Principal, Ely & Company, Inc.
Bert Ely has specialized in deposit insurance and banking structure issues since 1981. In 1986, he became an early predictor of the S&L crisis and a taxpayer bailout of the FSLIC. In 1991, he was the first person to correctly predict the non-crisis in commercial banking; in 1992, he predicted an eventual taxpayer bailout of the Japanese banking system.
Bert continuously monitors conditions in the banking and S&L industries, monetary policy, and the growing federalization of credit risk. He has helped to draft legislation to enact the cross-guarantee concept for privatizing banking regulation and its related deposit insurance and systemic risks. He has testified on numerous occasions before congressional committees on banking issues and he often speaks on these matters to bankers and others.
Bert first established his consulting practice in 1972. Before that, he was the chief financial officer of a public company, a consultant with Touche, Ross & Company, and an auditor with Ernst & Ernst. He received his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1968 and his Bachelor's degree in economics in 1964 from Case Western Reserve University.
Managing Director, Promontory Financial Group, LLC
Bill brings an exceptional blend of experience and insights to his work with clients, having been a banker, California’s Commissioner of Financial Institutions, and a member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. He works with financial institutions on corporate governance and organizational design, compliance program design and implementation, anti-money laundering programs, senior management reviews, and strategic planning.
Bill’s financial services experience spans the corporate sector, the executive branches of both state and federal government, academia, and think tanks. He earned a reputation as an open, fair, and pragmatic regulator during four years as Commissioner of Financial Institutions in California, leading the agency through a period of economic upheaval both in the state and nationwide. His vast knowledge and understanding of the financial system led to his selection as the state banking supervisors’ representative on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a federal agency created by the Dodd-Frank Act to foster coordination among financial regulators in order to identify systemic risks to the nation’s financial stability.
Before his appointment to state office, Bill was an independent consultant with Promontory while also serving as a visiting professor of economics and finance for the Graduate School of Management at the University of California-Davis. He worked on a wide array of client engagements at Promontory, in areas that included governance, due diligence, compliance, and strategy.
During nine years with Bank of America, Bill was managing director of Banc of America Securities and senior vice president of strategic policy development and planning for the bank. Earlier, he worked for five years as director of policy analysis for Citicorp.
Bill was J. Edward Lundy Scholar and director of the financial markets project at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He served under President Reagan as senior staff economist and special assistant to the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors.
Board Member, Center for Equal Opportunity
Roger Clegg is a Board Member at and former President and General Counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity. He focuses on legal issues arising from civil rights laws--including the regulatory impact on business and the problems in higher education created by affirmative action. A former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Clegg held the second highest positions in both the Civil Rights Division (1987-91) and in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (1991-93). He has held several other positions at the U.S. Justice Department, including Assistant to the Solicitor General (1985-87), Associate Deputy Attorney General (1984-85), and Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy (1984). Clegg is a graduate of Yale University Law School (1981).
Former United States Attorney General
Jeff Sessions served as the 84th Attorney General of the United States from February 9, 2017 until November 7, 2018.
Prior to becoming Attorney General, Mr. Sessions served as a United States Senator for Alabama since 1996. As a United States Senator, he focused his energies on maintaining a strong military, upholding the rule of law, limiting the role of government, and providing tax relief to stimulate economic growth and to empower Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money.
Mr. Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama on December 24, 1946, and grew up in Hybart, the son of a country store owner. Growing up in the country, Sessions was instilled with certain core values – honesty, hard work, belief in God and parental respect – that define him today. In 1964, he became an Eagle Scout and thereafter received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. After attending school in nearby Camden, Sessions attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969. He received a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Alabama in 1973. Sessions served in the United States Army Reserve from 1973 to 1986, ultimately attaining the rank of Captain. He still considers that period to be one of the most rewarding chapters of his life.
Sessions’ interest in the law led to a distinguished legal career, first as a practicing attorney in Russellville, Alabama, and then in Mobile. Following a two-year stint as Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama (1975-1977), Sessions was nominated by President Reagan in 1981 and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, a position he held for 12 years. Sessions was elected Alabama Attorney General in 1995, serving as the State’s chief legal officer until 1996, when he entered the United States Senate.
Sessions and his wife, Mary Blackshear Sessions, originally of Gadsden, Alabama, have three children, Mary Abigail Reinhardt, Ruth Sessions Walk, and Sam. They have seven granddaughters, Jane Ritchie, Alexa, Gracie, Sophia, Hannah, Joanna, and Phoebe, and three grandsons, Jim Beau, Lewis, and Nicholas.
