Senior Vice President, HSBC Bank USA, N.A.’s Office of Public Affairs
Michael Geffroy is Senior Vice President in HSBC Bank USA, N.A.’s Office of Public Affairs, where he is responsible for public policy and government affairs at the federal level.
Prior to joining HSBC, Mr. Geffroy had extensive experience in the U.S Congress, and in the Executive Branch. Most recently, he was the General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2014-2017), and he previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel to the Committee on Homeland Security (2012-2014).
Mr. Geffroy’s tenure in the Executive branch includes his time as the Assistant Director for Enforcement at the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, Department of Justice, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia.
Mr. Geffroy is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (ret). His military service includes tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr. Geffroy is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America.
Partner, Eversheds Sutherland LLP
Michael Bahar, a partner in the Washington DC office of Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP, is the US leader of the global cybersecurity and privacy practice and a member of the firm’s Litigation practice. As former Deputy Legal Advisor to the National Security Council at the White House, former Minority Staff Director and General Counsel for the US House Intelligence Committee, and as a former Active Duty Navy JAG, Mr. Bahar provides advice on cybersecurity and privacy, international law and national security law. While with the House Intelligence Committee, he was lead drafter and negotiator for the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, the USA Freedom Act (which reformed certain key surveillance authorities) and four annual Intelligence Authorization Acts. More recently, he was a leader of the Committee’s investigation into the Russian hacking of the 2016 election. Michael offers clients a wealth of knowledge about cybersecurity, information sharing, privacy, crisis management and establishing cybersecurity programs that are not only in accordance with evolving laws and regulations but that also find business opportunities.
His in-depth knowledge and deep understanding of these topics—particularly in assessing the appropriate levels of cybersecurity investment based on litigation and regulatory risk analysis—allows Mr. Bahar to effectively advise clients and has made him a sought-after speaker at industry and corporate conferences across the country.
Mr. Bahar’s previous experience includes serving nearly 10 years on Active Duty with the Navy's Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, where he litigated felony court-martials, dealt with cutting-edge legal issues involving the laws of war, led the capture and investigation of the US Navy’s first set of captured pirates in generations, led a team of lawyers deployed to Afghanistan in support of a Special Operations Task Force, and completed two Pentagon tours. He has received two Defense Meritorious Service Medals, six Navy Commendation Medals and one Navy Achievement Medal, in addition to earning his Navy Parachutist Wings.
Mr. Bahar is admitted to the New York State Bar. He has submitted his application to The District of Columbia Bar. His work is supervised by District of Columbia Bar members.
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Gates Corporation
Matthew R. A. Heiman joined the Company in May 2026 and has served as the Company’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary since June 2026. As Chief Legal Officer, Mr. Heiman is responsible for all legal functions for Gates, including securities and corporate governance, M&A, litigation, commercial, regulatory, compliance, patents and trademarks, real estate, employment and labor, sustainability and environmental matters. Prior to joining Gates, Mr. Heiman held senior legal leadership roles at Waystar, where he served as Chief Legal & Administrative Officer from 2023 to 2025 and as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary from 2020 to 2023. Prior to that, he was with Johnson Controls, where he served as Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Associate General Counsel. Mr. Heiman has been a Senior Fellow for the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law since 2018.
Senior Vice President, Cornerstone Government Affairs
Heather Molino joined Cornerstone in 2015 after two decades of Capitol Hill and communications experience, where she developed significant expertise in cyber, defense, space, intelligence and national security. Prior to joining Cornerstone, Ms. Molino was the minority staff director for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) under Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD).
As staff director, Ms. Molino helped returned the House Intelligence Committee to the business of passing budget bills and other important legislation. Her achievements include helping pass into law five Intelligence Authorization Acts in four years, for Fiscal Year 2011 through 2015. Heather and her team helped create a coalition of business support to pass the most prominent cyber legislation in the House, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), as well as major intelligence reform legislation, the USA Freedom Act, all by strong bipartisan margins.
In her role, Ms. Molino was also responsible for advising Members of the Committee on policy, politics and communications to ensure U.S. intelligence professionals have the resources, capabilities and authorities needed to keep our country safe. Heather also organized and managed Democratic staff, handled the committee’s budget, oversaw press strategy and ensured proper and efficient oversight of our nation’s intelligence agencies. Before joining the committee, Heather served as deputy chief of staff and director of communications in Congressman Ruppersberger’s personal office.
Prior to Capitol Hill, Ms. Molino worked in broadcast journalism for over 10 years. She was a TV reporter and anchor in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Washington State and North Carolina. Ms. Molino holds a B.A. in Economics and Government from Cornell University. She is married to West Point graduate, Michael Molino. The couple has three small children.
Reporter, SCOTUSblog
Amy Howe is the co-founder of SCOTUSblog, a news site devoted to coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court, and its primary reporter. She was part of the blog team that won a Peabody Award in 2013, as well as a National Press Club Journalism Award for Breaking News. Since the spring of 2025, she has also served as the Supreme Court analyst for the PBS NewsHour. In the fall of 2025, she is a fellow in Georgetown University's Institute of Politics.
Before turning to full-time journalism, Amy was a practicing lawyer and served as a lawyer in over two dozen cases at the Supreme Court, on issues ranging from international child custody to the death penalty, and argued two cases there. She has taught or co-taught courses on Supreme Court litigation at Vanderbilt Law School, Stanford Law School, and Harvard Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master's in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
ILYA SOMIN is Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, revised and expanded edition, 2022), Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), coauthor of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Atlantic, USA Today, Boston Globe, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, and the Voice of America, among other media.
