The Implications of the FTC's Proposed Ban on Noncompete Agreements
A Regulatory Transparency Project Webinar
In January 2023, the FTC announced a proposed rule that would ban noncompete agreements across...
The Regulatory Transparency Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort dedicated to fostering discussion and a better understanding of regulatory policies.
Corbin K. Barthold, Elyse Dorsey, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Svetlana Gans, Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Rahul Rao, Matthew Sipe, Evan Starr
A Regulatory Transparency Project Webinar
In January 2023, the FTC announced a proposed rule that would ban noncompete agreements across...
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
Last November, the Federal Trade Commission accepted comments on its proposal to start a rulemaking...
A Regulatory Transparency Project Webinar
In November 2022, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S....
A Regulatory Transparency Project Webinar
In November 2022, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S....
On January 5, 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a...
Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy, Department of Justice
Deputy Secretary of Energy
James P. Danly was sworn in as Deputy Secretary on June 9, 2025.
Before arriving at the Department, Deputy Secretary Danly was a partner and the Energy Regulatory Group leader at Skadden in Washington, D.C. This followed his service at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, first as the Commission’s general counsel then as the commissioner and chairman.
Deputy Secretary Danly was an officer in the United States Army. He served two tours in Iraq, receiving a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
A graduate of Yale University, Deputy Secretary Danly earned his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School. He clerked for Judge Danny J. Boggs of the Sixth Circuit.
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
Jesse, the former third-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice, helps clients with their most difficult litigation and regulatory issues─whether that means defending against an enforcement action, pursuing high-stakes litigation and appeals, navigating regulatory thickets at federal and state agencies, or crafting a comprehensive strategy to manage a crisis. He approaches these problems with the knowledge gained both from his broad private-practice experience and from having served at the highest levels of federal and state government.
Jesse has experience across a range of substantive and regulatory areas. He has sued the federal government and has also been one of its top law-enforcement officials; he has represented states and has also navigated their regulatory agencies on behalf of clients; and he has represented companies in business disputes, both as defendants and plaintiffs.
Before joining the firm, Jesse was the Acting Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice. In that role, he oversaw the civil and criminal work of the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions. During Jesse’s tenure, the Associate’s office closely managed the Department’s most significant litigation, including matters involving large financial institutions, healthcare companies, automakers, energy companies, and state and local governments. In addition, Jesse served as Chair of DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force and Vice Chair of DOJ’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. Jesse regularly provided legal and strategic advice to the highest-level decision makers in the federal government, including the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, general counsels across the spectrum of federal agencies, and White House officials.
Jesse served for three years as the secretary of Florida’s labor, economic-development, and land-use agency, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. Before that, he served as Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott’s general counsel.
Jesse maintains offices in both Washington D.C. and Florida. From Washington, he focuses on federal litigation and crisis management. In Florida, in addition to federal litigation, Jesse employs his knowledge of state government and regulation to help clients in courts across the state, from trial through the Florida Supreme Court.
Jesse currently serves on the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, the body that provides the governor with nominees for appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Jesse is also a fellow at the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he writes and speaks about administrative law.
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Daren Bakst is Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment and a Senior Fellow. In this role, he manages, develops, and leads the coalition, advocacy, and research activities of the Center, which is one of the most effective advocates for Free Market Environmentalism.
Before joining CEI as Deputy Director in March, 2023, Daren was a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the Heritage Foundation, where he played a leading role in the launch of the organization’s new energy and environment center, and created and hosted the Heritage Foundation’s energy and environment podcast the “PowerCast.” During his decade at Heritage, Daren wrote about energy and environmental policy, food and agricultural policy (including editing and co-authoring the book Farms and Free Enterprise), regulation, and trade among other topics.
Daren also worked on environmental policy and regulation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he was a policy counsel and served as the executive to the association’s Government Oversight, Operations & Consumer Affairs committee, which was responsible for issues such as regulatory process reform. Daren has significant state level experience, working for seven years at the Raleigh, N.C.-based John Locke Foundation, one of the largest state-based, free-market think tanks. As director of legal and regulatory studies, his broad portfolio included energy and environmental policy, regulatory reform, and property rights.
