United States Attorney, Eastern District of California
Mr. Grant was appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California beginning on August 11, 2025. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), he was further appointed by the district court effective December 9, 2025.
Mr. Grant is a veteran of the Department of Justice, having served twice in Washington, D.C.: from 1991 to 1993 as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel, and from 2017 to 2021 as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). During his tenure at ENRD, he supervised more than a hundred Department litigators advancing the interests of the United States and its agencies in both enforcement and defensive matters, both civil and criminal.
In addition to his service in the Department, Mr. Grant has decades of experience in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. That experience includes arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and numerous other federal and state courts.
Mr. Grant served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (retired) and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during the Supreme Court’s October 1994 Term. Earlier he served as a law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Grant grew up in Modesto, California and raised his family in Sacramento County. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics (1986) and a law degree (1990).
Emmett Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law in Environmental Law, Harvard Law School
Andrew Mergen is a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Prior to joining the Harvard Law School faculty, Andrew Mergen served in the Appellate Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division (ENRD) at the United States Department of Justice. Professor Mergen began his career at the Justice Department in the Honors Program and concluded his career as Chief of ENRD’s Appellate Section. He has presented oral arguments in all 13 federal courts of appeals, including two en banc courts, and before several state intermediate and supreme courts. He has also worked on over a dozen merits cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. In addition, in 2009, Professor Mergen assisted the Office of White House Counsel on the confirmation of the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. During his career at the Justice Department, Professor Mergen received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service three times. He also received ENRD’s Muskee-Chafee Award, honoring his work’s significant contribution to protecting the environment.
Before entering clinical teaching, Professor Mergen taught at several law schools including, Harvard Law School (Advanced Environmental Law), the University of Michigan Law School (Natural Resources Law) and the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii-Manoa (Administrative Law). Professor Mergen has written about federal water rights in “A Misplaced Sensitivity: The Draft Opinions in Wyoming v. United States” (68 Colo. L. Rev. 683 (1997), with Sylvia F. Liu); energy development on public lands in “Surface Tension: The Problem of Federal Private Split Estates” (33 Land & Water L. Rev. 419 (1998)); climate change and the Endangered Species Act in “The Role of Climate Change in ESA Listing Decisions” (53 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Fdn. 67 (2016), with Murray Feldman) and the accommodation of Native American sacred sites on federal land in “Finding the Path Forward for Indigenous Sacred and Cultural Spaces on Federal Public Land,” 68 Nat. Resources & Energy L. Inst. 32-1 (2022). Professor Mergen is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin—Madison and the George Washington University Law School.
Wendell H. Ford Professor of Law, University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law
Paul E. Salamanca graduated from Dartmouth College in 1983 and Boston College Law School in 1989, where he was a note editor for the Boston College Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.
Professor Salamanca served as a law clerk to Judge David H. Souter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and subsequently clerked for Justice Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. He practiced law with the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York from 1991 to 1994 and was a visiting assistant professor of law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans before joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Law in June 1995.
Professor Salamanca writes in the areas of separation of powers, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and privacy. He has published articles on these subjects in the University of Cincinnati Law Review, the Missouri Law Review, the Georgia Law Review and the Kentucky Law Journal, among other places.
From 2019 until 2021, Professor Salamanca served as a Senior Counsel and then as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the United States Department of Justice. His duties included supervision of the Natural Resources and Land Acquisition Sections of ENRD.
Professor of Law, Villanova University
Todd Aagaard joined the Villanova Law School faculty in 2008. He served as vice dean of the Law School from 2015 to 2019. His scholarship focuses on environmental law, energy law, and administrative law. His publications include Energy-Environment Policy Alignments, 90 Wash. L. Rev. 1517 (2015); Environmental Law Outside the Canon, 89 Ind. L.J. 1239 (2014); Environmental Harms, Use Conflicts, and Neutral Baselines in Environmental Law, 60 Duke L.J. 1505 (2011); Environmental Law as a Legal Field: An Inquiry in Legal Taxonomy, 95 Cornell L. Rev. 221 (2010); and Factual Premises of Statutory Interpretation in Agency Review Cases, 77 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. (2009). In addition, he is a co-author of Practicing Environmental Law, a practice-based environmental law casebook published in 2017 by Foundation Press.
