Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
On March 20, 2018, Judge Elizabeth L. Branch (Lisa) was sworn in as a United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
Judge Branch attended and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina (B.A., cum laude, 1990), and Emory University School of Law (J.D., with distinction, 1994).
After graduating from law school, Judge Branch served as a federal law clerk to The Honorable J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia from 1994 to 1996. Following her clerkship, Judge Branch joined the litigation department of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta as an associate and then a partner.
From 2004 to 2008, Judge Branch was a senior official in the Administration of President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. She served first as the Associate General Counsel for Rules and Legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and then as the Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U. S. Office of Management and Budget.
She returned to Smith Gambrell in 2008 as a litigation partner. Judge Branch then was appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia by Governor Nathan Deal, taking office on September 4, 2012, where she served until March 19, 2018.
Judge Branch is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA Law
Beth Colgan is Assistant Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. Her primary research and teaching interests are in criminal law and procedure and juvenile justice. Prior to joining the Law School, she was a Thomas C. Grey Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School.
Professor Colgan earned her B.A. from Stanford University and her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was Note and Comment Editor of the Northwestern Law Review, a member of the National Moot Court Team, and the recipient of the Wigmore Key award. After law school, she worked as an associate for Perkins Coie LLP (2000-05), where she litigated a variety of matters in federal and state court and engaged in extensive pro bono work focusing primarily on access to competent indigent defense counsel in rural Washington and post-conviction representation of juveniles tried in adult criminal courts. From 2006-11, Professor Colgan worked as the Managing Attorney of the Institutions Project at Columbia Legal Services, representing juveniles and adults confined in prisons, jails, mental health facilities, and immigration detention in civil rights litigation, collateral appeals, and legislative advocacy. Professor Colgan has been recognized for her work on criminal and juvenile justice reform, including the Washington State Bar Association Thomas Neville Pro Bono Award, the Northwestern University Children & Family Justice Center Alumni Award, and the Stanford Law School Pro Bono Distinction Award. She continues to serve the criminal justice community as a consultant on issues related to punishment, access to counsel, and juvenile justice.
Professor Colgan’s scholarship centers on the relationship between constitutional interpretation and the practical effects of the law. She is particularly interested in the intersection between criminal law and poverty, the treatment of juveniles in juvenile and adult criminal contexts, and the systemic consequences of constitutional interpretation (e.g., underfunding of indigent defense systems). Her recent scholarship has appeared in the California Law Review, Iowa Law Review, Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, UCLA Law Review, and William and Mary Law Review.
Amelia D. Lewis Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University
Erik Luna is the Amelia D. Lewis Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Professor Luna teaches and writes primarily in the areas of criminal law and criminal procedure. Luna has received two Fulbright awards. In 2000, he served as the senior Fulbright Scholar to New Zealand at Victoria University Law School (Wellington, NZ). In 2016-17, he was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Birmingham (Birmingham, UK). Luna has also been a visiting scholar with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Freiburg, DE), a visiting professor with the Cuban Society of Penal Sciences (Havana, CU), a visiting professional in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (The Hague, NL), and a research fellow with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn, DE). Prior to coming to ASU, Luna was the Sydney & Frances Lewis Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University, and before that, he was the Hugh B. Brown Chair in Law at the University of Utah. Luna is a member of the American Law Institute and an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California and received his J.D. with honors from Stanford Law School. Upon graduation, Luna was a prosecutor in the San Diego District Attorney’s Office and a fellow and lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.
Executive Vice President, Goldwater Institute
Christina Sandefur is the Executive Vice President at the Goldwater Institute. She develops policies and litigates cases advancing healthcare freedom, free enterprise, private property rights, free speech, and taxpayer rights.
Christina is a co-drafter of the Right to Try initiative, now federal law, which protects terminally ill patients' right to try safe investigational treatments that have been prescribed by their physician but are not yet FDA-approved. She has won important victories for property rights in Arizona and works nationally to promote the Institute's Private Property Rights Protection Act, a state-level reform that requires government to pay owners when regulations destroy property rights and reduce property values.
