Chief Counsel, FIRE
Robert Corn-Revere joined FIRE from the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine where he was a partner for 20 years specializing in freedom of expression and communications law. Before his time at DWT, he was a partner at Hogan & Hartson and served as legal advisor and later chief counsel to Federal Communications Commission Chairman James H. Quello.
Corn-Revere is a prominent writer, thinker, and advocate on free expression issues. In 2021, Cambridge University Press published his book, “The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder: The First Amendment and the Censor’s Dilemma,” which explores how free expression became a part of America’s identity. He also co-authored the three-volume treatise, “Modern Communication Law,” published by West Group. In 2003, he successfully petitioned Governor George E. Pataki to grant the first posthumous pardon in New York history to the late comedian Lenny Bruce, who was convicted for “obscene” comedy routines.
Before joining FIRE full-time, Corn-Revere was a volunteer on FIRE’s Advisory Council. He also served as outside counsel for FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, successfully litigating on behalf of college students and faculty whose First Amendment rights were violated.
He is regularly listed as a leading First Amendment and media law practitioner by The Best Lawyers in America, SuperLawyers Washington, D.C., and by Chambers USA. Best Lawyers in America named him as Washington, D.C.’s 2017 “Lawyer of the Year” in the areas of First Amendment Law and Litigation – First Amendment. He was again named as Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” for First Amendment Law for 2019 and 2021, and in Media Law for 2022.
Partner, First & Fourteenth PLLC
Michael Francisco is a public and commercial litigator with extensive appellate experience who often serves as a strategic advisor to clients facing acute legal challenges. He has represented clients nationally for public impact litigation, bet-the-company lawsuits, and in defense of constitutional rights. Michael served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Judge Timothy Tymkovich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Michael regularly takes on challenging matters where citizens must rely on the judiciary to vindicate their rights. His experience runs the gambit from successfully seeking injunctive relief, winning critical legal motions, defending judgments on appeal, overturning multi-million-dollar judgments, and obtaining discretionary high court review. He relishes the opportunity to develop a well-crafted legal strategy to solve the most novel and complex problems that may arise.
Michael has deep experience with political litigation representing candidates, voters, political parties, and advocacy organizations for ballot access, election administration, campaign finance, and for the unfortunate trend of criminalization of political activity.
After deciding to pursue a legal career to defend religious liberty, Michael has regularly engaged in constitutional litigation under the religion clauses and the free speech clause. He has been involved in many recent U.S. Supreme Court cases involving these core freedoms, including Groff v. DeJoy, 303 Creative v. Elenis, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, National Institute of Family & Life Advocates v. Becerra, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, and similar cases in lower courts on topics ranging from the ministerial exception, church property disputes, to religious land use disputes.
As an appellate advocate Michael frequently handles matters before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, and Colorado appellate courts. He has argued four times before the Colorado Supreme Court and briefed 19 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Michael also frequently advises clients on strategic public matters challenging federal government authority and overreach. He has regularly litigated business disputes, employment matters, as well as represented clients before state and federal administrative agencies or arbitration panels.
Prior to joining First & Fourteenth, Michael was a partner at McGuireWoods, LLP in Washington D.C., representing litigation, white collar, and government investigation clients.
At home Michael is married with four children and he enjoys many outdoor activities, ranging from competitive shooting to fixing his jeep.
Partner, Briscoe Prows Kao Ivester & Bazel LLP
Tony Francois is experienced in Water and Real Property Law, Land Use and Zoning, Environmental Regulation, Natural Resources Development, Agricultural Law, and Constitutional Law. He has represented homeowners, builders, farmers and ranchers, trade associations, and water districts in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings before state and federal administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and the Districts of New Mexico and North Dakota, and has litigated cases in federal courts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has appeared before the Supreme Courts of California, Idaho, Nevada, and the United States.
Prior to attending law school, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Army, and was stationed in the former West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tony was an Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation from 2012 to 2021. He was a lobbyist for 10 years, first with California Farm Bureau Federation from 2003 to 2007, and then with KP Public Affairs from 2007 to 2012. He was an attorney at McQuaid, Bedford & Van Zandt in San Francisco from 1999 – 2003.
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Eli Nachmany is an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in the Washington, DC, office. He clerked for Judge Steven J. Menashi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Eli graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Prior to law school, Eli served as the speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and as a domestic policy aide in the White House Office of American Innovation. He graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a B.S. in Sports Management. Eli’s scholarship on administrative law and executive power has appeared in the BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Free Speech
Brett Nolan is a Senior Attorney at the Institute for Free Speech, a public interest law firm that defends the First Amendment rights of those engaged in political speech and advocacy around the country.
