Vice President and Legal Director, National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation, Inc.
William Messenger is Foundation Vice President and Legal Director. He was a staff attorney for over twenty years and, during that time, represented individuals in numerous cases that sought to expand worker freedom of choice. This includes acting as lead counsel in three cases before the United States Supreme Court. In 2018, Messenger argued Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, where the Supreme Court held it violates the First Amendment for governments and unions to compel individuals to financially support unions and their speech. Originally from Youngstown Ohio, Messenger attended Ohio University as an undergraduate and then the George Washington University School of Law.
Partner, Altshuler Berzon LLP
Scott A. Kronland is partner at Altshuler Berzon LLP. He is a graduate of Cornell University, where he was Editor-In-Chief of The Cornell Daily Sun, and the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a member of the California Law Review. He served as a law clerk to Judge James R. Browning of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is the former Chair of the Executive Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and is currently an Appellate Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. He is listed as a "Superlawyer" by Northern California Super Lawyers magazine.
Head of AI Policy, Abundance Institute
Neil Chilson is the Head of AI Policy at the Abundance Institute. Prior to this position, he served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity. Chilson is a lawyer, computer scientist, and author of the book “Getting Out of Control: Emergent Leadership in a Complex World.”
Chilson was previously the senior research fellow for Technology and Innovation at Stand Together, where he guided efforts to understand and promote the legal and cultural paradigms that best enable people to discover, innovate, and improve all our lives.
Before Stand Together, Chilson was the Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, where he focused on the economics of privacy and blockchain-related issues. Previously, he was an attorney advisor to Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen. In both roles he advised Chairman Ohlhausen and worked with staff on nearly every major technology-related case, report, workshop, or other FTC proceeding since January 2014. Neil joined the FTC from telecom firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer. Neil is frequently quoted by the press and his work has appeared in numerous news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USAToday, and Newsweek. Neil has a J.D. from The George Washington Law School, a M.S. in computer science from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a B.S. in computer science from Harding University.
Legislative Director for Senator Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Senate
Jamie Susskind is the Legislative Director for Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). Prior to becoming Legislative Director, she served for two years as the Senator’s Technology Policy Advisor. In that role, she advised on issues such as data privacy, cybersecurity, broadband, spectrum, content moderation, and antitrust, in addition to staffing the Senator on the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security. Susskind previously worked on the Hill as Chief Counsel to Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE) and as an FCC Detailee for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. She also served as Chief of Staff to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and as Vice President of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at the Consumer Technology Association. A native Michigander, Susskind earned a Juris Doctor from the Antonin Scalia Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!).
Director for Cybersecurity and Privacy Policy, Global Government, Cisco
Eric Wenger serves as the Director for Cybersecurity and Privacy on Cisco’s Global Government Affairs team in Washington. Mr. Wenger leads Cisco's work on cybersecurity policy globally, as well as on privacy matters relating to the U.S. government, including on issues related to government surveillance and the Internet of Everything.
Mr. Wenger came to Cisco from Microsoft, where he served as Policy Counsel in the Legal and Corporate Affairs Department. His portfolio covered a range of cybersecurity, cybercrime, data breach, and privacy issues, including efforts to reform U.S. surveillance laws.
Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Wenger worked as a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. He also worked as an Attorney in the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and an Assistant Attorney General in New York State, where he started the first statewide law enforcement unit in the country focused on e-commerce.
Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
Kelly Donohue has worked on media and broadcast matters for over a decade, with a particular emphasis on broadcast law. She routinely files pleadings on behalf of clients in application and rulemaking proceedings, and handles matters relating to new station licensing, renewals, changes in communities of license, ownership and attribution, assignments and transfers, facility changes, EEO compliance, sponsorship identification and contest rules. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Donohue spent seven years at the Federal Communications Commission, where she served as an Assistant Division Chief in the Audio Division of the FCC’s Media Bureau and as Special Counsel in the Enforcement Bureau, Office of the Bureau Chief.
Ms. Donohue also manages a growing trademark practice, counseling clients on the selection and clearance of trademarks, and preparing, filing and prosecuting federal trademark and service mark applications. She also negotiates trademark licensing, settlement and consent agreements. Ms. Donohue is well-versed in other intellectual property matters as well, and has counseled clients on issues relating to music licensing, fair use principles under copyright law, and DMCA takedown provisions.
More recently, Ms. Donohue has discovered her passion for working with start-ups and tech companies, ranging from app developers to creators of connected devices (i.e. Internet of Things). It is in this space that Ms. Donohue brings together her broad legal experience, creative "can do" thinking and strong communications skills to find innovative, cost-effective solutions to the legal hurdles new companies often face. She has provided both formal and informal guidance to dozens of companies on issues relating to intellectual property, privacy, regulatory compliance, and corporate structure/governance.
Ms. Donohue herself has an entrepreneurial spirit. She began her career as a professional musician and continues to write music and perform regularly with her “kindie” rock band, Here Comes Trouble. She has won numerous awards for her songwriting and vocal arrangements, including placements in the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest and International Songwriting Competition.
Adjunct Professor, George Washington University
Howard W. Cox is a former federal prosecutor, criminal investigator and Senior Intelligence Service officer. After almost 40 years of federal service, he retired as the Assistant Inspector General for Investigations of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this capacity, Mr. Cox supervised criminal, civil and administrative investigations conducted by the Office of Inspector General (OIG). Prior to his employment with the CIA, Mr. Cox was the Assistant Deputy Chief of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice, where he was responsible for supervising criminal prosecutions of federal hacking and identity theft cases. While at the Department of Justice, Mr. Cox received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.
