Professor of Law and J. Philip Johnson Faculty Fellow, University of North Dakota School of Law
Michael S. McGinniss is Professor of Law and J. Philip Johnson Faculty Fellow at the University of North Dakota School of Law, where he joined the faculty in 2010 and served as the Dean from 2019 to 2022. He chairs the executive committee for the Federalist Society's Practice Group on Professional Responsibility and Legal Education.
Before entering the legal academy, Professor McGinniss served for twelve years as a Disciplinary Counsel for the Supreme Court of Delaware. He currently teaches courses on Professional Responsibility, Advanced Legal Ethics, Civil Procedure, and Federal Courts. He also serves as Faculty Advisor for the North Dakota Law Review and the UND Law Federalist Society student chapter.
Professor McGinniss’ research and scholarship interests are wide-ranging and include lawyer and judicial ethics, lawyer discipline and regulation of the profession, constitutional law (especially First Amendment, separation of powers, and federalism), and cultural challenges faced by conservatives in the law schools and the legal profession. His most recent law review article, Declaring Independence to Secure Integrity: The Supreme Court Justices' Code of Conduct, was published in the Federalist Society Review. His article Expressing Conscience with Candor: Saint Thomas More and First Freedoms in the Legal Profession, was published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
Professor McGinniss has spoken to Federalist Society lawyer and student chapters across the country about judicial independence and ethics, especially relating to the federal courts and the United States Supreme Court Justices. In addition, he has spoken to several chapters about rising challenges to ideological diversity and targeting of conservative viewpoints in law schools and the legal profession. Although he is very pleased to speak on these and many other topics that may be of interest to lawyer and student chapters, in 2026-2027, he has particular interest in speaking on the topic “Lawyer Discipline as Political ‘Resistance’: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and the Rule of Law,” concerning his work-in-progress on the weaponization of professional disciplinary processes against conservative lawyers for political and ideological purposes.
Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Arthur D. Hellman, a professor of law (emeritus) at the University of Pittsburgh, is a nationally recognized scholar of the federal courts who has also written in the area of the First Amendment. His publications include numerous articles and several books, including casebooks in both areas, Federal Courts: Cases and Materials on Judicial Federalism and the Lawyering Process (5th edition 2022) (with David R. Stras, Ryan W. Scott, F. Andrew Hessick, and Derek T. Muller); and First Amendment Law: Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion (5th edition 2022) (with William D. Araiza, Thomas E. Baker, and Ashutosh A. Bhagwat).
In addition to his casebooks and academic writing, Processor Hellman has worked with the Judiciary Committees in the House and Senate in drafting federal courts legislation, including the most recent (2002) revision of the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act (Title 28, Chapter 16). The legislative histories of two major jurisdictional statutes – the Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 and the “Holmes Group Fix” (enacted as part of the America Invents Act) – acknowledge his contributions.
Professor Hellman has testified as an invited witness at numerous hearings of both Judiciary Committees. His testimony has focused on a wide variety of legislative issues related to the federal courts, including the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court; proposals to divide the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; federal judicial discipline; unpublished appellate opinions; and the constitutionality of legislative restrictions on the powers of the federal courts.
In 2005 Professor Hellman was appointed as the inaugural holder of the Sally Ann Semenko Endowed Chair at the University. In 2002 he received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award “as a faculty member who has an outstanding and continuing record of research and scholarly activity.”
Founder, Original Jurisdiction
David Lat is a lawyer turned writer. He publishes Original Jurisdiction, a newsletter on Substack about law and legal affairs, and he writes for newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Prior to launching Original Jurisdiction, David founded Above the Law, one of the nation's most widely read legal news websites, and Underneath Their Robes, a popular blog about federal judges that he wrote under a pseudonym. He is also the author of a novel set in the world of the federal courts, Supreme Ambitions. Before entering the media world, David worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, in New York; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. David graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Judge, Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One
The Honorable Jennifer M. Perkins began service on the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, on October 30, 2017. At the time of her appointment by Governor Douglas Ducey, Judge Perkins was Assistant Solicitor General for the State of Arizona.
Judge Perkins was born in Portales, New Mexico, and primarily raised in Albuquerque. She attended the prestigious Albuquerque Academy from 1988-1995, before moving to Washington D.C. to attend the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University as a National Merit Scholar. Therafter, she relocated again to Dallas, Texas, and earned her juris doctor from the SMU Dedman School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2002.
Judge Perkins started her career at the law firm of Browning & Peifer (now Peifer, Hanson, Mullins, and Baker) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While there, she litigated complex commercial matters including class action plaintiff and defense work, and assisted with employment and contract litigation. In 2003, the judge accompanied the Honorable James O. Browning in transitioning to the federal district court bench, serving as his first law clerk.
After her clerkship, Judge Perkins moved to Arizona to work for the Institute for Justice, Arizona Chapter, a public interest law firm. She spent five years with IJ-AZ litigating civil rights cases in Arizona and across the country. In 2009, the judge became Disciplinary Counsel for the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct, where she reviewed and prosecuted ethics complaints against state court judges throughout Arizona. After five years serving the state in this capacity, Judge Perkins entered private practice by joining an appellate law firm in Phoenix. While there, she worked on state and federal appeals involving a wide range of legal subjects, including complex business disputes, property rights, judicial ethics, and personal injury matters.
In January 2015, Judge Perkins joined the Office of the Arizona Attorney General to serve as the first Assistant Solicitor General; in that capacity, she was responsible for oversight of Attorney General Opinions and served as ethics counsel to the entire office. In addition to these two primary roles, the judge assisted on a variety of matters including trial and appellate litigation of election-related matters; federal appellate litigation with the Federalism Unit; state criminal appeals; and drafting amicus briefs on behalf of Arizona in state and federal courts.
Associate Justice, Alabama Supreme Court
James L. “Jay” Mitchell was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2018.
Prior to serving on the Supreme Court, Justice Mitchell was an accomplished litigation attorney with Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. During his time in private practice, he tried a number of complex cases to verdict, successfully handled appeals, and obtained favorable settlements for clients. He was rated as one of the top litigators in the United States and Alabama, and received the highest possible rating for professional ethics. He also served on Maynard, Cooper & Gale’s executive committee, helping to lead strategic and growth initiatives for the firm.
Justice Mitchell was born in Mobile and grew up in South Alabama and in Homewood. He is a graduate of Homewood High School and received his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Birmingham-Southern College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, served as president of the student body, and played forward on the school’s 1995 national championship basketball team. He holds a Master of Arts from University College in Dublin, Ireland, and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Justice Mitchell has long been active in organizations that benefit the community and enhance the legal profession. In addition to his service with other organizations, he is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and serves on the board of directors at Cornerstone School, an inner city Christian school. He is also a member of the Federalist Society.
Justice Mitchell and his wife, Elizabeth, have been married for 20 years and have four children. They reside in Homewood and are longtime members of Church of the Highlands.
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Associate, Wiley Rein LLP
Joel S. Nolette is an associate at Wiley Rein LLP, where he advocates on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of complex litigation matters. In 2017, Joel graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as the Editor in Chief of Volume 15 of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. From 2019 to 2021, Joel clerked for the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; and from 2021 to 2022, he clerked for the Honorable Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Before attending law school, Joel graduated summa cum laude from Gordon College in Wenham, MA, with his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies and worked as a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service.
H. Ross & Helen Workman Research Scholar, Director, Program in I, University of Illinois College of Law
Professor Jay P. Kesan's academic interests are in the areas of technology, law, and business. Specifically, his work focuses on patent law, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, cyberlaw, digital government (e-gov), agricultural biotechnology law, and biofuels regulation. His recent publications can be found on SSRN (Social Science Research Network).
At the University of Illinois, Professor Kesan is appointed in the College of Law, the Institute of Genomic Biology, the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, the Information Trust Institute, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, the College of Business, and the Department of Agricultural & Consumer Economics.
He directs the Program in Intellectual Property & Technology Law at the College of Law. At the Institute of Genomic Biology (IGB), he is group leader of the Business, Economics & Law of Genomic Biology (BioBEL) theme, and he directs research on biofuel law & regulation at the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI).
