Logan Beirne is an American entrepreneur, attorney, businessman, and writer. He currently serves as Chief Legal Officer of Strive Asset Management and teaches at Yale Law School. His debut book, Blood of Tyrants: George Washington and the Forging of the Presidency, was a national bestseller and won the Colby Award for best military history.
Beirne founded the multinational legal technology company Matterhorn Transactions, Inc. in 2011, providing data analytics to thousands of law firms across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. He successfully led the company to its acquisition by DealPulse, Inc. in 2023. In addition to Matterhorn, Beirne has co-founded and invested in several other businesses, including the museum systems company Collection Harbor and the music software firm Artusi Music, Inc.
A Fulbright Scholar at Queen's University in Belfast, Beirne studied economics before earning his J.D. from Yale Law School. At Yale, he received the Edgar M. Cullen Prize for constitutional scholarship and an Olin Fellowship for his work on presidential power.
Before founding Matterhorn, Beirne worked at GE Capital's private equity arm, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and J.P. Morgan & Co.
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.
David Feder focuses on appeals and motions practice. He has drafted numerous briefs and motions in federal and state courts on behalf of a wide variety of clients ranging from professional sports teams to telecommunication, entertainment, and transportation companies. He also has argued multiple cases, including in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (on behalf of a religious refugee from China) and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (on behalf of a severely injured prison inmate).
David is a coauthor of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch's New York Times best seller, A Republic, If You Can Keep It. His scholarly works have been cited in the Supreme Court (Sveen v. Melin, 584 U.S. ___ (2018)), Harvard Law Review (130 Harv. L. Rev. 1496 (2017)), Stanford Law Review Online (69 Stan. L. Rev. Online 171 & 185 (2017)), and in other publications.
David received his law degree from Harvard in 2014, winning the Fay Diploma for graduating first in his class as well as the Project on the Foundations of Private Law Paper and the Irving Oberman Family Law Award for best papers in their respective fields. David received his undergraduate degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2011, where he received a Department Community Service Award, a Certificate of Recognition for Contributions to the Image of the Major, an Exceptional Academic Achievement Award, and was named an Outstanding Student in Organizational Communication.
Henry Whitaker became Florida’s Solicitor General in July 2021. He came to the position after four years of serving in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, including as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, where he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General, and cabinet secretaries on a range of important and complex legal issues. Before that, Solicitor General Whitaker worked on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for almost nine years, arguing more than 40 appeals in the federal appellate courts. He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after graduating magna cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Yale College.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Biography
Judge Readler earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Michigan. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to Judge Alan Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler then began practicing law in the Columbus office of the international law firm Jones Day, eventually spending ten years as a partner in the firm’s Issues and Appeals Practice Group. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler appeared in state and federal trial and appellate courts around the country, most frequently the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler also successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in McQuiggin v. Perkins on behalf of an inmate claiming actual innocence. His other pro bono representations include representing capital defendants before the Tenth Circuit and the Supreme Court of Ohio, as well as representing defendants sentenced to life in prison before the Sixth Circuit. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler traveled to Nairobi with Lawyers Without Borders to train Kenyan lawyers in prosecuting domestic violence cases, and he was also a recipient of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship awarded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Following his career in private practice, Judge Readler served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2017 to 2019. In that role, Judge Readler led and supervised over 1,000 lawyers in the Department’s largest litigating division, briefing and arguing several cases on behalf of the United States in federal courts across the country, including high-profile cases significant to the Administration and the Department. In March 2019, Judge Readler was confirmed to serve as a Circuit Judge on the Sixth Circuit. He resides in Columbus.
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.
Distinguished Senior Fellow and Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Biography
Edward Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021.
Mr. Whelan directs EPPC’s program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture. His areas of expertise include constitutional law and the judicial confirmation process. As a contributor to National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog, he has been a leading commentator on nominations to the Supreme Court and the lower courts and on issues of constitutional law. He has written essays and op-eds for leading newspapers—including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post—opinion journals, and academic symposia and law reviews. The National Law Journal has named Mr. Whelan among its “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C.
