Principal, Sharon Fast Gustafson, Attorney at Law, PLC
SHARON FAST GUSTAFSON is the immediate past General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she enforced Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Ms. Gustafson graduated with honors from Georgetown Law Center in 1991 and has concentrated her practice in employment law. She worked for four years in the labor and employment law group at Jones, Day in Washington, D.C. Since that time, she has had a broad-based solo practice advising and representing employers and employees in handling all aspects of the employment relationship, in compliance with federal and state workplace laws, and in designing and implementing sound employment policies and practices.
Ms. Gustafson is an experienced litigator in federal and state courts; before administrative agencies, including the EEOC, state and local civil rights offices, and the Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division; and in mediation and arbitration. She is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and in the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Gustafson successfully litigated a pregnancy discrimination case, Young v. UPS, 575 U.S. 206 (2015), from EEOC intake to a successful outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2016, she received the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association’s “Lawyer of the Year” award “in recognition of outstanding dedication to Civil Rights, Equality, and Justice.”
Ms. Gustafson represents both employers and employees in matters relating to employment law.
General Counsel, United States National Labor Relations Board
Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer, BrightStar Care
Cheryl M. Stanton is Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer at BrightStar Care. Prior to joining BrightStar Care, she served as Administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. She was sworn in as WHD’s Administrator by U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta on April 29, 2019.
Stanton brought a wealth of experience to WHD, most recently having served as the Executive Director of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. Under her leadership, South Carolina’s jobless rate dropped to its lowest point in at least 50 years. During that time period, South Carolina’s workforce system helped place over 500,000 South Carolinians into jobs. Stanton also partnered with her colleague at the Department of Corrections to create a job re-entry program for ex-offenders, receiving national accolades. She also oversaw two major information technology modernization projects that improved customer service and increased efficiencies for employees.
Stanton served as the White House’s principal legal liaison to the DOL under President George W. Bush. She is a graduate of Williams College, and earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee. He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.
Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.
Principal, Sharon Fast Gustafson, Attorney at Law, PLC
SHARON FAST GUSTAFSON is the immediate past General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she enforced Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Ms. Gustafson graduated with honors from Georgetown Law Center in 1991 and has concentrated her practice in employment law. She worked for four years in the labor and employment law group at Jones, Day in Washington, D.C. Since that time, she has had a broad-based solo practice advising and representing employers and employees in handling all aspects of the employment relationship, in compliance with federal and state workplace laws, and in designing and implementing sound employment policies and practices.
Ms. Gustafson is an experienced litigator in federal and state courts; before administrative agencies, including the EEOC, state and local civil rights offices, and the Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division; and in mediation and arbitration. She is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and in the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Gustafson successfully litigated a pregnancy discrimination case, Young v. UPS, 575 U.S. 206 (2015), from EEOC intake to a successful outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2016, she received the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association’s “Lawyer of the Year” award “in recognition of outstanding dedication to Civil Rights, Equality, and Justice.”
Ms. Gustafson represents both employers and employees in matters relating to employment law.
General Counsel, United States National Labor Relations Board
Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer, BrightStar Care
Cheryl M. Stanton is Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer at BrightStar Care. Prior to joining BrightStar Care, she served as Administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. She was sworn in as WHD’s Administrator by U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta on April 29, 2019.
Stanton brought a wealth of experience to WHD, most recently having served as the Executive Director of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. Under her leadership, South Carolina’s jobless rate dropped to its lowest point in at least 50 years. During that time period, South Carolina’s workforce system helped place over 500,000 South Carolinians into jobs. Stanton also partnered with her colleague at the Department of Corrections to create a job re-entry program for ex-offenders, receiving national accolades. She also oversaw two major information technology modernization projects that improved customer service and increased efficiencies for employees.
Stanton served as the White House’s principal legal liaison to the DOL under President George W. Bush. She is a graduate of Williams College, and earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee. He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.
Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.
President and General Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
NCLA’s President and General Counsel, Mark Chenoweth, has observed the administrative state up close and personal from perches in all four branches of the federal government. Mark served as the first chief of staff to Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mark has worked in several different roles in the private sector as well. He began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He then returned to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries. Most recently he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.
Mark is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Chicago Law School, where he co-founded the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and became a Tony Patiño Fellow. Mark has been widely quoted and/or published in newspapers and websites including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New Hampshire Union Leader, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. He has also had recurring op-eds in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and at Forbes.com.
