Attorney, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
Elliott is an associate in BCLP’s Business and Commercial Disputes and Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Groups. Elliott has experience with a variety of litigation, including criminal matters, complex commercial disputes, class actions, and products liability matters.
Before joining BCLP, Elliott clerked for the Honorable Richard C. Tallman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Elliott graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he joined Barrister’s Council and earned a position on the trial advocacy team. Elliott also worked as a research assistant for Georgetown’s Supreme Court Institute.
Prior to attending law school, Elliott was a police officer in Seattle, Washington. In law school, Elliott was a student attorney in Georgetown Law’s Domestic Violence Clinic, where he helped victims of domestic violence obtain protection orders.
Attorney, Institute for Justice
Anya Bidwell (née Cherkasova) leads IJ’s Project on Immunity and Accountability (“PIA”). Through this project, Anya works to promote judicial engagement and ensure that government officials are held to account when they violate individuals’ constitutional rights. Anya also serves as an adviser on the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Constitutional Torts project.
One of Anya’s PIA cases—Gonzalez v. Trevino—was heard by the United States Supreme Court on March 20, 2024. She argued the case for the petitioner, with the goal of convincing the Justices that retaliatory arrests not involving on-the-spot decisions by police officers should be actionable under the First Amendment regardless of probable cause. The decision is expected in June.
This was Anya’s third appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court. She second-chaired Brownback v. King (an excessive force case) and Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas (a commerce clause case) in November 2020 and January 2019 respectfully.
Before joining IJ, Anya worked for a top national law firm, handling cases in trial and appellate courts. She earned her J.D. with honors from the University of Texas. Two years prior to entering law school, Anya received a master’s degree in Global Policy Studies, also from the University of Texas, and wrote a thesis on asymmetric warfare.
Anya spent her childhood in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. At 16, she left her family behind and came to America on a university scholarship. Her upbringing motivated her to study law and become an advocate for a strong, independent judiciary.
Anya’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and the Guardian. She is also the host of live recordings of our Short Circuit podcast and a co-producer of our documentary-style podcast Bound by Oath.
Attorney, Most & Associates
Attorney William Most graduated from Harvard College in 2005 and obtained a law degree from the U.C. Berkeley School of Law in 2011. At Berkeley, Mr. Most was a member of the Order of the Coif, a designation awarded to the top ten percent of each class.
He practiced at the California law firm of Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP before moving to New Orleans and founding Most & Associates. He is licensed to practice in Louisiana and California.
Mr. Most has represented individuals, businesses, families, international entities, states, counties, non-profits, municipalities, state agencies, regional planning agencies, American Indian tribes, candidates for office, activists, law enforcement officers, journalists, artists, law professors, students, prisoners, farmers, tenants, developers, family trusts, private landowners, and utilities. He has experience in trial and appellate courts, and has sat on several advisory boards.
He has practiced before the U.S. Supreme Court, a state supreme court, multiple federal and state courts of appeal, and trial courts from California to Louisiana to Maine.
He holds a Certificate of Specialization in Environmental Law, and a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco District Attorney. He has been an editor of the Climate Change Law and Policy Reporter, a city-council-appointed member of the San Francisco Urban Forestry Council, and a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster youth.
Mr. Most is Of Counsel to the ATA Law Group, a California-based law firm. He has served as a board member of the National Police Accountability Project. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Politics, New Orleans, Louisiana, and a Scholar of the National Lawyers Guild.
He is also the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 Chair of the New Orleans Bar Association Civil Rights Committee.
Mr. Most was selected for the Louisiana Rising Stars lists published by Thomson Reuters for 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. He was selected for the Louisiana Super Lawyers list for 2024 and 2025. He is the recipient of the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association's 2025 Public Service Award.
Mr. Most has been voted by his peers to be among the Top Lawyers listed in New Orleans Magazine, including:
Prior to a career in law, Mr. Most was a fisheries biologist.
Law Clerk to the Hon. Justin Walker, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Eric Bush is a law clerk for the Honorable Justin R. Walker on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and a member of the winning team in the Ames Moot Court Competition. Eric also served on the Advisory Council for the Harvard Law School Student Chapter of the Federalist Society. He holds a B.A. and B.S. from the University of Louisville.