Mr. Whelan is co-editor of three volumes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s work: Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (Crown Forum, 2017), a New York Times bestselling collection of speeches by Justice Scalia; On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer (Crown Forum, 2019), a collection of Justice Scalia’s writings on faith and religion; and The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law (Crown Forum, 2020), a collection of Justice Scalia’s views on legal issues.
Mr. Whelan, a lawyer and a former law clerk to Justice Scalia, has served in positions of responsibility in all three branches of the federal government. From just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, until joining EPPC in 2004, Mr. Whelan was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions. Mr. Whelan previously served on Capitol Hill as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to clerking for Justice Scalia, he was a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In 1981 Mr. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard College and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1985 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.
For more on Mr. Whelan’s background, see this interview.
Professor and Director, Prolife Center, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Biography
Teresa Collett, J.D., is professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where she serves as director of the school's Prolife Center. Collett received her doctorate at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. As a well-known advocate for the protection of human life and the family, Collett specializes in the subjects of marriage, religion and bioethics in her research.
Collett has published numerous legal articles and is the co-author of a law casebook on professional responsibility and co-editor of a collection of essays exploring “catholic” and “Catholic” perspectives on American law. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and has testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as before legislative committees in several states.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Collett to a five-year term on the Pontifical Council for the Family. Her appointment was renewed by His Holiness Pope Francis until 2016 when the responsibilities of the Council were assumed by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life. In 2013, she served as a delegate to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) for the Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations.
She represented Congressman Ron Paul and various medical groups in the defense of the U.S. federal ban of partial-birth abortion, and the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota defending the N.H. requirement of state parental involvement prior to performance of an abortion on a minor before the U.S. Supreme Court. Collett is often asked to represent the interests of government officials before federal appellate courts. She has served as special attorney general for the states of Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as assisting other state attorneys general in defending laws protecting human life and marriage. Prior to joining St. Thomas in 2003, Collett taught at the South Texas College of Law, where she established the nation's first annual symposium on legal ethics.
U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Tennessee, U.S. Department of Justice
Biography
Braden Boucek was sworn in on December 24, 2025, as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Mr. Boucek served as the senior vice president of litigation at the Southeastern Legal Foundation having previously served as the vice president of legal affairs at the Beacon Center. Mr. Boucek has extensive experience as a prosecutor, starting his career at the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office before serving for two years as an Assistant District Attorney General in Williamson County. He was a federal prosecutor for ten years, first serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Tennessee from 2005 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. Boucek was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee, the district he now leads as the United States Attorney.
Fred Smith Jr., JD ’07, is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and a leading scholar of the federal courts. His work on abstention, governmental immunities, and the allocation of power between state and federal courts has shaped contemporary debates over federal jurisdiction. This work has recovered histories that field had forgotten, and centered people the field’s doctrines had rendered invisible. He co-authors Federal Courts in Context (with Erwin Chemerinsky, Seth Davis, and Norman Spaulding) and Constitutional Torts, now in its sixth edition (with Sheldon Nahmod, Tom Eaton, Noah Smith-Drelich, and Michael Wells). He is also an important voice in the growing field of posthumous legal interests, where he created the first law school course of its kind.
His scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Columbia Law Review, California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, New York University Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review, among others. He lectures on these subjects across the United States and internationally, including in Istanbul, Shanghai, and Warsaw, and is regularly consulted as an expert by major media outlets, including CNN, CBS News, MSNBC, NPR, Time, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Smith clerked for Judge Myron Thompson (M.D. Ala.), Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr. (2d Cir.), and Justice Sonia Sotomayor (U.S. Supreme Court). He has held faculty positions at Berkeley Law and Emory Law and has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Columbia, and Yale. At Emory, he was named Outstanding Professor of the Year in 2019, 2022, and 2023.
Smith serves as Board Chair of Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization dedicated to the civil rights of LGBTQ people. He also serves as an Associate Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of Constitutional Torts.
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.
Legal Fellow and Manager, Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program, The Heritage Foundation
Biography
Zack is a Legal Fellow and Manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
