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.
Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Georgia
Chief Justice Nels Peterson was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2016, and was elected to full six-year terms in 2018 and 2024. He previously served in a variety of other roles in Georgia state government, including as judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals, general counsel for the University System of Georgia, Georgia’s first solicitor general in the Attorney General’s Office, and executive counsel to the Governor.
Before entering state government, Nels practiced at King & Spalding LLP in Atlanta and clerked for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He is a graduate of Kennesaw State University and Harvard Law School. Nels and his wife Jennifer have two children and live in Cobb County, where they teach adult Sunday school at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Goldwater Institute
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
JEFFREY S. SUTTON is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He has served as Chair of the Federal Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules, and Chair of the Supreme Court Fellows Commission. He currently serves as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Since 1993, Chief Judge Sutton has been an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University College of Law, where he teaches seminars on State Constitutional Law, the United States Supreme Court, and Appellate Advocacy. He also teaches a class on State Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. Among other publications, he is the author of Who Decides? States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation and 51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law. He is the co-author of a casebook, State Constitutional Law: The Modern Experience, as well as The Law of Judicial Precedent. He is also the co-editor of The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law. In 2006, Chief Judge Sutton was elected to the American Law Institute, and in 2017 he was elected to its Council.
Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Tim Rosenberger serves as Senior Counsel at the United States Department of Education. He was previously a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Stanford University’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. He was also the founding COO of Verbum Labs and serves as a Chaplain with the Cleveland Division of Police. Before matriculating to law school, he was a legal policy fellow at the Cicero Institute, a parish pastor, and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Tim has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The New York Post, and City Journal. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, testifies before state legislatures, and files dozens of amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court and various circuit courts.
He holds an AB from Georgetown University, a M.Div. from United Lutheran Seminary, a D.Min from the Rawlings School of Divinity, an LL.M. from Universität Wien, and a JD/MBA from Stanford University, where he was Federalist Society Chapter President and served on Law Review. Tim’s research interests lie at the intersection of law, faith, education and entrepreneurship—with a particular focus on leveraging policy to help America’s overlooked populations build lives of dignity.
Associate, Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell LLP
Daniel Nightingale is an appellate attorney at a law firm in Denver. He specializes in high-stakes appeals and commercial litigation nationwide, helping clients navigate challenging cases on appeal and through major motions practice. Dan has briefed and argued cases in courts across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court and several federal circuit courts. In addition to his appellate practice, Dan also regularly supports trial teams with high level strategy, pre- and post-trial briefing, and complex legal analysis. He has a vibrant pro bono practice as well, which focuses on free speech and life issues.
Before entering private practice, Dan clerked for then-Justice Allison Eid of the Colorado Supreme Court and Judge Joseph Bianco then of the Eastern District of New York. He graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Law School.
Legal Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Julia Payne serves as legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Life. In this role, she defends the sanctity of life by litigating both beginning and end of life issues.
Before joining ADF, Payne worked at the Office of the Indiana Attorney General as a deputy attorney general for five years. While at the AG’s office, she managed all of Indiana’s pro-life litigation and also worked on cases concerning immigration, religious liberty, federalism, the Commerce Clause, criminal procedure, federal habeas corpus procedures, civil asset forfeiture, local and special laws, and the common law powers of the attorney general. She has argued cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, the Southern District of Indiana, and Indiana state courts.
Payne graduated cum laude from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2017, where she served as an editor on the Indiana Law Journal and won best brief in the Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition. During law school, Payne interned as a clerk for Indiana Solicitor General Tom Fisher and as a Blackstone Fellow with ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom in Atlanta. She also served as president of the Christian Legal Society and as an officer for the Advocates for Life and the Federalist Society.
Before law school, Payne graduated summa cum laude from Western Kentucky University with a B.A. in History and a B.A. in Spanish. As an undergraduate, Payne studied abroad in both Spain and China. On campus, she served on the Student Government Association Judicial Council, led the music ministry for the Catholic Campus Center, and was an active member of Omega Phi Alpha Service Sorority. Payne was also a founding member of the Hilltoppers for Life, which helped spur her interest in First Amendment and pro-life issues. Payne is a member of the bars of the Indiana Supreme Court, the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana, and the Seventh Circuit.
Litigation Fellow, Institute for Justice
Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Jack Fitzhenry is a Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
He previously served as a law clerk for the Hon. Madeline H. Haikala on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and for the Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Between clerkships, he litigated a variety of commercial disputes as an associate with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.
Fitzhenry received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School and his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Williams College.
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