Associate, Shutts and Bowen LLP
Shiza Francis is a recent graduate of Washington University School of Law where she served as the President of the Federalist Society student chapter and as a research assistant for Prof. Conor Clarke. She will be starting at Shutts and Bowen LLP in their Government and Appellate Litigation practice group and will be clerking on the Southern District of Florida in 2026. During law school, she interned at the U.S. House Committee on Oversight, the Missouri Solicitor General’s Office, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. Prior to law school, Shiza worked at the Federalist Society, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of General Counsel for the Governor of Florida. She holds a B.A. from Villanova University.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, The George Washington University Law School
Aram A. Gavoor is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an internationally recognized scholar in American administrative law, national security, and federal courts. His co-authored work was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Department of Commerce v. New York (2019). His scholarship has earned placement in the Florida Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Ohio State Law Journal, and other law journals. He has briefed and argued over a dozen high-profile public law cases before a majority of the U.S. Courts of Appeals and numerous cases before almost a third of the 94 U.S. District Courts. Associate Dean Gavoor frequently shares his national security, artificial intelligence policy, and federal courts expertise with international news media, including CNN, BBC World News, Wall Street Journal, NBC News, and ABC (Australia) World News. In 2021, the National Law Journal named Associate Dean Gavoor a Rising Star (top 40 under 40) honoree.
Earlier in his career, Associate Dean Gavoor served as Senior Counsel for National Security in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, as third-in-rank Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget, and in private practice. He received the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 2019, the Civil Division Special Commendation Award in 2020, 2019, and 2018, and a Commendation from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the Criminal Division in 2018.
Associate Dean Gavoor previously served on the law school’s part-time faculty from 2008-2017 before accepting a term-limited position as Visiting Associate Professor from 2017-2019. He received GW Law’s Distinguished Adjunct Faculty Teaching Award from the 2020 and 2017 graduating classes. He currently teaches Constitutional Law II, Administrative Law, National Security Law, and Federal Courts.
Law Clerk to the Hon. Emil Bove, United States Court of Appeals
Aaron Watt is a law clerk for the Honorable Emil Bove on the United States Court of Appeals. He graduated from Scalia Law School where he was President of the Federalist Society Student chapter. While in law school, Aaron worked on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary for Senator Ted Cruz. He also worked as a law clerk for America First Legal. Aaron graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maine where he obtained a B.A. in Philosophy and minors in Political Science and Legal Studies. Before attending law school, Aaron spent 20 years in the private sector owning two businesses.
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.
Litigation Director, Center for Individual Rights
Caleb Kruckenberg is CIR’s Litigation Director.
Caleb previously worked as a prosecutor, a public defender, a lobbyist for a national advocacy organization and, most recently, an impact litigator protecting the separation of powers at both the Pacific Legal Foundation and the New Civil Liberties Alliance. He has won major victories against numerous federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. He is also proud to have sued every U.S. attorney general, eight so far, since he has been litigating against the government on behalf of liberty-minded clients. Caleb has also argued more than 20 times in the U.S. Courts of Appeals, winning cases in 8 of the 12 regional circuit courts.
He graduated cum laude from Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, where he was the lead articles editor for the Temple Law Review. Caleb also attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied figurative painting.
Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
David Silberman has been involved in consumer finance issues from a wide range of perspectives for over three decades. As President and CEO of Union Privilege, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, he led the development and oversaw the delivery of a range of consumer financial products and services to union members. After leaving Union Privilege, Mr. Silberman served as General Counsel and Executive Vice President of the Kessler Financial Services, a privately-held company providing marketing and advisory services to financial institutions and their affinity-group partners.
Following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, Mr. Silberman joined the implementation team for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and in 2011 was named the Associate Director for the Division of Research, Markets, and Regulations. In 2016-2017, he also served as the Acting Deputy Director for the CFPB. Mr. Silberman retired from the CFPB in 2020, and now serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Responsible Lending , Senior Advisor to the Financial Health Network, and an Adjunct Professor at the McCourt School for Public Policy at Georgetown University. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation and as a member of the Advisory Committee of FinRegLab.
Mr. Silberman is a graduate of Brandeis University and of the Harvard Law School. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Chief Judge David Bazelon of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Before becoming involved with consumer financial services, Mr. Silberman was a labor lawyer with the firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser and as Deputy General Counsel of the AFL-CIO.
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.
Managing Director, Banking Supervision and Regulation Group, Patomak Global Partners
Brian Johnson is Managing Director in the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group at Patomak Global Partners.
