Cybercrime and AI: Emerging Dangers and Opportunities
Presented by the In-House Counsel Networkand DeMarco Law, PLLC Few topics dominate the news...
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The Federalist Society is pleased to announce its In-House Counsel Network. This group joins our 15 highly successful Practice Groups to broaden our programming and help us more effectively serve the legal community by providing a place for thoughtful, balanced discussion of the most pressing issues the business community faces today.
This Network will focus on the issues that attorneys in for-profit companies face in day-to-day practice, like properly identifying the client, managing outside firms, earning “cooperation” status during criminal investigations while managing exposure to civil liability, understanding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, document retention and all matters of e-discovery, employment issues, tracking legal issues in corporate governance, and more.
Presented by the In-House Counsel Networkand DeMarco Law, PLLC Few topics dominate the news...
Matthew Turetzky, Collin J. Vierra
Presented by the In-House Counsel Network and Eimer Stahl LLP CLE credit for this event...
Ketan Bhirud, Steven Gill Bradbury, Trevor N. McFadden, Brett Shumate, Stephen Alexander Vaden, Michael J. Ellis
In-House Counsel Network
This panel will offer a high-level examination of the legal developments driving the Trump Administration and...
Mohammad Jazil, David P. Johnson, Mark I. Pinkert, Brandon J. Smith, Eric Wessan
Presented by the In-House Counsel Network andHoltzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC State...
Mariel Brookins, Benjamin Diggs, John Kim, Michael Richards, Mike Trinh
Presented by the In-House Counsel Network and the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center CLE credit for...
General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Arete Advisors, LLC
Partner, DeMarco Law, PLLC
Joseph V. DeMarco is a partner at DeMarco Law, PLLC where he focuses on counseling clients on complex issues involving information privacy and security, theft of intellectual property, computer intrusions, on-line fraud, and the lawful use of new technology. His years of experience in private practice and in government handling the most difficult cybercrime investigations handled by the United States Attorney’s Office have made him one of the nation’s most sought-after lawyers on Internet crime and the law relating to emerging technologies. In addition to his counsel practice, Mr. DeMarco serves as an Arbitrator, resolving complex commercial and high-technology disputes between businesses. He is on the National Panel of Neutrals of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and Federal Arbitration, Inc. (FedArb).
From 1997 to 2007, Mr. DeMarco served an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he founded and headed the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIPs) Program, a group of five prosecutors dedicated to investigating and prosecuting violations of federal cybercrime laws and intellectual property offenses. Under his leadership, CHIPs prosecutions grew from a trickle in 1997 to a top priority of the United States Attorney’s Office, encompassing all forms of criminal activity affecting e-commerce and critical infrastructures including computer hacking crimes; transmission of Internet worms and viruses; electronic theft of trade secrets; illegal use of “spyware”; web-based frauds; unlawful Internet gambling; and criminal copyright and trademark infringement offenses. As a recognized thought leader in the field, Mr. DeMarco was frequently asked to counsel prosecutors and law enforcement agents regarding novel investigative and surveillance techniques and methodologies, and regularly provided advice to the United States Attorney concerning the Office’s most sensitive computer-related investigations. In 2001, Mr. DeMarco also served as a visiting Trial Attorney at the Department of Justice Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section in Washington, D.C., where he focused his work on Internet privacy, gaming, and theft of intellectual property.
Since 2002, Mr. DeMarco has served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches the upper-class Internet and Computer Crimes seminar. He has been invited to speak throughout the world on cybercrime, e-commerce, and IP enforcement. He has lectured on the subject of cybercrime at Harvard Law School, the Practicing Law Institute, the National Advocacy Center, and at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and has served as an instructor on cybercrime to judges attending the New York State Judicial Institute.
Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. DeMarco was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City, where he concentrated his work on intellectual property, antitrust, and securities law issues for various high-technology clients. Prior to that, Mr. DeMarco served as law clerk to the Honorable J. Daniel Mahoney, United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. DeMarco holds a J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law. At NYU he was a member of the NYU Law Review. He received his B.S.F.S. summa cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Deputy General Counsel and Head of Litigation, Kraken Digital Asset Exchange
Matt Turetzky is Deputy General Counsel and Head of Litigation at Kraken. He oversees all litigation involving Kraken and its global affiliates. Matt is based in California's San Francisco Bay Area.
