The Legacy of Alexander M. Bickel
Yale Student Chapter
Yale Law School127 Wall St
New Haven, CT 06511
Here are the latest events.
Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law, Yale Law School
Owen Fiss is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law of Yale University. He was educated at Dartmouth, Oxford, and Harvard. He clerked for Thurgood Marshall (when Marshall was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit) and later for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. He also served in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice from 1966 to 1968. Before coming to Yale, Professor Fiss taught at the University of Chicago. At Yale he teaches procedure, legal theory, and constitutional law.
Professor Fiss is the author of many articles and books, including The Civil Rights Injunction, Troubled Beginnings of the Modern State, The Structure of Procedure (with Robert Cover), Liberalism Divided, The Irony of Free Speech, A Community of Equals, A Way Out: America’s Ghettos and the Legacy of Racism, Adjudication and its Alternatives (with Judith Resnik), The Law as it Could Be, The Dictates of Justice: Essays on Law and Human Rights, and A War Like No Other: The Constitution in a Time of Terror. In a 2012 study, four of his articles were named as among the top 100 most-cited law review articles of all time. His most recent book is Pillars of Justice: Lawyers and the Liberal Tradition.
Professor Fiss is one of the founders of the Law School programs in Latin America and the Middle East and, along with Anthony Kronman, directs the Abdallah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization. Professor Fiss is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto, Universidad de Chile, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and Universidad de Palermo (Buenos Aires). He was also awarded La distinción Sócrates from Universidad de Los Andes (Bogotá) and was appointed honorary visiting professor at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. Most recently, Professor Fiss was awarded the 2020 Henry M. Phillips Prize in Jurisprudence by the American Philosophical Society, becoming only the 26th recipient of the prize since it was established in 1888.
Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Anthony Kronman is Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School. A former Dean of Yale Law School, Professor Kronman teaches in the areas of contracts, bankruptcy, jurisprudence, social theory, and professional responsibility. Before coming to Yale, he taught at the University of Chicago. Among his books are Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life, Max Weber, Contracts: Cases and Materials (with F. Kessler and G. Gilmore), and Lost Lawyer. His latest book, Confessions of a Born-Again Pagan, was published by Yale University Press in 2016. Professor Kronman received his B.A. from Williams College, and his Ph.D. in Philosophy and J.D. from Yale.
Senior Counsel, Americans United for Life
Clarke has a law degree from Valparaiso University School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from Allegheny College.
Clarke Forsythe is currently Senior Counsel for AUL and author of Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade. His twenty-seven years of service to AUL includes founding and directing the AUL Project in Law & Bioethics, serving for six years as Vice President and General Counsel, overseeing our nationwide litigation and legislation strategy, and serving as President for ten years.
Mr. Forsythe has argued cases before federal and state courts and has testified before Congress and state legislatures. He is also a prolific writer on pro-life law issues, having published more than 15 law review articles and book chapters, as well as articles in First Things, the Wall Street Journal, and National Review Online. Other leading newspapers that have published his articles or quoted him include The New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Times, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. Clarke blogs frequently on “The Road to Roe."
In 2006, Mr. Forsythe received an M.A. in Bioethics from Trinity International University. His recent articles include “A Lack of Prudence,” published in Human Life Review; “Protecting Unconscious, Medically-Dependent Persons after Wendland & Schiavo,” published in Constitutional Commentary; “The Tragic Failure of Roe v. Wade: Why Abortion Should be Returned to the States” published in Texas Review of Law and Politics; and most recently, “A Road Map Through the Supreme Court’s Back Alley” published in Villanova Law Review.
His first book, Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square, was published by InterVarsity Press in 2009. First Things called it “an essential book for lawmakers and all participants in the ongoing culture wars.”
Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
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.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Professor Nicholas Bagley teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, regulatory theory, and health law. Prior to joining the Law School faculty, he was an attorney with the appellate staff in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he argued a dozen cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals and acted as lead counsel in many more. Professor Bagley also served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court and to the Hon. David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. Professor Bagley holds a BA in English from Yale University and received his JD, summa cum laude, from New York University School of Law. Before entering law school, he joined Teach For America and taught eighth-grade English at a public school in South Bronx. Professor Bagley's work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. In 2012, he was the recipient of the Law School's L. Hart Wright Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a frequent contributor to The Incidental Economist, a prominent health policy blog.
