Partner, Schaerr | Jaffe LLP
Erik Jaffe has been involved in appeals on a broad range of legal issues, including First Amendment challenges to campaign finance reform, Commerce Clause challenges to Health Care Reform and other federal legislation, Equal Protection Clause challenges to affirmative action in education, First Amendment challenges to school vouchers, Fifth Amendment challenges to takings of property, Second Amendment challenges to restrictions on gun ownership, and a wide variety of cases involving patents, copyrights, ERISA, securities fraud, federal preemption, environmental regulation, and other state and federal constitutional and statutory matters. He has represented businesses and non-profit groups, Judges, Senators, former government officials, Nobel Prize winners, and a broad cross-section of private individuals. Mr. Jaffe has been involved in over 120 Supreme Court matters, including filing over 30 cert. petitions, representing half-a-dozen parties on the merits, and filing over 70 amicus briefs at both the cert. and merits stages.
A 1990 graduate of the Columbia University School of Law, Mr. Jaffe was a law clerk to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1990 to 1991. Following that clerkship he spent five years in litigation practice with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly. In the summer of 1996 he left Williams & Connolly to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. At the end of that clerkship he started his own practice, and he was a sole practitioner from 1997 to 2018. He joined the firm of Schaerr | Jaffe LLP in 2018.
Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).
His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.
Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Sho Sato Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, University of California, Berkeley
Dan Farber is the Sho Sato Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Co-Director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment. Professor Farber serves on the editorial board of Foundation Press. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Life Member of the American Law Institute. He is the editor of Issues in Legal Scholarship.
Professor Farber is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where he earned his B.A., M.A., and J.D. degrees. He graduated, summa cum laude, from the College of Law, where he was the class valedictorian and served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Illinois Law Review. After graduation from law school, he was a law clerk for Judge Philip W. Tone of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then for Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States. Professor Farber practiced law with Sidley & Austin, where he primarily worked on energy issues, before joining the University of Illinois College of Law faculty in 1978. He was a member of the University of Minnesota Law School faculty from1981 to 2002, where he was the McKnight Presidential Professor of Public Law. He also has been a Visiting Professor at the Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School.
Among Professor Farber’s eighteen books are RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON PUBLIC CHOICE AND PUBLIC LAW (Elgar 2010) (with A. O’Connell); JUDGMENT CALLS: POLITICS AND PRINCIPLE IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Oxford University Press 2008) (with S. Sherry); RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE: THE “SILENT” NINTH AMENDMENT AND THE RIGHTS AMERICANS DON’T KNOW THEY HAVE (Basic Books 2007); and LINCOLN’S CONSTITUTION (University of Chicago Press 2003).
Assistant General Counsel, Office of General Counsel of the United States House of Representatives
Rachel Jankowski serves in the Office of General Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the House, its Members, Officers, Committees, and staff on matters related to their official duties. Before joining the office, Rachel worked at Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., where she represented clients in mass tort and complex commercial trial and appellate litigation, and in-house at Fidelity National Financial at their headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida. Rachel served as a law clerk to Judge Wendy Williams Berger of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and Judge James J. Tancredi of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut. She received her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, where she litigated cases in the Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic, including securing an acquittal for her client in a criminal assault trial. During law school, she interned for Deloitte in Detroit and for a non-profit organization in London. A proud Double Wolverine, she also received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History from the University of Michigan.
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.
Associate Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law
Alan M. Trammell teaches and writes primarily in the fields of civil procedure, federal courts, constitutional law, and conflict of laws. He is recognized as one of the leading authorities on universal injunctions and has been invited to present his research at numerous conferences, on podcasts, and in popular media. His scholarship has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Texas Law Review, and the Vanderbilt Law Review.
Before joining the W&L faculty in 2020, Professor Trammell taught as an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). He has also served as an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Brooklyn Law School, where the student body selected him as Professor of the Year in 2014.
