Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Peggy Little, Senior Counsel at New Civil Liberties Alliance, a new public interest law firm challenging the administrative state founded in 2017 by Professor Philip Hamburger, has over three decades of experience as a trial and appellate litigator in complex, high-stakes regulatory, mass-tort, class-action, products liability, securities, commercial and civil rights litigation representing individuals and high-profile litigants including Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, public companies, and universities in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
Peggy is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to starting her own trial and appellate law firm in 1997, where she was appellate consulting counsel to the New Haven firefighters in Ricci v.DeStefano, a landmark 2009 United States Supreme Court decision, Peggy was a partner at Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn in New Haven, Connecticut. From 2004 to early 2018, Peggy directed, part-time, the Federalist Society Pro Bono Center.
Peggy has participated in many national conferences and symposia addressing issues of current importance in constitutional law – specifically state and federal constitutional questions regarding the separation of powers and the first amendment – and regularly speaks, blogs and publishes on the topic of the unconstitutional exercise of governmental power. In May of 2017, she presented her paper, Pirates at the Parchment Gates, to a conference of state and federal judges at the Law and Economics Center at the Antonin Scalia Law School. Her work has been published by law reviews, legal publications, the Federalist Society, the Wall Street Journal, Law and Liberty and the Manhattan Institute.
Recent publications include: How the SEC silences its critics, The SEC should listen to Sen. Cotton, Lucia v. SEC, Opening Salvos in the Opioid Litigation Wars, Straight Dope on the Opioid Crisis
Global eDiscovery Counsel, UBS AG
Prior to working at UBS AG, Jamie Brown was the Assistant General Counsel & eDiscover Counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Interim Dean, Florida International University College of Law
Dan Epstein was Vice President at America First Legal and an Associate Professor of Law at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. He also advises individuals and small businesses in affirmative and defensive actions against government overreach. Previously, he advised startups on regulatory matters as Director at a venture capital firm. His federal service includes being a Special Assistant to and Senior Associate Counsel to the President and a counsel for the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Earlier in his career, Mr. Epstein founded and ran Cause of Action, where he represented clients in government investigations and litigated regulatory, constitutional, political, and public law matters.
He holds a Ph.D. from George Washington University in Political Economy, a J.D. from Emory University School of Law, and a B.A. from Kenyon College. He is active in the Palm Beach community as a member of the Fourth Court of Appeals Judicial Nominating Commission in Florida, a transition team member to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and the Chairman and Trustee of Palm Beach State College.
Partner, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Patrick is a partner in the firm’s General Litigation and Business Services Division where he leads the practice on e-compliance and digital investigations. He is one of the few e-discovery and compliance attorneys in the nation that possesses the tripartite experience of an in-house corporate counsel from a Fortune 16 organization; a senior attorney at a federal regulatory agency; and a partner in a large law firm.
Patrick has extensive experience advising on discovery and investigative matters involving commercial litigation, compliance, regulatory requests, antitrust matters, and personnel issues. Combined with a deep understanding of forensics and enterprise technology platforms, Patrick’s experience advising clients on responding to federal agency requests under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is balanced by his broad-based skill in negotiating enterprise software license agreements for collaboration platforms, e-discovery software and enterprise level computer forensic tools.
Before joining Shook Hardy & Bacon, Patrick served as senior special counsel for electronic discovery in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). During his tenure at SEC, Patrick co-chaired of the agency’s cross-divisional Electronic Discovery Action Team and co-authored The SEC Electronic Discovery and Litigation Response Manual. He counseled SEC senior leadership and agency staff on best practices and guidance for discovery and litigation strategy and privilege protections and on strategically significant matters involving forensics, technology and ECPA interpretation for subpoena enforcement.
Patrick appeared twice as SEC’s 30(b)(6) deponent to defend the agency’s discovery practices with favorable outcomes to the agency. He successfully designed and implemented SEC’s preservation process as well as a federal government-wide educational program that includes participation of the federal judiciary.
Prior to serving at SEC, Patrick was an experienced in-house counsel leading Verizon’s electronic discovery practice as Director of Electronic Discovery and Senior Litigation Counsel. Patrick was one of the nation’s first in-house attorneys charged to create and deploy defensible policies, guidelines and procedures for litigation response.