Aagaard received his BA with honors from Pomona College, his MS from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and his JD magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. While at Michigan, he was the editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review and an executive editor of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law. Following completion of his JD and MS degrees, he clerked for Second Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi, before joining the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an attorney in the Appellate Section. At the Justice Department, he briefed and argued civil and criminal cases in federal courts of appeals in the areas of environmental law, natural resources law, Indian law and administrative law.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Judge Hardiman was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on January 9, 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate (95-0) on March 15, 2007. Prior to becoming an appellate judge, Judge Hardiman served as a trial judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as of November 1, 2003. In 2008, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Hardiman was appointed Chairman of the IT Committee in 2013 and served in that capacity until September 2021. In 2021 he was appointed by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to serve as Chair of the Judiciary IT Security Task Force, which completed its work in fall 2023. Chief Justice Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Board of the Federal Judicial Center to serve from March 2020 until March 2024. As part of his work with the Center, Judge Hardiman now serves as Editor in Chief for the Manual for Complex Civil Litigation, Fifth.
Before entering judicial service, Judge Hardiman handled a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts as a partner at Reed Smith LLP (1999-2003), a partner at Titus & McConomy LLP (1996-1999), and as an associate with its predecessor firm, Cindrich & Titus (1992-1996). Judge Hardiman began his legal career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (1990-1992).
A 1987 honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Judge Hardiman received his law degree in 1990 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a Notes and Comments Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. In 2012, Judge Hardiman was elected as a member of the American Law Institute and was elected to its Council in 2019 and its Executive Committee in 2025. Judge Hardiman regularly teaches a seminar on Advanced Constitutional Law at Duquesne University School of Law and a one-week course entitled “Constitutional Law: the First and Second Amendments” at Georgetown University Law Center.
A native of Waltham, Massachusetts, Judge Hardiman has chambers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Lori married in 1992 and have three children.
Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Lindsay S. See joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a Commissioner in June 2024. Before her current role, Commissioner See served as the Solicitor General of West Virginia, where she managed appellate and high-stakes litigation for the State. With a particular focus on energy and administrative law, her work included leading multi-state and multi-interest coalitions on a variety of national issues. She argued twice before the U.S. Supreme Court, filed multi-state comments in dozens of agency rulemakings, and routinely appeared before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and the federal courts of appeals.
Commissioner See previously practiced appellate and administrative law for several years with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and clerked for the Hon. Thomas B. Griffith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Originally from Michigan, See now considers herself both a proud Michigander and Mountaineer.
Holland & Hart, Partner
On February 28, 2019, the U.S. Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as the fifteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. President Donald J. Trump had announced his appointment as the Acting EPA Administrator on July 5, 2018. Mr. Wheeler had previously been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the EPA Deputy Administrator on April 12, 2018.
Mr. Wheeler has dedicated his career to advancing sound environmental policies. He began his career during the George H. W. Bush Administration as a Special Assistant in EPA’s Pollution Prevention and Toxics office.
He was a Principal and the team leader of the Energy and Environment Practice Group at FaegreBD Consulting, as well as Counsel at Faegre Baker Daniels law firm, where he practiced since 2009. He also served as the Co-chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Industry team across the entire firm.
Prior to his work with the firm, Mr. Wheeler served for six years as the Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel, as well as the Minority Staff Director, of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Before his time at the full Senate EPW Committee, Mr. Wheeler served in a similar capacity for six years for the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, Wetlands and Nuclear Safety.
Mr. Wheeler is the past Chairman of the National Energy Resource Organization (NERO) and a Stennis Fellow. Mr. Wheeler is also an Eagle Scout.
Mr. Wheeler is from Fairfield, Ohio. He completed his law degree at Washington University in St. Louis, his MBA at George Mason University, and his undergraduate work at Case Western Reserve University in English and Biology.