Professor Trammell earned his law degree from the University of Virginia where he was a Hardy Cross Dillard Scholar and served as Articles Development Editor of the Virginia Law Review. After graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the Honorable Theodor Meron of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague (Netherlands). He then spent three years as a litigation associate at the firm now known as Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC in Washington, D.C.
Before law school, he received a bachelor's degree from Wake Forest University and master's degrees from the London School of Economics & Political Science and Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar.
Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Michael Edney defends executives and corporations in criminal prosecutions and agency enforcement actions, successfully challenging numerous regulatory agencies—from the Justice Department to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, among others—against federal government overreach. Many of the regulations Mike has convinced the courts to reverse would have arbitrarily ended hundreds of businesses absent the courts’ intervention. He has also successfully challenged government decisions to break contracts and end projects in cooperation with private industry.
In addition to his criminal defense practice, Mike regularly brings actions challenging government agency regulations as illegal and unconstitutional before they are enforced. He has sued government agencies and reversed their attempted regulations seeking to upend the energy, financial, and tobacco industries.
His civil litigation practice spans beyond anti-regulatory suits. He has brought some of the leading First Amendment cases in the country. On behalf of The Washington Free Beacon, he vindicated the publication’s First Amendment right to access sealed court records before the Arizona Supreme Court. He has defended corporations in bet-the-company litigation concerning securities, environmental, employment, and fair housing. He has represented states at the request of their governors. He has repeatedly served as counsel for former Attorneys General of the United States when they appear as amici curiae before the Supreme Court.
Mike also represents clients on numerous national security matters, including the Classified Information Procedures Act, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, government cybersecurity investigations into companies regarded as critical national infrastructure, the handling of classified information by government contractors, and prepublication review of books authored by former government officials for sensitive and classified information.
His private practice draws from a half decade of prior government service. During the administration of former President George W. Bush, he served as deputy legal advisor to the National Security Council at the White House and in the Office of Legal Counsel at the United States Department of Justice, where he helped the administration address many legal issues pertaining to the United States' post-9/11 campaign against terrorism.
Before joining Morgan Lewis, Mike was a litigation partner at another global law firm.
General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Aristotle International
The Honorable David M. Mason is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Aristotle. He assists campaigns, PACs, and political parties in maximizing their effectiveness while complying with federal and state regulatory requirements.
Mr. Mason served as Commissioner and Chairman (2002 and 2008) of the Federal Election Commission from 1998 until 2008, a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position.
President Reagan appointed Mason as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Legislative Affairs) where he was instrumental in working with Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and Representative Dick Armey in securing passage of base closing legislation.
Commissioner Mason has testified before Congress over 20 times, addressed international conferences on elections and appeared in or wrote for scores of American print and broadcast media outlets. He is an honors graduate of Claremont McKenna College in Government, graduated with highest honors from Concord Law School and is a member of the California Bar.
Deputy General Counsel, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Connor Raso serves as acting deputy general counsel at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. He is a contributor to the Brookings' Series on Regulatory Process and Perspective as part of the Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets.
From 2014-2022 Mr. Raso Served as Special Senior Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Russell G. Ryan, a former assistant director of enforcement at the SEC, is now Senior Litigation Counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance.
Director, ENRD, Pacific Legal Foundation
Mark Miller is the Director of the Environment and Natural Resources practice group at Pacific Legal Foundation, where he leads the firm’s efforts to protect individuals and small businesses from government overreach in matters involving land and water, and its efforts to encourage America to better harness its abundant natural resources, including energy resources, minerals, timber, and grazing lands. Mark first joined PLF in 2014.
A seasoned appellate specialist, Mark has litigated several high-profile cases for PLF, including Weyerhaeuser v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., and United States v. Robertson, all of them unanimous Supreme Court of the United States wins for property owners fighting federal overreach via the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act.
In 2020, Mark left PLF to serve as General Counsel and later Chief of Staff for then-South-Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. As Noem’s longest-serving chief of staff, he worked behind the scenes to advance limited government, cut red tape, defend individual rights, and promote free-market principles. In 2023, he returned home to PLF.
