Perry Golkin Professor of Law; Co-Director, Institute for Law an, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Biography
Jill E. Fisch is the Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor of Business Law and co-director of the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she teaches and writes on corporate law, corporate governance and securities regulation. Prior to joining Penn Law, Professor Fisch was the T.J. Maloney Professor of Business Law at Fordham Law School and Founding Director of the Fordham Corporate Law Center. Professor Fisch has also served as a visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley and Georgetown.
Fisch is the recipient of various awards including the Penn LLM Prize for Excellence in Teaching and the Robert A. Gorman Award for Excellence in Teaching (twice). She is an associate reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of Corporate Governance and a director of the European Corporate Governance Institute. Before entering academia, Professor Fisch practiced law as a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division, and as an associate at the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She received her B.A. from Cornell University and her J.D. from Yale Law School.
Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics; Co-Director, Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Biography
Christina Parajon Skinner is an expert on financial regulation. Her research focuses on central banking, the debt markets, separation of powers, corporate governance, and law and macroeconomics. Professor Skinner’s work is international and comparative in scope, drawing on her experience as an academic and central bank lawyer in the United Kingdom. Her research has been published or is forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Georgetown Law Journal, among other leading academic journals. Professor Skinner has also contributed to financial regulatory policy working groups, including those convened by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Financial Stability Board, and the U.K. Banking Standards Board.
Prior to joining the faculty at Wharton, Professor Skinner served as legal counsel at the Bank of England, in the Financial Stability Division of the Bank’s Legal Directorate. Her work there focused principally on matters of bank resolution, financial market infrastructure, and macroprudential policy. Previously, Professor Skinner was an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law and a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, Law Department. From 2014-2016, she was a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School.
Professor Skinner received her J.D. from Yale Law School, and an A.B. from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, with a concentration in international economics. She received certificates of proficiency in European Politics and Society, and Spanish Language and Culture.
Newsweek Senior Editor-at-Large, Syndicated Columnist, Host of "The Josh Hammer Show," Article III Project Senior Counsel, Newsweek, Salem Media, Article III Project, David Horowitz Freedom Center
Biography
Josh Hammer is the senior editor-at-large of Newsweek and host of "The Josh Hammer Show," a podcast, a syndicated radio show, and TV program on Salem News Channel. A syndicated columnist through Creators Syndicate, Josh is a frequent pundit and essayist on political, legal, and cultural issues. He is also senior counsel for the Article III Project and Internet Accountability Project, as well as a Shillman Fellow with the David Horowitz Freedom Center and a fellow with the Palm Beach Freedom Institute.
An outspoken conservative, Josh opines on conservative intellectual trends, contemporary domestic and foreign policy debates, constitutional and legal issues, and the intersection of law, politics and culture. He has been published by many leading outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, Daily Mail, Newsweek, the Claremont Review of Books, National Affairs, American Affairs, The New Criterion, The National Interest, National Review, RealClearPolitics, First Things, City Journal, Public Discourse, Law & Liberty, Tablet Magazine, Deseret Magazine, Compact Magazine, Chronicles Magazine, The Spectator, The American Mind, The American Conservative, The European Conservative, American Greatness, American Compass, The Federalist, Blaze Media, TomKlingenstein.com, Townhall, The Daily Wire, The Daily Signal, The Daily Caller, The Epoch Times, Anchoring Truths, Fortune, Fox Business, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, The Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Jewish Journal. He has also had legal scholarship published by the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy and the University of St. Thomas Law Journal.
Josh is a college campus speaker through Young America's Foundation and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and a law school campus speaker through the Federalist Society. Prior to Newsweek and The Daily Wire, where he was an editor, Josh worked at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and clerked for the Hon. James C. Ho on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Josh has also served as a John Marshall Fellow with the Claremont Institute and as a Fellow with the James Wilson Institute. He is the former host of "America on Trial with Josh Hammer," a one-season daily podcast with The First that covered the unique legal issues surrounding the 2024 presidential election.
Josh graduated from Duke University, where he majored in economics, and from the University of Chicago Law School. He lives in Florida, but remains an active member of the State Bar of Texas.
Justice Jimmy Blacklock was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in January 2018 by Governor Greg Abbott. Before that, Jimmy served as Governor Abbott’s General Counsel and in the Attorney General’s Office under then-AG Abbott. While at the AG’s Office, he handled appeals and trials of constitutional cases in state and federal court involving matters such as federalism, religious liberty, and the separation of powers. As Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel, he oversaw the Open Records and Opinions divisions of the AG’s Office. Earlier in his career, Jimmy was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and he worked in private practice in Houston and Austin. He clerked for Judge Jerry Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit after graduating from U.T.-Austin (B.A., Plan II/History) and Yale Law School. He was born in Houston and now lives in Austin with his wife and three daughters.
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Biography
Daren Bakst is Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment and a Senior Fellow. In this role, he manages, develops, and leads the coalition, advocacy, and research activities of the Center, which is one of the most effective advocates for Free Market Environmentalism.
Before joining CEI as Deputy Director in March, 2023, Daren was a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the Heritage Foundation, where he played a leading role in the launch of the organization’s new energy and environment center, and created and hosted the Heritage Foundation’s energy and environment podcast the “PowerCast.” During his decade at Heritage, Daren wrote about energy and environmental policy, food and agricultural policy (including editing and co-authoring the book Farms and Free Enterprise), regulation, and trade among other topics.
Daren also worked on environmental policy and regulation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he was a policy counsel and served as the executive to the association’s Government Oversight, Operations & Consumer Affairs committee, which was responsible for issues such as regulatory process reform. Daren has significant state level experience, working for seven years at the Raleigh, N.C.-based John Locke Foundation, one of the largest state-based, free-market think tanks. As director of legal and regulatory studies, his broad portfolio included energy and environmental policy, regulatory reform, and property rights.
