Shareholder, Farney Daniels, PC
Jonathan B. Baker is Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law, where he teaches courses primarily in the areas of antitrust and economic regulation. He served as the Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission from 2009 to 2011, and as the Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission from 1995 to 1998. Previously, he worked as a Senior Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, an Attorney Advisor to the Acting Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, and an antitrust lawyer in private practice. Professor Baker is the co-author of an antitrust casebook, a past Editorial Chair of Antitrust Law Journal, and a past member of the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law. He has published widely in the fields of antitrust law and policy and industrial organization economics. In 2004 he received American University’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Other Professional Accomplishments, and in 1998 he received the Federal Trade Commission’s Award for Distinguished Service. He has a J.D. from Harvard and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.
Richard W. Pogue Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Professor Daniel Crane is the Richard W. Pogue Professor of Law. He served as the associate dean for faculty and research from 2013 to 2016. He teaches Contracts, Antitrust, Antitrust and Intellectual Property, and Legislation and Regulation.
Crane previously was a professor of law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a visiting professor at New York University School of Law and the University of Chicago Law School. In spring 2009, he taught antitrust law on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon.
Crane's work has appeared in the University of Chicago Law Review, the California Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the Cornell Law Review, among other journals. He is the author of several books on antitrust law, including Antitrust (Aspen, 2014), The Making of Competition Policy: Legal and Economic Sources (Oxford University Press, 2013), and The Institutional Structure of Antitrust Enforcement (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Jennifer Walker Elrod is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She was nominated to the Fifth Circuit in 2007, and she served as a Circuit Judge on the court until assuming the role of Chief Judge in October 2024. Prior to serving as a Circuit Judge, Chief Judge Elrod was appointed and then twice elected Judge of the 190th District Court of Harris County, Texas, where she spent over five years presiding over more than 200 jury and non-jury trials.
Chief Judge Elrod graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was an active member of the Harvard Federalist Society, an Ames Moot Court finalist, and a Senior Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. She clerked for the Honorable Sim Lake in the Southern District of Texas. Before serving as a judge, Chief Judge Elrod worked in private practice, focusing on civil litigation, antitrust, and employment matters.
She has been repeatedly recognized for her work as a jurist, as well as for her pro bono work and contributions to the community. She has been named the 2022 Texas Review of Law & Politics’ Jurist of the Year, the 2018 Harvard Federalist Society’s Alumni of the Year, the 2016–17 Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists’ Appellate Judge of the Year, and the 2008 Mexican-American Bar Association of Texas’s Judge of the Year.
Chief Judge Elrod is actively engaged in the academic and legal communities. Chief Judge Elrod currently serves on the Board of Directors and as the Jurist-in-Residence at the South Texas College of Law, where she teaches civil procedure and First Amendment law. She is also a member of the American Law Institute and of the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and she is a former member of the Board of Regents of her alma mater, Baylor University, and the Board of Visitors at Brigham Young University Law School. She previously served as the Chair of the Codes of Conduct Committee for the Judicial Conference of the United States. She has also served as the M.D. Anderson Visiting Public Service Professor at the Texas Tech University School of Law and as Jurist-in-Residence at Brigham Young University Law School, and she has taught legal writing at the University of Houston Law Center. She presented the Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Distinguished Lecture at the Washington and Lee University School of Law and is a frequent speaker on the topics of trial and appellate procedure, ethics, employment law, and constitutional law. Chief Judge Elrod also serves on the board of the Garland R. Walker Inn of Court, and co-produces an annual musical CLE, for which her pupilage group has won multiple national awards.
Chief Judge Elrod’s publications include: Trial by Siri: AI Comes to the Courtroom; Don’t Mess with Texas Judges: In Praise of the State Judiciary; For Good: Enriching Your Practice and Your Life Through Pro Bono and Community Service; Is the Jury Still Out?: A Case for the Continued Viability of the American Jury; and W(h)ither the Jury? The Diminishing Role of the Jury Trial in our Legal System.
Partner, Cooley
Rob McDowell advises telecommunications, media and technology clients on their most significant regulatory, legal and business matters. As a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a highly regarded industry leader, Rob has been at the forefront of the most complex and groundbreaking issues facing telecommunications.
Mr. McDowell was first appointed to the FCC by President George W. Bush in 2006 and again by President Obama in 2009. He was unanimously confirmed both times by the US Senate. During his tenure, Mr. McDowell led efforts to expand consumer access to spectrum through his work on the two largest wireless auctions in US history at the time, played a key role in the 2009 digital television transition and led efforts to establish the first federal civil rights rule in a generation by creating a ban on racially discriminatory practices in broadcast advertising. He also worked extensively on several large and complex mergers, including Sirius/XM and Comcast/NBC-Universal.
He is an advocate for internet freedom, serving on the US delegation to the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications and exposing an international bid to regulate vital aspects of the Internet through multilateral treaty-based organizations. Mr. McDowell authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opposing multilateral internet regulation that led to a resolution passed unanimously in the House and Senate, as well as the ultimate defeat of the international bid at a treaty negation in Dubai later that year.
Prior to the FCC, Mr. McDowell was senior vice president for CompTel, the Competitive Telecommunications Association, where he led advocacy efforts before several government agencies, the White House and Congress.
Mr. McDowell is often called upon for speaking engagements and frequently appears on TV and radio. He has written opinion pieces for many high-profile publications, including the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
Partner, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.
After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.
In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.
To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.
Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.
Nonresident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Ajit Pai, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on issues pertaining to technology and innovation, telecommunications regulatory policy, and market-based incentives for investment in broadband deployment. Concurrently, he is a partner at Searchlight Capital Partners, a global investment firm.
Mr. Pai’s distinguished career at the FCC includes two leadership roles following presidential appointments. He was appointed commissioner by President Barack Obama in 2012, designated chairman by President Donald Trump in 2017, and twice confirmed by the US Senate. While at the helm of the FCC, Mr. Pai had a transformative impact on the future of US technology and communications policy, implementing major initiatives to help close the digital divide; advance US leadership in 5G and other wireless technologies; promote innovation; protect consumers, public safety, and national security; and make the agency itself more open, transparent, and data-driven.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Pai served in various public-sector positions in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel, the US Department of Justice, the US Senate Judiciary Committee, and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He also worked as a partner at Jenner & Block and associate general counsel at Verizon Communications.
