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Solicitor General, Montana Attorney General's Office
Christian is currently Solicitor General of Montana, where he serves as the chief litigator and principal legal advisor to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. In that capacity, he manages litigation before the federal district courts, courts of appeal, and the United States Supreme Court, as well as the Montana Supreme Court. He previously served in the Trump Administration as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to government service, he was a public interest constitutional litigator at Mountain States Legal Foundation and a fellow at the Institute for Justice. He clerked for Justice Caleb Stegall on the Kansas Supreme Court. He also served as Director of Publications for the Federalist Society's national headquarters.
Christian earned his B.A. in Political Science in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania before attending the University of Kansas School of Law. Christian is admitted to practice law in Kansas and Montana. A Kansas native, he is a die-hard fan of the Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas City Chiefs, and Kansas City Royals.
Christian is a member of the Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group's Executive Committee.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
Eric Hamilton serves as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division. He previously served as the Solicitor General for the State of Nebraska and as an Assistant Solicitor General in the Texas Attorney General’s Office. During the first Trump Administration, Eric worked as an Associate Counsel to the President in the Office of White House Counsel. Earlier in his career, he was in private practice in Washington, D.C. and clerked for Judge Thomas M. Hardiman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Eric is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he served on the Stanford Law Review. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Solicitor General, Iowa Office of the Attorney General
Eric Wessan serves as Iowa’s Solicitor General in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. In that role, Wessan leads Iowa’s litigation before State and federal appellate courts, including the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Courts. Before that role, Wessan worked on complex commercial litigation at two large law firms in Chicago. Wessan also served as a law clerk for the Honorable James C. Ho on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for the Honorable John F. Kness on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Wessan is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, with honors, and of the University of Chicago.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee. He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.
Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.
Associate, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Stephen Hammer is a litigation associate in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Hammer served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Gregory G. Katsas of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mr. Hammer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as managing editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Before law school, Mr. Hammer served as an infantry officer in the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army. His military decorations include the Bronze Star. Mr. Hammer received an M.Phil. in theology from the University of Oxford, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. He received an A.B. summa cum laude in classics from Princeton University and graduated as Latin salutatorian.
Mr. Hammer is a member of the Texas and District of Columbia bars.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Andrew Kilberg is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C. office, where he practices in the firm’s litigation department. A member of the firm’s Labor and Employment, Administrative and Regulatory, and Appellate and Constitutional Law practice groups, Andrew has significant experience challenging onerous federal regulations, advising on regulatory proposals, and defending agency enforcement actions and investigations. He has represented clients in federal district and appellate courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as before various agencies, authoring dozens of briefs, comment letters, and other submissions. His matters have covered wage and hour, ERISA, occupational safety and health, anti-discrimination, whistleblower, and labor relations issues. In addition to his labor and employment expertise, Andrew in 2019 was named a “Rising Star” in Telecom by Law360.
Between 2019 and 2021, Andrew served as Counselor to Secretary Eugene Scalia at the United States Department of Labor. In that role, he advised the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on a wide range of matters and led teams on important regulatory and other projects for the Office of the Secretary, including matters concerning environmental, social, and governance investing, proxy voting, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, independent contractor status, apprenticeships, religious accommodation, evidentiary standards and procedures for non-discrimination enforcement actions, and the coronavirus pandemic. He also was responsible for coordination with several other executive branch agencies.
In addition to his work in court, Andrew regularly authors comment letters submitted to federal agencies, including the Department of Labor, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission. He also has written position statements submitted to the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, provided extensive advice on federal and state vaccine-related rules and litigation, labor relations, anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation matters, and ERISA issues, and represented clients in agency investigations and audits.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, Andrew clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and served as Articles Development Editor of the Virginia Law Review. He received an M. Phil. in Historical Studies from the University of Cambridge and was graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in History from Princeton University.
Andrew is a member of the Virginia bar, and he is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Supreme Court of Virginia, and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel, Ryan LLC
John Smith is the Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel at Ryan, LLC. Based at Ryan’s global headquarters in Dallas, Texas, John Smith brings more than 20 years of experience as a proven leader in the legal, business, and national security communities, including all three branches of the United States Government.
Prior to joining Ryan, Mr. Smith spent 12 years in Texas and Virginia at Raytheon Technologies, an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation. He pioneered roles as the company’s first cybersecurity lawyer and first privacy lawyer. During the last seven years, as a divisional Vice President and General Counsel, Mr. Smith led the legal departments of the two Raytheon divisions focused primarily on services.
Before Raytheon, Mr. Smith served as Associate Counsel to U.S. President George W. Bush. He was the lead lawyer for the White House Homeland Security Council staff. He began his legal career by clerking for Judge Samuel Alito, a few years before Alito’s elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court, and then by practicing at the international law firm of Covington & Burling.
