Partner, Friedland Cianfrani LLP
Joe has focused on IP litigation for his entire 25-year legal career. In that time, he has successfully represented clients in high-stakes intellectual property disputes at both the trial and appellate levels. Joe combines a strong technical background with a thorough understanding of his clients’ business goals and then tailors the legal strategy to achieve those goals.
Joe's practice primarily involves representing litigants in federal district court in patent and trademark cases, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where he served as a law clerk to Judge Arthur Gajarsa. Joe has represented clients on more than 50 appeals and petitions for inter partes review involving computer peripherals, optics, electronics, software, pharmaceuticals, DNA sequencing, and medical devices.
Before founding Friedland Cianfrani, Joe was a partner at Knobbe Martens for two decades, where he served as the Chair of the firm’s Litigation Department and the co-chair of the appellate practice group. Joe is a leader in the intellectual property bar community and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Intellectual Property Association and has chaired the Association’s amicus and legislative committees. He has authored numerous amicus briefs for the AIPLA and other bar associations on a variety of intellectual property issues and is a frequent lecturer on intellectual property law and litigation strategy. Joe is also an active community leader and has coached local high school mock trial teams for the past several years.
Joe has also been consistently recognized with numerous awards as a “Rising Star,” "Super Lawyer," and "Best Lawyer," including Lawyer of the Year award by Best Lawyers in 2021.
Partner, Patrick Doerr
Mr. Rando has represented clients in matters involving computer hardware and software, silicon chip manufacturing, biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemical compounds, food additives, alternative energy, AI, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, consumer electronics, communications, internet, and e-commerce. He has appeared in courts across the country, including the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals.
As appellate counsel, Mr. Rando has served as counsel of record or co-counsel in more than 30 amicus briefs filed before the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Circuit on issues of patent law, statutory interpretation, separation of powers, and constitutional law. Noteworthy filings include eBay Inc. v. MercExchange (2006), Oil States v. Greene’s Energy (2017), American Axle v. Neapco (2021), Amgen v. Sanofi (2023), and Cellect v. Vidal (2024).
Mr. Rando is a Fellow of the Academy of Court-Appointed Masters, having served by judicial appointment as Special Master in numerous complex patent cases, including multi-day Markman hearings and post-discovery proceedings. He also serves as a court-appointed Mediator and Neutral in both patent and commercial disputes.
He has played an active role in judicial and legislative engagement. Mr. Rando co-developed and conducted lecture series for the SDNY and EDNY Patent Pilot Program Judges and Clerks, covering the America Invents Act and Section 101 eligibility post-Alice and Mayo. He represented both the Federal Bar Association (FBA) and New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) at the Tillis/Coons Section 101 Patent Reform Roundtable, and submitted written testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019.
Mr. Rando is a former president of the NYIPLA (2023–2024) and has held nearly every leadership position in the organization. He also served as Chair of the FBA’s Intellectual Property Law Section and was a founding member and president of the FBA’s EDNY Chapter. He is a founding member of the Association of Amicus Counsel, and an active contributor to the Federalist Society IP Practice Group Executive Committee.
He frequently lectures at CLE programs, universities, and legal associations on IP, constitutional law, and appellate advocacy. He has been quoted extensively in publications such as Law360, Bloomberg Law, WIPR, and National Law Journal. His scholarly publications include articles in The Federal Lawyer, Touro Law Review, and IPWatchdog.
Partner, Kasowitz LLP
Amit R. Vora is Chair of Kasowitz LLP's Appellate & Constitutional Litigation practice group. He has extensive experience litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts nationwide. He represents companies and individuals in administrative, commercial, and patent disputes, and matters involving the First Amendment, separation of powers, due process, and other constitutional issues. For example, he represented former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and Professors Steven G. Calabresi and Garry S. Lawson as amici in SEC v. Jarkesy in the U.S. Supreme Court, SpaceX v. NLRB in the Fifth Circuit, and United States ex rel. Zafirov in the Eleventh Circuit.
Amit previously served as Assistant Solicitor General with the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Amit was also a Supervising Attorney and Teaching Fellow with Georgetown University Law Center’s Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic, and he clerked for Judge Edward C. Prado of the Fifth Circuit.
