David Boies Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland "Buck" Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
Carissa Byrne Hessick joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2016. She serves as the Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland “Buck” Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law and as the director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project. Her teaching and research interests include criminal law, the structure of the criminal justice system, criminal sentencing, and child pornography crimes. Hessick is the author of multiple law review articles, essays, and op eds on plea bargaining, the powers and selection of prosecutors, Sixth Amendment sentencing rights, and criminal statutes. Her work has appeared in the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the L.A. Times, the UCLA Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review, among others. She founded the Prosecutors and Politics Project in 2018. And she currently serves as the Reporter for the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Sentencing Standards Task Force.
Hessick attended Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and winner of the Potter Stewart Prize for the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals. After graduating from law school, she clerked for Judge Barbara S. Jones on the Southern District of New York and for Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the D.C. Circuit. She also worked as a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City. Before joining the faculty at Carolina Law, Hessick taught on the faculties at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. She also spent two years as a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School.
Criminal Trial and Appellate Lawyer, Markus/ Moss
David Oscar Markus is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. David is known for his creative and unrelenting approach to cases, which leads to wins in trials and appeals. David focuses on high-stakes criminal litigation for both white collar and traditional criminal matters.
Best Lawyers named David “Lawyer of the Year” for White Collar Criminal Law in 2020 and for General Criminal Defense in 2017. And the Dade County Bar Association awarded him the “Legal Luminary” award for criminal defense, an honor voted on by members of the legal community. In 2015, the National Law Journal selected him as one of the Trailblazers for White Collar Criminal Defense in the entire country. Back when he was 29 years old (in 2002), the National Law Journal selected him as one of the top 40 litigators in the country under 40 years old, and it has recognized one of his federal trial victories as one of the top ten defense verdicts in the country that year.
In one trial victory, David not only beat all 141 counts in federal court for a doctor, but then won attorneys’ fees and costs of over $600,000 for his client in a first-of-its-kind victory. Based on that case, he was awarded the highest honor — the Rodney Thaxton “against all odds” award — by the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Although the 11th Circuit reversed the fee award in a number of controversial opinions, the court referred to Markus as an “elite” and “superb” attorney. In another case, David challenged the way the federal court system in Miami selected jurors (alphabetically by last name) and won, which changed the jury selection process in the District. After obtaining a fair jury, Markus’ client was found not guilty. He never stops fighting for his clients.
Based on this type of creative and unique lawyering, in 2010, David was one of eight finalists in the country for best white-collar criminal lawyer in the country by Chambers & Partners, which quoted market sources saying that David is “the whole package,” and “a creative, courageous and tenacious courtroom advocate.” And he was named to that very prestigious short list of 8 best white-collar criminal defense lawyers again in 2011 (he was the only lawyer listed who was not from a large firm). The 2012 Chambers said this: “David Markus received strong praise from peers and clients alike, who describe him as ‘a legal genius and brilliant strategist with a great demeanor.'” A recent Chambers & Partners described David as a “wickedly smart and a terrific trial lawyer. … Clients say that he is ‘thrilling’ to watch in court and that ‘his passion appreciation and enjoyment for his work are contagious.” And in 2014, that publication identified David as “one of the best trial lawyers around: very smart, highly respected and thoroughly prepared.” In 2016, Chambers said: “David Markus is one of the most talented criminal defense lawyers in Florida. He has a wealth of litigation experience and is regularly sought after for his counsel in high-stakes tax and criminal antitrust cases. Sources also describe him as an ‘extremely creative thinker and a great oral advocate’ who gets ‘tremendous results.'” Chambers has also explained: “David Markus is amazing, not only because of the strength and genius of his arguments and motions, but also because of his brilliant and astonishing performances during the hearings. Additionally, he radiates so much confidence, and that in itself soothes the usual anguish and anxiety that you endure during these types of situations. Last but not least, he is such a great human being.” In 2020, that publication said that David “is an exceptional trial lawyer,” “an incredible oral advocate” and that “he’s pretty fearless in terms of dealing with the government.”
Since 2010, David has been listed as one of the top 100 lawyers in Miami and in all of Florida by SuperLawyers. He is one of the few criminal defense lawyers to received such an honor. He is frequently named as one of the top lawyers in the Best Lawyers in America, South Florida Legal Guide, Florida Trend Magazine, Chambers & Partners, and the South Florida Business Journal. He was one of 20 lawyers named a key partner by the South Florida Business Journal in 2011 and again in 2012. The Daily Business Review named him a finalist for Most Effective Lawyer in Criminal Justice (one of three lawyers in Miami) in 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015. He won the award in 2018. The district judges in the Southern District of Florida presented him with the Eugene Spellman Criminal Justice Act Award in 2013.
While at Harvard, David argued in front of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy who named him best oralist. David was mentored by Alan Dershowitz while in law school. After graduating from Harvard, David served as law clerk to the Honorable Edward B. Davis, then-Chief United States District Judge, Southern District of Florida. Following his clerkship, David worked as an associate at the leading criminal defense firm in the country, Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and then practiced as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Miami.
David is a past-president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers – Miami Chapter and past-president of the Federal Bar Association, South Florida Chapter, 2007-08. He served for ten years as the Southern District of Florida’s national representative for the Criminal Justice Act Panel, and is the vice-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer’s amicus committee. David also has co-authored the Fourth Amendment Forum, published in NACDL’s The Champion. He is frequently asked to serve on committees for the Southern District of Florida.
