General Counsel & Parliamentarian, U. S. House of Representatives, Financial Services Committee
Molly Boyl Fromm is the General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Financial Services Committee in U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to this role she has served the House as the General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and as Deputy General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkley and her law degree from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Mr. Pomper formerly served as chief international trade counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). In that role, he was responsible for advising Chairman Baucus and other members of the Senate Finance Committee on all aspects of the Committee’s international trade and economic agenda.
In his current practice, Mr. Pomper represents companies before Congress, the White House and federal agencies on a diverse set of public policy matters, including market access, investment, international trade disputes, intellectual property, international tax and customs issues.
Mr. Pomper also serves as an adjunct professor teaching international trade policy and politics at George Washington’s Graduate School of Political Management. He was elected 2011 to serve a three-year term as a member of the Steering Committee for the International Law Section of the D.C. Bar. He is an Educational Counselor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for which he interviews students from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia applying to MIT.
Mr. Pomper is a member of the U.S. patent bar.
Editor, Modern Age
Daniel McCarthy is the Editor of Modern Age, an American conservative academic quarterly journal. Previously, he was the editor-at-large of The American Conservative from 2010 through 2016. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Spectator, The National Interest, Reason, Modern Age, and other publications. He has been interviewed on National Public Radio, the BBC, Fox Business, and many other outlets. Outside of journalism, he has worked as internet communications coordinator of the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign and senior editor of ISI Books. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied classics.
Founder, Libertas-West Project
Karen Lugo is a constitutional law consultant and national security analyst. She was Director of the Center for Tenth Amendment at Texas Public Policy Foundation from 2013 to 2015. When living in California, she was Co-Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence Center. From 2005 – 2012, she was a clinical visiting and adjunct professor at Chapman University School of Law where she co-taught the advanced Constitutional Law Clinic. Karen has co-authored and written circuit-level and Supreme Court amicus briefs on such issues as FISA Surveillance, Healthcare Reform, Arizona’s Border Security, Gay Marriage, The Ten Commandments, Eminent Domain, Christian Clubs on University Campuses, and Material Support for Terrorists.
Karen is the founder of the Libertas-West Project, a center for study Islamic integration and radicalization issues. In this capacity, she consulted with the Center for Security Policy to write a book on local over-watch of mosque construction and community engagement called: Mosques in America: A Guide to Accountable Permit Hearings and Continuing Citizen Oversight.
Karen writes and speaks for European and American groups on the importance of basing assimilation efforts on principles of Western exceptionalism. She presented a policy brief to the French Conseil d’Etat analyzing the legal implications of banning the burqa. Ms. Lugo has written one of the most comprehensive overviews of sharia law in American courts, American Family Law and Sharia-Compliant Marriages, for the Federalist Society law journal, Engage. She has written several white papers on the American Law for American Courts legislation and sharia tribunals in America.
Ms. Lugo was an appointee to the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She also taught a Human Rights law course on the contrast between French and English Enlightenment theories in Strasbourg, France.
Until moving from California, Ms. Lugo was a member of the David Horowitz Freedom Center Board of Directors. She was also a regular guest on the Orange County PBS local issues debate program, Inside OC, and she is a contributor to Pajamas Media, National Review Online, City Journal, American Spectator, American Greatness, Townhall.com, American Thinker, Daily Caller, and Family Security Matters. She has been interviewed by dozens of radio hosts and has spoken for civic groups on constitutional and cultural concerns.
Research Fellow, CATO Institute
Jay Schweikert is a research fellow with the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. His research and advocacy focuses on accountability for prosecutors and law enforcement, plea bargaining, Sixth Amendment trial rights, and the provision and structuring of indigent defense.
Before joining Cato, Schweikert spent four years doing civil and criminal litigation at Williams & Connolly LLP. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School, where he was an articles editor for the Harvard Law Review, and chaired the Harvard Federalist Society’s student colloquium program. Following law school, Schweikert clerked for Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
He holds a BA in political science and economics from Yale University.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Goldwater Institute
U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Tennessee, U.S. Department of Justice
Braden Boucek was sworn in on December 24, 2025, as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Mr. Boucek served as the senior vice president of litigation at the Southeastern Legal Foundation having previously served as the vice president of legal affairs at the Beacon Center. Mr. Boucek has extensive experience as a prosecutor, starting his career at the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office before serving for two years as an Assistant District Attorney General in Williamson County. He was a federal prosecutor for ten years, first serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Tennessee from 2005 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. Boucek was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee, the district he now leads as the United States Attorney.
Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Professor Garrett Epps joined the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2008. He teaches courses in Constitutional Law, First Amendment, and Fiction and Non-Fiction Writing for Law Students. He is a contributing writer to The Atlantic Online and serves as the magazine's Supreme Court correspondent. He is also a contributing editor of The American Prospect. Epps' most recent book, American Justice 2014: Nine Clashing Visions on the Supreme Court, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Professor Epps' previous book, American Epic: Reading the U.S. Constitution, was published in 2013 by Oxford University Press. In March 2014, American Epic was named a finalist for the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Book award. Two of his previous books, Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil War America (2006) and To an Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial (2001), were both also Silver Gavel finalists. A former staff writer for The Washington Post, Epps has written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic and The American Prospect.
He received his LL.M. in Comparative and International Law and his J.D. from Duke University, where he served as articles editor of Law and Contemporary Problems and graduated with the Willis Smith Award for the highest three-year academic average. Before attending law school, Epps earned his M.A. in English Writing in 1975 from Hollins College and his B.A. in 1972 from Harvard College, where he was editor of The Harvard Crimson.
George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
TODD J. ZYWICKI is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and Research Fellow of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. During the Fall 2023 semester he served as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the Bruce Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado-Boulder. From 2020-2021 he was Chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. In 2021 he was inducted to the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. He is also a Senior Fellow of the F.A. Hayek Program for the Advanced Study of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at George Mason University and a former Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute. From 2015-2017 he was Executive Director of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. He served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review from 2006-2017. From 2003-2004, Professor Zywicki served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. He has also taught at Vanderbilt University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Mississippi College School of Law, and China University of Political Science and Law.
Professor Zywicki clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and worked as an associate at Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia, where he practiced bankruptcy and commercial law. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Tax Review and John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics. Professor Zywicki also received an M.A. in Economics from Clemson University and an A.B. cum Laude with high honors in his major from Dartmouth College.
Professor Zywicki is also a Lone Mountain Fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center, a Fellow of the International Centre for Economic Research in Turin, Italy, and a former Senior Fellow of the Goldwater Institute. During the Fall 2008 Semester Professor Zywicki was the Searle Fellow of the George Mason University School of Law and was a 2008-09 W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the Arch W. Shaw National Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. He has lectured and consulted with government officials around the world, including Iceland, Italy, Japan, and Guatemala. In 2006 Professor Zywicki served as a Member of the United States Department of Justice Study Group on “Identifying Fraud, Abuse and Errors in the United States Bankruptcy System.”
Professor Zywicki is the author of more than 130 articles in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed economics journals. He is one of the Top 10 most-cited law professors in the field of Commercial Law and one of the Top 25 law professors on Twitter as measured by engagement levels. He is one of the Top 50 Most Downloaded Law Authors at the Social Science Research Network. He has testified multiple times before Congress on issues of consumer bankruptcy law and consumer credit and is a frequent commentator on legal issues in the print and broadcast media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Nightline, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Neil Cavuto Show, Fox & Friends, Smerconish, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg News, BBC, The Diane Rehm Show, Lou Dobbs Show, Jerry Doyle Show, and The Laura Ingraham Show.
Professor Zywicki is former Chairman and a current member of the Board of Directors of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Humane Studies, Bill of Rights Institute, the Executive Committee for the Federalist Society's Financial Institutions and E-Commerce Practice Group, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment. He formerly served on the Governing Board and the Advisory Council for the Financial Services Research Program at George Washington University School of Business. He is currently the Chair of the Academic Advisory Council for the following organizations: The Bill of Rights Institute, the film “We the People in IMAX,” and the McCormick-Tribune Foundation “Freedom Museum” in Chicago, Illinois. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Ralston College and was a member of the Board of Trustees of Yorktown University. From 2005-2009 he served as an elected Alumni Trustee of the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees.
Deputy General Counsel, U. S. House of Representatives, Office of General Counsel
Todd Tatelman has served in the Office of General Counsel since November 2011. Mr. Tatelman previously served as a Legislative Attorney for the American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service. He received his bachelor of arts degrees in Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics from Boston University and his law degree, with honors, from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, where he was a member of The Catholic University Law Review.
Partner, O'Melveny & Myers LLP
Gregory Jacob is a partner in O’Melveny’s Washington, D.C. office. Greg Jacob represents financial services companies including banks, investment managers, health care payors, and insurers, as well as other employers, in class action and other litigation concerning ERISA and other labor and employment matters. A former Solicitor of Labor, Greg has extensive knowledge on a wide variety of labor and employment issues including ERISA, FLSA, OFCCP, and whistleblower law. He regularly litigates in federal courts throughout the country, defends clients against Department of Labor investigations, and provides counseling to plans and plan sponsors.