Professor of Law, Villanova University
Todd Aagaard joined the Villanova Law School faculty in 2008. He served as vice dean of the Law School from 2015 to 2019. His scholarship focuses on environmental law, energy law, and administrative law. His publications include Energy-Environment Policy Alignments, 90 Wash. L. Rev. 1517 (2015); Environmental Law Outside the Canon, 89 Ind. L.J. 1239 (2014); Environmental Harms, Use Conflicts, and Neutral Baselines in Environmental Law, 60 Duke L.J. 1505 (2011); Environmental Law as a Legal Field: An Inquiry in Legal Taxonomy, 95 Cornell L. Rev. 221 (2010); and Factual Premises of Statutory Interpretation in Agency Review Cases, 77 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. (2009). In addition, he is a co-author of Practicing Environmental Law, a practice-based environmental law casebook published in 2017 by Foundation Press.
Aagaard received his BA with honors from Pomona College, his MS from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and the Environment, and his JD magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. While at Michigan, he was the editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review and an executive editor of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law. Following completion of his JD and MS degrees, he clerked for Second Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi, before joining the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as an attorney in the Appellate Section. At the Justice Department, he briefed and argued civil and criminal cases in federal courts of appeals in the areas of environmental law, natural resources law, Indian law and administrative law.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Judge Hardiman was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on January 9, 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate (95-0) on March 15, 2007. Prior to becoming an appellate judge, Judge Hardiman served as a trial judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as of November 1, 2003. In 2008, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Hardiman was appointed Chairman of the IT Committee in 2013 and served in that capacity until September 2021. In 2021 he was appointed by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to serve as Chair of the Judiciary IT Security Task Force, which completed its work in fall 2023. Chief Justice Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Board of the Federal Judicial Center to serve from March 2020 until March 2024. As part of his work with the Center, Judge Hardiman now serves as Editor in Chief for the Manual for Complex Civil Litigation, Fifth.
Before entering judicial service, Judge Hardiman handled a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts as a partner at Reed Smith LLP (1999-2003), a partner at Titus & McConomy LLP (1996-1999), and as an associate with its predecessor firm, Cindrich & Titus (1992-1996). Judge Hardiman began his legal career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (1990-1992).
A 1987 honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Judge Hardiman received his law degree in 1990 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a Notes and Comments Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. In 2012, Judge Hardiman was elected as a member of the American Law Institute and was elected to its Council in 2019 and its Executive Committee in 2025. Judge Hardiman regularly teaches a seminar on Advanced Constitutional Law at Duquesne University School of Law and a one-week course entitled “Constitutional Law: the First and Second Amendments” at Georgetown University Law Center.
A native of Waltham, Massachusetts, Judge Hardiman has chambers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Lori married in 1992 and have three children.
Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Lindsay S. See joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a Commissioner in June 2024. Before her current role, Commissioner See served as the Solicitor General of West Virginia, where she managed appellate and high-stakes litigation for the State. With a particular focus on energy and administrative law, her work included leading multi-state and multi-interest coalitions on a variety of national issues. She argued twice before the U.S. Supreme Court, filed multi-state comments in dozens of agency rulemakings, and routinely appeared before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and the federal courts of appeals.
Commissioner See previously practiced appellate and administrative law for several years with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and clerked for the Hon. Thomas B. Griffith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Originally from Michigan, See now considers herself both a proud Michigander and Mountaineer.
Holland & Hart, Partner
On February 28, 2019, the U.S. Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as the fifteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. President Donald J. Trump had announced his appointment as the Acting EPA Administrator on July 5, 2018. Mr. Wheeler had previously been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the EPA Deputy Administrator on April 12, 2018.
Mr. Wheeler has dedicated his career to advancing sound environmental policies. He began his career during the George H. W. Bush Administration as a Special Assistant in EPA’s Pollution Prevention and Toxics office.