David frequently lectures on different aspects of the criminal trial and appeal. He currently teaches a White Collar Law seminar the the University of Miami School of Law and previously taught legal writing there. David also has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure and White Collar Law at Florida International University College of Law. He often speaks to other criminal defense lawyers on ethics and zealously representing criminal defendants charged with serious crimes. His lengthy list of lectures can be found on his resume.
David is often quoted in publications around the country, including The Miami Herald, The Sun-Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Daily Business Review, USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Law.com, and CNN.com. He has written opinion pieces for numerous publications, and is the author of the popular Southern District of Florida blog, which has been described by the New Times as “the definitive source on South Florida’s federal court system.” He recently wrote a chapter in a book for lawyers; his chapter was titled “Battling Goliath, Trying to Win in the Court of Appeals.” David is also a frequent opinion contributor, arguing for criminal justice reform and for individual rights. He has written pieces in the Washington Post, USA Today, Miami Herald, law.com Newsmax, and others.
Senior Vice President for Legal Studies, Cato Institute
Clark Neily is senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute. His areas of interest include constitutional law, overcriminalization, civil forfeiture, police accountability, and gun rights. Neily is the author of Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and National Review Online, as well as various law reviews, including the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, George Mason Law Review, Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, NYU Journal of Law and Liberty, and Texas Review of Law and Politics. Neily is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer for the Federalist Society, Institute for Humane Studies, and American Constitution Society.
Before joining Cato in 2017, Neily was a senior attorney and constitutional litigator at the Institute for Justice and director of the Institute’s Center for Judicial Engagement. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, where he teaches constitutional litigation and public-interest law.
Neily served as co-counsel in District of Columbia v. Heller, the historic case in which the Supreme Court held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for self-defense.
Neily began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Royce Lamberth on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After that he spent four years in the trial department of the Dallas-based firm Thompson & Knight. Neily received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas, where he was Chief Articles Editor of the Texas Law Review.
Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland "Buck" Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
Carissa Byrne Hessick joined the Carolina Law faculty in 2016. She serves as the Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland “Buck” Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law and as the director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project. Her teaching and research interests include criminal law, the structure of the criminal justice system, criminal sentencing, and child pornography crimes. Hessick is the author of multiple law review articles, essays, and op eds on plea bargaining, the powers and selection of prosecutors, Sixth Amendment sentencing rights, and criminal statutes. Her work has appeared in the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the L.A. Times, the UCLA Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review, among others. She founded the Prosecutors and Politics Project in 2018. And she currently serves as the Reporter for the ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Sentencing Standards Task Force.
Hessick attended Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and winner of the Potter Stewart Prize for the Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals. After graduating from law school, she clerked for Judge Barbara S. Jones on the Southern District of New York and for Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the D.C. Circuit. She also worked as a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City. Before joining the faculty at Carolina Law, Hessick taught on the faculties at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. She also spent two years as a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School.
Criminal Trial and Appellate Lawyer, Markus/ Moss
David Oscar Markus is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. David is known for his creative and unrelenting approach to cases, which leads to wins in trials and appeals. David focuses on high-stakes criminal litigation for both white collar and traditional criminal matters.
Best Lawyers named David “Lawyer of the Year” for White Collar Criminal Law in 2020 and for General Criminal Defense in 2017. And the Dade County Bar Association awarded him the “Legal Luminary” award for criminal defense, an honor voted on by members of the legal community. In 2015, the National Law Journal selected him as one of the Trailblazers for White Collar Criminal Defense in the entire country. Back when he was 29 years old (in 2002), the National Law Journal selected him as one of the top 40 litigators in the country under 40 years old, and it has recognized one of his federal trial victories as one of the top ten defense verdicts in the country that year.
In one trial victory, David not only beat all 141 counts in federal court for a doctor, but then won attorneys’ fees and costs of over $600,000 for his client in a first-of-its-kind victory. Based on that case, he was awarded the highest honor — the Rodney Thaxton “against all odds” award — by the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Although the 11th Circuit reversed the fee award in a number of controversial opinions, the court referred to Markus as an “elite” and “superb” attorney. In another case, David challenged the way the federal court system in Miami selected jurors (alphabetically by last name) and won, which changed the jury selection process in the District. After obtaining a fair jury, Markus’ client was found not guilty. He never stops fighting for his clients.
Based on this type of creative and unique lawyering, in 2010, David was one of eight finalists in the country for best white-collar criminal lawyer in the country by Chambers & Partners, which quoted market sources saying that David is “the whole package,” and “a creative, courageous and tenacious courtroom advocate.” And he was named to that very prestigious short list of 8 best white-collar criminal defense lawyers again in 2011 (he was the only lawyer listed who was not from a large firm). The 2012 Chambers said this: “David Markus received strong praise from peers and clients alike, who describe him as ‘a legal genius and brilliant strategist with a great demeanor.'” A recent Chambers & Partners described David as a “wickedly smart and a terrific trial lawyer. … Clients say that he is ‘thrilling’ to watch in court and that ‘his passion appreciation and enjoyment for his work are contagious.” And in 2014, that publication identified David as “one of the best trial lawyers around: very smart, highly respected and thoroughly prepared.” In 2016, Chambers said: “David Markus is one of the most talented criminal defense lawyers in Florida. He has a wealth of litigation experience and is regularly sought after for his counsel in high-stakes tax and criminal antitrust cases. Sources also describe him as an ‘extremely creative thinker and a great oral advocate’ who gets ‘tremendous results.'” Chambers has also explained: “David Markus is amazing, not only because of the strength and genius of his arguments and motions, but also because of his brilliant and astonishing performances during the hearings. Additionally, he radiates so much confidence, and that in itself soothes the usual anguish and anxiety that you endure during these types of situations. Last but not least, he is such a great human being.” In 2020, that publication said that David “is an exceptional trial lawyer,” “an incredible oral advocate” and that “he’s pretty fearless in terms of dealing with the government.”
