Stakeholder, Eimer Stahl LLP
John Adams is a stakeholder at Eimer Stahl in the firm’s Chicago and Madison offices. He focuses his practice on appellate and complex litigation in a variety of areas, including antitrust, constitutional law, corporate law, federal jurisdiction, securities, and white collar. His experience reflects representing clients in a diverse range of industries such as energy, financial, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications, transportation, insurance, and academic. John also maintains an active pro bono practice. Most recently, The Legal Services Corporation appointed John to a national task force examining legal issues affecting our military and veterans.
Prior to joining Eimer Stahl, John worked as an associate in the appellate and white collar groups of an AmLaw 25 firm. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Amy Coney Barrett of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Before his legal career, John, a decorated veteran, served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps.
In 2020, John was recognized for his commercial litigation experience in Best Lawyer’s inaugural “Ones to Watch” ranking.
Shareholder, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c.
Robert Driscoll is a shareholder in Reinhart's Labor and Employment Practice. He is an experienced, accomplished attorney who works to understand his clients' goals and provide them with effective legal and business solutions.
Rob counsels employers to help them avoid disputes with an emphasis on discrimination (including disability discrimination), wage and hour issues and employment contracts of all kinds. Rob's practice also includes all areas of traditional labor law, such as collective bargaining, labor arbitrations, proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, and advising employers of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
He understands that trials can be costly and time-consuming, and clients appreciate that he offers creative options to resolve disputes without litigation. However, when litigation is unavoidable, he's a confident and diligent legal partner, devising effective strategies for prevailing. Rob's litigation experience includes wage and hour claims (both individual and class actions), employment and fair housing discrimination and noncompetition agreements. He also represents clients in appeals.
Prior to joining the firm, Rob was a law clerk for the Hon. Diane S. Sykes, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Milwaukee.
Rob proudly serves on the Board of Directors for GPS Education Partners, an organization that works to validate technical career paths and provide students and their communities pathways to prosperity.
Associate, Miller Canfield
Amanda Rauh-Bieri is an associate in Miller Canfield's Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where she was associate editor of the Michigan Law Review and co-president of the Women Law Students Association.
Amanda previously worked as a law clerk for both the Honorable John M. Walker Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New Haven, Connecticut; and the Honorable Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in South Bend, Indiana.
Partner, Eimer Stahl LLP
Ryan is a partner at Eimer Stahl LLP and is based in the firm’s Madison office. He focuses his practice on appellate and complex litigation in a wide variety of areas, including antitrust, constitutional law, corporate law, environmental, ERISA, products liability, and white collar. As part of his practice, Ryan devotes significant time to matters of legal strategy and the art of written and oral advocacy.
Ryan previously served as Chief Deputy Solicitor General of Wisconsin, securing numerous wins in the Supreme Court of the United States, in three federal courts of appeal, and in the state supreme court. Ryan built national, bipartisan coalitions of attorneys general and agencies in support of several lawsuits and briefing efforts, including a Wisconsin-led, 12-state coalition whose suit against the Federal Communications Commission prompted that agency to reverse a major new rule. When he left government, Ryan had a perfect win record in all of his cases to have reached final judgment.
Earlier in his career, Ryan worked in Washington D.C. as an associate in the appellate group of one of the world’s largest law firms.
Ryan also served as a law clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court for the Honorable Antonin Scalia and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for the Honorable Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain.
Ryan was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30: Law and Policy” list in 2017. His briefing has won awards from the National Association of Attorneys General and the International Municipal Lawyers Association. He has also won a “best brief” accolade from the State Bar of Wisconsin in the civil category for his written work defending Wisconsin’s right-to-work law.
Constitutional Scholarship Director and Senior Legal Analyst, Pacific Legal Foundation
Anastasia Boden is Director of Constitutional Scholarship at Pacific Legal Foundation, where she leads the organization’s Supreme Court commentary and directs scholarly analysis in support of the firm’s litigation. She has represented entrepreneurs and small businesses nationwide in challenges to onerous licensing regimes, anti-competitive titling restrictions, Certificate of Need (“competitor’s veto”) laws, and other forms of unnecessary red tape that block economic opportunity.
Prior to this role, Anastasia developed nearly a dozen constitutional challenges to Certificate of Need laws across the country, helping spur legislative reform in Montana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Her victories include a ruling invalidating Houston’s busking restrictions, multiple appellate decisions expanding access to the courts for civil rights plaintiffs, and the legislative repeal of Virginia’s happy-hour advertising ban.
