Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit (ret.)
The Honorable Janice Rogers Brown was confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 8, 2005. She retired from the court in 2017. From 1996 to 2005, she was an associate justice of the California Supreme Court. Prior to this, she served as associate justice of the Third District Court of Appeals in Sacramento and as legal affairs secretary to California Governor Pete Wilson. Earlier in her career, she served as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for California’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency after having worked in the criminal appellate and civil trial divisions of the California Attorney General’s Office. She currently chairs the Advisory Board of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, and serves on the Board of the Coolidge Foundation and the Association of College Trustees and Alumni. She is the Darling Foundation Jurist-in-Residence and visiting professor of Law at the University of California Boalt School of Law. Brown has been honored with the Jurisprudence Award of Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Baroness Thatcher Award of the Pacific Research Institute, the Edwin Meese III, Originalism and Religious Liberty Award from the Alliance Defending Freedom, the James Wilson Institute Leadership and the Law Award, and the 2019 Bradley Award. She earned her law degree from the University of California – Los Angeles School of Law, and a Master of Laws in judicial process from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships, First Liberty Institute
Lisa Budzynski Ezell is the former Vice President and Director of the Federalist Society’s Lawyers Chapters. In this role, she managed a growing network of over 90 lawyers chapters nationwide, including oversight of leadership recruitment, chapter programming, state conferences, civics education outreach, and young lawyers activities. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary’s College in Political Science and History and a Master of Public Policy from George Mason University.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit (ret.)
The Honorable Janice Rogers Brown was confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 8, 2005. She retired from the court in 2017. From 1996 to 2005, she was an associate justice of the California Supreme Court. Prior to this, she served as associate justice of the Third District Court of Appeals in Sacramento and as legal affairs secretary to California Governor Pete Wilson. Earlier in her career, she served as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for California’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency after having worked in the criminal appellate and civil trial divisions of the California Attorney General’s Office. She currently chairs the Advisory Board of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, and serves on the Board of the Coolidge Foundation and the Association of College Trustees and Alumni. She is the Darling Foundation Jurist-in-Residence and visiting professor of Law at the University of California Boalt School of Law. Brown has been honored with the Jurisprudence Award of Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Baroness Thatcher Award of the Pacific Research Institute, the Edwin Meese III, Originalism and Religious Liberty Award from the Alliance Defending Freedom, the James Wilson Institute Leadership and the Law Award, and the 2019 Bradley Award. She earned her law degree from the University of California – Los Angeles School of Law, and a Master of Laws in judicial process from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships, First Liberty Institute
Lisa Budzynski Ezell is the former Vice President and Director of the Federalist Society’s Lawyers Chapters. In this role, she managed a growing network of over 90 lawyers chapters nationwide, including oversight of leadership recruitment, chapter programming, state conferences, civics education outreach, and young lawyers activities. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary’s College in Political Science and History and a Master of Public Policy from George Mason University.
Fuller E. Callaway Chair of Law, University of Georgia School of Law
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch joined the School of Law faculty in 2011. She was promoted to the rank of full professor in 2015 and served a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in 2017. After holding the Charles H. Kirbo Chair of Law for two years, she assumed the Fuller E. Callaway Chair of Law in 2019. She is the author of Mass Tort Deals: Backroom Bargaining in Multidistrict Litigation (Cambridge University Press 2019) and her teaching and research interests include civil procedure, class actions and mass torts.
Burch is an award-winning scholar whose groundbreaking work on multidistrict litigation and class actions won the American Law Institute’s Early Career Scholars Medal in 2015, the Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize for Professional Responsibility Scholarship in 2016 and the Mangano Dispute Resolution Advancement Award in 2019.
Burch has published over 30 articles and essays in respected journals such as the New York University Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Cornell Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Boston University Law Review and George Washington Law Review, among others. She co-authors a casebook titled The Law of Class Actions and Other Aggregate Litigation with the late Richard A. Nagareda, Robert G. Bone, Charles Silver, and Patrick Woolley.