Daren has testified numerous times before Congress, regularly submits comments to federal agencies and has appeared in or been quoted by a wide range of media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Times, CNN, Fox Business News, Al-Jazeera America, and U.S. News and World Report. He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Executive Committee and serves on the College Level Advisory Board for Constituting America, an organization that informs and educates about the importance of the U.S. Constitution.
Daren, who hails from Florida, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from George Washington University. A licensed attorney, he holds a law degree from the University of Miami and a master of laws degree from American University.
Austin R. Nimocks has litigated in state and federal courts across the country. Mr. Nimocks focuses his practice on civil litigation (plaintiff and defense), commercial litigation, corporate matters, federal compliance, internal investigations, government relations, white-collar criminal defense, and religious freedom.
Litigating for over 25 years, including three as a public defender, Mr. Nimocks has practiced law within the private, government, and non-profit sectors, geographically spanning the United States and beyond.
Prior to starting the PNT Law Firm (www.pntlawfirm.com), Mr. Nimocks worked for former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in the Ashcroft Law Firm in Austin, Texas. For General Ashcroft, Mr. Nimocks litigated cases against all levels of government (federal, state, and local).
Prior to joining General Ashcroft, Mr. Nimocks served in the Executive Administration of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as both Special Counsel and the Associate Deputy Attorney General for Special Litigation. During his time with General Paxton, Mr. Nimocks coordinated and led myriad multi-state lawsuits and strategic litigation against the federal government, other states, and local government entities. On behalf of Texas (and other states), Mr. Nimocks’ teams achieved many victories against the federal government, including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other federal agencies
Before joining the Texas Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Nimocks served as Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (“ADF”) in Washington, D.C. While at ADF, Mr. Nimocks handled appeals and litigated constitutional cases in state and federal courts across the country, including matters regarding marriage, parental rights, voters’ rights, and religious freedom. Mr. Nimocks also authored several pieces of legislation and policy memoranda and testified before numerous state legislatures, as well as Congress. While with ADF, Mr. Nimocks made regular public appearances, speaking at numerous events and participating in hundreds of television, radio, and newspaper interviews with all major national media outlets.
Mr. Nimocks began practicing law on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In addition to his time spent as a public defender, Mr. Nimocks’ law practice in Mississippi was extremely diverse, involving personal injury, commercial litigation, appellate, contracts, real estate, administrative law, bankruptcy, libel & defamation, insurance defense, general civil litigation, and other matters.
In addition to his state bar admissions (TX, DC, MI, AZ, AL, MS), Mr. Nimocks is admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C., First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits, as well as numerous federal district courts.
Mr. Nimocks is a native Texan, born and raised in the Fort Worth area. Mr. Nimocks resides and attends church in Dripping Springs, Texas, along with his wife and three daughters.
Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Biography
Aditya Bamzai is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He teaches administrative law, civil procedure, computer crime and conflicts of law, and he has written about these and related subjects. He has argued cases relating to the separation of powers and national security in the U.S. Supreme Court, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, D.C. Circuit and other federal courts of appeals. From 2019 to 2021, he served as a Member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a federal agency charged with ensuring that the government’s national security efforts are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties. Before entering the academy, Bamzai was an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, and an appellate attorney in both private practice and for the National Security Division of the Department of Justice. Earlier in his career, he was a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Biography
Judge Daniel A. Bress is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in San Francisco. A native of Gilroy, California, Judge Bress graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received his J.D. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Law Review. Following law school, Judge Bress clerked for the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the Honorable Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Bress was then a lawyer private practice, first at Munger Tolles & Olson and later at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he was a litigation partner. Judge Bress has also taught law school courses at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. Judge Bress was nominated and confirmed to the Ninth Circuit in 2019.
The former Solicitor General of West Virginia, Mr. Lin has been on the front lines of many precedent-setting cases in appellate courts across the country, including in a US Supreme Court victory that George Will called “the court’s most severe rebuke of a president” since the Truman administration. Having argued more than 60 appeals, he brings to clients a well-honed ability to identify the most persuasive issues for appeal and a practiced understanding of how best to frame complex legal questions in appellate courts.
With experience in the private sector and multiple branches of government, Mr. Lin’s practice has spanned a wide range of issues, including major questions of constitutional and administrative law at the federal and state levels. On behalf of more than two dozen states, he won a stay from the US Supreme Court of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. Described by the New York Times as an “unprecedented” order, the stay was the first time the Supreme Court had ever put a regulation on hold before review by a federal appeals court. In that same case, Elbert argued before the en banc DC Circuit in an historic proceeding that one commenter quoted in E&E News compared to “the NBA All-Star Game.” At the state level, Elbert led the effort that persuaded the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to overturn an injunction of the state’s right-to-work law.
In 2013, Mr. Lin was appointed the Solicitor General of West Virginia. During his four-and-a-half year tenure, he served as a member of the Attorney General’s senior management team, oversaw all civil and criminal appeals, and argued nearly two dozen cases in federal and state appellate courts. He authored more than twenty-five briefs in the US Supreme Court and more than forty-five formal Opinions of the Attorney General.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Lin served as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the US Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where he received a Special Service Award. He has also been a law clerk at all three levels of the federal judiciary: for Justice Clarence Thomas on the US Supreme Court; for Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; and for Senior Judge Robert E. Keeton on the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Mr. Lin speaks regularly on a wide variety of topics, including constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, state and federal relations, the US Supreme Court, and appellate practice. He has testified before Congress, and has spoken at the national conventions of the American Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Federalist Society, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Mr. Lin is admitted to practice in the following federal courts: the Supreme Court of the United States; the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, D.C., and Federal Circuits; the District of Massachusetts; the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia; and the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia.