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Founder and CEO, One Workforce Solutions
John Pallasch is Founder and CEO of One Workforce Solutions. He was previously the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training at the U.S. Labor Department.
Assistant Secretary Pallasch’s appointment marked his return to the Department where he previously served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management and the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
Prior to his return to DOL, Pallasch served as the Executive Director of the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Office of Employment and Training where he led initiatives to improve outcomes for workforce education programs, increase accountability and performance of the unemployment insurance program, and consolidate job training and workforce development programs in a single cabinet agency.
An Illinois native, Pallasch earned a Bachelor of Science degree from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University
Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer, BrightStar Care
Cheryl M. Stanton is Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer at BrightStar Care. Prior to joining BrightStar Care, she served as Administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. She was sworn in as WHD’s Administrator by U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta on April 29, 2019.
Stanton brought a wealth of experience to WHD, most recently having served as the Executive Director of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. Under her leadership, South Carolina’s jobless rate dropped to its lowest point in at least 50 years. During that time period, South Carolina’s workforce system helped place over 500,000 South Carolinians into jobs. Stanton also partnered with her colleague at the Department of Corrections to create a job re-entry program for ex-offenders, receiving national accolades. She also oversaw two major information technology modernization projects that improved customer service and increased efficiencies for employees.
Stanton served as the White House’s principal legal liaison to the DOL under President George W. Bush. She is a graduate of Williams College, and earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
Securities Lawyer
He regularly represents clients before U.S. federal and state financial regulatory authorities, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He also represents clients in filing comment letters and amicus briefs in connection with SEC rulemakings.
Partner,, Fenimore, Kay, Harrison & Ford, LLP
Jonathan Hightower focuses his practice in financial institutions law, including corporate, regulatory and securities work. He represents banks and trust companies throughout the country with a particular focus on the Southeast. Mr. Hightower also represents investment banking firms in connection with public and private capital raises, delivery of fairness opinions, and strategic transactions. Mr. Hightower has been a frequent speaker, writer and press commentator on various banking issues.
Shareholder, Maynard Nexsen
Jenny McCain is a Shareholder of Maynard Nexsen and Co-Chair of the firm’s Banking Practice. She also is President of Stonegate Real Estate Investments, LLC, a multi-state commercial real estate company. Ms. McCain is also the Founder, Director, and President (2013-2015) of Scholarships for Kids, Inc.
Ms. McCain provides specialized regulatory and general corporate advice to financial institutions of all sizes, including public and private banks, savings associations, credit unions, insurance companies, and other non-depository financial institutions. Ms. McCain’s clients include many of the nation’s largest banking corporations, insurance companies and credit unions based on asset size, as well as numerous community banks.
In 2010, Ms. McCain led the corporate reorganization/restructuring of a privately owned, $100 million commercial real estate company and has served for the past seven years as its President. Ms. McCain is active in both local and regional philanthropic initiatives. In 2013, Ms. McCain founded Scholarships for Kids, Inc. a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to low income children throughout the state of Alabama. Ms. McCain actively ran the organization from 2013 until 2015, during which time Scholarships for Kids raised over $18 million, partnered with 36 schools throughout the state, and provided more than 3400 scholarships to kindergarten to 12th grade students in Alabama. A twenty-year veteran of the Federalist Society, Ms. McCain has served in leadership positions with the organization since the early 2000s.
Ms. McCain has earned numerous professional and personal accolades, including recognition by both Chambers USA and America’s Best Lawyers as a Leading Practitioner in the area of Banking and Finance. In 2015, Ms. McCain was selected as a member of the inaugural class of the Presidential Leadership Scholars, a national leadership program created by the George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Libraries.
Ms. McCain is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Texas School of Law. She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama.
Partner,, Shapiro Bieging Barber Otteson LLP
Christian Otteson is a partner with Shapiro Bieging Barber Otteson LLP, and is the director of the firm’s financial services practice. Mr. Otteson’s principal areas of practice include assisting corporations and financial institutions with mergers, acquisitions, public and private securities offerings and securities reporting, governance issues, general commercial agreements, technology-related issues and matters involving state and federal banking laws, regulations and supervisory agencies. He also assists financial institutions with the negotiation of regulatory agreements, business and capital plans, and with administrative proceedings related to cease and desist orders and other forms of regulatory enforcement action. Mr. Otteson serves as outside general counsel for many banks and bank holding companies, and in that capacity assists boards and management with strategic and risk management planning, and execution of resulting strategies.
Prior to joining Shapiro Bieging Barber Otteson LLP, Mr. Otteson practiced for many years in the Corporate and Securities Section of an international law firm, working specifically in the Financial Services Group. Mr. Otteson also worked in various positions as corporate counsel for a public regional bank, including as General Counsel and Secretary, where he represented the bank and its holding company on matters involving mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and securities reporting, governance, compensation matters, as well as its outsourcing activities, regulatory compliance and general commercial agreements.