Matt was previously Director and Associate General Counsel at Coinbase (COIN), where he led the Consumer, Commercial, and International Litigation teams. He oversaw significant litigation operations and spend, directing a large team and a complex global docket—including class actions, consumer arbitrations, and precedent-setting appeals that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Before Coinbase, Matt was the first associate at The Norton Law Firm, a San Francisco Bay Area litigation boutique representing plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil disputes. Earlier in his career, he practiced law in the San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices of Sheppard Mullin and Dickstein Shapiro (now Blank Rome), after clerking for the Hon. Lawrence J. Block at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Matt received his law degree from Duke University School of Law where he was the Editor-in-Chief of Duke's Law & Technology Review. He received his bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Florida. He is licensed to practice law in California, Washington, D.C., and numerous federal trial and appellate courts.
Partner, Eimer Stahl LLP
Collin Vierra is a Partner whose nationwide practice focuses on complex trial and appellate litigation, commercial and consumer mass arbitration, and counseling. Collin’s practice touches on a wide range of issues, including data privacy and AI, discrimination, products liability, commercial disputes, antitrust and unfair competition, environmental law, and government regulation. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, and Stanford Law School with degrees in engineering and economics, clients trust Collin with their most high-stakes and cutting-edge disputes. Among others, his legal acumen has been recognized by Law.com/The Recorder (Lawyer on the Fast Track), Legal 500 (recognizing Collin’s “particular prowess in mass arbitration defense”), Benchmark Litigation (identifying the “best and brightest litigators across the U.S.”), and Top Verdict (identifying Collin as having obtained one of the top verdicts in California in 2024).
Collin chairs Eimer Stahl’s Mass Arbitration Practice Group, and clients call him a “leading lawyer” of mass arbitration defense. His creative solutions to novel arbitration issues have saved his clients tens of millions of dollars in arbitration costs and damages. A featured speaker on mass arbitration issues, he has presented to numerous institutions including the American Bar Association, the Federalist Society, the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, Stanford Law School, MassArbCon, the Association of Corporate Counsel, and the Data Privacy and Cyber Security ConfEx. Collin has helped companies respond to over 200,000 individual demands for arbitration across numerous industries, including the social networking, consumer hardware, and consumer entertainment industries. He has obtained tens of thousands of dismissals and withdrawals of mass arbitration claims without any settlement payment or judgment to claimants, and has secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in fee-shifting awards for his corporate clients against both claimants and their counsel. Collin has arbitrated before numerous institutions including JAMS, the AAA, and NAM. His expert analysis on mass arbitration issues has been published in Law360.
Collin also co-chairs Eimer Stahl’s Data Privacy and AI Practice Group, in which role he is a trusted resource for clients navigating cutting-edge data privacy, AI, and other technological disputes. He regularly defends and counsels clients on privacy issues relating to web technologies and platforms such as Facebook/Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, X/Twitter Pixel, TikTok Pixel, Google Analytics, TDD/The Trade Desk Universal Pixel, ADNXS/AppNexus, New Relic, DoubleClick, OpenX, LiveRamp, TripleLift, mobile SDKs, and others. He has counseled and/or defended clients in matters involving a garden variety of state and federal data privacy statutes and constitutional claims, including under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers Act (CUBI), the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and others.
Collin also has substantial experience managing high-stakes discovery disputes. On the defense side, he was previously responsible for coordinating discovery in one of the nation’s largest multidistrict litigation (MDL), multistate Attorneys General (AGs), and multiagency actions. In 2024, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee appointed Collin as discovery counsel in State of Tennessee ex rel. Jonathan Skrmetti v. Meta Platforms, Inc., in which the State seeks to hold Meta responsible for the harmful impacts of Instagram on teens. In 2025, Governor Lee also appointed Collin as discovery counsel in Keira v. Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, which concerns the State’s foster care system. Collin’s insights on pressing discovery issues have also been published in Law360.
Collin has ample experience in both state and Article I and III federal court and with all aspects of litigation, including successfully trying claims from complaint to jury verdict. He has defended major public and private companies in consumer class actions, multi-district litigations (MDL), and Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings (JCCP). Collin has also defended these companies in civil and criminal investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the Attorneys General of more than 45 states and the District of Columbia.
His academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was a member of the Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honors Society and an engineering apprentice in the Pappalardo Laboratory. He is currently a member of the MIT Free Speech Alliance. He also holds a Master of Arts in Economics from Stanford University where he was a Gregory Terrill Cox Fellow in the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics. Collin obtained his Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School.
Collin is licensed to practice in California and Texas.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel
Mohammad “Mo” Jazil is a partner with Holtzman Vogel. His broad litigation practice includes state and federal constitutional cases, financial disputes, environmental disputes, white-collar criminal matters, and government investigations. Mohammad has served as first chair in federal and state court trials. He has briefed and argued dispositive motions and appeals before the federal courts, state appellate courts, and state supreme courts. He has also briefed cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, though he has never argued a case there.
Chambers USA calls Mohammad “a very good thinker,” “fantastic,” and “an excellent litigator.”
Since the summer of 2018, Mohammad has represented two Florida Governors and four Florida Secretaries of State on election-related and redistricting matters before federal and state trial courts, the Florida Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Notably, this work includes wins in nine federal cases related to Florida’s 2018 recounts; the successful defense of Florida’s felon re-enfranchisement program; federal and state-court decisions upholding Florida’s most recent congressional plan; and the defense of various election-related statutes.
Mohammad represents other public officials as well. He has represented two Speakers of the Florida House of Representatives on issues as varied as cannabis regulation and transportation policy. And he has represented Florida’s Surgeon General, members of Florida’s Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, and the head of Florida’s Medicaid agency on health-policy issues.
Finally, Mohammad routinely represents companies and individuals on a variety of issues. This work includes pricing and tax disputes involving some of the country’s largest companies, commercial disputes where he has obtained and collected on eight-figure trial judgments, and criminal proceedings.
David Johnson is a partner at Holtzman Vogel and focuses his practice on political and election law regulatory compliance, appellate law, and state attorneys general investigations and litigation.
Prior to joining the firm, David was Policy Director and General Counsel to the Republican Attorneys General Association, as well as serving as president for the Rule of Law Defense Fund and Center for Law and Policy. In these roles, he worked closely with Republican attorneys general and their staff on developing and advancing policy priorities. He has also worked with President Trump's administration and other leading Republican political and conservative policy organizations with respect to key policy initiatives.
Previously, David was Senior Counsel with the Office of the Indiana Attorney General where he advised the Attorney General on strategy with respect to litigation, communications, complex legal objectives, and policy goals. Prior to joining the Indiana Office of Attorney General, David served as Corporation Counsel for Lawrence, Indiana. In that role, David advised on myriad issues including municipal bonding, human resources, and capital projects. And before that, David served as Deputy General Counsel and Policy Director for Governor Mike Pence, providing strategic counsel to the Governor on litigation, policy, crisis communications, and legislative strategy, as well as guiding policy efforts on gaming issues in Indiana.
He earned his AB from Wabash College, and his JD from the Indiana University McKinney School of Law.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel
Mark Pinkert is a litigation and appellate partner with Holtzman Vogel. He represents clients at every stage of litigation, in state and federal courts around the country. He has extensive experience in constitutional law, administrative law, political law, antitrust, white collar defense, and complex commercial disputes. Additionally, Mark maintains an active practice focused on religious freedom, First Amendment rights, and combatting antisemitism, especially on college campuses.
Mark is a formidable writer and advocate. He has drafted letters, white papers to government agencies, legal memoranda, regulatory comments, complaints, dispositive motions, motions in limine, appellate briefs, and several briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. His incisive and persuasive writing style has helped him earn key victories for his clients. Mark has argued a Daubert motion in a multi-billion-dollar environmental dispute and was recently appointed lead counsel by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to represent an indigent petitioner in a habeas corpus appeal. Mark’s legal commentary has been published in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Times of Israel, Daily Business Review, University of Miami Law Review, and many others.
Mark is also an adept legal strategist, advising some of the largest companies in the world on their most pressing issues. Rather than merely react to problems, he provides holistic thinking and anticipates issues before they arise. He helps clients develop proactive plans of action that mitigate risks, avoid conflict, and reduce costs.