Her writings on law and liberty have been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and more, and she has appeared on Headline News, CBS News, Fox News, ReasonTV, Newsmax, and John Stossel. In 2020, she was featured on Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen’s Supreme Court shortlist.
Anastasia earned her BA with dean’s honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was research assistant to Professor Randy E. Barnett—the “intellectual godfather” of the constitutional challenge to Obamacare. She is the co-creator of the podcast Dissed, about infamous Supreme Court dissents. She authors the biweekly newsletter SCOTUS Scoop and the column, “In Dissent” for SCOTUSblog.
Vice President, Networks, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Nathan Kaczmarek is Vice President for Networks at the Federalist Society. He began his legal career in Detroit representing nationwide clients in all phases of healthcare litigation and complex medical malpractice claims. He has since served as a Senior Legal and Policy Advisor in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Counsel for the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management in the U.S. Senate. Prior to overseeing the Networks, he was Director of the Practice Groups, the Regulatory Transparency Project, and the Article I Initiative for the Federalist Society.
Nathan holds degrees from Hillsdale College and Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is a Liaison Representative for The Administrative Conference of the United States. He also serves as Vice President of the Associates of St. John Bosco, a Virginia based non-profit dedicated to Catholic high school and college students.
Co-Founder and CEO, Whole Foods Market
John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, has built the natural and organic grocer from a single store in Austin, Texas in 1978, into a Fortune 500 company, which went public in 1992, and was purchased by Amazon in 2017. Today Whole Foods Market is a top U.S. supermarket with more than 500 stores and 95,000 Team Members across the U.S., Canada and U.K
While devoting his career to helping shoppers satisfy their lifestyle needs with quality natural and organic foods, Mackey has also focused on building a more conscious way of doing business. He was the visionary for Whole Planet Foundation to help end poverty in developing nations, the Local Producer Loan Program, which provided $25 million in low interest loans to help local food producers expand their businesses, and the Global Animal Partnership’s rating scale for humane farm animal treatment.
Mackey has been recognized as one of Fortune’s “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year Overall Winner for the United States,” Institutional Investor’s “Best CEO in America,” Barron’s “World’s Best CEO,” MarketWatch’s “CEO of the Year,” Fortune’s “Businessperson of the Year,” and Esquire’s “Most Inspiring CEO.”
A strong believer in free market principles, Mackey co-founded the Conscious Capitalism Movement (http://consciouscapitalism.org/) and co-authored a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling book entitled “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” (Harvard Business Review Press 2013) to boldly defend and reimagine capitalism, and encourage a way of doing business that is grounded in ethical consciousness. Mackey cut his pay to $1 in 2006 and continues to work for Whole Foods Market out of passion to see the business realize its potential for deeper purpose, for the joy of leading a great company and to answer the call to service that he feels in his heart.
Most recently, Mackey has focused on returning to the company’s roots around healthy eating and lifestyle choices. A passionate advocate of healthy eating education, he laid the foundation for health and wellness programs for team members and customers. Mackey is co-author of The Whole Foods Diet: The Lifesaving Plan for Health and Longevity (Grand Central Life & Style 2017); and The Whole Foods Cookbook: 120 Delicious and Healthy Plant-Centered Recipes (Grand Central Life & Style 2018).
Mackey is an avid backpacker and long-distance hiker. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife Deborah.
Secretary, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Sonny Perdue came by his knowledge of agriculture the old fashioned way: he was born into a farming family in Bonaire, Georgia. From childhood, and through his life in business and elected office, Perdue has experienced the industry from every possible perspective. Uniquely qualified as a former farmer, agribusinessman, veterinarian, state legislator, and governor of Georgia, he became the 31st United States Secretary of Agriculture on April 25, 2017.
Perdue’s policies as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture will be guided by four principles which will inform his decisions. First, he will maximize the ability of the men and women of America’s agriculture and agribusiness sector to create jobs, to produce and sell the foods and fiber that feed and clothe the world, and to reap the earned reward of their labor. It should be the aim of the American government to remove every obstacle and give farmers, ranchers, and producers every opportunity to prosper. Second, he will prioritize customer service every day for American taxpayers and consumers. They will expect, and have every right to demand, that their government conduct the people’s business efficiently, effectively, and with the utmost integrity. Third, as Americans expect a safe and secure food supply, USDA will continue to serve in the critical role of ensuring the food we put on the table to feed our families meets the strict safety standards we’ve established. Food security is a key component of national security, because hunger and peace do not long coexist. And fourth, Perdue will always remember that America’s agricultural bounty comes directly from the land. And today, those land resources sustain more than 320 million Americans and countless millions more around the globe. Perdue’s father’s words still ring true: We’re all stewards of the land, owned or rented, and our responsibility is to leave it better than we found it.