Partner, McGuireWoods
Leveraging his background as former deputy director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), a role in which he managed the agency's enforcement and policymaking activities, Bill defends clients in enforcement litigation, audits, and complaint investigations brought by the OFCCP.
Bill focuses his practice onOFCCP-related compliance issues, including matters of agency jurisdiction, privileged compensation self-evaluations and adverse impact analyses, Affirmative Action Program development and implementation, and Internet Applicant requirements.
He also defends systemic discrimination claims investigated or brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). And when clients embark on workforce reduction implementation, Bill also provides assistance with federal law matters like privileged statistical risk studies and compliance withOlder Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), and the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).
Bill has more than two decades of experience assisting clients across a broad range of industries, including petrochemical, energy, consumer products, manufacturing, technology, transportation, retail, pharmaceuticals, and financial services.
Bill is an active participant in community affairs and pro bono work. He has an active federal pro bono practice helping veterans obtain U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits. He served as lead counsel in Military Order of the Purple Heart v. Sec’y of Veterans Affairs, 580 F.3d 1293 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (invalidating VA’s “extraordinary award review,” and thereby precluding VA from annuallyoverturning 400 benefits awards of $25,000 or more to veterans).
Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Kara Rollins, Litigation Counsel, comes to NCLA with experience in vindicating client’s rights from agency overreach and holding the administrative state accountable through government transparency projects. Before joining NCLA, Kara was Counsel for Cause of Action Institute where she represented clients in various Federal Trade Commission enforcement actions. She also engaged in strategic research and oversight of Executive Branch agencies, focusing on administrative rulemaking and government oversight and compliance. Prior to joining the Cause of Action Institute in 2016, she clerked for the Hon. Karen M. Cassidy, A.J.S.C. in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Union Vicinage. Preceding her legal career, Kara served as the Political Programs Manager for the National Federation of Independent Business, where she worked with small business owners throughout the country and learned firsthand about the adverse impact the regulatory state has on individuals.
Kara graduated with honors from Rutgers College, Rutgers University with a B.A. in Political Science in 2007, and cum laude from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in 2014. During law school, she was a member of The Catholic University Law Review and a Moot Court Associate for the Seigenthaler-Sutherland Cup National First Amendment Moot Court Competition.
Kara is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, New York, and New Jersey, as well as to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her work has been published on The Hill.com.
James L. Oberstar Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Erik Money is a third-year law student at the University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minnesota).
Assistant Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Nathaniel M. Fouch is an Assistant Professor of Law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. He previously clerked at every level of the state judiciary, including for Justice Pat DeWine of the Ohio Supreme Court. Professor Fouch was the founding president of both the Dayton Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and the Dayton Catholic Lawyers Guild. He earned his B.A. from Berea College and his J.D. cum laude from the University of St. Thomas School of Law. His work on the Ohio Constitution and state constitutionalism has been cited by the Ohio Supreme Court. Professor Fouch lives in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife, Theresa, and their three young children.
President and General Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
NCLA’s President and General Counsel, Mark Chenoweth, has observed the administrative state up close and personal from perches in all four branches of the federal government. Mark served as the first chief of staff to Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mark has worked in several different roles in the private sector as well. He began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He then returned to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries. Most recently he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.
Mark is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Chicago Law School, where he co-founded the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and became a Tony Patiño Fellow. Mark has been widely quoted and/or published in newspapers and websites including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New Hampshire Union Leader, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. He has also had recurring op-eds in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and at Forbes.com.
Founder, Law Office of Eileen J. O'Connor PLLC
After nearly 30 years as a national tax specialist with the IRS and major accounting firms, Eileen J. O’Connor, now an attorney in private practice, was Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division for six years during the administration of President George W. Bush and a member of then-President-elect Trump’s Treasury Department Transition Team. She focuses on federal administrative and tax law.
Principal, Sharon Fast Gustafson, Attorney at Law, PLC
SHARON FAST GUSTAFSON is the immediate past General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she enforced Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Ms. Gustafson graduated with honors from Georgetown Law Center in 1991 and has concentrated her practice in employment law. She worked for four years in the labor and employment law group at Jones, Day in Washington, D.C. Since that time, she has had a broad-based solo practice advising and representing employers and employees in handling all aspects of the employment relationship, in compliance with federal and state workplace laws, and in designing and implementing sound employment policies and practices.