Christina is the co-author of the book Cornerstone of Liberty: Private Property Rights in 21st Century America (2016). She is a frequent guest on national television and radio programs, has provided expert legal testimony to various legislative committees, and is a frequent speaker at conferences. She is the recipient of the 2018 Buckley Award in recognition of her leadership in the freedom movement, and she is an Advisory Board Member of the Network of enlightened Women. Christina serves on the board of the Phoenix Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and is a member of the executive committee for the Federalist Society's Regulatory Transparency Project: FDA & Health.
Christina is a graduate of Michigan State University College of Law and Hillsdale College.
Senior Fellow, Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Peter J. Wallison holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Financial Policy Studies and is co-director of AEI’s program on Financial Policy Studies. Prior to joining AEI, he practiced banking, corporate and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., and New York. Mr. Wallison has held a number of government positions. From June 1981 to January 1985, he was General Counsel of the United States Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan Administration's proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry. During 1986 and 1987, Mr. Wallison was White House counsel to President Ronald Reagan, and between 1972 and 1976, he served first as Special Assistant to New York's Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and, subsequently, as counsel to Mr. Rockefeller as vice president of the United States.
Mr. Wallison was admitted to practice before the courts of New York and the District of Columbia, and is retired from practice in New York. He continues to be a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1963 and law degree from Harvard Law School in 1966.
Mr. Wallison is the author of Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency, published in December 2002 by Westview Press. On campaign finance, he is the author (with Joel Gora) of Better Parties, Better Government, (AEI Press 2009). On financial or regulatory matters, he is the author of Back From the Brink, a proposal for a private deposit insurance system, and co-author of Nationalizing Mortgage Risk: The Growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; The GAAP Gap: Corporate Disclosure in the Internet Age; Competitive Equity: A Better Way to Organize Mutual Funds; Bad History, Worse Policy: How a False Narrative about the Financial Crisis Led to the Dodd-Frank Act (AEI Press 2013); and Hidden In Plain Sight: What Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis and Why it Could Happen Again (Encounter Books 2015). His most recent book is Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State, published by Encounter Books in October 2018.
He testifies frequently before committees of Congress, and is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal and other print and online journals. He has also been a speaker at many conferences on financial services, housing, the causes of the financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act, accounting, and corporate governance, and was a member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee between 1995 and 2015. He was a member of the SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting (2008), co-Chair of the Pew Financial Reform Task Force (2009), and a member of the congressionally- appointed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (2009-2011). In May 2011, for his work in financial policy, Mr. Wallison received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Colorado.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
On March 20, 2018, Judge Elizabeth L. Branch (Lisa) was sworn in as a United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
Judge Branch attended and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina (B.A., cum laude, 1990), and Emory University School of Law (J.D., with distinction, 1994).
After graduating from law school, Judge Branch served as a federal law clerk to The Honorable J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia from 1994 to 1996. Following her clerkship, Judge Branch joined the litigation department of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta as an associate and then a partner.
From 2004 to 2008, Judge Branch was a senior official in the Administration of President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. She served first as the Associate General Counsel for Rules and Legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and then as the Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U. S. Office of Management and Budget.
She returned to Smith Gambrell in 2008 as a litigation partner. Judge Branch then was appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia by Governor Nathan Deal, taking office on September 4, 2012, where she served until March 19, 2018.
Judge Branch is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA Law
Beth Colgan is Assistant Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. Her primary research and teaching interests are in criminal law and procedure and juvenile justice. Prior to joining the Law School, she was a Thomas C. Grey Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School.
Professor Colgan earned her B.A. from Stanford University and her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was Note and Comment Editor of the Northwestern Law Review, a member of the National Moot Court Team, and the recipient of the Wigmore Key award. After law school, she worked as an associate for Perkins Coie LLP (2000-05), where she litigated a variety of matters in federal and state court and engaged in extensive pro bono work focusing primarily on access to competent indigent defense counsel in rural Washington and post-conviction representation of juveniles tried in adult criminal courts. From 2006-11, Professor Colgan worked as the Managing Attorney of the Institutions Project at Columbia Legal Services, representing juveniles and adults confined in prisons, jails, mental health facilities, and immigration detention in civil rights litigation, collateral appeals, and legislative advocacy. Professor Colgan has been recognized for her work on criminal and juvenile justice reform, including the Washington State Bar Association Thomas Neville Pro Bono Award, the Northwestern University Children & Family Justice Center Alumni Award, and the Stanford Law School Pro Bono Distinction Award. She continues to serve the criminal justice community as a consultant on issues related to punishment, access to counsel, and juvenile justice.
