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.
Fellow, Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society, Stanford University
Scott Astrada is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society.
Scott is a senior policy executive, based in Washington DC. Scott has testified before both U.S. House and Senate Committees on financial technology policy, small dollar lending regulation, consumer financial protection law and policy, and retirement security. Scott has provided commentary for national media outlets such as American Banker, CBS, Politico, the Atlantic, NPR, and on-camera breaking news interviews. Scott also is an adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Scott has previously worked as an economic policy advisor for the U.S. Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Center under former Minority Leader Senator Harry Reid and previous Chairman Senator Chuck Schumer. Prior to the Senate, Scott was an attorney in the Obama Administration at the White House Office of Management and Budget, Office of General Counsel. Before joining OMB, Scott was a legislative fellow, completing his placements on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and then at the National Council of La Raza.
Scott has also published academic and peer reviewed articles on race, law & society, and political economy in journals such as the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law & Social Change, University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class, and the Georgetown Public Policy Review. Scott has also been a panelist or presenter at conferences hosted by Netroots Nation, The United States Chamber of Commerce, the Financial Times and the Atlantic Magazine. Scott has been awarded previous fellowships by New Leaders Council, The Bryce Harlow Foundation, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
Scott received his BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his JD and MBA from Marquette University, and his LLM from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Associate Director, Center for Financial Markets, Milken Institute
Jackson Mueller is an associate director at the Milken Institute’s Center for Financial Markets. He focuses on FinTech, capital formation policy, and financial markets education initiatives. Prior to joining the Institute, Mueller was an assistant vice president at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), where he focused on a broad range of financial services-related policies, provided legislative and regulatory updates to executive-level government relations staff, and conducted analysis of key issues relevant to SIFMA’s members. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Richmond and a master’s degree in public policy from American University. He works at the Institute’s Washington office.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, Vice President and Regulatory Counsel
Kate Prochaska is Senior Counsel and Director, Regulatory Policy at Discover Financial Services. Prior to joining Discover, she served as Vice President & Regulatory Counsel, Center for Capital Market Competitiveness at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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.
US & Mexico Assurance Leader and Vice Chair, PwC
Wesley “Wes” Bricker is a Vice Chair and PwC’s Assurance Leader for the US and Mexico. In this capacity, Wes’ responsibilities encompass audit quality, business development and portfolio strategy, human capital, diversity, innovation, and technology.
Prior to joining PwC US, Wes served as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Chief Accountant beginning in 2016, after serving as the deputy chief accountant following a role as a professional accounting fellow. In his role as the SEC’s Chief Accountant, Wes was the principal advisor to the Commission on accounting and auditing matters, and led the Commission’s Office of the Chief Accountant, a group of professionals widely regarded for advancing the quality of accountancy and financial reporting oversight in the capital markets in the US and internationally. He was also responsible for assisting the Commission with discharging its oversight of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and served as chair for the Monitoring Group, a group of regulatory and international financial organizations committed to advancing the public interest in international audit standard setting and audit quality.
Wes returns to PwC where he previously served clients in the banking, capital markets, financial technology, and investment management sectors, and served as a member of the firm’s National Quality Organization.
Wes received a BS in accounting from Elizabethtown College and a JD from American University. He is licensed as a certified public accountant and is a member of the New York State Bar Association.
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.
Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Associate Professor of Law J.W. Verret joined the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University faculty in 2008. In 2013, he took leave for two years to serve as the Chief Economist and Senior Counsel for the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. He received his JD and MA in Public Policy from Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, respectively, in 2006. While in law school, Professor Verret served an Olin Fellowship in Law and Economics at the Harvard Program on Corporate Governance under the guidance of Prof. Lucian Bebchuk.
Professor Verret then served as a law clerk for Vice-Chancellor John W. Noble of the Delaware Court of Chancery. Prior to joining the faculty at Scalia Law, Professor Verret was an associate in the SEC Enforcement Defense Practice Group at Skadden, Arps in Washington, D.C. He has written extensively on corporate law topics, including Delaware's Guidance, co-written with Chief Justice Myron T. Steele of the Delaware Supreme Court. His academic work has been featured in the Yale Journal on Regulation, The Business Lawyer, the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, and the Virginia Law and Business Review. Professor Verret was selected by the Northwestern Law School Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth for a 2009-2010 Searle-Kaufmann Research Fellowship.