In this role, Mr. Johnson spearheads projects related to the regulation of consumer financial products under Keith Noreika, Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group and former acting Comptroller of the Currency.
Prior to joining Patomak, Mr. Johnson was a partner in Alston & Bird LLP’s financial services and products group. There, he advised financial institutions on consumer finance regulatory issues relating to product compliance, examination, enforcement investigations, and compliance management systems, and on strategic engagement with independent federal regulatory agencies and with Congress.
Mr. Johnson previously served as Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where he oversaw the agency’s rulemaking, supervision, and enforcement activities. He conceived and led the creation of high-profile agency initiatives, including the Office of Innovation, Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law, policy symposia series, and Start Small, Save Up emergency savings program. He also served as the CFPB representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council Deputies’ Committee and advised on interagency matters involving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Mr. Johnson held various positions on Capitol Hill, including policy director and chief financial institutions counsel on the House Committee on Financial Services, where his portfolio covered consumer protection and credit, mortgage origination, credit reporting, banking, and data security. His efforts on the committee involved drafting legislation to provide regulatory relief to bank, credit union, and nondepository financial institutions, as well as conducting oversight of the activities of the CFPB, Financial Stability Oversight Council, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Financial Research, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve System, and National Credit Union Administration.
Mr. Johnson received his juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law and his bachelor’s in economics from the University of Virginia.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
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.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Jeff Jacobson defends consumer, privacy and securities class actions, and represents media, technology and other companies in general commercial litigation. With nearly two decades in private practice and several years of experience at the highest levels of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Jacobson assists his clients to resolve and minimize the reputational damage and business interruptions that can arise from litigation, particularly costly class actions. In addition, Mr. Jacobson has considerable and proven skills in managing the electronic discovery challenges presented by complex litigation and investigative matters.
During his tenure as director of the New Jersey Division of Law and chief counsel to the New Jersey Attorney General (2014-16), Mr. Jacobson oversaw law enforcement investigations involving consumer protection and data privacy, chaired the Attorney General’s Cyber Working Group, and oversaw more than 500 lawyers who represented all agencies of state government in defensive and affirmative litigation. Throughout his tenure, Jeff personally handled some of the state’s highest profile cases in state and federal court.
Because Mr. Jacobson has chaired both the prosecution and defense of major consumer fraud and privacy litigation, he is able to provide his clients with the benefit of a truly multifaceted and strategic perspective regarding even the highest-stakes claims. Mr. Jacobson has successfully defended consumer fraud and privacy-related class actions for media, electronics and consumer products companies, as well as securities class actions for U.S.-based and foreign private issuers in federal and state trial and appellate courts.
Class actions can be both costly and disruptive, so Mr. Jacobson strives to resolve such matters in his client’s favor as quickly and inexpensively as possible. This may mean moving the court to deny class certification at the earliest stage of a case, seeking quick summary judgment on key issues underlying the class motion, or devising a settlement that costs less than litigating the case. In matters requiring extensive discovery, Mr. Jacobson focuses on avoiding unnecessary tasks and minimizing vendor costs.
Mr. Jacobson has been selected to the Data Protection and Privacy and Securities Litigation lists by US Legal 500, a Legalease Publication. A description of the selection methodology can be found at www.legal500.com/assets/pages/about-us/how-it-works.html#rank. He has also been recognized as a Securities Litigation “Star” in the IFLR Benchmark Litigation Guide. A description of the selection methodology can be found at www.benchmarklitigation.com/general/research. (No aspect of these advertisements have been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.)
Mr. Jacobson has written extensively on class action defense and e-discovery strategies for the New York Law Journal, Class Action Litigation Report, Product Liability Law 360, and other publications. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists, and served on a New Jersey Supreme Court task force to assess attorney ethics issues arising from metadata in electronic documents.
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
Alan Raul is the founder and leader of Sidley’s highly ranked Privacy, Data Security and Information Law practice. He represents companies on federal, state and international privacy and cybersecurity issues, including global data protection and compliance programs, data breaches, consumer protection issues and Internet law. Mr. Raul advises companies regarding their cybersecurity and information governance and preparedness, and helps them address crisis management for data security incidents. Mr. Raul’s practice involves litigation and counseling regarding consumer class actions and investigations, enforcement actions and policy development by the FTC, State Attorneys General, SEC, Department of Justice and other government agencies.
