Consultant, American Edge Project and U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Acting Associate Director, Enforcement, FTC
Brian C. Berggren is the Acting Associate Director of the Division of Enforcement in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. He oversees compliance and enforcement of the FTC’s consumer protection orders, bankruptcy and collections program, criminal liaison unit, as well as the FTC's enforcement efforts for the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act, “Made in USA” program, Green Guides (environmental marketing), and several other consumer protection rules and guides. Prior to his current role, Mr. Berggren was the Chief of Staff and Attorney Advisor (Consumer Protection) to then-Commissioner Melissa Holyoak and a staff attorney in the Division of Privacy & Identity Protection and Division of Financial Practices.
Before joining the FTC, Mr. Berggren practiced complex commercial litigation at two leading litigation boutiques and advised business leaders, product teams and other lawyers on privacy, technology, and consumer protection matters at a large technology company. He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Southern California.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
Svetlana S. Gans is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP where she helps clients navigate complex consumer protection, privacy, and competition related regulatory proceedings before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), , U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, State Attorneys General and other enforcement bodies. Ms. Gans also assists on litigation matters and provides strategic counseling and advice related to public policy issues.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, she served as the Vice President & Associate General Counsel at NCTA, the Internet & Television Association, where she helped lead the association’s consumer protection and competition policy work. Prior to joining NCTA, Ms. Gans served with distinction as Chief of Staff to Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen at the FTC. As the agency chief of staff, Ms. Gans managed and oversaw agency operations, including bureau and office heads reporting to the Chairman, a seven-member office staff, and an agency budget of over $300 million. She also served as the Acting Chairman’s key advisor on consumer protection and competition investigations and litigation, working with a diverse team of attorneys and economists to preserve competition and protect U.S. consumers. She created, executed, and oversaw several strategic initiatives for the agency, including the agency process reform, regulatory reform, and data security transparency initiatives. Previously, Ms. Gans had the unique experience of serving in both litigating bureaus of the FTC: the Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Prior to her time in government, Ms. Gans worked as an antitrust associate at major law firms. Her practice focused on defending consumer product, financial services, and trade association clients in regulatory and private investigations alleging conspiracy and violations of antitrust and consumer protection laws.
Ms. Gans has been an active leader in the ABA Antitrust Law Section (“Section”) for two decades, and currently serves as the Section’s Marketing Officer. Ms. Gans helped create the Section’s Young Lawyer Representative Program, now in its 10th year, and the Section’s Law Ambassador Program, each aimed at developing and promoting the next generation of consumer protection and competition attorneys. Ms. Gans is also active in the Federal Communications Bar Association, currently serving as Co-Chair of the Diversity Pipeline Initiative and the Women’s Leadership Committee.
Ms. Gans received her law degree with high honors from the University of Denver College of Law. During law school, Ms. Gans served as a Judicial Intern to the Honorable John L. Kane, Jr. and as an Honors Program Paralegal for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Merger Taskforce. Ms. Gans earned her undergraduate degree cum laude from Boston University.
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.
Executive Director, Committee for Justice
Ashley Baker is Executive Director of the Committee for Justice and founder of the Alliance on Antitrust coalition. Her work focuses on antitrust law, technology regulation, administrative-agency authority, the Supreme Court, and judicial nominations. She closely follows the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, with particular attention to merger review, agency procedure, and the effects of regulation on American innovation and competitiveness. She is also founder of the Alliance on Antitrust Coalition.
Ashley has testified before the United States Senate on antitrust law. Her writing has appeared in Fox News, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Hill, RealClearPolitics, The American Spectator, and other national publications. She also provides policy analysis through congressional testimony and correspondence, regulatory comments, and public commentary.
Ashley serves on the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and Antitrust and Consumer Protection Practice Group Executive Committee. She is also active in the Republican National Lawyers Association and has spoken on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary. An authority on the judicial-confirmation process, she worked closely on the successful confirmation efforts for Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as multiple federal appellate judges.
Founder & Executive Director, World Privacy Forum
Pam Dixon is the founder and executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a respected public interest research group. An author and researcher, she has written influential studies in the area of identity, AI, health, and complex data ecosystems and their governance for more than 20 years. Dixon has worked extensively on privacy and governance across multiple jurisdictions, including the US, India, Africa, Asia, the EU, and additional jurisdictions. Dixon currently serves as the co-chair of the UN Statistics Data Governance and Legal Frameworks working group, and is an advisor to WHO’s Health Data Collaborative. At OECD, Dixon chairs the formal civil society multistakeholder work in OECD’s Artificial Intelligence Working Party. Dixon has presented her work on complex data ecosystems governance to the National Academies of Science, the Mongolian National Academies of Science, and to the Royal Academies of Science.