A frequent commentator and public speaker, Mark regularly appears in print, on radio and TV, and before legislative committees across the country. His commentary and work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, The View, CBN, and Fox News. He is a regular guest each Thursday morning on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel, offering insight on Supreme Court cases and trends.
Mark earned both his undergraduate and law degrees with honors from the University of Florida. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr., and Florida state appellate Judge Emerson R. Thompson, Jr.—two mentors who deepened his commitment to the Bill of Rights, especially the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
Mark serves on the Board of Trustees for the University of Florida College of Law, and he is a member of the boards of directors for both Americans United for Life, the nation’s oldest pro-life non-profit law firm, and Farm of the Child USA, a nonprofit that supports an orphanage and school for children in need in Honduras called La Finca del Niño.
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.
Associate, Jones Day
Harry Graver works on appeals and motions practice, with a focus on federal overreach. He has argued multiple successful cases before the federal appellate courts. And he has briefed matters at all levels of the judiciary.
Before joining Jones Day in 2021, Harry served as a law clerk to Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Harry graduated from Harvard Law School, where he received the Fay Diploma for being first in his class. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the Scalia Law School at George Mason University, teaching a course on the separation of powers.
Senior Labor and Employment Counsel, CHRO Association
Roger King is a highly regarded labor relations attorney, whose career spans more than 40 years. Roger recently retired as a partner with Jones Day law firm. He now serves as Senior Labor and Employment counsel for the Association.
Roger specializes in labor and employment, healthcare, collective bargaining, contract administration and representation campaigns. Roger represented the winning side as co-counsel in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case known as Noel Canning, which successfully challenged President Obama’s authority to make recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
After graduating from Cornell University Law School, he was a Captain and Legal Services Officer in the United States Air Force, on the Staff of United States Senator Robert Taft, Jr. and, subsequently, was appointed as Professional Staff Counsel to the United States Senate Labor Committee.
Roger has testified before both the U.S. Senate and House Labor Committees, is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and serves on the Advocacy Committee of the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Association (ASHHRA) and on the Executive Committee of the Ohio State Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section Council.
He is a nationally recognized author/speaker on employment matters and has represented employers regarding labor and employment issues both before administrative agencies and in federal and state courts. He has represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the HR Policy Association (HRPA), the National Manufactures Association (NAM), the American Hospital Association (AHA), and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) in federal courts regarding numerous labor law issues.
Other clients Roger has represented include the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Catholic Health Partners, MedStar Health, HCA, Texas Health Resources, Unity Point Health, UHS, Trinity Health, National Beef, General Cable, Orlando Health, ProMedica, Premier Health, Cedars-Sinai, Yale New Haven Health System, McLaren Health Care Corporation, Ohio, California and American Hospital Associations, Bon Secoure Health System, Kaleida Health, Sisters of Levenworth Health System, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Clarion Clinic, Fisher-Titus Medical Center, Saint Joseph Health System, Benefis Healthcare, Community Health Systems, American Water Works, Macy’s Inc., Verizon and General Motors.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Goldwater Institute
Senior Counsel, Chairman Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission
Danielle rejoins Commissioner Carr’s office following a year in the private sector where she led on state and local government relations matters for a nationwide telecommunications infrastructure provider. Before her first stint with Commissioner Carr’s office in 2021, Danielle was an Associate Attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilkinson Barker Knauer. After attending the University of Virginia for her undergraduate degree, Danielle earned her J.D. cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where she was Associate Editor of the Catholic University Law Review. She also earned a certificate from the Columbus School of Law’s Law & Technology Institute.
Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, The Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also the Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023. Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War; Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare; and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.
He is a co-author of volumes 1 and 2 of R. Rossum, G. Tarr, V. Munoz & J. Yoo American Constitution Law (Routledge, 2026), and a co-editor of the eight-volume series on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, We Hold These Truths, with Yuval Levin and Adam White of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court. He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.
Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government. He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership, Seoul National University, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Keio University, Trento University, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center. He also serves on the boards of Founding Forward, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Ulysses Grant Institute, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Originalism Lectureship.
Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
Justice, Supreme Court of Ohio
Justice Joseph T. Deters is the 163rd justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He took office in January 2023, following appointment by Governor Mike DeWine.
Prior to joining the Court, Justice Deters served as the longest-tenured prosecutor in Hamilton County. He held the position twice from 1992-1999 and 2005-2023.
During his time as prosecutor, Justice Deters established the first drug court in Ohio, in partnership with Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. The Hamilton County Drug Treatment and Recovery Court handles more cases than any other specialized docket in the state.
Justice Deters established the county’s first victim/witness advocate program and helped develop several diversion programs for first time non-violent offenders. He started a sex offender unit within the prosecutor’s office to monitor offender registration and compliance. He formed a unit focused on violent crimes against women and children.
Justice Deters was elected statewide as Ohio Treasurer for two terms, in 1998 and 2002. As treasurer, he was responsible for collecting, managing, and investing more than $11 billion in assets for the state.
He served as Hamilton County Clerk of Courts from 1988-1992. The justice spent the first six years of his legal career as an assistant Hamilton County prosecutor.
Justice Deters received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Cincinnati, where he was recognized as a distinguished alumnus. He is a member of the Cincinnati Bar Association and various civic organizations. He previously served on the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees, Ohio Organized Crime Commission, and the Southern Ohio Leukemia Foundation.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
Michael P. Donnelly is a judge on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas General Division in Cleveland, Ohio. He first joined the court on January 3, 2005. Donnelly won re-election to a third consecutive term in the general election on November 8, 2016. His current term expires January 2, 2023.
Donnelly received his undergraduate degree from John Carroll University and his J.D. from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1992 and began working as an assistant prosecutor for Cuyahoga County. In 1997, he left that role to become an attorney at the firm of Davis & Young, where he worked until 1999. He then joined the firm of Climaco, Lefkowitz, Peca, Wilcox & Garofoli, working as a private practice attorney until his election to the common pleas bench in 2004.
In 2011, Donnelly participated in a program with the National Judicial College called "Innovative Leadership/Management Skills for Future Court Leaders". In 2012, Donnelly served as the Chair of Commission on Professionalism.
Judge, 8th District Court of Appeals, State of Ohio
Judge Lisa Forbes was elected to the Eighth District Court of Appeals on November 3, 2020. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Forbes was a partner in the Cleveland office of the law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP where she practiced in the area of complex litigation. As a litigator, Judge Forbes represented clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts throughout Ohio for 27 years.
Throughout her career, Judge Forbes has been an active and engaged member of the Northeast Ohio community including serving on the boards of the Centers for Families and Children and Circle Health for over a decade. She is currently the chair of both boards. In addition, while practicing, she regularly wrote and presented on developments in and application of the law.
Judge Forbes graduated summa cum laude from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 1992. She served first as an associate editor on the law review and then as Executive Notes Editor. Judge Forbes majored in public policy at Cornell University, graduating in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree.
Judge Forbes is excited to bring her passion for and love of the law to the Eighth District Court of Appeals.
Judge, Franklin County Court
Hon. Daniel R. Hawkins is a judge for the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas (General Division) in Ohio. He was elected to the seat on November 6, 2018.
Prior to his election, Hawkins presided as a judge in the Environmental Division of the Franklin County Municipal Court, a position he had held since 2013.
He received a B.S. in criminal justice from Bowling Green State University in 1998. Hawkins went on to complete a J.D. at Ohio State University, Michael E. Moritz College of Law in 2001.
After graduating from law school, he began his legal career as an assistant prosecuting attorney with the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office. During his tenure there, Hawkins was promoted to director of the Special Victims Unit in 2003. In that role, he prosecuted violent crimes involving women and children as victims, including homicides, sexual assaults, child abuse, human trafficking, and internet child exploitation. In addition, Hawkins was tasked with managing fellow prosecutors in the SVU and was credited with conducting several jury trials including six death penalty cases. He remained in that capacity until joining the Municipal Court bench in 2013.