Before joining the Institute, Brett served as the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of Kentucky, where he represented the Commonwealth in a wide variety of high-stakes litigation at every level of state and federal court. In that role, Brett led a successful challenge against the Department of Treasury over the constitutionality of a federal law limiting the ability of states to modify their tax codes, and he helped secure a U.S. Supreme Court victory that upheld a state’s constitutional right to defend its interests in federal court.
Prior to that, Brett served as the Deputy General Counsel to the former Governor of Kentucky, where he advised the governor and other executive branch officials on legal and policy issues and represented them in litigation. Brett clerked for Judge John Nalbandian of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Karen K. Caldwell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Between clerkships, he worked in private practice. Brett received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with High Honors and was an editor of The University of Chicago Law Review.
Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig
Jennifer Weddle is the Co-Chair of Greenberg Traurig's American Indian Law Practice and has wide-ranging experience in complex regulatory and jurisdictional issues, with a focus in Indian law, handling a variety of matters for tribal and non-tribal clients. She has a dynamic, inter-disciplinary practice that centers on providing strategies for resolving complex jurisdictional problems. Much of her practice focuses in the areas of tribal economic development and natural resources development. Jennifer also has U.S. Supreme Court experience, including serving as one of the attorneys for the respondent in Nevada v. Hicks (2001) and representing the petitioners in Ute Mountain Ute Tribe v. Padilla (2012) and Grand Canyon Skywalk Development, LLC v. Grand Canyon Resort Corporation (2013) and cert stage amici in Saginaw-Chippewa Tribe v. NLRB (2016) and United States v. Cooley (2020) and amici on the merits in Lewis v. Clarke (2017), U.S. v. Washington (2018), Carpenter v. Murphy (2018), McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020), and United States v. Cooley (2021).
Jennifer's work also includes negotiations for mineral leasing employment matters and representation before federal agencies. She has also been involved in civil litigation, working on numerous complex federal, state and tribal litigation matters, including class action tort litigation and large commercial disputes. Her transactional experience includes oil and gas renewables projects throughout the west, as well as Endangered Species Act work. Jennifer frequently assists tribes, banks and non-bank entities with financing and regulatory matters with Indian law components. Jennifer has wide-ranging project siting experience, including the application of NEPA, NHPA, and other environmental laws on tribal and public lands, including with respect to large linear multi-state energy and infrastructure projects. Jennifer has deep transactional, regulatory and litigation experience involving very complex matters with both legal and policy components.
Jennifer is past President of the National Native American Bar Association and past two-term Chair of the Federal Bar Association Indian Law Section. She currently serves as the Tenth Circuit Representative on the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, a role she has held since 2018, spanning the evaluations for more than two dozen federal judicial nominees at every level of the federal courts. She is a ’00 graduate of Harvard Law School and a ’97 graduate of the University of Michigan (Classical Languages and Literature).
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Thomas L. Jipping is a Senior Legal Fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and a senior legal fellow in the Center, which is part of the Institute for Constitutional Government at Heritage.
Tom joined Heritage in May 2018 after 15 years on the staff of U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), including several as his chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He spent the previous 13 years at two public policy organizations: Concerned Women for America, where he was senior fellow in legal studies; and the Free Congress Foundation, where Tom served as Vice President for Policy and Director of the Center for Law and Democracy.
Tom’s scholarship includes articles in law and public policy journals as well as hundreds of op-eds and articles in both print and online publications. He has presented papers at conferences including the American Political Science Association and testified before legislative committees in the U.S. Senate and House and in several states.
Tom received a B.A. with honors from Calvin College and both an M.A. in political science and a J.D., cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo. While at SUNY-Buffalo Law School, Tom was a founding member of the Buffalo Federalist Society and served as the Head Note and Comment Editor of the Buffalo Law Review. Before coming to Washington, Tom clerked for Judge William D. Hutchinson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Tom lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and is an active member of New Hope Presbyterian Church.
President, March for Life Education and Defense Fund
Jennie Bradley Lichter is President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, the iconic organization committed to restoring a culture of life in the United States most notably through the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. – the world’s largest annual human rights event – and through the growing State March for Life program.