Before joining Holtzman Vogel, Mark worked at a global law firm and clerked for the Honorable Adalberto Jordan (11th Cir.) and the Honorable Roy K. Altman (S.D. Fla.). Clerking at both the trial and appellate levels has given him rare insight into the federal court system and has sharpened his advocacy.
At Yale Law School, Mark was an Articles Editor for the Yale Law Journal and an editor for the Yale Journal of Law & Humanities. He was also a research assistant and taught constitutional law to high school students in New Haven.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC
Brandon Smith is a partner at Holtzman Vogel, based in Tennessee, where he focuses on government investigations, white collar matters, and specialty litigation. A seasoned government leader and legal strategist, Brandon has played a central role in shaping conservative policy and litigation at the highest levels of state government.
Before joining the firm, Brandon served as Chief of Staff and Assistant Solicitor General in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. In that role, he led multi-state litigation, high-profile constitutional challenges, and efforts to counter federal overreach and ESG-related corporate activism. He worked closely with nearly every Republican Attorney General’s Office in the country, coordinating litigation, strategy, and multi-state policy efforts.
Earlier in his career, Brandon served as Executive Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and as Policy Director to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, where he helped drive key legislative and budget initiatives. He also held roles as Deputy Director of the Federalist Society and as an adjunct professor at American University.
Brandon’s career has been defined by a commitment to defending federalism, advancing conservative governance, and shaping legal and policy fights that matter.
Solicitor General, Iowa Office of the Attorney General
Eric Wessan serves as Iowa’s Solicitor General in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. In that
role, Wessan leads Iowa’s litigation before State and federal appellate courts, including the Iowa
and U.S. Supreme Courts. Before that role, Wessan worked on complex commercial litigation at
two large law firms in Chicago. Wessan also served as a law clerk for the Honorable James C.
Ho on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for the Honorable John F. Kness on the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Wessan is a graduate of the University of
Chicago Law School, with honors, and of the University of Chicago.
General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Arete Advisors, LLC
Partner, DeMarco Law, PLLC
Joseph V. DeMarco is a partner at DeMarco Law, PLLC where he focuses on counseling clients on complex issues involving information privacy and security, theft of intellectual property, computer intrusions, on-line fraud, and the lawful use of new technology. His years of experience in private practice and in government handling the most difficult cybercrime investigations handled by the United States Attorney’s Office have made him one of the nation’s most sought-after lawyers on Internet crime and the law relating to emerging technologies. In addition to his counsel practice, Mr. DeMarco serves as an Arbitrator, resolving complex commercial and high-technology disputes between businesses. He is on the National Panel of Neutrals of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and Federal Arbitration, Inc. (FedArb).
From 1997 to 2007, Mr. DeMarco served an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he founded and headed the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIPs) Program, a group of five prosecutors dedicated to investigating and prosecuting violations of federal cybercrime laws and intellectual property offenses. Under his leadership, CHIPs prosecutions grew from a trickle in 1997 to a top priority of the United States Attorney’s Office, encompassing all forms of criminal activity affecting e-commerce and critical infrastructures including computer hacking crimes; transmission of Internet worms and viruses; electronic theft of trade secrets; illegal use of “spyware”; web-based frauds; unlawful Internet gambling; and criminal copyright and trademark infringement offenses. As a recognized thought leader in the field, Mr. DeMarco was frequently asked to counsel prosecutors and law enforcement agents regarding novel investigative and surveillance techniques and methodologies, and regularly provided advice to the United States Attorney concerning the Office’s most sensitive computer-related investigations. In 2001, Mr. DeMarco also served as a visiting Trial Attorney at the Department of Justice Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section in Washington, D.C., where he focused his work on Internet privacy, gaming, and theft of intellectual property.
Since 2002, Mr. DeMarco has served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches the upper-class Internet and Computer Crimes seminar. He has been invited to speak throughout the world on cybercrime, e-commerce, and IP enforcement. He has lectured on the subject of cybercrime at Harvard Law School, the Practicing Law Institute, the National Advocacy Center, and at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and has served as an instructor on cybercrime to judges attending the New York State Judicial Institute.
Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. DeMarco was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City, where he concentrated his work on intellectual property, antitrust, and securities law issues for various high-technology clients. Prior to that, Mr. DeMarco served as law clerk to the Honorable J. Daniel Mahoney, United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. DeMarco holds a J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law. At NYU he was a member of the NYU Law Review. He received his B.S.F.S. summa cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Deputy General Counsel and Head of Litigation, Kraken Digital Asset Exchange
Matt Turetzky is Deputy General Counsel and Head of Litigation at Kraken. He oversees all litigation involving Kraken and its global affiliates. Matt is based in California's San Francisco Bay Area.
Matt was previously Director and Associate General Counsel at Coinbase (COIN), where he led the Consumer, Commercial, and International Litigation teams. He oversaw significant litigation operations and spend, directing a large team and a complex global docket—including class actions, consumer arbitrations, and precedent-setting appeals that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Before Coinbase, Matt was the first associate at The Norton Law Firm, a San Francisco Bay Area litigation boutique representing plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil disputes. Earlier in his career, he practiced law in the San Francisco and Washington, D.C. offices of Sheppard Mullin and Dickstein Shapiro (now Blank Rome), after clerking for the Hon. Lawrence J. Block at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Matt received his law degree from Duke University School of Law where he was the Editor-in-Chief of Duke's Law & Technology Review. He received his bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Florida. He is licensed to practice law in California, Washington, D.C., and numerous federal trial and appellate courts.
Partner, Eimer Stahl LLP
Collin Vierra is a Partner whose nationwide practice focuses on complex trial and appellate litigation, commercial and consumer mass arbitration, and counseling. Collin’s practice touches on a wide range of issues, including data privacy and AI, discrimination, products liability, commercial disputes, antitrust and unfair competition, environmental law, and government regulation. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, and Stanford Law School with degrees in engineering and economics, clients trust Collin with their most high-stakes and cutting-edge disputes. Among others, his legal acumen has been recognized by Law.com/The Recorder (Lawyer on the Fast Track), Legal 500 (recognizing Collin’s “particular prowess in mass arbitration defense”), Benchmark Litigation (identifying the “best and brightest litigators across the U.S.”), and Top Verdict (identifying Collin as having obtained one of the top verdicts in California in 2024).
Collin chairs Eimer Stahl’s Mass Arbitration Practice Group, and clients call him a “leading lawyer” of mass arbitration defense. His creative solutions to novel arbitration issues have saved his clients tens of millions of dollars in arbitration costs and damages. A featured speaker on mass arbitration issues, he has presented to numerous institutions including the American Bar Association, the Federalist Society, the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, Stanford Law School, MassArbCon, the Association of Corporate Counsel, and the Data Privacy and Cyber Security ConfEx. Collin has helped companies respond to over 200,000 individual demands for arbitration across numerous industries, including the social networking, consumer hardware, and consumer entertainment industries. He has obtained tens of thousands of dismissals and withdrawals of mass arbitration claims without any settlement payment or judgment to claimants, and has secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in fee-shifting awards for his corporate clients against both claimants and their counsel. Collin has arbitrated before numerous institutions including JAMS, the AAA, and NAM. His expert analysis on mass arbitration issues has been published in Law360.
Collin also co-chairs Eimer Stahl’s Data Privacy and AI Practice Group, in which role he is a trusted resource for clients navigating cutting-edge data privacy, AI, and other technological disputes. He regularly defends and counsels clients on privacy issues relating to web technologies and platforms such as Facebook/Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, X/Twitter Pixel, TikTok Pixel, Google Analytics, TDD/The Trade Desk Universal Pixel, ADNXS/AppNexus, New Relic, DoubleClick, OpenX, LiveRamp, TripleLift, mobile SDKs, and others. He has counseled and/or defended clients in matters involving a garden variety of state and federal data privacy statutes and constitutional claims, including under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifiers Act (CUBI), the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and others.
Collin also has substantial experience managing high-stakes discovery disputes. On the defense side, he was previously responsible for coordinating discovery in one of the nation’s largest multidistrict litigation (MDL), multistate Attorneys General (AGs), and multiagency actions. In 2024, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee appointed Collin as discovery counsel in State of Tennessee ex rel. Jonathan Skrmetti v. Meta Platforms, Inc., in which the State seeks to hold Meta responsible for the harmful impacts of Instagram on teens. In 2025, Governor Lee also appointed Collin as discovery counsel in Keira v. Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, which concerns the State’s foster care system. Collin’s insights on pressing discovery issues have also been published in Law360.