Mr. Smith served a decade as a U.S. Army reservist and two years as a missionary in Ukraine and Russia, a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He graduated with high honors from both Princeton University and Brigham Young University Law School.
Professor, Associate Dean for Faculty Research, Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law
José Joel Alicea is the inaugural St. Robert Bellarmine Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Faculty Research, and Director of the Law School’s Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at Duke Law School and Notre Dame Law School. Prior to joining the Catholic Law faculty, Professor Alicea practiced law for several years at the law firm of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, where he specialized in constitutional litigation. He previously served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., on the United States Supreme Court and for Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Professor Alicea’s scholarship has focused on constitutional theory. His scholarship has appeared, or is forthcoming, in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and the Notre Dame Law Review, among other publications. He has also been active in public debates about constitutional law, testifying before Congress and publishing essays in places like The New York Times, City Journal, and National Affairs.
Professor Alicea is a Fellow at the Columbus School of Law's Center for Religious Liberty and a Nonresident Fellow at The American Enterprise Institute. He is the recipient of several research and teaching awards, including the student-selected Professor of the Year teaching award.
Solicitor General of Missouri
Lou Capozzi is the Solicitor General of Missouri. In that role, he oversees all appeals for the State of Missouri. He is also the Director of Special Litigation and litigates high-stakes cases at trial.
Lou previously worked at Jones Day, where he specialized in administrative and election law. At Jones Day, he helped lead a six-week bench trial in federal court, during which he cross-examined important expert and fact witnesses, delivered closing argument, asserted evidentiary objections, and argued several motions, including a motion for a directed verdict. He has also authored briefs at all phases of litigation--from evidentiary motions to dispositive motions and appeals.
Lou is also Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He has published several academic articles focusing on administrative law.
Lou clerked for Justice Neil Gorsuch at the United States Supreme Court in the 2021 Term, as well as for Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Anthony Scirica of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He gradated as the valedictorian from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2019.
Solicitor General, Montana Attorney General's Office
Christian is currently Solicitor General of Montana, where he serves as the chief litigator and principal legal advisor to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. In that capacity, he manages litigation before the federal district courts, courts of appeal, and the United States Supreme Court, as well as the Montana Supreme Court. He previously served in the Trump Administration as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to government service, he was a public interest constitutional litigator at Mountain States Legal Foundation and a fellow at the Institute for Justice. He clerked for Justice Caleb Stegall on the Kansas Supreme Court. He also served as Director of Publications for the Federalist Society's national headquarters.
Christian earned his B.A. in Political Science in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania before attending the University of Kansas School of Law. Christian is admitted to practice law in Kansas and Montana. A Kansas native, he is a die-hard fan of the Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas City Chiefs, and Kansas City Royals.
Christian is a member of the Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group's Executive Committee.
Solicitor General, Iowa Office of the Attorney General
Eric Wessan serves as Iowa’s Solicitor General in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. In that role, Wessan leads Iowa’s litigation before State and federal appellate courts, including the Iowa and U.S. Supreme Courts. Before that role, Wessan worked on complex commercial litigation at two large law firms in Chicago. Wessan also served as a law clerk for the Honorable James C. Ho on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for the Honorable John F. Kness on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Wessan is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, with honors, and of the University of Chicago.
General Counsel, Center for Individual Rights
Darpana Sheth joined CIR as General Counsel in May 2025. She is a nationally recognized constitutional litigator with over two decades of experience serving in in leadership roles at other nonprofit organizations.
Before joining CIR, Darpana served for four years as Vice President of Litigation for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Prior to that, Darpana was a Senior Attorney with the Institute for Justice, where she also served as Director of the Institute’s National Initiative to End Forfeiture Abuse.
Before finding her calling as a public-interest attorney, Darpana served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York and worked in private practice as a litigation associate at the Manhattan law firm of Chadbourne & Parke, LLP. She also served as law clerk to the Honorable Jerome A. Holmes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
A native of Philadelphia, Darpana graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History. She earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
First Assistant District Attorney, Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Conroe Texas
Mike Holley is the First Assistant District Attorney at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office in Conroe, Texas. Mike a graduate of Abilene Christian University where he graduated summa cum laude. Mike received his J.D. from Texas Tech University School of Law where he also graduated summa cum laude, and he received his L.L.M. from the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia.
As First Assistant, Mike is responsible for the day-to-day management of the office, supervision, and training of employees, trying cases, and the preparation of the annual office budget.
Before joining the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, Mike served in the United States Army. Mike’s Army career began as a Military Police Officer before The Army sent him to law school. Mike would go on to serve as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney in the Army and, in 2004, would serve as the Chief Prosecutor in the Abu Ghraib Detainee Abuse cases in Baghdad, Iraq.