Professor Verret is also a Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center Working Group on Financial Markets, where he regularly briefs Congressional staff, members of Congress, SEC Commissioners and other financial regulatory agencies on financial regulation topics. He also directs the Corporate Federalism Initiative, where he obtains research grants for a network of students and faculty scholars who study the division between states and the federal government as sources of corporate law. Professor Verret has been invited to testify before various House and Senate Committees four times during the financial crisis of 2009 regarding all of the central provisions of the Obama Administration's 2009 financial regulatory reform proposals. For a full list of Professor Verret's C-Span appearances, including testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, see http://www.c-spanvideo.org/jwverret.
Professor Verret has been an invited panelist for various television appearances, including an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Professor Verret has been quoted in various media on financial regulation and corporate law topics, including the New York Times, CNN Money, the CNN Political Ticker, CNBC, ABC News, Investor's Business Daily, ESPN.com, The American Banker, The American Lawyer, The Huffington Post, CBS.com, and AP News. Professor Verret's op-eds have been featured in Forbes, The Chicago Tribune, The Orange County Register, and The Wall Street Journal. Professor Verret is also a regular guest contributor to three of the most noted corporate law and financial regulation law blogs: the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation Forum, Deallawyers.com, and The Conglomerate.
Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Franklin Turner is a Partner and Co-Leader of the Government Contracts & Export Controls Practice Group. He is an innovative business lawyer with significant experience resolving complex government contracts issues for a broad array of companies – ranging from multinational Fortune 100 corporations to mid‑market and small businesses. Mr. Turner routinely represents clients in the aerospace, defense, information technology, health care and industrial supply sectors.
Mr. Turner’s multifaceted practice includes assisting companies with comprehensive claims for payment, prosecuting and defending bid protests, counseling companies regarding small business regulations and related issues, conducting internal investigations to ensure his clients’ compliance with federal procurement regulations and related statutes, preparing and submitting mandatory and voluntary disclosures, counseling prime contractors and subcontractors regarding disputes, defending companies against False Claims Act allegations, counseling companies regarding issues of cost allowability, allocability and reasonableness, designing and implementing comprehensive regulatory compliance programs, and assisting government contractors in connection with mergers and acquisitions due diligence.
Mr. Turner is a prolific author and lecturer and is routinely called upon by national and international news organizations to offer his insight regarding developments in the federal procurement industry.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Turner has represented clients in connection with disputes involving a multitude of federal government entities, including the: General Services Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Navy, Department of the Air Force, Department of the Army, Department of State, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior, Department of the Coast Guard, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Defense Information Systems Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, United States Postal Service, Defense Contract Audit Agency and Defense Contract Management Agency.
Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Alexander Major is a partner and co-leader of the firm’s Government Contracts & Export Controls Practice Group. Mr. Major focuses his practice on federal procurement, cybersecurity liability and risk management, and litigation. A prolific author and thought leader in the area of cybersecurity, his professional experience involves a wide variety of litigation and counseling matters dealing with procurement laws and federal regulations and standards. His diverse experience includes complex litigation in federal court under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act and bid protest actions. He counsels all sizes of companies on issues relating to compliance with government regulations including, among other things, cybersecurity (NIST, FIPS, FedRAMP, and DFARS) requirements, multiple award schedule compliance, Section 508 issues, country of origin requirements under the Buy American and Trade Agreements Acts, cost accounting, and small business requirements. He also regularly conducts internal investigations to assist companies ensure that they are in full compliance with the law.
Mr. Major is a contributing author to Computer Software Protection-Liability-Law-Forms, “Chapter 21 - Cloud Computing” (Thomson Reuters), 2018-present. He was also a founding editor and contributing author to the Cloud Computing Legal Deskbook (Thomson Reuters), an annual publication addressing cloud computing issues and solutions for commercial and government end users and suppliers.
Mr. Major is a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who most recently served as a U.S. Air Force Academy Admissions Liaison Officer for the state of Maryland in the Air Force Reserves.
Mr. Major has experience handling commercial and government contract compliance and litigation matters, including cases involving False Claims Act, fraud, embezzlement, and RICO. Mr. Major has also managed complex electronic discovery and pre-trial civil matters on behalf of Fortune 500 companies and individuals in diverse state and federal civil and criminal proceedings.
Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Daniel Kelly brings over thirty years of experience to the firm’s government contracts group. His practice combines both counseling and acting as an advocate on behalf of clients doing business in the government marketplace. Dan has knowledge of the government contracting process both on a federal and state level, and the specific laws, regulations, contract clauses and dispute resolution mechanisms in this specialized area. He provides advice and guidance to clients who are in the government supply chain, either as prime contractors, subcontractors or vendors. He reviews government solicitations with clients, prepares proposals, and negotiates teaming arrangements and subcontracts with other suppliers. He helps clients build and enhance their compliance programs. He assists clients in protecting their intellectual property and proprietary information concerning their businesses when doing business with the government. He advocates for clients who wrongfully were passed over for a contract award. He prepares claims arising under government contracts as a result of change orders, delays, and terminations for default or convenience. Dan’s practice extends to a broad spectrum of industries and federal and state authorities for whom they supply research, products and services, including emerging and established biomedical, intelligence, pharma, security, and textile R&D, manufacturing and production houses working under prime and subcontracts, SBIRs, CRADAs, OTAs, and grants for DoD and civilian agencies; Medicare and Medicaid audit and investigation service providers; commercial software developers who modify their software for military applications; professional services providers; and raw materials and component suppliers to large military prime contractors.
Dan is the author of the August 2018 edition Thomson Reuters’ Briefing Papers, which provides a comprehensive review of patent rights under “Other Transaction Agreements” (OTAs) with DoD and NASA. Heavily promoted by Congress, and only partially understood by industry, OTAs are quickly becoming DoD’s and NASA’s contractual vehicle of choice to lure commercial companies to sell the Government their latest and greatest technologies. However, OTAs are not governed by standard government contracts laws and regulations, meaning there are significant changes to the common provisions of ownership and license rights incident to government contracts and grants. The Briefing Paper should be required reading before entities enter into an OTA as a vehicle for developing new technologies for NASA and DoD to ensure their company’s intellectual property efforts are properly protected
In the matters, AdvanceMed Corporation, B-415360,B-415360.2,B-415360.3 (Dec 19, 2017), and AdvanceMed Corporation, B-414373.3 (Jan 10, 2018) Dan and the Government Contracts team at McCarter successfully defended its client Health Integrity, LLC (now Qlarant) against protests launched at the Government Accountability Office challenging awards by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Medicare and Medicaid audit and program integrity services.
Dan serves on the Board of Directors for NCMA Boston (National Contract Management Association) and NDIA New England (National Defense Industrial Association), and is a frequent speaker at NCMA and NDIA events.
Dan serves as an adjunct member of the faculty at Suffolk University Law School where he has taught Government Contracts.
Dan receives Mentor of the Year Award in recognition of his contributions and support to NCMA Boston Chapter’s 2017-2018 Program Year.
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Bruce J. Sarchet has focused his entire legal career on the representation of management in labor and employment law matters and has particular expertise in issues involving:
He regularly appears in state and federal courts and before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on matters involving:
With energy, enthusiasm, and intense focus, Bruce provides clients with superior quality work and exceptional client service and has earned a reputation as a hands-on problem solver. He provides consultation and representation to large, medium and small businesses across California in a variety of industries, including food and beverage, healthcare, transportation, technology, and construction. He also represents public sector employers. He crafts practical, real world solutions to workplace problems such as dealing with difficult employees and recognizing and balancing business realities and necessities with the need to minimize exposure to litigation.
For unionized employers, Bruce frequently serves as chief spokesperson in collective bargaining negotiations and provides representation in grievances and arbitration hearings. He also represents employers during union organizing drives and unfair labor practice charges under the National Labor Relations Act.
An animated, effective and entertaining public speaker, Bruce regularly makes presentations to local professional organizations on labor and employment law topics and has also presented numerous in-house training sessions and workshops to management teams at private and public employers. Bruce has published numerous articles for local business journals, providing practical, hands-on labor and employment law advice to small business owners.
From 2005 to 2013, Bruce served on the firm's five-attorney Management Committee, which handles the firm's operations. In this capacity, he oversaw thirteen Littler offices in seven states. Prior to his selection to the Management Committee, he served as the office-managing shareholder for the firm's Sacramento office and served several terms as a member of the firm's Board of Directors.
Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
Paul S. Atkins was sworn into office as the 34th Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 21, 2025, after being nominated by President Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 9, 2025.
Prior to returning to the SEC, Chairman Atkins was most recently chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, a company he founded in 2009. Chairman Atkins helped lead efforts to develop best practices for the digital asset sector. He served as an independent director and non-executive chairman of the board of BATS Global Markets, Inc. from 2012 to 2015.
Chairman Atkins was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a Commissioner of the SEC from 2002 to 2008. During his tenure, he advocated for transparency, consistency, and the use of cost-benefit analysis at the agency. Chairman Atkins also represented the SEC at meetings of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets and the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council. From 2009 to 2010, he was appointed a member of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Before serving as an SEC Commissioner, Chairman Atkins was a consultant on securities and investment management industry matters, especially regarding issues of strategy, regulatory compliance, risk management, new product development, and organizational control.
