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Solicitor General, Alabama Office of the Attorney General
Barrett Bowdre serves as solicitor general in the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, where he oversees the state’s appellate docket and helps defend the state’s interests in courts throughout the country. He previously served as principal deputy solicitor general and, before that, deputy solicitor general. He is a former law clerk to Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, then-Chief Judge W. Keith Watkins of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, and then-Chief Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He holds a J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Alabama School of Law and a B.A., cum laude, from Furman University. Before attending law school, he worked as a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, where he researched civic education initiatives and helped compile literary anthologies exploring the American character.
Nick Ohnell Fellow, The Manhattan Institute
Rafael Mangual is the Nick Ohnell Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a member of the Council on Criminal Justice. His first book, Criminal (In)Justice, was released in July 2022. He has authored and coauthored a number of MI reports and op-eds on issues ranging from urban crime and jail violence to broader matters of criminal and civil justice reform. His work has been featured and mentioned in a wide array of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, New York Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and City Journal. Mangual also regularly appears on Fox News and has made a number of national and local television and radio appearances on outlets such as C-SPAN and Bloomberg Radio. In 2020, he was appointed to serve a four-year term as a member of the New York State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Prior to joining MI in 2015, Rafael worked in corporate communications for the International Trademark Association. He holds a B.A. in corporate communications from the City University of New York’s Baruch College and a J.D. from DePaul University in Chicago, where he was president of the Federalist Society and vice president of the Appellate Moot Court team. After graduating from law school, Mangual was inducted into the Order of the Barristers, a national honor society for excellence in oral and written advocacy.
Member, Federal Service Impasses Panel, Federal Labor Relations Authority
Thomas Beck was appointed as a member of the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) on July 9, 2026. Previously, he was Senior Adviser to Littler Mendelson’s Workplace Policy Institute. He spent 13 years as Vice President, Labor and Employee Relations for HCA Healthcare, the largest healthcare system in the United States, with approximately 300,000 employees, 36,000 of whom are represented by labor unions. Before joining HCA, he served for four years as a Member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, having been appointed to the agency and designated as its Chairman by President George W. Bush. Prior to his time at the FLRA, Thomas was a partner with global law firm Jones Day, where he practiced primarily labor and employment law for 16 years. During his time with Jones Day, Thomas counseled large employers in the telecommunications, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and transportation sectors on collective bargaining and other labor relations matters.
Thomas handled the “labor portfolio” in both Trump presidential transitions, which included advising on workplace policy and recommending to the president-elect individuals to serve in senior leadership at the Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
He has testified on labor law reform in the United States Senate.
In addition to his work in labor law and labor-management relations, Thomas has taught law school courses on separation of powers and statutory interpretation. He is the author of the legal casebook, Constitutional Separation of Powers: Cases and Commentary, and several opinion pieces such as Artificial intelligence will change jobs, not erase them, Washington Times,1/5/26; How Trump Can Impound Money, WSJ, 6/12/25; The Constitution empowers the president to pardon civil offenses, The Hill, 6/11/25; Congress Ought to at Least Show Up to Vote, WSJ, 4/23/13; Why U.S. Credit Rating Doesn’t Matter, Politico, 7/29/11; Military Commissions: Fundamentally Just, National Law Journal, 5/23/11
Thomas is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.
Senior Labor and Employment Counsel, CHRO Association
Roger King is a highly regarded labor relations attorney, whose career spans more than 40 years. Roger recently retired as a partner with Jones Day law firm. He now serves as Senior Labor and Employment counsel for the Association.
Roger specializes in labor and employment, healthcare, collective bargaining, contract administration and representation campaigns. Roger represented the winning side as co-counsel in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case known as Noel Canning, which successfully challenged President Obama’s authority to make recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
After graduating from Cornell University Law School, he was a Captain and Legal Services Officer in the United States Air Force, on the Staff of United States Senator Robert Taft, Jr. and, subsequently, was appointed as Professional Staff Counsel to the United States Senate Labor Committee.
Roger has testified before both the U.S. Senate and House Labor Committees, is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and serves on the Advocacy Committee of the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Association (ASHHRA) and on the Executive Committee of the Ohio State Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section Council.
He is a nationally recognized author/speaker on employment matters and has represented employers regarding labor and employment issues both before administrative agencies and in federal and state courts. He has represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the HR Policy Association (HRPA), the National Manufactures Association (NAM), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) in federal courts regarding numerous labor law issues.