Mike left the Army as a Major after 13 years of service and spent the next six years in private practice with the Lanier Law Firm. After joining the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office in 2012, Mike served as a felony prosecutor and Chief of the Misdemeanor Division. Mike assisted in creating the Montgomery County Veterans Court and has prosecuted a wide variety of cases. Mike spends a substantial amount of his time training attorneys in his offices as well as speaking to prospective attorneys about the profession of prosecution. He has also made professional presentations at various conferences across the state and the country.
Mike was promoted to his current position as First Assistant in 2016. Mike is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He has been married for 33 years and has four children.
Chief Policy Counsel, Council on Criminal Justice and Senior Advisor, Right on Crime
Marc A. Levin is the Chief Policy Counsel for the Council on Criminal Justice (counciloncj.org) and Senior Advisor for Right on Crime.
An attorney and accomplished author on legal and public policy issues, Marc began the Foundation’s criminal justice program in 2005. This work contributed to nationally praised policy changes that have been followed by dramatic declines in crime and incarceration in Texas. Building on this success, in 2010, Levin developed the concept for the Right on Crime initiative, a TPPF project in partnership with Prison Fellowship and the American Conservative Union Foundation. Right on Crime has become the national clearinghouse for conservative criminal justice reforms and has contributed to the adoption of policies in dozens of states that fight crime, support victims, and protect taxpayers.
In 2014, Levin was named one of the “Politico 50” in the magazine’s annual “list of thinkers, doers, and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction.”
Marc has testified on criminal justice policy on four occasions before Congress and has testified before legislatures in states including Texas, Nevada, Kansas, Wisconsin, and California. He also has met personally with leaders such as U.S. Presidents, Speakers of the House, and the Justice Commtitee of the United Kingdom Parliament to share his ideas on criminal justice reform. In 2007, he was honored in a resolution unanimously passed by the Texas House of Representatives that stated, “Mr. Levin’s intellect is unparalleled and his research is impeccable.”
Since 2005, Marc has published dozens of policy papers on topics such as sentencing, probation, parole, reentry, and overcriminalization which are available on the TPPF website. Levin’s articles on law and public policy have been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Texas Review of Law & Politics, National Law Journal, New York Daily News, Jerusalem Post, Toronto Star, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Charlotte Observer, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio Express-News and Reason Magazine.
In 1999, Marc graduated with honors from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government. In 2002, Marc received his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law. Marc was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow in 1996. He served as a law clerk to Judge Will Garwood on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Staff Attorney at the Texas Supreme Court.
Owner, VSV Leadership
Patrick Robinson is the owner of VSV Leadership and president of the board of Kid C.A.T.. Before starting VSV Leadership, Mr. Robinson worked at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as both a member of the strategic initiatives team and as a Transforming Prosecution Lead.
He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he got his Masters of Business Administration, and he received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Senior Fellow, Council on Criminal Justice
Rothman has worked as a researcher, educator, communications specialist, policy analyst, and funder across the criminal justice system and emerging technology landscape. Throughout his career, he has focused on supporting and implementing programs that aim to enable public policy that is effective, safe, and dependable for all. Rothman holds an M.T.S from Harvard University in religion, ethics, and politics and a B.A. in political science from Carleton College.
Judge, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, State of Louisiana
Judge Schlegel, a recent inductee into the Louisiana Justice Hall of Fame, was elected to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal in 2023. During Judge Schlegel’s decade on the trial court, he “designed and managed what may be one of the most advanced courts in the country for delivering justice online,” according to one legal tech journalist.
Judge Schlegel currently serves on the ABA & LSBA Task Forces on the Law and Artificial Intelligence, among others. He is the immediate past Chair of the Louisiana Supreme Court Technology Commission and has served as President of the Louisiana District Judges Association. Judge Schlegel has received numerous awards including the National Center for State Courts’ 26th Annual William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, one of the highest judicial honors in the country. Judge Schlegel was also featured on the cover of the American Bar Association Journal and is a nationally recognized speaker on legal tech and the modernization of the justice system.
Judge Schlegel has been equally innovative in the criminal justice system. While on the trial court, Judge Schlegel established the Reentry Court and Swift & Certain Probation programs in Jefferson Parish, aimed at reducing recidivism and enhancing community safety.
Prior to his election to the bench, Judge Schlegel was one of the top felony prosecutors in the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office. He practiced civil law with an emphasis in products liability before becoming a prosecutor. Judge Schlegel graduated with honors from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, where he served as the President of the Student Bar Association. He has been married to his high school sweetheart, Representative Laurie Schlegel, for 25 years and has one son in college.
