Annual Summer Party
Jefferson City Lawyers Chapter
Home of Jennifer and Brant Bukowsky2140 East Bluebird Lane
Columbia, MO 65201
Here are the latest events.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Thomas L. Jipping is a Senior Legal Fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and a senior legal fellow in the Center, which is part of the Institute for Constitutional Government at Heritage.
Tom joined Heritage in May 2018 after 15 years on the staff of U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), including several as his chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He spent the previous 13 years at two public policy organizations: Concerned Women for America, where he was senior fellow in legal studies; and the Free Congress Foundation, where Tom served as Vice President for Policy and Director of the Center for Law and Democracy.
Tom’s scholarship includes articles in law and public policy journals as well as hundreds of op-eds and articles in both print and online publications. He has presented papers at conferences including the American Political Science Association and testified before legislative committees in the U.S. Senate and House and in several states.
Tom received a B.A. with honors from Calvin College and both an M.A. in political science and a J.D., cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo. While at SUNY-Buffalo Law School, Tom was a founding member of the Buffalo Federalist Society and served as the Head Note and Comment Editor of the Buffalo Law Review. Before coming to Washington, Tom clerked for Judge William D. Hutchinson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Tom lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and is an active member of New Hope Presbyterian Church.
President, March for Life Education and Defense Fund
Jennie Bradley Lichter is President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, the iconic organization committed to restoring a culture of life in the United States most notably through the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. – the world’s largest annual human rights event – and through the growing State March for Life program.
Jennie has wide-ranging legal and policy experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including at the highest levels of the federal government. In the first Trump Administration, she served in the White House as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC). In that role she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts on a vast array of issues arising from the Departments of Education, Labor, Health & Human Services, Justice, Housing & Urban Development, Interior, and others. Jennie led policy initiatives across the federal government to protect religious liberty, encourage faith-based partnerships, and defend the dignity of life. She also led DPC’s work on regulatory and administrative state reform.
Prior to her White House service, Jennie worked on policy issues and federal judicial (including Supreme Court) confirmation efforts in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jennie has worked in higher education as Deputy General Counsel for The Catholic University of America, where was also a Fellow at the Center for Religious Liberty in the University’s Columbus School of Law. She previously served as in-house counsel for the Archdiocese of Washington, and as an associate at Jones Day.
Jennie clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle on the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Steven M. Colloton on the Eighth Circuit in Des Moines. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame and from Harvard Law School. Prior to law school she was a research assistant in Bioethics at a D.C. think tank, and earned a graduate degree in Theology & Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Partner, Jenner & Block LLP
Adam Unikowsky is a partner in Jenner & Block LLP’s Appellate & Supreme Court Practice Group, where he has worked since 2011.
Prior to his time at Jenner & Block, Mr. Unikowsky served as a Judicial Law Clerk to former Justice Antonin Scalia. He also previously clerked for Judge Douglas Ginsberg at the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. Unikowsky got his JD from Harvard University, following achieving his Masters of Engineering & Bachelors of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Partner, King & Spalding LLP
Rod J. Rosenstein is a partner in King & Spalding’s Special Matters & Government Investigations practice. Drawing upon three decades of experience as a federal prosecutor and a senior government official, Rod helps clients resolve complex regulatory and litigation challenges, including government investigations, crisis management, internal investigations, national security, compliance and monitoring.
Rod served in senior leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Justice during the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, including as Deputy Attorney General (2017 to 2019) and United States Attorney for Maryland (2005 to 2017).
As the second-highest ranking official at the Department of Justice, Rod was responsible for overseeing 115,000 employees in the Department’s litigating divisions, law enforcement agencies and United States Attorney’s Offices, and for formulating and implementing federal enforcement policies. He led the revision of policies concerning corporate criminal prosecutions and parallel domestic and foreign investigations, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters, and health care fraud cases. He also reviewed significant proposed criminal and civil enforcement actions, proposed False Claims Act settlements and related matters, and proposals to appoint corporate monitors. Rod also acted on national security matters subject to review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Additionally, Rod led the interagency Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud and developed a strategy to combat cybercrime as head of the Department’s Cyber-Digital Task Force.