Professor Colgan’s scholarship centers on the relationship between constitutional interpretation and the practical effects of the law. She is particularly interested in the intersection between criminal law and poverty, the treatment of juveniles in juvenile and adult criminal contexts, and the systemic consequences of constitutional interpretation (e.g., underfunding of indigent defense systems). Her recent scholarship has appeared in the California Law Review, Iowa Law Review, Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, UCLA Law Review, and William and Mary Law Review.
Amelia D. Lewis Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University
Erik Luna is the Amelia D. Lewis Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law in the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Professor Luna teaches and writes primarily in the areas of criminal law and criminal procedure. Luna has received two Fulbright awards. In 2000, he served as the senior Fulbright Scholar to New Zealand at Victoria University Law School (Wellington, NZ). In 2016-17, he was the Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Birmingham (Birmingham, UK). Luna has also been a visiting scholar with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Freiburg, DE), a visiting professor with the Cuban Society of Penal Sciences (Havana, CU), a visiting professional in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (The Hague, NL), and a research fellow with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn, DE). Prior to coming to ASU, Luna was the Sydney & Frances Lewis Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University, and before that, he was the Hugh B. Brown Chair in Law at the University of Utah. Luna is a member of the American Law Institute and an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California and received his J.D. with honors from Stanford Law School. Upon graduation, Luna was a prosecutor in the San Diego District Attorney’s Office and a fellow and lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.
Executive Vice President, Goldwater Institute
Christina Sandefur is the Executive Vice President at the Goldwater Institute. She develops policies and litigates cases advancing healthcare freedom, free enterprise, private property rights, free speech, and taxpayer rights.
Christina is a co-drafter of the Right to Try initiative, now federal law, which protects terminally ill patients' right to try safe investigational treatments that have been prescribed by their physician but are not yet FDA-approved. She has won important victories for property rights in Arizona and works nationally to promote the Institute's Private Property Rights Protection Act, a state-level reform that requires government to pay owners when regulations destroy property rights and reduce property values.
Christina is the co-author of the book Cornerstone of Liberty: Private Property Rights in 21st Century America (2016). She is a frequent guest on national television and radio programs, has provided expert legal testimony to various legislative committees, and is a frequent speaker at conferences. She is the recipient of the 2018 Buckley Award in recognition of her leadership in the freedom movement, and she is an Advisory Board Member of the Network of enlightened Women. Christina serves on the board of the Phoenix Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and is a member of the executive committee for the Federalist Society's Regulatory Transparency Project: FDA & Health.
Christina is a graduate of Michigan State University College of Law and Hillsdale College.
Senior Fellow, Arthur F. Burns Fellow in Financial Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Peter J. Wallison holds the Arthur F. Burns Chair in Financial Policy Studies and is co-director of AEI’s program on Financial Policy Studies. Prior to joining AEI, he practiced banking, corporate and financial law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., and New York. Mr. Wallison has held a number of government positions. From June 1981 to January 1985, he was General Counsel of the United States Treasury Department, where he had a significant role in the development of the Reagan Administration's proposals for deregulation in the financial services industry. During 1986 and 1987, Mr. Wallison was White House counsel to President Ronald Reagan, and between 1972 and 1976, he served first as Special Assistant to New York's Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and, subsequently, as counsel to Mr. Rockefeller as vice president of the United States.
Mr. Wallison was admitted to practice before the courts of New York and the District of Columbia, and is retired from practice in New York. He continues to be a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1963 and law degree from Harvard Law School in 1966.
