Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
The Honorable Whitney Hermandorfer is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump (R) on May 12, 2025, and confirmed by the United States Senate on July 14, 2025.
Prior to her appointment, she worked in the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General as Director of the Strategic Litigation Unit. In that role, Whitney focused on leading constitutional, statutory, and administrative-law challenges to federal agency action, as well as on defending the State in complex matters at the trial and appellate level.
Whitney previously worked at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC, where she focused on appellate and administrative-law litigation. Whitney clerked for Justice Samuel Alito in the OT 2018 Supreme Court term and for Justice Amy Coney Barrett during her inaugural OT 2020 term. Prior to that, Whitney clerked for then-Judge Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Richard Leon on the U.S. District Court for D.C. Whitney is a graduate of Princeton University and George Washington University Law School.
Judge, Florida First District Court of Appeal
Judge Robert “Bobby” E. Long, Jr., was appointed to the First District Court of Appeal on June 10th, 2020, by Governor Ron DeSantis. Prior to joining the Court of Appeal, Judge Long served as a trial court judge on Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit Court. He was appointed to the Circuit Court on June 26th, 2016, by Governor Rick Scott.
Prior to joining the Circuit Court, he was the General Counsel and a Major on the Executive Command Staff at the Leon County Sheriff’s Office. A law enforcement officer and an attorney, he oversaw the operations of the Legal and Professional Service Division at the Sheriff’s Office. In that capacity he ran internal affairs, all law enforcement and corrections professional training, supervised all litigation, managed legislative affairs, handled employment matters, and provided counsel to the Office of the Sheriff. Prior to that, he worked in private practice at a statewide law firm where he handled diverse civil litigation matters.
Judge Long started his legal career as an active duty Judge Advocate with the United States Navy. He is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He also served as a Naval Officer in the pacific area of operations. He currently serves as a Commander in the United States Navy Reserves.
As an attorney, his civil and criminal litigation experience ranged from wrongful death to murder. Prior to attending law school, Judge Long worked as a law enforcement officer at the Leon County Sheriff’s Office.
Judge Long has served on the Boards of Directors for the Legal Aid Foundation, the Rotary Club of Tallahassee, and the American Inn of Court. He is a member of the Economic Club of Florida, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Leadership Tallahassee.
Judge Long and his wife have four sons. He is a volunteer coach for their baseball, soccer, basketball, and football teams. He and his wife lead children’s Sunday School at their church. He is the Chairman of his sons’ Cub Scout Pack and an Assistant Scoutmaster with their Boy Scout Troop.
Judge Long holds a law degree from the University of Florida, College of Law, and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Florida State University, College of Business.
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.
United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
In November 2020, the Senate confirmed Kathryn Kimball Mizelle as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida. At age 33, she became the youngest Article III judge in the country. Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mizelle was in private practice at Jones Day, where she focused on complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals. Judge Mizelle previously served at the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the Associate Attorney General, in the Southern Criminal Enforcement Section of the Tax Division, and in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge Mizelle has also taught as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Judge Mizelle earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Covenant College, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. After graduation, Judge Mizelle served as a law clerk at every level of the federal judiciary: at the Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas, at the D.C. Circuit for Judge Gregory G. Katsas, at the Eleventh Circuit for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr., and at the Middle District of Florida for Judge James S. Moody Jr.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC
Ed Wenger, a partner at Holtzman Vogel and Florida Bar board certified in appellate law, has successfully handled every stage of litigation, from the initial complaint-drafting stage all the way through United States Supreme Court review. Experienced in skills covering, among other things, state-court administrative hearings to expert-witness cross-examination, Ed has focused the bulk of his career on appellate and constitutional litigation, as well as critical motions practice.
His appellate experience began, first, as a law clerk for the Honorable Edward C. Prado of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and it continued as a law clerk for the Honorable Karen LeCraft Henderson of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He has since served as the Chief Deputy Solicitor General for the State of Florida (the number two appellate litigator for the State) and the General Counsel to the West Virginia Attorney General.
Drawing on the work ethic that once earned him a two-year stint as captain of FIU’s football team, Ed has presented oral argument in state and federal courts throughout the country, submitted scores of briefs in courts throughout the nation (and roughly two dozen with the Supreme Court of the United States), and represented, among others, the Office of Governor Ron DeSantis and Former United States Attorney General Edwin Meese III.