Partner, Vinson & Elkins, and former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
Zachary (“Zach”) Terwilliger, the former Senate confirmed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, has extensive experience in all manner of federal investigations and trials. Those frontline skills combine with his mastery of involved management roles overseeing operational programs, setting policy parameters, and managing teams to accomplish strategic objectives. He gained this experience over a decades-long career in public service where he advanced from an office intern to serve as the presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed United States Attorney. He rounds out his Washington experience by having served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and Chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General, whose office manages the entire Department of Justice and its various agencies, and as counsel to the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In a testament to his professionalism, he was the sole and unanimous recommendation of Virginia’s two Democratic Senators to serve as U.S. Attorney. Following this recommendation, the President’s nomination, and confirmation by the entire U.S. Senate, Zach was sworn in as the then youngest U.S. Attorney in the country.
Zach’s knowledge of how the Justice Department and federal enforcement agencies function in both civil and criminal matters, particularly in regards to discretionary decision making, provides him with unique insights necessary to effectively assist companies and individuals facing federal enforcement matters, including allegations of domestic and international criminal and civil violations. Zach is skilled in navigating internal and government investigations, allegations of bribery under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, complex criminal grand jury investigations, criminal antitrust matters, and Congressional inquiries and select committee investigations, among other complex white collar issues.
As U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Zach supervised a team of over 300 lawyers and support staff. He also managed multiple key corporate resolutions, and significantly enhanced the District’s white-collar footprint through collaboration with DOJ’s Fraud Section, as well as with other enforcement entities like the newly created Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery and the Procurement Collusion Strike Force. He is also a veteran litigator with years of investigative and in-court experience in trials, pre-trial proceedings, and appeals.
Partner and Chair, Appellate & Supreme Court Practice, Jenner & Block LLP
Ian Gershengorn is chair of Jenner & Block’s Appellate and Supreme Court Practice and is one of the nation’s premier Supreme Court and appellate advocates, having argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 16 times. Before rejoining the firm in 2017, he served in the Office of the Solicitor General during the Obama Administration, first as Principal Deputy Solicitor General and then as Acting Solicitor General of the United States. While there, Ian supervised the federal government’s briefing in a range of high-profile cases, including those involving the Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank, election law and redistricting, immigration reform, Title VII, and same-sex marriage.
Since leaving the federal government and returning to Jenner & Block, Ian has advised clients on a range of complex litigation and strategy problems, and he has appeared regularly in the state and federal appellate courts, representing arguing on behalf of corporate clients such as the Recording Industry Association of America, FirstTrust Bank, General Dynamics, Tsubaki, and Charter Communications.
Ian currently teaches a seminar on The Roberts Court at Harvard Law School.
Ian graduated Harvard College, magna cum laude, and Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review. He served as a law clerk for Judge Amalya L. Kearse of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then for Associate Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
Tom has over 15 years’ experience in private practice and public service at the federal and state levels representing clients in high-stakes appellate and regulatory litigation matters. Tom has argued appeals in the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, D.C. and Federal Circuits, and the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Prior to joining Wiley, Tom was the General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where he served as the agency’s chief legal officer and briefed dozens of appeals – personally arguing two – in the federal courts of appeals in constitutional and administrative law challenges to the FCC’s orders. Tom managed a team of over 70 attorneys and staff and provided consultation and advice on a wide range of practice areas relating to the FCC’s work, including administrative law, appellate and trial litigation, bankruptcy, ethics, fiscal law, fraud, labor and employment, and public records requests. He has spent his career advising clients on all stages of federal agency rulemaking, adjudication, and litigation, in fields ranging from communications to environmental law to securities to labor and employment. He frequently speaks and writes on legal issues and his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Review, Forbes, and Newark Star-Ledger.
Partner, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.
After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.
In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.
To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.
Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.
President, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies
Lawrence J. Spiwak is President of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that studies broad public-policy issues related to governance, social and economic conditions, with a particular emphasis on the law and economics of the digital age. Mr. Spiwak is a prolific scholar whose work is frequently cited by policymakers, major news media and academic journals around the world, and is in the top 1.3%of authors downloaded on the Social Science Research Network. Mr. Spiwak currently serves as the co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s (FCBA) committee responsible for overseeing the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL and is a member of the program committee of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (“TPRC”). Mr. Spiwak is also the recipient of the FCBA’s Distinguished Service Award. Prior to joining the Phoenix Center, Mr. Spiwak was a Senior Attorney with the Competition Division in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel from 1994-1998. While in college, Mr. Spiwak was accepted into the Presidential Stay-In School program where he was responsible for delivering classified and confidential material among senior White House and Reagan Administration officials and received a full FBI security clearance. Mr. Spiwak received his B.A. with Special Honors from the George Washington University and his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Spiwak is a member in good standing of the bars of New York, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Partner, Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP
Christopher Wright has been the head of the appellate group at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP since 2001. He has represented clients in a wide variety of appellate cases, with an emphasis on cases involving complex technical issues and cutting-edge constitutional law and administrative law issues.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Wright served as General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States, and as a law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Ninth Circuit Judge Joseph T. Sneed. Mr. Wright is one of very few lawyers who has argued more than 25 cases in both the Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit, and he has argued in many of the other federal circuits as well.
Mr. Wright is a former President of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, the nation’s preeminent association of appellate lawyers, and a former President of the Federal Communications Bar Association, the nation’s preeminent association of communications lawyers. Mr. Wright has taught the D.C. Bar CLE courses on oral advocacy and judicial review of agency decisions on multiple occasions. He is ranked as an outstanding appellate lawyer and/or communications lawyer by numerous publications. Mr. Wright was elected to the Order of the Coif at Stanford Law School and Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard College.
Chairman and Managing Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner
David Boies has been the Chairman and a Managing Partner of Boies Schiller Flexner since its founding in 1997.
David has been selected as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine (2010). He has been named Global International Litigator of the Year by Who’s Who Legal an unprecedented seven times. David has been named the Litigator of the Year by The American Lawyer; the Lawyer of the Year by The National Law Journal (twice); the Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the New York Bar Association; Best Lawyers in America from 1987-2021; Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers; and an Eminent Practitioner by Chambers USA. He was named one of the Top 50 Big Law Innovators of the Last 50 Years by The American Lawyer in 2013.
David is the recipient of Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Redlands (2000), New York Law School (2007), University of New Hampshire School of Law (2013), and New York University (2013) and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Chicago Theological Seminary (2011). His awards include the Award of Merit from the Yale Law School, the ABA Medal from the American Bar Association, the Vanderbilt Medal from New York University Law School, the Pinnacle Award from the International Dyslexia Association, the William Brennan Award from the University of Virginia, the Role Model Award from Equality Forum, the Lead by Example Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers, the Torch of Learning Award from the American Friends of Hebrew University, the Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award from the Union for Reform Judaism, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Center for Justice.
David served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Antitrust Subcommittee in 1978 and Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in 1979.
In 1991-1993, he was counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, recovering $1.2 billion from companies who sold junk bonds to failed savings and loan associations.
In 1998-2000, he served as Special Trial Counsel for the United States Department of Justice in its antitrust suit against Microsoft. David also served as the lead counsel for former Vice-President Al Gore in connection with litigation relating to the 2000 election Florida vote count. As co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Perry v. Brown, he won the first judgment establishing the right to marry for gay and lesbian citizens under the U.S. Constitution.
David was born in Sycamore, Illinois on March 11, 1941. He attended the University of Redlands (1960-62), and received a B.S. from Northwestern University (1964), an LL.B., magna cum laude from Yale University (1966), and an LL.M. from New York University (1967).
He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers; and a Trustee of the National Constitution Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York University Law School Foundation and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He is the author of numerous publications including Courting Justice (2004), Redeeming the Dream (with Ted Olson), and Public Control of Business (with Paul Verkuil), published by Little Brown in 1977. He has taught courses at New York University Law School and Cardozo Law School.
Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland "Buck" Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
Carissa Byrne Hessick joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2016. She serves as the Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland “Buck” Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law and as the director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project. Her teaching and research interests include criminal law, the structure of the criminal justice system, criminal sentencing, and child pornography crimes. Hessick is the author of multiple law review articles, essays, and op eds on plea bargaining, the powers and selection of prosecutors, Sixth Amendment sentencing rights, and criminal statutes. Her work has appeared in the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the L.A. Times, the UCLA Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review, among others. She founded the Prosecutors and Politics Project in 2018. And she currently serves as the Reporter for the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Sentencing Standards Task Force.