Somin’s writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. He is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a case challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. Somin has testified on the use of drones for targeted killing in the War on Terror before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. In 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine (previously affiliated with the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017). From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals.
Somin has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also been a visiting professor or scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Hamburg, Germany, the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uriel Reichman University in Israel, and Zhengzhou University in China. He is a University Affiliate of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and an affiliated faculty member of the George Mason University Institute for Immigration Research. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003. In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Senior Research Fellow, School of Civic Leadership, Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law. He is also Distinguished Visiting Scholar, School of Civic Leadership and Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023. Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War, Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare, and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.
Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court. He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.
Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government. He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman. He has been a visiting professor at Seoul National University in South Korea, the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, Keio University in Japan, Trento University in Italy, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center. He also serves on the boards of the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and been the Edwin Meese III Originalism Lecturer at the Heritage Foundation.
Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
Partner, Baker Hostetler LLP
David Rivkin is a member of the firm's litigation, international and environmental teams and is co-leader of the firm's national appellate practice. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative and international law litigation and has been involved in numerous high-profile cases. With his prior experience in the government sector, David draws on a wealth of knowledge when providing compliance advice to companies and handling enforcement proceedings before government agencies on issues arising out of multilateral and unilateral sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-boycott issues, bankruptcy and financial fraud matters, and environmental and energy issues.
David has developed and implemented legislative, regulatory and litigation initiatives for two presidential administrations. Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles, op-eds, book reviews and book chapters on a variety of international, legal, constitutional, defense, arms control, foreign policy, environmental and energy issues for various newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times, and has been a frequent commentator and guest on TV and radio shows including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR and PBS.
Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
Victor Schwartz chairs the firm's Public Policy Practice Group, which focuses on integrating litigation, government affairs and public relations. The group seeks to be the vanguard of developing public policy issues that will help improve our civil justice system. Mr. Schwartz also has an active appellate practice and advises product manufacturers on liability prevention, litigation and public relations issues.
Sought by print and broadcast media, Mr. Schwartz is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times. He has appeared on Oprah, 60 Minutes and leading news programs. The Legal Times of Washington has named Mr. Schwartz one of Washington’s Top 30 “Visionary” lawyers, and The National Law Journal named Mr. Schwartz one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States in March 2013.
Mr. Schwartz is on the Board of Directors of the Searle Civil Justice Institute at George Mason University School of Law. He is a frequent participant in judicial education programs. Mr. Schwartz serves as General Counsel to the American Tort Reform Association.
Prior to entering the full time practice of law, Mr. Schwartz was a professor and dean at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He currently serves on the College’s Board of Visitors. In 2012, the College established the Professor Victor E. Schwartz Chair in Tort Law.
Mr. Schwartz, while at the U.S. Department of Commerce, served as chair of the Federal Inter-Agency Task Force on Product Liability, and the Federal Inter-Agency Council on Insurance. He was the principal author of the Uniform Product Liability Act and the Federal Risk Retention Act. He received the Secretary of Commerce’s Award for Professional Excellence.
Mr. Schwartz is co-author of the most widely used torts casebook in the United States, Prosser, Wade and Schwartz’s Torts (12th ed. 2010). He is author of the leading text Comparative Negligence (5th ed. 2010).
Mr. Schwartz has been an advisor for each of the American Law Institute’s (ALI) Restatement (Third) of Torts projects; Products Liability, Apportionment of Liability, and Liability for Physical Injury and Emotional Harm. He is a life member of the ALI.
Mr. Schwartz’s law review articles have analyzed almost every major subject of modern tort and civil justice public policy issues. His articles are frequently cited by both state and federal courts.
The Role of Congressional Intelligence Committees
Michael Geffroy, Michael Bahar, Matthew R. A. Heiman, Heather Molino
International & National Security Law Practice Group and Article I Teleforum
Former Minority Staff Director and General Counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence...
Trump v. Hawaii [SCOTUSbrief]
Amy Howe
Short video featuring Amy Howe
In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, granting to the president the power...
Preview: Trump v. Hawaii
Josh Blackman, Ilya Somin
International & National Security Law Practice Group Teleforum
On April 25, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Trump v. Hawaii, the...
Constitutional War Powers: Executive Authority in the War on Terror
John C. Yoo
Short video featuring John Yoo
Congress has only declared war during five conflicts, but the United States has used military...
Sokolow, et al v. Palestinian Liberation Organization Litigation Update
David B. Rivkin
International & National Security Law Practice Group Teleforum
Recently, in a case called Sokolow, et al v. Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), the Solicitor...
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The FBI Was Dangerous When It Was Independent
After Andrew McCabe’s recent firing from the FBI, outraged pundits from across the political spectrum...
Driverless Cars: A New Challenge to Cybersecurity [POLICYbrief]
Victor E. Schwartz
Short video featuring Victor Schwartz
Can a driverless car be hacked? Who will have access to data from these vehicles?...
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DOJ’s New Cyber Task Force
The Department of Justice has announced the creation of a Cyber-Digital Task Force. Megan Brown,...
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Have Russia and Syria Killed the Law of War?
Last weekend's UN Resolution on Syria is the latest attempt by “the international community" to...
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A Short Primer on Security Clearances
Here is an excellent and concise paper explaining the security clearance process at the White House,...