A founding partner of Stone Hilton, Judd Stone is well respected both in Texas and across the nation as an insightful and tenacious appellate litigator. A lifelong Texan, Judd has argued dozens of appeals in both federal and state court, including arguing eight cases before the United States Supreme Court.
Judd began his legal career clerking for United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith H. Jones. With a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law where he graduated first in his class, Judd's academic and professional credentials place him among the most distinguished lawyers in the profession. At the helm of countless major legal battles and emergency appeals for the State of Texas, Judd's deep understanding of the law and persuasive advocacy have been instrumental in shaping legal precedents. His tenure as the Solicitor General of Texas is a testament to his expertise and the trust placed in him by high-ranking state officials. Judd's strategic prowess extends beyond the courtroom; his advisory roles have made him a respected figure among policymakers.
His contributions to Stone Hilton and the legal community are characterized by his meticulous approach to cases, his acumen as a counselor, and his unwavering commitment to justice. As a partner at Stone Hilton, Judd continues to apply his formidable talents to advocate for his clients with the utmost dedication and to uphold the pillars of integrity and excellence that the firm stands for.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Biography
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Biography
THOMAS W. MERRILL is the Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. He previously taught at Northwestern University School of Law and Yale Law School. He has undergraduate degrees from Grinnell College and Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a law degree from the University of Chicago. He clerked on the D.C. Circuit (for Chief Judge David Bazelon) and the U.S. Supreme Court (for Justice Harry Blackmun). From 1987-1990 he served as Deputy Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice. Professor Merrill’s writings related to property include Property: Principles and Policies (Foundation Press Second Edition, 2012) (with Henry E. Smith); Property: The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law (Oxford U. Press, 2010); Property: Takings (Foundation Press, 2002)(with David Dana); and numerous articles, including “The Economics of Public Use” (Cornell Law Review 1986); “The Landscape of Constitutional Property” (Virginia Law Review 2000); and “The Character of the Governmental Action” (Vermont Law Review 2012). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Eli Nachmany is an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in the Washington, DC, office. He clerked for Judge Steven J. Menashi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Eli graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Prior to law school, Eli served as the speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and as a domestic policy aide in the White House Office of American Innovation. He graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a B.S. in Sports Management. Eli’s scholarship on administrative law and executive power has appeared in the BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum.
Yaakov Roth's goal is to strategically develop and effectively present the key legal arguments that will secure victory for clients through appellate advocacy and dispositive motions. He has represented clients in high-profile Supreme Court cases, argued appeals in the federal Courts of Appeals, and prepared motions to dismiss and for summary judgment across a range of substantive areas.
Yaakov's most recent Supreme Court experience includes vindicating former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell from political corruption charges, narrowing the geographic scope of private civil RICO lawsuits, and pursuing a major challenge to the Affordable Care Act from inception through high court review. At the appellate level, Yaakov's oral advocacy has included pressing a First Amendment challenge to an Ohio law prohibiting "false" campaign statements, seeking disclosure of a Justice Department policy manual concerning criminal discovery, and protecting the religious freedom rights of Death Row inmates. He has successfully defended his clients against defamation, antitrust, Title VII, and ERISA claims — including nationwide class actions — and pursued a host of challenges to federal, state, and local regulations. His ERISA experience also includes a series of withdrawal liability arbitrations and related litigation.
Yaakov speaks and writes about the Supreme Court and First Amendment issues and maintains an active pro bono practice centered around religious freedom and criminal justice.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Biography
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
New York political commentor Deroy Murdock is a Fox News Contributor, a Contributing Editor with National Review Online, an emeritus Media Fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University; and a Senior Fellow with the Atlas Network, which supports and connects some 500 free-market think tanks in the USA and some 95 countries world-wide. Mr. Murdock’s weekly column — “This Opinion Just In…” — appears in the New York Post, the Washington Times, the New Hampshire Union-Leader, and other newspapers across America. He has appeared on radio shows across America and presents commentaries on Fox News Radio’s podcast, The Rundown. He is a veteran of the 1980 and 1984 Reagan for President campaigns and Steve Forbes’ 2000 White House bid.
As a popular public speaker, he has lectured or debated at the Cato Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations; Harvard Medical School, the Heritage Foundation; the National Academy of Sciences; Dartmouth, Stanford, and Tulane universities; and various fora, from Bogotá to Buenos Aires to Budapest. He is a native of Los Angeles, a graduate of Georgetown University, and a resident of Manhattan, where he earned an MBA from New York University. His program included a semester of study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Deroy Murdock hopes that someday the free society will bring him — and every American — more leisure time to experience fine dining, motion pictures, skiing, live music, and the priceless joys of family, friends, and loved ones.
Mark Paoletta represents clients in connection with government investigations, with an emphasis on congressional investigations and hearings. He also counsels clients on how to successfully navigate legislative and regulatory issues before the government. Mr. Paoletta served in senior positions in the Legislative and Executive Branches for more than eighteen years, and he brings that experience to effectively help his clients.