Mr. Pai graduated with honors from Harvard University, where he received a bachelor’s degree, and from the University of Chicago Law School, where he received a law degree and was an editor on the University of Chicago Law Review.
I. Herman Stern Professor of Law
David Post is currently the I. Herman Stern Professor of Law at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University, where he teaches intellectual property law and the law of cyberspace. Professor Post is also an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, a Fellow at the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, and a contributor to the influential Volokh Conspiracy blog. [More detail on Professor Post's research and writings can be found here.]
Trained originally as a physical anthropologist, Professor Post spent two years studying the feeding ecology of yellow baboons in Kenya's Amboseli National Park, and he taught at the Columbia University Department of Anthropology from 1976 through 1981. He then attended Georgetown Law Center, from which he graduated summa cum laude in 1986. After clerking with then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, he spent 6 years at the Washington D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, practicing in the areas of intellectual property law and high technology commercial transactions. He then clerked again for Justice Ginsburg during her first term on the Supreme Court before joining the faculty of, first, the Georgetown University Law Center (1994-1997) and then the Temple University Law School (1997-present).
Professor Post is the author of Cyberlaw: Problems of Policy and Jurisprudence in the Information Age (3d Edition, West, 2007) (co-authored with Paul Schiff Berman and Patricia Bellia), and In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace (Oxford U. Press, forthcoming 2008), as well as numerous articles on intellectual property, the law of cyberspace, and the application of complexity theory to Internet legal questions that have appeared in the Stanford Law Review, Journal of Legal Studies, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Esther Dyson's Release 1.0, Journal of Online Law, University of Chicago Legal Forum, Vanderbilt Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, and numerous other publications. For four years (1994-1998) he wrote a monthly column on law and technology ("Plugging In") for the American Lawyer, and from 1998-2004 he wrote the "On the Horizon" column for InformationWeek (with Bradford Brown). He has appeared as a commentator on the Lehrer News Hour, Court TV's Supreme Court Preview, NPR's All Things Considered, BBC's World, and other television and radio shows, and recently was featured in the PBS documentary The Supreme Court. During 1996-1997 he conducted, along with two colleagues (Professors Larry Lessig and Eugene Volokh) the first Internet-wide e-mail course on "Cyberspace Law for Non-Lawyers" which attracted over 20,000 subscribers. He also sings and plays guitar, piano, banjo, and harmonica in the bands "Bad Dog," "The Dwights," and "The Zen Cohens."
Professor Post's writings can be accessed online via his publications page and personal site (http://www.davidpost.com).
J.D., Georgetown University
Ph.D. (Anthropology), Yale University
B.A., Yale University
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Stevenson Bernard Professor, George Washington University Law School
The Honorable F. Scott Kieff is the Stevenson Bernard Professor at George Washington University Law School and a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
He served as Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission from 2013-2017. He also served during the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations in the part-time leadership of the national security defense-intelligence community.
He was previously a professor of law and medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis and a Senior Fellow at Hoover. A former law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Giles S. Rich, he is a graduate of Penn Law School and MIT, where he studied molecular biology and microeconomics. He was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2012 and the Academia Europaea in 2024.
His private sector work through Kieff Strategies LLC (www.kieffstrategies.com) provides neutral services including mediation and compliance, and expert services including crisis management, advising, and testimony.
Managing Member, Aviation Perspectives LLC
Partner, Rule Garza Howley LLP
Rick began his career in the 1980s in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, becoming the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Division from 1986-89 – the youngest person ever to be confirmed by the Senate to that position. Over the last 30+ years since leaving the Division, Rick has led the antitrust practices at several leading D.C. and New York firms including Covington & Burling and Paul, Weiss.
During his time in private practice, Rick has represented major multi-national companies and executives in virtually every industry – from, among others, agricultural and animal health (Monsanto, Elanco) to energy (ExxonMobil) to defense contractors (Northrop Grumman, United Technologies) to professional sports (NFL, NBA, MLB) to technology platforms (Microsoft, Nuance) to pharmaceutical manufacturers (Eli Lilly, Pfizer) to health insurers (Cigna). (For a complete list of industry experience, click here.)
Rick has represented his clients before the Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, State Attorneys General and major foreign antitrust regulators in connection with many of the most notable merger investigations, including Exxon’s merger with Mobil, US Airways’ merger with American Airlines, and Cigna’s acquisition of Express Scripts. At the same time, Rick has represented clients in some of most prominent government investigations of the last quarter century, including leading the team that settled the Government’s monopolization case against Microsoft and defending international companies and executives in major antitrust criminal investigations.
For four decades, Rick has been at the forefront of antitrust law and is uniquely capable of advising clients on the antitrust regulatory environment affecting the way they do business globally. As agencies and rules have evolved, he has helped clients to understand the dynamic legal framework, to assess the legal risk and rewards associated with a range of competitive strategies, and to work with government bodies to take advantage of, and ensure appropriate compliance with, the regulations governing the clients’ chosen strategy.
Partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Robert A. Skitol is a senior partner in the Antitrust Team within the firm's Commercial Litigation Practice Group. He has over 35 years' experience in all facets of antitrust and trade regulation. He has litigated major antitrust cases, guided numerous mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures through intensive antitrust reviews at the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice and coordinated multinational antitrust reviews of several major transnational transactions. He has represented clients in both FTC and Department of Justice antitrust investigations, and has provided in-depth counseling with regard to antitrust and related ramifications of proposed collaborations, distribution and pricing arrangements.
Major clients that Bob has represented include Hewlett-Packard Company, Agilent Technologies, Inc., ABB Inc., James Hardie Industries, Philips Medical Systems, The Stroh Brewery Company, Schindler Elevator Corporation, Susquehanna Broadcasting Company and the VITA Standards Organization. He served as a special consultant on competition policy to the Government of Jamaica, and participated in drafting the Jamaica Competition Act.
