Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
Biography
Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).
His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.
Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair and Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Biography
Sanford Levinson, who holds the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law, joined the University of Texas Law School in 1980. Previously a member of the Department of Politics at Princeton University, he is also a Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas. Levinson is the author of approximately 400 articles, book reviews, or commentaries in professional and popular journals--and a regular contributor to the popular blog Balkinization. He has also written six books: Constitutional Faith (1988, winner of the Scribes Award, 2d edition 2011); Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies (1998); Wrestling With Diversity (2003); Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It)(2006); Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (2012); An Argument Open to All: Reading the Federalist in the 21st Century (2015); and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and teh Flaws that Affect Us Today (forthcoming, September 2017). Edited or co-edited books include a leading constitutional law casebook, Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking (6th ed. 2015, with Paul Brest, Jack Balkin, Akhil Amar, and Reva Siegel); Nullification and Secession in Modern Constitutional Thought (2016); Reading Law and Literature: A Hermeneutic Reader (1988, with Steven Mallioux); Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment (1995); Constitutional Stupidities, Constitutional Tragedies (1998, with William Eskridge); Legal Canons (2000, with Jack Balkin); The Louisiana Purchase and American Expansion (2005, with Batholomew Sparrow); Torture: A Collection (2004, revised paperback edition, 2006); and The Oxford Handbook on the United States Constitution (with Mark Tushnet and Mark Graber, 2015). He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 2010.
He has been a visiting faculty member of the Boston University, Georgetown, Harvard, New York University, and Yale law schools in the United States and has taught abroad in programs of law in London; Paris; Jerusalem; Auckland, New Zealand; and Melbourne, Australia. He was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1985-86 and a Member of the Ethics in the Professions Program at Harvard in 1991-92. He is also affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jewish Philosophy in Jerusalem. A member of the American Law Institute, Levinson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. He is married to Cynthia Y. Levinson, a writer of children's literature, and has two daughters and four grandchildren.
S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Biography
David Skeel is the Caryl Louise Boies Visiting Professor of Law at New York University, and the S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The New Financial Deal: Understanding the Dodd-Frank Act and its (Unintended) Consequences (Wiley, 2011); Icarus in the Boardroom: The Fundamental Flaws in Corporate America and Where They Came From (Oxford University Press, 2005); Debt’s Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America (Princeton University Press, 2001); and numerous articles on bankruptcy, corporate law, financial regulation, Christianity and law, and other topics. Professor Skeel has also written commentaries for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Books & Culture, The Weekly Standard, and other publications.
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, specializing in foreign policy and civil liberties. He worked as special assistant to President Reagan and editor of the political magazine Inquiry. He writes regularly for leading publications such as Fortune magazine, National Interest, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Times. Bandow speaks frequently at academic conferences, on college campuses, and to business groups. Bandow has been a regular commentator on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. He holds a J.D. from Stanford University.
Scott Gaylord directs High Point Law’s Appellate Litigation Clinic and serves as a Professor of Law, teaching Constitutional Law and related upper-level elective courses. The Appellate Clinic works with students to write and file briefs in significant court cases, including appeals before the United States Supreme Court.
Professor Gaylord is a prominent Constitutional Law scholar with an impressive background in both academia and legal practice. He has authored or co-authored 18 substantial law review articles, co-authored a Constitutional Law casebook, and has written more than 35 amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and federal circuit courts on prominent national cases involving religious liberty and free speech. He is a frequent speaker on constitutional law and First Amendment topics at law schools across the country and has regularly provided commentary on ongoing constitutional issues to national media outlets, including th eNew York Times, USA Today, the Diane Rehm Show, NPR, The National Constitution Center, and Bloomberg Law.
Professor Gaylord also started an appellate advocacy clinic at his former law school and currently serves on the North Carolina Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, along with holding many other service and leadership roles. Prior to joining the academy in 2007, he practiced complex civil and commercial litigation with the Charlotte firm of Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson, and he clerked for Judge Edith H. Jones on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Professor Gaylord earned his B.A. in philosophy and English, summa cum laude, from Colgate University, his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School, where he also graduated summa cum laude.
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.
Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law
Biography
Professor Rory Little began teaching at UC Hastings in 1994 after a distinguished 12-year career as a practicing litigator, criminal defense and prosecution lawyer, and appellate lawyer. He is today a nationally recognized authority on criminal litigation ethics, federal criminal law, appellate litigation, and constitutional issues. On three occasions he has been awarded the “Best Professor” designation by the UC Hastings third-year class.
Professor Little chairs and serves on various committees in the American Bar Association and Federal Bar Association; annually publishes a Review of the Supreme Court’s Term: Criminal Cases for the ABA; and serves as Reporter to the ABA’s Task Force to Revise the Criminal Justice Standards, Prosecution and Defense Functions. He also occasionally serves as an expert witness in litigation matters; provides commentary on current legal issues for various print and electronic media; and maintains an Of Counsel position for appellate matters with the international law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery.