Hessick attended Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and winner of the Potter Stewart Prize for the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals. After graduating from law school, she clerked for Judge Barbara S. Jones on the Southern District of New York and for Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the D.C. Circuit. She also worked as a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City. Before joining the faculty at Carolina Law, Hessick taught on the faculties at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. She also spent two years as a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School.
Founder, Original Jurisdiction
David Lat is a lawyer turned writer. He publishes Original Jurisdiction, a newsletter on Substack about law and legal affairs, and he writes for newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Prior to launching Original Jurisdiction, David founded Above the Law, one of the nation's most widely read legal news websites, and Underneath Their Robes, a popular blog about federal judges that he wrote under a pseudonym. He is also the author of a novel set in the world of the federal courts, Supreme Ambitions. Before entering the media world, David worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, in New York; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. David graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Professor of Law and J. Philip Johnson Faculty Fellow, University of North Dakota School of Law
Michael S. McGinniss is Professor of Law and J. Philip Johnson Faculty Fellow at the University of North Dakota School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 2010 and served as the Dean from 2019 to 2022. He chairs the executive committee for the Federalist Society's Practice Group on Professional Responsibility and Legal Education.
Before entering the legal academy, Professor McGinniss served for twelve years as a Disciplinary Counsel for the Supreme Court of Delaware. He currently teaches courses on Professional Responsibility, Advanced Legal Ethics, Civil Procedure, and Federal Courts. He also serves as Faculty Advisor for the North Dakota Law Review and the UND Law Federalist Society student chapter.
Professor McGinniss’ research and scholarship interests are wide-ranging and include lawyer and judicial ethics, lawyer discipline and regulation of the profession, constitutional law (especially First Amendment, separation of powers, and federalism), and cultural challenges faced by conservatives in the law schools and the legal profession. His most recent law review article, Declaring Independence to Secure Integrity: The Supreme Court Justices' Code of Conduct, was published in the Federalist Society Review. His article Expressing Conscience with Candor: Saint Thomas More and First Freedoms in the Legal Profession, was published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
Professor McGinniss has spoken to Federalist Society lawyer and student chapters across the country about judicial independence and ethics, especially relating to the federal courts and the United States Supreme Court Justices. In addition, he has spoken to several chapters about rising challenges to ideological diversity and targeting of conservative viewpoints in law schools and the legal profession. Although he is very pleased to speak on these and many other topics that may be of interest to lawyer and student chapters, in 2026-2027, he has particular interest in speaking on the topic “Lawyer Discipline as Political ‘Resistance’: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Rule of Law,” concerning his work-in-progress on the weaponization of professional disciplinary processes against conservative lawyers for political and ideological purposes.
Partner, McGuireWoods
John Moran is a member of the firm’s nationally recognized Government Investigations and White Collar Litigation department. A former senior official at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the White House and an experienced litigator and counselor, John draws on his broad experience from private practice and government service to advise and represent clients in government enforcement, congressional investigations, high-stakes civil disputes, and regulatory litigation. He also serves as co-chair of the firm’s Congressional Investigations practice, representing both companies and individuals in congressional investigations and hearings and is a member of the firm’s Appeals & Issues group.
Partner, Earth & Water Law
Susan Bodine is a partner at Earth & Water Law.
Susan Bodine is a former Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). Prior to this position, Susan served as Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and previously worked for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
This is Susan’s second position at EPA, having served as Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (now the Office of Land and Emergency Management) from 2006 to 2009.
Susan has also practiced environmental law at Covington and Burling LLP and at Barnes and Thornburg LLP.
Susan is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Michael Buschbacher is a partner at Boyden Gray PLLC. He represents public and private companies, trade associations, non-profits, and individuals in high-stakes litigation and administrative proceedings, with a particular focus on environmental and energy matters.