He was a Principal and the team leader of the Energy and Environment Practice Group at FaegreBD Consulting, as well as Counsel at Faegre Baker Daniels law firm, where he practiced since 2009. He also served as the Co-chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Industry team across the entire firm.
Prior to his work with the firm, Mr. Wheeler served for six years as the Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel, as well as the Minority Staff Director, of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Before his time at the full Senate EPW Committee, Mr. Wheeler served in a similar capacity for six years for the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, Wetlands and Nuclear Safety.
Mr. Wheeler is the past Chairman of the National Energy Resource Organization (NERO) and a Stennis Fellow. Mr. Wheeler is also an Eagle Scout.
Mr. Wheeler is from Fairfield, Ohio. He completed his law degree at Washington University in St. Louis, his MBA at George Mason University, and his undergraduate work at Case Western Reserve University in English and Biology.
Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice
T. Elliot Gaiser is the Office of Legal Counsel’s 27th Assistant Attorney General. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on April 29, 2025, confirmed by the United States Senate on July 30, 2025, and sworn in as AAG by Attorney General Pam Bondi on August 4, 2025.
Prior to joining the Office of Legal Counsel, Mr. Gaiser served as the 11th Solicitor General of Ohio. In that role, he represented his home state and its agencies before the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the Supreme Court of Ohio, and other state and federal courts. He also advised Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on significant legal and constitutional matters important to the people of Ohio.
Mr. Gaiser clerked for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Neomi Rao of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In the private sector, Mr. Gaiser worked at the law firms Jones Day, Boyden Gray, and Gibson Dunn. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and Hillsdale College. He is also a husband and father.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
Britt C. Grant is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Judge Grant was appointed to the federal bench in August 2018 after serving as a Justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia. Prior to her judicial appointment, she served as the Solicitor General of Georgia and practiced in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Grant served as a law clerk to then-Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She earned her J.D., with distinction, from Stanford Law School, where she was the Co-Founder of the Stanford National Security and the Law Society, and the President of the Stanford Law chapter of the Federalist Society. Before enrolling in law school, Judge Grant served in The White House in a variety of domestic policy roles as well as on the staff of Congressman Nathan Deal. Judge Grant earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Wake Forest University, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and three children.
Partner, Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC
At Olson Grimsley, Eric has co-led a trial team that obtained a $20 million antitrust verdict against Johns Manville, a construction material company owned by Berkshire Hathaway; co-leads a team seeking to secure the fair share for college athletes of the revenue they create; and fights for workers who built the Qatar stadiums who claim they are victims of human trafficking.
Before co-founding Olson Grimsley, Eric served as the Solicitor General of Colorado, where he was lead counsel on five merits cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. He led investigations of the Aurora Police and Fire Departments after the killing of Elijah McClain that resulted in one of the first state consent decrees in the country and the Catholic Church for child sex abuse. Eric also designed and executed settlement strategies with McKinsey that led to a $573 million, 49-state settlement for its work contributing to the opioid crisis and separately with local governments for a first-in-the-country agreement that brought $740 million in opioid settlements to Colorado. Eric received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Performance and the Mentor of the Year Award.
Eric previously was a trial lawyer at Bartlit Beck for 16 years where he tried cases to verdict in seven states, served in leadership roles in three major MDLs including trying an MDL class action case to verdict and arguing before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, and recovered over $900 million for plaintiffs in patent, antitrust, and employment cases.
Eric has also served as a mediator in complex business disputes, bringing his diverse experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants to help parties resolve complicated cases.
Eric was first ranked by Chambers in 2013 and is currently ranked in Appellate and Litigation. He was recently selected as one of Denver Business Journal’s Power Book of 45 Business Leaders to Watch and, along with all five founders of Olson Grimsley, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiffs Financial Lawyers.
Attorney General of Tennessee
Jonathan Skrmetti was sworn in to an eight-year term as Tennessee’s Attorney General and Reporter on September 1, 2022.
Prior to his current role, General Skrmetti served as Chief Counsel to Governor Bill Lee and as Chief Deputy Attorney General to his predecessor, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery.