Mr. Raul provides clients with perspective gained from extensive government service. He previously served as Vice Chairman of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget, General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Associate Counsel to the President.
Mr. Raul serves as a member of the Data Security, Privacy, and Intellectual Property Litigation Advisory Committee of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center (affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce). He also serves ex officio on the American Bar Association’s Cybersecurity Legal Task Force by past appointment of the ABA President, and as a member of the Practicing Law Institute’s (PLI) Privacy Law Advisors Group.
Mr. Raul has represented a Special Cybersecurity Review Committee of the Board of Directors of a major tech company in connection with its independent investigation of the company’s handling of major data breaches.
In addition to leading a “Privacy and Data Security” practice nationally rated by Chambers Global and Chambers USA, Mr. Raul is ranked by Chambers in its top tier of Privacy and Data Security practitioners. Chambers USA has described Mr. Raul as a “true ‘ambassador’ for the privacy sector” who “attracts praise for his deep knowledge of the field. Interviewees stress that ‘he gives invaluable advice’ and is known to be a strong litigator. He also earns plaudits for his regulatory compliance and data protection policy expertise.” He has been named as a leading international Internet and E-Commerce Lawyer in Who’s Who Legal. Mr. Raul was also named to Ethisphere Institute’s “Attorneys Who Matter” in Data Privacy/Security, which recognizes lawyers with the highest commitment to public service, legal community engagement and academic involvement. In 2016, the Washingtonian named Mr. Raul one of Washington, DC’s Best Lawyers: Cybersecurity.
In 1991, Mr. Raul co-founded the “Lawyers Have Heart” 10K run and walk, to benefit the American Heart Association. He continues his active involvement with the event.
Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Law and economics expert Jason Scott Johnston joined the Virginia Law faculty in 2010 and is the Blaine T. Phillips Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law. He formerly served as the the Nicholas E. Chimicles Research Professor in Business Law and Regulation at Virginia Law, and the Robert G. Fuller, Jr. Professor of Law and director of the Program on Law, Environment and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Johnston’s scholarship has examined subjects ranging from natural resources law to torts and contracts. He has published dozens of articles in law journals, such as the Yale Law Journal, and in peer-reviewed economics journals, such as the Journal of Law, Economics and Organization. He is currently working on a book that critically analyzes the foundations of global warming law and policy, a series of articles on the economics of regulatory science and another series of articles on various aspects of the law and economics of consumer protection. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Law and Economics Association, on the National Science Foundation’s Law and Social Science grant review panel, and on the Board of the Searle Civil Justice Institute. He won Penn Law’s Robert A. Gorman Award for Teaching Excellence in 2003.
After earning his A.B. from Dartmouth College and both his J.D. and Ph.D. (economics) from the University of Michigan, Johnston clerked for Judge Gilbert S. Merritt on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He then taught at Vermont Law School and Vanderbilt Law School before joining Penn’s faculty. He has been a visiting professor or held fellowship appointments at Yale Law School, the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, the American Academy in Berlin and the Property and Environment Research Center.
Officer, Consumer Banking, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Thaddeus King is an officer for Pew’s consumer banking project, an initiative that advocates for policies that better protect and inform American checking accountholders. He works on major research report releases that focus on improving the safety and transparency of key banking practices, including disclosures, overdraft fees, and arbitration. He also has contributed extensively to research on alternative consumer transaction accounts, particularly prepaid accounts and mobile payments.
King previously worked as a law clerk at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, in the departments of regulatory affairs and regulatory compliance, and as a research assistant focused on financial regulation at The George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the State Bar of Maryland. King holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of South Carolina and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Hon. Jennifer Mascott served as Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Separation of Powers Institute at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law before her appointment to the federal bench. On July 16, 2025, President Donald J. Trump nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Delaware), and she was confirmed on October 9, 2025.
Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mascott wrote extensively in administrative and constitutional law, statutory interpretation, and the separation of powers. Her scholarship—published in leading journals including the Stanford Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, and Supreme Court Review—was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple federal courts. She also contributed Supreme Court commentary for NBC Universal.
Before joining Catholic Law, she was an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of The C. Boyden Gray Center at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. In 2022 she became co-author of Beermann, Cass & Diver’s Administrative Law: Cases and Materials (9th ed.). In 2023 she received the Justice Joseph Story Award for excellence in scholarship, teaching, and advancing the rule of law.