Other clients Roger has represented include the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Catholic Health Partners, MedStar Health, HCA, Texas Health Resources, Unity Point Health, UHS, Trinity Health, National Beef, General Cable, Orlando Health, ProMedica, Premier Health, Cedars-Sinai, Yale New Haven Health System, McLaren Health Care Corporation, Ohio, California and American Hospital Associations, Bon Secoure Health System, Kaleida Health, Sisters of Levenworth Health System, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Clarion Clinic, Fisher-Titus Medical Center, Saint Joseph Health System, Benefis Healthcare, Community Health Systems, American Water Works, Macy’s Inc., Verizon and General Motors.
Shareholder & Co-Chair of the Workplace Policy Institute, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Alexander T. MacDonald advises employers on all aspects of the employment and labor landscape, focusing on emerging legislation and regulation. He has extensive experience advising businesses on worker classification, arbitration, the administrative and regulatory process, and the future of work. He frequently writes, publishes, and speaks on these subjects. His work has been cited by scholars and appellate courts. He is a recognized voice for the management perspective.
Alexander is a co-chair of the Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) team. With WPI, he advises employers on legislative, administrative, and regulatory developments at the state and federal level. He advocates for employers in the regulatory and administrative process. He also helps employers protect their businesses by understanding and anticipating cutting-edge legal developments.
Alexander also has extensive experience in traditional labor law. He represents management in all aspects of labor-management relations, including unfair labor practice charges, grievance arbitrations, representation elections, contract negotiations, and related litigation, including litigation in the U.S. courts of appeals.
Before joining Littler, Alexander served as the director, future of work, for a major technology company. He also worked in a national labor and employment law firm and a major public-sector general counsel’s office. He was a law clerk to the senior judges in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
He is also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. In law school, he graduated first in his class
President, Institute for the American Worker
As president and co-founder of I4AW, Vinnie is a trusted source and respected thought leader to labor policy experts across the country—he provides intellectual acuity and policy innovation to the worker freedom message. He served on the U.S. Department of Labor Transition Team for both Trump Administrations (2016-2017 and 2024-2025) and served in the George W. Bush Administration’s Department of Labor (2008-2009). Additionally, he was a presidential appointee to the Federal Service Impasses Panel (2017-2021). He has advised senators and congressmen on a multitude of labor-related issues, and has testified numerous times before Congress and state legislatures. He has also worked as director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and currently serves as a senior policy advisor. Vernuccio has held advisory roles for a multitude of free market organizations such as the State Policy Network, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and others.
Partner, Torridon Law PLLC
Mike Fragoso is an experienced legal and policy strategist who represents clients before all three branches of the federal government. Most recently he served as chief counsel to the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY). He has negotiated consequential legislation, managed successful congressional oversight, and prepared individuals for the most contentious Senate hearings.
As chief counsel to Leader McConnell, Mike was the Leader’s primary legal advisor and managed the “last mile” of any legislation touching on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He ran the 2024 reauthorization of FISA Section 702 and was involved at the highest levels of the appropriations and budget-reconciliation processes. Mike also repeatedly represented Leader McConnell as counsel of record at the Supreme Court. Leader McConnell said of Mike that he’s “equally at home in the high-minded philosophical discourse of the legal community and the urgent pragmatism of congressional dealmaking,” and that he “maintains a firm grasp on the realm of the possible” but “knows which screws to twist.” He observed that Mike “is so exceptionally competent that he often produces from his desk the work that would normally require, literally, teams of outside counsel.”
Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University
Robert Luther III was appointed Associate Professor of Law in 2025 after serving as Distinguished Professor of Law from 2024-2025 and Adjunct Professor of Law from 2019-2024. He teaches and writes on the federal courts, legal and judicial ethics, political law, Congress, and professional sports. He has served at high levels in all three branches of the federal government and recently founded Constitutional Solutions PLLC—a law firm that navigates judicial candidates, judges, elected officials, professional athletes, and executives through high-stakes hearings, investigations, and reputational attacks.
Immediately before joining the Scalia Law faculty, Professor Luther spent over five years in the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day, where his practice focused on strategic counseling, crisis management, and litigation. Prior to joining Jones Day, he served as Associate Counsel to the President of the United States in the White House Counsel’s Office. In the White House, he co-managed the judicial selection process and supervised the preparation of over 150 federal judicial nominees for their successful U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. The New York Times Magazine referred to his work on judicial selection during this period as “unique in White House history.” Before joining the White House, Professor Luther served as Counsel to then–U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he served as a core member of the team that prepared the Senator for confirmation as United States Attorney General. Professor Luther was also a law clerk to Judge Daniel A. Manion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Earlier in his career, Professor Luther practiced civil and appellate litigation at a boutique firm in Williamsburg, Va. and taught at William & Mary Law School.