Most recently, he served as a Thomas A. Edison Scholar at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
His recent awards include: Honorable Mention ($1,000 Award), Competition on Cyberdeterrence conducted by the National Research Council for work on “Thinking Through Active Defense in Cyberspace,” 2011; Microsoft Research Awards in 2011 and 2012 for work on technology standards and patent policy; Best Paper Award for Contributions to Foundations of Electronic Governance at the 4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV), Beijing, China, Oct. 25-28, 2010; Best Paper Award for "An Empirical Examination of Open Standards Development" (with R. Shah), 41st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), 2008; Best Paper Award for "An Empirical Study of Open Standards" (with R. Shah) published in the Proceedings of the 8th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, 2007; and IBM Faculty Award in 2006.
His books include: Adopting Open Source Software, A Practical Guide (with Fitzgerald, Russo, Shaikh and Succi), MIT Press (2011); The Commercial Law of Intellectual Property (with Alces, Frisch and See), Aspen Publishing Co. (2003-2014 Cumm. Supp.) (treatise); Intellectual Property in Business Organizations (with Ghosh and Gruner), Lexis-Nexis Publishing Co. (2d ed. 2012) (unique and first-of-its-kind casebook on transactional IP); Defining Values for Research & Technology(Greenough, McConnaughay and Kesan (eds.)), Rowman & Littlefield Publishing (Fall 2006); Intellectual Property: Private Rights, the Public Interest, and the Regulation of Creative Activity (with Ghosh, Gruner & Reis), West Publishing Co. (2d ed. 2010) (casebook); Agricultural Biotechnology and Intellectual Property: Seeds of Change, Kesan (ed.), CABI Publishing Co., Oxford (2007).
He has received numerous, multi-year research grants/awards for his work in the areas of intellectual property and technology regulation from the National Science Foundation, The National Academy of Sciences—Board of Science, Technology and Economic Policy (STEP), the private sector, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Energy Biosciences Institute, the Federal Judicial Center, the Net Institute, the Coleman Foundation, and the University of Illinois Campus Research Board.
Professor Kesan continues to be professionally active in the areas of patent litigation and technology entrepreneurship. He was appointed by federal judges to serve as a special master in patent litigations, and has served as a technical and legal expert and/or counsel in patent matters. He also serves on the boards of directors/advisors of start-up technology companies.
He participated twice in panels at the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice Hearings on the Implications of Competition and Patent Law and Policy. He testified about biofuel regulation issues before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He has also worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation on their intellectual property protection and technology commercialization activities in the former Soviet Union countries.
He is regular radio commentator for “Legal Issues in the News,” WILL-AM-FM Illinois Public Radio.
Professor Kesan was a JSPS Invited Fellow and visiting associate professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan and has also served as a Foreign Research Fellow at the Institute of Intellectual Property (IIP) in Tokyo, Japan. He has also taught as a visiting faculty at Georgetown University, DePaul University, Florida State University, and Seattle University.
He serves as faculty editor-in-chief of the University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy, which published its inaugural issue in Spring 2001. He has also developed an online course on "Legal Issues in Technology Entrepreneurship," supported by a grant from the Coleman Foundation.
Professor Kesan received his J.D. summa cum laude from Georgetown University, where he received several awards including Order of the Coif and served as associate editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. After graduation, he clerked for Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Prior to attending law school, Jay Kesan – who also holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering – worked as a research scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York. He is a registered patent attorney and practiced at the former firm of Pennie & Edmonds LLP in the areas of patent litigation and patent prosecution. In addition, he has published numerous scientific papers, and he has obtained several patents in the U.S. and abroad.
Chief Economist, Abundance Institute
President, Center for Individual Rights
Todd Gaziano is the President of the Center for Individual Rights. Mr. Gaziano received his J.D. in 1988 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics. He received his B.A. from West Virginia University, summa cum laude in 1985. He was selected as a Truman Scholar from West Virginia while an undergraduate.
