Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner
Jonathan Sherman is a general commercial litigator who combines 25 years of business litigation and First Amendment expertise to specialize in the strategic use of reputation, a unique approach to resolving information age and knowledge economy disputes.
Named since 2012 to its annual list of American’s “500 Leading Lawyers”, Lawdragon calls Jonathan a “nimble advocate with a sharp legal mind” who “can handle any task” and whose “passion for the law bubbles forth with astonishing ferocity.” A recent profile called him “Floyd Abrams meets David Boies with a side order of Hunter S. Thompson.”
Jonathan has tried cases, argued appeals, and resolved multi-party disputes in securities, financial institution, business defamation, intellectual property, unfair competition, antitrust and free speech matters. He has represented an eclectic mix of clients: from mining to media, finance to fashion, reinsurance to online gaming, political figures and cultural critics, among others. He is both a plaintiff’s lawyer and a traditional defense counsel.
At ease under heavy scrutiny since his earliest years of practice representing Court TV in the OJ Simpson criminal proceedings, Jonathan is now among the world’s leading advocates for public access to courts. The New York Times has twice published his op-ed pieces. A former member of the New York State Bar Association’s Media Law Committee, he has taught at Yale, Stanford and Fordham, and lectured in London, Brussels, Budapest and elsewhere.
Jonathan is a Trustee of DC’s acclaimed Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and has been listed in Who’s Who in America since 2000.
Partner, Horvitz & Levy LLP
Jeremy Rosen is nationally renowned for his proficiency in numerous issues arising under the First Amendment and California’s anti-SLAPP law. Using that knowledge, Jeremy has helped a wide variety of clients – including churches, private businesses, and individuals – defeat lawsuits that seek to impose liability on clients for exercising their rights of petition, free speech, and free exercise of religion. He has also handled hundreds of appeals in numerous appellate courts, including the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court, and California’s intermediate appellate courts. In addition to First Amendment and anti-SLAPP cases, his cases have involved numerous important issues regarding anti-trust, class actions, wage and hour law, employment law, breach of contract, California’s Unfair Competition Law, CEQA, the enforceability of arbitration clauses, hospital peer review, the scope of public employee whistleblower protection, and the application of the primary assumption of risk doctrine.
Jeremy is a partner at the firm, which he joined in 2001. He is a California State Bar Certified Appellate Specialist and a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Jeremy directed the Pepperdine University School of Law Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy Clinic for 6 years. The Clinic represents individuals in the Ninth Circuit who are identified by the court as needing pro bono counsel. Jeremy also previously served a three-year term where he was appointed by the Ninth Circuit to serve as one of 18 appellate lawyer representatives to the court.
Jeremy is a member of the National Chamber Litigation Center’s California Litigation Advisory Committee. Before joining the firm, Jeremy was a Litigation Associate with Munger, Tolles & Olson.
Partner, Horvitz & Levy LLC
Felix Shafir is a partner at the firm. He has argued appeals in the California Supreme Court and the California Courts of Appeal, and has been lead and amicus counsel in numerous proceedings in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Shafir focuses his practice on two areas at the cutting edge of California law: (1) the law of protected speech, including the First Amendment, defamation, California’s anti-SLAPP statute, and the litigation privilege; and (2) the defense of class and representative actions, often through resisting class certification efforts or the enforcement of arbitration agreements. He has also developed unique expertise in handling appeals involving employment disputes and employer liability, commercial litigation, intellectual property, environmental litigation, unfair competition lawsuits, and federal and state securities issues.
Mr. Shafir often works with clients and trial counsel before an appeal begins, advising them to preserve issues and present evidence in the best posture for appeal. He also prepares amicus briefs seeking to move or clarify the law in ways favorable to his clients and their members.
Mr. Shafir has represented many significant companies and organizations, including American Medical Response, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, Omega S.A., See’s Candy Shops, Shell Oil Company, and the Southern California Gas Company.
Mr. Shafir is a past member of the California State Bar Committee on Appellate Courts and the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee.
In 2013, 2014, and 2016, the Los Angeles & San Francisco Daily Journal honored Mr. Shafir by naming him to its list of California’s “Top Labor and Employment Lawyers.” He was also named a Rising Star by California Super Lawyers from 2007 to 2014.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Shafir held judicial clerkships with the Honorable Thomas J. Meskill, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and the Honorable Whitman Knapp, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Mr. Shafir previously practiced at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP and Littler Mendelson, P.C., where he focused on all aspects of labor and employment defense and counseling.
Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1999
University of California, Los Angeles, B.A., cum laude, 1996
Director, Commercial Freedom; Senior Fellow, R Street Institute
C. Jarrett Dieterle researches and writes on regulatory affairs, alcohol policy, occupational licensing and other commercial freedom issues. He also oversees the Institute’s postal, labor and disintermediation policy programs.
Jarrett previously worked as a regulatory attorney at a Washington law firm. In that role, he advised private companies on how to navigate complex regulatory regimes and helped them challenge overreaching regulations. He also practiced appellate advocacy, co-authoring several Supreme Court amicus briefs. He previously clerked for a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and has worked and written for numerous policy organizations and think tanks such as the Reason Foundation, Manhattan Institute, Mackinac Center, Federalist Society, Institute for Justice, Atlantic Legal Foundation and the Washington Legal Foundation.