Edwin M. Adams Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law
John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Julia D. Mahoney teaches courses in property, government finance, constitutional law and nonprofit organizations. A graduate of Yale Law School, she joined the University of Virginia faculty as an associate professor in 1999 and is now John S. Battle Professor of Law. She has also taught at the University of Southern California Law School and the University of Chicago Law School, and before entering the legal academy, practiced law at the New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Her scholarly articles include works on land preservation, eminent domain, health care reform and property rights in human biological materials.
Senior Counsel, Americans United for Life
Clarke has a law degree from Valparaiso University School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from Allegheny College.
Clarke Forsythe is currently Senior Counsel for AUL and author of Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade. His twenty-seven years of service to AUL includes founding and directing the AUL Project in Law & Bioethics, serving for six years as Vice President and General Counsel, overseeing our nationwide litigation and legislation strategy, and serving as President for ten years.
Mr. Forsythe has argued cases before federal and state courts and has testified before Congress and state legislatures. He is also a prolific writer on pro-life law issues, having published more than 15 law review articles and book chapters, as well as articles in First Things, the Wall Street Journal, and National Review Online. Other leading newspapers that have published his articles or quoted him include The New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Times, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. Clarke blogs frequently on “The Road to Roe."
In 2006, Mr. Forsythe received an M.A. in Bioethics from Trinity International University. His recent articles include “A Lack of Prudence,” published in Human Life Review; “Protecting Unconscious, Medically-Dependent Persons after Wendland & Schiavo,” published in Constitutional Commentary; “The Tragic Failure of Roe v. Wade: Why Abortion Should be Returned to the States” published in Texas Review of Law and Politics; and most recently, “A Road Map Through the Supreme Court’s Back Alley” published in Villanova Law Review.
His first book, Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square, was published by InterVarsity Press in 2009. First Things called it “an essential book for lawmakers and all participants in the ongoing culture wars.”
Partner, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLC
Aaron Van Oort is a legal strategist and appellate lawyer who co-chairs Faegre Drinker’s appellate advocacy group. A former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and an editor of the Eighth Circuit Appellate Practice Manual (11th ed. 2024), Aaron is a distinguished voice for clients in trial and appellate courts throughout the country. Chambers USA describes him as having “notable prominence and presence in this field.”
Ari Cohn is Chicago-based attorney with a decade of experience defending the First Amendment and free speech. A nationally-recognized expert in First Amendment law, defamation law, and Section 230, Ari currently serves as Free Speech Counsel at TechFreedom, a non-partisan nonprofit think tank devoted to technology law and policy, and the preservation of civil liberties in our digital world. He works tirelessly with his colleagues, other civil society groups, and stakeholders to defend the First Amendment and the vibrant, open Internet that has put the world and all of its knowledge at our fingertips, advocating before legislators, regulators, the courts, and the public. In his private capacity, Ari defends individual clients against abusive and censorial defamation (and other speech tort) claims aimed at dissuading or punishing the exercise of First Amendment rights.
Prior to joining TechFreedom, Ari was the director of the Individual Rights Defense Program at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (now the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), where he managed the program’s direct advocacy and guided the organization to a record number of free speech victories on behalf of college students and faculty members across the United States. Ari has also previously served as an attorney with the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and as a litigation associate at the Chicago office of Mayer Brown LLP, where he represented large multinational companies in complex litigation matters.
Ari is a sought-after communicator on free speech and tech policy issues, regularly serving as a source for print media and appearing on television, radio, and podcasts. He has been invited to speak to dozens of conferences, continuing legal education programs, events, and other groups on important First Amendment and tech policy issues. Ari particularly enjoys speaking to diverse audiences and emphasizing bridging ideological divides to foster productive engagement on important issues.
Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1986. After receiving his B.S. from Cornell University in 1970, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973, he clerked on the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court. Thereafter, Judge Ginsburg was a professor at the Harvard Law School, the Deputy Assistant and then Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as well as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Concurrent with his service as a federal judge, Judge Ginsburg has taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the New York University School of Law. Judge Ginsburg is currently a Professor of Law at the George Mason University and a visiting professor at University College London, Faculty of Laws.
Judge Ginsburg is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Global Antitrust Institute at the Law and Economics Center of the George Mason University School of Law. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of: Competition Policy International; the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; the Journal of Competition Law and Economics; the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy; the Supreme Court Economic Review; the University of Chicago Law Review; the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty; and, at University College London, both the Centre for Law, Economics and Society and the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics.
In 2020, Judge Ginsburg was the 11th recipient of the John Sherman Award, presented by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in recognition of the awardee’s Lifetime Contributions to Antitrust Law and Policy.