Daren has testified numerous times before Congress, regularly submits comments to federal agencies and has appeared in or been quoted by a wide range of media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Times, CNN, Fox Business News, Al-Jazeera America, and U.S. News and World Report. He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Executive Committee and serves on the College Level Advisory Board for Constituting America, an organization that informs and educates about the importance of the U.S. Constitution.
Daren, who hails from Florida, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from George Washington University. A licensed attorney, he holds a law degree from the University of Miami and a master of laws degree from American University.
Professor of Law Emeritus; Senior Fellow for Climate Policy, Environmental Law Center, Vermont Law School
Patrick A. Parenteau is Emeritus Professor of Law and Senior Fellow for Climate Policy in the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School. He previously served as Director of the Environmental Law Center and was the founding director of the EAC (formerly the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic) in 2004.
Professor Parenteau has an extensive background in environmental and natural resources law. His previous positions include Vice President for Conservation with the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, DC (1976-1984); Regional Counsel to the New England Regional Office of the EPA in Boston (1984-1987); Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (1987-1989); and Senior Counsel with the Perkins Coie law firm in Portland, Oregon (1989-1993).
Professor Parenteau has been involved in drafting, litigating, implementing, teaching, and writing about environmental law and policy for over three decades. His current focus is on confronting the profound challenges of climate change through his teaching, publishing, public speaking and litigation.
Professor Parenteau is a Fulbright US Scholar and a Fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers. In 2005 he received the National Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Achievement Award in recognition of his contributions to wildlife conservation and environmental education. In 2016 he received the Kerry Rydberg Award for excellence in public interest environmental law.
Professor Parenteau holds a B.S. from Regis University, a J.D. from Creighton University, and an LLM in Environmental Law from the George Washington U.
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Damien Schiff is a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. He leads its environmental practice group, a unique initiative that draws broadly from PLF’s expertise and success in property rights and separation of powers litigation. Over the years, Damien has represented hundreds of landowners and property rights advocates to defend their liberties against heavy-handed and unwarranted environmental and land-use regulation. His litigation experience includes Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a groundbreaking decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of landowners to challenge Clean Water Act compliance orders issued by EPA, and Contoski v. Norton, PLF’s successful effort to force the federal government to make good on its promise to delist the bald eagle from the Endangered Species Act.
Besides litigation, Damien has written academic articles on a variety of subjects, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, greenhouse gas torts, the duty to rescue, and international water law. He has appeared on a variety of television and radio programs and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s Magazine, and The Economist, among other publications.
He obtained his law degree magna cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law, and his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University. While at USD, he was a research assistant for Professor Bernard Siegan, a leading constitutional theorist and advocate for property rights and economic liberty. Immediately prior to joining PLF, Damien clerked for Judge (and former PLF attorney) Victor Wolski of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Damien credits the mentoring and examples of Professor Siegan and Judge Wolski for his decision to pursue a career in liberty-based public interest litigation.
Damien lives in Sacramento with his wife, two young sons, four chickens, and a cat named Princess. In his off hours he enjoys stamp collecting, Gregorian chant, and martinis—preferably at the same time.
Principal, Advantus Strategies, LLC
John Paul Woodley Jr. is currently the Principal of Environmental and Energy Practice Group for Advantus Strategies. From 2003 to 2009, Woodley served as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, supervising the Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Program. Under his leadership, the Corps Wetland Regulatory Program was strengthened. He also oversaw the restoration of the Florida Everglades and the reconstruction of the hurricane protection system for New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
Woodley also served as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Environment, where he was responsible for policy and oversight of the Defense Department’s environmental cleanup, compliance, pollution prevention and natural resource management.
He has also served as Secretary of Natural Resources for Virginia, where he was responsible for environmental protection and for permitting, outdoor recreation, open space management, inland and marine fisheries and historic resources in the Commonwealth.
