance—to advance legal scholarship and teaching that lie at the intersection of ethics and business. Professor Nelson came to Villanova from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she has served since 2015 as a Senior Fellow at the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research. She also was an advisor in the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies for the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Professor Nelson has received numerous awards from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, including its 2016 Ralph Bunche Outstanding International Paper and its 2015 Outstanding Proceedings awards. Her scholarship has been published in both legal and business journals, including Harvard Law Review, Berkeley Business Law Journal, Journal of Management Inquiry, Cardozo Law Review, Journal of Legal Studies in Business (forthcoming), and The Georgetown Law Journal. Her book co-authored with Lynn Stout, Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know, will be published by the Oxford University Press in 2018.
In addition to her roles at Penn and Stanford, Professor Nelson previously taught at the Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, the Mihaylo School at Cal State Fullerton, and was a faculty mentor at the Haas Business School of the University of California at Berkeley.
Prior to her work in academia, Nelson served as staff counsel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and clerked for the Honorable David M. Ebel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable William H. Yohn Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She previously worked as a deputy district attorney and as a business litigator in Denver, Colorado. Nelson is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she was the Supreme Court Co-Chair of the Harvard Law Review. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with honors and distinction in the major from Yale University.
Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law
Hannibal Travis teaches and conducts research in the fields of cyberlaw, intellectual property, antitrust, international and comparative law, and human rights. He joined FIU after several years practicing intellectual property and Internet law at O’Melveny & Myers in San Francisco, California, and at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. He has also served as the Irving Cypen Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Florida, a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Villanova University, and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford. He graduated summa cum laude in philosophy from Washington University, where he was named to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as a teaching assistant in philosophy classes taught at Harvard College. After law school, Professor Travis clerked for the United States District Court in Los Angeles, California. Professor Travis has published articles on copyright, trademark, and antitrust law in a variety of journals and books. He has also published works on antitrust law, telecommunications law, and net neutrality in American University Law Review, Hofstra Law Review, and Santa Clara Law Review.
His works have focused on the intellectual property implications of new technologies and user-generated content, as well as antitrust law as applied to broadband and Wi-Fi Internet access markets. He has contributed to symposia and edited volumes on the international and comparative law of copyright and performers’ rights, including a piece on software contracts and copyright that was selected by West Group as one of the best articles relating to intellectual property law that was published in 2010. Professor Travis has also published widely on genocide, cultural survival, and human rights. He is currently an editorial advisory board member of Genocide Studies International (University of Toronto Press), and has served as a peer reviewer for manuscripts submitted to Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Routledge, and Genocide Studies and Prevention (the journal of the International Association of Genocide Scholars). He has coached FIU’s Jessup International Law Moot Court team, Lefkowitz Trademark Law Moot Court team, and BMI Copyright Law Moot Court team. He is a member of the Copyright Society of the USA and the American Law and Economics Association.
Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Founder/Director, Tech Startup Clinic, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Aaron Wright is an expert in corporate and intellectual property law, with extensive experience in Internet and new technology issues. Before joining Cardozo's faculty, he sold a company to Wikia, the for-profit sister project of Wikipedia, where he ran Wikia’s New York office, served as General Counsel and Vice President of Product and Business Development, and helped build an open source search engine. Wright has clerked for the Honorable William J. Martini of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and worked as an associate at several prominent New York law firms, including Patterson Belknap and Jenner & Block. He received his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Cardozo Law Review. He has a forthcoming book about blockchain technology and the law (co-authored with Primavera De Filippi) that will be published by Harvard University Press.
Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
B.A. 1965, Williams College
LL.B. 1968, Yale University
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law
Paul Crane served as a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School before coming to Richmond Law to teach in the criminal law field. He also worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, and as a Bristow Fellow for the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. Professor Crane earned his B.A., M.A., and J.D. from the University of Virginia before clerking for Judge Wilkinson on the Fourth Circuit and Chief Justice Roberts on the Supreme Court.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Hon. Jennifer Mascott served as Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Separation of Powers Institute at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law before her appointment to the federal bench. On July 16, 2025, President Donald J. Trump nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Delaware), and she was confirmed on October 9, 2025.
Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mascott wrote extensively in administrative and constitutional law, statutory interpretation, and the separation of powers. Her scholarship—published in leading journals including the Stanford Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, and Supreme Court Review—was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple federal courts. She also contributed Supreme Court commentary for NBC Universal.
Before joining Catholic Law, she was an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of The C. Boyden Gray Center at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. In 2022 she became co-author of Beermann, Cass & Diver’s Administrative Law: Cases and Materials (9th ed.). In 2023 she received the Justice Joseph Story Award for excellence in scholarship, teaching, and advancing the rule of law.