Burch has delivered over 70 lectures at research institutions across the United States and abroad to diverse audiences—from law professors at their annual meeting to federal judges at their judicial retreats, lawyers and jurists at the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association, and psychologists at the International Congress on the Psychology of Law. She was elected as a member of the American Law Institute in 2013, and she is a frequent commentator in various international and national news media such as National Public Radio’s Marketplace, BBC World News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The L.A. Times.
Before joining the School of Law's faculty, she was an assistant professor at Florida State University College of Law, where she received the university-wide Graduate Teaching Award and was voted “Professor of the Year” by second- and third-year students. Burch began her academic career in 2006 at Cumberland School of Law, part of Samford University, where she received the Harvey S. Jackson Excellence in Teaching Award and the Lightfoot, Franklin & White Faculty Scholarship Award. In 2014, she received the School of Law’s John C. O’Byrne Memorial Award for Significant Contributions Furthering Student-Faculty Relations.
Before entering the legal academy, Burch worked as an associate at Holland & Knight in Atlanta, where she practiced in the area of complex litigation, including securities class actions. She has served as the mass torts subcommittee chair for the American Bar Association's Class Action and Derivative Suits Committee, on the executive board for the Association of American Law Schools’ Scholarship Committee and as a co-editor of the Mass Tort Litigation Blog.
She earned her bachelor's degree cum laude from Vanderbilt University and her Juris Doctor cum laude from Florida State University, where she served as the writing and research editor for the Florida State University Law Review.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
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, Seeger Weiss LLP
Chris is a founding partner of Seeger Weiss and one of the nation’s leading attorneys in the areas of complex and mass tort actions. He has earned leadership appointments from state and federal courts throughout the U.S. in many noteworthy multi-district litigations, including pharmaceutical actions involving Vioxx, Zyprexa, Gadolinium, and DePuy ASR, among others. In 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania appointed Chris to lead the multi-district litigation against the National Football League arising out of concussion-related injuries sustained by thousands of former NFL players. In the face of significant legal challenges, he was able to negotiate an uncapped global settlement with an estimated value of over one billion dollars. In 2016, he was appointed to the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee for the MDL concerning the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. Chris served on the Settlement Committee and was one of the lead negotiators of a $14.7 billion settlement which includes a massive buyback program for consumers and billions of dollars for environmental remediation. He was also appointed Plaintiffs' Co-Lead Counsel for the Testosterone Replacement Therapy litigation in the Northern District of Illinois; as Co-Lead Counsel in the Proton Pump Inhibitor multidistrict litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey; to the Executive and Settlement Committees for the National Prescription Opiate litigation in the Northern District of Ohio; to the Plaintiffs’ Settlement Committee, serving as Lead Negotiator, for the Syngenta GMO Corn litigation, resulting in a $1.5 billion nationwide settlement. Recent appointments include: Co-Lead Counsel in the 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation, in the Northern District of Florida, where Chris represents thousands of U.S. military members who have suffered hearing loss and tinnitus; and Co-Lead Counsel in the Intel CPU Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability litigation in the District of Oregon. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute; a member of the Board of Advisors to the NYU School of Law, Center on Civil Justice; and serves on the Leadership Council to the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School.
Fuller E. Callaway Chair of Law, University of Georgia School of Law
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch joined the School of Law faculty in 2011. She was promoted to the rank of full professor in 2015 and served a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in 2017. After holding the Charles H. Kirbo Chair of Law for two years, she assumed the Fuller E. Callaway Chair of Law in 2019. She is the author of Mass Tort Deals: Backroom Bargaining in Multidistrict Litigation (Cambridge University Press 2019) and her teaching and research interests include civil procedure, class actions and mass torts.
Burch is an award-winning scholar whose groundbreaking work on multidistrict litigation and class actions won the American Law Institute’s Early Career Scholars Medal in 2015, the Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize for Professional Responsibility Scholarship in 2016 and the Mangano Dispute Resolution Advancement Award in 2019.