Jennie has wide-ranging legal and policy experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including at the highest levels of the federal government. In the first Trump Administration, she served in the White House as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC). In that role she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts on a vast array of issues arising from the Departments of Education, Labor, Health & Human Services, Justice, Housing & Urban Development, Interior, and others. Jennie led policy initiatives across the federal government to protect religious liberty, encourage faith-based partnerships, and defend the dignity of life. She also led DPC’s work on regulatory and administrative state reform.
Prior to her White House service, Jennie worked on policy issues and federal judicial (including Supreme Court) confirmation efforts in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jennie has worked in higher education as Deputy General Counsel for The Catholic University of America, where was also a Fellow at the Center for Religious Liberty in the University’s Columbus School of Law. She previously served as in-house counsel for the Archdiocese of Washington, and as an associate at Jones Day.
Jennie clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle on the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Steven M. Colloton on the Eighth Circuit in Des Moines. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame and from Harvard Law School. Prior to law school she was a research assistant in Bioethics at a D.C. think tank, and earned a graduate degree in Theology & Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Partner, Jenner & Block LLP
Adam Unikowsky is a partner in Jenner & Block LLP’s Appellate & Supreme Court Practice Group, where he has worked since 2011.
Prior to his time at Jenner & Block, Mr. Unikowsky served as a Judicial Law Clerk to former Justice Antonin Scalia. He also previously clerked for Judge Douglas Ginsberg at the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. Unikowsky got his JD from Harvard University, following achieving his Masters of Engineering & Bachelors of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Thomas L. Jipping is a Senior Legal Fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and a senior legal fellow in the Center, which is part of the Institute for Constitutional Government at Heritage.
Tom joined Heritage in May 2018 after 15 years on the staff of U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), including several as his chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He spent the previous 13 years at two public policy organizations: Concerned Women for America, where he was senior fellow in legal studies; and the Free Congress Foundation, where Tom served as Vice President for Policy and Director of the Center for Law and Democracy.
Tom’s scholarship includes articles in law and public policy journals as well as hundreds of op-eds and articles in both print and online publications. He has presented papers at conferences including the American Political Science Association and testified before legislative committees in the U.S. Senate and House and in several states.
Tom received a B.A. with honors from Calvin College and both an M.A. in political science and a J.D., cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo. While at SUNY-Buffalo Law School, Tom was a founding member of the Buffalo Federalist Society and served as the Head Note and Comment Editor of the Buffalo Law Review. Before coming to Washington, Tom clerked for Judge William D. Hutchinson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Tom lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and is an active member of New Hope Presbyterian Church.
President, March for Life Education and Defense Fund
Jennie Bradley Lichter is President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, the iconic organization committed to restoring a culture of life in the United States most notably through the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. – the world’s largest annual human rights event – and through the growing State March for Life program.
Jennie has wide-ranging legal and policy experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including at the highest levels of the federal government. In the first Trump Administration, she served in the White House as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC). In that role she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts on a vast array of issues arising from the Departments of Education, Labor, Health & Human Services, Justice, Housing & Urban Development, Interior, and others. Jennie led policy initiatives across the federal government to protect religious liberty, encourage faith-based partnerships, and defend the dignity of life. She also led DPC’s work on regulatory and administrative state reform.
Prior to her White House service, Jennie worked on policy issues and federal judicial (including Supreme Court) confirmation efforts in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jennie has worked in higher education as Deputy General Counsel for The Catholic University of America, where was also a Fellow at the Center for Religious Liberty in the University’s Columbus School of Law. She previously served as in-house counsel for the Archdiocese of Washington, and as an associate at Jones Day.
Jennie clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle on the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Steven M. Colloton on the Eighth Circuit in Des Moines. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame and from Harvard Law School. Prior to law school she was a research assistant in Bioethics at a D.C. think tank, and earned a graduate degree in Theology & Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Partner, Jenner & Block LLP
Adam Unikowsky is a partner in Jenner & Block LLP’s Appellate & Supreme Court Practice Group, where he has worked since 2011.
Prior to his time at Jenner & Block, Mr. Unikowsky served as a Judicial Law Clerk to former Justice Antonin Scalia. He also previously clerked for Judge Douglas Ginsberg at the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. Unikowsky got his JD from Harvard University, following achieving his Masters of Engineering & Bachelors of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erik Baptist serves as senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, focusing on administrative litigation and regulatory advocacy.