Since 2010, David has been listed as one of the top 100 lawyers in Miami and in all of Florida by SuperLawyers. He is one of the few criminal defense lawyers to received such an honor. He is frequently named as one of the top lawyers in the Best Lawyers in America, South Florida Legal Guide, Florida Trend Magazine, Chambers & Partners, and the South Florida Business Journal. He was one of 20 lawyers named a key partner by the South Florida Business Journal in 2011 and again in 2012. The Daily Business Review named him a finalist for Most Effective Lawyer in Criminal Justice (one of three lawyers in Miami) in 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015. He won the award in 2018. The district judges in the Southern District of Florida presented him with the Eugene Spellman Criminal Justice Act Award in 2013.
While at Harvard, David argued in front of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy who named him best oralist. David was mentored by Alan Dershowitz while in law school. After graduating from Harvard, David served as law clerk to the Honorable Edward B. Davis, then-Chief United States District Judge, Southern District of Florida. Following his clerkship, David worked as an associate at the leading criminal defense firm in the country, Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and then practiced as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Miami.
David is a past-president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers – Miami Chapter and past-president of the Federal Bar Association, South Florida Chapter, 2007-08. He served for ten years as the Southern District of Florida’s national representative for the Criminal Justice Act Panel, and is the vice-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer’s amicus committee. David also has co-authored the Fourth Amendment Forum, published in NACDL’s The Champion. He is frequently asked to serve on committees for the Southern District of Florida.
David frequently lectures on different aspects of the criminal trial and appeal. He currently teaches a White Collar Law seminar the the University of Miami School of Law and previously taught legal writing there. David also has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure and White Collar Law at Florida International University College of Law. He often speaks to other criminal defense lawyers on ethics and zealously representing criminal defendants charged with serious crimes. His lengthy list of lectures can be found on his resume.
David is often quoted in publications around the country, including The Miami Herald, The Sun-Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Daily Business Review, USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Law.com, and CNN.com. He has written opinion pieces for numerous publications, and is the author of the popular Southern District of Florida blog, which has been described by the New Times as “the definitive source on South Florida’s federal court system.” He recently wrote a chapter in a book for lawyers; his chapter was titled “Battling Goliath, Trying to Win in the Court of Appeals.” David is also a frequent opinion contributor, arguing for criminal justice reform and for individual rights. He has written pieces in the Washington Post, USA Today, Miami Herald, law.com Newsmax, and others.
Senior Vice President for Legal Studies, Cato Institute
Clark Neily is senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute. His areas of interest include constitutional law, overcriminalization, civil forfeiture, police accountability, and gun rights. Neily is the author of Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and National Review Online, as well as various law reviews, including the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, George Mason Law Review, Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, NYU Journal of Law and Liberty, and Texas Review of Law and Politics. Neily is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer for the Federalist Society, Institute for Humane Studies, and American Constitution Society.
Before joining Cato in 2017, Neily was a senior attorney and constitutional litigator at the Institute for Justice and director of the Institute’s Center for Judicial Engagement. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, where he teaches constitutional litigation and public-interest law.
Neily served as co-counsel in District of Columbia v. Heller, the historic case in which the Supreme Court held for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for self-defense.
Neily began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Royce Lamberth on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After that he spent four years in the trial department of the Dallas-based firm Thompson & Knight. Neily received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas, where he was Chief Articles Editor of the Texas Law Review.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Helen Alvaré is a Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where she teaches Family Law, Law and Religion, and Property Law. She publishes on matters concerning marriage, parenting, non-marital households, and the First Amendment religion clauses. She is faculty advisor to the law school’s Civil Rights Law Journal, and the Latino/a Law Student Association, a Member of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life (Vatican City), a board member of Catholic Relief Services, a member of the Executive Committee of the AALS’ Section on Law and Religion, and an ABC news consultant. She cooperates with the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations as a speaker and a delegate to various United Nations conferences concerning women and the family.
In addition to her books, and her publications in law reviews and other academic journals, Professor Alvaré publishes regularly in news outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and CNN.com. She also speaks at academic and professional conferences in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Australia.
Prior to joining the faculty of Scalia Law, Professor Alvaré taught at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America; represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops before legislative bodies, academic audiences and the media; and was a litigation attorney for the Philadelphia law firm of Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young.
Professor Alvaré received her law degree from Cornell University School of Law and her master’s degree in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America.
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence; Director, James Madison Program, Princeton University
Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He has several times been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. He has served as Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the President’s Council on Bioethics. He has also served as the U.S. member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. He was a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Swarthmore, he holds the degrees of J.D. and M.T.S. from Harvard University and the degrees of D.Phil., B.C.L., D.C.L., and D.Litt. from Oxford University, in addition to twenty-one honorary doctorates. He is a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal, the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland, the Canterbury Medal of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Bradley Prize, the Irving Kristol Award of the American Enterprise Institute, and Princeton University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. His books include Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality and In Defense of Natural Law (both published by Oxford University Press), as well as The Clash of Orthodoxies and Conscience and Its Enemies (both published by ISI Books).