In addition to trial-level work, Mr. Buschbacher maintains an active appellate practice, both as merits counsel and as counsel for amici curiae. He has written amicus briefs quoted by the Seventh and Ninth Circuits. And his Supreme Court advocacy has been cited by The New Yorker, The New York Times, and E&E News. Mr. Buschbacher’s commentary on legal issues has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and The American Conservative.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Buschbacher served at the U.S. Department of Justice as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. There, he advised senior Department leadership, served as the lead attorney on several lawsuits, and helped draft policy memoranda for the Department on the proper scope and procedure for environmental enforcement. Prior to serving in the government, Mr. Buschbacher was an associate in the D.C. office of Sidley Austin.
Mr. Buschbacher is a former clerk to Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and to Magistrate Judge Paul R. Cherry of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.
Mr. Buschbacher holds a B.A. in Music and Germanic Studies from Indiana University and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School.
Executive Director, Environmental Integrity Project
Eric has served as Executive Director since he co-founded the organization in 2002. Previously, Eric served as director of EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement from 1997 to 2002, where he received a Presidential Rank Award, as well as the John Marshall award from the Justice Department for his leadership in negotiating an industry-wide cleanup of petroleum refineries. Eric’s career at EPA began in 1990, and included an appointment as special assistant to the Deputy Administrator. Prior to his service at EPA, Eric worked as an environmental attorney for two and a half years at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, and spent six years on Capitol Hill working for various members of Congress. Eric received his law degree from Georgetown University, and his B.A. from Vanderbilt University.
Assistant Administrator (Nominee), United States Environmental Protection Agency
Professor David M. Uhlmann has been nominated by President Biden to serve as assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance at the U.S. Environmental Protection agency. If confirmed by the United States Senate, Professor Uhlmann will take a leave of absence from Michigan Law so that he can lead federal criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement of the environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, hazardous waste laws, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Professor Uhlmann is an internationally recognized expert on environmental law, leading authority on criminal enforcement of the environmental laws in the United States, and highly-regarded advocate for environmental stewardship and corporate sustainability programs. At Michigan Law he is the Jeffrey F. Liss Professor from Practice and the director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program. Professor Uhlmann previously served for 17 years as a federal prosecutor, including seven years as chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, he led prosecution of environmental and wildlife crimes nationwide, coordinated national legislative, policy, and training initiatives regarding criminal enforcement, and chaired the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Policy Committee. He earned a reputation for prosecuting polluters aggressively and fairly, presided over expansion of the environmental crimes program, and strengthened relationships with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Coast Guard, and other law enforcement partners. His work as lead prosecutor in United States v. Elias is chronicled in The Cyanide Canary. He received numerous Justice Department and EPA awards for his precedent-setting prosecutions, including the first environmental justice criminal trial.
Professor Uhlmann served from 2017 to 2020 as the Counselor to the Michigan Law alumnus Larry D. Thompson, the Compliance Monitor and Independent Auditor appointed by the Justice Department and EPA in the wake of the Volkswagen diesel scandal. In addition to advising the monitor, Professor Uhlmann made numerous presentations to the Volkswagen and Audi boards regarding environmental law in the United States, corporate accountability, and promoting environmental stewardship and an ethical culture. Professor Uhlmann has testified before Congress about the use of environmental protections to address shortcomings in worker safety laws and redressing environmental harm in corporate settlements; he has lectured widely about corporate crime and the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in cases involving corporate wrongdoing. Professor Uhlmann’s views on corporate accountability for the Gulf oil spill and the VW diesel scandal, the urgency of climate disruption, and the need to promote a sustainable future for all Americans have been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, the American Constitution Society’s Issue Briefs series, and numerous top law reviews. Professor Uhlmann leads the efforts of nearly 400 Michigan Law students participating in the Environmental Crimes Project, the first comprehensive empirical study of criminal enforcement under U.S. pollution laws. At Michigan Law, Professor Uhlmann has hosted conferences, lecture series, and pro bono projects, led campus-wide sustainability efforts, and mentored a next generation of environmental lawyers committed to public service and public interest work.
Professor Uhlmann is a fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers, which invited him to join their Board of Regents earlier this year. He was named a “Conservation Hero” by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and selected by the University of Michigan to be a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Sustainability. Uhlmann received his JD from Yale Law School and his BA in history and political science with high honors from Swarthmore College. Following law school, he clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta, Georgia.
