Partner, Jackson Walker
Arthur offers clients a winning combination of trial and appellate experience gained as a federal prosecutor and more than 20 years of experience in handling patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secrets litigation.
While his practice concentrates on intellectual property litigation, Arthur also has significant experience in internal investigations, False Claims Act suits, partnership and breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and employment litigation. Arthur also has represented clients testifying before Congressional committees.
Arthur writes and speaks frequently on topics ranging from the case against Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to patent litigation reform.
Prior to joining Michael Best, Arthur served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he was the lead prosecutor in criminal trials, including federal intellectual property crimes. He also argued numerous appeals.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit
Leonard Steven Grasz is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the University of Nebraska College of Law, Grasz spent eleven years as the state of Nebraska's Chief Deputy Attorney General. He was a senior partner at the law firm of Husch Blackwell prior to his appointment to the federal judiciary.
Senior Attorney, Sensient Technologies Corporation
Former United States Attorney General
Michael B. Mukasey is the former Attorney General of the United States, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. As Attorney General from November 2007 to January 2009, he oversaw the U.S. Department of Justice and advised on critical issues of domestic and international law.
From 1988 to 2006, Judge Mukasey served as a district judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming Chief Judge in 2000.
From 1972 to 1976, Judge Mukasey served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and as Chief of the Official Corruption Unit from 1975 to 1976. His practice consisted of criminal litigation on behalf of the government, including investigation and prosecution of narcotics, bank robbery, interstate theft, securities fraud, fraud on the government and bribery. From 1976 to 1987 and from 2006 to 2007 he was in private practice.
Judge Mukasey has received numerous honors, including the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Public Access to Information and Proceedings of the New York Bar Association from 1984 to 1987. He served on the Federal Courts Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York from 1979 to 1982 and its Communications Law Committee from 1983 to 1986. Judge Mukasey was also a part-time lecturer at Columbia School of Law from January 1993 to May 2007, teaching trial advocacy.
He received his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1967 and his B.A. from Columbia College in 1963.
Trustees Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Professor Mark P. Strasser has been named Trustees Professor of Law at Capital University Law School. This appointment recognizes Professor Strasser's extraordinary and sustained commitment to legal scholarship. Nationally recognized for his scholarship in family law, Professor Strasser is the author of numerous books and articles in the areas of family law, bioethics, and constitutional law. His most recent books include On Same-Sex Marriages, Civil Unions, and the Rule of Law: Constitutional Interpretation at the Crossroads (Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002), Marriage and Same-Sex Unions: A Debate (Praeger Publishers, 2003), co-edited with Lynn Wardle, David Coolidge and William Duncan and Questions and Answers: Family Law (LexisNexis, 2003). Professor Strasser frequently presents papers at conferences across the country and internationally. His recent lectures have taken place at New York University Law School; the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association Conference in Turin, Italy; the Medical College of Wisconsin; Queen's University in Kingston, Canada; the University of Texas at Austin; Brigham Young University Law School; and Albany Law School. He also spoke before the Vermont House Judiciary Committee on interstate implications of Vermont recognizing same-sex marriages or domestic partnerships.
Professor Strasser is a former professor of philosophy and taught at Illinois State University, University of Texas at Arlington, and Washington University in St. Louis. A member of Capital University Law School's faculty since 1993, Professor Strasser teaches Constitutional Law, Torts, Family Law, Jurisprudence, and a seminar on Sexual Diversity and the Law. Professor Strasser was the Visiting Tyler Haynes Chair Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law in 2001 and a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law during the 1999-2000 academic year.
Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Professor Dent taught law at New York University, Cardozo, and the New York Law School before joining the faculty in 1990. Earlier he had clerked for Judge Paul R. Hays of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and practiced corporate law in New York with Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates. He teaches Business Associations, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Business Planning and is the faculty supervisor for the Business Organizations Concentration. He has published many articles on corporate and securities law, including “Academics in Wonderland: The Team Production and Director Primacy Models of Corporate Governance,” Houston Law Review (2008); “Corporate Governance: Still Broke, No Fix in Sight,” Journal of Corporation Law (2005); “Lawyers and Trust in Business Alliances,” Business Lawyer (2002); and “Gap Fillers and Fiduciary Duties in Strategic Alliances,” The Business Lawyer (2001). He also writes on law and religion, as in “Civil Rights for Whom: Gay Rights Versus Religious Freedom,” University of Kentucky Law Journal (2006-07); and “How Does Same-Sex Marriage Threaten You?,” Rutgers Law Review (2007). Mr. Dent serves as a director of the National Association of Scholars and as president of the Ohio Association of Scholars. He serves as an officer of Cleveland Chapter of the Federalist Society. He heads the Law Section of the Association for the Study of Free Institutions. He is chairman of the Ohio State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Partner, Williams & John LTD
David L. Applegate is a partner of Williams & John Ltd., where he chairs the firm's intellectual property practice group and is a member of the commercial litigation practice group. He focuses his practice on patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, and business litigation and arbitration, and on U. S. Supreme Court and related amicus brief practice.