AI Innovation and Law Fellow, University of Texas School of Law
Kevin Frazier is an AI Innovation and Law Fellow with University of Texas School of Law.
Senior Fellow, Technology Policy, Cato Institute
Jennifer’s research focuses on the intersection of emerging technology and law with a particular interest in the interactions between technology and the administrative state. Her work covers topics including judicial deference, liability protection for Internet platforms, autonomous vehicles and other disruptive transportation technologies, the regulation of data privacy, and the benefits of technology and innovation. Her work has appeared in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Sacramento Bee, the Washington Times, Real Clear Policy, and U.S. News and World Report. Jennifer has a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law and a BA in political science at Wellesley College.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel
Mohammad “Mo” Jazil is a partner with Holtzman Vogel. His broad litigation practice includes state and federal constitutional cases, financial disputes, environmental disputes, white-collar criminal matters, and government investigations. Mohammad has served as first chair in federal and state court trials. He has briefed and argued dispositive motions and appeals before the federal courts, state appellate courts, and state supreme courts. He has also briefed cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, though he has never argued a case there.
Chambers USA calls Mohammad “a very good thinker,” “fantastic,” and “an excellent litigator.”
Since the summer of 2018, Mohammad has represented two Florida Governors and four Florida Secretaries of State on election-related and redistricting matters before federal and state trial courts, the Florida Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Notably, this work includes wins in nine federal cases related to Florida’s 2018 recounts; the successful defense of Florida’s felon re-enfranchisement program; federal and state-court decisions upholding Florida’s most recent congressional plan; and the defense of various election-related statutes.
Mohammad represents other public officials as well. He has represented two Speakers of the Florida House of Representatives on issues as varied as cannabis regulation and transportation policy. And he has represented Florida’s Surgeon General, members of Florida’s Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, and the head of Florida’s Medicaid agency on health-policy issues.
Finally, Mohammad routinely represents companies and individuals on a variety of issues. This work includes pricing and tax disputes involving some of the country’s largest companies, commercial disputes where he has obtained and collected on eight-figure trial judgments, and criminal proceedings.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel
Mark Pinkert is a litigation and appellate partner with Holtzman Vogel. He represents clients at every stage of litigation, in state and federal courts around the country. He has extensive experience in constitutional law, administrative law, political law, antitrust, white collar defense, and complex commercial disputes. Additionally, Mark maintains an active practice focused on religious freedom, First Amendment rights, and combatting antisemitism, especially on college campuses.
Mark is a formidable writer and advocate. He has drafted letters, white papers to government agencies, legal memoranda, regulatory comments, complaints, dispositive motions, motions in limine, appellate briefs, and several briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. His incisive and persuasive writing style has helped him earn key victories for his clients. Mark has argued a Daubert motion in a multi-billion-dollar environmental dispute and was recently appointed lead counsel by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to represent an indigent petitioner in a habeas corpus appeal. Mark’s legal commentary has been published in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Times of Israel, Daily Business Review, University of Miami Law Review, and many others.
Mark is also an adept legal strategist, advising some of the largest companies in the world on their most pressing issues. Rather than merely react to problems, he provides holistic thinking and anticipates issues before they arise. He helps clients develop proactive plans of action that mitigate risks, avoid conflict, and reduce costs.
Before joining Holtzman Vogel, Mark worked at a global law firm and clerked for the Honorable Adalberto Jordan (11th Cir.) and the Honorable Roy K. Altman (S.D. Fla.). Clerking at both the trial and appellate levels has given him rare insight into the federal court system and has sharpened his advocacy.
At Yale Law School, Mark was an Articles Editor for the Yale Law Journal and an editor for the Yale Journal of Law & Humanities. He was also a research assistant and taught constitutional law to high school students in New Haven.
Nicholas Anthony is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, a fellow at the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), and a member of the Economic Inclusion Group’s Advisory Board. Anthony’s research covers a wide range of topics within the field of monetary and financial economics, including central bank digital currency (CBDC), financial privacy, cryptocurrency, and the use of money in society. Anthony is the author of Digital Currency or Digital Control? Decoding CBDC and the Future of Money and his work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Business Insider, and numerous other outlets. Anthony has testified before Congress and maintains the HRF CBDC Tracker, which documents CBDC development and civil liberties concerns around the world.
Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Rohit Chopra is Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB is a unit of the Federal Reserve System charged with protecting families and honest businesses from illegal practices by financial institutions, and ensuring that markets for consumer financial products and services are fair, transparent, and competitive. As Director, Chopra is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
In 2018, Chopra was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, where he served until assuming office as CFPB Director. During his tenure at the FTC, he successfully worked to strengthen sanctions against repeat offenders, to reverse the agency’s reliance on no-money, no-fault settlements in fraud cases, and to halt abuses of small businesses. He also led efforts to revitalize dormant authorities, such as those to protect the Made in USA label and to promote competition.
The Director previously served at the CFPB from 2010 to 2015. In 2011, the Secretary of the Treasury designated him as the agency’s student loan ombudsman, where he led the Bureau’s efforts on student lending issues. Prior to his government service, Chopra worked at McKinsey & Company, the global management consultancy, where he worked in the financial services, health care, and consumer technology sectors.
Chopra holds a BA from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Executive Director, Consumers’ Research
Will Hild is the Executive Director of Consumers’ Research. Will has a decade of non-profit, legal and public policy experience. Prior to joining CR, Will served as the Deputy Director of the Regulatory Transparency Project. Before that, he worked at the Philanthropy Roundtable as the Director of External Affairs for the Culture of Freedom Initiative, and as the Chief Operating Officer of that Initiative when it grew to become a separate organization. He helped co-found the public interest law firm, Cause of Action, and served as the firm’s acting communications director for nearly a year.
Will received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida. He is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Will resides in Bethesda, MD, with his wife Cheryl, a practicing OB/GYN, and their son Liam.
Columnist, Washington Post
Megan McArdle is a Washington Post columnist and the author of "The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success."
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.
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, Cleveland State University College of Law
Professor Christa Laser comes to Cleveland Marshall after nearly a decade of practice experience as an intellectual property litigator at the law firms WilmerHale and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has deep expertise in patents, trademarks, copyrights, false advertising, pharmaceutical litigation and regulation, and technology law. She has represented leading life sciences and technology companies in all stages of trial and appellate matters and consulted on legislative changes to intellectual property laws.
Professor Laser's research focuses on intellectual property and innovation. Her patent law scholarship has been cited by numerous scholars, by judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and in briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her research envisions an intellectual property system that supports innovation, investment, and competition across all technology areas.
Professor Laser was the World Champion of the Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. Prior to law school, she worked as a scientific researcher, where her work studying protein dynamics of photosynthesis using genetically modified bacteria and laser spectroscopy was published in the prestigious journal Science.
Senior Associate, Intellectual Property Litigation, WilmerHale; Associate, Kirkland & Ellis LLP; judicial intern for Chief Judge Randall R. Rader, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and Judge Roger W. Titus, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland; Scientific Researcher, The BioDesign Institute at Arizona State University, Department of BioOptical Nanotechnology.
J.D., The George Washington University Law School (World Champion, International & North American Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition; Research Assistant, Professor Lawrence Cunningham; Notes Editor, American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal); B.S., Arizona State University, Barrett Honors College (Beckman Scholar; Biochemistry Award).
Associate Attorney, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Laura Stanley is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and is a member of the Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort Practice Group. Laura previously served as an economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she developed regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
Laura graduated with high honors from The George Washington University Law School and was awarded Order of the Coif. Laura served as an Articles Editor of the George Washington Law Review, and she was awarded the ABA Gellhorn-Sargentich Award for the best student essay in administrative law. Laura received a Master of Arts degree in Economics from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from James Madison University.
She previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ryan D. Nelson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Stephen S. Schwartz of the United States Court of Federal Claims.
She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Senior Legal Fellow, Advancing American Freedom
Amy Swearer is a leading national expert on a wide range of public policy, legal, and constitutional issues, including the Second Amendment, criminal justice, and mental health policy. She has long been a respected conservative voice on gun policy and is routinely asked to testify before state and federal legislative bodies. Her work on birthright citizenship, meanwhile, has been featured extensively in litigation over the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.
Swearer was formerly a Senior Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. At Heritage, she ran the Defensive Gun Use Database and was the primary author of the e-book “The Essential Second Amendment.” She was also a driving force behind the organization’s School Safety Initiative.