Partner, Baker Botts LLP
Drawing from two decades of experience in senior government, in-house corporate, and private law firm roles, Jeff Wood helps clients with federal enforcement, compliance, litigation, permitting, and policy challenges primarily in the energy and environmental fields.
Prior to joining Baker Botts, Mr. Wood served for almost two years as the Acting Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). In that capacity, Mr. Wood led ENRD and its more than 600 attorneys and staff representing EPA, Departments of the Interior, Energy, and Defense, and other agencies in civil and criminal enforcement and defensive environmental, energy, and natural resources litigation.
As the top official in ENRD, Mr. Wood managed a complex organization with an annual budget exceeding $200 million and a docket of more than 6,000 cases and matters. E&E News noted that “Wood maintains a strong relationship with ENRD's career staff” (Greenwire, Oct. 31, 2018). He previously served on the staff of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
At the Justice Department, Mr. Wood oversaw the Division's civil and criminal enforcement programs and was responsible for developing legal strategies and approving briefs in key cases including filings before the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals in coordination with the Office of Solicitor General. In this role, Mr. Wood held the highest level security clearance and worked closely with top leadership at DOJ, EPA, the Interior Department, USDA, the Energy Department, Transportation Department, FERC, NRC and across the Executive Branch, including the White House.
With many years of both private law firm and in-house legal experience, Mr. Wood has handled complex environmental enforcement, regulatory, policy, and litigation matters for electric utilities, energy companies, maritime companies, mining companies, real estate developers, financial institutions, industrial companies and manufacturers, business coalitions, associations, small businesses, and individual property owners. Drawing from his experiences in-house, Mr. Wood brings a common-sense, cost-effective, client-focused approach to his work every day.
With a strong national reputation, Mr. Wood is a frequent speaker on environmental law and policy matters, with recent speeches and presentations at the Environmental Law Institute, Harvard Law School, Vanderbilt Law School, American University Law School, American Bar Association Environmental Law Conferences, the Texas Environmental SuperConference, Air Force Judge Advocate General School's Advanced Environmental Law Course, Baker Institute's Center for Energy Studies (Rice University), and many other venues. He frequently appears in national news to share insights on significant environmental law and policy issues, including recent quotes in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Law360, and E&E News, among others.
Partner, Earth & Water Law
Susan Bodine is a partner at Earth & Water Law.
Susan Bodine is a former Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). Prior to this position, Susan served as Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and previously worked for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
This is Susan’s second position at EPA, having served as Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (now the Office of Land and Emergency Management) from 2006 to 2009.
Susan has also practiced environmental law at Covington and Burling LLP and at Barnes and Thornburg LLP.
Susan is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Michael Buschbacher is a partner at Boyden Gray PLLC. He represents public and private companies, trade associations, non-profits, and individuals in high-stakes litigation and administrative proceedings, with a particular focus on environmental and energy matters.
In addition to trial-level work, Mr. Buschbacher maintains an active appellate practice, both as merits counsel and as counsel for amici curiae. He has written amicus briefs quoted by the Seventh and Ninth Circuits. And his Supreme Court advocacy has been cited by The New Yorker, The New York Times, and E&E News. Mr. Buschbacher’s commentary on legal issues has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and The American Conservative.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Buschbacher served at the U.S. Department of Justice as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. There, he advised senior Department leadership, served as the lead attorney on several lawsuits, and helped draft policy memoranda for the Department on the proper scope and procedure for environmental enforcement. Prior to serving in the government, Mr. Buschbacher was an associate in the D.C. office of Sidley Austin.
Mr. Buschbacher is a former clerk to Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and to Magistrate Judge Paul R. Cherry of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.
Mr. Buschbacher holds a B.A. in Music and Germanic Studies from Indiana University and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School.
Executive Director, Environmental Integrity Project
Eric has served as Executive Director since he co-founded the organization in 2002. Previously, Eric served as director of EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement from 1997 to 2002, where he received a Presidential Rank Award, as well as the John Marshall award from the Justice Department for his leadership in negotiating an industry-wide cleanup of petroleum refineries. Eric’s career at EPA began in 1990, and included an appointment as special assistant to the Deputy Administrator. Prior to his service at EPA, Eric worked as an environmental attorney for two and a half years at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, and spent six years on Capitol Hill working for various members of Congress. Eric received his law degree from Georgetown University, and his B.A. from Vanderbilt University.