When Ed isn’t writing briefs, he can be found studying political philosophy and American statesmanship at Hillsdale College or boxing for charity (no wins yet, but we’re optimistic)!
James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law & Director of the Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Jorge L. Contreras is a Distinguished University Professor, the James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law and Director of the Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law. He teaches and researches in the areas of intellectual property, property law, technical standardization, antitrust and science policy. In 2020 he received the University of Utah's Distinguished Research Award and is an elected member of the American Law Institute. He has testified before the U.S. Senate and House Subcommittees on Intellectual Property, and was awarded the Rossman Memorial Award by the Patent & Trademark Office Society in 2022.
Professor Contreras has written or edited fourteen books and published more than 150 scholarly articles and chapters. His book, The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA (NY: Hachette/Algonquin, 2021), has been praised by the NY Times, Wall St. Journal, Nature and numerous other outlets, and was named "Best Patent Law Book of the Year" by the international IPKat blog. His scholarly articles have appeared in leading scientific, legal and policy journals including Science, Nature, NYU Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Iowa Law Review and Antitrust Law Journal. He has been quoted by media outlets around the world including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Korea Times and has been featured on C-SPAN, NPR, PRI and BBC shows and a range of podcasts and online news programs.
Professor Contreras currently serves Co-Chair of the Interdisciplinary Division of the ABA's Section of Science & Technology Law and a member of the Advisory Board of the American Antitrust Institute. He has previously served as Co-Chair of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on Intellectual Property Management in Standard-Setting Processes, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Council of Councils, the Advisory Council of NIH's National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences (NCATS), the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research, and the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). In 2021 he served as Chair of the Art Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and currently serves as Chair of the AALS Remedies Section.
Professor Contreras has previously taught at American University Washington College of Law and Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to entering academia he was a partner at the international law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, where he practiced transactional and intellectual property law in Boston, London and Washington DC. He is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School (JD) and Rice University (BA, BSEE) and clerked for Chief Justice Thomas R. Philips of the Texas Supreme Court.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Adam Mossoff is Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. He has published extensively on why patents, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights have been—and should be—legally secured to innovators and creators as property rights. His scholarship has been relied on by the United States Supreme Court, by lower federal courts, and by U.S. federal agencies. He has been invited to testify numerous times before the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives on intellectual property legislation. His writings on intellectual property policy have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Investors Business Daily, and in other media outlets. His journal articles can be downloaded here.
Professor Mossoff is a longstanding member of the Executive Committee of the Intellectual Property Practice Group of the Federalist Society, on which he served as Chairperson from 2016-2018, and he is Chair of the Intellectual Property Working Group of the Regulatory Transparency Project of the Federalist Society. He is a Senior Fellow and Chair of the Forum for Intellectual Property at the Hudson Institute, a Visiting Intellectual Property Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding. He is a member of the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee of ANSI and he has served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the IEEE-USA, on which he remains a member in good standing.
Founder and Principal Solicitor, Opie International Technology Lawyers
Elisabeth Opie BA LLB(Hons) LLM GAICD has almost 20 years’ international experience in the global innovation system. Holding senior legal and executive positions, Elisabeth has worked with industry, spin-offs, research organisations and government. She has extensive experience in international business transactions, policy advice, negotiation and alternative dispute resolution. Her legal and executive experience has been developed across sectors such as IT, automotive, aerospace, health and energy. Elisabeth has experience in both non-contentious and contentious matters.
Elisabeth has received a number of awards in the field of international science and technology, including Business and Strategy Excellence Awards, and was the inaugural Global Research Alliance Fellow. She has appeared in the IAM Strategy 300 Global Leaders since 2020 and the IAM Patent 1000 since 2019.
Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
Urška Petrovčič is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and director of economic strategy at Qualcomm. Her work focuses on antitrust and intellectual property.
Since 2017, Dr. Petrovčič has acted as the European Commission’s non-governmental adviser for the Unilateral Conduct Working Group of the International Competition Network. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Oslo. She was chosen as the inaugural scholar of the American Bar Association’s International Scholar-in-Residence Program, which enabled her to conduct research in cooperation with the Office of Policy Planning of the US Federal Trade Commission on antitrust enforcement concerning SEPs.
Dr. Petrovčič previously worked in the Brussels office of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and was a stagiaire at the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission.