Woodley served on active duty with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps from 1979 to 1985, and retired from the Army Reserve in August 2003 as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Woodley has been awarded the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal (2nd Oak Leaf Cluster), the Army Commendation Medal (1st Oak Leaf Cluster), and the Army Achievement Medal. He has been honored with the U. S. Army Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service and the Silver de Fleury Medal from the Army Engineer Regiment.
Senior Fellow and Director of Finance Policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute
John Berlau is a senior fellow and Director of Finance Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. His work focuses on how public policy affects access to capital, entrepreneurship, and investments made by the public and business community alike. In recent years, he has studied the consequences of financial reform efforts passed by Congress like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis including the Dodd-Frank Act, the placement of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship, and the rise of cryptocurrency.
He is also the author of the book George Washington: Entrepreneur: How Our Founding Father’s Private Business Pursuits Changed America and the World. The book received rave reviews in the Wall Street Journal and other forums, and was endorsed by eminent historians and scholars such as Richard Brookhiser, Amity Shlaes, and Craig Shirley.
Berlau is a contributing writer for Forbes. His work has been published and cited in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Bloomberg News, The Atlantic, Politico, Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Investor’s Business Daily, National Journal, National Review, American Spectator, Reason Magazine, and more. He is a frequent guest on radio and television programs, including CNBC’s “The Call,” “Power Lunch” and “Closing Bell,” Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” and “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” and Fox Business’ “Cavuto.”
He has testified on the impact of financial regulation before the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. A recognized expert on the phenomenon of crowdfunding, Berlau has spoken at prominent conferences such as South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, the FinTech Global Expo in San Diego, the CFGE Crowdfund Banking and Lending Summit in San Francisco and the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA) Summit in Washington, D.C. He is also author of the widely cited paper “Declaration of Crowdfunding Independence: Finance of the People, by the People, and for the People.”
Berlau is an award-winning financial and political journalist. He served as Washington correspondent for Investor’s Business Daily and as a staff writer for Insight magazine, published by The Washington Times. In 2002, he received the Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism from Washington’s National Press Club. He was a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in 2003. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1994 with degrees in journalism and economics.
Executive Vice President & Co-Head of Regulatory Affairs, Bank Policy Institute
Tabitha Edgens is Executive Vice President & Co-Head of Regulatory Affairs, for the Bank Policy Institute.
Ms. Edgens was previously Counselor to the Deputy Chief Counsels and Special Counsel at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. In that role, she advised OCC senior leadership on critical bank regulatory issues including national bank digital asset activities, licensing decisions and supervisory matters. She played a leading role in drafting OCC interpretations on the permissibility of national bank digital asset activities as well as the 2019 and 2020 interagency revisions to the Volcker rule. From 2020-2021, Tabitha was detailed to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of the General Counsel, Banking and Finance, where she advised policymakers on small business pandemic relief programs. Prior to the OCC, Ms. Edgens was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton where she focused on bank regulatory matters. Before her legal career, Tabitha served as an aide to U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu.
Tabitha is a graduate of Yale Law School and Tulane University and is a member of the bar in New York and Washington D.C.
Washington Bureau Chief, American Banker
John Heltman is the Washington Bureau Chief for American Banker, leading coverage of federal bank regulators, monetary policy and Capitol Hill.
John, a Washington native living in Baltimore, joined American Banker as a Federal Reserve and Treasury reporter in 2014, launching longform narrative podcast Bankshot in 2019 and running American Banker Magazine from 2021 until 2022. He has received numerous professional awards from the Society for the Advancement of Business Editor and Writers, the American Society of Business Publication Editors and the Jesse H. Neal awards. John won the Grand Neal in 2019 for his podcast "Nobody's Home," which examined the causes and effects of concentrated vacant housing.
John joined American Banker from Argus Media, where he covered the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as the agency was implementing its Dodd-Frank reforms to the commodity and derivatives markets. Prior to that, John covered environmental policy for Inside Washington Publishers from 2008 until 2012.