Justice, Supreme Court of Arizona
Clint Bolick was appointed by Governor Doug Ducey in January 2016 to serve on the Arizona Supreme Court and was retained by the voters in 2018 and 2024.
Prior to joining the Court, Justice Bolick litigated constitutional cases in state and federal courts from coast to coast, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Among other positions, he served as Vice President for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute and as Co-founder and Vice President for Litigation at the Institute for Justice. He has litigated in support of school choice, freedom of enterprise, private property rights, freedom of speech, and federalism, and against racial classifications and government subsidies.
Justice Bolick received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Davis, where he has been recognized as a distinguished alumnus, and his Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Drew University. He serves as a research fellow with the Hoover Institution. Among other honors, he was named one of the 90 Greatest DC Lawyers in the Last 30 Years by Legal Times in 2008, received a Bradley Prize in 2006, and was recognized as one of the nation’s three lawyers of the year by American Lawyer in 2002 for his successful defense of school vouchers in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris.
Justice Bolick is a prolific author of a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Among his most recent books are Unshackled: Freeing America’s K-12 Education System: Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, co-authored with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush; and David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary. Bolick serves as an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law and has served as a lecturer at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Professor of Philosophy & Church-Studies at Baylor University
Francis J. Beckwith is Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies at Baylor University, where he also serves as Associate Director of Graduate Studies in Philosophy. Writing and teaching in the areas of law and religion, jurisprudence, and politics, his over one dozen books include Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith (Cambridge University Press, 2015), A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics (St. Augustine Press, 2013), Politics for Christians: Statecraft as Soulcraft (InterVarsity Press, 2010), Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air (Baker Books, 1998). His articles have appeared in a wide-range of journals including Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, American Journal of Jurisprudence, Journal of Law & Religion, Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, Nevada Law Journal, International Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Medicine & Philosophy, San Diego Law Review, Liberty University Law Review, Ratio Juris, Christian Bioethics, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Journal of Medical Ethics, Philosophia Christi, Catholic Social Science Review, Journal of Church & State, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Chapman Law Review, Journal of Social Philosophy, Human Life Review, and Social Theory and Practice.
Board Member, Center for Equal Opportunity
Roger Clegg is a Board Member at and former President and General Counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity. He focuses on legal issues arising from civil rights laws--including the regulatory impact on business and the problems in higher education created by affirmative action. A former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Clegg held the second highest positions in both the Civil Rights Division (1987-91) and in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (1991-93). He has held several other positions at the U.S. Justice Department, including Assistant to the Solicitor General (1985-87), Associate Deputy Attorney General (1984-85), and Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy (1984). Clegg is a graduate of Yale University Law School (1981).
International Monetary Policy: The Asian Crisis and Beyond
Ian Vasquez, William Lash, Bert Ely, William Haraf
A Panel Presented on November 12, 1998 at the Federalist Society's 1998 Lawyers Convention by...
An Authentic "National Dialogue" on Race
Roger B. Clegg
Following is a dialogue that might have occurred – indeed should have occurred – had...
Anti-Ballistic Missle Treaty: A Letter from the White House
The following letter was written to The Honorable Benjamin Gilman, Chairman of the House of...
FDA Modernization and Accountability Act of 1997: A Blueprint for Reform
Nick Littlefield, Sharon Webb
On the afternoon of Sunday, November 9, 1997, in the middle of the long Veterans...
Critical Infrastructure Protection: A New Era of National Security
Walter Gary Sharp
Computers and computer-dependent systems permeate everyone's daily life. From local, state, and federal government decision...
The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the End of the 1972 Anti-Missle Ballistic Missile Treaty
The following is the Executive Summary of a legal memorandum from the law firm of...
Reflections on Judicial Independence
Jefferson B. Sessions
Before I address judicial independence, I want to recognize the tremendous contribution that the Federalist...
Fighting a Left Turn on Rights: The Battle Against the Bill Lann Lee Nomination
Clint Bolick
When Deval Patrick announced his resignation last year as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights,...
Creating a Hostile Environment: A Lesson in Presidential Civility
Francis Joseph Beckwith
President Clinton began his "national conversation on race" on the evening of December 2, 1997,...
Roger Clegg reviews America in Black and White by Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom
Roger B. Clegg
Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom are an academic neoconservative couple - he a history professor at...