Mr. Wallison is the author of Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency, published in December 2002 by Westview Press. On campaign finance, he is the author (with Joel Gora) of Better Parties, Better Government, (AEI Press 2009). On financial or regulatory matters, he is the author of Back From the Brink, a proposal for a private deposit insurance system, and co-author of Nationalizing Mortgage Risk: The Growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; The GAAP Gap: Corporate Disclosure in the Internet Age; Competitive Equity: A Better Way to Organize Mutual Funds; Bad History, Worse Policy: How a False Narrative about the Financial Crisis Led to the Dodd-Frank Act (AEI Press 2013); and Hidden In Plain Sight: What Caused the World’s Worst Financial Crisis and Why it Could Happen Again (Encounter Books 2015). His most recent book is Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State, published by Encounter Books in October 2018.
He testifies frequently before committees of Congress, and is a frequent contributor to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal and other print and online journals. He has also been a speaker at many conferences on financial services, housing, the causes of the financial crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act, accounting, and corporate governance, and was a member of the Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee between 1995 and 2015. He was a member of the SEC Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting (2008), co-Chair of the Pew Financial Reform Task Force (2009), and a member of the congressionally- appointed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (2009-2011). In May 2011, for his work in financial policy, Mr. Wallison received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the University of Colorado.
Legal Director & General Counsel, Criminal Justice Legal Foundation
Kent S. Scheidegger has been the Legal Director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation since December 1986. He also served as Chairman of the Criminal Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society 2003 to 2005. His articles on criminal and constitutional law have been published in law reviews, national legal publications, and congressional reports. Legal arguments authored by Mr. Scheidegger have been cited and incorporated in several precedent-setting United States Supreme Court decisions.
After receiving a degree in physics with honors from New Mexico State University in 1976, Mr. Scheidegger served for six years in the United States Air Force as a Nuclear Research Officer. He took his law degree with distinction from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1982 and practiced civil law in Northern California. He was general counsel of California Cooler, Inc. from 1984 until 1986, when he joined the Foundation.
United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, U.S. Department of Justice
Robert K. Hur is the 48th United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. As U.S. Attorney, he is the chief federal law enforcement officer in the District of Maryland. Mr. Hur oversees the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought on behalf of the United States in the District of Maryland. He supervises an office of approximately 88 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 72 support personnel, who handle a high volume of matters including domestic and international terrorism, narcotics trafficking, organized crime, gang violence, public corruption, cybercrime, financial and healthcare fraud, and civil rights violations. He also serves as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys (“AGAC”), which provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure, and management impacting the Offices of the United States Attorneys.
Before taking office as U.S. Attorney on April 9, 2018, Mr. Hur served as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General with the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. In that position, Mr. Hur was a member of the Department’s senior leadership team and the top aide to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, assisting him with oversight of all components of the Department.
Mr. Hur served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Maryland from 2007 to 2014, where he prosecuted gang violence, firearms offenses, and narcotics trafficking, as well as white-collar offenses including financial institutions fraud, public corruption, mortgage fraud, tax offenses, computer network intrusions, and intellectual property theft. He received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for superior performance and excellence as a lawyer.
Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Hur served as Special Assistant and later Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, where he handled counterterrorism, corporate fraud, and appellate matters.
In addition to his service with the Department of Justice, Mr. Hur was a litigation partner with a major law firm in Washington, D.C., where he represented companies and individuals facing criminal and regulatory enforcement actions before the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal agencies, as well as related civil litigation.
Mr. Hur began his legal career as a law clerk for the late William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States, and Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Hur received his A.B. degree, magna cum laude with highest honors, from Harvard College. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, U.S. Department of Justice
Jessie K. Liu was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 14, 2017, as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and took office on September 24, 2017.
Ms. Liu was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia from 2002 to 2006, prosecuting violent crime, drug trafficking, firearms, and fraud offenses in both the Superior Court and Criminal Divisions, and briefing and arguing appeals in the D.C. Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit. She subsequently served in several senior positions in the U.S. Department of Justice, including as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General for national security matters, and Deputy Chief of Staff for the National Security Division. Most recently, she was Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, advising the Secretary of the Treasury and other senior Treasury officials on national security, law enforcement, and intelligence issues.