United States Senate, Alaska
Dan Sullivan was sworn in as Alaska’s eighth United States Senator on January 6, 2015. Sullivan serves on four Senate committees vital to Alaska: the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; the Armed Services Committee; the Environment and Public Works Committee; and the Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Sullivan served as Alaska’s Attorney General and Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. As Alaska's Attorney General, Sullivan’s number one priority was protecting Alaskans, their physical safety, financial well-being, and individual rights – particularly Alaska’s most vulnerable. During his tenure he spearheaded a comprehensive statewide strategy – the “Choose Respect” campaign – to combat Alaska’s high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault. Under Sullivan’s leadership, the Department of Law also undertook an aggressive strategy of initiating and intervening in litigation aimed at halting federal government overreach into the lives of Alaskans and their economy.
As Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Sullivan managed one of the largest portfolios of oil, gas, minerals, renewable energy, timber, land, and water in the world. Working closely with Alaska’s Governor and state legislature, Sullivan developed numerous strategies that spurred responsible resource development, energy security, and a dramatic increase in good-paying jobs across a number of critical sectors in the Alaska economy. He also developed a comprehensive plan to streamline and reform the state’s regulatory and permitting system.
Sullivan is one of a select number of Alaskan attorneys who has held judicial clerkships on both the highest federal and state courts in Alaska. He served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Andrew Kleinfeld of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Fairbanks, Alaska and for Chief Justice Warren Matthews of the Alaska Supreme Court in Anchorage, Alaska. Sullivan also served as a judicial law clerk/intern for Judge James L. Buckley on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Sullivan has a distinguished record of military and national security service. He is currently an infantry officer and Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. Over the past 21 years, Sullivan has served in a variety of command and staff billets on active duty and in the reserves, including: TRAP Force Commander and 81mm mortar Platoon Commander, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable); Weapons Company Executive Officer, Second Battalion, Fifth Marines; Commanding Officer, Delta Company, Anti-Terrorism Battalion; Executive Officer, Echo Company, Fourth Reconnaissance Battalion; and Commanding Officer, 6thAir Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO). In 2004, Sullivan was recalled to active duty for a year and a half to serve as a staff officer to the Commander of U.S. Central Command, General John Abizaid, spending substantial time deployed in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and Central Asia. In July 2013, Sullivan was recalled to active duty to serve with a Joint Task Force in Afghanistan focusing on dismantling terrorist networks and criminalizing the Taliban insurgency.
Sullivan served in the Administration of President George W. Bush as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Business under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. He focused on fighting terrorist financing, and implementing policies relating to international energy, economic, trade, finance, transportation, telecommunications, and Arctic issues. Sullivan also served as a Director in the International Economics Directorate of the National Security Council staff at the White House.
Sullivan earned a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University in 1987 and a joint law and Masters of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in 1993. Dan and his wife Julie Fate Sullivan were married over 20 years ago in Julie’s hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska. They have three teenage daughters: Meghan, Isabella and Laurel.
Assistant Administrator (Nominee), United States Environmental Protection Agency
Professor David M. Uhlmann has been nominated by President Biden to serve as assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance at the U.S. Environmental Protection agency. If confirmed by the United States Senate, Professor Uhlmann will take a leave of absence from Michigan Law so that he can lead federal criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement of the environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, hazardous waste laws, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Professor Uhlmann is an internationally recognized expert on environmental law, leading authority on criminal enforcement of the environmental laws in the United States, and highly-regarded advocate for environmental stewardship and corporate sustainability programs. At Michigan Law he is the Jeffrey F. Liss Professor from Practice and the director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program. Professor Uhlmann previously served for 17 years as a federal prosecutor, including seven years as chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, he led prosecution of environmental and wildlife crimes nationwide, coordinated national legislative, policy, and training initiatives regarding criminal enforcement, and chaired the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Policy Committee. He earned a reputation for prosecuting polluters aggressively and fairly, presided over expansion of the environmental crimes program, and strengthened relationships with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Coast Guard, and other law enforcement partners. His work as lead prosecutor in United States v. Elias is chronicled in The Cyanide Canary. He received numerous Justice Department and EPA awards for his precedent-setting prosecutions, including the first environmental justice criminal trial.