Her publications on the enforcement of standard-essential patents (SEPs) include a book, Competition Law and Standard Essential Patents: A Transatlantic Perspective (Wolters Kluwer 2014), and articles in the Common Market Law Review and other journals.
She holds a BA in law from the University of Ljubljana, a master of law and economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and an LLM and a PhD in law from the European University Institute.
Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft
David Howard is Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel with Microsoft. He joined Microsoft in 2010, after nearly 20 years at Dechert LLP. Howard joined Dechert in 1985, upon completion of a clerkship with the Honorable Marvin Katz of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He left the firm in 1987 to take a special assignment with the White House Counsel’s Task Force on the Iran/Contra Matter. In October 1987, Howard became an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and served in that position through 1994. He returned to Dechert in 1995. A graduate of Princeton University (A.B., cum laude) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D., cum laude), Howard is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Second and Third Circuits.
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
James Garland is a partner in Covington’s Litigation and White Collar Defense & Investigations practice groups. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, internal investigations, white collar criminal defense, and national security.
Mr. Garland has substantial experience litigating high-stakes, multidimensional business disputes for clients across a range of industries, including companies in the high-tech, financial services, defense, transportation, media and entertainment, and pharmaceutical sectors. Many of his civil representations have involved parallel enforcement proceedings in multiple forums, often with significant public relations and policy implications.
In the white collar area, Mr. Garland has represented both corporate and individual clients in large-scale, multi-party criminal investigations and related regulatory enforcement actions. Mr. Garland also regularly advises clients concerning national security-related matters, including with respect to issues involving electronic surveillance, cyber-security, and data privacy.
Mr. Garland returned Covington in 2010 after serving as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, Mr. Garland advised the Attorney General on a range of enforcement issues, with an emphasis on criminal, antitrust, intellectual property, and cyber-security matters. He worked closely with senior officials at the White House, Main Justice, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, FBI, SEC, and other federal, state, and local enforcement agencies.
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
James Garland is a partner in Covington’s Litigation and White Collar Defense & Investigations practice groups. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, internal investigations, white collar criminal defense, and national security.
Mr. Garland has substantial experience litigating high-stakes, multidimensional business disputes for clients across a range of industries, including companies in the high-tech, financial services, defense, transportation, media and entertainment, and pharmaceutical sectors. Many of his civil representations have involved parallel enforcement proceedings in multiple forums, often with significant public relations and policy implications.
In the white collar area, Mr. Garland has represented both corporate and individual clients in large-scale, multi-party criminal investigations and related regulatory enforcement actions. Mr. Garland also regularly advises clients concerning national security-related matters, including with respect to issues involving electronic surveillance, cyber-security, and data privacy.
Mr. Garland returned Covington in 2010 after serving as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder at the U.S. Department of Justice. In that role, Mr. Garland advised the Attorney General on a range of enforcement issues, with an emphasis on criminal, antitrust, intellectual property, and cyber-security matters. He worked closely with senior officials at the White House, Main Justice, U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, FBI, SEC, and other federal, state, and local enforcement agencies.
Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft
David Howard is Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel with Microsoft. He joined Microsoft in 2010, after nearly 20 years at Dechert LLP. Howard joined Dechert in 1985, upon completion of a clerkship with the Honorable Marvin Katz of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He left the firm in 1987 to take a special assignment with the White House Counsel’s Task Force on the Iran/Contra Matter. In October 1987, Howard became an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and served in that position through 1994. He returned to Dechert in 1995. A graduate of Princeton University (A.B., cum laude) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D., cum laude), Howard is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Second and Third Circuits.
Young Lawyers Special Session: Making Winning Arguments
Whitney D. Hermandorfer, Robert E. Long, Jay Mitchell, Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, Edward Mark Wenger
The state and federal bench has transformed in recent years, with more textualist/originalist judges appointed...
The EU’s Proposed Regulations of SEP Licensing and Litigation: A Solution or Setback for the Global Innovation Economy?
Jorge L. Contreras, Adam Mossoff, Elisabeth Opie, Ur?ka Petrov?i?
The European Union is considering adopting a wide-ranging regulatory regime for the licensing and litigation...
The Reach of Federal Warrants - The Microsoft Case - Podcast
David Howard, James M. Garland
In December of 2014, Microsoft filed a brief with the Federal Court of Appeals for...
The Reach of Federal Warrants - The Microsoft Case
Teleforum