Before joining ADF, Baptist was a partner at Wiley Rein LLP—one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C.—where he employed his expertise in administrative and environmental law to represent clients on litigation, regulatory, and enforcement matters.
Prior to working at Wiley, Baptist served as a senior executive service appointee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As the senior deputy general counsel and deputy assistant administrator, he directed EPA’s litigation, implemented groundbreaking rulemakings and policies, represented EPA and defended witnesses in response to congressional inquiries, and collectively helped oversee the work of more than 1,100 EPA lawyers, scientists, and staff.
Baptist began his career in the Trial Department of the international law firm McDermott, Will & Emery LLP. He earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. During law school, Baptist externed for the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, interned for the Honorable Eric T. Washington of the D.C. Court of Appeals, and served on The George Washington International Law Review.
Baptist is an active member of the D.C. Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal courts of appeal.
Faculty Fellow, Center for Law, Science & Innovation, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Dr. Klein is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is also Principal at Roger D. Klein, MD JD Consulting and Klein & Klein Co., L.P.A. He was formerly Chief Medical Officer at OmniSeq, an oncology focused genomic profiling company that was recently acquired by LabCorp. Previously, Roger was the Medical Director at the Molecular Oncology division at the Cleveland Clinic. He was also the Chair of the Professional Relations Committee at the Association for Molecular Pathology. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic, he served as Medical Director of Molecular Oncology at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin where he led the center’s Diagnostic Laboratories’ initiative focused on DNA- and RNA-based testing for evaluation of cancer patients.
Dr. Klein has been an advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He has participated in and assumed leadership roles in many professional society committees and corporate advisory boards and is a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute.
Dr. Klein is licensed to practice medicine in Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. Additionally, he is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and Ohio. Roger obtained his Molecular Genetic Pathology certification at Mayo Medical School following completion of his M.D. Yale University School of Medicine. He obtained his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erik Baptist serves as senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, focusing on administrative litigation and regulatory advocacy.
Before joining ADF, Baptist was a partner at Wiley Rein LLP—one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C.—where he employed his expertise in administrative and environmental law to represent clients on litigation, regulatory, and enforcement matters.
Prior to working at Wiley, Baptist served as a senior executive service appointee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As the senior deputy general counsel and deputy assistant administrator, he directed EPA’s litigation, implemented groundbreaking rulemakings and policies, represented EPA and defended witnesses in response to congressional inquiries, and collectively helped oversee the work of more than 1,100 EPA lawyers, scientists, and staff.
Baptist began his career in the Trial Department of the international law firm McDermott, Will & Emery LLP. He earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. During law school, Baptist externed for the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, interned for the Honorable Eric T. Washington of the D.C. Court of Appeals, and served on The George Washington International Law Review.
Baptist is an active member of the D.C. Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal courts of appeal.
Faculty Fellow, Center for Law, Science & Innovation, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Dr. Klein is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is also Principal at Roger D. Klein, MD JD Consulting and Klein & Klein Co., L.P.A. He was formerly Chief Medical Officer at OmniSeq, an oncology focused genomic profiling company that was recently acquired by LabCorp. Previously, Roger was the Medical Director at the Molecular Oncology division at the Cleveland Clinic. He was also the Chair of the Professional Relations Committee at the Association for Molecular Pathology. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic, he served as Medical Director of Molecular Oncology at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin where he led the center’s Diagnostic Laboratories’ initiative focused on DNA- and RNA-based testing for evaluation of cancer patients.
Dr. Klein has been an advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He has participated in and assumed leadership roles in many professional society committees and corporate advisory boards and is a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute.
Dr. Klein is licensed to practice medicine in Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. Additionally, he is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and Ohio. Roger obtained his Molecular Genetic Pathology certification at Mayo Medical School following completion of his M.D. Yale University School of Medicine. He obtained his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Chief Counsel, FIRE
Robert Corn-Revere joined FIRE from the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine where he was a partner for 20 years specializing in freedom of expression and communications law. Before his time at DWT, he was a partner at Hogan & Hartson and served as legal advisor and later chief counsel to Federal Communications Commission Chairman James H. Quello.
Corn-Revere is a prominent writer, thinker, and advocate on free expression issues. In 2021, Cambridge University Press published his book, “The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder: The First Amendment and the Censor’s Dilemma,” which explores how free expression became a part of America’s identity. He also co-authored the three-volume treatise, “Modern Communication Law,” published by West Group. In 2003, he successfully petitioned Governor George E. Pataki to grant the first posthumous pardon in New York history to the late comedian Lenny Bruce, who was convicted for “obscene” comedy routines.