From 1990 to 1994, Chairman Atkins served on the staff of two chairmen of the SEC, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt, ultimately as chief of staff and counselor, respectively. He received the SEC’s 1992 Law and Policy Award for work regarding corporate governance matters.
Chairman Atkins began his career as a lawyer in New York, focusing on a wide range of corporate transactions for U.S. and foreign clients, including public and private securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions. He was resident for 2½ years in his firm's Paris office and admitted as conseil juridique in France.
A member of the New York and Florida bars, Chairman Atkins received his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1983 and was Senior Student Writing Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He received his A.B., Phi Beta Kappa, from Wofford College in 1980.
Originally from Lillington, North Carolina, Chairman Atkins grew up in Tampa, Florida. He and his wife Sarah have three sons.
Senior Counsel, Willkie Farr & Gallagher
Barry P. Barbash is senior counsel in the firm’s Asset Management Group and has been a practitioner in the asset management area for over 35 years. He combines deep private practice experience with extensive knowledge of the regulation of the asset management business, having, among other things, served from September 1993 until October 1998, as the Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management.
Barry has a diverse practice covering all aspects of the asset management business. He regularly advises investment managers and fiduciaries, independent directors and trustees, and mutual fund, exchange-traded fund, hedge fund, private equity fund and venture capital fund clients on a variety of transactional, compliance and regulatory matters. His areas of experience include investment adviser operations, compliance procedures and policies and fund governance matters. He regularly represents buyers and sellers in asset management merger and acquisition transactions and restructurings and advises asset managers of all types in connection with administrative and court actions brought by securities regulators. He has particular experience dealing with “status” issues arising under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Investment Company Act of 1940. He has, in addition to serving as the Director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, held staff attorney positions with the Division of Investment Management and the Plan Benefits Security Division of the Office of the Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor, which has responsibility for the administration of the fiduciary responsibility provisions of the U.S. federal employee benefit plans law. His practice has been focused on investment advisers, fiduciaries and securities regulation since 1978.
Andrew J. Donohue, widely known as Buddy Donohue, has over 40 years of experience in both senior government and private sector roles, having recently served as SEC Chief of Staff to Chair Mary Jo White (2015-2017). He is best known for his service as Director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management (2006-2010) (where he was effectively the most senior regulator for the U.S. funds industry). Buddy was most recently at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP (2017-2019) and also served as Global General Counsel at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (2003-2006), Executive Vice President and General Counsel at OppenheimerFunds Inc. (1991 – 2001) and Investment Company General Counsel at Goldman Sachs (2012-2015).
Buddy is currently an independent Director of certain BNY Mellon Funds (2019 to present) and has been an officer, director and counsel for numerous investment advisers, broker-dealers, commodity trading advisors, transfer agents and insurance companies. He also has served on the boards of business development companies, registered open-end funds, closed-end funds, exchange-traded funds, Cayman funds and Dublin-based and Luxembourg-based UCITS. He has served as Chairman of the ABA Investment Companies and Investment Advisers Subcommittee, and as an Editor of the ABA Guide for Fund Directors. He also sits on the Board of the Mutual Funds Directors Forum (2018 to present).
Buddy is an acknowledged and highly respected thought leader within the industry, having published, lectured and delivered talks on a variety of investment fund topics. He currently is also an Adjunct Professor teaching investment management law at Brooklyn Law School.
Partner, Eversheds Sutherland
Brian Rubin is the Washington office leader of the Eversheds Sutherland (US) Litigation group and the head of the firm’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and state securities enforcement practice. With more than 20 years of experience in federal securities law, first prosecuting and now defending, Brian represents clients being examined, investigated and prosecuted by the SEC, FINRA, other self-regulatory organizations and states. As former NASD (now FINRA) Deputy Chief Counsel of Enforcement and Senior Enforcement Counsel at the SEC, he brings an insider’s perspective to defending broker-dealers, investment advisers, investment companies, public companies and individuals in examinations, investigations, enforcement proceedings, litigation, arbitrations and in counseling.
Managing Director, Econ One
Hal Singer is an expert in antitrust, consumer protection, and regulation. He has researched, published, and testified on competition-related issues in a wide variety of industries, including media, pharmaceuticals, sports, and finance. He has extensive experience providing expert economic and policy advice to regulatory agencies in the United States and Canada, as well as before congressional committees.