Jarrett earned his bachelor’s from the University of Richmond, with a major in political science and minor in economics. He received his juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.
Jarrett currently lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife, Maria, and their Australian shepherd, Pepper.
Senior Legal Fellow, the Meese Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Paul J. Larkin is a Senior Legal Fellow in the Meese Institute for the Rule of Law at Advancing American Freedom. Paul has held various positions in the federal and state governments throughout his career, such as being an attorney in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, Special Agent-in-Charge and Acting Director of the Criminal Investigation Division at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a member of the Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform Commission and of the Juvenile Justice Reform Commission in the Office of Virginia Governor George Allen.
He has also worked at Verizon Communications and two law firms in Washington, D.C. His current research is principally in the fields of drug policy, criminal justice policy, and administrative law and policy. He has published numerous articles in law and public policy journals, both in print and online.
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.”
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Damien Schiff is a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. He leads its environmental practice group, a unique initiative that draws broadly from PLF’s expertise and success in property rights and separation of powers litigation. Over the years, Damien has represented hundreds of landowners and property rights advocates to defend their liberties against heavy-handed and unwarranted environmental and land-use regulation. His litigation experience includes Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a groundbreaking decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of landowners to challenge Clean Water Act compliance orders issued by EPA, and Contoski v. Norton, PLF’s successful effort to force the federal government to make good on its promise to delist the bald eagle from the Endangered Species Act.
Besides litigation, Damien has written academic articles on a variety of subjects, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, greenhouse gas torts, the duty to rescue, and international water law. He has appeared on a variety of television and radio programs and has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s Magazine, and The Economist, among other publications.
He obtained his law degree magna cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law, and his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University. While at USD, he was a research assistant for Professor Bernard Siegan, a leading constitutional theorist and advocate for property rights and economic liberty. Immediately prior to joining PLF, Damien clerked for Judge (and former PLF attorney) Victor Wolski of the United States Court of Federal Claims. Damien credits the mentoring and examples of Professor Siegan and Judge Wolski for his decision to pursue a career in liberty-based public interest litigation.
Damien lives in Sacramento with his wife, two young sons, four chickens, and a cat named Princess. In his off hours he enjoys stamp collecting, Gregorian chant, and martinis—preferably at the same time.
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner
Jonathan Sherman is a general commercial litigator who combines 25 years of business litigation and First Amendment expertise to specialize in the strategic use of reputation, a unique approach to resolving information age and knowledge economy disputes.
Named since 2012 to its annual list of American’s “500 Leading Lawyers”, Lawdragon calls Jonathan a “nimble advocate with a sharp legal mind” who “can handle any task” and whose “passion for the law bubbles forth with astonishing ferocity.” A recent profile called him “Floyd Abrams meets David Boies with a side order of Hunter S. Thompson.”
Jonathan has tried cases, argued appeals, and resolved multi-party disputes in securities, financial institution, business defamation, intellectual property, unfair competition, antitrust and free speech matters. He has represented an eclectic mix of clients: from mining to media, finance to fashion, reinsurance to online gaming, political figures and cultural critics, among others. He is both a plaintiff’s lawyer and a traditional defense counsel.
At ease under heavy scrutiny since his earliest years of practice representing Court TV in the OJ Simpson criminal proceedings, Jonathan is now among the world’s leading advocates for public access to courts. The New York Times has twice published his op-ed pieces. A former member of the New York State Bar Association’s Media Law Committee, he has taught at Yale, Stanford and Fordham, and lectured in London, Brussels, Budapest and elsewhere.
Jonathan is a Trustee of DC’s acclaimed Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and has been listed in Who’s Who in America since 2000.
Supreme Court Preview: Packingham v. North Carolina - Podcast
Jonathan Sherman, Melissa Sherry
On February 27, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Packingham v. North Carolina....
Supreme Court Preview: Packingham v. North Carolina
TeleforumHelping Americans to Speak Freely
Jeremy B. Rosen, Felix Shafir
Note from the Editor: This article discusses different types of state anti-SLAPP laws and argues that...
The Sandbagging Phenomenon: How Governments Lower Eminent Domain Appraisals to Punish Landowners
Jarrett Dieterle
Note from the Editor: This article discusses a controversial practice known as “sandbagging” in eminent...
The Justice Department’s Third-Party Payment Practice, the Antideficiency Act, and Legal Ethics
Paul James Larkin
Note from the Editor: This article argues that the Justice Department’s practice of distributing settlement...
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Peruta, Flanagan, and the Right to Bear Arms in the Ninth Circuit
On June 9, 2016, an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals...
The Fraudulent Joinder Prevention Act of 2016: A New Standard and a New Rationale for an Old Doctrine
Arthur D. Hellman
Note from the Editor: This article discusses the doctrine of fraudulent joinder and an ongoing attempt to...
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., Inc.: Wetlands Jurisdictional Determinations and the Right of Federal Judicial Review
Damien Michael Schiff
Note from the Editor: This article discusses U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes, a...
NLC: Corporations, Securities, and Antitrust Panel
The Corporations, Securities & Antitrust panel on Thursday was all about constitutional law. With new...
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Supreme Court Preview: Newman
On Monday, October 5, the Supreme Court declined to wade into the issue of what...