Collin has ample experience in both state and Article I and III federal court and with all aspects of litigation, including successfully trying claims from complaint to jury verdict. He has defended major public and private companies in consumer class actions, multi-district litigations (MDL), and Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings (JCCP). Collin has also defended these companies in civil and criminal investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the Attorneys General of more than 45 states and the District of Columbia.
His academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was a member of the Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honors Society and an engineering apprentice in the Pappalardo Laboratory. He is currently a member of the MIT Free Speech Alliance. He also holds a Master of Arts in Economics from Stanford University where he was a Gregory Terrill Cox Fellow in the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics. Collin obtained his Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School.
Collin is licensed to practice in California and Texas.
Associate Deputy Attorney General, United States Department of Justice
Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation
Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.
Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.
Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.
Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.
Judge, United States District Court, District of Columbia
Judge Trevor N. McFadden was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2017. He received his B.A. in 2001 from Wheaton College, IL, magna cum laude. In 2006, he received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was an editor for the Virginia Law Review.
Following graduation from law school, Judge McFadden clerked for Judge Steven Colloton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He then joined the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. Judge McFadden subsequently became a partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP in Washington, DC, where he focused on white collar investigations. He is also co-author of a treatise, Corporate Settlement Tools: DPAs, NPAs, and Cooperation Agreements.
After four years in private practice, Judge McFadden returned to the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was Deputy Assistant Attorney General and acted as the second-in-command of the Department's Criminal Division. As Deputy Assistant Attorney General, he managed the Division's Fraud and Appellate Sections.
Judge McFadden also has extensive experience in law enforcement. He served as an officer with the Fairfax County, VA, Police Department and as a deputy sheriff in Madison County, VA.
Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Brett A. Shumate was sworn in as the Civil Division’s 36th Assistant Attorney General on June 11, 2025. He previously served in the Civil Division from 2017 to 2019 as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Federal Programs Branch. Prior to rejoining the Department, Mr. Shumate was a partner at Jones Day in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Shumate clerked for Judge Edith H. Jones on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He graduated from Wake Forest University School of Law and Furman University.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 7, 2025. Alongside Secretary Brooke L. Rollins, Deputy Secretary Vaden leads the Department’s operations and implements policies that support America’s food and farm systems. A native of Union City, Tennessee, Deputy Secretary Vaden brings expertise in agricultural policy, law, and rural development. Previously, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade and as General Counsel of USDA. Throughout Deputy Secretary Vaden’s time as General Counsel, he led successful Supreme Court litigation, advanced regulatory reform, and supported the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Vanderbilt University. A public servant with strong agricultural roots, Deputy Secretary Vaden is committed to revitalizing rural America and ensuring an abundant, affordable, and safe U.S. food supply.
Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Michael Ellis was sworn in as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on February 10, 2025. Deputy Director Ellis has held a variety of senior national security positions, including General Counsel of the National Security Agency and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council.
Deputy Director Ellis previously served in the White House Counsel's Office, providing legal advice on national security and foreign relations. Prior to the White House, he was General Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Before returning to government, Deputy Director Ellis was the General Counsel of Rumble, a publicly traded video sharing platform and cloud services provider.
Deputy Director Ellis is a graduate of Yale Law School and Dartmouth College. Following law school, he served as a clerk to two federal judges. He is a "Jeopardy!" champion.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel
Mohammad “Mo” Jazil is a partner with Holtzman Vogel. His broad litigation practice includes state and federal constitutional cases, financial disputes, environmental disputes, white-collar criminal matters, and government investigations. Mohammad has served as first chair in federal and state court trials. He has briefed and argued dispositive motions and appeals before the federal courts, state appellate courts, and state supreme courts. He has also briefed cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, though he has never argued a case there.
Chambers USA calls Mohammad “a very good thinker,” “fantastic,” and “an excellent litigator.”
Since the summer of 2018, Mohammad has represented two Florida Governors and four Florida Secretaries of State on election-related and redistricting matters before federal and state trial courts, the Florida Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Notably, this work includes wins in nine federal cases related to Florida’s 2018 recounts; the successful defense of Florida’s felon re-enfranchisement program; federal and state-court decisions upholding Florida’s most recent congressional plan; and the defense of various election-related statutes.