While at Verizon, Patrick testified as the company’s Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) witness, defending the same policies and guidelines that he helped design and implement. In 2006, he was nominated for the Verizon Excellence Award after playing a key role in the successful completion of Verizon’s response to the Department of Justice’s Second Request for Documents in its acquisition of MCI. As a result of his work, Inside Counsel magazine named Verizon’s e-discovery team as one of the ten most innovative legal groups of 2007, the group’s second year winning the title.
In 2007, Patrick appeared with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at Georgetown University Law Center’s Summit on Electronic Discovery. He has testified before the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence where he presented his position on Proposed Rule of Evidence 502. The committee included in its draft to the Judicial Conference language incorporating his suggestions.
Outside of work, Patrick volunteers his time as a co-founder at The Electronic Discovery Institute, a non-profit organization that conducts studies of litigation processes for the benefit of the federal and state judiciary.
Patrick lectures regularly at educational events and legal conferences internationally. He has appeared on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and was interviewed for the August 2008 edition of The Economist.
Legal Scholar and Solo Practitioner
Jack received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 1977, graduating with Highest Distinction. After graduating Yale Law School in 1980, he served active duty in the U.S. Army's JAG Corps, rising to the rank of Major, where he represented the United States in more than 250 cases.
He practiced for a decade as an Associate for Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama. He proudly served the State of Alabama in the Office of the Attorney General, both as Deputy and Assistant Attorney General, handling complex civil and criminal litigation cases for the people of Alabama. In 2000, he won the "Best Brief Award" from the National Association of Attorneys General for his brief in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, James Alexander v. Martha Sandoval – a case he won. He was Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for the Heritage Foundation, Of Counsel at Strickland Brockington Lewis, a solo practitioner, and General Counsel for Indigo Energy.
Most recently, he "re-upped" for military service, volunteering his legal services to the Georgia State Defense Force where twice each month he provided legal services for National Guardsmen who were being deployed. He wore his military uniform for the last time in October 2024.
Jack Park passed away on March 16, 2026.
Managing Partner, Redgrave LLP
Victoria Redgrave brings to the Firm a unique combination of skills and experience as in-house litigation counsel for two major corporations, outside counsel at an AmLaw 100 firm, and as general counsel at a technology company. She is the Managing Partner of Redgrave LLP.
Vickie served as Vice President, Practice Development & General Counsel for Technology Concepts & Design, Inc. (TCDI). During her tenure with TCDI, she was responsible for providing legal advice and counsel to the corporation on all legal matters, including the negotiation and preparation of master services agreements and RFP responses. Her responsibilities also included providing senior leadership to product development activities and to service delivery teams regarding expectations and needs of in-house counsel to litigation management and discovery.
Before joining TCDI, Vickie was Managing Counsel–Litigation for a Fortune 40 chemical company. In this role, Vickie led the company’s Products Liability Group, supervising a team of attorneys and paralegals responsible for managing all product liability litigation matters in North America. Vickie’s experience also included managing the company’s Discovery Practice Group. Her responsibilities in this role included the global enterprise-wide assessment of the company’s capabilities and exposure regarding compliance with both federal and state procedural rules regarding discovery of electronically stored information, as well as development and implementation of a comprehensive litigation response plan for electronic discovery. Vickie led the selection and implementation of technologies for electronic discovery and matter/information management within the company. She also provided counsel to the company’s information systems team on issues related to email management, server security, and data privacy.
Vickie also worked previously in-house for a Fortune 500 engine design and manufacturing company as Senior Counsel–Litigation and was a Senior Associate at Barnes & Thornburg.
Vickie received a J.D. from the Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis (summa cum laude) and a B.S. from the University of Indianapolis (magna cum laude). Vickie is admitted to practice in Michigan and the District of Columbia.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Judge Smith was appointed U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit by President Reagan and entered on duty in January 1988. He attended public schools in Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Yale University, receiving a B.A. in 1969 and a J.D. in 1972.