His memberships have included the American Judges Association, the Ohio Judicial Conference, the Association of Municipal County Judges of Ohio, the Ohio State Bar Association, and the Columbus Bar Association.
Hawkins is a married father of three.
Judge, Hamilton County Courts
Hon. Megan E. Shanahan is a judge for the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas (General Division) in Ohio. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor John Kasich on March 6, 2015 to fill the vacancy created by the Hon. Ralph E. Winkler after his election to the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Probate Division.
Prior to her appointment, Shanahan had presided as a judge for the Hamilton County Municipal Court, a position to which she was elected in 2011.
She received a B.A. in political science from Kent State University in 1995. SHanahan went on to complete a J.D. at the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 2000.
After graduating from law school, she began her legal career as an assistant prosecutor with the Butler county Prosecutor’s Office, where she served in the appellate, municipal, and trial divisions and prosecuted cases involving the violation of the obscenity law as well as child pornography cases. In 2005, Shanahan moved to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office. During her tenure in that position, she prosecuted child predators and served in the Felony Trial Division.
Her legal career also included acting as a prosecutor for the Mt. Healthy Mayor’s Court.
Shanahan received the Peggy Caldwell Award ini 20009.
From a civic standpoint, she has been a supporter of the Cincinnati Living Hope organization which provides transitional housing or homeless women and children.
She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania, the youngest of eight children. At the time of her appointment, Shanahan and her family resided in Cincinnati.
Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals
Elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals – Eighth Appellate District in 2006 and twice reelected, Judge Melody Stewart has over 30 years of combined administrative, legal, and academic experience in a number of private and public settings. She has been an administrator for a healthcare management company, a music teacher, a civil defense litigator, and a law school administrator and professor. She served as the Administrative Judge for the Court of Appeals in 2013.
Judge Stewart earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati; her law degree as a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University; and her Ph.D. as a Mandel Leadership Fellow at Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.
After practicing law as an assistant law director for the cities of Cleveland and East Cleveland, Judge Stewart worked as a lecturer, an adjunct instructor, and an assistant dean at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law before joining the faculty. Her primary teaching areas were ethics and professional responsibility, criminal law, criminal procedure, and legal research, writing, and advocacy. Additionally, she taught at the University of Toledo College of Law, at Ursuline College, and was Director of Student Services at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law.
Judge Stewart has served on many boards of trustees and been a member of various professional, educational, civic, and community organizations. She also served as a commissioner and chair of the Board of Planning and Zoning for the city of Euclid. Recently Judge Stewart served as a member of the Ohio Criminal Justice Recodification Committee. She is currently a member of the board of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Judicial College and is chair of the Ohio Capital Case Attorney Fee Council. Judge Stewart is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts in Ohio, the District of Columbia, and the United States Supreme Court.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Christopher J. Walker is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Michigan law faculty in 2022, he spent a decade teaching at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He previously clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation. Professor Walker’s research focuses on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. Outside the law school, he chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2020-21 and served as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2016-2022, and he continues to serve in both organizations in various capacities. He also works of counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
Class of 1965 Associate Professor of Financial Regulation, Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Peter Conti-Brown is an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A financial historian and a legal scholar, Professor Conti-Brown studies central banking, financial regulation, and public finance, with a particular focus on the history and policies of the US Federal Reserve System. He is author of the book The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve (Princeton University Press 2016), the editor of two other books, and author or co-author of a dozen articles on central banking, financial regulation, and bank corporate governance. He has been widely quoted in print and online media on central banking and has testified before the US Senate Banking Committee on reforming the Federal Reserve. He holds degrees from Harvard College, Stanford Law School, and Princeton University’s Department of History. He is currently at work on a single-volume, comprehensive history of the US Federal Reserve.
Professor Conti-Brown is married and the father of two children.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner with Boyden Gray PLLC. He previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mr. McCotter maintains an extensive appellate practice. He has considerable experience identifying and briefing cases that draw the Supreme Court’s attention, having persuaded the Court to grant certiorari in numerous cases raising issues of sovereignty, constitutional rights, due process, and criminal law. He has authored and submitted over 60 briefs at the Court.