Senior Counsel, Corporate Engagement Team, Alliance Defending Freedom
Brian Knight serves as senior counsel on the Corporate Engagement Team. His work focuses on issues of financial access, debanking, and preventing the power of the private sector from being weaponized against people of faith by both public and private actors.
Prior to joining ADF, Knight spent almost nine years at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, as both a senior research fellow and as a program director. In addition to managing a team of scholars, Knight’s research focused on financial regulation and the politicization of financial services. His research helped inform legislation and regulation at the federal and state level. He was also the lead author for two amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of National Rifle Association v. Vullo.
Before joining Mercatus, Knight worked at the Milken Institute, where he focused on financial technology. He was also an entrepreneur, co-founding a firm focused on compliance for crowdfunding.
Knight earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary.
Internet Policy Counsel and Director of Appellate Litigation, TechFreedom
Corbin Barthold is TechFreedom's Internet Policy Counsel and Director of Appellate Litigation.
Corbin clerked for the Hon. Steven D. Merryday (M.D. Fla.) and the Hon. Robert H. Cleland (E.D. Mich.). After his clerkships, he became an associate, and later a partner, in the Los Angeles office of Browne George Ross LLP, where he engaged in high-stakes complex litigation. He then served as Senior Litigation Counsel at Washington Legal Foundation, a D.C. public-interest firm, where his practice focused on appeals involving administrative law, the separation of powers, antitrust, and tech policy.
Corbin received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He also holds a B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, San Diego, and an Msc., with distinction, from the London School of Economics.
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Elyse Dorsey is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Elyse's practice encompasses a wide array of antitrust and competition matters across the globe. She is uniquely situated to advise clients in domestic and international competition matters, given her combination of government and private practice experience.
Elyse has a focus in cutting edge competition issues, as well as privacy, data security, and consumer protection matters. She has represented clients across levels of government, from state agencies to the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to joining Kirkland, Elyse served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. Her work at the Antitrust Division covered a spectrum of legal and policy matters, including IP and technology issues, the Division's appellate and amicus brief programs, and its international and competition policy efforts. Elyse joined the Division from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, where she served as Attorney Advisor to Commission Noah Joshua Phillips. While at the Commission, she advised on key cases, matters, and policies affecting industries across the economy--from digital and tech to pharmaceuticals and hospitals and more.
Elyse is a recognized thought leader in the antitrust and competition communities. She has been a frequent nominee and recipient of antitrust writing awards for her scholarship in this space. She has also served as an adjunct professor at George Mason University's Scalia Law School for several years, helping to launch their Antitrust LL.M. program; and she previously served as a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia.
Director, Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and The Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy, The Heritage Foundation
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment and the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy at The Heritage Foundation. She is an Oxford-educated economist, a frequent guest on TV and radio shows, and a columnist for Forbes.
Diana worked in senior roles in the White House under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. She has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation; Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury; Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor; Chief of Staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers; and Deputy Executive Secretary of the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Diana is the author or coauthor of six books and hundreds of articles on economic policy, including Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies are Destroying America's Economy (Encounter Books, 2012). Her most recent book is United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality (Oxford University Press, 2021). She received degrees in economics from Swarthmore College and Oxford University.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
Svetlana S. Gans is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP where she helps clients navigate complex consumer protection, privacy, and competition related regulatory proceedings before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), , U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, State Attorneys General and other enforcement bodies. Ms. Gans also assists on litigation matters and provides strategic counseling and advice related to public policy issues.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, she served as the Vice President & Associate General Counsel at NCTA, the Internet & Television Association, where she helped lead the association’s consumer protection and competition policy work. Prior to joining NCTA, Ms. Gans served with distinction as Chief of Staff to Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen at the FTC. As the agency chief of staff, Ms. Gans managed and oversaw agency operations, including bureau and office heads reporting to the Chairman, a seven-member office staff, and an agency budget of over $300 million. She also served as the Acting Chairman’s key advisor on consumer protection and competition investigations and litigation, working with a diverse team of attorneys and economists to preserve competition and protect U.S. consumers. She created, executed, and oversaw several strategic initiatives for the agency, including the agency process reform, regulatory reform, and data security transparency initiatives. Previously, Ms. Gans had the unique experience of serving in both litigating bureaus of the FTC: the Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Prior to her time in government, Ms. Gans worked as an antitrust associate at major law firms. Her practice focused on defending consumer product, financial services, and trade association clients in regulatory and private investigations alleging conspiracy and violations of antitrust and consumer protection laws.