Mr. Otteson has lectured extensively on a variety of banking law topics, including bank mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, strategic planning and regulatory compliance. From 2005 to 2008 Mr. Otteson served on the National Arbitration Board of the National Automated Clearing House Association. He is a Texas Business Hall of Fame Scholar.
Mr. Otteson was named Barrister’s Best “People’s Choice” in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 by Law Week Colorado. In this statewide annual survey, the staff and readers of Colorado’s top legal publication choose winners in over 100 different categories celebrating the best of the legal world in Colorado. Mr. Otteson was voted “Best Banking Lawyer.”
Denver’s top lifestyle publication, 5280 magazine, named Mr. Otteson to its list of Top Lawyers in the “Banking” category in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The rankings are based on ballots cast by thousands of lawyers in the seven-county Denver metro area, as well as the magazine’s extensive research.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice
Harmeet K. Dhillon is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. She was nominated by President Donald Trump in December 2024. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 3, 2025, and sworn in as AAG by Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 7, 2025.
Prior to joining the Division, Ms. Dhillon founded both the Dhillon Law Group, Inc., a successful legal practice with offices in California, Florida, Virginia, and New Jersey; and the Center for American Liberty, a nonprofit organization dedicated to pursuing civil liberties legal claims. Her law practice focused on First Amendment / free speech, civil rights, and campaign and election law issues. Among her many notable cases, Ms. Dhillon brought legal challenges against the University of California, Berkeley over its free speech policy, against an Antifa organization for an assault on a conservative journalist, against several states for their restrictive responses to Covid-19, and against various large tech companies for a host of civil rights issues.
Assistant Attorney General Dhillon was born in Chandigarh, India, and lived in London before moving to The Bronx, New York. Her family ultimately settled in rural Smithfield, North Carolina. After graduating high school at age 16, Ms. Dhillon attended Dartmouth College where she became editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review. After earning her bachelor’s degree in Classical Studies, she attended the University of Virginia School of Law and served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review. She later clerked for the Honorable Paul V. Niemeyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Baltimore, Maryland.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
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 is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
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.
Senior Director, Global Investigations, Cognizant
Brian Lichter directs and oversees sensitive internal investigations related corruption, bribery, fraud, and other serious misconduct; manages outside counsel where appropriate; and responds to government requests and inquiries. He serves as Cognizant's primary cybersecurity attorney, including managing incident response to cyber incidents and providing legal advice regarding cybersecurity issues and crisis management.
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, Latham & Watkins LLP
Jonathan Su, Deputy Office Managing Partner of the Washington, D.C. office and a former Special Counsel to the President, advises clients on government, Congressional, and internal investigations as well as related litigation.
Mr. Su advises corporations, boards of directors, and individuals on investigations conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ), US Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other federal agencies. Mr. Su also conducts internal investigations regarding a wide range of alleged misconduct, including corruption, financial irregularities, and sexual misconduct.
As part of his work, Mr. Su helps navigate often intense government and media scrutiny so that clients can maintain their business operations. In so doing, he draws on significant experience both in private practice representing leading corporations and individuals, as well as his prior work at the highest levels of the Executive Branch and as a federal white collar crime prosecutor.
In his prior role as Special Counsel to President Barack Obama, Mr. Su advised the President and senior White House and Executive Branch officials on a wide range of matters, including Congressional investigations, risk management, nominations and personnel issues, litigation matters involving the White House, and matters relating to the DOJ. He also advised the President on executive clemency matters. Mr. Su’s responsibilities at the White House Counsel’s Office included engaging with senior officials of several cabinet agencies, including the Departments of Justice, the Treasury, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and several offices within the Executive Office of the President.
Prior to joining the White House, Mr. Su served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Maryland where he conducted 12 jury trials to verdict. Among his most significant matters, Mr. Su led a team of FBI and IRS agents in securing convictions (through jury trials and guilty pleas) of the leaders of a US$78 million Ponzi scheme affecting more than 1,000 victims in the East Coast and California (United States v. Andrew Williams, et al). Mr. Su also led the Maryland component of a joint Maryland / District of Columbia federal prosecution of the largest embezzlement (US$49 million) in the history of the District of Columbia government (United States v. Harriette Walters, et al). In 2011, then-United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein awarded Mr. Su the US Attorney’s Award for Excellence in Prosecution of Fraud.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Su served as a law clerk to both Judge Julian Abele Cook, Jr. of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and Judge Ronald M. Gould of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Su currently serves as Chair of Latham’s Global Pro Bono Committee, through which the firm has provided more than 3.5 million hours of free legal services valued at more than US$1.6 billion since 2000.
