Senior Counsel, Chairman Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission
Danielle rejoins Commissioner Carr’s office following a year in the private sector where she led on state and local government relations matters for a nationwide telecommunications infrastructure provider. Before her first stint with Commissioner Carr’s office in 2021, Danielle was an Associate Attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilkinson Barker Knauer. After attending the University of Virginia for her undergraduate degree, Danielle earned her J.D. cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where she was Associate Editor of the Catholic University Law Review. She also earned a certificate from the Columbus School of Law’s Law & Technology Institute.
Director, Faculty Relations, The Federalist Society
Katie McClendon is the Director of Faculty Relations at the Federalist Society, where she has worked since 2015.
Katie holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from Biola University, where she was a member of the Torrey Honors Institute. She is a fellow of the John Jay Institute and the Blackstone Legal Fellowship. Katie is originally from Los Angeles, and she now lives with her husband and four children in Atlanta.
Denver Managing Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
Raymond L. Gifford counsels communications, electric and gas utilities, and information technology companies on state and federal aspects of regulation, administrative law, and competition policy. He is an expert in public utilities law, and the law and economics of regulation of network industries. Mr. Gifford’s law and policy work focuses on the convergence of broadband communications and energy, as well as environmental policy as it applies to the electric industry. He represents clients in state and federal courts and agencies, and serves as an expert witness on utility regulation and its history. He is also a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship, and Co-Directs the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics at University of Colorado Law School.
Mr. Gifford served as Chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission from 1999-2003. Following that, he served as President of The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington DC-based think-tank that studied the digital revolution as it relates to regulation of network industries. He entered the regulatory law world as First Assistant Attorney General in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. He clerked for the Honorable Richard P. Matsch of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Mr. Gifford has authored a number of articles on communications law, public utility regulation and competition policy in network industries. He is a graduate of University of Chicago Law School and St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute
Senior Counsel, Chairman Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission
Danielle rejoins Commissioner Carr’s office following a year in the private sector where she led on state and local government relations matters for a nationwide telecommunications infrastructure provider. Before her first stint with Commissioner Carr’s office in 2021, Danielle was an Associate Attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilkinson Barker Knauer. After attending the University of Virginia for her undergraduate degree, Danielle earned her J.D. cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where she was Associate Editor of the Catholic University Law Review. She also earned a certificate from the Columbus School of Law’s Law & Technology Institute.
Lecturing Fellow and Supervising Attorney, First Amendment Clinic, Duke University School of Law
Nicole Ligon joined the Duke Law faculty in 2018 as a Lecturing Fellow and the Supervising Attorney of the First Amendment Clinic. In this capacity, she teaches First Amendment law in a clinical setting as well as Entertainment law. Through her work with the First Amendment Clinic, Ligon mentors students in honing their practical litigation skills and oversees their casework on behalf of clients who claim infringements of their free speech rights. While at Duke and in private practice, Ligon has represented and advocated on behalf of many individuals who have been discriminated against or otherwise targeted for expressing their viewpoints or opinions. She has also filed numerous amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and state courts in cases involving First Amendment and media law issues.
Ligon frequently contributes expert analysis and commentary to news stories involving First Amendment concerns. She has also published articles in outlets across the political spectrum concerning free expression. Some of her most recent works have focused on the constitutionality of statutes banning revenge pornography, campus speech issues, and the intersection between human rights laws and free speech rights with regard to casting practices. Ligon has also guest lectured on First Amendment law in the Summer Institute for Law, Language, & Culture (SILLC) and undergraduate workshops.
Ligon is a member of the Legal Network for Gender Equity, where she supervises students assisting individuals seeking guidance on speaking openly and publicly about their stories of sexual harassment while shielding against defamation concerns. She has been an invited webinar speaker on defamation claims related to sexual harassment for the Network.
Before joining Duke Law, Ligon was an attorney with Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York City. She was a member of the firm’s litigation department, and her practice focused on First Amendment and media law matters. While in private practice, Ligon was honored by the Center for Appellate Litigation (CAL) for her work in helping its Books Beyond Bars project challenge proposed state packaging restrictions that would have prevented people incarcerated in New York prisons from receiving donated books by mail. Ligon’s extensive pro bono practice also included handling matters on issues related to reporter’s privilege, defamation, right of access, and other free speech concerns. Ligon also served on the board of a non-profit organization, Jazz Choreography Enterprises, from 2017-2018.
Ligon received her J.D. from Duke University School of Law, where she served as a Notes Editor for the Duke Law Journal. She received her B.A. from Emory University.
Ligon is licensed to practice law in New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
PG-15 FedSoc Study Break: Communications Law: Internet for All?
Danielle Thumann
The Federalist Society's Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group, Student Division & University of Michigan Law School Chapter...
PG-15 FedSoc Study Break: Communications Law: Internet for All?
Anonymous Speech: The First Amendment and Electronic Media
Duke Student Chapter
Durham, NCFederalist Society Review, Volume 17, Issue 3
Katie McClendon
Administrative Law & Regulation Could a New Section 1983 Covering Federal Officials Curb Executive Branch...
Introducing Julius Genachowski, Nominee for FCC Chairman
Raymond L. Gifford
Brought to you by the Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group On March 3, 2009, President Obama formally announced...