Partner, Wiley Rein, LLP
Megan L. Brown is a partner at Wiley Rein LLP. She has significant litigation, appellate and regulatory experience before state and federal courts and agencies.
Ms. Brown helps businesses respond to federal, state and local regulation and investigations raising administrative law, statutory interpretation, and constitutional issues, including the First Amendment.
Publius comes from the pen name Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay used when they wrote 85 publicly printed letters now known as the Federalist Papers. Hamilton chose “Publius” as a name that would represent friends of the newly proposed American republic - Publius Valeria Publicola was a Roman general who helped to found the Roman Republic. The Federalist Society continues the tradition of publishing things under the name Publius in celebration of our constitutional roots and recognition that author credit is not always necessary.
Wendy Keefer is an attorney at Barnwell, Whaley, Patterson, and Helms in Charleston, SC.
Ben Robbins is Staff Attorney at the New England Legal Foundation, a not-for-profit law firm advocating the interests of the business community.
Partner, Steptoe LLP
Shannen W. Coffin is a partner in Steptoe’s Washington office, where co-chairs the firm’s appellate practice and is a member of the regulatory litigation practice group. He frequently represents clients in trial and appellate courts in matters involving constitutional and administrative law challenges to state and federal government regulatory action.
Mr. Coffin previously served as a senior lawyer in the Executive Branch. He was Counsel to Vice President Cheney in the Office of the Vice President of the United States, where, among other things, he served on the White House’s judicial selection committee. Before that, Mr. Coffin served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the US Justice Department’s Civil Division, where he was responsible for overseeing and coordinating trial litigation on behalf of the federal government for constitutional challenges to federal statutes, statutory and constitutional challenges to agency programs, and defense of national security and anti-terrorism programs.
Partner, Steptoe LLP
Shannen W. Coffin is a partner in Steptoe’s Washington office, where co-chairs the firm’s appellate practice and is a member of the regulatory litigation practice group. He frequently represents clients in trial and appellate courts in matters involving constitutional and administrative law challenges to state and federal government regulatory action.
Mr. Coffin previously served as a senior lawyer in the Executive Branch. He was Counsel to Vice President Cheney in the Office of the Vice President of the United States, where, among other things, he served on the White House’s judicial selection committee. Before that, Mr. Coffin served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the US Justice Department’s Civil Division, where he was responsible for overseeing and coordinating trial litigation on behalf of the federal government for constitutional challenges to federal statutes, statutory and constitutional challenges to agency programs, and defense of national security and anti-terrorism programs.
Attorney, Rathje Woodward LLC
Brian Murray is a first-chair trial and appellate lawyer with a nationwide practice, practicing at Rathje Woodward LLC. A former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, he represents companies and individuals in complex commercial litigation, class actions and civil government enforcement and regulatory matters. In addition, Brian has briefed over a hundred appeals, and has personally argued over 30 of them — including cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, nearly every federal court of appeals, and a number of state supreme and intermediate appellate courts. Brian also served as Deputy to the Associate Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice. In this senior leadership office at the DOJ, Brian counseled Department and executive branch principals and helped formulate policies and strategies for investigating, litigating, and resolving civil regulatory and enforcement matters. Brian relies on his deep experience in guiding his clients through pressing legal challenges.
Brian is routinely called upon to present clients’ most complex and business-critical matters to tribunals nationwide. Notable first-chair jury trial wins include a full defense verdict in a sprawling civil rights class action against the City of Chicago. Key appellate wins include a victory at the Supreme Court that changed the course of CERCLA law, and multiple wins in courts across the country for pharmaceutical companies combatting consumer fraud claims related to drug pricing. Other engagements over the last twenty years have included matters involving environmental, consumer fraud, RICO, antitrust, Title VII, the FAA, and other statutory and common-law claims; enforcement litigation involving the False Claims Act, environmental, and constitutional claims; and other complex civil matters.
Brian has taught Complex Litigation and Class Actions at the University of Chicago Law School for almost a decade. He is a member of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, the Chicago-Lincoln and Robert Jones American Inns of Court, and the Illinois Appellate Lawyers’ Association. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and on PBS’s Chicago Tonight.
Litigation over State Education Financing in Kansas
Megan L. Brown
“The history of education since the Industrial Revolution shows a continual struggle between two forces:...
Recent Developments in State Corporate Criminalization
Publius
Following the recent spate of corporate accounting scandals, popular attention has focused on legislative responses...
“A Cloud Of Condemnation:” Expanding The Definition Of A Compensable Taking Under The Minnesota Constitution
Matthew R. Salzwedel
Friedrich Hayek, the renowned Austrian economist, opined in his epic Road to Serfdom that “[t]he...
New Limit on Punitive Damages? A Look At State Farm v. Campbell
Wendy Keefer
In April of 2003, the United States Supreme Court again undertook to define what limits...
Opposing A New Theory Of Tort Liability For Employers
Ben Robbins
Employers in Massachusetts closely watched a recent case to see if the state’s high court...
Eminent Domain in Minnesota
Tonetta Dove
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed a landowner’s constitutional right to judicial review of...
An Examination of Cheney vs. U.S. District Court
Shannen W. Coffin
For a Supreme Court that takes a fairly expansive view of its own powers, the...
An Examination of Cheney vs. U.S. District Court
Shannen W. Coffin
For a Supreme Court that takes a fairly expansive view of its own powers, the...
Gay Marriage and the Federal Judicial Confirmation Process
David S. Petron, Brian J. Murray
Last year saw momentous advances in civil rights for homosexual persons. First, in Lawrence v....
State Court Docket Watch February 2004
Table of Contents
Nationwide Class Action Litigation (Oklahoma) Tort and Federal Preemption (Florida) Judicial Interpretation and Separation of...