Bob received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Hobart College in 1967 and graduated from New York University Law School in 1970 Order of the Coif. He has written and lectured extensively in the antitrust and trade regulation field. He co-authored the book titled Mergers in the New Antitrust Era, published 1985, contributed to Business Opportunities in the United States, 1991, and founded and co-edited International Merger Law, a monthly journal. He has been a frequent contributor of articles to the ABA Antitrust Law Journal, the ABA Antitrust Source and other publications. He is a member of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law (past co-chair of the Computer Industry Committee), the DC Bar Antitrust and Trade Regulation Committee (past chairman), and a member of the board of directors of The American Antitrust Institute.
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Stevenson Bernard Professor, George Washington University Law School
The Honorable F. Scott Kieff is the Stevenson Bernard Professor at George Washington University Law School and a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
He served as Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission from 2013-2017. He also served during the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations in the part-time leadership of the national security defense-intelligence community.
He was previously a professor of law and medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis and a Senior Fellow at Hoover. A former law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Giles S. Rich, he is a graduate of Penn Law School and MIT, where he studied molecular biology and microeconomics. He was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2012 and the Academia Europaea in 2024.
His private sector work through Kieff Strategies LLC (www.kieffstrategies.com) provides neutral services including mediation and compliance, and expert services including crisis management, advising, and testimony.
Managing Member, Aviation Perspectives LLC
Partner, Rule Garza Howley LLP
Rick began his career in the 1980s in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, becoming the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Division from 1986-89 – the youngest person ever to be confirmed by the Senate to that position. Over the last 30+ years since leaving the Division, Rick has led the antitrust practices at several leading D.C. and New York firms including Covington & Burling and Paul, Weiss.
During his time in private practice, Rick has represented major multi-national companies and executives in virtually every industry – from, among others, agricultural and animal health (Monsanto, Elanco) to energy (ExxonMobil) to defense contractors (Northrop Grumman, United Technologies) to professional sports (NFL, NBA, MLB) to technology platforms (Microsoft, Nuance) to pharmaceutical manufacturers (Eli Lilly, Pfizer) to health insurers (Cigna). (For a complete list of industry experience, click here.)
Rick has represented his clients before the Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, State Attorneys General and major foreign antitrust regulators in connection with many of the most notable merger investigations, including Exxon’s merger with Mobil, US Airways’ merger with American Airlines, and Cigna’s acquisition of Express Scripts. At the same time, Rick has represented clients in some of most prominent government investigations of the last quarter century, including leading the team that settled the Government’s monopolization case against Microsoft and defending international companies and executives in major antitrust criminal investigations.
For four decades, Rick has been at the forefront of antitrust law and is uniquely capable of advising clients on the antitrust regulatory environment affecting the way they do business globally. As agencies and rules have evolved, he has helped clients to understand the dynamic legal framework, to assess the legal risk and rewards associated with a range of competitive strategies, and to work with government bodies to take advantage of, and ensure appropriate compliance with, the regulations governing the clients’ chosen strategy.
Partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Robert A. Skitol is a senior partner in the Antitrust Team within the firm's Commercial Litigation Practice Group. He has over 35 years' experience in all facets of antitrust and trade regulation. He has litigated major antitrust cases, guided numerous mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures through intensive antitrust reviews at the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice and coordinated multinational antitrust reviews of several major transnational transactions. He has represented clients in both FTC and Department of Justice antitrust investigations, and has provided in-depth counseling with regard to antitrust and related ramifications of proposed collaborations, distribution and pricing arrangements.
Major clients that Bob has represented include Hewlett-Packard Company, Agilent Technologies, Inc., ABB Inc., James Hardie Industries, Philips Medical Systems, The Stroh Brewery Company, Schindler Elevator Corporation, Susquehanna Broadcasting Company and the VITA Standards Organization. He served as a special consultant on competition policy to the Government of Jamaica, and participated in drafting the Jamaica Competition Act.
Bob received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Hobart College in 1967 and graduated from New York University Law School in 1970 Order of the Coif. He has written and lectured extensively in the antitrust and trade regulation field. He co-authored the book titled Mergers in the New Antitrust Era, published 1985, contributed to Business Opportunities in the United States, 1991, and founded and co-edited International Merger Law, a monthly journal. He has been a frequent contributor of articles to the ABA Antitrust Law Journal, the ABA Antitrust Source and other publications. He is a member of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law (past co-chair of the Computer Industry Committee), the DC Bar Antitrust and Trade Regulation Committee (past chairman), and a member of the board of directors of The American Antitrust Institute.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Jennifer Walker Elrod is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She was nominated to the Fifth Circuit in 2007, and she served as a Circuit Judge on the court until assuming the role of Chief Judge in October 2024. Prior to serving as a Circuit Judge, Chief Judge Elrod was appointed and then twice elected Judge of the 190th District Court of Harris County, Texas, where she spent over five years presiding over more than 200 jury and non-jury trials.
Chief Judge Elrod graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was an active member of the Harvard Federalist Society, an Ames Moot Court finalist, and a Senior Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. She clerked for the Honorable Sim Lake in the Southern District of Texas. Before serving as a judge, Chief Judge Elrod worked in private practice, focusing on civil litigation, antitrust, and employment matters.
She has been repeatedly recognized for her work as a jurist, as well as for her pro bono work and contributions to the community. She has been named the 2022 Texas Review of Law & Politics’ Jurist of the Year, the 2018 Harvard Federalist Society’s Alumni of the Year, the 2016–17 Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists’ Appellate Judge of the Year, and the 2008 Mexican-American Bar Association of Texas’s Judge of the Year.