Before joining FIRE full-time, Corn-Revere was a volunteer on FIRE’s Advisory Council. He also served as outside counsel for FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, successfully litigating on behalf of college students and faculty whose First Amendment rights were violated.
He is regularly listed as a leading First Amendment and media law practitioner by The Best Lawyers in America, SuperLawyers Washington, D.C., and by Chambers USA. Best Lawyers in America named him as Washington, D.C.’s 2017 “Lawyer of the Year” in the areas of First Amendment Law and Litigation – First Amendment. He was again named as Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” for First Amendment Law for 2019 and 2021, and in Media Law for 2022.
Partner, First & Fourteenth PLLC
Michael Francisco is a public and commercial litigator with extensive appellate experience who often serves as a strategic advisor to clients facing acute legal challenges. He has represented clients nationally for public impact litigation, bet-the-company lawsuits, and in defense of constitutional rights. Michael served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Judge Timothy Tymkovich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Michael regularly takes on challenging matters where citizens must rely on the judiciary to vindicate their rights. His experience runs the gambit from successfully seeking injunctive relief, winning critical legal motions, defending judgments on appeal, overturning multi-million-dollar judgments, and obtaining discretionary high court review. He relishes the opportunity to develop a well-crafted legal strategy to solve the most novel and complex problems that may arise.
Michael has deep experience with political litigation representing candidates, voters, political parties, and advocacy organizations for ballot access, election administration, campaign finance, and for the unfortunate trend of criminalization of political activity.
After deciding to pursue a legal career to defend religious liberty, Michael has regularly engaged in constitutional litigation under the religion clauses and the free speech clause. He has been involved in many recent U.S. Supreme Court cases involving these core freedoms, including Groff v. DeJoy, 303 Creative v. Elenis, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, National Institute of Family & Life Advocates v. Becerra, Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, and similar cases in lower courts on topics ranging from the ministerial exception, church property disputes, to religious land use disputes.
As an appellate advocate Michael frequently handles matters before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, and Colorado appellate courts. He has argued four times before the Colorado Supreme Court and briefed 19 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Michael also frequently advises clients on strategic public matters challenging federal government authority and overreach. He has regularly litigated business disputes, employment matters, as well as represented clients before state and federal administrative agencies or arbitration panels.
Prior to joining First & Fourteenth, Michael was a partner at McGuireWoods, LLP in Washington D.C., representing litigation, white collar, and government investigation clients.
At home Michael is married with four children and he enjoys many outdoor activities, ranging from competitive shooting to fixing his jeep.
Partner, Briscoe Prows Kao Ivester & Bazel LLP
Tony Francois is experienced in Water and Real Property Law, Land Use and Zoning, Environmental Regulation, Natural Resources Development, Agricultural Law, and Constitutional Law. He has represented homeowners, builders, farmers and ranchers, trade associations, and water districts in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings before state and federal administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and the Districts of New Mexico and North Dakota, and has litigated cases in federal courts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has appeared before the Supreme Courts of California, Idaho, Nevada, and the United States.
Prior to attending law school, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Army, and was stationed in the former West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tony was an Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation from 2012 to 2021. He was a lobbyist for 10 years, first with California Farm Bureau Federation from 2003 to 2007, and then with KP Public Affairs from 2007 to 2012. He was an attorney at McQuaid, Bedford & Van Zandt in San Francisco from 1999 – 2003.
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Eli Nachmany is an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in the Washington, DC, office. He clerked for Judge Steven J. Menashi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Eli graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Prior to law school, Eli served as the speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and as a domestic policy aide in the White House Office of American Innovation. He graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a B.S. in Sports Management. Eli’s scholarship on administrative law and executive power has appeared in the BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Free Speech
Brett Nolan is a Senior Attorney at the Institute for Free Speech, a public interest law firm that defends the First Amendment rights of those engaged in political speech and advocacy around the country.
Before joining the Institute, Brett served as the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of Kentucky, where he represented the Commonwealth in a wide variety of high-stakes litigation at every level of state and federal court. In that role, Brett led a successful challenge against the Department of Treasury over the constitutionality of a federal law limiting the ability of states to modify their tax codes, and he helped secure a U.S. Supreme Court victory that upheld a state’s constitutional right to defend its interests in federal court.