Burch has published over 30 articles and essays in respected journals such as the New York University Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Cornell Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Boston University Law Review and George Washington Law Review, among others. She co-authors a casebook titled The Law of Class Actions and Other Aggregate Litigation with the late Richard A. Nagareda, Robert G. Bone, Charles Silver, and Patrick Woolley.
Burch has delivered over 70 lectures at research institutions across the United States and abroad to diverse audiences—from law professors at their annual meeting to federal judges at their judicial retreats, lawyers and jurists at the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association, and psychologists at the International Congress on the Psychology of Law. She was elected as a member of the American Law Institute in 2013, and she is a frequent commentator in various international and national news media such as National Public Radio’s Marketplace, BBC World News, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The L.A. Times.
Before joining the School of Law's faculty, she was an assistant professor at Florida State University College of Law, where she received the university-wide Graduate Teaching Award and was voted “Professor of the Year” by second- and third-year students. Burch began her academic career in 2006 at Cumberland School of Law, part of Samford University, where she received the Harvey S. Jackson Excellence in Teaching Award and the Lightfoot, Franklin & White Faculty Scholarship Award. In 2014, she received the School of Law’s John C. O’Byrne Memorial Award for Significant Contributions Furthering Student-Faculty Relations.
Before entering the legal academy, Burch worked as an associate at Holland & Knight in Atlanta, where she practiced in the area of complex litigation, including securities class actions. She has served as the mass torts subcommittee chair for the American Bar Association's Class Action and Derivative Suits Committee, on the executive board for the Association of American Law Schools’ Scholarship Committee and as a co-editor of the Mass Tort Litigation Blog.
She earned her bachelor's degree cum laude from Vanderbilt University and her Juris Doctor cum laude from Florida State University, where she served as the writing and research editor for the Florida State University Law Review.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
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, Seeger Weiss LLP
Chris is a founding partner of Seeger Weiss and one of the nation’s leading attorneys in the areas of complex and mass tort actions. He has earned leadership appointments from state and federal courts throughout the U.S. in many noteworthy multi-district litigations, including pharmaceutical actions involving Vioxx, Zyprexa, Gadolinium, and DePuy ASR, among others. In 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania appointed Chris to lead the multi-district litigation against the National Football League arising out of concussion-related injuries sustained by thousands of former NFL players. In the face of significant legal challenges, he was able to negotiate an uncapped global settlement with an estimated value of over one billion dollars. In 2016, he was appointed to the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee for the MDL concerning the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. Chris served on the Settlement Committee and was one of the lead negotiators of a $14.7 billion settlement which includes a massive buyback program for consumers and billions of dollars for environmental remediation. He was also appointed Plaintiffs' Co-Lead Counsel for the Testosterone Replacement Therapy litigation in the Northern District of Illinois; as Co-Lead Counsel in the Proton Pump Inhibitor multidistrict litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey; to the Executive and Settlement Committees for the National Prescription Opiate litigation in the Northern District of Ohio; to the Plaintiffs’ Settlement Committee, serving as Lead Negotiator, for the Syngenta GMO Corn litigation, resulting in a $1.5 billion nationwide settlement. Recent appointments include: Co-Lead Counsel in the 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation, in the Northern District of Florida, where Chris represents thousands of U.S. military members who have suffered hearing loss and tinnitus; and Co-Lead Counsel in the Intel CPU Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability litigation in the District of Oregon. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute; a member of the Board of Advisors to the NYU School of Law, Center on Civil Justice; and serves on the Leadership Council to the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School.
Member, Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney, PLLC
Currently a litigator in private practice, Carmine has served the public as counsel and director for executive and regulatory agencies in Kentucky. Most recently as Chief of Staff and as General Counsel to the Kentucky Attorney General, he provided comprehensive strategic, policy, political, and legal advice and counsel to the Attorney General and the office’s divisions on issues involving complex litigation, government law, ethics, and compliance.