Chief Judge Elrod is actively engaged in the academic and legal communities. Chief Judge Elrod currently serves on the Board of Directors and as the Jurist-in-Residence at the South Texas College of Law, where she teaches civil procedure and First Amendment law. She is also a member of the American Law Institute and of the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and she is a former member of the Board of Regents of her alma mater, Baylor University, and the Board of Visitors at Brigham Young University Law School. She previously served as the Chair of the Codes of Conduct Committee for the Judicial Conference of the United States. She has also served as the M.D. Anderson Visiting Public Service Professor at the Texas Tech University School of Law and as Jurist-in-Residence at Brigham Young University Law School, and she has taught legal writing at the University of Houston Law Center. She presented the Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Distinguished Lecture at the Washington and Lee University School of Law and is a frequent speaker on the topics of trial and appellate procedure, ethics, employment law, and constitutional law. Chief Judge Elrod also serves on the board of the Garland R. Walker Inn of Court, and co-produces an annual musical CLE, for which her pupilage group has won multiple national awards.
Chief Judge Elrod’s publications include: Trial by Siri: AI Comes to the Courtroom; Don’t Mess with Texas Judges: In Praise of the State Judiciary; For Good: Enriching Your Practice and Your Life Through Pro Bono and Community Service; Is the Jury Still Out?: A Case for the Continued Viability of the American Jury; and W(h)ither the Jury? The Diminishing Role of the Jury Trial in our Legal System.
CEO, National Emergency Number Association
Brian Fontes currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the National Emergency Number Association, a position he has held since June 2008. As CEO, he is responsible for all aspects of the Association. His primary objectives are to ensure that Americans have access to reliable 9-1-1 service, 9-1-1 centers have state-of the art technologies and well-trained professionals, and sufficient funding is available so that the 9-1-1 system can best serve those who call upon it as their first voice of hope. Prior to joining the Association, Mr. Fontes was Vice President, Federal Relations for Cingular Wireless and served in that capacity after its acquisition by AT&T. Prior to that, Mr. Fontes was Senior Vice President for Policy and Administration at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). Before joining CTIA, Mr. Fontes served as the Senior Advisor to Commissioner James H. Quello, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and as the FCC’s Chief of Staff. Mr. Fontes started his professional career as a Professor of Communications at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
In the Fall of 1995, President Clinton appointed Mr. Fontes as head of the United States Delegation to the International Telecommunication Union’s World Radio Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, and gave him the rank of Ambassador. Mr. Fontes also served as Chairman of the Council of the Communication Regulatory Agency in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Mr. Fontes has served on numerous U.S. delegations.
He is currently on the Board of Directors of the 9-1-1 Institute and the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management, Policy and Law. He serves as Co-Chair of the Commerce Department’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and he was recently reappointed to the FCC’s Communications, Security and Reliability and Interoperability Council. He serves as an advisor to Mobile Future.
Mr. Fontes received a Ph.D. in Mass Media/Telecommunications from Michigan State University’s Department of Telecommunications and a M.S./B.S. from Brigham Young University.
President, Freedom Technologies Inc.
Janice Obuchowski, President of Freedom Technologies (FTI), has held many leadership positions, both in the United States government and in the private sector. Mrs. Obuchowski served as the United States Ambassador to the World Radiocommunications Conference 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland and as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce, (NTIA) under President George H.W. Bush. Mrs. Obuchowski also held several positions at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), including Senior Advisor to the Chairman.
Mrs. Obuchowski’s private sector career includes founding and leading FTI for 18 years, Board service, corporate experience and entrepreneurship. She serves or has served on several public company Boards of Directors, including Inmarsat plc, Orbital Sciences Corporation, CSG Systems, Inc., Stratos Global and Qualcomm. Earlier in her career, Mrs. Obuchowski was at NYNEX (now Verizon) and in private antitrust law. She currently serves as an elected Executive Committee member of the Federal Communications Bar Association and as an appointed Member of the Commerce Department’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee.
Mrs. Obuchowski earned a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center where she was an Editor of the Law Journal and was honored as Alumna of the Year, 2005. She graduated with Honors from Wellesley College.
Deputy CTO for Telecom, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President
Thomas C. Power is the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. As Deputy CTO, Mr. Power helps develop and coordinate Administration policy on telecom and technology issues. Before joining OSTP in August, 2011, Mr. Power served as the Chief of Staff of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Department of Commerce. At NTIA, Mr. Power provided managerial and policy support for a wide range of agency activities, including internet policymaking, spectrum, and Recovery Act broadband grant programs.
Prior to joining NTIA in April 2009, Mr. Power served for nine years as General Counsel of Fiberlink Communications in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. From 1994 -2000, he served in several supervisory roles at the Federal Communications Commission before being named Senior Legal Adviser to FCC Chairman William Kennard, advising the chairman on broadband, common carrier, and mass media matters. Before joining the FCC, Mr. Power was a telecommunications and litigation partner at Winston & Strawn. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia.
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Jennifer Walker Elrod is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She was nominated to the Fifth Circuit in 2007, and she served as a Circuit Judge on the court until assuming the role of Chief Judge in October 2024. Prior to serving as a Circuit Judge, Chief Judge Elrod was appointed and then twice elected Judge of the 190th District Court of Harris County, Texas, where she spent over five years presiding over more than 200 jury and non-jury trials.
Chief Judge Elrod graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was an active member of the Harvard Federalist Society, an Ames Moot Court finalist, and a Senior Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. She clerked for the Honorable Sim Lake in the Southern District of Texas. Before serving as a judge, Chief Judge Elrod worked in private practice, focusing on civil litigation, antitrust, and employment matters.
She has been repeatedly recognized for her work as a jurist, as well as for her pro bono work and contributions to the community. She has been named the 2022 Texas Review of Law & Politics’ Jurist of the Year, the 2018 Harvard Federalist Society’s Alumni of the Year, the 2016–17 Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists’ Appellate Judge of the Year, and the 2008 Mexican-American Bar Association of Texas’s Judge of the Year.
Chief Judge Elrod is actively engaged in the academic and legal communities. Chief Judge Elrod currently serves on the Board of Directors and as the Jurist-in-Residence at the South Texas College of Law, where she teaches civil procedure and First Amendment law. She is also a member of the American Law Institute and of the Board of Advisors for the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and she is a former member of the Board of Regents of her alma mater, Baylor University, and the Board of Visitors at Brigham Young University Law School. She previously served as the Chair of the Codes of Conduct Committee for the Judicial Conference of the United States. She has also served as the M.D. Anderson Visiting Public Service Professor at the Texas Tech University School of Law and as Jurist-in-Residence at Brigham Young University Law School, and she has taught legal writing at the University of Houston Law Center. She presented the Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Distinguished Lecture at the Washington and Lee University School of Law and is a frequent speaker on the topics of trial and appellate procedure, ethics, employment law, and constitutional law. Chief Judge Elrod also serves on the board of the Garland R. Walker Inn of Court, and co-produces an annual musical CLE, for which her pupilage group has won multiple national awards.
Chief Judge Elrod’s publications include: Trial by Siri: AI Comes to the Courtroom; Don’t Mess with Texas Judges: In Praise of the State Judiciary; For Good: Enriching Your Practice and Your Life Through Pro Bono and Community Service; Is the Jury Still Out?: A Case for the Continued Viability of the American Jury; and W(h)ither the Jury? The Diminishing Role of the Jury Trial in our Legal System.
CEO, National Emergency Number Association
Brian Fontes currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the National Emergency Number Association, a position he has held since June 2008. As CEO, he is responsible for all aspects of the Association. His primary objectives are to ensure that Americans have access to reliable 9-1-1 service, 9-1-1 centers have state-of the art technologies and well-trained professionals, and sufficient funding is available so that the 9-1-1 system can best serve those who call upon it as their first voice of hope. Prior to joining the Association, Mr. Fontes was Vice President, Federal Relations for Cingular Wireless and served in that capacity after its acquisition by AT&T. Prior to that, Mr. Fontes was Senior Vice President for Policy and Administration at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). Before joining CTIA, Mr. Fontes served as the Senior Advisor to Commissioner James H. Quello, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and as the FCC’s Chief of Staff. Mr. Fontes started his professional career as a Professor of Communications at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
In the Fall of 1995, President Clinton appointed Mr. Fontes as head of the United States Delegation to the International Telecommunication Union’s World Radio Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, and gave him the rank of Ambassador. Mr. Fontes also served as Chairman of the Council of the Communication Regulatory Agency in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Mr. Fontes has served on numerous U.S. delegations.
He is currently on the Board of Directors of the 9-1-1 Institute and the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management, Policy and Law. He serves as Co-Chair of the Commerce Department’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and he was recently reappointed to the FCC’s Communications, Security and Reliability and Interoperability Council. He serves as an advisor to Mobile Future.
Mr. Fontes received a Ph.D. in Mass Media/Telecommunications from Michigan State University’s Department of Telecommunications and a M.S./B.S. from Brigham Young University.
President, Freedom Technologies Inc.
Janice Obuchowski, President of Freedom Technologies (FTI), has held many leadership positions, both in the United States government and in the private sector. Mrs. Obuchowski served as the United States Ambassador to the World Radiocommunications Conference 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland and as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce, (NTIA) under President George H.W. Bush. Mrs. Obuchowski also held several positions at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), including Senior Advisor to the Chairman.
Mrs. Obuchowski’s private sector career includes founding and leading FTI for 18 years, Board service, corporate experience and entrepreneurship. She serves or has served on several public company Boards of Directors, including Inmarsat plc, Orbital Sciences Corporation, CSG Systems, Inc., Stratos Global and Qualcomm. Earlier in her career, Mrs. Obuchowski was at NYNEX (now Verizon) and in private antitrust law. She currently serves as an elected Executive Committee member of the Federal Communications Bar Association and as an appointed Member of the Commerce Department’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee.
Mrs. Obuchowski earned a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center where she was an Editor of the Law Journal and was honored as Alumna of the Year, 2005. She graduated with Honors from Wellesley College.
Deputy CTO for Telecom, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President
Thomas C. Power is the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. As Deputy CTO, Mr. Power helps develop and coordinate Administration policy on telecom and technology issues. Before joining OSTP in August, 2011, Mr. Power served as the Chief of Staff of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Department of Commerce. At NTIA, Mr. Power provided managerial and policy support for a wide range of agency activities, including internet policymaking, spectrum, and Recovery Act broadband grant programs.
Prior to joining NTIA in April 2009, Mr. Power served for nine years as General Counsel of Fiberlink Communications in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. From 1994 -2000, he served in several supervisory roles at the Federal Communications Commission before being named Senior Legal Adviser to FCC Chairman William Kennard, advising the chairman on broadband, common carrier, and mass media matters. Before joining the FCC, Mr. Power was a telecommunications and litigation partner at Winston & Strawn. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia.
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Thomas Barnett is a partner in the Washington, DC office and co-chair of the firm's Antitrust & Consumer Law Practice Group. He specializes in global antitrust and competition law practice and works closely with the firm’s white collar practice on criminal antitrust enforcement and investigative matters.
Mr. Barnett recently served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. He headed the Antitrust Division from 2005 to 2008, having previously served in the Division as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Enforcement from 2004 to 2005. During his tenure, Mr. Barnett was involved in some of the largest and most complicated criminal matters in the Division’s history, including investigations and prosecutions that involved coordination with multiple competition authorities in other jurisdictions. In the merger area, Mr. Barnett oversaw the review of all mergers investigated by the Division and supervised more than 30 cases filed in federal district court. He also oversaw an active competition advocacy program that included numerousamicusbriefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on antitrust issues and comments to a wide range of federal and state agencies. He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court asamicuson behalf of the United States inBell Atlantic Corp. v. Twomblyand testified several times before Congressional committees.
While at the Antitrust Division, Mr. Barnett worked with international antitrust authorities throughout the world and served in leadership positions in key international competition organizations, such as chairing the Working Party on International Cooperation and Enforcement of the OECD Competition Committee and serving on the Steering Committee of the International Competition Network.
Mr. Barnett received the Edmund Randolph Award, the U.S. Department of Justice’s highest honor, for his service in the Division.
Prior to 2004, Mr. Barnett was a leader in the firm’s Antitrust & Consumer Law Practice Group. He counseled Fortune 500 companies on all aspects of antitrust law and was involved in mergers and acquisitions, government antitrust investigations, and antitrust litigation involving a wide range of industries. He served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching a course on antitrust and intellectual property issues in sports in 2001 and 2003, and as a co-teacher of an advanced antitrust seminar at the University of Virginia Law School multiple times between 1991 and 2004.
