President and General Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
NCLA’s President and General Counsel, Mark Chenoweth, has observed the administrative state up close and personal from perches in all four branches of the federal government. Mark served as the first chief of staff to Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mark has worked in several different roles in the private sector as well. He began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He then returned to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries. Most recently he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.
Mark is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Chicago Law School, where he co-founded the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and became a Tony Patiño Fellow. Mark has been widely quoted and/or published in newspapers and websites including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New Hampshire Union Leader, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. He has also had recurring op-eds in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and at Forbes.com.
Director, Climate & Clean Air Program, Natural Resources Defense Council
David Doniger has been at the forefront of the battle against air pollution and global climate change since he joined NRDC in 1978. He helped formulate the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement designed to stop the depletion of the earth's ozone layer, as well as several essential amendments to the Clean Air Act. In 1993, he left NRDC to serve on the White House Council on Environmental Quality, followed by key posts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He rejoined NRDC in 2001 and has since been working to defend the Clean Air Act from assaults in Congress. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life, McKnight Presidential Professor in Law, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Harlan Albert Rogers Professor in Law, Associate Director, Corporate Institute, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor Kristin E. Hickman is the McKnight Presidential Professor in Law, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor, and Harlan Albert Rogers Professor in Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She also has taught at Harvard Law School and Northwestern University School of Law. Professor Hickman teaches and writes primarily in the areas of administrative law, tax administration, and statutory interpretation. Her articles on these topics have appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and other publications. She also co-authors the Administrative Law Treatise with Richard J. Pierce, Jr., and a casebook on federal administrative law with Pierce and Christopher J. Walker. Her scholarly work has been cited several times in opinions of the United States Supreme Court as well as regularly in lower court judicial opinions and court briefs.
In 2018-19, Professor Hickman served as Special Adviser to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in Washington, D.C. She presently serves as a Senior Fellow, and previously served as a public member and chair of the judicial review committee, for the Administrative Conference of the United States. She also is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.
Professor Hickman received her B.S. degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting and a secondary major in history from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. After practicing for several years as a certified public accountant, Professor Hickman earned her J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was awarded the Raoul Berger Prize and the Lowden Wigmore Prize for her scholarly writings. Following law school, Professor Hickman clerked for The Honorable David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and practiced law as an associate with the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, concentrating on corporate and international tax transactions and matters.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Hon. Jennifer Mascott served as Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Separation of Powers Institute at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law before her appointment to the federal bench. On July 16, 2025, President Donald J. Trump nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Delaware), and she was confirmed on October 9, 2025.
Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mascott wrote extensively in administrative and constitutional law, statutory interpretation, and the separation of powers. Her scholarship—published in leading journals including the Stanford Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, and Supreme Court Review—was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple federal courts. She also contributed Supreme Court commentary for NBC Universal.
Before joining Catholic Law, she was an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of The C. Boyden Gray Center at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. In 2022 she became co-author of Beermann, Cass & Diver’s Administrative Law: Cases and Materials (9th ed.). In 2023 she received the Justice Joseph Story Award for excellence in scholarship, teaching, and advancing the rule of law.
Judge Mascott also served as a Council Member of the ABA’s Administrative Law Section and as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. She frequently testified before Congress on executive power, regulatory reform, and judicial jurisdiction, and participated in multiple Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
From 2019 to 2021, she took leave from academia to serve as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel and later as Associate Deputy Attorney General, where she argued federal cases and assisted with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. Earlier in her career, she clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and for then-Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit.
Judge Mascott earned her J.D. summa cum laude from the George Washington University Law School and her B.A. from the same institution.
Associate, Wiley Rein LLP
Joel S. Nolette is an associate at Wiley Rein LLP, where he advocates on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of complex litigation matters. In 2017, Joel graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as the Editor in Chief of Volume 15 of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. From 2019 to 2021, Joel clerked for the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; and from 2021 to 2022, he clerked for the Honorable Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Before attending law school, Joel graduated summa cum laude from Gordon College in Wenham, MA, with his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies and worked as a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service.