Prior to rejoining O’Melveny in 2021, Greg served as Counsel to Vice President Pence and Deputy Assistant to the President. He directly advised the Vice President on all legal issues relating to the Office of the Vice President, and advised the White House Coronavirus Task Force concerning the Defense Production Act and other legal issues related to bolstering the domestic supply chain.
General Counsel & Parliamentarian, U. S. House of Representatives, Financial Services Committee
Molly Boyl Fromm is the General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Financial Services Committee in U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to this role she has served the House as the General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and as Deputy General Counsel and Parliamentarian for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
She received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkley and her law degree from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.
Vice President, Networks, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Nathan Kaczmarek is Vice President for Networks at the Federalist Society. He began his legal career in Detroit representing nationwide clients in all phases of healthcare litigation and complex medical malpractice claims. He has since served as a Senior Legal and Policy Advisor in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Counsel for the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management in the U.S. Senate. Prior to overseeing the Networks, he was Director of the Practice Groups, the Regulatory Transparency Project, and the Article I Initiative for the Federalist Society.
Nathan holds degrees from Hillsdale College and Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is a Liaison Representative for The Administrative Conference of the United States. He also serves as Vice President of the Associates of St. John Bosco, a Virginia based non-profit dedicated to Catholic high school and college students.
Editor, Modern Age
Daniel McCarthy is the Editor of Modern Age, an American conservative academic quarterly journal. Previously, he was the editor-at-large of The American Conservative from 2010 through 2016. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Spectator, The National Interest, Reason, Modern Age, and other publications. He has been interviewed on National Public Radio, the BBC, Fox Business, and many other outlets. Outside of journalism, he has worked as internet communications coordinator of the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign and senior editor of ISI Books. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied classics.
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Mr. Pomper formerly served as chief international trade counsel to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). In that role, he was responsible for advising Chairman Baucus and other members of the Senate Finance Committee on all aspects of the Committee’s international trade and economic agenda.
In his current practice, Mr. Pomper represents companies before Congress, the White House and federal agencies on a diverse set of public policy matters, including market access, investment, international trade disputes, intellectual property, international tax and customs issues.
Mr. Pomper also serves as an adjunct professor teaching international trade policy and politics at George Washington’s Graduate School of Political Management. He was elected 2011 to serve a three-year term as a member of the Steering Committee for the International Law Section of the D.C. Bar. He is an Educational Counselor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for which he interviews students from the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia applying to MIT.
Mr. Pomper is a member of the U.S. patent bar.
Necessary & Proper Episode 30: The Legislative Branch and Trade
Molly Boyl Fromm, Brian Arthur Pomper, Daniel McCarthy, Stephen Claeys
American trade policy has been the subject of much interest and media attention over the...
Topics
Article: Debating Birthright Citizenship - Two Perspectives
Below are selections from the Federalist Society's Journal, Engage: Volume 17, Issue 1, articulating the legal...
Giving Credit for Shaping the Constitution
Karen J. Lugo
A review of: The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds That Shaped America’s Supreme Law,...
The Legislative Branch and Trade
Co-sponsored by the Article I Initiative and the Capitol Hill Chapter
Washington, DCPlea Bargaining in America: An Overview & Conversation [POLICYbrief]
Jay R. Schweikert, Timothy Sandefur
Even though over 95% of criminal cases now end in plea bargains instead of going...
Zarate v. Tennessee of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners
Braden H. Boucek
Why should a barber have to graduate high school? Barbers cut hair. They don’t need...
Topics
Docket Watch: Zarate v. Tennessee of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners
Why should a barber have to graduate high school? Barbers cut hair. They don’t need...
Necessary & Proper Episode 27: How Should the United States Senate be Elected?
Garrett Epps, Todd J. Zywicki, Todd B. Tatelman
The Constitution did not create a direct democracy; it established a constitutional republic. Its goal...
You’re Not Fired: Do Civil Servants Have a Property Interest in Their Job? [POLICYbrief]
Gregory Frederick Jacob
According to Supreme Court precedent, some civil servants have a property interest in their job...
Topics
West Virginia Lawmakers Vote to Impeach Entire Supreme Court
August 14, 2018 Update: The West Virginia House of Delegates on August 13 and...