Senior Research Scholar in Law, Yale Law School
Linda Greenhouse is Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School. She covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times between 1978 and 2008 and writes a biweekly op-ed column on law as a contributing columnist. Ms. Greenhouse received several major journalism awards during her 40-year career at the Times, including the Pulitzer Prize (1998) and the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Kennedy School (2004). In 2002, the American Political Science Association gave her its Carey McWilliams Award for “a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.” Her books include a biography of Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Becoming Justice Blackmun; Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling (with Reva B. Siegel); The U.S. Supreme Court, A Very Short Introduction, published by Oxford University Press in 2012; and The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right, with Michael J. Graetz, published in 2016. Her latest book is Just a Journalist: Reflections on the Press, Life, and the Spaces Between, published by Harvard University Press in 2017. In her extracurricular life, Ms. Greenhouse is president of the American Philosophical Society, the country's oldest learned society, which in 2005 awarded her its Henry Allen Moe Prize for writing in jurisprudence and the humanities. She also serves on the council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the national Senate of Phi Beta Kappa, and is one of two non-lawyer honorary members elected to the American Law Institute, which in 2002 awarded her its Henry J. Friendly Medal. She has been awarded thirteen honorary degrees. She is a 1968 graduate of Radcliffe College (Harvard) and earned a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School (1978), which she attended on a Ford Foundation fellowship. She is married to Eugene R. Fidell, Florence Rogatz Lecturer in Law at Yale. Their daughter, Hannah, is a filmmaker in Los Angeles.
Co-Dean and Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School in Camden
Kimberly Mutcherson is Co-Dean and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School in Camden. Her scholarly work is at the intersection of family law, health law, and bioethics. She writes on issues related to reproductive justice, with a focus on assisted reproduction, abortion, and maternal-fetal decision-making.
Professor Mutcherson teaches Family Law, Torts, South African Constitutional Law, and Bioethics, Babies, & Babymaking. She has served as a Senior Fellow/Sabbatical Visitor at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, and as a fellow at the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University. She won a Center for Reproductive Rights Innovation in Scholarship Award in 2013 and a Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2011.
She received her B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Columbia Law School where she was a Stone Scholar. At Columbia, she received the Samuel I. Rosenman Prize for excellence in public law courses and outstanding qualities of citizenship and leadership in the law school. She also received the Kirkland and Ellis Fellowship for post-graduate public interest work. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers School of Law in 2002, Professor Mutcherson was an Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at the New York University School of Law, a consulting attorney at the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (now the Center for Reproductive Rights), and a Staff Attorney at the HIV Law Project.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
Judge Randolph was confirmed by the Senate and appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President George H. W. Bush in July 1990.
Judge Randolph received his B.S. degree in 1966 from Drexel University, majoring in economics and basic engineering. At Drexel, he was president of the debate society, vice president of the Student Senate, and a member of the varsity wrestling squad. In 1969, he received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, summa cum laude. Judge Randolph ranked first in his law school class all three years and was managing editor of the Law Review.
After graduation, Judge Randolph served as a law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York.
Admitted to the California Bar in 1970 (and to the District of Columbia bar in 1973), Judge Randolph worked as Assistant to the Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C., 1970-1973.
After two years in private practice, Judge Randolph was named Deputy Solicitor General of the United States, a position he held from 1975-1977.
In 1979, Judge Randolph was appointed Special Counsel to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (the Ethics Committee) of the United States House of Representatives, remaining in this position until 1980.
In the 1980s, Judge Randolph held a number of positions while in private practice, including Special Assistant Attorney General for the states of New Mexico (1985 90), Utah (1986-1990) and Montana (1983-1990). He also served as a Member of the Advisory Panel of the Federal Courts Study Committee.
From 1971-1990, Judge Randolph argued 23 times in the United States Supreme Court, winning 20 of his cases.
As an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center from 1974-1978 he taught courses in civil procedure and injunctions. In 1992 he taught a course in constitutional law. He is a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law at George Mason School of Law and for the past ten years has been teaching First Amendment law. He also serves on the Judicial Advisory Board of the George Mason University Law and Economics Center.
From 1993 through 1995 Judge Randolph was a member of the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and from 1995 to 1998 served as the Committee's chairman. He also served as the judicial liaison to the American Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section.
Judge Randolph is a member of the Board of Visitors at Drexel University Law School and was named to the “Drexel One Hundred” as a leading alumnus. In 2002 he was presented the James Wilson Award by the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In November 2005 he delivered the Fifth Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture at the Annual Lawyers Convention of the Federalist Society. He has published numerous articles, the most recent of which is in the June 2006 issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Judge Randolph is married to the Honorable Eileen J. O’Connor, formerly Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division, U.S. Department of Justice. His son John Trevor Randolph is an investment banker in New York. His daughter Cynthia Lee Randolph is an artist living in San Francisco.
Former United States National Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski (born 1928) was assistant to the president of the United States for national security affairs during the Carter administration (1977-1980). Later he was associated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. He authored several books through which he expounded his philosophies as well as his political beliefs and ideals.
Former United States National Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski (born 1928) was assistant to the president of the United States for national security affairs during the Carter administration (1977-1980). Later he was associated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. He authored several books through which he expounded his philosophies as well as his political beliefs and ideals.
Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Gary Lawson joined the University of Florida Levin College of Law faculty on July 1, 2024, after twenty-four years at Boston University School of Law and eleven years at Northwestern University School of Law. While at Boston University, he was named a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in 2022 – the highest faculty honor within the university. He has authored or co-authored nine editions of a textbook on administrative law, a textbook on constitutional law, five university press books, one popular press book, and more than one hundred scholarly articles on topics ranging from aspects of constitutional theory and history to the proof of legal propositions. His works have been cited in more than twenty opinions of United States Supreme Court justices. He is a founding member, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution.
Harold Washington Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Daniel B. Rodriguez, the Harold Washington Professor at the Law School, served as dean of the Law School from January 2012 through August 2018.
His principal academic work is in the areas of administrative law, local government law, statutory interpretation, federal and state constitutional law, and the law-business-technology interface.
Formerly, Professor Rodriguez served as Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law at the University of Texas-Austin; as a Research Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy; as Dean and Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law; and, as a Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He has also served as a visiting professor at several top law schools, including Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, University of Southern California, and Virginia.
Professor Rodriguez was the 2014 President of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and is currently serving as chair of the council of the American Bar Association Center for Innovation, a council member of the American Law Institute, and as an advisor to ROSS Intelligence, Inc.
Rodriguez received his law degree, with honors, from Harvard Law School and his undergraduate degree from California State University of Long Beach.
Professor of Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Lisa Grow Sun graduated from the University of Utah summa cum laude in chemistry and then attended Harvard Law School. In 1997, she was the first woman to graduate first in her class from Harvard Law School, the first woman to graduate summa cum laude, and the first student to graduate summa cum laude in 15 years. She was the Notes Chair of the Harvard Law Review, a Senior Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology.
After clerking for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and then for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Professor Sun was a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, where she taught Federal Jurisdiction and Administrative Law. Professor Sun then spent two years in Beijing, China, where she taught Civil Procedure to Chinese judges, lawyers, and administrative officials as a Visiting Professor at the Temple/Tsinghua University Masters in Law Program.
Professor Sun has also worked as a consultant for law firms on appellate briefs and Supreme Court petitions for certiorari, and has served as a pro bono lawyer on constitutional, administrative, bankruptcy, and family law matters.
Professor Sun teaches Disaster Law, Constitutional Law, and Torts. Her primary research interest is in the emerging field of Disaster Law. She is coauthor of the leading disaster law textbook, Disaster Law and Policy, with Dan Farber, Jim Chen, and Rob Verchick.
Founding Partner, Boyden Gray & Associates
Ambassador C. Boyden Gray is the founding partner of Boyden Gray & Associates, a law and strategy firm in Washington, D.C., focused on constitutional and regulatory issues.
Mr. Gray worked in the White House for twelve years, first as counsel to the Vice President during the Reagan administration and then as White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush. In the Reagan administration, he was Counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, for which he wrote the original Executive Order 12291 requiring cost-benefit analysis and White House review of regulations (later renumbered as current EO 12866). In the George H.W. Bush Administration, Mr. Gray was in charge of judicial selection and was also instrumental in the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and a cap-and-trade system for acid rain emissions. In 1993, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Under President George W. Bush, Mr. Gray was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and U.S. Special Envoy to Europe for Eurasian Energy.
Mr. Gray practiced law for 25 years at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and was chairman of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the American Bar Association from 2000 to 2002. Early in his career, Mr. Gray helped to develop the Business Roundtable and served as its first counsel. He is an adjunct professor at Antonin Scalia Law School and a former adjunct professor at NYU Law School (teaching energy and environmental law). Mr. Gray is on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council, the Federalist Society, Reason Foundation, and the Trust for the National Mall.
Mr. Gray earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard, where he was an editor of the Crimson, and his J.D. with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Mr. Gray served in the United States Marine Corps, and after law school, he clerked for Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Founding Partner, Boyden Gray & Associates
Ambassador C. Boyden Gray is the founding partner of Boyden Gray & Associates, a law and strategy firm in Washington, D.C., focused on constitutional and regulatory issues.
Mr. Gray worked in the White House for twelve years, first as counsel to the Vice President during the Reagan administration and then as White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush. In the Reagan administration, he was Counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, for which he wrote the original Executive Order 12291 requiring cost-benefit analysis and White House review of regulations (later renumbered as current EO 12866). In the George H.W. Bush Administration, Mr. Gray was in charge of judicial selection and was also instrumental in the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and a cap-and-trade system for acid rain emissions. In 1993, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Under President George W. Bush, Mr. Gray was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and U.S. Special Envoy to Europe for Eurasian Energy.
Mr. Gray practiced law for 25 years at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and was chairman of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the American Bar Association from 2000 to 2002. Early in his career, Mr. Gray helped to develop the Business Roundtable and served as its first counsel. He is an adjunct professor at Antonin Scalia Law School and a former adjunct professor at NYU Law School (teaching energy and environmental law). Mr. Gray is on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council, the Federalist Society, Reason Foundation, and the Trust for the National Mall.
Mr. Gray earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard, where he was an editor of the Crimson, and his J.D. with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Mr. Gray served in the United States Marine Corps, and after law school, he clerked for Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Professor Gary Lawson joined the University of Florida Levin College of Law faculty on July 1, 2024, after twenty-four years at Boston University School of Law and eleven years at Northwestern University School of Law. While at Boston University, he was named a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in 2022 – the highest faculty honor within the university. He has authored or co-authored nine editions of a textbook on administrative law, a textbook on constitutional law, five university press books, one popular press book, and more than one hundred scholarly articles on topics ranging from aspects of constitutional theory and history to the proof of legal propositions. His works have been cited in more than twenty opinions of United States Supreme Court justices. He is a founding member, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution.