He previously served as Executive Director of the Attorney General’s Office of Civil & Environmental Law, where he oversaw trial litigation throughout the Commonwealth as well as appeals under the Open Meetings and Open Records Acts, and Opinions of the Attorney General. In this role, he was chiefly responsible for defending state statutes challenged as unconstitutional and for the defense of executive and judicial branch officials. While at the Attorney General’s office, he authored an Opinion of the Attorney General which concluded that ESG investment practices are inconsistent with Kentucky law governing public pensions—the first such opinion in the country.
Before joining the Office of the Attorney General, Carmine served as Governor-appointed General Counsel of the Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet, where he was chief counsel to the Cabinet and its 12 agencies charged with regulating horse racing, financial institutions, insurance, alcoholic beverages, construction, professional licensing, and charitable gaming. While at the Cabinet, he litigated throughout state and federal court, including a case defending the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s declaration of the winner of the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby.
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.
Partner, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
Misha leads Troutman Peppers' national appellate and Supreme Court practice. Most recently, he successfully obtained orders from the Supreme Court blocking an unconstitutional restriction on places of worship, as well as overturning a lower court order that had blocked several state election laws. He has also argued and prevailed before the Supreme Court in Gill v. Whitford, one of the most significant redistricting cases in decades, as well as Murr v. Wisconsin, a high-stakes regulatory taking case.
Before joining Troutman, Misha served as Solicitor General of the State of Wisconsin. Misha previously served as a law clerk for the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court, Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit, and Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was President of the Federalist Society Chapter.
Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky
Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove has served as a District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky since his confirmation by the United States Senate on December 21, 2005. Prior to his appointment to the Court, Judge Van Tatenhove served over four years as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He has been an adjunct professor at the College of Law since the Spring Semester of 2017, where he teaches Crime and Punishment: Sentencing Policy and Procedure (LAW 902). Judge Van Tatenhove is presently a member of the University of Kentucky College of Law Board of Visitors as well as the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation board. Past service includes a term as President of the Asbury University Alumni Board and Vice-Chair of the Asbury Board of Trustees. He is also a Member of the Kentucky Bar Association Commission on the Future of Law Practice.
Member, Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney, PLLC
Currently a litigator in private practice, Carmine has served the public as counsel and director for executive and regulatory agencies in Kentucky. Most recently as Chief of Staff and as General Counsel to the Kentucky Attorney General, he provided comprehensive strategic, policy, political, and legal advice and counsel to the Attorney General and the office’s divisions on issues involving complex litigation, government law, ethics, and compliance.
He previously served as Executive Director of the Attorney General’s Office of Civil & Environmental Law, where he oversaw trial litigation throughout the Commonwealth as well as appeals under the Open Meetings and Open Records Acts, and Opinions of the Attorney General. In this role, he was chiefly responsible for defending state statutes challenged as unconstitutional and for the defense of executive and judicial branch officials. While at the Attorney General’s office, he authored an Opinion of the Attorney General which concluded that ESG investment practices are inconsistent with Kentucky law governing public pensions—the first such opinion in the country.
Before joining the Office of the Attorney General, Carmine served as Governor-appointed General Counsel of the Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet, where he was chief counsel to the Cabinet and its 12 agencies charged with regulating horse racing, financial institutions, insurance, alcoholic beverages, construction, professional licensing, and charitable gaming. While at the Cabinet, he litigated throughout state and federal court, including a case defending the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s declaration of the winner of the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby.
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.
Partner, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
Misha leads Troutman Peppers' national appellate and Supreme Court practice. Most recently, he successfully obtained orders from the Supreme Court blocking an unconstitutional restriction on places of worship, as well as overturning a lower court order that had blocked several state election laws. He has also argued and prevailed before the Supreme Court in Gill v. Whitford, one of the most significant redistricting cases in decades, as well as Murr v. Wisconsin, a high-stakes regulatory taking case.
Before joining Troutman, Misha served as Solicitor General of the State of Wisconsin. Misha previously served as a law clerk for the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court, Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit, and Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was President of the Federalist Society Chapter.
Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky
Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove has served as a District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky since his confirmation by the United States Senate on December 21, 2005. Prior to his appointment to the Court, Judge Van Tatenhove served over four years as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He has been an adjunct professor at the College of Law since the Spring Semester of 2017, where he teaches Crime and Punishment: Sentencing Policy and Procedure (LAW 902). Judge Van Tatenhove is presently a member of the University of Kentucky College of Law Board of Visitors as well as the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation board. Past service includes a term as President of the Asbury University Alumni Board and Vice-Chair of the Asbury Board of Trustees. He is also a Member of the Kentucky Bar Association Commission on the Future of Law Practice.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Sam Gedge is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice. He joined IJ in June 2015 and litigates cases to promote economic liberty, protect political speech, and secure individuals’ rights to private property.
In 2017, Sam was named IJ’s second Elfie Gallun Fellow for Freedom and the Constitution. The fellowship comes with an emphasis on publishing written materials and speaking to students and others about the vital role the U.S. Constitution plays in protecting our most precious freedoms.
In his time at IJ, Sam has launched cases battling civil forfeiture and overzealous licensing boards, which generated widespread coverage and conversation in media outlets from Wired and The Atlantic to London’s Daily Mail.
Before joining IJ, Sam was an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP, in Washington, D.C., where he focused on litigation and election law. He is a former law clerk to Judge Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Sam received his law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2010.
Attorney, Institute for Justice
John Wrench is a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Institute for Justice.
John grew up outside of Ithaca, New York, and received his law degree from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 2019. During law school, he served as editor in chief of the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law and was a member of the Federalist Society. John interned in his law school’s First Amendment Litigation Clinic and was a judicial extern to the Honorable Paul E. Davison in the Southern District of New York. John graduated from Pace University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religious Studies.
Vice President for the Program on Technology, Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties, Lincoln Network
Arthur Rizer is the Vice President for the Program on Technology, Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties at Lincoln Network. In addition to his work at Lincoln, Arthur is a visiting lecturer at University College London, and an adjunct professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. Arthur is also a member of Columbia University Justice Lab’s Executive Session for the Future of Justice Policy, the Federalist Society’s Executive Committee of the Criminal Law Practice Group, the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and other advisory bodies.
Before joining Lincoln, Arthur was founding director of the R Street Institute’s program on criminal justice and civil liberties. Prior to that, Arthur taught at West Virginia University’s College of Law, and was a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He also served as a trial attorney with the U.S. Justice Department, primarily as a federal prosecutor in the Criminal Division, where he targeted command-and-control drug cartel leaders and narco-terrorists. He also served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and in the civil division. Earlier in his career, Arthur served in the U.S. Army, originally enlisting as a private before later receiving a commission. He served as an armor officer, later becoming the commander of a military police company and a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps assistant professor. He deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, with the mission to train the Iraqi Infantry and served as an MP acting battalion commander and executive officer. He retired as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army (WVNG). During his Army career, Arthur received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service and Iraq Campaign medals.
Arthur is the author of three books: Lincoln’s Counsel (2010); The National Security Implications of Immigration Law (2013); and Jefferson’s Pen: The Art of Persuasion (2016).
Arthur earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Pacific Lutheran University; a master of laws, with distinction, from Georgetown University’s Law Center; and his JD, magna cum laude, from Gonzaga University School of Law. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Command Staff College. He is in the final stages of a doctorate at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, Centre of Criminology that focuses on policing.
Assistant Professor of Law and Assistant Director of the Academic Success Program, Vermont Law School
Professor Richard Sala is the Assistant Director of the Academic Success Program and an Assistant Professor of Law. He joined the VLS faculty in 2019.
Professor Sala enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1997, and served as an infantryman for more than a decade, achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant. Professor Sala’s enlisted time included service with Marine Corps Ground Defense/Security Force, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and 6th Marines Regimental Headquarters, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina —during which time he deployed with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, Special Operations Capable, participating in operations in and around the former Yugoslavia, including Operation Dynamic Response in Kosovo.