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School
James Grimmelmann is Associate Professor at New York Law School and a member of its Institute for Information Law and Policy. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of LawMeme and a member of the Yale Law Journal. Prior to law school, he received an A.B. in computer science from Harvard College and worked as a programmer for Microsoft. He has served as a Resident Fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale, as a legal intern for Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Maryanne Trump Barry of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
He studies how the law governing the creation and use of computer software affects individual freedom and the distribution of wealth and power in society. As a lawyer and technologist, he aims to help these two groups speak intelligibly to each other. He writes about intellectual property, virtual worlds, search engines, online privacy, and other topics in computer and Internet law. Recent publications include The Internet Is a Semicommons, 78 Fordham L. Rev. 2799 (2010), Saving Facebook, 94 Iowa L. Rev. 1137 (2009), and The Ethical Visions of Copyright Law, 77 Fordham L. Rev. 2005 (2009).
He has been blogging since 2000 at the Laboratorium (http://laboratorium.net/). His home page is at http://james.grimmelmann.net/.
Partner, Rule Garza Howley LLP
Rick began his career in the 1980s in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, becoming the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Division from 1986-89 – the youngest person ever to be confirmed by the Senate to that position. Over the last 30+ years since leaving the Division, Rick has led the antitrust practices at several leading D.C. and New York firms including Covington & Burling and Paul, Weiss.
During his time in private practice, Rick has represented major multi-national companies and executives in virtually every industry – from, among others, agricultural and animal health (Monsanto, Elanco) to energy (ExxonMobil) to defense contractors (Northrop Grumman, United Technologies) to professional sports (NFL, NBA, MLB) to technology platforms (Microsoft, Nuance) to pharmaceutical manufacturers (Eli Lilly, Pfizer) to health insurers (Cigna). (For a complete list of industry experience, click here.)
Rick has represented his clients before the Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, State Attorneys General and major foreign antitrust regulators in connection with many of the most notable merger investigations, including Exxon’s merger with Mobil, US Airways’ merger with American Airlines, and Cigna’s acquisition of Express Scripts. At the same time, Rick has represented clients in some of most prominent government investigations of the last quarter century, including leading the team that settled the Government’s monopolization case against Microsoft and defending international companies and executives in major antitrust criminal investigations.
For four decades, Rick has been at the forefront of antitrust law and is uniquely capable of advising clients on the antitrust regulatory environment affecting the way they do business globally. As agencies and rules have evolved, he has helped clients to understand the dynamic legal framework, to assess the legal risk and rewards associated with a range of competitive strategies, and to work with government bodies to take advantage of, and ensure appropriate compliance with, the regulations governing the clients’ chosen strategy.
President, TechFreedom
Berin Szoka serves as President of TechFreedom. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Before joining PFF, he was an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised clients on regulations affecting the Internet and telecommunications industries. Before joining Latham's Communications Practice Group, Szoka practiced at Lawler Metzger Milkman & Keeney, LLC, a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington, and clerked for the Hon. H. Dale Cook, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Szoka received his Bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Thomas Barnett is a partner in the Washington, DC office and co-chair of the firm's Antitrust & Consumer Law Practice Group. He specializes in global antitrust and competition law practice and works closely with the firm’s white collar practice on criminal antitrust enforcement and investigative matters.
Mr. Barnett recently served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. He headed the Antitrust Division from 2005 to 2008, having previously served in the Division as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Enforcement from 2004 to 2005. During his tenure, Mr. Barnett was involved in some of the largest and most complicated criminal matters in the Division’s history, including investigations and prosecutions that involved coordination with multiple competition authorities in other jurisdictions. In the merger area, Mr. Barnett oversaw the review of all mergers investigated by the Division and supervised more than 30 cases filed in federal district court. He also oversaw an active competition advocacy program that included numerousamicusbriefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on antitrust issues and comments to a wide range of federal and state agencies. He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court asamicuson behalf of the United States inBell Atlantic Corp. v. Twomblyand testified several times before Congressional committees.
While at the Antitrust Division, Mr. Barnett worked with international antitrust authorities throughout the world and served in leadership positions in key international competition organizations, such as chairing the Working Party on International Cooperation and Enforcement of the OECD Competition Committee and serving on the Steering Committee of the International Competition Network.
Mr. Barnett received the Edmund Randolph Award, the U.S. Department of Justice’s highest honor, for his service in the Division.
Prior to 2004, Mr. Barnett was a leader in the firm’s Antitrust & Consumer Law Practice Group. He counseled Fortune 500 companies on all aspects of antitrust law and was involved in mergers and acquisitions, government antitrust investigations, and antitrust litigation involving a wide range of industries. He served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching a course on antitrust and intellectual property issues in sports in 2001 and 2003, and as a co-teacher of an advanced antitrust seminar at the University of Virginia Law School multiple times between 1991 and 2004.
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School
James Grimmelmann is Associate Professor at New York Law School and a member of its Institute for Information Law and Policy. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of LawMeme and a member of the Yale Law Journal. Prior to law school, he received an A.B. in computer science from Harvard College and worked as a programmer for Microsoft. He has served as a Resident Fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale, as a legal intern for Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Maryanne Trump Barry of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
He studies how the law governing the creation and use of computer software affects individual freedom and the distribution of wealth and power in society. As a lawyer and technologist, he aims to help these two groups speak intelligibly to each other. He writes about intellectual property, virtual worlds, search engines, online privacy, and other topics in computer and Internet law. Recent publications include The Internet Is a Semicommons, 78 Fordham L. Rev. 2799 (2010), Saving Facebook, 94 Iowa L. Rev. 1137 (2009), and The Ethical Visions of Copyright Law, 77 Fordham L. Rev. 2005 (2009).
He has been blogging since 2000 at the Laboratorium (http://laboratorium.net/). His home page is at http://james.grimmelmann.net/.