Mohammad represents other public officials as well. He has represented two Speakers of the Florida House of Representatives on issues as varied as cannabis regulation and transportation policy. And he has represented Florida’s Surgeon General, members of Florida’s Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, and the head of Florida’s Medicaid agency on health-policy issues.
Finally, Mohammad routinely represents companies and individuals on a variety of issues. This work includes pricing and tax disputes involving some of the country’s largest companies, commercial disputes where he has obtained and collected on eight-figure trial judgments, and criminal proceedings.
David Johnson is a partner at Holtzman Vogel and focuses his practice on political and election law regulatory compliance, appellate law, and state attorneys general investigations and litigation.
Prior to joining the firm, David was Policy Director and General Counsel to the Republican Attorneys General Association, as well as serving as president for the Rule of Law Defense Fund and Center for Law and Policy. In these roles, he worked closely with Republican attorneys general and their staff on developing and advancing policy priorities. He has also worked with President Trump's administration and other leading Republican political and conservative policy organizations with respect to key policy initiatives.
Previously, David was Senior Counsel with the Office of the Indiana Attorney General where he advised the Attorney General on strategy with respect to litigation, communications, complex legal objectives, and policy goals. Prior to joining the Indiana Office of Attorney General, David served as Corporation Counsel for Lawrence, Indiana. In that role, David advised on myriad issues including municipal bonding, human resources, and capital projects. And before that, David served as Deputy General Counsel and Policy Director for Governor Mike Pence, providing strategic counsel to the Governor on litigation, policy, crisis communications, and legislative strategy, as well as guiding policy efforts on gaming issues in Indiana.
He earned his AB from Wabash College, and his JD from the Indiana University McKinney School of Law.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel
Mark Pinkert is a litigation and appellate partner with Holtzman Vogel. He represents clients at every stage of litigation, in state and federal courts around the country. He has extensive experience in constitutional law, administrative law, political law, antitrust, white collar defense, and complex commercial disputes. Additionally, Mark maintains an active practice focused on religious freedom, First Amendment rights, and combatting antisemitism, especially on college campuses.
Mark is a formidable writer and advocate. He has drafted letters, white papers to government agencies, legal memoranda, regulatory comments, complaints, dispositive motions, motions in limine, appellate briefs, and several briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. His incisive and persuasive writing style has helped him earn key victories for his clients. Mark has argued a Daubert motion in a multi-billion-dollar environmental dispute and was recently appointed lead counsel by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to represent an indigent petitioner in a habeas corpus appeal. Mark’s legal commentary has been published in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Times of Israel, Daily Business Review, University of Miami Law Review, and many others.
Mark is also an adept legal strategist, advising some of the largest companies in the world on their most pressing issues. Rather than merely react to problems, he provides holistic thinking and anticipates issues before they arise. He helps clients develop proactive plans of action that mitigate risks, avoid conflict, and reduce costs.
Before joining Holtzman Vogel, Mark worked at a global law firm and clerked for the Honorable Adalberto Jordan (11th Cir.) and the Honorable Roy K. Altman (S.D. Fla.). Clerking at both the trial and appellate levels has given him rare insight into the federal court system and has sharpened his advocacy.
At Yale Law School, Mark was an Articles Editor for the Yale Law Journal and an editor for the Yale Journal of Law & Humanities. He was also a research assistant and taught constitutional law to high school students in New Haven.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC
Brandon Smith is a partner at Holtzman Vogel, based in Tennessee, where he focuses on government investigations, white collar matters, and specialty litigation. A seasoned government leader and legal strategist, Brandon has played a central role in shaping conservative policy and litigation at the highest levels of state government.
Before joining the firm, Brandon served as Chief of Staff and Assistant Solicitor General in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. In that role, he led multi-state litigation, high-profile constitutional challenges, and efforts to counter federal overreach and ESG-related corporate activism. He worked closely with nearly every Republican Attorney General’s Office in the country, coordinating litigation, strategy, and multi-state policy efforts.
Earlier in his career, Brandon served as Executive Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and as Policy Director to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, where he helped drive key legislative and budget initiatives. He also held roles as Deputy Director of the Federalist Society and as an adjunct professor at American University.