Prior to his service with the Department of Justice, Mr. Cox served as a manager, attorney and criminal investigator at OIG offices at the US Postal Service, the Department of Defense, and the General Services Administration. He also served as Staff Counsel for the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Prior to his federal civilian service, Mr. Cox was also a Captain and trial attorney in the US Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Mr. Cox also served as Law Secretary to the Hon. Sherwin D. Lester, NJ Superior Court.
Mr. Cox is an adjunct professor at George Washington University, where he teaches graduate level courses in computer forensics. He is also an instructor with the Graduate School USA, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where he teaches courses related to procurement fraud and electronic search and seizure. Mr. Cox received his AB degree from Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ. He received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC.
Assistant Professor of Law, UNT Dallas College of Law
Professor Brian L. Owsley is an Assistant Professor of Law at UNT Dallas College of Law. Professor Owsley received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He served as Executive Editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. He also received a master’s degree in International Affairs from the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. After law school, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Janis Graham Jack, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas; served as Leonard H. Sadler Fellow for Human Rights Watch in New York City; and clerked for the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. After his appellate court clerkship, he practiced with the Southern Poverty Law Center as a legal fellow in Montgomery, Alabama; the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C.; and with a private law firm in Washington, D.C., which now has merged with the international firm of Troutman, Sanders. After private practice, Professor Owsley returned to government practice, working as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Following this period, he was appointed as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Texas, where he served from 2005 until 2013. With this extensive and varied practice and judicial experience, he entered law teaching in 2013. He has taught at Texas Tech and Indiana Tech Law Schools. Professor Owsley teaches Torts, Constitutional Law, and other courses.
Senior Legal Fellow, the Meese Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Paul J. Larkin is a Senior Legal Fellow in the Meese Institute for the Rule of Law at Advancing American Freedom. Paul has held various positions in the federal and state governments throughout his career, such as being an attorney in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, Special Agent-in-Charge and Acting Director of the Criminal Investigation Division at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a member of the Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform Commission and of the Juvenile Justice Reform Commission in the Office of Virginia Governor George Allen.
He has also worked at Verizon Communications and two law firms in Washington, D.C. His current research is principally in the fields of drug policy, criminal justice policy, and administrative law and policy. He has published numerous articles in law and public policy journals, both in print and online.
Assistant Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law
David Min is a nationally recognized expert on financial markets regulation, and his research interests focus on the law and policy of banking, real estate finance, and capital markets.
Before joining the faculty of UCI Law, Professor Min spent over a decade working in financial regulatory law and policy, including as a staff attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, as an associate in the Securities Litigation practice group of the Washington, DC, law firm WilmerHale, as Banking Committee counsel for Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), and as the senior policy advisor and counsel for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Professor Min was most recently the Associate Director for Financial Markets Policy at the Center for American Progress, a policy think tank, where he oversaw the efforts of the Mortgage Finance Working Group, a collection of leading mortgage market experts responsible for, among other things, one of the leading proposals on housing finance reform that was described by the Wall Street Journal as “influential” and “one of the most detailed road maps yet for the creation of a housing-finance structure to succeed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
Professor Min is regularly quoted on financial markets and housing finance issues, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Reuters, Associated Press and Bloomberg, and is a frequent contributor to radio and television programs, including NPR’s Marketplace, the Diane Rehm Show, CNBC and Fox News. Professor Min is often asked to speak at local and national events.
Professor Min holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and School of Arts and Sciences, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Orin S. Kerr is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, where he teaches and writes in the areas of criminal procedure and computer crime law. Kerr earned mechanical engineering degrees from Princeton University and Stanford University before graduating with a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the United States Supreme Court and Judge Leonard I. Garth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Topics
Author Response: More on Judicial Impartiality
I concur wholeheartedly with Evan Bernick’s thesis, written in response to my recent blog, “Trump...
The Future of Mandatory Union Dues - Podcast
William L. Messenger, Scott A. Kronland
Labor & Employment Law Practice Group Podcast
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association was anticipated to be one of the most significant cases...
Trillions of Dollars at Stake: The Internet of Things - Podcast
Neil Chilson, Jamie Susskind, Eric Wenger, Kelly A. Donohue
Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group Podcast
Cisco and other industry leaders estimate that the Internet of Things (the “IoT”) has the...
Topics
Amendments to Federal Criminal Rule 41 Address Venue, Not Hacking Powers
A few weeks ago the Supreme Court notified Congress of this year’s proposed amendments to...
Topics
Keyes v. Lynch: A successful as-applied challenge to the federal firearms ban for the mentally ill
Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(4)) prohibits any person “who has been adjudicated as a...
Privacy and Cell-Site Simulators - Podcast
Howard W. Cox, Brian L. Owsley
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Podcast
Cell-site simulators are devices used by law enforcement. In response to the signals emitted by...
Limits on Settlements - Podcast
Paul James Larkin, David Min
Litigation Practice Group Podcast
On June 10, U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, James Lankford, and Mike...
Dodd-Frank Appears In Cleveland
Last night, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Donald Trump, Jr. criticized Dodd-Frank and...
Utah v. Strieff - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Orin S. Kerr
SCOTUScast 7-19-16 featuring Orin Kerr
On June 20, 2016, the Supreme Court decided Utah v. Strieff. A police officer detained...
Topics
Judicial Impartiality Must Not Be a Mere "Facade": On the Dangers of Individual and Systematic Judicial Bias
In an article published Tuesday on this blog, David Applegate applauds the New York Times...