James Madison Distinguished Professor of Law and Class of 1941 Research Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Professor John C. Harrison is the James Madison Distinguished Professor of Law and Class of 1941 Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He joined the faculty at University of Virginia in 1993 as an associate professor of law after a distinguished career with the U.S. Department of Justice. His teaching subjects include constitutional history, federal courts, remedies, corporations, civil procedure, legislation and property. In 2008 he was on leave from the Law School to serve as counselor on international law in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State.
A 1977 graduate of the University of Virginia, Harrison earned his law degree in 1980 at Yale, where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal and editor and articles editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order. He was an associate at Patton Boggs & Blow in Washington, D.C., and clerked for Judge Robert Bork on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He worked with the Department of Justice from 1983-93, serving in numerous capacities, including deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel (1990-93).
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Senior Executive & Director, Center for City Solutions, National League of Cities
Brooks Rainwater is the senior executive and director of the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Center for City Solutions. Rainwater drives the organization’s research agenda, community engagement efforts, and leadership education programming to help city leaders create strong local economies, safe and vibrant neighborhoods, world-class infrastructure, and a sustainable environment.
As an advocate for strong local leadership, Rainwater leads a team of experts across the field of urban policy, and regularly advises cities both in the United States and globally on critical issues faced now and yet to come. He has published a wide variety of reports and articles on innovative solutions that lead to vibrant and successful cities.
Rainwater speaks regularly across the country and overseas on issues facing city leaders. Under his leadership of the Center, it has grown and developed a host of new programs from land use and equitable development to alternative energy and resilience to urban innovation and enhanced city governance strategies.
Rainwater’s research and interests include advancements in technology and city innovation, the sharing economy, and how the rise of state preemption is impacting local authority. His expertise is a draw for media outlets, including the TODAY Show, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, NPR, and the New York Times. Rainwater also frequently contributes to publications such as Fast Company, Forbes, CityLab, Business Insider, TechCrunch, and Fortune.
Prior to joining NLC, Rainwater was Director of Public Policy for the American Institute of Architects (AIA). While there he developed the Local Leaders research series and spearheaded the Cities as a Lab initiative focused on the key role cities play as creative instigators of innovative practices.
Rainwater serves on numerous boards with current and past service to the STAR Communities Board, the American Library Association Public Policy Advisory Council, the International Advisory Board for the City of Rotterdam, and the Arlington County Environment and Energy Conservation Commission.
Vice President for Litigation & General Counsel, Goldwater Institute
Jon Riches is the Vice President for Litigation for the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation and General Counsel for the Institute. He litigates in federal and state trial and appellate courts in the areas of economic liberty, regulatory reform, free speech, taxpayer protections, public labor issues, government transparency, and school choice, among others.
Jon has developed and authored several pieces of legislation, including the landmark Right to Earn a Living Act, which provides some of the greatest protections in the country to job-seekers and entrepreneurs facing arbitrary licensing regulations. He also developed legislation eliminating deference to administrative agencies in Arizona—a first-of-its-kind regulatory reform that can serve as a model for the rest of the country.
His work at the Institute has been covered by national media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CBS This Morning, Bloomberg News, and Politico. Jon is also a member of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project: State and Local Working Group.
Prior to joining the Goldwater Institute, Jon served on active duty in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. While on active duty, Jon represented hundreds of clients, litigated dozens of court-martial cases, and advised commanders on a vast array of legal issues.
He previously clerked for Sen. Jon Kyl on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, worked for the Rules Committee in the Arizona State Senate, and clerked in the Office of Counsel to the President at the White House. Jon received his B.A. from Boston College, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D. from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law.
Jon served as a presidentially appointed Panel Member on the Federal Service Impasses Panel. He is an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and an Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University School of Law. Jon is a native of Phoenix.
I. Beverly Lake, Jr. Chair in Constitutional Studies and Senior Counsel at the John Locke Foundation., John Locke Foundation
Jeanette Doran is the I. Beverly Lake, Jr. Chair in Constitutional Studies and Senior Counsel at the John Locke Foundation.
Doran began her legal career as a federal law clerk in the Middle District of North Carolina after graduating with honors from Campbell Law School. She then served as the Research and Writing Attorney in the appeals section of the Federal Public Defender’s Office, appearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In 2004, she joined the UNC–Chapel Hill School of Government, and a year later became staff attorney at NCICL, ultimately rising to executive director in 2011. Appointed in 2013 by the Governor to chair the Division of Employment Security’s Board of Review, she completed that public service in 2019.
Doran is also the president of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law (NCICL), and she serves on the state’s Rules Review Commission. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Fourth Circuit, multiple federal district courts, and all North Carolina courts. Doran holds a Juris Doctor from Campbell University.
Associate Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
Early Years
Personal Information
Married to Susan Awbrey Hunter. One son, Robert Neal Hunter III; two step-sons, Chris Awbrey Steele and Alan Baret Steel; two grandchildren; Member of First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, North Carolina