Brandon’s career has been defined by a commitment to defending federalism, advancing conservative governance, and shaping legal and policy fights that matter.
Solicitor General, Iowa Office of the Attorney General
Eric Wessan serves as Iowa’s Solicitor General in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. In that
role, Wessan leads Iowa’s litigation before State and federal appellate courts, including the Iowa
and U.S. Supreme Courts. Before that role, Wessan worked on complex commercial litigation at
two large law firms in Chicago. Wessan also served as a law clerk for the Honorable James C.
Ho on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for the Honorable John F. Kness on the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Wessan is a graduate of the University of
Chicago Law School, with honors, and of the University of Chicago.
Counsel, U.S. Chamber Litigation Center
Mariel Brookins attended Wheaton College where she studied economics and theology. After graduation, she worked at PwC as a tax CPA. She attended the University of Michigan Law School. After law school, Mariel clerked for Judge Barrett on the Seventh Circuit and Judge Newsom on the Eleventh Circuit. She currently practices appellate litigation in Washington, D.C.
Litigation Senior Corporate Counsel, Microsoft
Benjamin Diggs is a Litigation Senior Corporate Counsel at Microsoft based in Redmond, Washington.
Previously, he was an Attorney at Hogan Lovells and also held positions at Heller Ehrman, U.S. Department of Justice, California Attorney Group, Athens College, Hellenic American Educational Foundation.
Benjamin received a Doctor of Law degree from Stanford University Law School.
Chief Legal Officer, Cognizant
John Kim has held the title of Chief Legal Officer, Chief Administrative Officer and Corporate Secretary since February 2024. This title change was made to better reflect his responsibilities after previously serving as our Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer and Secretary beginning March 2021. In this role, he leads Cognizant’s legal, company secretary, compliance, corporate security, regulatory, ESG, global real estate, procurement, contract lifecycle risk management and strategic negotiation functions.
John joined Cognizant in November 2019 as Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Global Commercial Contracts. Previously, he served as Global Head of Big Deals at Capgemini, U.S. Counsel for WNS Global Services and General Counsel for Travelport, a leading travel technology company, as well as a number of technology service companies.
John holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Columbia University. He obtained his law degree from Cornell Law School, where he was a member of the Cornell Law Review.
Executive Director of Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center
Michael Richards is the Executive Director of Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC), where he leads the Chamber’s work on artificial intelligence and IT modernization. His portfolio focuses on federal and state policies related to AI, facial recognition, and emerging technologies that impact American businesses. He also manages the AI Policy Working Group, a coalition of more than 100 companies and trade associations, and played a key role in developing the Chamber’s AI policy principles.
Prior to joining the Chamber, Michael served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for Representatives Scott Franklin (FL-15) and Pete Olson (TX-22). In these roles, he led legislative strategy, staffed the House AI Caucus and Victims’ Rights Caucus, and handled the Communications & Technology portfolio on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Michael holds a Master of Public Policy from the Pepperdine School of Public Policy and a Bachelor’s degree from Texas State University.
Associate General Counsel, OpenAI
Michael Trinh is currently Associate General Counsel at OpenAI working on litigation and regulatory matters. He was formerly Head of Litigation Advance at Google where he led a team handling a broad portfolio of litigation strategy, research, amici briefs, and proactive/enforcement litigation across the company’s product areas.
In prior roles over 14 years at Google, Mike managed a group defending patent litigation worldwide, and also served as product counsel at Google X for emerging ‘moonshots’ (innovation projects primarily in developing economies). He guided experimental aviation projects as they evolved from research concept towards market introduction, handling the legal/regulatory issues arising from high altitude balloon-mounted telecommunication networks, drone delivery of burritos, kite-generated electricity, and cargo airships. Before this science fiction, he was Litigation Counsel at Google, managing a team handling a fast-growing docket of 100+ patent litigation cases in courts worldwide.
Previously, he was a technology/IP litigation associate at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe in San Francisco. He also handled national security issues while representing, pro bono, Guantanamo Bay detainees challenging their indefinite incarceration without ever being charged. Mike graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center (2005) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2002, B.S. Comp Sci). While he grew up in Raleigh, NC, he now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and a string cheese-seeking dog (who was once featured in the Financial Times).