Judge Mascott also served as a Council Member of the ABA’s Administrative Law Section and as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. She frequently testified before Congress on executive power, regulatory reform, and judicial jurisdiction, and participated in multiple Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
From 2019 to 2021, she took leave from academia to serve as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel and later as Associate Deputy Attorney General, where she argued federal cases and assisted with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. Earlier in her career, she clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and for then-Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit.
Judge Mascott earned her J.D. summa cum laude from the George Washington University Law School and her B.A. from the same institution.
Wayne A. Abernathy, Wild Bells
Wayne A. Abernathy is a former U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions under President George W. Bush, receiving the Alexander Hamilton Award in recognition of his service. In that office he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Prior to his work at the Treasury, Mr. Abernathy served as Staff Director of the Senate Banking Committee, under Chairman Phil Gramm.
Following his service at the Treasury, Mr. Abernathy worked for 15 years on the staff of the American Bankers Association, as Executive Vice President for Financial Institutions Policy and Regulatory Affairs.
Previous experience with the Senate Banking Committee includes serving as Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Securities during 1995-1998. From 1989 until 1994, Mr. Abernathy was a Republican economist for the committee. He previously worked as a senior legislative assistant for Senator Gramm during 1987-1989 and as an economist for the Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on International Finance and Monetary Policy during 1981-1986, under Chairman Jake Garn.
Mr. Abernathy earned his bachelor’s degree in International Studies from The Johns Hopkins University in 1978. In 1980, he received a master’s degree in International Studies from the School of Advanced International Studies of The Johns Hopkins University.
Retired, Winston & Strawn LLP
Jerry Loeser is of counsel in the Chicago office of Winston & Strawn, and his practice focuses on banking regulation. He has extensive experience in counseling financial services clients on, among other things, bank acquisitions, privacy, financial modernization, the USA PATRIOT Act, Basel II and III, lending limits, capital, trust, affiliate transactions, and Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, and CFPB regulations.
Prior to working at large corporate law firms, Jerry was chief regulatory and compliance counsel for Comerica Bank, where he also served as senior vice president and deputy general counsel and as general counsel of its retail bank division. Before that, he served as chief regulatory in-house counsel at Wells Fargo & Co. Jerry began his legal career advising the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.
Does One Size Fit All? Qualified Immunity Inside and Outside Split-Second Policing Decisions
Elliott Averett, Anya Bidwell, William Most
Qualified immunity shields all government officials from suit when the constitutional rights they violate are...
New Voices in Administrative Law II: The Supreme Court and Federal Court Jurisdiction
Eric Mathias Bush, Shiza Francis, Aram A. Gavoor, Aaron Watt
The development of standing jurisprudence has been inextricably intertwined with the growth of the administrative...
Litigation Update: Brown v. Becerra
Mark Chenoweth, Caleb Kruckenberg
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a moratorium on evictions nationwide...
Deep Dive Episode 166 – The CFPB Taskforce Report on Federal Consumer Financial Law
David Silberman, Todd J. Zywicki, Brian C. Johnson
Recent years have seen a dramatic shift in the way in which American consumers use...
Fitzpatrick v. Frank: Should Conservatives Embrace Class Actions?
Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Theodore "Ted" Frank
Professor Brian Fitzpatrick of Vanderbilt Law School and Ted Frank of the Center for Class...
Civility, Courage, Humility: Lessons in Life and Law From a Justice
Elizabeth Slattery
A review of A Republic, If You Can Keep It, by Neil Gorsuch, https://www.amazon.com/Republic-If-You-Can-Keep/dp/0525576789/. ...
Spokeo v. Robins: One Year Later - Podcast
Jeffrey S. Jacobson, Alan C. Raul
When is an alleged injury “concrete and particularized” under Article III of the U.S. Constitution?...
Class Action in Consumer Finance Agreements - Podcast
Jason Johnston, Thaddeus King
The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), passed in 1925, generally requires courts to look favorably upon...
Sheriff v. Gillie - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Jenn L. Mascott
On May 16, 2016, the Supreme Court decided Sheriff v. Gillie. This case involves litigation...
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Update - September 2015 - Podcast
Wayne A. Abernathy, Julius L. Loeser
Members of the Federalist Society’s Financial Services & E-Commerce Practice Group Executive Committee provided an...