Trustee Professor of Law, New York Law School
From 1972-79, Schoenbrod served as one of the leaders of the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he campaigned to reduce lead in gasoline, resurrect the then-decrepit New York City subway, and protect the environment of Puerto Rico. Previously, he was Director of Program Development at the community development project that Senator Robert Kennedy established in Bedford Stuyvesant. He has also been a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute.
His books include
D.C. Confidential: Inside the Five Tricks of Washington (Encounter Books, 2017) with forewords by Governor Howard Dean and Senator Mike Lee;
Breaking the Logjam: Environmental Protection That Will Work (Yale University Press, 2010)(with Richard B. Stewart and Katrina M. Wyman);
Saving Our Environment from Washington: How Congress Grabs Power, Shirks Responsibility, and Shortchanges the People (Yale University Press, 2005);
Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government (Yale University Press, 2003) (with Ross Sandler); and
Power Without Responsibility: How Congress Abuses the People Through Delegation (Yale University Press, 1993).
In addition to writing scholarly articles, he has frequently contributed opinion pieces to the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, the New York Times, and other publications.
He has an undergraduate degree from Yale College, a graduate degree in economics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar, and a law degree from Yale Law School.
Vice President and Director, Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, Cato Institute
Norbert Michel is vice president and director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, where he specializes on issues pertaining to financial markets and monetary policy. Michel was most recently the Director for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation where he edited, and contributed chapters, to two books: The Case Against Dodd–Frank: How the “Consumer Protection” Law Endangers Americans, and Prosperity Unleashed: Smarter Financial Regulation
Michel was previously a tenured professor at Nicholls State University’s College of Business, teaching finance, economics and statistics. Before that, he worked at Heritage as a tax policy analyst in the think tank’s Center for Data Analysis from 2002 to 2005. He previously was with the global energy company Entergy, where he worked on models to help predict bankruptcies of commercial clients.
Michel holds a doctoral degree in financial economics from the University of New Orleans. He received his bachelor of business administration degree in finance and economics from Loyola University. He currently resides in Virginia.
Senior Fellow, Mises Institute
Alex J. Pollock is a Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute, providing thought and policy leadership on financial issues and the study of financial systems. His work includes cycles of booms and busts, financial crises with their political responses, housing finance, government-sponsored enterprises, risk and uncertainty, central banking, banking and financial regulation, corporate governance, retirement finance, student loans, and the politics of finance.
He previously served as the Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Research in the U.S. Treasury Department 2019-2021. He was a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the R Street Institute 2015-2019 and 2021, and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, 2004-2015. Among the many aspects of his AEI work, he developed the One Page Mortgage Form to give borrowers in clear form the key information they need in order to know what they are committing themselves to. He was President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago from 1991 to 2004. There he invented the Mortgage Partnership Finance program, which successfully created front-end mortgage credit risk sharing beginning in 1997. His decades of banking experience include being a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 1991.
Pollock was a director of the CME Group 2004-2019 and of Ascendium Education Group 1989-2019. He is a director and past-chairman of the Great Books Foundation and a past president of the International Union for Housing Finance.
He is the co-author of Surprised Again! - The COVID Crisis and the New Market Bubble (2022), and the author of Finance and Philosophy—Why We’re Always Surprised (2018) and Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity (2011), as well as numerous articles and Congressional testimony.
Pollock is a graduate of Williams College, the University of Chicago, and Princeton University.
His work is available on alexjpollock.com.
Co-Owner, Grandview Bed & Breakfast
Gwendolyn Smith is an innkeeper and owner of Grandview Bed & Breakfast in Mount Dora, FL. She has a long history working in hospitality that includes Disney, Marriott and Starwood Hotels. Gwendolyn is a Board Member of the Florida Restaurant Lodging Association, Florida Inns Chapter and serves on the Marketing Council for FRLA. She graduated from Rollins College with a B.A. Degree in Organizational Communication.
Head of Tech & Innovation, Centre for Policy Studies
Matthew Feeney is Head of Tech & Innovation at Centre for Policy Studies. Before joining CPS, Matthew was the director of Cato Institute’s Project on Emerging Technologies. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, City A.M., and others. He received both his BA and MA in philosophy from the University of Reading.