Judge Mascott also served as a Council Member of the ABA’s Administrative Law Section and as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. She frequently testified before Congress on executive power, regulatory reform, and judicial jurisdiction, and participated in multiple Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
From 2019 to 2021, she took leave from academia to serve as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel and later as Associate Deputy Attorney General, where she argued federal cases and assisted with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. Earlier in her career, she clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and for then-Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit.
Judge Mascott earned her J.D. summa cum laude from the George Washington University Law School and her B.A. from the same institution.
Olin-Darling Fellow, Stanford Law School
Lance Sorenson is currently the Olin-Darling Fellow at Stanford Law School.. He has a law degree from Pepperdine University and is a PhD candidate in Legal History at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is interested in legal systems and structures, particularly in the American West. His dissertation analyzes iterations of United States’ federalism as part of westward expansion.
Assistant Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Lael Weinberger is an assistant professor of law at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School. Previously, Lael clerked for Justice Neil Gorsuch on the United States Supreme Court, Judge Frank Easterbrook on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice Daniel Eismann on the Idaho Supreme Court. Lael also practiced law at the Washington, D.C., office of Gibson Dunn and held fellowships at Stanford and Harvard law schools. Lael earned a law degree and a Ph.D. in history, both from the University of Chicago. Lael's academic work has appeared in journals such as the University of Chicago Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, and Constitutional Commentary, among others. He has also written widely for broader public audiences, with his writings and reviews appearing in publications including Newsweek, National Review, Claremont Review, First Things, Christianity Today, LA Review of Books, World, and the New Rambler Review.
Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Ilan Wurman is the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches administrative law and constitutional law. He previously taught at Arizona State University. He writes primarily on the Fourteenth Amendment, administrative law, separation of powers, and constitutionalism. His academic writing has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the Texas Law Review among other journals.
Professor Wurman is the author of a casebook, Administrative Law Theory and Fundamentals: An Integrated Approach (Foundation Press 2d ed. 2024). He is also the author of A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism (Cambridge 2017), and The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (Cambridge 2020). His next book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, is also forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.
Professor Wurman practices law with the firm Tully Bailey. He has litigated a variety of administrative law and constitutional law cases, including cases involving COVID-19 restrictions, transmission lines, and Appointments Clause challenges. He also devised winning public nuisance theories to force city governments to address the increasingly challenging public camping crises throughout the country.
Panel 1: Does the Right to Bear Arms Include a Right to Carry Handguns in Public?
Stephen P. Halbrook, Gregory G. Katsas, Jonathan E. Taylor, Dean Reuter
The Second Amendment In The New Supreme Court
On January 15, 2019, the Federalist Society's Civil Rights and Criminal Law & Procedure Practice...
Panel 1: Does the Right to Bear Arms Include a Right to Carry Handguns in Public?
Stephen P. Halbrook, Gregory G. Katsas, Dean Reuter, Jonathan E. Taylor
The Second Amendment In The New Supreme Court
On January 15, 2019, the Federalist Society's Civil Rights and Criminal Law & Procedure Practice...
Topics
New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. City of New York
For the first time in a decade, the Supreme Court has decided to hear a...
Panel: Scholarly Rigor and Intellectual Orthodoxy
William Baude, Erwin Chemerinsky, Joshua Kleinfeld, Thomas Lee
21st Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
This panel will focus on questions of academic rigor and intellectual orthodoxy in modern American...
Panel: Scholarly Rigor and Intellectual Orthodoxy
William Baude, Erwin Chemerinsky, Joshua Kleinfeld, Thomas Lee
21st Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
This panel will focus on questions of academic rigor and intellectual orthodoxy in modern American...
Panel: The Revived Debate About Antitrust
Thomas Carlton Arthur, Einer Elhauge, Harry First, Justin (Gus) Hurwitz
21st Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
There have been renewed challenges to the Chicago School framework for antitrust law. Some have...
Panel: The Revived Debate About Antitrust
Thomas Carlton Arthur, Einer Elhauge, Harry First, Justin (Gus) Hurwitz
21st Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
There have been renewed challenges to the Chicago School framework for antitrust law. Some have...
Panel: Social Media and Freedom of Speech
Richard A. Epstein, Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, J.S. Nelson, Hannibal Travis, Aaron Wright
21st Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
Over the past year, there have been a number of discussions about social media and...
Panel: Social Media and Freedom of Speech
Richard A. Epstein, Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, J.S. Nelson, Hannibal Travis, Aaron Wright
21st Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
Over the past year, there have been a number of discussions about social media and...
Young Legal Scholars Paper Presentations
Lawrence Alexander, Vincent Buccola, Paul Crane, Richard A. Epstein, Jenn L. Mascott, Lance Sorenson, Lael Weinberger, Ilan Wurman
21st Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
On January 3, 2019, the Federalist Society hosted the Young Legal Scholars Paper Presentations. The...