Judge Smith was a Law Clerk to U.S. District Judge Halbert Woodward, Northern District of Texas, 1972-1973; with the Houston law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski as an Associate, 1973-1981, and as Partner, 1981-1984; and as City Attorney, City of Houston, 1984-1988. He was Chairman, Civil Service Commission, City of Houston, 1982-1984; and a Director, Harris County Housing Authority, 1978-1980.
Judge Smith lives in Houston and is married to Mary Jane Smith and has four children: Ruth Ann, Clark, J.J., and Brandon. He formerly was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Evidence of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He assists LexisNexis/Matthew Bender & Co. in periodic revisions of several chapters of Moore’s Federal Practice.
Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; CEO, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Philip Hamburger is the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and Chief Executive Officer at the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Before coming to Columbia, he was the John P. Wilson Professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
He writes on constitutional law and its history—with particular emphasis on religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, judicial office, administrative power, and unconstitutional conditions.
His books are Separation of Church and State (Harvard 2002), Law and Judicial Duty (Harvard 2008), Is Administrative Law Unlawful? (Chicago 2014), The Administrative Threat (Encounter 2017), and Liberal Suppression: Section 501(c)(3) and the Taxation of Speech (Chicago 2018). A forthcoming book is Purchasing Submission: Conditions, Power, and Freedom (Harvard 2021).
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has served on the board of directors of the American Society for Legal History. He has twice received the Sutherland Prize for the most significant contribution to English legal history, and has been awarded the Henry Paolucci - Walter Bagehot Book Award, the Hayek Book Prize, and the Bradley Prize.
Former Managing Director, BlackRock Inc.
Joanne Medero was until July 2020 a Managing Director at BlackRock where she was member of their Global Public Policy Group and a Senior Advisor to the Vice Chairman on the intersection of public policy and corporate governance. In June 2021, Ms. Medero was appointed a director/trustee of the Nuveen Funds.
Ms. Medero's service with BlackRock dates back to 1996, including her years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. She joined BGI as its Global General Counsel in 1996 and after more than ten years in that role, became the global head of Government Relations and Public Policy for Barclays’ investment banking and investment management businesses. Prior to joining BGI, Ms. Medero was a partner with Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe specializing in derivatives and market regulation issues. Ms. Medero also served as general counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (1989-1993) and as an associate director for legal and financial affairs at the Office of Presidential Personnel, The White House (1986-1989).
Ms. Medero is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and received her JD from George Washington University.
Founder, Paredes Strategies LLC
Troy A. Paredes is the founder of Paredes Strategies LLC. From 2008-2013, Mr. Paredes was a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, having been appointed by President George W. Bush. At the SEC, Mr. Paredes was a strong advocate for small business and the JOBS Act, for solving the information overload problem of securities law disclosure, and for rigorous cost-benefit analysis. He also consistently expressed concerns about the overregulation and overreach of the Dodd-Frank Act. Since leaving government, Mr. Paredes has had an active consulting practice. Mr. Paredes advises on financial regulation, corporate governance, compliance, and governmental and regulatory affairs. He also serves as an expert and adviser in regulatory enforcement investigations and actions and in private litigation involving securities law and corporate law, and he has been an independent compliance consultant/monitor. Before becoming an SEC Commissioner, Mr. Paredes was a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and a professor of business (by courtesy) at Washington University’s Olin Business School. Currently, he is the Distinguished Policy Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. Next year he will be a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at NYU School of Law. Mr. Paredes is the author of numerous academic articles on financial regulation, corporate governance, innovation, and behavioral economics. He also is a co-author (beginning with the 4th edition) of a multi-volume securities regulation treatise with Louis Loss and Joel Seligman entitled Securities Regulation. Mr. Paredes serves on the board of directors of Electronifie Inc. and is a member of the board of advisors of StreetShares, Inc. Mr. Paredes holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from UC Berkeley and earned his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Wayne A. Abernathy, Wild Bells
Wayne A. Abernathy is a former U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions under President George W. Bush, receiving the Alexander Hamilton Award in recognition of his service. In that office he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Prior to his work at the Treasury, Mr. Abernathy served as Staff Director of the Senate Banking Committee, under Chairman Phil Gramm.