Ms. Gans has been an active leader in the ABA Antitrust Law Section (“Section”) for two decades, and currently serves as the Section’s Marketing Officer. Ms. Gans helped create the Section’s Young Lawyer Representative Program, now in its 10th year, and the Section’s Law Ambassador Program, each aimed at developing and promoting the next generation of consumer protection and competition attorneys. Ms. Gans is also active in the Federal Communications Bar Association, currently serving as Co-Chair of the Diversity Pipeline Initiative and the Women’s Leadership Committee.
Ms. Gans received her law degree with high honors from the University of Denver College of Law. During law school, Ms. Gans served as a Judicial Intern to the Honorable John L. Kane, Jr. and as an Honors Program Paralegal for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Merger Taskforce. Ms. Gans earned her undergraduate degree cum laude from Boston University.
Senior Fellow and Academic Director, Penn Carey Law School
Gus Hurwitz is a Senior Fellow and the Academic Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where he is working to develop academic and scholarly programs at the intersecution of law, technology, and policy.
He is also Director of Law & Economics Programs at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), a think tank based in Portland, Oregon, where he directs its law and economics-focused research program and helps to translate academic research into applied policy issues.
Hurwitz's research focuses on the regulation of technology, including administrative and regulatory law, antitrust law, torts and products liability, and media law - alongside cognate fields. Inrecent years he has worked on an AI standardization initiative with Seoul National University, a UNICEF-organized study of broadband deployment to public schools in Rwanda, and a book on conglomerate and ecosystems theories of antitrust.
He has published over 30 articles and book chapters, two books (one on cybersecurity law & policy, one on media regulation in the digital era) and have two more in process, over 100 shorter writings (op-eds, shorter analyses, blog posts, &c), hosted over 100 podcast episodes, and regularly appear or am quoted in popular media (including the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Associated Press). His work has been cited by legislators, federal courts of appeals, and federal regulatory agencies.
He was previously a full professor and founding director of the Governance & Technology Center at the University of Nebraska, prior to which he was the inaugural research fellow at the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition (CTIC). From 2007 to 2010, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in the Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section.
He also is, or has been, affiliated with the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University School of Law, the National Security Institute at George Mason University, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Before attending law school, Hurwitz worked at Los Alamos National Lab and interned at the Naval Research Lab. During this time his work was recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Los Alamos National Lab, IEEE & ACM, Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, R&D Magazine, and even the Guinness Book of World Records.
A current list of Hurwitz’s publications is available on his website: GusHurwitz.net.
Antitrust Partner, White & Case
Rahul Rao is a partner in the Global Antitrust Practice at White & Case and the former Deputy Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition. He advises clients on merger clearance, government investigations, antitrust litigation, and regulatory strategy, with particular depth in healthcare, life sciences, private equity, retail, and labor markets.
At the FTC, Rahul led major merger and conduct investigations, supervised enforcement in critical sectors, and helped shape landmark policy initiatives, including the revised Merger Guidelines and the Commission’s noncompete rulemaking. Earlier, he helped establish the Washington State Attorney General’s Antitrust Division as a national leader in labor market competition enforcement.
Having served on both the federal and state enforcement front lines, Rahul brings clients a unique understanding of agency priorities, risk profiles, and strategies for navigating today’s increasingly dynamic antitrust environment.
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Baltimore
Matthew Sipe is an assistant professor of law. He joined the faculty in 2020 and teaches Civil Procedure, Antitrust, Property, and Introduction to Lawyering Skills.