Ms. Gustafson is an experienced litigator in federal and state courts; before administrative agencies, including the EEOC, state and local civil rights offices, and the Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division; and in mediation and arbitration. She is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and in the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Gustafson successfully litigated a pregnancy discrimination case, Young v. UPS, 575 U.S. 206 (2015), from EEOC intake to a successful outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2016, she received the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association’s “Lawyer of the Year” award “in recognition of outstanding dedication to Civil Rights, Equality, and Justice.”
Ms. Gustafson represents both employers and employees in matters relating to employment law.
General Counsel, United States National Labor Relations Board
Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer, BrightStar Care
Cheryl M. Stanton is Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer at BrightStar Care. Prior to joining BrightStar Care, she served as Administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. She was sworn in as WHD’s Administrator by U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta on April 29, 2019.
Stanton brought a wealth of experience to WHD, most recently having served as the Executive Director of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. Under her leadership, South Carolina’s jobless rate dropped to its lowest point in at least 50 years. During that time period, South Carolina’s workforce system helped place over 500,000 South Carolinians into jobs. Stanton also partnered with her colleague at the Department of Corrections to create a job re-entry program for ex-offenders, receiving national accolades. She also oversaw two major information technology modernization projects that improved customer service and increased efficiencies for employees.
Stanton served as the White House’s principal legal liaison to the DOL under President George W. Bush. She is a graduate of Williams College, and earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee. He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.
Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.
President and General Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
NCLA’s President and General Counsel, Mark Chenoweth, has observed the administrative state up close and personal from perches in all four branches of the federal government. Mark served as the first chief of staff to Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mark has worked in several different roles in the private sector as well. He began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He then returned to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries. Most recently he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.
Mark is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Chicago Law School, where he co-founded the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and became a Tony Patiño Fellow. Mark has been widely quoted and/or published in newspapers and websites including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New Hampshire Union Leader, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. He has also had recurring op-eds in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and at Forbes.com.
Partner, McGuireWoods
Leveraging his background as former deputy director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), a role in which he managed the agency's enforcement and policymaking activities, Bill defends clients in enforcement litigation, audits, and complaint investigations brought by the OFCCP.
Bill focuses his practice onOFCCP-related compliance issues, including matters of agency jurisdiction, privileged compensation self-evaluations and adverse impact analyses, Affirmative Action Program development and implementation, and Internet Applicant requirements.
He also defends systemic discrimination claims investigated or brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). And when clients embark on workforce reduction implementation, Bill also provides assistance with federal law matters like privileged statistical risk studies and compliance withOlder Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), and the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).
Bill has more than two decades of experience assisting clients across a broad range of industries, including petrochemical, energy, consumer products, manufacturing, technology, transportation, retail, pharmaceuticals, and financial services.
Bill is an active participant in community affairs and pro bono work. He has an active federal pro bono practice helping veterans obtain U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits. He served as lead counsel in Military Order of the Purple Heart v. Sec’y of Veterans Affairs, 580 F.3d 1293 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (invalidating VA’s “extraordinary award review,” and thereby precluding VA from annuallyoverturning 400 benefits awards of $25,000 or more to veterans).
Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Kara Rollins, Litigation Counsel, comes to NCLA with experience in vindicating client’s rights from agency overreach and holding the administrative state accountable through government transparency projects. Before joining NCLA, Kara was Counsel for Cause of Action Institute where she represented clients in various Federal Trade Commission enforcement actions. She also engaged in strategic research and oversight of Executive Branch agencies, focusing on administrative rulemaking and government oversight and compliance. Prior to joining the Cause of Action Institute in 2016, she clerked for the Hon. Karen M. Cassidy, A.J.S.C. in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Union Vicinage. Preceding her legal career, Kara served as the Political Programs Manager for the National Federation of Independent Business, where she worked with small business owners throughout the country and learned firsthand about the adverse impact the regulatory state has on individuals.
Kara graduated with honors from Rutgers College, Rutgers University with a B.A. in Political Science in 2007, and cum laude from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in 2014. During law school, she was a member of The Catholic University Law Review and a Moot Court Associate for the Seigenthaler-Sutherland Cup National First Amendment Moot Court Competition.
Kara is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, New York, and New Jersey, as well as to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her work has been published on The Hill.com.
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