Before working for the State of Tennessee, General Skrmetti was a partner at Butler Snow LLP in Memphis. His legal career began with nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor. He worked at the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice and then at the Memphis U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecuted sex traffickers, corrupt government officials, and violent white supremacists. In addition, General Skrmetti taught cyberlaw as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis.
General Skrmetti earned honors degrees from George Washington University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, Jonathan clerked for Judge Steven Colloton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and four children.
Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice
T. Elliot Gaiser is the Office of Legal Counsel’s 27th Assistant Attorney General. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on April 29, 2025, confirmed by the United States Senate on July 30, 2025, and sworn in as AAG by Attorney General Pam Bondi on August 4, 2025.
Prior to joining the Office of Legal Counsel, Mr. Gaiser served as the 11th Solicitor General of Ohio. In that role, he represented his home state and its agencies before the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the Supreme Court of Ohio, and other state and federal courts. He also advised Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on significant legal and constitutional matters important to the people of Ohio.
Mr. Gaiser clerked for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Neomi Rao of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In the private sector, Mr. Gaiser worked at the law firms Jones Day, Boyden Gray, and Gibson Dunn. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and Hillsdale College. He is also a husband and father.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
Britt C. Grant is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Judge Grant was appointed to the federal bench in August 2018 after serving as a Justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia. Prior to her judicial appointment, she served as the Solicitor General of Georgia and practiced in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Grant served as a law clerk to then-Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She earned her J.D., with distinction, from Stanford Law School, where she was the Co-Founder of the Stanford National Security and the Law Society, and the President of the Stanford Law chapter of the Federalist Society. Before enrolling in law school, Judge Grant served in The White House in a variety of domestic policy roles as well as on the staff of Congressman Nathan Deal. Judge Grant earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Wake Forest University, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and three children.
Partner, Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC
At Olson Grimsley, Eric has co-led a trial team that obtained a $20 million antitrust verdict against Johns Manville, a construction material company owned by Berkshire Hathaway; co-leads a team seeking to secure the fair share for college athletes of the revenue they create; and fights for workers who built the Qatar stadiums who claim they are victims of human trafficking.
Before co-founding Olson Grimsley, Eric served as the Solicitor General of Colorado, where he was lead counsel on five merits cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. He led investigations of the Aurora Police and Fire Departments after the killing of Elijah McClain that resulted in one of the first state consent decrees in the country and the Catholic Church for child sex abuse. Eric also designed and executed settlement strategies with McKinsey that led to a $573 million, 49-state settlement for its work contributing to the opioid crisis and separately with local governments for a first-in-the-country agreement that brought $740 million in opioid settlements to Colorado. Eric received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Performance and the Mentor of the Year Award.
Eric previously was a trial lawyer at Bartlit Beck for 16 years where he tried cases to verdict in seven states, served in leadership roles in three major MDLs including trying an MDL class action case to verdict and arguing before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, and recovered over $900 million for plaintiffs in patent, antitrust, and employment cases.
Eric has also served as a mediator in complex business disputes, bringing his diverse experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants to help parties resolve complicated cases.
Eric was first ranked by Chambers in 2013 and is currently ranked in Appellate and Litigation. He was recently selected as one of Denver Business Journal’s Power Book of 45 Business Leaders to Watch and, along with all five founders of Olson Grimsley, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiffs Financial Lawyers.
Attorney General of Tennessee
Jonathan Skrmetti was sworn in to an eight-year term as Tennessee’s Attorney General and Reporter on September 1, 2022.
Prior to his current role, General Skrmetti served as Chief Counsel to Governor Bill Lee and as Chief Deputy Attorney General to his predecessor, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery.
Before working for the State of Tennessee, General Skrmetti was a partner at Butler Snow LLP in Memphis. His legal career began with nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor. He worked at the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice and then at the Memphis U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecuted sex traffickers, corrupt government officials, and violent white supremacists. In addition, General Skrmetti taught cyberlaw as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis.