His research focuses on the relationship among law, innovation and ownership. His work has been published in academic journals such as the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, and the American University Law Review.
Prior to joining the faculty, Sipe taught at George Washington University Law School as the Frank H. Marks Visiting Associate Professor in Intellectual Property. His previous position was at the U.S. Supreme Court, serving an appointment as a Supreme Court Fellow.
Sipe received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an editor and author for the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Journal on Regulation. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Kathleen O'Malley, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and Judge Samuel Mays, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics and economics from the University of Virginia, where he was honored with residency on the Lawn.
Associate Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Evan Starr is an Assistant Professor of Management & Organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree from Denison University. He originally hails from Claremont, California. Starr's current research examines issues at the intersection of human capital accumulation, employee mobility, entrepreneurship, and innovation. In a recent set of projects utilizing employee-employer matched data and survey data that he and coauthors developed, Starr examined the use and impacts of noncompete agreements and their enforceability on the provision of firm-sponsored training, employee mobility and earnings, and on the creation, growth, and survival of new ventures.
Executive Director, Committee for Justice
Ashley Baker serves as Executive Director at the Committee for Justice. Her focus areas include the Supreme Court, regulatory policy, antitrust, and judicial nominations. Her writing has appeared in Fox News, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Hill, RealClearPolitics, The American Spectator, and elsewhere. Ashley is also the founder of the recently-formed Alliance on Antitrust coalition. She has testified before the United States Senate on the topic of antitrust law.
Ashley is an active member of the Federalist Society, where she serves as a member of the Regulatory Transparency Project's Antitrust & Consumer Protection and Cyber & Privacy working groups. As a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, she has served as a speaker on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.
As an expert on the judicial nominations process, Ashley worked closely on the efforts to confirm Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.
Much of Ashley’s work is at the intersection of the courts, regulation, and technology. Ashley also engages in policy analysis and outreach on legislation and regulations related to these issues by writing op-eds, letters to Congress for committee hearings, and regulatory comments.
Head of AI Policy, Abundance Institute
Neil Chilson is the Head of AI Policy at the Abundance Institute. Prior to this position, he served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity. Chilson is a lawyer, computer scientist, and author of the book “Getting Out of Control: Emergent Leadership in a Complex World.”
Chilson was previously the senior research fellow for Technology and Innovation at Stand Together, where he guided efforts to understand and promote the legal and cultural paradigms that best enable people to discover, innovate, and improve all our lives.
Before Stand Together, Chilson was the Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, where he focused on the economics of privacy and blockchain-related issues. Previously, he was an attorney advisor to Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen. In both roles he advised Chairman Ohlhausen and worked with staff on nearly every major technology-related case, report, workshop, or other FTC proceeding since January 2014. Neil joined the FTC from telecom firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer. Neil is frequently quoted by the press and his work has appeared in numerous news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USAToday, and Newsweek. Neil has a J.D. from The George Washington Law School, a M.S. in computer science from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a B.S. in computer science from Harding University.
Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erik Baptist serves as senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, focusing on administrative litigation and regulatory advocacy.
Before joining ADF, Baptist was a partner at Wiley Rein LLP—one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C.—where he employed his expertise in administrative and environmental law to represent clients on litigation, regulatory, and enforcement matters.
Prior to working at Wiley, Baptist served as a senior executive service appointee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As the senior deputy general counsel and deputy assistant administrator, he directed EPA’s litigation, implemented groundbreaking rulemakings and policies, represented EPA and defended witnesses in response to congressional inquiries, and collectively helped oversee the work of more than 1,100 EPA lawyers, scientists, and staff.
Baptist began his career in the Trial Department of the international law firm McDermott, Will & Emery LLP. He earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. During law school, Baptist externed for the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, interned for the Honorable Eric T. Washington of the D.C. Court of Appeals, and served on The George Washington International Law Review.
Baptist is an active member of the D.C. Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal courts of appeal.