Harold Washington Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Daniel B. Rodriguez, the Harold Washington Professor at the Law School, served as dean of the Law School from January 2012 through August 2018.
His principal academic work is in the areas of administrative law, local government law, statutory interpretation, federal and state constitutional law, and the law-business-technology interface.
Formerly, Professor Rodriguez served as Minerva House Drysdale Regents Chair in Law at the University of Texas-Austin; as a Research Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy; as Dean and Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law; and, as a Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He has also served as a visiting professor at several top law schools, including Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, University of Southern California, and Virginia.
Professor Rodriguez was the 2014 President of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and is currently serving as chair of the council of the American Bar Association Center for Innovation, a council member of the American Law Institute, and as an advisor to ROSS Intelligence, Inc.
Rodriguez received his law degree, with honors, from Harvard Law School and his undergraduate degree from California State University of Long Beach.
Professor of Law, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
Lisa Grow Sun graduated from the University of Utah summa cum laude in chemistry and then attended Harvard Law School. In 1997, she was the first woman to graduate first in her class from Harvard Law School, the first woman to graduate summa cum laude, and the first student to graduate summa cum laude in 15 years. She was the Notes Chair of the Harvard Law Review, a Senior Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology.
After clerking for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and then for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Professor Sun was a Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School, where she taught Federal Jurisdiction and Administrative Law. Professor Sun then spent two years in Beijing, China, where she taught Civil Procedure to Chinese judges, lawyers, and administrative officials as a Visiting Professor at the Temple/Tsinghua University Masters in Law Program.
Professor Sun has also worked as a consultant for law firms on appellate briefs and Supreme Court petitions for certiorari, and has served as a pro bono lawyer on constitutional, administrative, bankruptcy, and family law matters.
Professor Sun teaches Disaster Law, Constitutional Law, and Torts. Her primary research interest is in the emerging field of Disaster Law. She is coauthor of the leading disaster law textbook, Disaster Law and Policy, with Dan Farber, Jim Chen, and Rob Verchick.
Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).
His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.
Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Sho Sato Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, University of California, Berkeley
Dan Farber is the Sho Sato Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Co-Director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment. Professor Farber serves on the editorial board of Foundation Press. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Life Member of the American Law Institute. He is the editor of Issues in Legal Scholarship.
Professor Farber is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where he earned his B.A., M.A., and J.D. degrees. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the College of Law, where he was the class valedictorian and served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Law Review. After graduation from law school, he was a law clerk for Judge Philip W. Tone of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then for Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States. Professor Farber practiced law with Sidley & Austin, where he primarily worked on energy issues, before joining the University of Illinois College of Law faculty in 1978. He was a member of the University of Minnesota Law School faculty from1981 to 2002, where he was the McKnight Presidential Professor of Public Law. He also has been a Visiting Professor at the Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School.
Among Professor Farber’s eighteen books are RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON PUBLIC CHOICE AND PUBLIC LAW (Elgar 2010) (with A. O’Connell); JUDGMENT CALLS: POLITICS AND PRINCIPLE IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Oxford University Press 2008) (with S. Sherry); RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE: THE “SILENT” NINTH AMENDMENT AND THE RIGHTS AMERICANS DON’T KNOW THEY HAVE (Basic Books 2007); and LINCOLN’S CONSTITUTION (University of Chicago Press 2003).
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
William T. Comfort, III Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
Roderick Hills teaches and writes in public law areas, including constitutional law, local government law, land-use regulation, administrative law, and statutory interpretation. His focus in each area is on the rules and policies governing division of powers between central and subcentral governments. He holds bachelor’s and law degrees from Yale University. Following law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and practiced law in Colorado. Hills previously taught at the University of Michigan Law School from 1994 to 2006. He is a member of the state bar of New York and the U.S. Supreme Court.
President, The Heritage Foundation
Mrs. Kay C. James has an extensive background in crafting public policy and leading in nearly every sector of America’s economy. She has worked at the local, state, and federal levels of government under the administrations of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993); former Virginia Governor George Allen (1994–1996); and former U.S. President George W. Bush (2001–2005) and has also served dozens of organizations in the corporate and nonprofit arenas. James has a passion for serving the youth of America and substantial experience in the field of education.
James served as Dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, from 1996 to 1999. Regent University is a Christian liberal arts school with a combined online and in-person enrollment of approximately 8,900 students. During her time as Dean, she led the SACS accreditation initiative for the school of government. James also served on the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors from 2010 to 2014. During her time on the board, she chaired the Academic and Health Affairs Committee, which provided oversight and made recommendations to the full board on all policies and plans regarding strategic enrollment management, academic quality, student issues, faculty issues, athletics, and research consistent with the stated goals and objectives of the university. Additionally, the committee provided oversight to the VCU Academic Health Center including its affiliation with the VCU Health System Authority. She and her fellow board members led the effort to fulfill the University President’s goal of making VCU a leading research institution in Virginia. James’s commitment to providing quality education goes beyond just institutions of higher education; she crafted education policy during her time on the Virginia State Board of Education and the Fairfax County School Board. She also served as Director of Community Education and Development for Housing Opportunities Made Equal in Richmond, Virginia.
Today, Kay James is President of The Heritage Foundation, America’s premier conservative think tank. The Heritage Foundation is dedicated to formulating and promoting conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. James has also been a Heritage Foundation trustee for 13 years.