Retired Commissioner, Orange County, Florida
Growing up in a military family, Pete traveled a great deal and lived in Seattle, Germany, Alabama, France and Milton in Northwest Florida. While still a teenager, his father passed away unexpectedly, and his widowed mother moved to the family to Orange County. Pete graduated from Boone High School and subsequently continued his education — earning a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from the University of West Florida. While working for the State of Florida at the Orange County Health Department and later Orange County government’s Health and Family Services Department, he earned Master’s degrees in Education and Public Health from Florida State and in Management from Rollins College Crummer School of Business.
During Pete’s own military service in the Florida Air National Guard, he completed coursework in Hospital Administration/Health Services Management at Sheppard Air Force Base with the United States Air Force. He has furthered his education through FEMA Emergency Management coursework, and is certified in the National Incident Management System. He has completed Leadership Orlando, as well as extensive coursework through the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Professionally, Pete’s long-term public career has provided far-reaching benefits for residents and visitors in our entire community. As Deputy Director of the Orange County Health and Family Services Department, he was responsible for services including inmate health care at the Orange County jail, the District Medical Examiner’s office, Animal Services, Mosquito Control, the Great Oaks Village residential services for abused, abandoned and neglected children and teens, the EMS system medical direction, Disaster Management, our Environmental Protection Department, Orange County’s mental health services, Social and Family services, Head Start, Community Action, the county Parks and Recreation Division, the county Veteran’s Services Division, and many other units and programs across Orange County. Those responsibilities included oversight and management of over 1,000 employees and budgets approaching 150-175 million dollars. Under his management, budgeting was taken very seriously and his departments did not over-budget to allow a return of funds at years end.
A visionary leader, Pete is well known as a man who recognizes challenges in our community and strives to develop solutions to needs. Through his extensive history of networking and collaborating with both the private and public sectors, he has provided strategic leadership in creating, developing and managing a number of significant programs benefitting residents and visitors. These include the Primary Care Access Network (Access to Care) offering medical care to the uninsured and underinsured, the After School Zone which provides after school care to all middle school children in Orange County public schools, and the Sexual Assault Treatment Center which provides a safe, secure and sensitive response to the medical, psychological and forensic needs of those who have experienced sexual trauma. He was instrumental in the privatization of the Victims Service Center, and in the creation and development of both the Juvenile Assessment Center and the Central Receiving Center. This brief list is just the beginning, and is clear evidence of Pete’s exceptional ability to bring the right leaders to the table, to facilitate open dialogue regarding challenges and issues, and to get the job done.
Pete’s life is a testament to his belief in, and commitment to, public service. Well before running for office Pete gave of his time to his community through his work on a myriad of local and statewide Boards, Coalitions and groups, focusing on issues important to a wide range of individuals, families, organizations and businesses. His service has included participation in the Health Council of East Central Florida (which addresses health care access and cost issues), the Child Advocacy Center Advisory Board (provider of Child abuse exams), the United Way 211 Advisory Board (which created the 211 system), the Health Care Center for the Homeless Advisory Board, the Senior Resource Alliance Council to promote senior access to services, and the Health Alliance (where he was Past Chair and co-founder) and facilitated the constructed a 26,000 sq. ft. clinic in east Winter Garden. Pete created the Primary Care Access Network (PCAN) which provides access to care for more than 90,000 Orange County residents through a collaborative created in 2000. He has furthered served as past chair of the Lake Eola Charter School Board, and the Shepherds Hope Board, the Low Income Pool Council (a State Appointment) which directed 1 Billion in Medicaid funding to Safety Net Hospitals and local projects, the Florida Public Health Association (Past President; state-wide association), the Drowning Prevention Task Force (ultimately spurring development of funding for swimming lessons for Head Start children in Orange County), Hope Now International (Past Chair and Co-Founder) provider of the largest back pack and health screening program in our area, and the AIDS Resource Alliance (Past Chair/Founding Member) offering a case management not-for-profit created for the Ryan White grant programs.