Mr. Gaziano’s previous legal work includes service as a law clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones, as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, as a chief subcommittee counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a Houston trial attorney, and as a chief corporate legal officer. He also served a six-year term as commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2008-2013), where he helped conduct oversight and investigations of civil rights agencies.
For most of the last 25 years, Mr. Gaziano was a legal scholar and public interest law leader, promoting individual liberty in the Supreme Court and Congress. From 1997 to 2013, he was the founding director of the Edwin Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. From 2014 until he joined CIR, he was the Chief of Legal Policy and Strategic Research, and Director of the Center for the Separation of Powers, at Pacific Legal Foundation.
Legal Fellow, Center for the Separation of Powers, Pacific Legal Foundation
Alison Somin joined Pacific Legal Foundation in May 2020 as a legal fellow in the Center for the Separation of Powers and part of the equality before the law practice group.
Before joining the Pacific Legal Foundation team, Alison was a special assistant and counsel for over a decade to Gail Heriot, a member of the bipartisan United States Commission on Civil Rights. She also has deep roots in the liberty movement. Alison was a Koch Associate at the National Federation for Independent Business Legal Foundation and, during law school, completed summer clerkships at the Institute for Justice and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. She holds a J.D. from Emory University School of Law and an A.B. in history from Dartmouth College.
Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Daily Journal, Texas Journal of Law and Politics, and The Federalist Society’s Engage magazine and blog.
She lives in northern Virginia with her husband Ilya; two children; and golden retriever Willow. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking and cooking, children’s art projects, and training and exercising Willow.
Senior Fellow, Center for Energy and Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Marlo Lewis, Jr. is a Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where he writes on global warming, energy policy, and other public policy issues. Prior to joining CEI in April 2002, he served as Director of External Relations at the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles, California. During the 106th Congress, Marlo served as Staff Director of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, Natural Resources, and Regulatory Affairs.
His interests include the science, economics, and politics of global warming policy; the precautionary principle; environmentalism and religion; and the moral basis of free enterprise. Marlo has been published in The Washington Times, Investors Business Daily, TechCentralStation, National Review, and Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy. He has appeared on various television and radio programs, and his ideas have been featured in radio commentary by Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy.
Before joining CEI for his first tenure with the organization in 1993, Marlo served as Research Director for the grassroots organization, Citizens Against Government Waste. Earlier, he was a Staff Consultant to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade, a Special Assistant at the State Department Bureau of Inter-American Affairs and Bureau of International Organization Affairs, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Claremont McKenna College. He holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and a B.A. in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College.
Declaring Independence to Secure Integrity: The Supreme Court Justices' Code of Conduct
Michael S. McGinniss
[T]he judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power; that it...
Insights on the Supreme Court's New Ethics Guidelines
Arthur D. Hellman, David Lat, Jennifer Perkins
On November 13, 2023, the Supreme Court formally announced a Code of Conduct, a significant...
Textualism in Alabama
Jay Mitchell
Textualism is alive and well in Alabama. This interpretive doctrine teaches that legal texts have...
Chevron—Complicated, Start to Finish
Ronald A. Cass
A Review of Thomas W. Merrill, The Chevron Doctrine: Its Rise and Fall, and the...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument: Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
Ilya Shapiro
In Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Supreme Court will decide the...
Lessons in Reading Law: Rimini Street v. Oracle’s Duel Over “Full Costs”
Joel S. Nolette
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
Does Patent Litigation Need a Federal Solution? - Podcast
Jay Kesan, Eli Dourado
The America Invents Act, the first substantial legislative changes to patent law, took effect two...
Disparate Impact Liability and the Fair Housing Act: Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. - Podcast
Todd F. Gaziano
On Wednesday, January 21, 2015, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Texas Department of...
A Lady or a Tiger?: Thoughts on Fisher v. University of Texas and the Future of Race Preferences in America
Alison E. Somin
Note from the Editor: This article is about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Fisher...
EPA Regulation of Fuel Economy: Congressional Intent or Climate Coup?
Marlo Lewis
Note from the Editor:1 This paper assesses EPA’s rule setting standards for motor vehicle greenhouse...