Partner, Rule Garza Howley LLP
Rick began his career in the 1980s in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, becoming the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Division from 1986-89 – the youngest person ever to be confirmed by the Senate to that position. Over the last 30+ years since leaving the Division, Rick has led the antitrust practices at several leading D.C. and New York firms including Covington & Burling and Paul, Weiss.
During his time in private practice, Rick has represented major multi-national companies and executives in virtually every industry – from, among others, agricultural and animal health (Monsanto, Elanco) to energy (ExxonMobil) to defense contractors (Northrop Grumman, United Technologies) to professional sports (NFL, NBA, MLB) to technology platforms (Microsoft, Nuance) to pharmaceutical manufacturers (Eli Lilly, Pfizer) to health insurers (Cigna). (For a complete list of industry experience, click here.)
Rick has represented his clients before the Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, State Attorneys General and major foreign antitrust regulators in connection with many of the most notable merger investigations, including Exxon’s merger with Mobil, US Airways’ merger with American Airlines, and Cigna’s acquisition of Express Scripts. At the same time, Rick has represented clients in some of most prominent government investigations of the last quarter century, including leading the team that settled the Government’s monopolization case against Microsoft and defending international companies and executives in major antitrust criminal investigations.
For four decades, Rick has been at the forefront of antitrust law and is uniquely capable of advising clients on the antitrust regulatory environment affecting the way they do business globally. As agencies and rules have evolved, he has helped clients to understand the dynamic legal framework, to assess the legal risk and rewards associated with a range of competitive strategies, and to work with government bodies to take advantage of, and ensure appropriate compliance with, the regulations governing the clients’ chosen strategy.
President, TechFreedom
Berin Szoka serves as President of TechFreedom. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Before joining PFF, he was an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised clients on regulations affecting the Internet and telecommunications industries. Before joining Latham's Communications Practice Group, Szoka practiced at Lawler Metzger Milkman & Keeney, LLC, a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington, and clerked for the Hon. H. Dale Cook, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Szoka received his Bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).
Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP, Crowell & Moring LLP
Trevor K. Copeland is a partner in the law firm of Crowell & Moring LLP (formerly Brinks Gilson & Lione PC).
His patent prosecution experience includes work on medical devices, sunglasses, footwear, sprinklers and irrigation equipment, decorative statuary and water gardens, biotechnology and general mechanical arts. He works closely with clients having products in these areas to develop intellectual property acquisition and management strategies, as well as to protect new ideas and products while respecting the rights of others.
Mr. Copeland's further practice includes design protection, whereby clients are able to protect the unique and valuable ornamental designs of their products using patent, copyright, and/or trademark. He has also litigated utility patents on clients' behalf, and has worked on preliminary injunction lawsuits for both design and utility patents, including winning a preliminary injunction against a foreign company preparing to launch an infringing laser-level device with a suction base.
Mr. Copeland has former experience as a high school biology and chemistry teacher, and as a visiting scientist with a Fungal Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Laboratory Group.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School
James Grimmelmann is Associate Professor at New York Law School and a member of its Institute for Information Law and Policy. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of LawMeme and a member of the Yale Law Journal. Prior to law school, he received an A.B. in computer science from Harvard College and worked as a programmer for Microsoft. He has served as a Resident Fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale, as a legal intern for Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Maryanne Trump Barry of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
He studies how the law governing the creation and use of computer software affects individual freedom and the distribution of wealth and power in society. As a lawyer and technologist, he aims to help these two groups speak intelligibly to each other. He writes about intellectual property, virtual worlds, search engines, online privacy, and other topics in computer and Internet law. Recent publications include The Internet Is a Semicommons, 78 Fordham L. Rev. 2799 (2010), Saving Facebook, 94 Iowa L. Rev. 1137 (2009), and The Ethical Visions of Copyright Law, 77 Fordham L. Rev. 2005 (2009).
He has been blogging since 2000 at the Laboratorium (http://laboratorium.net/). His home page is at http://james.grimmelmann.net/.
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Jonathan Masur received a BS in physics and an AB in political science from Stanford University in 1999 and his JD from Harvard Law School in 2003. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and for Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He taught at the Law School as a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law before joining the faculty in 2007.
His research and teaching interests include administrative law, legislation, behavioral law and economics, patent law, and criminal law.
President, TechFreedom
Berin Szoka serves as President of TechFreedom. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Before joining PFF, he was an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised clients on regulations affecting the Internet and telecommunications industries. Before joining Latham's Communications Practice Group, Szoka practiced at Lawler Metzger Milkman & Keeney, LLC, a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington, and clerked for the Hon. H. Dale Cook, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Szoka received his Bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Diane P. Wood received her BA in 1971 and her JD in 1975 from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduation, she clerked for Judge Irving L. Goldberg of the Fifth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court. She then worked briefly for the U.S. State Department on international investment, antitrust, and transfer of technology issues. Moving on to Covington & Burling, Judge Wood continued a more general antitrust and commercial litigation practice until June 1980. In 1980–81, she was an assistant professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. In 1981, she joined the faculty of the Law School. She spent 1985–86 on leave as a Visiting Professor at Cornell Law School, and she was on leave during the fall quarter 1986, while she worked on the project to revise the Department of Justice Antitrust Guide for International Operations. She served as Associate Dean from 1989 through 1992. From 1993 until 1995, she was deputy assistant general in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice with responsibility for the Division's International, Appellate, and Legal Policy matters. Before becoming a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1995, Judge Wood was the Harold J. and Marion F. Green Professor of International Legal Studies.
Judge Wood's research interests include antitrust (both international and general), federal civil procedure, and international trade and business. She has taught in all three fields.
Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP, Crowell & Moring LLP
Trevor K. Copeland is a partner in the law firm of Crowell & Moring LLP (formerly Brinks Gilson & Lione PC).
His patent prosecution experience includes work on medical devices, sunglasses, footwear, sprinklers and irrigation equipment, decorative statuary and water gardens, biotechnology and general mechanical arts. He works closely with clients having products in these areas to develop intellectual property acquisition and management strategies, as well as to protect new ideas and products while respecting the rights of others.