After graduating from Yale Law School, Professor Little served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer (Washington DC); Justice Potter Stewart (ret.), working on matters before the First, Third and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeal; and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Professor Little also clerked for Justices Powell, Stevens, and Chief Justice Burger—a unique one-year experience.
Professor Little then practiced privately at Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin in Washington D.C. In 1987, he joined the U.S. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime & Racketeering Strike Force as a Trial Attorney. In 1989, he became the Appellate Chief for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of California, and has now argued over 60 federal and state appeals while briefing many more. In 1996 to 1997, Professor Little took a leave of absence from UC Hastings to serve as an Associate Deputy Attorney General in Washington D.C. under Attorney General Janet Reno and Deputy AG Jamie Gorelick.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
Biography
David Stras became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on January 31, 2018. Before serving on the Eighth Circuit, Judge Stras was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, a position he occupied from July 1, 2010 until his appointment to the Eighth Circuit.
Prior to becoming a judge, Stras was a member of the faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School from 2004 through 2010. He taught and wrote in the areas of federal courts and jurisdiction, constitutional law, criminal law, and law and politics.
Judge Stras received his Bachelor of Arts degree, with highest distinction, in 1995 and his Master of Business Administration in 1999, both from the University of Kansas. He also received his law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1999, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Criminal Procedure Edition of the Kansas Law Review.
Following law school, Stras clerked for The Honorable Melvin Brunetti of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then for The Honorable J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
From 2001 to 2002, he practiced white-collar criminal and appellate litigation with the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. Following his year in practice, he clerked for The Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Garrick Professor in Law, The University of Queensland School of Law
Biography
James Allan is the Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland. He is a native born Canadian who practised law at a large firm in Toronto and then at the Bar in London before moving to teach law in Hong Kong, New Zealand and then Australia. He has had sabbaticals at the Cornell Law School and the University of San Diego School of Law in the U.S. and at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Dalhousie Law School in Canada (where he was the Bertha Wilson Visiting Professor of Human Rights).
Prof. Allan has published widely in the areas of constitutional law, legal philosophy and bill of rights scepticism. His latest book, aimed at the educated layperson, came out recently. It is titled Democracy in Decline and is available from Connor Court in Australia and from MQUP in the U.S. and Canada. Prof. Allan also writes regularly for weeklies and monthlies, including being a regular contributor to The Australian, The Spectator Australia, and Quadrant. He was elected to the Mont Pelerin Society in 2011.
Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech; Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Biography
Bradley Smith is one of the nation’s foremost experts on campaign finance and election law, having served as a Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission from 2000 to 2005, including as Vice Chairman of the Commission in 2003 and Chairman in 2004. While serving as FEC Commissioner, the Wall Street Journal dubbed him, “the only honorable man in this bordello.”
His articles on election law have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Georgetown Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and other top journals, and he contributes regularly to popular publications such as The Wall Street Journal and National Review.
In her book on the history of campaign finance reform, "Big Money Unleashed" (Univ. Of Chicago Press 2024), legal historian Ann Southworth writes, "Smith has done more than any other scholar since the 1970s to advance the legal theories that ultimately prevailed in the Roberts Court."
Smith has been the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Professor of Law at Capital University Law School, and has also held appointments at West Virginia University and Princeton University. He is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Kalamazoo College.
Professor of Law and Co-Director, Ordered Liberty Program, University of Louisville
Biography
Luke Milligan is a Professor of Law and criminal defense lawyer who works from the U.S. and Hungary.
He was previously with Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., where he practiced white-collar criminal defense. Published widely on the law of criminal procedure, his scholarship on the Fourth Amendment inspired the establishment of a litigation and public relations center at one of the world’s top public interest firms, the Institute for Justice, in Arlington, Virginia. He is a co-founder of the Ordered Liberty Program (with Prof. Justin Walker, now Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit). He sits on the Board of Advisors of the Cato Supreme Court Review in Washington, D.C.
He’s been a visiting professor at Emory University School of Law, as well as on the law faculties of the University of Lisbon and the University of Milan. In Hungary, he is the founder and co-director of the Ordered Liberty School in Central Europe, based at Ludovika University in Budapest.
Of Counsel to a U.S.-based law firm, he’s represented individuals in a wide array of state and federal prosecutions. In 2020 and 2021, he fought the COVID-19 mandates in the U.S. He was lead counsel to U.S. Senator Rand Paul in landmark separation-of-powers litigation, stripping the Governor of Kentucky of “inherent authority” under the constitution, and, in turn, bringing an end to all statewide COVID-19 orders (notably, curfews, capacity limits, and masking requirements). He holds a tenured faculty position at the University of Louisville, where he teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Jurisprudence, and Natural Law & Natural Rights. He’s been named Professor of the Year by alumni and hooding professor by five graduating classes.
He began his career as law clerk to the Hon. Edith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the Hon. Martin L.C. Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He received a J.D., with honors, from Emory University, where he was Articles Editor of the Emory Law Journal.
He and his wife, Sarah Peterson, have three sons, John, Mark, and Luke, Jr.