General Skrmetti earned honors degrees from George Washington University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, Jonathan clerked for Judge Steven Colloton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and four children.
Coleman P. Burke Chair in Environmental Law, School of Law, Case Western Reserve University
Victor B. Flatt is the Coleman P. Burke Chair in Environmental Law and the Associate Director of the Burke Center for Environmental Law at Case Western University School of Law. He also holds an appointment as an Energy Fellow UH Energy at the University of Houston.
Professor Flatt is a recognized expert on environmental law, climate law and energy law, and the intersection of these areas. Since 2019, he has created and taught the first law school courses in the country concerning how law relates to sustainability planning and ESG policies in corporations, offering the courses at UHLC, Vermont Law School and Case Western University School of Law.
His research focuses on environmental legislation and enforcement, with particular expertise in the Clean Air Act, NEPA and Climate. He is co-author of a popular environmental law casebook, and has authored more than 50 law review articles, which have appeared in journals such as the Notre Dame Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, The Ohio State Law Journal, Washington Law Review, Houston Law Review and the Carolina Law Review. Seven of his articles have been recognized as finalists or winner of the best environmental law review article of the year, and one was recognized by Vanderbilt University Law School and the Environmental Law Institute as one of the three best environmental articles of 2010, leading to a seminar and panel on the article in a congressional staff briefing.
He has been a Visiting Law Professor at the University of Georgia Law School, the University of Washington Law School and Seattle University School of Law. He has been honored as a Distinguished Environmental Scholar in Residence at Vermont Law School, Pace Law School (Elisabeth Haub Distinguished Scholar) and Widener University Delaware Law School. He was previously the inaugural O’Quinn Chair in Environmental Law at UHLC from 2002-2009, and the Dwight Olds Chair in Law at UHLC from 2017-2023. Professor Flatt was also the inaugural Taft Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law and the Director of the Center for Climate, Energy, Environment, and Economics (CE3) at UNC Chapel Hill School of Law.
Professor Flatt has served on the AALS committees on Natural Resources and Environmental Law and was chair of the AALS Teaching Methods Section. He has served on many other board and committees in his career, including the national board of Lambda Legal and the Law School Admission Council’s Gay and Lesbian Interests section.
Professor Flatt received his B.A. in Chemistry and Math from Vanderbilt University where he was a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholar, and his J.D. from Northwestern University, where he was a John Henry Wigmore Scholar. After graduating from Northwestern, Professor Flatt clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs of the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Legal Director and Securities Specialist, Better Markets
Mr. Hall has been with Better Markets since its founding more than 10 years ago, and he serves as its Legal Director and Securities Specialist. His background includes extensive experience in securities and commodities regulation acquired through positions in the Federal government, private practice, and the nonprofit sector.
Mr. Hall oversees a highly accomplished legal team that files amicus briefs in important cases involving financial regulation; initiates litigation or intervenes in cases when necessary to advance the public interest; issues special reports on specific topics surrounding the law and financial regulation; and provides regulatory analysis in the areas of banking, securities, and consumer protection. And his team supports the work of other staff members at Better Markets as they fight for the public interest before the regulatory agencies.
Mr. Hall is one of Better Markets’ most prolific authors, having written or co-written more than 100 comment letters, reports and legal briefs in his nearly decade-long fight for the public interest at the organization.
A sought-after expert for his legal and regulatory expertise, Mr. Hall has testified before Congress and currently serves on the Commission on Sanctions and Fitness of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.
Prior to joining Better Markets in early 2011, Mr. Hall served as Senior Counsel to the Committee on Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives. During the Conference leading to passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Mr. Hall worked on the titles dealing with securities and derivatives. He also handled other legislative initiatives relating to securities, including corporate governance, limited offering exemptions, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Securities Investor Protection Act.
From 2001 through 2009, Mr. Hall served as counsel to the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. (NASAA), the association of state securities regulators. He supported all aspects of NASAA’s mission, including regulatory analysis, appellate advocacy, and enforcement. His written work included over 15 amicus briefs addressing a wide range of investor protection issues arising under State and Federal securities law, including four briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also advised NASAA on corporate governance and transactional matters.