Following his service at the Treasury, Mr. Abernathy worked for 15 years on the staff of the American Bankers Association, as Executive Vice President for Financial Institutions Policy and Regulatory Affairs.
Previous experience with the Senate Banking Committee includes serving as Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Securities during 1995-1998. From 1989 until 1994, Mr. Abernathy was a Republican economist for the committee. He previously worked as a senior legislative assistant for Senator Gramm during 1987-1989 and as an economist for the Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on International Finance and Monetary Policy during 1981-1986, under Chairman Jake Garn.
Mr. Abernathy earned his bachelor’s degree in International Studies from The Johns Hopkins University in 1978. In 1980, he received a master’s degree in International Studies from the School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University.
Senior Fellow, Mises Institute
Alex J. Pollock is a Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute, providing thought and policy leadership on financial issues and the study of financial systems. His work includes cycles of booms and busts, financial crises with their political responses, housing finance, government-sponsored enterprises, risk and uncertainty, central banking, banking and financial regulation, corporate governance, retirement finance, student loans, and the politics of finance.
He previously served as the Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Research in the U.S. Treasury Department 2019-2021. He was a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the R Street Institute 2015-2019 and 2021, and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, 2004-2015. Among the many aspects of his AEI work, he developed the One Page Mortgage Form to give borrowers in clear form the key information they need in order to know what they are committing themselves to. He was President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago from 1991 to 2004. There he invented the Mortgage Partnership Finance program, which successfully created front-end mortgage credit risk sharing beginning in 1997. His decades of banking experience include being a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 1991.
Pollock was a director of the CME Group 2004-2019 and of Ascendium Education Group 1989-2019. He is a director and past-chairman of the Great Books Foundation and a past president of the International Union for Housing Finance.
He is the co-author of Surprised Again! - The COVID Crisis and the New Market Bubble (2022), and the author of Finance and Philosophy—Why We’re Always Surprised (2018) and Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity (2011), as well as numerous articles and Congressional testimony.
Pollock is a graduate of Williams College, the University of Chicago, and Princeton University.
His work is available on alexjpollock.com.
Global eDiscovery Counsel, UBS AG
Prior to working at UBS AG, Jamie Brown was the Assistant General Counsel & eDiscover Counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Interim Dean, Florida International University College of Law
Dan Epstein was Vice President at America First Legal and an Associate Professor of Law at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. He also advises individuals and small businesses in affirmative and defensive actions against government overreach. Previously, he advised startups on regulatory matters as Director at a venture capital firm. His federal service includes being a Special Assistant to and Senior Associate Counsel to the President and a counsel for the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Earlier in his career, Mr. Epstein founded and ran Cause of Action, where he represented clients in government investigations and litigated regulatory, constitutional, political, and public law matters.
He holds a Ph.D. from George Washington University in Political Economy, a J.D. from Emory University School of Law, and a B.A. from Kenyon College. He is active in the Palm Beach community as a member of the Fourth Court of Appeals Judicial Nominating Commission in Florida, a transition team member to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and the Chairman and Trustee of Palm Beach State College.
Partner, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Patrick is a partner in the firm’s General Litigation and Business Services Division where he leads the practice on e-compliance and digital investigations. He is one of the few e-discovery and compliance attorneys in the nation that possesses the tripartite experience of an in-house corporate counsel from a Fortune 16 organization; a senior attorney at a federal regulatory agency; and a partner in a large law firm.
Patrick has extensive experience advising on discovery and investigative matters involving commercial litigation, compliance, regulatory requests, antitrust matters, and personnel issues. Combined with a deep understanding of forensics and enterprise technology platforms, Patrick’s experience advising clients on responding to federal agency requests under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is balanced by his broad-based skill in negotiating enterprise software license agreements for collaboration platforms, e-discovery software and enterprise level computer forensic tools.