Following his career with Orange County Government, Pete was tapped to serve as Corporate Director of Community and Governmental Relations for Community Health Centers, Inc. — a local leader in access to health care for our residents. His efforts assured the organization was aligned with community partners and expectations — further evidence of his ability to work and collaborate effectively with both the private and public sectors.
In 2012, Pete was elected as our District 3 County Commissioner and was re-elected in 2016 by a nearly 70% margin. His extensive efforts to help our citizens and community have continued to provide much-needed solutions to the problems and challenges we face today. During his terms he has been honored to have his fellow Board members recognize his leadership and vision, and support many initiatives he proposed, including his Ordinance to allow the additional homestead exemption to our seniors; his Ordinance to require certain businesses to post the Human Trafficking Hot Line information; his Resolution against Fracking; his proposal to provide funding for the first and only adult human trafficking emergency shelter in the state (which has recently opened and is now accepting trafficking survivors); and supported his motion to return to the weekly bulk- item refuse pick up wanted by our residents. Numerous other successes during his service as our Commissioner include Water quality projects for our lakes; additional acreage for Cypress Grove Park; increased athletic fields and a splash pad and all-children’s playground for Barber Park; the Pine Castle/South Orange Avenue corridor plan; the Hoffner Road Overlay and Conway Acres wall; and the Small area studies (Rural Enclaves).
While serving as Orange County’s District 3 Commissioner, Pete’s community involvement continues through his efforts with a number of organizations and interests. These include the local Metro Plan (Vice Chair), the Transportation Disadvantaged Council (Past Chairman), the Central Florida Water Collaborative (Secretary), Community Action Board (Chair), the Citizens’ Commission for Children Advisory Board, the Central Receiving Center/Children’s Mental Health Board of Directors (Chair), Kiwanis Club of Central Orlando (Past President), Florida Abolitionists Board of Directors (dedicated to eradicating Human Trafficking and modern-day slavery), the Urban Caucus, where he serves as co-chair, the Florida Association of Counties, and the Healing the Children Advisory Council. His multi-agency and diverse community involvement further serves to demonstrate his commitment to the entire community and all its residents and visitors.
Pete currently lives in the Conway area with his wonderful wife Cathie, attends and volunteers for Discovery Church, and enjoys golf, riding his “bike” and playing in a classic rock band.
Partner, Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC
Jeffrey Harris is an experienced litigator who focuses on constitutional, appellate, and regulatory matters. He is currently a partner at Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC. In 2015, he was named to the Legal Times list of “D.C.’s Rising Stars,” which identified “some of the most accomplished young attorneys in the D.C. area.” Mr. Harris previously served as Associate Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). In that role, he was second in charge of the 50-person office within the Executive Office of the President that reviews all significant federal regulatory actions and coordinates regulatory policy across the federal government.
Before his government service, Mr. Harris was a partner at Bancroft PLLC and Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where his practice focused on Supreme Court, appellate, and complex litigation. Mr. Harris has extensive experience litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been the lead drafter of more than 100 merits briefs, amicus briefs, and certiorari-stage briefs, and he has contributed to 10 wins in cases before the Court.
Mr. Harris has also litigated numerous high-profile cases in the federal courts of appeals, federal and state trial courts, administrative agencies, and arbitral tribunals. He has successfully argued before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits, achieving wins on behalf of airlines, telecommunications providers, and pro bono clients. He has also argued numerous dispositive motions in federal district court and has participated in the trial of a significant voting rights case.
Mr. Harris served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., of the U.S. Supreme Court, and Judges David Sentelle and Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and his A.B. magna cum laude from Georgetown University. He is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia bars.
Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance, American Enterprise Institute; Executive Director, Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State
Adam J. White is the Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the Supreme Court and the administrative state. He also directs the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.
He writes on regulation and constitutional government for a variety of publications. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., after clerking for the D.C. Circuit's Judge David Sentelle. He also has been chairman of the ABA's Administrative Law Section.
In 2021, he served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, where he criticized “Court packing” and other efforts to restructure the Supreme Court.