He has also personally argued more than fifteen federal appeals across the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Federal, and D.C. Circuits—including once arguing three separate appeals in just four days. He has also twice argued before the 17-judge en banc Fifth Circuit. He has been counsel in over 50 other appeals raising matters from FOIA and the APA to constitutional rights and statutory construction.
As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Mr. McCotter oversaw DOJ’s Civil Appellate and Federal Programs branches, which are responsible for defending nearly all major litigation against the federal government. During his three years as a federal trial attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” Mr. McCotter won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
During his DOJ tenures, Mr. McCotter also assisted with the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices and over a dozen lower-court judges.
Mr. McCotter served as an inaugural clerk to the Hon. Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Senior Fellow, Bank Policy Institute
Jeremy Newell is a senior fellow at the Bank Policy Institute and recognized expert in banking law and financial services regulatory policy matters. As a former partner at Covington & Burling, Federal Reserve attorney and supervisor, and general counsel at both the Bank Policy Institute and The Clearing House Association, Jeremy has spent his career helping banks and other financial institutions to understand and navigate a rapidly-evolving regulatory environment and address complex and high-stakes legal and policy challenges. He is also a frequent speaker, writer, and teacher on U.S. bank regulation and the international framework for financial institutions.
Chairman & Co-Founder, Cynosure Group
Randal Quarles is Chairman and co-founder of The Cynosure Group. Before founding Cynosure, Mr. Quarles was a long-time partner of the Carlyle Group, where he began the firm’s program of investments in the financial services industry during the 2008 financial crisis.
From October 2017 through October 2021, Mr. Quarles was Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, serving as the system’s first Vice Chairman for Supervision, charged specifically with ensuring stability of the financial sector. He also served as the Chairman of the Financial Stability Board (“FSB”) from December 2018 until December 2021; a global body established after the Great Financial Crisis to coordinate international efforts to enhance financial stability. In both positions, he played a key role in crafting the US and international response to the economic and financial dislocations of COVID-19, successfully preventing widespread global disruption of the financial system. As FSB Chairman, he was a regular delegate to the finance ministers’ meetings of the G-7 and G20 Groups of nations and to the Summit meetings of the G20. As Fed Vice Chair, he was a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the body that sets monetary policy for the United States.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Quarles was Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, where he led the Department’s activities in financial sector and capital markets policy, including coordination of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
Before serving as Under Secretary, Mr. Quarles was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, where he had a key role in response to several international crises. Mr. Quarles was also the U.S. Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, a member of the Air Transportation Stabilization Board, and board representative for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. In earlier public service, he was an integral member of the Treasury team in the George H. W. Bush Administration that developed the governmental response to the savings and loan crisis.
Between his tours of duty in public service, Mr. Quarles was a partner with the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, working at various times in both the New York and London offices, where he was co-head of the firm’s financial institutions practice and advised on transactions that included a number of the largest financial sector mergers ever completed.
Mr. Quarles received an A.B. summa cum laude in philosophy and economics from Columbia in 1981 and a J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1984.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Former United States Secretary of Labor
Eugene Scalia is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, co-chair of the firm’s Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Group, and a senior member of the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group and Financial Institutions Practice Group. He returned to the firm after serving as U.S. Secretary of Labor from September 2019 to January 2021.
Mr. Scalia has a nationally-prominent practice in two areas: Labor and employment law, and advice and litigation regarding the regulatory obligations of federal administrative agencies. He also has extensive appellate experience. Federal regulatory actions he has challenged include the SEC’s “proxy access” rule; the CFTC’s “position limits’” rule; MetLife’s designation as “too big to fail” by the Financial Services Oversight Council; the Labor Department’s “fiduciary” rule; and OSHA’s “cooperative compliance program.”