Professor Luther frequently speaks on the legal profession, political law, and federal judicial selection. His public work has been covered by or appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Fox News, The Hill, Politico, the Washington Examiner, National Law Journal, Law360, The Washington Reporter, and elsewhere, while his scholarship is published in the law journals of nearly twenty universities including three journals of Harvard University. He holds active law licenses in Virginia, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and half of the U.S. Courts of Appeals.
In 2025, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin appointed Professor Luther to the Board of Visitors to Mount Vernon. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves on the Advisory Board of the Wilson Center for Leadership at Hampden-Sydney College. Since 2019, he has helped over 200 of his students secure clerkships with federal judges.
United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
In November 2020, the Senate confirmed Kathryn Kimball Mizelle as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida. At age 33, she became the youngest Article III judge in the country. Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mizelle was in private practice at Jones Day, where she focused on complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals. Judge Mizelle previously served at the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the Associate Attorney General, in the Southern Criminal Enforcement Section of the Tax Division, and in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge Mizelle has also taught as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Judge Mizelle earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Covenant College, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. After graduation, Judge Mizelle served as a law clerk at every level of the federal judiciary: at the Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas, at the D.C. Circuit for Judge Gregory G. Katsas, at the Eleventh Circuit for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr., and at the Middle District of Florida for Judge James S. Moody Jr.
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.
Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Professor Derek Muller is a nationally-recognized scholar in the field of election law. His research focuses on the role of states in the administration of federal elections, the constitutional contours of voting rights and election administration, the limits of judicial power in the domain of elections, and the Electoral College.
He has published more than two dozen academic works, and his op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He has testified before Congress, and he is a contributor at the Election Law Blog. He is a co-author on a Federal Courts casebook published by Carolina Academic Press. He is also the co-reporter on a new Restatement of the Law, Election Litigation, an effort led by the American Law Institute.
Professor Muller teaches Election Law, Civil Procedure, and Evidence.
Harold Washington Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Daniel B. Rodriguez, the Harold Washington Professor at the Law School, served as dean of the Law School from January 2012 through August 2018.
His principal academic work is in the areas of administrative law, local government law, statutory interpretation, federal and state constitutional law, and the law-business-technology interface.
Formerly, Professor Rodriguez served as Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law at the University of Texas-Austin; as a Research Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy; as Dean and Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law; and, as a Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He has also served as a visiting professor at several top law schools, including Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, University of Southern California, and Virginia.
Professor Rodriguez was the 2014 President of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and is currently serving as chair of the council of the American Bar Association Center for Innovation, a council member of the American Law Institute, and as an advisor to ROSS Intelligence, Inc.
Rodriguez received his law degree, with honors, from Harvard Law School and his undergraduate degree from California State University of Long Beach.
Shareholder, Webber & Thies PC
Mr. Thies has litigated complex commercial disputes and defended class actions throughout the state of Illinois, and in federal courts across the country, including the First, Second, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits. He has represented clients in numerous trials and arbitrations, including serving as part of a trial team winning a $64 million judgment after a jury verdict in the Northern District of New York.
Prior to joining Webber & Thies, Mr. Thies was an associate at Sidley Austin LLP (2013-2018) and clerked for Chief Judge James F. Holderman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (2011-2013) and for Judge Jerry Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (2010-2011).
Senior Lecturer; Director, The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Adam Klein is Director of the Strauss Center and Director of Strauss’ Program on Technology, Security, and Global Affairs. Adam also serves as a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law. Before joining the Strauss Center, Adam served as Chairman of the United States Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, the independent, bipartisan federal agency responsible for overseeing counterterrorism programs at the NSA, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, and other federal agencies. As the Board’s Senate-confirmed Chairman, he oversaw its oversight and advice engagements with other federal agencies, while also serving as the Board’s chief executive officer.
Before entering government, Adam was the Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a bipartisan national-security research institution in Washington, DC. There, his research focused on government surveillance, intelligence powers, and national security law. Previously, Adam practiced law at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, LLP and served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has also worked on national-security policy at the RAND Corporation, the 9/11 Public Discourse Project (the non-profit successor to the 9/11 Commission), and in the U.S. Congress. He received his BA from Northwestern University and his JD from Columbia Law School.