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Georgetown University
Urska Velikonja is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining the Georgetown faculty in 2017, Professor Velikonja taught at Emory University and the University of Maryland, and visited at UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago and Duke Law School. She graduated first in her class at University of Ljubljana School of Law and earned her LL.M. and J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Prior to entering academia, Professor Velikonja clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and worked for several years as a banking and finance associate and cross-border M&A with an Austrian law in her native Slovenia.
Professor Velikonja has written extensively on securities regulation and securities enforcement. Her work has been published by the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, the Washington University Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the Yale Journal on Regulation, among others. Her article on SEC fair funds was selected as one of top ten articles published in 2015, and two of her articles were selected for presentation at the Harvard-Stanford-Yale Junior Faculty Forum.
Professor Velikonja’s work on SEC enforcement is regularly discussed by regulators and has been featured in exclusive and/or major stories in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the New York Times, and The Economist, and quoted in the Financial Times, Reuters, The American Banker, as well as international press. Professor Velikonja also regularly contributes to three corporate law and financial regulation law blogs: the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation Forum, the NYU PCCE Compliance & Enforcement Blog, and the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog.
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.
Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Advance America
Jamie Fulmer is Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for Advance America, a leading provider of consumer financial services in the U.S. Advance America operates approximately 2,000 locations in 28 states, offering credit options and financial services to more than one million hardworking Americans each year. He has been with the company since its founding in 1997.
Prior to Advance America, he was a manager of human resources for Collins & Aikman Products Company, a major manufacturer of automotive and textile products.
Fulmer has served in leadership roles with a number of organizations that are dedicated to improving the his state and community. In November of 2018, he was elected to represent District 4 on Spartanburg City Council. Additionally, he currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Spartanburg Regional Foundation and the Investment Advisory Committee of the Spartanburg County Foundation.
He has previously served as a trustee and past chair of the Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg, a former president of the Spartanburg Little Theatre, a commissioner on the City of Spartanburg’s Planning Commission, a director of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, a director of the Piedmont Interstate Fair Association, a member of Converse College’s Board of Visitors, a director of Wofford College’s Terrier Club and a trustee of Spartanburg Methodist College. He is a graduate of Leadership Spartanburg, a Liberty Fellow, and a member of the Aspen Global Leaders Network.
Fulmer is a graduate of Wofford College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in government.
John J. Flynn Endowed Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Christopher Peterson is the John J. Flynn Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law. He previously served as a Special Advisor in the Office of the Director at the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as a Special Advisor in the Office of Legal Policy for Personnel and Readiness in the United States Department of Defense, and as Senior Counsel for Enforcement Policy and Strategy in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Enforcement. Professor Peterson has written dozens of scholarly articles and published three books on consumer finance. He has frequently testified in Congressional hearings and has presented his research to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and at the White House in both Democratic and Republican administrations. He is a fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, the American Bar Association's Consumer Financial Services Committee, and serves on the community advisory board of the American Fintech Council. Professor Peterson is a recipient of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators’ Consumer Advocate of the Year award and the Pentagon’s Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence.
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.
Judge, Ohio Twelfth District Court of Appeals
Judge Matthew R. Byrne was elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Twelfth District in 2020, and his first term began on January 1, 2021. He is currently serving as the court's elected Administrative Judge. The Twelfth District Court of Appeals hears civil and criminal appeals from the trial courts in eight counties in southwest Ohio. Judge Byrne is active in the Ohio Judicial Conference and the Ohio Court of Appeals Judges Association. He also currently serves as a member and vice chair of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure (where he previously chaired the Appellate Rules Committee). He previously served as a member of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on Character and Fitness.
From January 2010 to December 2020, Judge Byrne practiced law at the national law firm of Jackson Lewis P.C. He was a member of the firm's General Employment Litigation Practice Group and the Wage and Hour Practice Group. From 2007 to 2010 he practiced at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. At both firms, Judge Byrne represented clients ranging from small businesses to international corporations in state and federal trial and appellate litigation, including multiple class and collective actions. He also represented clients in arbitration and before numerous administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
Judge Byrne earned his law degree, cum laude, from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. During law school he was symposium editor of the Ohio State Law Journal and the winner of the Donald S. Teller Memorial Award for student writing contributing most significantly to the Ohio State Law Journal. During law school he clerked for the Acting General Counsel of the United States Department of the Treasury. Judge Byrne earned his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Xavier University, where he majored in International Affairs (Business) and Political Science.