In 2014, Judge Ginsburg received the Lifetime Achievement Award given annually by the Global Competition Review.
He is the author or co-author of several books and more than 100 articles on competition and regulation, including, most recently, Growing Convergence: The Limited Role of Antitrust in Standard Essential Patent Disputes, in CPI Antitrust Chronicle, Summer 2021, Vol. 1, No. 2.
Director of Research, American Economic Liberties Project
Matt Stoller is a public intellectual who writes about the American anti-monopoly
tradition. He is the author of the Simon and Schuster book Goliath: The Hundred Year
War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Stoller is the Director of Research at
the American Economic Liberties Project. He publishes an email newsletter called BIG.
Stoller is a former policy advisor to the Senate Budget Committee, and worked in the House of Representatives on the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform Act.
He has lectured on competition policy and media at Columbia University, Harvard Law, Duke Law, Bertelsmann Foundation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, West Point and the National Communications Commission of Taiwan. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Fast Company, Foreign Policy, the Guardian, Vice, The American Conservative, and the Baffler.
He has also produced for MSNBC and starred in a short-lived television show on FX called Brand X with Russell Brand.
Partner, Gibson Dunn
Jeff Wall is Co-Chair of the Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group at Gibson Dunn and a former Acting Solicitor General of the United States. He has argued more than 30 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and is widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading appellate advocates. Last year, he was named Appellate Attorney of the Year by The National Law Journal. He has been honored as The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week” three times since 2024, for securing the elimination of a $650 million award against several national pharmacy chains; persuading the Delaware Supreme Court to reinstate Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $60 billion incentive-compensation plan; and delivering what was described as a “knockout blow” to the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules in the Sixth Circuit after more than a decade of regulatory uncertainty.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, Jeff is widely regarded for his ability to distill complex legal issues into clear, persuasive arguments. He is ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA, which has praised his “formidable reputation,” describing him as a “sophisticated” and “brilliant advocate” with an “impressive track record before the Supreme Court.” He is also a three-time Law360 Appellate MVP, most recently earning back-to-back honors in 2024 and 2025.
Jeff is a member of the American Law Institute, President of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, and former member of the Advisory Committee on Procedures for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Before his service in the Solicitor General’s Office and time in private practice, Jeff clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Jeff has a robust pro bono practice and role in his community, serving on the board of the St. Albans School and its School of Public Service.
Richard W. Pogue Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Professor Daniel Crane is the Richard W. Pogue Professor of Law. He served as the associate dean for faculty and research from 2013 to 2016. He teaches Contracts, Antitrust, Antitrust and Intellectual Property, and Legislation and Regulation.
Crane previously was a professor of law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a visiting professor at New York University School of Law and the University of Chicago Law School. In spring 2009, he taught antitrust law on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon.
Crane's work has appeared in the University of Chicago Law Review, the California Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the Cornell Law Review, among other journals. He is the author of several books on antitrust law, including Antitrust (Aspen, 2014), The Making of Competition Policy: Legal and Economic Sources (Oxford University Press, 2013), and The Institutional Structure of Antitrust Enforcement (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
Noah Joshua Phillips is Co-Chair of the Antitrust Practice and previously served as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. He advises clients on a range of antitrust issues, including mergers and acquisitions, business conduct and compliance, litigation and investigations, and data security and privacy.
On the FTC, Mr. Phillips played an integral role in precedent setting enforcement actions and regulatory efforts concerning antitrust, consumer protection and privacy. He decided dozens of merger and other antitrust enforcement matters across the economy, including in the consumer product, defense, energy, entertainment, healthcare, technology, pharmaceutical and retail industries. Mr. Phillips’ written antitrust opinions were consistently upheld by federal appellate courts.
As Commissioner, Mr. Phillips frequently testified before Congress and represented the FTC before international bodies, including the G7, the Competition Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners. He speaks and writes frequently on a range of antitrust, consumer protection and privacy issues.
Prior to the FTC, Mr. Phillips served as Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator John Cornyn, of Texas, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He advised Senator Cornyn on a variety of legal and policy issues, as well as judicial nominations.
Mr. Phillips received an A.B. magna cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2000 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2005. He began his career at a New York-based investment bank. After law school, Mr. Phillips clerked for Hon. Edward C. Prado of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and joined Cravath’s Litigation Department in 2006. He left the Firm in 2010, and he rejoined Cravath as a partner in December 2022.