James is also the founder of The Gloucester Institute, an organization that trains and nurtures college-age leaders in the African American community. The Gloucester Institute is committed to providing an intellectually safe environment where ideas can be discussed and transformed into practical solutions that produce results. James has also served as Senior Fellow and Director of the Citizenship Project at The Heritage Foundation, Senior Vice President of the Family Research Council, and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for One to One Partnership.
Kay James is a former board member of PNC Financial Services Group, the National Board of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, the Magellan Health Services Board, and Amerigroup Corporation. She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and has done continuing board education at the Harvard School of Business.
James has far-reaching experience and respect in the public sector. Under President George H. W. Bush, she served as Associate Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Following her time in the Bush administration, she was appointed as Secretary of Health and Human Resources under former Virginia Governor George Allen. In this role she designed and implemented Virginia’s landmark welfare reform initiative, affecting 14 state agencies and over 19,000 employees. As Secretary, she also influenced housing policies regarding young, elderly, and low-income Virginians.
In 2001, James was appointed as Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by President George W. Bush and led a department of 3,600 employees. As Director, she served as the President’s principal advisor in matters of personnel administration for the 1.8 million members of the federal civil service and was responsible for the stewardship of over $650 billion in federal employee assets. In this position, James designed the process and system through which nearly 170,000 employees from 22 different agencies merged into the new Department of Homeland Security. During this time, she also chaired the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council, was a member of the President's Management Council, and was appointed by President Bush to serve on the White House Fellows Commission.
During her nearly 30-year career, Kay James has served on numerous boards and commissions including the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, Virginia Empowerment Commission, National Commission on Children, Medicaid Commission, Carter–Baker Commission on Election Reform, NASA Advisory Council, Fairfax County School Board, Virginia State Board of Education, Focus on the Family Board of Directors, Young Life Board of Directors, National Advisory Board of the Salvation Army, and Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors.
A graduate of Hampton University, James is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees including a Doctor of Laws from Pepperdine University, the University of Virginia’s Publius Award for Public Service, and the Spirit of Democracy Award for Public Policy Leadership from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. As a commentator and lecturer, she has appeared on network morning shows and several national news and talk programs. She is the author of three books: her award-winning autobiography Never Forget (1993); Transforming America from the Inside Out (1995); and What I Wish I’d Known Before I Got Married (2001).
Most important, Kay James is the wife of Charles James, Sr., and the proud mother of three grown children and five grandchildren.
Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).
His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.
Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Sho Sato Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, University of California, Berkeley
Dan Farber is the Sho Sato Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Co-Director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment. Professor Farber serves on the editorial board of Foundation Press. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Life Member of the American Law Institute. He is the editor of Issues in Legal Scholarship.
Professor Farber is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where he earned his B.A., M.A., and J.D. degrees. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the College of Law, where he was the class valedictorian and served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Law Review. After graduation from law school, he was a law clerk for Judge Philip W. Tone of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then for Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States. Professor Farber practiced law with Sidley & Austin, where he primarily worked on energy issues, before joining the University of Illinois College of Law faculty in 1978. He was a member of the University of Minnesota Law School faculty from1981 to 2002, where he was the McKnight Presidential Professor of Public Law. He also has been a Visiting Professor at the Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School.
Among Professor Farber’s eighteen books are RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON PUBLIC CHOICE AND PUBLIC LAW (Elgar 2010) (with A. O’Connell); JUDGMENT CALLS: POLITICS AND PRINCIPLE IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Oxford University Press 2008) (with S. Sherry); RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE: THE “SILENT” NINTH AMENDMENT AND THE RIGHTS AMERICANS DON’T KNOW THEY HAVE (Basic Books 2007); and LINCOLN’S CONSTITUTION (University of Chicago Press 2003).
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
William T. Comfort, III Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
Roderick Hills teaches and writes in public law areas, including constitutional law, local government law, land-use regulation, administrative law, and statutory interpretation. His focus in each area is on the rules and policies governing division of powers between central and subcentral governments. He holds bachelor’s and law degrees from Yale University. Following law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and practiced law in Colorado. Hills previously taught at the University of Michigan Law School from 1994 to 2006. He is a member of the state bar of New York and the U.S. Supreme Court.
President, The Heritage Foundation
Mrs. Kay C. James has an extensive background in crafting public policy and leading in nearly every sector of America’s economy. She has worked at the local, state, and federal levels of government under the administrations of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush (1989–1993); former Virginia Governor George Allen (1994–1996); and former U.S. President George W. Bush (2001–2005) and has also served dozens of organizations in the corporate and nonprofit arenas. James has a passion for serving the youth of America and substantial experience in the field of education.
James served as Dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, from 1996 to 1999. Regent University is a Christian liberal arts school with a combined online and in-person enrollment of approximately 8,900 students. During her time as Dean, she led the SACS accreditation initiative for the school of government. James also served on the Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors from 2010 to 2014. During her time on the board, she chaired the Academic and Health Affairs Committee, which provided oversight and made recommendations to the full board on all policies and plans regarding strategic enrollment management, academic quality, student issues, faculty issues, athletics, and research consistent with the stated goals and objectives of the university. Additionally, the committee provided oversight to the VCU Academic Health Center including its affiliation with the VCU Health System Authority. She and her fellow board members led the effort to fulfill the University President’s goal of making VCU a leading research institution in Virginia. James’s commitment to providing quality education goes beyond just institutions of higher education; she crafted education policy during her time on the Virginia State Board of Education and the Fairfax County School Board. She also served as Director of Community Education and Development for Housing Opportunities Made Equal in Richmond, Virginia.