Prior to entering law school Judge Byrne served in President George W. Bush's Administration as a member of the White House staff in the Office of Presidential Personnel, the office responsible for selecting candidates to recommend to the President for appointment or nomination to high-level government positions, and for coordinating with the Offices of White House Counsel, Press Secretary, and Executive Clerk regarding candidate background clearances, press announcements, and the status of appointments/nominations.
Judge Byrne has been a member of the Federalist Society since law school and he served for five years as president of the Federalist Society's Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter. He is a member of a number of other community and civic organizations, including the Ohio State Bar Association and the bar associations of Butler, Clermont, and Warren Counties. Judge Byrne previously was a member of the Advisory Board of Pregnancy Center East and a board member and president of the St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Greater Cincinnati.
Judge Byrne is an active parishioner at his church, where he is a lector, a former member and president of the Education Commission, and a former member of the Finance and Administration Commission.
Judge Byrne resides in Deerfield Township, Warren County, Ohio with his wife Julie and their three children.
Ashbrook Byrne Kresge LLC
Julie E. Byrne is an energetic problem solver recognized by multiple publications as a rising star and leader to watch. Ms. Byrne focuses her practice on employment law and HR-related issues, advising clients on compliance with state and federal law and representing them in disputes. Ms. Byrne has a passion for helping workers thrive by helping their organizations thrive, and clients benefit from her years of experience working with businesses of all sizes and government at all levels.
A mother of three young children, Ms. Byrne was a highly respected attorney in one of the largest law firms in the State of Ohio when she decided to step out of the firm environment to invest in her family. Blessed to have grown up in a military family that took her to visit all 50 states, Ms. Byrne and her husband look forward to continuing that tradition with their children.
Ms. Byrne is a 2009 graduate of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law where she was a national moot court champion. She has worked in large corporations, a large law firm, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the White House.
Panel II: A World Without Chevron?
Mark Chenoweth, David D. Doniger, Kristin E. Hickman, Jenn L. Mascott, Joel S. Nolette, David S. Schoenbrod
Legislative Branch Review Conference
On February 6, 2019, the Federalist Society's Article I Initiative and the Georgetown Student Chapter...
Federal Reserve Independence
Norbert J. Michel, Alex J. Pollock
Financial Services Practice Group and Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
In years, the issue of Federal Reserve independcy have arison to the top of public...
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Duopoly Is Not A Dirty Word
It is often said that competition and regulation are substitutes. Where there is competition,...
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Collins v. Mnuchin - Is the Federal Housing Finance Agency Constitutionally Structured?
The Fifth Circuit sat en banc last month for oral argument in Collins v. Mnuchin, 17-20364. The case addresses whether...
Here to Stay: The Modern World of Hospitality
Gwendolyn Smith, Matthew Feeney, Pete Clarke
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Video
Do home-sharing platforms like Airbnb need more regulation to protect consumers and the safety of...
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Parkland: One Year Later
Today marks the one year anniversary of the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that...
Are “Regulatory Budgets” Paying Off? A Year Two Look-Back at Executive Order 13771
Jeffrey M. Harris, Adam White
Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group and Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
On January 30, 2017, President Trump signed Executive Order 13771 titled, “Presidential Executive Order on...
Deep Dive Episode 38 – The Debate Over the SEC's Accredited Investor Standard
Urska Velikonja, J.W. Verret
Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
This teleforum will consider the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s accredited investor standard. This standard...
The Financial Frontier: Financial Freedom, Payday Lending, & "Operation Choke Point"
Jamie Fulmer, Christopher L. Peterson, Brian Knight
Regulatory Transparency Project's Fourth Branch Video
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice decided to investigate banks across the country, looking...
Did the Majority of Ohio Supreme Court Justices Signal the End of Chevron Deference?
Matthew R. Byrne, Julie E. Byrne
State Court Docket Watch
Ohio State ex rel. McCann v. Delaware County Board of Elections On first...