In addition, Ms. Liu has been a partner at the law firms of Morrison & Foerster LLP and Jenner & Block LLP, where her practice focused on litigation, investigations, and compliance.
Ms. Liu clerked for then-Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas. She received her A.B., summa cum laude, from Harvard University in 1995 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1998.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Partner, Vinson & Elkins, and former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
Zachary (“Zach”) Terwilliger, the former Senate confirmed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, has extensive experience in all manner of federal investigations and trials. Those frontline skills combine with his mastery of involved management roles overseeing operational programs, setting policy parameters, and managing teams to accomplish strategic objectives. He gained this experience over a decades-long career in public service where he advanced from an office intern to serve as the presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed United States Attorney. He rounds out his Washington experience by having served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and Chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General, whose office manages the entire Department of Justice and its various agencies, and as counsel to the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In a testament to his professionalism, he was the sole and unanimous recommendation of Virginia’s two Democratic Senators to serve as U.S. Attorney. Following this recommendation, the President’s nomination, and confirmation by the entire U.S. Senate, Zach was sworn in as the then youngest U.S. Attorney in the country.
Zach’s knowledge of how the Justice Department and federal enforcement agencies function in both civil and criminal matters, particularly in regards to discretionary decision making, provides him with unique insights necessary to effectively assist companies and individuals facing federal enforcement matters, including allegations of domestic and international criminal and civil violations. Zach is skilled in navigating internal and government investigations, allegations of bribery under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, complex criminal grand jury investigations, criminal antitrust matters, and Congressional inquiries and select committee investigations, among other complex white collar issues.
As U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Zach supervised a team of over 300 lawyers and support staff. He also managed multiple key corporate resolutions, and significantly enhanced the District’s white-collar footprint through collaboration with DOJ’s Fraud Section, as well as with other enforcement entities like the newly created Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery and the Procurement Collusion Strike Force. He is also a veteran litigator with years of investigative and in-court experience in trials, pre-trial proceedings, and appeals.
United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, U.S. Department of Justice
Robert K. Hur is the 48th United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. As U.S. Attorney, he is the chief federal law enforcement officer in the District of Maryland. Mr. Hur oversees the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought on behalf of the United States in the District of Maryland. He supervises an office of approximately 88 Assistant U.S. Attorneys and 72 support personnel, who handle a high volume of matters including domestic and international terrorism, narcotics trafficking, organized crime, gang violence, public corruption, cybercrime, financial and healthcare fraud, and civil rights violations. He also serves as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of United States Attorneys (“AGAC”), which provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure, and management impacting the Offices of the United States Attorneys.
Before taking office as U.S. Attorney on April 9, 2018, Mr. Hur served as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General with the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. In that position, Mr. Hur was a member of the Department’s senior leadership team and the top aide to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, assisting him with oversight of all components of the Department.
Mr. Hur served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Maryland from 2007 to 2014, where he prosecuted gang violence, firearms offenses, and narcotics trafficking, as well as white-collar offenses including financial institutions fraud, public corruption, mortgage fraud, tax offenses, computer network intrusions, and intellectual property theft. He received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for superior performance and excellence as a lawyer.
Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Hur served as Special Assistant and later Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, where he handled counterterrorism, corporate fraud, and appellate matters.
In addition to his service with the Department of Justice, Mr. Hur was a litigation partner with a major law firm in Washington, D.C., where he represented companies and individuals facing criminal and regulatory enforcement actions before the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal agencies, as well as related civil litigation.
Mr. Hur began his legal career as a law clerk for the late William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States, and Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Hur received his A.B. degree, magna cum laude with highest honors, from Harvard College. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, U.S. Department of Justice
Jessie K. Liu was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on September 14, 2017, as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and took office on September 24, 2017.
Ms. Liu was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia from 2002 to 2006, prosecuting violent crime, drug trafficking, firearms, and fraud offenses in both the Superior Court and Criminal Divisions, and briefing and arguing appeals in the D.C. Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit. She subsequently served in several senior positions in the U.S. Department of Justice, including as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General for national security matters, and Deputy Chief of Staff for the National Security Division. Most recently, she was Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, advising the Secretary of the Treasury and other senior Treasury officials on national security, law enforcement, and intelligence issues.