Dr. Singer is also a Senior Fellow at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business, where he teaches advanced pricing to MBA candidates. In 2018, the American Antitrust Institute honored Dr. Singer with an antitrust enforcement award for his work in the Lidoderm antitrust litigation.
President and Founder, International Center for Law & Economics
Geoffrey A. Manne is the president and founder of the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center based in Portland, Oregon. He is also a distinguished fellow at Northwestern Law School’s Searle Center on Law, Regulation, & Economic Growth. In April 2017 he was appointed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, and he recently served for two years on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee.
Mr. Manne earned his JD and AB degrees from the University of Chicago and is an expert in the economic analysis of law, specializing in competition, telecommunications, consumer protection, intellectual property, and technology policy.
Prior to founding ICLE, Manne was a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School. From 2006-2009, he took a leave from teaching to develop Microsoft’s law and economics academic outreach program. Manne has also served as a lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law. He practiced antitrust law and appellate litigation at Latham & Watkins, clerked for Hon. Morris S. Arnold on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and worked as a research assistant for Judge Richard Posner. He was also once (very briefly) employed by the FTC.
Mr. Manne’s publications have appeared in numerous journals including the Journal of Competition Law and Economics, the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, the Supreme Court Economic Review, and the Arizona Law Review, among others. With former FTC Commissioner, Joshua Wright, Manne is the editor of a volume from Cambridge University Press entitled, Competition Policy and Intellectual Property Law Under Uncertainty: Regulating Innovation. Manne has also testified on several occasions before Congress and at the FCC and FTC, and he regularly files written comments and amicus briefs on key antitrust, IP, and telecommunications issues. His analysis is frequently published in popular print and broadcasting outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Foreign Affairs, NPR, and Bloomberg, among others.
Manne is a member of the American Law and Economics Association, the Canadian Law and Economics Association, and the Society for Institutional & Organizational Economics. He blogs at Truth on the Market (www.truthonthemarket.com) (of which he is also the co-founder), is a contributor at WIRED, and tweets at @geoffmanne. His scholarly publications are available at http://ssrn.com/author=175541.
Senior Fellow, R Street Institute
Prior to R Street, Adam spent 12 years as a senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Before the Mercatus Center, he served as the president of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Adam has also worked for the Adam Smith Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.
Adam has published 10 books on a wide range of topics, including online child safety, internet governance, intellectual property, telecommunications policy, media regulation and federalism.
In 2008, Adam received the Family Online Safety Institute’s “Award for Outstanding Achievement.”
Explainer Episode 5 – Arizona's Licensing Reform
Jon Riches
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
What are the costs and benefits of occupational licensing? Why do many believe that the...
Regulatory Sandboxes & Consumer Protection
Scott Astrada, Jackson Mueller, Kate Larson Prochaska
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Video
What are regulatory sandboxes? How might they promote and stimulate innovation? What risks might they...
Deep Dive Episode 69 – SOX Auditor Attestation Requirements
John Berlau, Wes Bricker, C. Wallace DeWitt, J.W. Verret
Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
Is “investor protection” coordinated sufficiently with “promotion of capital formation”? This teleforum will consider this question...
Deep Dive Episode 68 – Challenges in Regulating Cybersecurity at the Department of Defense
Franklin Turner, Alexander Major, Daniel J. Kelly
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
In this episode, Alexander Major and Franklin Turner, nationally recognized commentators in this area, will...
Topics
Speech Police at the DMV: Regulation and Arbitrary Rule
Vague laws invite arbitrary power. Laws that require regulators to censor speech they find offensive,...
Topics
The FDIC Refinery
It was a busy day at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The agency took...
Independent Contractor Or Employee: Sometimes, Things Are Not As Easy As A-B-C
Bruce J. Sarchet
The status of independent contractors in California has been hotly debated over the past year,...
Agency Staff Regulatory Guidance
Paul S. Atkins, Barry P. Barbash, Andrew (Buddy) Donahue, Brian Rubin
Financial Services Practice Group Teleforum
Agency staff regulatory guidance, speeches, and settled enforcement actions can be helpful to the regulated...
Tech Roundup Episode 2 – The Techlash: Big Tech and Antitrust
Hal Singer, Geoffrey A. Manne, Adam Thierer
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Podcast
"Techlash" refers to a growing public concern over the behavior of big technology companies and...
Topics
COPAA v. DeVos and the Government’s Continuing Numeracy Problem
On January 4, 2017 – fifteen days before the change in administrations and fourteen days...