In private practice, Mr. Paoletta has successfully represented many Fortune 500 companies in congressional investigations, including companies in the following areas: pharmaceutical and healthcare; telecommunications and media; privacy and technology; hedge funds and banking; energy; defense contracting and services; and education. He has represented government officials in high-profile inquiries, including a Governor, a Mayor, and a senior White House official.
Mr. Paoletta served for a decade as Chief Counsel for Oversight and Investigations for the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his tenure, Mr. Paoletta managed nearly 200 investigative hearings, many of which involved high-profile issues and investigating some of the largest U.S. corporations. Many of those investigations led to substantial revisions to federal law, regulations and public awareness on significant issues of the day.
Mr. Paoletta most recently served as General Counsel for the Office of Management & Budget in the Executive Office of the President during the Trump Administration. As General Counsel to what many consider the most powerful agency in Washington, D.C., Mr. Paoletta worked daily with agencies across the federal government to ensure programs were implemented consistent with the President's policies. Mr. Paoletta also worked closely with the other component offices within OMB, such as the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which reviews and signs off on every regulation issued by federal agencies. Mr. Paoletta also served as Counsel to Vice President Pence during the first year of the Trump Administration.
During his time in the Trump Administration, Mr. Paoletta helped prepare many nominees for confirmation hearings, including Cabinet nominees, several Court of Appeals nominees, and two Supreme Court nominees.
Mr. Paoletta also served in the White House as Assistant Counsel to President George H.W. Bush. In that position, he played a key role in the successful confirmation effort of United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Justice Sarah Campbell was confirmed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2022. She previously served as an Associate Solicitor General in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and as an associate at the law firm of Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC. Justice Campbell earned her law degree from Duke University School of Law, a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke University, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee, where she received the Torchbearer Award. She served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the United States Supreme Court and Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Justice Kane was appointed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court in September of 2019 by Governor Kevin Stitt. His tenure as Vice Chief Justice began in January of 2021. Prior to his service on the Supreme Court, he had been appointed by Governor Brad Henry as the Osage County District Judge in 2005. He was reelected in 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018.
Kane is the former Presiding Judge for the eight-county Northeast Judicial Administrative District (2019), and he is a former President (2013-2014) of the Oklahoma Judicial Conference (the State’s official Judicial Association). As a trial judge, Kane had also served as the Presiding Judge on the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary. As a trial judge, Kane was recognized by CASA in 2015 as the judge of the year.
Kane is a third-generation Osage County attorney, having been admitted to practice in 1987. He had the privilege of practicing law with his grandfather (Matthew J. Kane) and his father (Matt Kane, Jr.) during their lifetimes in Pawhuska and Skiatook. Kane has been the president of the Osage County Bar Association, and is a Fellow of the Oklahoma Bar Association. Prior to the creation of an Indigent Defense System, Kane accepted appointments to represent citizens accused of crime who were financially unable to hire their own attorney. He later served as a part-time assistant D.A. Prior to taking the District Court bench, Kane was also an Administrative Law Judge for the Dept. of Human Services- Child Support Division.
Vice Chief Justice Kane is the great-grandson of Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew John Kane. The original Justice Kane was a member of the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, and was an integral participant of the writing of Oklahoma’s Constitution. John’s great-grandmother is the late Mabelle Kennedy, former Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury in the Truman administration.
Vice Chief Justice Kane’s wife, Cyndi, is an author, public speaker, entrepreneur, and home school mom. The Kanes have 4 children.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Biography
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Chairman, Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Practice, Baker Botts LLP
Biography
Aaron Streett is the Chairman of Baker Botts’ Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Practice. He has presented oral argument in scores of appeals, covering the U.S. Supreme Court and courts around the country—including over 40 arguments between the Fifth and D.C. Circuits alone. Mr. Streett’s practice involves virtually all substantive areas of the law, including commercial litigation, statutory interpretation, constitutional law, administrative law, securities, and jurisdictional issues. Mr. Streett maintains an active practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, having represented parties in merits cases seven times since 2010, as well as filing numerous amicus and certiorari-stage briefs. Mr. Streett was named one of only six “Appellate MVPs” for 2014 by Law360, which had previously recognized him in 2011 as one of the top five appellate “Rising Stars” under age 40. Mr. Streett has been featured on National Law Journal’s Appellate Hot List three times in recent years and in 2021 was named Houston’s “Lawyer of the Year” for Appellate Practice by Best Lawyers magazine. Mr. Streett is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Fifth Circuit Bar Association and previously served as President of the Houston Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. Mr. Streett speaks regularly on the Supreme Court and constitutional law to attorneys and law students around the country. Following graduation from Hillsdale College and University of Texas School of Law, Mr. Streett served as a law clerk to the Honorable David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to the Honorable William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States.