In addition, Ms. Liu has been a partner at the law firms of Morrison & Foerster LLP and Jenner & Block LLP, where her practice focused on litigation, investigations, and compliance.
Ms. Liu clerked for then-Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas. She received her A.B., summa cum laude, from Harvard University in 1995 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1998.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Partner, Vinson & Elkins, and former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia
Zachary (“Zach”) Terwilliger, the former Senate confirmed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, has extensive experience in all manner of federal investigations and trials. Those frontline skills combine with his mastery of involved management roles overseeing operational programs, setting policy parameters, and managing teams to accomplish strategic objectives. He gained this experience over a decades-long career in public service where he advanced from an office intern to serve as the presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed United States Attorney. He rounds out his Washington experience by having served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and Chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General, whose office manages the entire Department of Justice and its various agencies, and as counsel to the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In a testament to his professionalism, he was the sole and unanimous recommendation of Virginia’s two Democratic Senators to serve as U.S. Attorney. Following this recommendation, the President’s nomination, and confirmation by the entire U.S. Senate, Zach was sworn in as the then youngest U.S. Attorney in the country.
Zach’s knowledge of how the Justice Department and federal enforcement agencies function in both civil and criminal matters, particularly in regards to discretionary decision making, provides him with unique insights necessary to effectively assist companies and individuals facing federal enforcement matters, including allegations of domestic and international criminal and civil violations. Zach is skilled in navigating internal and government investigations, allegations of bribery under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, complex criminal grand jury investigations, criminal antitrust matters, and Congressional inquiries and select committee investigations, among other complex white collar issues.
As U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Zach supervised a team of over 300 lawyers and support staff. He also managed multiple key corporate resolutions, and significantly enhanced the District’s white-collar footprint through collaboration with DOJ’s Fraud Section, as well as with other enforcement entities like the newly created Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery and the Procurement Collusion Strike Force. He is also a veteran litigator with years of investigative and in-court experience in trials, pre-trial proceedings, and appeals.
Vice Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Law, UCLA Law
Joanna Schwartz is Vice Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. She teaches Civil Procedure and a variety of courses on police accountability and public interest lawyering. In 2015, she received UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award.
Professor Schwartz is one of the country's leading experts on police misconduct litigation. Professor Schwartz additionally studies the dynamics of modern civil litigation. She is co-author, with Stephen Yeazell, of a leading casebook, Civil Procedure (9th Edition), and her scholarship has appeared in the New York University Law Review, the Texas Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal, among others.
Professor Schwartz is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School. After law school, Professor Schwartz clerked for Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York and Judge Harry Pregerson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was then associated with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, in New York City, where she specialized in police misconduct, prisoners' rights, and First Amendment litigation.
Police Auditor, Fairfax County, Virginia
Richard Schott is Fairfax County's first independent police auditor. He assumed the position in April 2017.
Schott has spent his entire 27-year FBI career as a special agent working with local law enforcement officers, and for the past 16 years has provided training to members of state and local law enforcement agencies, including legal issues associated with police officers’ use of force and deadly force.
He has extensive experience with Color of Law violations, including reviewing police reports and citizen complaints, recommending to U.S. Department of Justice attorneys whether or not to proceed with investigations and conducting the ensuing investigations.
Schott is also an instructor at the FBI Academy in Quantico, where he has taught thousands of new agents on basic constitutional criminal procedure and the legal ramifications involved when an agent uses force.
He was previously the associate division counsel for the Atlanta Division of the FBI, where he supervised the division’s forfeiture program. As a special agent for the Birmingham Division, he orchestrated security for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games’ soccer events in the area.
Schott has published 12 articles on various legal topics and is a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Schott is also an adjunct faculty member for the University of Virginia.
Schott received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of New Orleans and his juris doctorate from the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.