Before joining Shook Hardy & Bacon, Patrick served as senior special counsel for electronic discovery in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). During his tenure at SEC, Patrick co-chaired of the agency’s cross-divisional Electronic Discovery Action Team and co-authored The SEC Electronic Discovery and Litigation Response Manual. He counseled SEC senior leadership and agency staff on best practices and guidance for discovery and litigation strategy and privilege protections and on strategically significant matters involving forensics, technology and ECPA interpretation for subpoena enforcement.
Patrick appeared twice as SEC’s 30(b)(6) deponent to defend the agency’s discovery practices with favorable outcomes to the agency. He successfully designed and implemented SEC’s preservation process as well as a federal government-wide educational program that includes participation of the federal judiciary.
Prior to serving at SEC, Patrick was an experienced in-house counsel leading Verizon’s electronic discovery practice as Director of Electronic Discovery and Senior Litigation Counsel. Patrick was one of the nation’s first in-house attorneys charged to create and deploy defensible policies, guidelines and procedures for litigation response.
While at Verizon, Patrick testified as the company’s Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) witness, defending the same policies and guidelines that he helped design and implement. In 2006, he was nominated for the Verizon Excellence Award after playing a key role in the successful completion of Verizon’s response to the Department of Justice’s Second Request for Documents in its acquisition of MCI. As a result of his work, Inside Counsel magazine named Verizon’s e-discovery team as one of the ten most innovative legal groups of 2007, the group’s second year winning the title.
In 2007, Patrick appeared with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at Georgetown University Law Center’s Summit on Electronic Discovery. He has testified before the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence where he presented his position on Proposed Rule of Evidence 502. The committee included in its draft to the Judicial Conference language incorporating his suggestions.
Outside of work, Patrick volunteers his time as a co-founder at The Electronic Discovery Institute, a non-profit organization that conducts studies of litigation processes for the benefit of the federal and state judiciary.
Patrick lectures regularly at educational events and legal conferences internationally. He has appeared on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and was interviewed for the August 2008 edition of The Economist.
Legal Scholar and Solo Practitioner
Jack received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 1977, graduating with Highest Distinction. After graduating Yale Law School in 1980, he served active duty in the U.S. Army's JAG Corps, rising to the rank of Major, where he represented the United States in more than 250 cases.
He practiced for a decade as an Associate for Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama. He proudly served the State of Alabama in the Office of the Attorney General, both as Deputy and Assistant Attorney General, handling complex civil and criminal litigation cases for the people of Alabama. In 2000, he won the "Best Brief Award" from the National Association of Attorneys General for his brief in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, James Alexander v. Martha Sandoval – a case he won. He was Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for the Heritage Foundation, Of Counsel at Strickland Brockington Lewis, a solo practitioner, and General Counsel for Indigo Energy.
Most recently, he "re-upped" for military service, volunteering his legal services to the Georgia State Defense Force where twice each month he provided legal services for National Guardsmen who were being deployed. He wore his military uniform for the last time in October 2024.
Jack Park passed away on March 16, 2026.
Managing Partner, Redgrave LLP
Victoria Redgrave brings to the Firm a unique combination of skills and experience as in-house litigation counsel for two major corporations, outside counsel at an AmLaw 100 firm, and as general counsel at a technology company. She is the Managing Partner of Redgrave LLP.
Vickie served as Vice President, Practice Development & General Counsel for Technology Concepts & Design, Inc. (TCDI). During her tenure with TCDI, she was responsible for providing legal advice and counsel to the corporation on all legal matters, including the negotiation and preparation of master services agreements and RFP responses. Her responsibilities also included providing senior leadership to product development activities and to service delivery teams regarding expectations and needs of in-house counsel to litigation management and discovery.
Before joining TCDI, Vickie was Managing Counsel–Litigation for a Fortune 40 chemical company. In this role, Vickie led the company’s Products Liability Group, supervising a team of attorneys and paralegals responsible for managing all product liability litigation matters in North America. Vickie’s experience also included managing the company’s Discovery Practice Group. Her responsibilities in this role included the global enterprise-wide assessment of the company’s capabilities and exposure regarding compliance with both federal and state procedural rules regarding discovery of electronically stored information, as well as development and implementation of a comprehensive litigation response plan for electronic discovery. Vickie led the selection and implementation of technologies for electronic discovery and matter/information management within the company. She also provided counsel to the company’s information systems team on issues related to email management, server security, and data privacy.