In 2001, Professor Sala was selected for commissioned service through the Broadened Opportunity for Officer Selection and Training program. Professor Sala graduated from the University of Colorado in 2003 with bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and International Affairs, a minor in Italian, and a certificate in Central and Eastern European History. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 2007 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program. After completing The Basic School and Infantry Officer Course, he reported to 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, in Camp Pendleton, California, where he served as a platoon commander, and company executive officer with Company C—completing a deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In 2010, Professor Sala was selected for service a Judge Advocate through the Excess Leave Program. He attended Vermont Law School graduating with a Juris Doctorate (Cum Laude) and a Masters in Environmental Law and Policy (Magna Cum Laude). He was also the recipient of the Maximilian W. Kempner Award.
After completing law school, Professor Sala reported to Legal Services Support Team, Camp Pendleton where he served as a criminal prosecutor with Legal Team Echo and later, as a criminal prosecutor and Officer-in-Charge of Legal Team Delta.
In 2015, Professor Sala joined 1st Battalion, 4th Marines aboard Camp Pendleton, California, where he served as Judge Advocate to the Commanding Officer of Marine Rotational Force-Darwin—completing a deployment to Darwin, Australia in support of bilateral and multilateral training with the Australian Defense Force and regional allies and partners throughout the Indo-Pacific.
Upon returning from Australia, Professor Sala served as Assistant Deputy Staff Judge Advocate to the Commanding General of the 1st Marine Division.
In 2016, Professor Sala was selected to serve as Assistant Professor and Marine Officer Instructor at the University of Rochester where he also earned a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School.
Professor Sala retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2018.
Upon retiring, Professor Sala joined the New Hampshire Department of Justice serving as the Attorney to the Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education.
His personal decorations include the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (x2) and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (x2). He is also the recipient of the Lieutenant Colonel Vic Taylor/Major General Edwin B. Wheeler Award for being the Distinguished Graduate of Infantry Officer’s Course, Class 2-08.
Address by Judge Janice Rogers Brown
Janice Rogers Brown, Lisa Ezell
2020 National Lawyers Convention
On November 12, 2020, The Federalist Society hosted a virtual address by Judge Janice Rodgers...
Address by Judge Janice Rogers Brown
Janice Rogers Brown, Lisa Ezell
2020 National Lawyers Convention
On November 12, 2020, The Federalist Society hosted a virtual address by Judge Janice Rodgers...
Litigation: Are MDL Judges Too Powerful?
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Britt C. Grant, Christopher A. Seeger
2020 National Lawyers Convention
On November 10, 2020, The Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for...
Litigation: Are MDL Judges Too Powerful?
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Britt C. Grant, Christopher A. Seeger
2020 National Lawyers Convention
On November 10, 2020, The Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group hosted a virtual panel for...
A Discussion on Nationwide Injunctions
Carmine G. Iaccarino, Paul E. Salamanca, Misha Tseytlin, Gregory F. Van Tatenhove
2020 Kentucky Chapters Conference
On October 14-15, the Federalist Society's Kentucky lawyers chapters hosted their annual conference via online...
A Discussion on Nationwide Injunctions
Carmine G. Iaccarino, Paul E. Salamanca, Misha Tseytlin, Gregory F. Van Tatenhove
2020 Kentucky Chapters Conference
On October 14-15, the Federalist Society's Kentucky lawyers chapters hosted their annual conference via online...
Open Questions in Lieu v. Federal Election Commission: Due Process, Adverseness, & Article III Standing
Sam Gedge, John Wrench
Federalist Society Review, Volume 21
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
Topics
Supreme Silence: A Decade of Second Amendment Litigation in the Circuits
The Federalist Society is pleased to announce its Student Blog Initiative, a project of the...
United States v. Briggs- Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Arthur Rizer, Richard K. Sala
featuring Arthur Rizer and Richard Sala
On October 13, 2020, The Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding United States v. Collins...
Topics
Rights for Thee, But Not for Mai
The Federalist Society is pleased to announce its Student Blog Initiative, a project of the...