Faculty Fellow, Center for Law, Science & Innovation, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Dr. Klein is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is also Principal at Roger D. Klein, MD JD Consulting and Klein & Klein Co., L.P.A. He was formerly Chief Medical Officer at OmniSeq, an oncology focused genomic profiling company that was recently acquired by LabCorp. Previously, Roger was the Medical Director at the Molecular Oncology division at the Cleveland Clinic. He was also the Chair of the Professional Relations Committee at the Association for Molecular Pathology. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic, he served as Medical Director of Molecular Oncology at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin where he led the center’s Diagnostic Laboratories’ initiative focused on DNA- and RNA-based testing for evaluation of cancer patients.
Dr. Klein has been an advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He has participated in and assumed leadership roles in many professional society committees and corporate advisory boards and is a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute.
Dr. Klein is licensed to practice medicine in Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. Additionally, he is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and Ohio. Roger obtained his Molecular Genetic Pathology certification at Mayo Medical School following completion of his M.D. Yale University School of Medicine. He obtained his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erik Baptist serves as senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, focusing on administrative litigation and regulatory advocacy.
Before joining ADF, Baptist was a partner at Wiley Rein LLP—one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C.—where he employed his expertise in administrative and environmental law to represent clients on litigation, regulatory, and enforcement matters.
Prior to working at Wiley, Baptist served as a senior executive service appointee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As the senior deputy general counsel and deputy assistant administrator, he directed EPA’s litigation, implemented groundbreaking rulemakings and policies, represented EPA and defended witnesses in response to congressional inquiries, and collectively helped oversee the work of more than 1,100 EPA lawyers, scientists, and staff.
Baptist began his career in the Trial Department of the international law firm McDermott, Will & Emery LLP. He earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. During law school, Baptist externed for the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, interned for the Honorable Eric T. Washington of the D.C. Court of Appeals, and served on The George Washington International Law Review.
Baptist is an active member of the D.C. Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal courts of appeal.
Faculty Fellow, Center for Law, Science & Innovation, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Dr. Klein is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is also Principal at Roger D. Klein, MD JD Consulting and Klein & Klein Co., L.P.A. He was formerly Chief Medical Officer at OmniSeq, an oncology focused genomic profiling company that was recently acquired by LabCorp. Previously, Roger was the Medical Director at the Molecular Oncology division at the Cleveland Clinic. He was also the Chair of the Professional Relations Committee at the Association for Molecular Pathology. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic, he served as Medical Director of Molecular Oncology at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin where he led the center’s Diagnostic Laboratories’ initiative focused on DNA- and RNA-based testing for evaluation of cancer patients.
Dr. Klein has been an advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He has participated in and assumed leadership roles in many professional society committees and corporate advisory boards and is a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute.
Dr. Klein is licensed to practice medicine in Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. Additionally, he is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and Ohio. Roger obtained his Molecular Genetic Pathology certification at Mayo Medical School following completion of his M.D. Yale University School of Medicine. He obtained his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Rachel N. Morrison is an attorney and Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project. Her legal and policy work focuses on religious liberty, health care rights of conscience, the right to life, nondiscrimination, and civil rights.
Before joining EPPC, Ms. Morrison served as an Attorney Advisor and Special Assistant to General Counsel Sharon Fast Gustafson at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she focused on religious discrimination issues and was a member of the General Counsel’s Religious Discrimination Work Group. Before that, she served as Litigation Counsel for Americans United for Life and as a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, defending the right to life and religious freedom for all. She also clerked on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Ms. Morrison’s legal analysis has been published in the Seton Hall Law Review, the Pepperdine Law Review, and the Ave Maria Law Review, as well as various other print media outlets.
Ms. Morrison earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the Pepperdine University School of Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as an editor for the Pepperdine Law Review and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. She received her B.A. in Mathematics and Speech Communication, summa cum laude, from Whitworth University (Spokane, WA). She is a member of the District of Columbia and the Washington State bars.
Ms. Morrison lives with her husband and daughter in Virginia.