As Labor Secretary, Mr. Scalia engaged at the highest level with national employment policy and matters affecting the financial services industry and international trade, overseeing the enforcement and administration of more than 180 federal employment laws covering more than 150 million workers and 10 million workplaces. He also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He was closely involved in the drafting and implementation of the CARES Act and other coronavirus-related legislation. Laws administered by the Labor Department also include the workplace safety requirements of OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, federal minimum wage and overtime protections, the anti-discrimination requirements applicable to federal contractors, and ERISA’s protection of the more than $11 trillion held in employee retirement plans and health plans.
Mr. Scalia served from 2002 to 2003 as Solicitor of the U.S. Department of Labor, with responsibility for all Labor Department litigation and legal advice on rulemakings and administrative law. He is the only person to have served as both Solicitor and Secretary of Labor.
He also served at the U.S. Department of Justice as a Special Assistant to the Attorney General, receiving the Department’s Edmund J. Randolph Award in 1993.
In private practice, Mr. Scalia has represented employers in high-profile matters under the National Labor Relations Act and in class actions and collective actions under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, ERISA, and federal and state wage hour laws. He has extensive experience in federal district court, the courts of appeals, and in the arbitration of employment disputes. He has been a leading authority on “whistleblower” investigations and litigation since the 2002 enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Mr. Scalia also counsels employers on reductions-in-force and the proper conduct of harassment and discrimination investigations. He has provided pro bono representation to workers in discrimination matters, wrongful separation disputes, and other matters.
Mr. Scalia is a Senior Fellow of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a federal agency that makes recommendations to Congress and the Executive Branch on ways to improve the administrative process. He is the author of more than 30 articles and papers on labor and employment law, administrative law, and other subjects. Among other accolades, he has been named an “Employment MVP,” a “Securities MVP,” and an “Appellate MVP” by Law360. The National Law Journal recognized Mr. Scalia as a “Visionary” for his litigation against financial regulatory agencies, and the Nation magazine has called him a “fearsome litigator.” He has been a Lecturer in labor and employment law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Mr. Scalia graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. He graduated With Distinction from the University of Virginia in 1985 and was a speechwriter for Education Secretary William J. Bennett before attending law school. Mr. Scalia and his wife Trish have seven children.
Chairman of the Board, Gunster Law Firm
George S. LeMieux is a trusted advisor and advocate for significant businesses, including Fortune 500 companies, their officers and boards, as well as high profile individuals in Florida and throughout the country. He focuses his practice on resolving business, and governmental disputes, and advising CEOs and C-suite executives on business, law and government from a local, state and national perspective.
George advocates for clients before state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as governmental agencies and regulatory bodies. He defends clients in enforcement matters brought by state attorneys general, advocates for clients in administrative law proceedings including bid protests, and counsels governmental bodies on public records and public meeting requirements. He has successfully litigated intellectual property and business disputes to verdict.
George leads internal corporate investigations representing boards of directors and has experience in representing independent committees of boards in related party transactions. Because of his breadth of legal experience, his practice also includes professional liability defense.
George served as Florida's 34th United States Senator in the 111th Congress. He also served as Florida's deputy attorney general and as the governor's chief of staff overseeing all state agencies and operations.
George serves as the chairman of the board of Gunster law firm. He is the founder of the LeMieux Center for Public Policy at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He is the author of two books along with Laura Mize on the history of Florida: Florida Made and Florida Heritage Kids.
United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
On December 20, 2019, Raag Singhal received his judicial commission to serve on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Judge Singhal is the first Asian American in history to serve as an Article III judge in the jurisdiction of the Eleventh Circuit (Alabama, Georgia and Florida).
Immediately prior to becoming a federal judge, Judge Singhal spent eight years as a State Circuit Court Judge in Broward County, Florida, having been appointed by then-Governor Rick Scott in 2011. During that period of time, Singhal served, at times, in the Criminal, Civil and Mental Health divisions and was fortunate enough to sit as an Associate Judge on Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal on four occasions.
As a lawyer, Singhal gained experience at a civil litigation firm followed by three years as an Assistant State Attorney. After that, Singhal ran a successful criminal defense practice in Fort Lauderdale for eighteen years. During that time, he handled more than two hundred jury trials including thirty first-degree murder cases.