She was the 2022 recipient of the Heritage Foundation’s Joseph Shattan Award for “writing that presents conservative ideas in a powerful and compelling fashion to policymakers and the American people.” She was also named the Second Amendment Institute’s 2022 Gun Rights Champion.
Swearer received her law degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law and was a member of the Nebraska Law Review. She holds a B.S. in Criminology & Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar and a goalkeeper on the women’s soccer team
Deputy Counsel, the President
Gary currently is the Deputy Counsel to the President. He was previously a partner at the Dhillon Law Group and worked at the Department of the Interior and Federal Election Commission. He is a native of Virginia, and earned his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia.
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, Cleveland State University College of Law
Professor Christa Laser comes to Cleveland Marshall after nearly a decade of practice experience as an intellectual property litigator at the law firms WilmerHale and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has deep expertise in patents, trademarks, copyrights, false advertising, pharmaceutical litigation and regulation, and technology law. She has represented leading life sciences and technology companies in all stages of trial and appellate matters and consulted on legislative changes to intellectual property laws.
Professor Laser's research focuses on intellectual property and innovation. Her patent law scholarship has been cited by numerous scholars, by judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and in briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her research envisions an intellectual property system that supports innovation, investment, and competition across all technology areas.
Professor Laser was the World Champion of the Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. Prior to law school, she worked as a scientific researcher, where her work studying protein dynamics of photosynthesis using genetically modified bacteria and laser spectroscopy was published in the prestigious journal Science.
Senior Associate, Intellectual Property Litigation, WilmerHale; Associate, Kirkland & Ellis LLP; judicial intern for Chief Judge Randall R. Rader, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and Judge Roger W. Titus, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland; Scientific Researcher, The BioDesign Institute at Arizona State University, Department of BioOptical Nanotechnology.
J.D., The George Washington University Law School (World Champion, International & North American Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition; Research Assistant, Professor Lawrence Cunningham; Notes Editor, American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal); B.S., Arizona State University, Barrett Honors College (Beckman Scholar; Biochemistry Award).
Associate Attorney, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Laura Stanley is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and is a member of the Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort Practice Group. Laura previously served as an economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she developed regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
Laura graduated with high honors from The George Washington University Law School and was awarded Order of the Coif. Laura served as an Articles Editor of the George Washington Law Review, and she was awarded the ABA Gellhorn-Sargentich Award for the best student essay in administrative law. Laura received a Master of Arts degree in Economics from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from James Madison University.
She previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ryan D. Nelson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Stephen S. Schwartz of the United States Court of Federal Claims.
She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Senior Legal Fellow, Advancing American Freedom
Amy Swearer is a leading national expert on a wide range of public policy, legal, and constitutional issues, including the Second Amendment, criminal justice, and mental health policy. She has long been a respected conservative voice on gun policy and is routinely asked to testify before state and federal legislative bodies. Her work on birthright citizenship, meanwhile, has been featured extensively in litigation over the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.
Swearer was formerly a Senior Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. At Heritage, she ran the Defensive Gun Use Database and was the primary author of the e-book “The Essential Second Amendment.” She was also a driving force behind the organization’s School Safety Initiative.
She was the 2022 recipient of the Heritage Foundation’s Joseph Shattan Award for “writing that presents conservative ideas in a powerful and compelling fashion to policymakers and the American people.” She was also named the Second Amendment Institute’s 2022 Gun Rights Champion.
Swearer received her law degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law and was a member of the Nebraska Law Review. She holds a B.S. in Criminology & Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar and a goalkeeper on the women’s soccer team
Deputy Counsel, the President
Gary currently is the Deputy Counsel to the President. He was previously a partner at the Dhillon Law Group and worked at the Department of the Interior and Federal Election Commission. He is a native of Virginia, and earned his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia.
Director of Litigation and Senior Attorney, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute
Theodore H. Frank is director at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness. Frank founded and ran CCAF as a non-profit, public interest law firm in 2009.
Frank has won several landmark appeals and tens of millions of dollars for consumers and other plaintiffs through his class action work. Adam Liptak of The New York Times calls Frank “the leading critic of abusive class action settlements” and the American Lawyer Litigation Daily referred to him as “the indefatigable scourge of underwhelming class action settlements.”
Previously, Frank clerked for the Honorable Frank H. Easterbrook on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and was a litigator at firms in Washington and Los Angeles and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Frank is a frequent public speaker and has testified before Congress multiple times on legal issues. He has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, GQ, and the ABA Journal, among other publications.