Vickie also worked previously in-house for a Fortune 500 engine design and manufacturing company as Senior Counsel–Litigation and was a Senior Associate at Barnes & Thornburg.
Vickie received a J.D. from the Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis (summa cum laude) and a B.S. from the University of Indianapolis (magna cum laude). Vickie is admitted to practice in Michigan and the District of Columbia.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Judge Smith was appointed U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit by President Reagan and entered on duty in January 1988. He attended public schools in Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Yale University, receiving a B.A. in 1969 and a J.D. in 1972.
Judge Smith was a Law Clerk to U.S. District Judge Halbert Woodward, Northern District of Texas, 1972-1973; with the Houston law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski as an Associate, 1973-1981, and as Partner, 1981-1984; and as City Attorney, City of Houston, 1984-1988. He was Chairman, Civil Service Commission, City of Houston, 1982-1984; and a Director, Harris County Housing Authority, 1978-1980.
Judge Smith lives in Houston and is married to Mary Jane Smith and has four children: Ruth Ann, Clark, J.J., and Brandon. He formerly was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Evidence of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He assists LexisNexis/Matthew Bender & Co. in periodic revisions of several chapters of Moore’s Federal Practice.
Global eDiscovery Counsel, UBS AG
Prior to working at UBS AG, Jamie Brown was the Assistant General Counsel & eDiscover Counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Interim Dean, Florida International University College of Law
Dan Epstein was Vice President at America First Legal and an Associate Professor of Law at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida. He also advises individuals and small businesses in affirmative and defensive actions against government overreach. Previously, he advised startups on regulatory matters as Director at a venture capital firm. His federal service includes being a Special Assistant to and Senior Associate Counsel to the President and a counsel for the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Earlier in his career, Mr. Epstein founded and ran Cause of Action, where he represented clients in government investigations and litigated regulatory, constitutional, political, and public law matters.
He holds a Ph.D. from George Washington University in Political Economy, a J.D. from Emory University School of Law, and a B.A. from Kenyon College. He is active in the Palm Beach community as a member of the Fourth Court of Appeals Judicial Nominating Commission in Florida, a transition team member to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and the Chairman and Trustee of Palm Beach State College.
Partner, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Patrick is a partner in the firm’s General Litigation and Business Services Division where he leads the practice on e-compliance and digital investigations. He is one of the few e-discovery and compliance attorneys in the nation that possesses the tripartite experience of an in-house corporate counsel from a Fortune 16 organization; a senior attorney at a federal regulatory agency; and a partner in a large law firm.
Patrick has extensive experience advising on discovery and investigative matters involving commercial litigation, compliance, regulatory requests, antitrust matters, and personnel issues. Combined with a deep understanding of forensics and enterprise technology platforms, Patrick’s experience advising clients on responding to federal agency requests under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is balanced by his broad-based skill in negotiating enterprise software license agreements for collaboration platforms, e-discovery software and enterprise level computer forensic tools.
Before joining Shook Hardy & Bacon, Patrick served as senior special counsel for electronic discovery in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). During his tenure at SEC, Patrick co-chaired of the agency’s cross-divisional Electronic Discovery Action Team and co-authored The SEC Electronic Discovery and Litigation Response Manual. He counseled SEC senior leadership and agency staff on best practices and guidance for discovery and litigation strategy and privilege protections and on strategically significant matters involving forensics, technology and ECPA interpretation for subpoena enforcement.
Patrick appeared twice as SEC’s 30(b)(6) deponent to defend the agency’s discovery practices with favorable outcomes to the agency. He successfully designed and implemented SEC’s preservation process as well as a federal government-wide educational program that includes participation of the federal judiciary.
Prior to serving at SEC, Patrick was an experienced in-house counsel leading Verizon’s electronic discovery practice as Director of Electronic Discovery and Senior Litigation Counsel. Patrick was one of the nation’s first in-house attorneys charged to create and deploy defensible policies, guidelines and procedures for litigation response.