Amit is the author of several practice-oriented and scholarly pieces, including The Third Circuit’s Sun Valley Decision: An Illumination of Jarkesy’s Article III Implications, Washington Legal Foundation (2025); Constitutional Crowding and Article II, 85 Albany Law Review 857 (2022); and Defending an Under-21 Firearm Ban Under the Second Amendment, 71 Stanford Law Review Online 1 (2018).
Amit holds an LL.M. in appellate advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a B.A. in cognitive science from Yale College.
Partner, Friedland Cianfrani LLP
Joe has focused on IP litigation for his entire 25-year legal career. In that time, he has successfully represented clients in high-stakes intellectual property disputes at both the trial and appellate levels. Joe combines a strong technical background with a thorough understanding of his clients’ business goals and then tailors the legal strategy to achieve those goals.
Joe's practice primarily involves representing litigants in federal district court in patent and trademark cases, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where he served as a law clerk to Judge Arthur Gajarsa. Joe has represented clients on more than 50 appeals and petitions for inter partes review involving computer peripherals, optics, electronics, software, pharmaceuticals, DNA sequencing, and medical devices.
Before founding Friedland Cianfrani, Joe was a partner at Knobbe Martens for two decades, where he served as the Chair of the firm’s Litigation Department and the co-chair of the appellate practice group. Joe is a leader in the intellectual property bar community and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Intellectual Property Association and has chaired the Association’s amicus and legislative committees. He has authored numerous amicus briefs for the AIPLA and other bar associations on a variety of intellectual property issues and is a frequent lecturer on intellectual property law and litigation strategy. Joe is also an active community leader and has coached local high school mock trial teams for the past several years.
Joe has also been consistently recognized with numerous awards as a “Rising Star,” "Super Lawyer," and "Best Lawyer," including Lawyer of the Year award by Best Lawyers in 2021.
Partner, Patrick Doerr
Mr. Rando has represented clients in matters involving computer hardware and software, silicon chip manufacturing, biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemical compounds, food additives, alternative energy, AI, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, consumer electronics, communications, internet, and e-commerce. He has appeared in courts across the country, including the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals.
As appellate counsel, Mr. Rando has served as counsel of record or co-counsel in more than 30 amicus briefs filed before the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Circuit on issues of patent law, statutory interpretation, separation of powers, and constitutional law. Noteworthy filings include eBay Inc. v. MercExchange (2006), Oil States v. Greene’s Energy (2017), American Axle v. Neapco (2021), Amgen v. Sanofi (2023), and Cellect v. Vidal (2024).
Mr. Rando is a Fellow of the Academy of Court-Appointed Masters, having served by judicial appointment as Special Master in numerous complex patent cases, including multi-day Markman hearings and post-discovery proceedings. He also serves as a court-appointed Mediator and Neutral in both patent and commercial disputes.
He has played an active role in judicial and legislative engagement. Mr. Rando co-developed and conducted lecture series for the SDNY and EDNY Patent Pilot Program Judges and Clerks, covering the America Invents Act and Section 101 eligibility post-Alice and Mayo. He represented both the Federal Bar Association (FBA) and New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) at the Tillis/Coons Section 101 Patent Reform Roundtable, and submitted written testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019.
Mr. Rando is a former president of the NYIPLA (2023–2024) and has held nearly every leadership position in the organization. He also served as Chair of the FBA’s Intellectual Property Law Section and was a founding member and president of the FBA’s EDNY Chapter. He is a founding member of the Association of Amicus Counsel, and an active contributor to the Federalist Society IP Practice Group Executive Committee.
He frequently lectures at CLE programs, universities, and legal associations on IP, constitutional law, and appellate advocacy. He has been quoted extensively in publications such as Law360, Bloomberg Law, WIPR, and National Law Journal. His scholarly publications include articles in The Federal Lawyer, Touro Law Review, and IPWatchdog.