Today, Kay James is President of The Heritage Foundation, America’s premier conservative think tank. The Heritage Foundation is dedicated to formulating and promoting conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. James has also been a Heritage Foundation trustee for 13 years.
James is also the founder of The Gloucester Institute, an organization that trains and nurtures college-age leaders in the African American community. The Gloucester Institute is committed to providing an intellectually safe environment where ideas can be discussed and transformed into practical solutions that produce results. James has also served as Senior Fellow and Director of the Citizenship Project at The Heritage Foundation, Senior Vice President of the Family Research Council, and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for One to One Partnership.
Kay James is a former board member of PNC Financial Services Group, the National Board of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, the Magellan Health Services Board, and Amerigroup Corporation. She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and has done continuing board education at the Harvard School of Business.
James has far-reaching experience and respect in the public sector. Under President George H. W. Bush, she served as Associate Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Following her time in the Bush administration, she was appointed as Secretary of Health and Human Resources under former Virginia Governor George Allen. In this role she designed and implemented Virginia’s landmark welfare reform initiative, affecting 14 state agencies and over 19,000 employees. As Secretary, she also influenced housing policies regarding young, elderly, and low-income Virginians.
In 2001, James was appointed as Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by President George W. Bush and led a department of 3,600 employees. As Director, she served as the President’s principal advisor in matters of personnel administration for the 1.8 million members of the federal civil service and was responsible for the stewardship of over $650 billion in federal employee assets. In this position, James designed the process and system through which nearly 170,000 employees from 22 different agencies merged into the new Department of Homeland Security. During this time, she also chaired the Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO) Council, was a member of the President's Management Council, and was appointed by President Bush to serve on the White House Fellows Commission.
During her nearly 30-year career, Kay James has served on numerous boards and commissions including the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, Virginia Empowerment Commission, National Commission on Children, Medicaid Commission, Carter–Baker Commission on Election Reform, NASA Advisory Council, Fairfax County School Board, Virginia State Board of Education, Focus on the Family Board of Directors, Young Life Board of Directors, National Advisory Board of the Salvation Army, and Virginia Commonwealth University Board of Visitors.
A graduate of Hampton University, James is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees including a Doctor of Laws from Pepperdine University, the University of Virginia’s Publius Award for Public Service, and the Spirit of Democracy Award for Public Policy Leadership from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. As a commentator and lecturer, she has appeared on network morning shows and several national news and talk programs. She is the author of three books: her award-winning autobiography Never Forget (1993); Transforming America from the Inside Out (1995); and What I Wish I’d Known Before I Got Married (2001).
Most important, Kay James is the wife of Charles James, Sr., and the proud mother of three grown children and five grandchildren.
What are the Limits of Federal Power During an Emergency? [POLICYbrief]
Keith E. Whittington
Short video featuring Keith Whittington
Does the Constitution limit the power of the federal government during emergencies just as it...
Clash of the Titans: General Michael Flynn & Judge Emmett Sullivan - Does the DOJ have Unfettered Discretion to Dismiss the Flynn Prosecution?
Carissa Byrne Hessick, David Oscar Markus, Clark Neily
Miami Lawyers Chapter - Online Event
On June 4, 2020, the Miami Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society hosted an online...
Clash of the Titans: General Michael Flynn & Judge Emmett Sullivan - Does the DOJ have Unfettered Discretion to Dismiss the Flynn Prosecution?
Carissa Byrne Hessick, David Oscar Markus, Clark Neily
Miami Lawyers Chapter - Online Event
On June 4, 2020, the Miami Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society hosted an online...
Roe v. Wade: Abortion in New York [Short Film]
Helen Alvaré, Robert P. George, Linda Greenhouse, Kimberly Mutcherson, A. Raymond Randolph
Documentary short from Coronation Media and FedSoc Films
As one of the first states to repeal its abortion statute before Roe v. Wade legalized...
Opening Address by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski [Archive Collection]
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
On November 6-7, 1987, The Federalist Society held a symposium at the Grand Hyatt Hotel...
Opening Address by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski [Archive Collection]
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Foreign Affairs and the Constitution
On November 6-7, 1987, The Federalist Society held a symposium at the Grand Hyatt Hotel...
Federal Executive Power and COVID-19
Gary Lawson, Daniel B. Rodriguez, Lisa Grow Sun, C. Boyden Gray
COVID-19 & the Law Conference
The first day of the Federalist Society's COVID-19 & the Law Conference finished with a...
Federal Executive Power and COVID-19
C. Boyden Gray, Gary Lawson, Daniel B. Rodriguez, Lisa Grow Sun
COVID-19 & the Law Conference
The first day of the Federalist Society's COVID-19 & the Law Conference finished with a...
Federalism and COVID-19
Jonathan H. Adler, Daniel Farber, Karen Harned, Roderick M. Hills, Kay C. James
COVID-19 & the Law Conference
The second panel at the Federalist Society's COVID-19 & the Law Conference discussed "Federalism and...
Federalism and COVID-19
Jonathan H. Adler, Daniel Farber, Karen Harned, Roderick M. Hills, Kay C. James
COVID-19 & the Law Conference
The second panel at the Federalist Society's COVID-19 & the Law Conference discussed "Federalism and...