Adam is a former Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow in Berlin. He speaks German and French.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
On March 20, 2018, Judge Elizabeth L. Branch (Lisa) was sworn in as a United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
Judge Branch attended and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina (B.A., cum laude, 1990), and Emory University School of Law (J.D., with distinction, 1994).
After graduating from law school, Judge Branch served as a federal law clerk to The Honorable J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia from 1994 to 1996. Following her clerkship, Judge Branch joined the litigation department of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta as an associate and then a partner.
From 2004 to 2008, Judge Branch was a senior official in the Administration of President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. She served first as the Associate General Counsel for Rules and Legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and then as the Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U. S. Office of Management and Budget.
She returned to Smith Gambrell in 2008 as a litigation partner. Judge Branch then was appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia by Governor Nathan Deal, taking office on September 4, 2012, where she served until March 19, 2018.
Judge Branch is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Professor of Law, University of Alabama School of Law
Professor Rosen received his LLM with honors from the University of London, London School of Economics, in 1997, his JD from Yale Law School in 1994, and his BS from Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, in 1991 as a Merill Presidential Scholar. He served as a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal and an Editor of the Yale Journal of International Law. Upon graduation from Yale, he clerked for the Honorable Edward E. Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Montgomery, Alabama. From 1995 to 1996, he was an associate with the Washington, D.C. firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. From 1998 to 2002, he worked in Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Market Regulation, where he achieved the rank of Special Counsel. During his time at the Commission, he provided counsel on matters before the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, aided the restoration of financial markets following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, assisted with legislative drafting, and worked on matters including foreign market access, financial derivatives, market structure, and the regulation of exchanges and over-the-counter markets. While at the SEC, Professor Rosen received the Commission's Law and Policy Award and the Manuel F. Cohen Award from the Securities Law Committee of the Federal Bar Association. Before arriving at the University of Alabama, he served as the first Fellow for the Fordham University School of Law's Center for Corporate, Securities and Financial Law in New York City. He has spoken both in the United States and abroad at events sponsored by such organizations as the Association of American Law Schools, the American Society of International Law, the Law and Society Association, the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, Futures Industry Association, the Small Business Committee of the American Bar Association's Section on Business Law, the Washington Campus, National Regulatory Services, and the United Kingdom's City and Financial Conferences.
Professor Rosen has taught multiple courses at the law school including business organizations, securities regulation, international business transactions, economy in crisis (public policy-making role-playing simulation course), integrated financial regulation (banking, commodities, securities, and insurance law), and conflict of laws. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Economics, Finance, and Legal Studies at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration and has been appointed to The University of Alabama Graduate School faculty in connection with his work on PhD dissertation committees. His focus on inter-disciplinary matters also has led to his membership in organizations such as the American Economic Association, American Finance Association, and American Law and Economics Association. He has advised The Journal of the Legal Profession and was awarded the Edward M. Friend Jr. Award in the year he coached the law school's team to its first appearance in the national final rounds as a super-regional champion in the American Bar Association's National Appellate Advocacy Competition. He has served as Director of the law school's successful judicial clerkship program, and the law school's students selected him for the 2007-2008 Outstanding Faculty Member Award.
Since joining the legal academy, Professor Rosen continues his public policy work and has advised federal and state government officials. His expertise is sought in various contexts. For example, he has testified before the Committee on Financial Services of the United States House of Representatives. Professor Rosen also currently serves as a Uniform Law Commissioner. He was appointed to represent Alabama on the Uniform Law Commission by the Governor for a term of service that runs to April 4, 2023.
Professor Rosen also continues to be involved in legal matters around the globe. He has advised on business law curricula in Ethiopia and has been selected to teach courses at Australia National University in Canberra, Pusan National University in Korea, and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He has served as Director of the law school's exchange program with the University of Fribourg. In addition, he has served as a Corresponding Editor for the American Society of International Law's International Legal Materials and as Co-Chair of ASIL’s Teaching International Law Interest Group. His work for the American Bar Association has included service to the Section of International Law and Practice. His interest in development issues also has led to his participation in the World Bank's Law, Justice, and Development Week program and the International Finance Corporation's Doing Business Project. Moreover, he has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Comparative Law and has been selected to be the United States Reporter on Company Law and the Law of Succession for the Congress of the Academy of International Comparative Law in Vienna, Austria.