Mr. Hall began his legal career at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he became Senior Trial Attorney and Associate Director of Enforcement. At the CFTC, he specialized in bringing injunctive actions in federal court against fraudulent commodity sales operations. And for almost a decade in private practice, he handled a wide range of civil litigation matters as well as transactional work in commercial real estate.
Mr. Hall is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and he received his law degree from Georgetown University.
Policy Fellow, Regulatory Policy, Americans for Prosperity Foundation
Marc Marie is a fellow for regulatory policy at Americans for Prosperity, where he focuses on energy, land use, and the administrative state. Before joining Americans for Prosperity, Marc advised early-stage energy companies on regulatory strategy. His government service includes senior counsel at the Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division; acting deputy solicitor at the Department of the Interior; and counsel to Sen. Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Antitrust Subcommittee.
He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland and a bachelor's degree from Kenyon College.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner with Boyden Gray PLLC. He previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mr. McCotter maintains an extensive appellate practice. He has considerable experience identifying and briefing cases that draw the Supreme Court’s attention, having persuaded the Court to grant certiorari in numerous cases raising issues of sovereignty, constitutional rights, due process, and criminal law. He has authored and submitted over 60 briefs at the Court.
He has also personally argued more than fifteen federal appeals across the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Federal, and D.C. Circuits—including once arguing three separate appeals in just four days. He has also twice argued before the 17-judge en banc Fifth Circuit. He has been counsel in over 50 other appeals raising matters from FOIA and the APA to constitutional rights and statutory construction.
As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Mr. McCotter oversaw DOJ’s Civil Appellate and Federal Programs branches, which are responsible for defending nearly all major litigation against the federal government. During his three years as a federal trial attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” Mr. McCotter won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
During his DOJ tenures, Mr. McCotter also assisted with the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices and over a dozen lower-court judges.
Mr. McCotter served as an inaugural clerk to the Hon. Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Coleman P. Burke Chair in Environmental Law, School of Law, Case Western Reserve University
Victor B. Flatt is the Coleman P. Burke Chair in Environmental Law and the Associate Director of the Burke Center for Environmental Law at Case Western University School of Law. He also holds an appointment as an Energy Fellow UH Energy at the University of Houston.
Professor Flatt is a recognized expert on environmental law, climate law and energy law, and the intersection of these areas. Since 2019, he has created and taught the first law school courses in the country concerning how law relates to sustainability planning and ESG policies in corporations, offering the courses at UHLC, Vermont Law School and Case Western University School of Law.
His research focuses on environmental legislation and enforcement, with particular expertise in the Clean Air Act, NEPA and Climate. He is co-author of a popular environmental law casebook, and has authored more than 50 law review articles, which have appeared in journals such as the Notre Dame Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, The Ohio State Law Journal, Washington Law Review, Houston Law Review and the Carolina Law Review. Seven of his articles have been recognized as finalists or winner of the best environmental law review article of the year, and one was recognized by Vanderbilt University Law School and the Environmental Law Institute as one of the three best environmental articles of 2010, leading to a seminar and panel on the article in a congressional staff briefing.
He has been a Visiting Law Professor at the University of Georgia Law School, the University of Washington Law School and Seattle University School of Law. He has been honored as a Distinguished Environmental Scholar in Residence at Vermont Law School, Pace Law School (Elisabeth Haub Distinguished Scholar) and Widener University Delaware Law School. He was previously the inaugural O’Quinn Chair in Environmental Law at UHLC from 2002-2009, and the Dwight Olds Chair in Law at UHLC from 2017-2023. Professor Flatt was also the inaugural Taft Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law and the Director of the Center for Climate, Energy, Environment, and Economics (CE3) at UNC Chapel Hill School of Law.