Mr. Applegate is a Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America, the Intellectual Property Institute, and the Diversity Law Institute; a Senior Master Member of the Richard Linn American Inn of Court; a Past President of the Chicago Lincoln American Inn of Court; and a Legal Policy Advisor to The Heartland Institute. He is "AV Preeminent" peer review rated by Martindale-Hubbell, reflecting the highest peer recognition for both ethical standards and legal ability, and has been named by his peers for inclusion in Illinois Leading Lawyers and IllinoisSuper Lawyers in both commercial and intellectual property litigation for decades.
Throughout his career, Mr. Applegate has represented corporations and individuals as both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal litigation at the trial and appellate levels. He has tried multiple cases to verdict in both jury and bench trials nationwide and has argued appeals in the Illinois appellate courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh and Federal Circuits; his amicus brief was cited twice in the U. S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 majority opinion in the Janus case. Mr. Applegate also has extensive commercial arbitration and private mediation experience in both national and international dispute resolution forums, and is a former member of the Chicago International Dispute Resolution Association. In 2001, the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association recognized him for his outstanding individual commitment to pro bono service to indigent clients throughout the Northern District of Illinois.
In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Applegate has written and spoken frequently on matters of law and public policy, including on both local and national television and radio. He is an avid collector and amateur historian of original comic strip and editorial cartoon art, and has written extensively in that field as well for over three decades.
Partner, Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP
Ryan Schermerhorn is a registered patent attorney in the firm's Industrial & Mechanical Technologies Practice Group. His engineering background provides him with an understanding of clients’ technologies and enables him to effectively and efficiently provide a range of patent procurement services. He also leverages his experience to assist on intellectual property litigation as well as develop strategies for acquiring and protecting intellectual property.
Since 2017, Ryan has been listed as an "Emerging Lawyer" by Emerging Lawyers Magazine and has been selected for inclusion in the Illinois Rising Stars® lists. Ryan was recognized in Chicago Daily Law Bulletin's 2023 40 Under Forty list. Since 2024, Ryan has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© list in the practice areas of Litigation - Patent and Patent Law. In 2025, Ryan was selected by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company’s Leading Lawyer Network as a “Leading Lawyer.”
Daniel Morton-Bentley is a member of the Massachusetts bar and an LL.M student at Suffolk University Law School. He graduated cum laude from Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol, Rhode Island.
Executive Director, Center for Election Confidence
Lisa L. Dixon serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Election Confidence (formerly known as Lawyers Democracy Fund). Lisa is also a consultant for the Republican National Lawyers Association, serving as their Legal Counsel. Previously, Lisa practiced at Holtzman Vogel, where she specialized in tax-exempt organizations, campaign finance and election law, and lobbying compliance.
During law school, she interned for the Office of Chief Counsel, Procedure and Administration, at the Internal Revenue Service and at the Center for Law and Religious Freedom. Before law school, she served as the Assistant Student Division Director at The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and interned at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
Lisa earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, an M.A. in History from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in History from Hillsdale College. After 18 years on the East Coast, mostly in northern Virginia, she recently returned to her native Michigan, where she lives with her husband and three sons.
United States Magistrate Judge, Eastern District of North Carolina
Robert T. Numbers, II serves as a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Judge Numbers received degrees in Political Science and Economics, with honors, from Wake Forest University. After completing his undergraduate work, Judge Numbers obtained his law degree from the University of Notre Dame where he served on the Notre Dame Law Review.
Upon his graduation from law school, Judge Numbers joined the Winston-Salem office of a large, regional law firm. From 2005 until 2010, Judge Numbers’ practice focused on civil rights claims against local municipalities and government contractors. In 2010, Judge Numbers joined the firm’s Raleigh office and concentrated his practice on complex business litigation in state and federal courts.
Losing Confidence in Confidentiality: Do Expanding Exceptions to the Attorney-Client Privilege Gut Its Purpose?
True or false: attorney-client communications, simply speaking, are privileged? False, both under law and—more importantly—in...
Local Patent Rules - Certainty and Efficiency or a Crazy Quilt of Substantive Law?
Arthur Gollwitzer
More than a decade ago, the United States District Court for the Northern District of...
Judicial Selection in Nebraska
Steven Grasz
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is an organization of 40,000 lawyers,...
Judicial Selection in Nebraska
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is an organization of 40,000 lawyers,...
Can Someone Please Turn on the Lights? Bringing Transparency to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
James C. Dunlop, Michael B. Mukasey
Note from the Editor: This paper assesses the Department of Justice’s authority under the Foreign...
Perry, Same-Sex Marriage, and Federal Constitutional Guarantees
Mark P. Strasser
Note from the Editor: This article and the article in this issue by George W....
Perry v. Schwarzenegger: Is Traditional Marriage Unconstitutional?
George W. Dent
Note from the Editor: This article and the article in this issue by Mark Strasser...
Hot News: The "Hot-News" Doctrine Is Hot Again! Or Is It?
David L. Applegate, Ryan Schermerhorn
Copyright law, like contract law, is deceptively complex. Just as the familiar elements of offer,...
Two Guiding Trends in Contemporary Labor and Employment Law: Technology and Fairness
Daniel Morton-Bentley
There are two primary trends guiding contemporary labor and employment law. The first is the...
A Return to "the Heady Days"? The Supreme Court Addresses Whether the Bivens Doctrine Should Extend to Employees of Government Contractors in Minneci v. Pollard
Lisa L. Dixon, Robert T. Numbers
I. Introduction On November 1, 2011, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Minneci v....