Professor Uhlmann served from 2017 to 2020 as the Counselor to the Michigan Law alumnus Larry D. Thompson, the Compliance Monitor and Independent Auditor appointed by the Justice Department and EPA in the wake of the Volkswagen diesel scandal. In addition to advising the monitor, Professor Uhlmann made numerous presentations to the Volkswagen and Audi boards regarding environmental law in the United States, corporate accountability, and promoting environmental stewardship and an ethical culture. Professor Uhlmann has testified before Congress about the use of environmental protections to address shortcomings in worker safety laws and redressing environmental harm in corporate settlements; he has lectured widely about corporate crime and the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in cases involving corporate wrongdoing. Professor Uhlmann’s views on corporate accountability for the Gulf oil spill and the VW diesel scandal, the urgency of climate disruption, and the need to promote a sustainable future for all Americans have been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, the American Constitution Society’s Issue Briefs series, and numerous top law reviews. Professor Uhlmann leads the efforts of nearly 400 Michigan Law students participating in the Environmental Crimes Project, the first comprehensive empirical study of criminal enforcement under U.S. pollution laws. At Michigan Law, Professor Uhlmann has hosted conferences, lecture series, and pro bono projects, led campus-wide sustainability efforts, and mentored a next generation of environmental lawyers committed to public service and public interest work.
Professor Uhlmann is a fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers, which invited him to join their Board of Regents earlier this year. He was named a “Conservation Hero” by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and selected by the University of Michigan to be a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Sustainability. Uhlmann received his JD from Yale Law School and his BA in history and political science with high honors from Swarthmore College. Following law school, he clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta, Georgia.
Partner, Baker Botts LLP
Drawing from two decades of experience in senior government, in-house corporate, and private law firm roles, Jeff Wood helps clients with federal enforcement, compliance, litigation, permitting, and policy challenges primarily in the energy and environmental fields.
Prior to joining Baker Botts, Mr. Wood served for almost two years as the Acting Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). In that capacity, Mr. Wood led ENRD and its more than 600 attorneys and staff representing EPA, Departments of the Interior, Energy, and Defense, and other agencies in civil and criminal enforcement and defensive environmental, energy, and natural resources litigation.
As the top official in ENRD, Mr. Wood managed a complex organization with an annual budget exceeding $200 million and a docket of more than 6,000 cases and matters. E&E News noted that “Wood maintains a strong relationship with ENRD's career staff” (Greenwire, Oct. 31, 2018). He previously served on the staff of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
At the Justice Department, Mr. Wood oversaw the Division's civil and criminal enforcement programs and was responsible for developing legal strategies and approving briefs in key cases including filings before the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals in coordination with the Office of Solicitor General. In this role, Mr. Wood held the highest level security clearance and worked closely with top leadership at DOJ, EPA, the Interior Department, USDA, the Energy Department, Transportation Department, FERC, NRC and across the Executive Branch, including the White House.
With many years of both private law firm and in-house legal experience, Mr. Wood has handled complex environmental enforcement, regulatory, policy, and litigation matters for electric utilities, energy companies, maritime companies, mining companies, real estate developers, financial institutions, industrial companies and manufacturers, business coalitions, associations, small businesses, and individual property owners. Drawing from his experiences in-house, Mr. Wood brings a common-sense, cost-effective, client-focused approach to his work every day.
With a strong national reputation, Mr. Wood is a frequent speaker on environmental law and policy matters, with recent speeches and presentations at the Environmental Law Institute, Harvard Law School, Vanderbilt Law School, American University Law School, American Bar Association Environmental Law Conferences, the Texas Environmental SuperConference, Air Force Judge Advocate General School's Advanced Environmental Law Course, Baker Institute's Center for Energy Studies (Rice University), and many other venues. He frequently appears in national news to share insights on significant environmental law and policy issues, including recent quotes in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Law360, and E&E News, among others.