While at Verizon, Patrick testified as the company’s Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 30(b)(6) witness, defending the same policies and guidelines that he helped design and implement. In 2006, he was nominated for the Verizon Excellence Award after playing a key role in the successful completion of Verizon’s response to the Department of Justice’s Second Request for Documents in its acquisition of MCI. As a result of his work, Inside Counsel magazine named Verizon’s e-discovery team as one of the ten most innovative legal groups of 2007, the group’s second year winning the title.
In 2007, Patrick appeared with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at Georgetown University Law Center’s Summit on Electronic Discovery. He has testified before the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence where he presented his position on Proposed Rule of Evidence 502. The committee included in its draft to the Judicial Conference language incorporating his suggestions.
Outside of work, Patrick volunteers his time as a co-founder at The Electronic Discovery Institute, a non-profit organization that conducts studies of litigation processes for the benefit of the federal and state judiciary.
Patrick lectures regularly at educational events and legal conferences internationally. He has appeared on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and was interviewed for the August 2008 edition of The Economist.
Legal Scholar and Solo Practitioner
Jack received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 1977, graduating with Highest Distinction. After graduating Yale Law School in 1980, he served active duty in the U.S. Army's JAG Corps, rising to the rank of Major, where he represented the United States in more than 250 cases.
He practiced for a decade as an Associate for Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama. He proudly served the State of Alabama in the Office of the Attorney General, both as Deputy and Assistant Attorney General, handling complex civil and criminal litigation cases for the people of Alabama. In 2000, he won the "Best Brief Award" from the National Association of Attorneys General for his brief in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, James Alexander v. Martha Sandoval – a case he won. He was Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for the Heritage Foundation, Of Counsel at Strickland Brockington Lewis, a solo practitioner, and General Counsel for Indigo Energy.
Most recently, he "re-upped" for military service, volunteering his legal services to the Georgia State Defense Force where twice each month he provided legal services for National Guardsmen who were being deployed. He wore his military uniform for the last time in October 2024.
Jack Park passed away on March 16, 2026.
Managing Partner, Redgrave LLP
Victoria Redgrave brings to the Firm a unique combination of skills and experience as in-house litigation counsel for two major corporations, outside counsel at an AmLaw 100 firm, and as general counsel at a technology company. She is the Managing Partner of Redgrave LLP.
Vickie served as Vice President, Practice Development & General Counsel for Technology Concepts & Design, Inc. (TCDI). During her tenure with TCDI, she was responsible for providing legal advice and counsel to the corporation on all legal matters, including the negotiation and preparation of master services agreements and RFP responses. Her responsibilities also included providing senior leadership to product development activities and to service delivery teams regarding expectations and needs of in-house counsel to litigation management and discovery.
Before joining TCDI, Vickie was Managing Counsel–Litigation for a Fortune 40 chemical company. In this role, Vickie led the company’s Products Liability Group, supervising a team of attorneys and paralegals responsible for managing all product liability litigation matters in North America. Vickie’s experience also included managing the company’s Discovery Practice Group. Her responsibilities in this role included the global enterprise-wide assessment of the company’s capabilities and exposure regarding compliance with both federal and state procedural rules regarding discovery of electronically stored information, as well as development and implementation of a comprehensive litigation response plan for electronic discovery. Vickie led the selection and implementation of technologies for electronic discovery and matter/information management within the company. She also provided counsel to the company’s information systems team on issues related to email management, server security, and data privacy.
Vickie also worked previously in-house for a Fortune 500 engine design and manufacturing company as Senior Counsel–Litigation and was a Senior Associate at Barnes & Thornburg.
Vickie received a J.D. from the Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis (summa cum laude) and a B.S. from the University of Indianapolis (magna cum laude). Vickie is admitted to practice in Michigan and the District of Columbia.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Judge Smith was appointed U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit by President Reagan and entered on duty in January 1988. He attended public schools in Lubbock, Texas, and graduated from Yale University, receiving a B.A. in 1969 and a J.D. in 1972.