Professor of Law and Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government, University of Mississippi School of Law
Christopher Green (https://law.olemiss.edu/faculty-directory/christopher-green/) is Professor of Law and Jamie L. Whitten Chair in Law and Government at the University of Mississippi, where he has taught since 2006. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, and has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He clerked for Judge Rhesa H. Barksdale on the Fifth Circuit and is the author of Equal Citizenship, Civil Rights, and the Constitution: The Original Sense of the Privileges or Immunities Clause (2015) and a large number of articles and essays on constitutional theory and the Fourteenth Amendment, including the two-part Original Sense of the (Equal) Protection Clause and Clarity and Reasonable Doubt in Early State-Constitutional Judicial Review. He is an affiliated scholar with the University of San Diego Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism.
Partner, Wiley Rein
Brandon defends companies and their executives in complex civil and criminal cases involving alleged healthcare fraud, the False Claims Act (FCA), whistleblower allegations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), antitrust, regulatory violations, and contract and procurement fraud. She has extensive experience shepherding life sciences companies, government contractors, not-for-profits, and technology companies through internal investigations and responding to subpoenas and civil investigative demands (CIDs). She also advises a broad range of companies on compliance programs, privacy, telecommunications, compliance, Team Telecom, and new media issues.
Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
Mark represents government contractors and telecommunications companies facing federal investigations, whistleblower complaints, and civil enforcement actions. He navigates responses to civil investigative demands from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as inquiries and subpoenas from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Inspectors General, and Congress. He also leads internal investigations for companies to assess potential misconduct by employees. Mark is a co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Communications Enforcement & Compliance Group.
Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig LLP
Troy A. Eid focuses his litigation, mediation and transactional practice on government enforcement, investigations and compliance, environmental law, energy and natural resource development, and Federal Indian law and Native American and Alaska Native tribal law. Troy is a trusted advocate and mediator in the Rocky Mountain West and in federal, state and tribal trial and appellate courtrooms across the country.
Topics
Untangling The Guantanamo Military Commissions
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, (then-former) Attorney General William Barr told the Senate...
Panel 3: Economic Liberty in Criminal Justice: Business Crimes and Economic Sanctions
Lisa Branch, Beth Colgan, Erik Luna, Christina Sandefur, Peter J. Wallison
2019 National Student Symposium
On March 15-16, 2019, the Federalist Society's student chapter at the ASU Sandra Day O'Connor...
Panel 3: Economic Liberty in Criminal Justice: Business Crimes and Economic Sanctions
Lisa Branch, Beth Colgan, Erik Luna, Christina Sandefur, Peter J. Wallison
2019 National Student Symposium
On March 15-16, 2019, the Federalist Society's student chapter at the ASU Sandra Day O'Connor...
Courthouse Steps Decision Teleforum: Bucklew v. Precythe
Kent Scheidegger
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group
Monday, April 1st, the Supreme Court ruled on the 8th amendment case Bucklew v. Precythe....
Examining 21st Century Law Enforcement
Robert Hur, Jessie K. Liu, Dean Reuter, G. Zachary Terwilliger
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group
The law enforcement landscape is ever-changing, with modern issues such as the challenges associated with electronically...
Examining 21st Century Law Enforcement
Robert Hur, Jessie K. Liu, Dean Reuter, G. Zachary Terwilliger
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group
The law enforcement landscape is ever-changing, with modern issues such as the challenges associated with electronically...
Qualified Immunity In America: An Overview & Conversation [POLICYbrief]
Joanna C. Schwartz, Richard Schott
Short video featuring Joanna Schwartz and Richard Scott
Created by the Supreme Court in 1967, the legal doctrine of qualified immunity shields government...
Timbs v. Indiana - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Christopher R. Green
SCOTUScast featuring Christopher Green
On February 20, 2019, the Supreme Court decided Timbs v. Indiana, a case involving the...
The False Claims Act: Who Is The Responsible Government Official?
Brandon Moss, Mark B. Sweet
This teleforum will discuss the Supreme Court argument in United States ex rel. Hunt v....
Carpenter v. Murphy - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Troy A. Eid
SCOTUScast featuring Troy Eid
On November 27, 2018, the Supreme Court heard argument in Carpenter v. Murphy, a case...