In 2008, Frank was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society Litigation Practice Group. Frank graduated from The University of Chicago Law School in 1994 with high honors and as a member of the Order of the Coif and the Law Review. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the state bars of California and Illinois.
Director of Litigation and Senior Attorney, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute
Theodore H. Frank is director at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness. Frank founded and ran CCAF as a non-profit, public interest law firm in 2009.
Frank has won several landmark appeals and tens of millions of dollars for consumers and other plaintiffs through his class action work. Adam Liptak of The New York Times calls Frank “the leading critic of abusive class action settlements” and the American Lawyer Litigation Daily referred to him as “the indefatigable scourge of underwhelming class action settlements.”
Previously, Frank clerked for the Honorable Frank H. Easterbrook on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and was a litigator at firms in Washington and Los Angeles and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Frank is a frequent public speaker and has testified before Congress multiple times on legal issues. He has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, GQ, and the ABA Journal, among other publications.
In 2008, Frank was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society Litigation Practice Group. Frank graduated from The University of Chicago Law School in 1994 with high honors and as a member of the Order of the Coif and the Law Review. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the state bars of California and Illinois.
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, Cleveland State University College of Law
Professor Christa Laser comes to Cleveland Marshall after nearly a decade of practice experience as an intellectual property litigator at the law firms WilmerHale and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She has deep expertise in patents, trademarks, copyrights, false advertising, pharmaceutical litigation and regulation, and technology law. She has represented leading life sciences and technology companies in all stages of trial and appellate matters and consulted on legislative changes to intellectual property laws.
Professor Laser's research focuses on intellectual property and innovation. Her patent law scholarship has been cited by numerous scholars, by judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and in briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her research envisions an intellectual property system that supports innovation, investment, and competition across all technology areas.
Professor Laser was the World Champion of the Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. Prior to law school, she worked as a scientific researcher, where her work studying protein dynamics of photosynthesis using genetically modified bacteria and laser spectroscopy was published in the prestigious journal Science.
Senior Associate, Intellectual Property Litigation, WilmerHale; Associate, Kirkland & Ellis LLP; judicial intern for Chief Judge Randall R. Rader, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and Judge Roger W. Titus, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland; Scientific Researcher, The BioDesign Institute at Arizona State University, Department of BioOptical Nanotechnology.
J.D., The George Washington University Law School (World Champion, International & North American Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition; Research Assistant, Professor Lawrence Cunningham; Notes Editor, American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal); B.S., Arizona State University, Barrett Honors College (Beckman Scholar; Biochemistry Award).
Deputy Counsel, the President
Gary currently is the Deputy Counsel to the President. He was previously a partner at the Dhillon Law Group and worked at the Department of the Interior and Federal Election Commission. He is a native of Virginia, and earned his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia.
Associate Attorney, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Laura Stanley is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and is a member of the Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort Practice Group. Laura previously served as an economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she developed regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
Laura graduated with high honors from The George Washington University Law School and was awarded Order of the Coif. Laura served as an Articles Editor of the George Washington Law Review, and she was awarded the ABA Gellhorn-Sargentich Award for the best student essay in administrative law. Laura received a Master of Arts degree in Economics from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from James Madison University.
She previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ryan D. Nelson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Stephen S. Schwartz of the United States Court of Federal Claims.
She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Senior Legal Fellow, Advancing American Freedom
Amy Swearer is a leading national expert on a wide range of public policy, legal, and constitutional issues, including the Second Amendment, criminal justice, and mental health policy. She has long been a respected conservative voice on gun policy and is routinely asked to testify before state and federal legislative bodies. Her work on birthright citizenship, meanwhile, has been featured extensively in litigation over the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.
Swearer was formerly a Senior Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. At Heritage, she ran the Defensive Gun Use Database and was the primary author of the e-book “The Essential Second Amendment.” She was also a driving force behind the organization’s School Safety Initiative.
She was the 2022 recipient of the Heritage Foundation’s Joseph Shattan Award for “writing that presents conservative ideas in a powerful and compelling fashion to policymakers and the American people.” She was also named the Second Amendment Institute’s 2022 Gun Rights Champion.
Swearer received her law degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law and was a member of the Nebraska Law Review. She holds a B.S. in Criminology & Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar and a goalkeeper on the women’s soccer team
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