Judge Smith was a Law Clerk to U.S. District Judge Halbert Woodward, Northern District of Texas, 1972-1973; with the Houston law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski as an Associate, 1973-1981, and as Partner, 1981-1984; and as City Attorney, City of Houston, 1984-1988. He was Chairman, Civil Service Commission, City of Houston, 1982-1984; and a Director, Harris County Housing Authority, 1978-1980.
Judge Smith lives in Houston and is married to Mary Jane Smith and has four children: Ruth Ann, Clark, J.J., and Brandon. He formerly was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Evidence of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He assists LexisNexis/Matthew Bender & Co. in periodic revisions of several chapters of Moore’s Federal Practice.
Partner, King & Spalding
Drew Hruska focuses on criminal and regulatory litigation and investigations, internal investigations, regulatory compliance and risk advice. A partner in our Special Matters and Investigations practice, Drew represents major financial services and industrial companies, family offices and prominent individuals.
Drew represents a variety of financial services clients, including securities, commercial banking, insurance, insurance brokerage, hedge funds and private equity funds, along with major industrial companies, concerning enforcement and national security investigations by government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, OFAC, SEC, state attorneys general, and many others. Matters under investigation typically involve fraud, money laundering, international sanctions, foreign corrupt practices, banking regulation, false claims, taxation, data privacy and security, antitrust and immigration restrictions.
In addition, Drew consults with numerous multinational companies on a range of criminal, regulatory compliance, and risk issues. Drew speaks Russian and is frequently engaged on financial enforcement issues involving Russia and Eastern Europe. He has also served in independent roles a Monitor appointed by an international organization, an independent legal advisor for the Federal Reserve and Office of the Controller of the Currency, and as a court-appointed Examiner in bankruptcy.
Before joining our firm, Drew served as the Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where he supervised the criminal and civil divisions. He also oversaw the office’s corporate fraud offensive, including investigations of Computer Associates and Symbol Technologies. Drew served as Acting U.S. Attorney for the prosecution of the New York Racing Association on tax conspiracy charges. He also led the criminal investigation of the Staten Island Ferry crash of October 15, 2003, that resulted in a manslaughter conviction for New York City’s Ferry Service Director.
Previously, Drew served as Senior Counsel to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, and as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted major securities, bank and insurance fraud cases as a member of the Frauds Bureau.
Drew is recognized by Chambers, Benchmark Litigation, Legal 500, and Who’s Who Legal. He serves on the World Jewish Congress President’s Security Advisory Committee and on the Dewey Medal Prize Committee for the New York City District Attorneys’ Offices.
Leaving Them Speechless: Does the SEC Silence Criticism?
TeleforumFrom Orange Groves to Cryptocurrency: How Will the SEC Apply Longstanding Tests to New Technologies?
Troy Paredes, Scott Kimpel
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
Optimizing Regulation of Cryptoassets
Chicago Lawyers Chapter
Chicago , ILDinner with CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo
Washington, District of ColumbiaCan the Dodd-Frank Act Be Reformed To Strengthen the Financial System and the Overall Economy? We Think So
Wayne A. Abernathy, Alex J. Pollock
Note from the Editor: This article is about potential reforms to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street...
“The Dog Ate My Emails!”: Document Retention Policies, Litigation Holds, and Legal Ethics
Jamie Brown, Daniel Z. Epstein, Patrick Oot, John J. Park, Victoria A. Redgrave, Julie Goldsmith Reiser, Jerry E. Smith
Once upon a time, corporations, government departments, and other entities made their own decisions about...
“The Dog Ate My Emails!”: Document Retention Policies, Litigation Holds, and Legal Ethics
Jamie Brown, Daniel Z. Epstein, Patrick Oot, John J. Park, Victoria A. Redgrave, Julie Goldsmith Reiser, Jerry E. Smith
Once upon a time, corporations, government departments, and other entities made their own decisions about...
“The Dog Ate My Emails!”: Document Retention Policies, Litigation Holds, and Legal Ethics
2014 National Lawyers Convention
Washington, DCReining in the Administrative State
Palo Alto, CaliforniaInternational Criminal Discovery
Andrew C. Hruska
I. Introduction While money moves at the speed of light across national boundaries, law enforcement...