Prior to that, Brett served as the Deputy General Counsel to the former Governor of Kentucky, where he advised the governor and other executive branch officials on legal and policy issues and represented them in litigation. Brett clerked for Judge John Nalbandian of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Karen K. Caldwell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Between clerkships, he worked in private practice. Brett received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with High Honors and was an editor of The University of Chicago Law Review.
Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig
Jennifer Weddle is the Co-Chair of Greenberg Traurig's American Indian Law Practice and has wide-ranging experience in complex regulatory and jurisdictional issues, with a focus in Indian law, handling a variety of matters for tribal and non-tribal clients. She has a dynamic, inter-disciplinary practice that centers on providing strategies for resolving complex jurisdictional problems. Much of her practice focuses in the areas of tribal economic development and natural resources development. Jennifer also has U.S. Supreme Court experience, including serving as one of the attorneys for the respondent in Nevada v. Hicks (2001) and representing the petitioners in Ute Mountain Ute Tribe v. Padilla (2012) and Grand Canyon Skywalk Development, LLC v. Grand Canyon Resort Corporation (2013) and cert stage amici in Saginaw-Chippewa Tribe v. NLRB (2016) and United States v. Cooley (2020) and amici on the merits in Lewis v. Clarke (2017), U.S. v. Washington (2018), Carpenter v. Murphy (2018), McGirt v. Oklahoma (2020), and United States v. Cooley (2021).
Jennifer's work also includes negotiations for mineral leasing employment matters and representation before federal agencies. She has also been involved in civil litigation, working on numerous complex federal, state and tribal litigation matters, including class action tort litigation and large commercial disputes. Her transactional experience includes oil and gas renewables projects throughout the west, as well as Endangered Species Act work. Jennifer frequently assists tribes, banks and non-bank entities with financing and regulatory matters with Indian law components. Jennifer has wide-ranging project siting experience, including the application of NEPA, NHPA, and other environmental laws on tribal and public lands, including with respect to large linear multi-state energy and infrastructure projects. Jennifer has deep transactional, regulatory and litigation experience involving very complex matters with both legal and policy components.
Jennifer is past President of the National Native American Bar Association and past two-term Chair of the Federal Bar Association Indian Law Section. She currently serves as the Tenth Circuit Representative on the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, a role she has held since 2018, spanning the evaluations for more than two dozen federal judicial nominees at every level of the federal courts. She is a ’00 graduate of Harvard Law School and a ’97 graduate of the University of Michigan (Classical Languages and Literature).
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Thomas L. Jipping is a Senior Legal Fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and a senior legal fellow in the Center, which is part of the Institute for Constitutional Government at Heritage.
Tom joined Heritage in May 2018 after 15 years on the staff of U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), including several as his chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He spent the previous 13 years at two public policy organizations: Concerned Women for America, where he was senior fellow in legal studies; and the Free Congress Foundation, where Tom served as Vice President for Policy and Director of the Center for Law and Democracy.
Tom’s scholarship includes articles in law and public policy journals as well as hundreds of op-eds and articles in both print and online publications. He has presented papers at conferences including the American Political Science Association and testified before legislative committees in the U.S. Senate and House and in several states.
Tom received a B.A. with honors from Calvin College and both an M.A. in political science and a J.D., cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo. While at SUNY-Buffalo Law School, Tom was a founding member of the Buffalo Federalist Society and served as the Head Note and Comment Editor of the Buffalo Law Review. Before coming to Washington, Tom clerked for Judge William D. Hutchinson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Tom lives in Fairfax, Virginia, and is an active member of New Hope Presbyterian Church.
President, March for Life Education and Defense Fund
Jennie Bradley Lichter is President of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, the iconic organization committed to restoring a culture of life in the United States most notably through the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. – the world’s largest annual human rights event – and through the growing State March for Life program.
Jennie has wide-ranging legal and policy experience in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including at the highest levels of the federal government. In the first Trump Administration, she served in the White House as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC). In that role she supervised rulemaking and policy efforts on a vast array of issues arising from the Departments of Education, Labor, Health & Human Services, Justice, Housing & Urban Development, Interior, and others. Jennie led policy initiatives across the federal government to protect religious liberty, encourage faith-based partnerships, and defend the dignity of life. She also led DPC’s work on regulatory and administrative state reform.