Judge Singhal has had leadership roles in many law-related groups. He is past-President of the Broward Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Stephen H. Booher Chapter of the American Inns of Court. He was on the Board of Directors of the Broward County Bar Association, and is a frequent speaker at events for various local Bar groups such as the Asian Pacific American Bar Association and the Federalist Society. Singhal was also Associate Dean of the Florida College for Advanced Judicial Studies upon his elevation to the federal court system.
Judge Singhal received his law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1989 where he was very active in Moot Court activities, and was on the winning team of the J. Braxton Craven National Moot Court Competition (4th Amendment). He received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from Rice University in 1986.
General Counsel, Office of Speaker Mike Johnson
Ashley Callen has served in the legislative and executive branches for nearly 25 years. Currently, she serves as General Counsel to Speaker Mike Johnson. Prior to her current role, she was General Counsel to Majority Leader Steve Scalise. She got to know Leader Scalise during the 117th Congress serving as the top staffer on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as well as serving then-Ranking Member James Comer as Deputy Staff Director of the Oversight and Reform Committee. Ashley has also served as a top oversight and investigations staffer at the House Agriculture Committee (Chairman Mike Conaway), the Science Space and Technology Committee (Chairman Lamar Smith), and the House Judiciary Committee (Ranking Member Doug Collins). She began her career on the Senate side working for her home state senator, Strom Thurmond. After the Senator retired in 2003, Ashley worked for the Air Force General Counsel’s Office. Ashley earned her BA in English at the University of South Carolina and her JD at the Antonin Scalia Law School. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and three children
Partner, Mayer Brown
Kimberly Hamm is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Public Policy, Regulatory & Government Affairs practices. She also leads the firm’s congressional investigations group. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Kim served as the General Counsel to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy where she provided strategic guidance to House committees on congressional investigations and oversight, including issuance and enforcement of committee subpoenas to agencies and private parties. Before joining Speaker McCarthy’s senior team, Kim worked in the public policy group of a global asset management firm, where she led advocacy and external engagement in the areas of financial stability, corporate governance, and regulatory frameworks impacting mutual funds. Kim also served as Republican Chief Counsel for Investigations for the Senate Committee on Rules & Administration.
From 2019 to 2021, Kim was chief counsel to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, where she oversaw regulatory initiatives across all divisions of the SEC, including the issuance of more than 45 final rules. She also advised on significant legal and policy matters, including cross-border regulation, financial stability risks, major market events, and congressional inquiries.
She also previously served for over four years at the House of Representatives’ Office of General Counsel, where she advised committees on all aspects of congressional investigations and handled litigation arising from subpoena disputes. Kim also represented the House, its members and committees in numerous grand jury, trial, and appellate proceedings on a wide range of other issues arising from official duties, including criminal investigations and constitutional litigation.
Kim began her legal career in the litigation department of an international law firm in London and New York, where she practiced for over a decade and advised clients on securities, compliance, antitrust, insurance, regulatory, and internal investigation matters.
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Judge Roumel was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims in 2020 and served as Chief Judge from 2020-2021. She serves as Chair of the court’s Advisory Council for Intellectual Property, is the Chair of the court’s Attorney Discipline Panel, serves on the court’s Pro Bono Policy Committee, and is the court’s Liaison Representative on the Administrative Conference of the United States. Judge Roumel previously served as the Deputy Counsel to Vice President Pence. Prior to her tenure at the White House, she served as Assistant General Counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives Office of General Counsel, where she advised and represented the U.S. House of Representatives, Members of Congress, and congressional staff in federal trial and appellate courts across the country.
Judge Roumel previously was a partner with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, in Charleston, South Carolina, and before that practiced at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, LLP in New York City. She also was an adjunct professor at the Charleston School of Law, where she taught intellectual property law. Judge Roumel served as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Pauley III, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Tulane Law School, where she graduated Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Tulane Law Review. Judge Roumel also received her M.B.A. from Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business. She earned her B.A., cum laude, from Wake Forest University.
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