Partner, Kasowitz LLP
Amit R. Vora is Chair of Kasowitz LLP's Appellate & Constitutional Litigation practice group. He has extensive experience litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts nationwide. He represents companies and individuals in administrative, commercial, and patent disputes, and matters involving the First Amendment, separation of powers, due process, and other constitutional issues. For example, he represented former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and Professors Steven G. Calabresi and Garry S. Lawson as amici in SEC v. Jarkesy in the U.S. Supreme Court, SpaceX v. NLRB in the Fifth Circuit, and United States ex rel. Zafirov in the Eleventh Circuit.
Amit previously served as Assistant Solicitor General with the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Amit was also a Supervising Attorney and Teaching Fellow with Georgetown University Law Center’s Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic, and he clerked for Judge Edward C. Prado of the Fifth Circuit.
Amit is the author of several practice-oriented and scholarly pieces, including The Third Circuit’s Sun Valley Decision: An Illumination of Jarkesy’s Article III Implications, Washington Legal Foundation (2025); Constitutional Crowding and Article II, 85 Albany Law Review 857 (2022); and Defending an Under-21 Firearm Ban Under the Second Amendment, 71 Stanford Law Review Online 1 (2018).
Amit holds an LL.M. in appellate advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a B.A. in cognitive science from Yale College.
Director, Faculty Relations, The Federalist Society
Katie McClendon is the Director of Faculty Relations at the Federalist Society, where she has worked since 2015.
Katie holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from Biola University, where she was a member of the Torrey Honors Institute. She is a fellow of the John Jay Institute and the Blackstone Legal Fellowship. Katie is originally from Los Angeles, and she now lives with her husband and four children in Atlanta.
Partner and Co-Chair, Public Policy Group, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Mark Behrens co-chairs Shook's Washington, DC-based Public Policy Practice Group and is a leading national expert on civil justice issues with over thirty years of experience. A substantial part of his practice is working to improve the civil litigation environment through state and federal legislation; in the courts through amicus curiae briefs; through legal scholarship and judicial education; and in the court of public opinion.
Mark is actively involved in civil justice reform efforts at the federal and state levels. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures on behalf of business and civil justice organizations. Mark also has an active amicus brief practice specializing in tort liability and civil justice issues. He has authored or co-authored over 150 amicus briefs in cases before the United States Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations. In addition, Mark routinely files comments on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations regarding potential changes to federal and state court rules. He chairs the International Association of Defense Counsel’s (IADC) Civil Justice Response Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ).
Mark is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). He received his J.D. in 1990 from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He received his B.A. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1987.
Founder & CEO, Edelson PC
Jay Edelson is the founder of Edelson PC. He is considered one of the nation’s leading plaintiff’s lawyers, with his firm having helped secure over $45 billion in settlements and verdicts on behalf of classes, individuals, and governmental entities. Law360 described Jay as a “Titan of the Plaintiff’s Bar.” Jay has been recognized as one of “America’s top trial lawyers” in the mass action arena. LawDragon named him one of the top Plaintiff Financial Lawyers in the country. He has been called “probably the best known, and most innovative, consumer privacy lawyer on the planet,” with he and his firm holding records for the largest trial verdict in a consumer privacy case ($925m), the largest consumer privacy settlement ($650m) and the largest TCPA settlement ($76m).
Jay has been appointed to represent state and local regulators on some of the largest issues of the day, ranging from opioids suits against pharmaceutical companies, to environmental actions against polluters, to breaches of trust against energy companies and for-profit hospitals, to privacy suits against Google, Facebook, and others.
Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Constitutional Law Center, Stanford Law School
Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 2002 to 2009, he served as a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican, and confirmed by a Democratic Senate by unanimous consent. McConnell has previously held chaired professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, and visiting professorships at Harvard and NYU. He teaches courses on constitutional law, constitutional history, First Amendment, and interpretive theory. He has published widely in the fields of constitutional law and theory, especially church and state, equal protection, and separation of powers. His book, “The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution,” was published by Princeton University Press in 2020, based on the Tanner Lectures in Human Values, which he delivered at Princeton in 2019. His latest book, co-authored with Nathan Chapman, “Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience,” was published by Oxford University Press in mid-2023. McConnell has argued sixteen cases in the United States Supreme Court, most recently Carney v. Adams (2020). defending a provision of the Delaware Constitution requiring political balance on that state’s courts. More recently, he was co-counsel in Gonzalez v. Google. He earned his B.A. from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago, and has received honorary degrees from Notre Dame University and Michigan State. He served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and D.C. Circuit Chief Judge J. Skelly Wright. He has been Assistant General Counsel of the Office of Management & Budget, Assistant to the Solicitor General of the Department of Justice, and a member of the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board. He is Senior of Counsel to the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, and is co-chair of Meta’s Oversight Review Board.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
Judge Menashi was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on November 14, 2019. Previously, he served as special assistant and associate counsel to the President in the White House and as acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education. He was assistant professor of law at Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where he taught administrative law and civil procedure, and a research fellow at New York University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center. He was also a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York, where he practiced appellate and commercial litigation, and served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge Douglas Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as senior articles editor of the Stanford Law Review, and from Dartmouth College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law & Economics, Columbia Law School
David Schizer served as Dean of Columbia Law School from 2004 to 2014, and as CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a global Jewish humanitarian organization, from 2017 to 2019. A co-chair of Columbia University's new task force on antisemitism, he also is a co-founder and co-chair of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies at Columbia Law School; co-founder and co-chair of the Richman Center for Law, Business, and Public Policy; and a Charter Trustee of Ramaz. He served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Director of Research, American Economic Liberties Project
Matt Stoller is a public intellectual who writes about the American anti-monopoly
tradition. He is the author of the Simon and Schuster book Goliath: The Hundred Year
War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Stoller is the Director of Research at
the American Economic Liberties Project. He publishes an email newsletter called BIG.
Stoller is a former policy advisor to the Senate Budget Committee, and worked in the House of Representatives on the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform Act.
He has lectured on competition policy and media at Columbia University, Harvard Law, Duke Law, Bertelsmann Foundation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, West Point and the National Communications Commission of Taiwan. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Fast Company, Foreign Policy, the Guardian, Vice, The American Conservative, and the Baffler.
He has also produced for MSNBC and starred in a short-lived television show on FX called Brand X with Russell Brand.
The Federal Circuit's Reliance on One-Word Affirmances Under Rule 36: Is it Lawful?
Joseph Cianfrani, Robert J. Rando, Amit R. Vora
The Federal Circuit’s first Chief Judge, the Honorable Howard T. Markey, announced, “In our Court...
The Federal Circuit's Reliance on One-Word Affirmances Under Rule 36: Is it Lawful?
Joseph Cianfrani, Robert J. Rando, Amit R. Vora
The Federal Circuit’s first Chief Judge, the Honorable Howard T. Markey, announced, “In our Court...
Topics
Markel v. Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America: Welcome Developments in the Law of Church Autonomy
In its recent decision in Markel v. Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the...
Federalist Society Review, Volume 25
Katie McClendon
Federalist Society Review, Volume 25
The Federalist Society Review is the legal journal of the Federalist Society. The Review is...
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Pennsylvania Jury Sacks Unauthorized Sportswear Vendor Seeking to Score on Penn State Popularity
About two years ago, a federal trial court judge in Pennsylvania issued a preliminary decision...
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A Coda on Judicial Independence: Comments on Chief Justice Roberts’ 2024 Year End Report
As a very eventful 2024 drew to a close, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts...
2024 Civil Justice Update
Mark A. Behrens
Federalist Society Review, Volume 26
This paper reviews key civil justice issues and changes in 2024. Part I discusses legal reform...
Topics
Petteway v. Galveston County: The Fifth Circuit Reshapes Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act
In a November en banc decision, the Fifth Circuit reversed decades of jurisprudence and rewrote...
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Court Holds the Corporate Transparency Act Is Unconstitutional: A Victory for Limited Government and the Right to Privacy
Earlier this month, a federal district court judge issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement...
Showcase Panel II: How Should the Law Discourage Tribalism, Polarization, Racism, Religious Enmity, and Antisemitism in the United States?
Jay Edelson, Michael W. McConnell, Steven J. Menashi, David M. Schizer, Matt Stoller
2024 National Lawyers Convention
Most would agree that all of these [tribalism, polarization, racism, religious enmity, and antisemitism] are...