Prior to her White House service, Jennie worked on policy issues and federal judicial (including Supreme Court) confirmation efforts in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jennie has worked in higher education as Deputy General Counsel for The Catholic University of America, where was also a Fellow at the Center for Religious Liberty in the University’s Columbus School of Law. She previously served as in-house counsel for the Archdiocese of Washington, and as an associate at Jones Day.
Jennie clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle on the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Steven M. Colloton on the Eighth Circuit in Des Moines. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame and from Harvard Law School. Prior to law school she was a research assistant in Bioethics at a D.C. think tank, and earned a graduate degree in Theology & Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Partner, Jenner & Block LLP
Adam Unikowsky is a partner in Jenner & Block LLP’s Appellate & Supreme Court Practice Group, where he has worked since 2011.
Prior to his time at Jenner & Block, Mr. Unikowsky served as a Judicial Law Clerk to former Justice Antonin Scalia. He also previously clerked for Judge Douglas Ginsberg at the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. Unikowsky got his JD from Harvard University, following achieving his Masters of Engineering & Bachelors of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erik Baptist serves as senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, focusing on administrative litigation and regulatory advocacy.
Before joining ADF, Baptist was a partner at Wiley Rein LLP—one of the largest law firms in Washington, D.C.—where he employed his expertise in administrative and environmental law to represent clients on litigation, regulatory, and enforcement matters.
Prior to working at Wiley, Baptist served as a senior executive service appointee at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As the senior deputy general counsel and deputy assistant administrator, he directed EPA’s litigation, implemented groundbreaking rulemakings and policies, represented EPA and defended witnesses in response to congressional inquiries, and collectively helped oversee the work of more than 1,100 EPA lawyers, scientists, and staff.
Baptist began his career in the Trial Department of the international law firm McDermott, Will & Emery LLP. He earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. During law school, Baptist externed for the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, interned for the Honorable Eric T. Washington of the D.C. Court of Appeals, and served on The George Washington International Law Review.
Baptist is an active member of the D.C. Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal courts of appeal.
Faculty Fellow, Center for Law, Science & Innovation, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Dr. Klein is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is also Principal at Roger D. Klein, MD JD Consulting and Klein & Klein Co., L.P.A. He was formerly Chief Medical Officer at OmniSeq, an oncology focused genomic profiling company that was recently acquired by LabCorp. Previously, Roger was the Medical Director at the Molecular Oncology division at the Cleveland Clinic. He was also the Chair of the Professional Relations Committee at the Association for Molecular Pathology. Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic, he served as Medical Director of Molecular Oncology at the BloodCenter of Wisconsin where he led the center’s Diagnostic Laboratories’ initiative focused on DNA- and RNA-based testing for evaluation of cancer patients.
Dr. Klein has been an advisor to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He has participated in and assumed leadership roles in many professional society committees and corporate advisory boards and is a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute.
Dr. Klein is licensed to practice medicine in Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. Additionally, he is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and Ohio. Roger obtained his Molecular Genetic Pathology certification at Mayo Medical School following completion of his M.D. Yale University School of Medicine. He obtained his J.D. from Yale Law School.
A Seat at the Sitting - March 2024
Robert Corn-Revere, Michael Francisco, Tony Francois, Eli Nachmany, Brett Nolan, Jennifer H. Weddle
Each month, a panel of constitutional experts convenes to discuss the Court’s upcoming docket sitting...
A Seat at the Sitting - March 2024
The March Docket in 90 Minutes or Less
Dueling Decisions on the Regulation and Distribution of Mifepristone: AHM v. FDA & WA v. FDA
Thomas Jipping, Jennie Bradley Lichter, Adam Unikowsky
Two cases concerning the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. United States...
Dueling Decisions on the Regulation and Distribution of Mifepristone: AHM v. FDA & WA v. FDA
Thomas Jipping, Jennie Bradley Lichter, Adam Unikowsky
Two cases concerning the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. United States...
Dueling Decisions on the Regulation and Distribution of Mifepristone: AHM v. FDA & WA v. FDA
Litigation Update: AHM v. FDA: Challenging the FDA on “Chemical Abortion Drugs"
Erik Baptist, Roger D. Klein
In November 2022, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S....
Litigation Update: AHM v. FDA: Challenging the FDA on “Chemical Abortion Drugs"
Erik Baptist, Roger D. Klein
In November 2022, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S....
Litigation Update: AHM v. FDA: Challenging the FDA on “Chemical Abortion Drugs"
A Regulatory Transparency Project Webinar