Mr. Copeland's further practice includes design protection, whereby clients are able to protect the unique and valuable ornamental designs of their products using patent, copyright, and/or trademark. He has also litigated utility patents on clients' behalf, and has worked on preliminary injunction lawsuits for both design and utility patents, including winning a preliminary injunction against a foreign company preparing to launch an infringing laser-level device with a suction base.
Mr. Copeland has former experience as a high school biology and chemistry teacher, and as a visiting scientist with a Fungal Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Laboratory Group.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School
James Grimmelmann is Associate Professor at New York Law School and a member of its Institute for Information Law and Policy. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of LawMeme and a member of the Yale Law Journal. Prior to law school, he received an A.B. in computer science from Harvard College and worked as a programmer for Microsoft. He has served as a Resident Fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale, as a legal intern for Creative Commons and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Maryanne Trump Barry of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
He studies how the law governing the creation and use of computer software affects individual freedom and the distribution of wealth and power in society. As a lawyer and technologist, he aims to help these two groups speak intelligibly to each other. He writes about intellectual property, virtual worlds, search engines, online privacy, and other topics in computer and Internet law. Recent publications include The Internet Is a Semicommons, 78 Fordham L. Rev. 2799 (2010), Saving Facebook, 94 Iowa L. Rev. 1137 (2009), and The Ethical Visions of Copyright Law, 77 Fordham L. Rev. 2005 (2009).
He has been blogging since 2000 at the Laboratorium (http://laboratorium.net/). His home page is at http://james.grimmelmann.net/.
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Jonathan Masur received a BS in physics and an AB in political science from Stanford University in 1999 and his JD from Harvard Law School in 2003. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and for Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He taught at the Law School as a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law before joining the faculty in 2007.
His research and teaching interests include administrative law, legislation, behavioral law and economics, patent law, and criminal law.
President, TechFreedom
Berin Szoka serves as President of TechFreedom. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Before joining PFF, he was an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised clients on regulations affecting the Internet and telecommunications industries. Before joining Latham's Communications Practice Group, Szoka practiced at Lawler Metzger Milkman & Keeney, LLC, a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington, and clerked for the Hon. H. Dale Cook, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Szoka received his Bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Diane P. Wood received her BA in 1971 and her JD in 1975 from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduation, she clerked for Judge Irving L. Goldberg of the Fifth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court. She then worked briefly for the U.S. State Department on international investment, antitrust, and transfer of technology issues. Moving on to Covington & Burling, Judge Wood continued a more general antitrust and commercial litigation practice until June 1980. In 1980–81, she was an assistant professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. In 1981, she joined the faculty of the Law School. She spent 1985–86 on leave as a Visiting Professor at Cornell Law School, and she was on leave during the fall quarter 1986, while she worked on the project to revise the Department of Justice Antitrust Guide for International Operations. She served as Associate Dean from 1989 through 1992. From 1993 until 1995, she was deputy assistant general in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice with responsibility for the Division's International, Appellate, and Legal Policy matters. Before becoming a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1995, Judge Wood was the Harold J. and Marion F. Green Professor of International Legal Studies.
Judge Wood's research interests include antitrust (both international and general), federal civil procedure, and international trade and business. She has taught in all three fields.
Telecommunications: Communications Law Reform
Jonathan D. Baker, Daniel A. Crane, Jennifer Walker Elrod, Robert M. McDowell, Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Ajit V. Pai
2012 National Lawyers Convention
The Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group hosted this panel on "Communications Law Reform" on...
In Search of Jefferson’s Moose - Faculty Book Podcast
David G. Post, Eugene Volokh
Faculty Division Podcast 10-19-12 featuring David Post and Eugene Volokh
In Search of Jefferson’s Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace explores the “new world” of cyberspace:...
Antitrust Enforcement as Regulation?
Ronald A. Cass, F. Scott Kieff, James T. Miller, Charles "Rick" Rule, Robert Skitol
Corporations, Securities, and Antitrust Practice Group
The popular press is full of reports of a renewed vigor in parts of our...
Antitrust Enforcement as Regulation?
Ronald A. Cass, F. Scott Kieff, James T. Miller, Charles "Rick" Rule, Robert Skitol
Corporations, Securities, and Antitrust Practice Group
The popular press is full of reports of a renewed vigor in parts of our...
Telecommunications: The Future of Spectrum Policy
Jennifer Walker Elrod, Brian F. Fontes, Janice Obuchowski, Thomas C. Power
2011 National Lawyers Convention
The Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group hosted this panel on "The Future of Spectrum...
Telecommunications: The Future of Spectrum Policy
Jennifer Walker Elrod, Brian F. Fontes, Janice Obuchowski, Thomas C. Power
2011 National Lawyers Convention
The Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group hosted this panel on "The Future of Spectrum...
The Google Review: Regulation of Search Results and More
Thomas O. Barnett, Ronald A. Cass, James Grimmelmann, Charles "Rick" Rule, Berin Szóka
Intellectual Property Practice Group
Google’s business practices are currently under review by the Federal Trade Commission, several state Attorneys...
The Google Review: Regulation of Search Results and More
Thomas O. Barnett, Ronald A. Cass, James Grimmelmann, Charles "Rick" Rule, Berin Szóka
Intellectual Property Practice Group
Google’s business practices are currently under review by the Federal Trade Commission, several state Attorneys...
The First Amendment Online: Search, Privacy & Personalization
Trevor K. Copeland, Richard A. Epstein, James Grimmelmann, Jonathan Masur, Berin Szóka, Diane P. Wood
The Chicago Lawyers Chapter and the Corporations, Securities and Antitrust, Intellectual Property and Telecommunications Practice Groups
Congress is aflutter with online privacy bills, while arguments for regulating search engines, social networks...
The First Amendment Online: Search, Privacy & Personalization
Trevor K. Copeland, Richard A. Epstein, James Grimmelmann, Jonathan Masur, Berin Szóka, Diane P. Wood
The Chicago Lawyers Chapter and the Corporations, Securities and Antitrust, Intellectual Property and Telecommunications Practice Groups
Congress is aflutter with online privacy bills, while arguments for regulating search engines, social networks...