Professor Flatt has served on the AALS committees on Natural Resources and Environmental Law and was chair of the AALS Teaching Methods Section. He has served on many other board and committees in his career, including the national board of Lambda Legal and the Law School Admission Council’s Gay and Lesbian Interests section.
Professor Flatt received his B.A. in Chemistry and Math from Vanderbilt University where he was a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Scholar, and his J.D. from Northwestern University, where he was a John Henry Wigmore Scholar. After graduating from Northwestern, Professor Flatt clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs of the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Legal Director and Securities Specialist, Better Markets
Mr. Hall has been with Better Markets since its founding more than 10 years ago, and he serves as its Legal Director and Securities Specialist. His background includes extensive experience in securities and commodities regulation acquired through positions in the Federal government, private practice, and the nonprofit sector.
Mr. Hall oversees a highly accomplished legal team that files amicus briefs in important cases involving financial regulation; initiates litigation or intervenes in cases when necessary to advance the public interest; issues special reports on specific topics surrounding the law and financial regulation; and provides regulatory analysis in the areas of banking, securities, and consumer protection. And his team supports the work of other staff members at Better Markets as they fight for the public interest before the regulatory agencies.
Mr. Hall is one of Better Markets’ most prolific authors, having written or co-written more than 100 comment letters, reports and legal briefs in his nearly decade-long fight for the public interest at the organization.
A sought-after expert for his legal and regulatory expertise, Mr. Hall has testified before Congress and currently serves on the Commission on Sanctions and Fitness of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.
Prior to joining Better Markets in early 2011, Mr. Hall served as Senior Counsel to the Committee on Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives. During the Conference leading to passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Mr. Hall worked on the titles dealing with securities and derivatives. He also handled other legislative initiatives relating to securities, including corporate governance, limited offering exemptions, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Securities Investor Protection Act.
From 2001 through 2009, Mr. Hall served as counsel to the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. (NASAA), the association of state securities regulators. He supported all aspects of NASAA’s mission, including regulatory analysis, appellate advocacy, and enforcement. His written work included over 15 amicus briefs addressing a wide range of investor protection issues arising under State and Federal securities law, including four briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also advised NASAA on corporate governance and transactional matters.
Mr. Hall began his legal career at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where he became Senior Trial Attorney and Associate Director of Enforcement. At the CFTC, he specialized in bringing injunctive actions in federal court against fraudulent commodity sales operations. And for almost a decade in private practice, he handled a wide range of civil litigation matters as well as transactional work in commercial real estate.
Mr. Hall is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and he received his law degree from Georgetown University.
Policy Fellow, Regulatory Policy, Americans for Prosperity Foundation
Marc Marie is a fellow for regulatory policy at Americans for Prosperity, where he focuses on energy, land use, and the administrative state. Before joining Americans for Prosperity, Marc advised early-stage energy companies on regulatory strategy. His government service includes senior counsel at the Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division; acting deputy solicitor at the Department of the Interior; and counsel to Sen. Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Antitrust Subcommittee.
He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland and a bachelor's degree from Kenyon College.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner with Boyden Gray PLLC. He previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mr. McCotter maintains an extensive appellate practice. He has considerable experience identifying and briefing cases that draw the Supreme Court’s attention, having persuaded the Court to grant certiorari in numerous cases raising issues of sovereignty, constitutional rights, due process, and criminal law. He has authored and submitted over 60 briefs at the Court.
He has also personally argued more than fifteen federal appeals across the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Federal, and D.C. Circuits—including once arguing three separate appeals in just four days. He has also twice argued before the 17-judge en banc Fifth Circuit. He has been counsel in over 50 other appeals raising matters from FOIA and the APA to constitutional rights and statutory construction.
As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Mr. McCotter oversaw DOJ’s Civil Appellate and Federal Programs branches, which are responsible for defending nearly all major litigation against the federal government. During his three years as a federal trial attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” Mr. McCotter won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
During his DOJ tenures, Mr. McCotter also assisted with the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices and over a dozen lower-court judges.
Mr. McCotter served as an inaugural clerk to the Hon. Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
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