Additionally, Perdue recognizes that American agriculture needs a strong advocate to promote its interests to international markets. The United States is blessed to be able to produce more than its citizens can consume, which implies that we should sell the bounty around the world. The relationship between the USDA and its trade representatives, as well as with the U.S. Trade Representative and Department of Commerce, will be vital. The work of promoting American agricultural products to other countries will begin with those relationships and will benefit us domestically, just as it will fulfill the moral imperative of helping to feed the world. Perdue has pledged to be an unapologetic advocate for American agriculture.
Under Secretary Perdue, the USDA will always be facts-based and data-driven, with a decision-making mindset that is customer-focused. He will seek solutions to problems and not lament that the agency might be faced with difficult challenges.
As a youngster growing up on a dairy and diversified row crop farm in rural Georgia, Perdue never fully realized that the blessings of purposeful, meaningful work would serve him as well as they have in life. When he was a young boy feeding the calves and plowing the fields, he was an integral part of the workforce on his father’s farm. As the son of a mother who was an English teacher for 42 years, he benefitted from her teachings as well – not just by instilling in him the beliefs he still holds dear, but also by lending him an appreciation and respect for language and proper grammar. But more than anything in his life, it was the family farm which shaped Sonny Perdue. He has lived and breathed the exhilaration of a great crop and the despair and devastation of a drought. He learned by experience what his father told him as a child, “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you.”
The work ethic cemented in him by his farming roots has remained with Sonny Perdue throughout his life. As a younger man, he served his country in the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of Captain. After earning a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Georgia, he put that training to use in private practice in North Carolina. As a member of the Georgia State Senate for eleven years, he eventually ascended to the position of President Pro Tempore as elected by his senate colleagues. As a two-term governor of Georgia, he was credited with transforming a budget deficit into a surplus, dramatically increasing the student performance in public schools, and fostering an economic environment that allowed employers to flourish and manufacturers and agricultural producers to achieve record levels of exports. He followed these accomplishments with a successful career in agribusiness, where he focused on commodities and transportation in enterprises that have spanned the southeastern United States. These experiences have proven invaluable in his current role as principal advocate for American agriculture and all that it serves.
Perdue is a strong believer in good government, in that it should operate efficiently and serve the needs of its customers: the people of the United States. As a state senator, he was recognized as a leading authority on issues including energy and utilities, agriculture, transportation, emerging technologies and economic development, and for his ability to grasp the nuances of complex problems. As governor, he reformed state budget priorities, helped Georgians create more than 200,000 new jobs, and promoted his home state around the world to attract new businesses. In 2009, the Reason Foundation’s Innovators in Action magazine recognized Perdue as a leader who “aggressively pursued new strategies to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of government and deliver better value at less cost to taxpayers.” In addition, he was named “Public Official of the Year” in October 2010 by Governing Magazine. To this day, his thoughts are never very far from the wishes of the citizens – the true owners of the government.
Perdue’s views on agriculture have always been shaped by his first-hand knowledge of all of its aspects, both as a farmer and as an agribusinessman. He appreciates the daily concerns and needs of American farmers, while also understanding the intricacies of global commodities markets. He is acknowledged as a national leader in agriculture, having served as a board member for the National Grain & Feed Association, and as President of both the Georgia Feed and Grain Association and the Southeastern Feed and Grain Association. Perdue has long-standing, close relationships with the leadership of the American Farm Bureau and has been recognized by the Georgia 4-H and FFA programs, among others, for his leadership in agriculture.
As the product of Georgia, a state where agriculture is the leading economic driver, Perdue recognizes that agriculture is an issue and industry which cuts across political party boundaries. He recognizes that the size, scope, and diversity of America’s agricultural sector requires reaching across the aisle so that partisanship doesn’t get in the way of good solutions for American farmers, ranchers, and consumers.
Perdue has been married to Mary Ruff Perdue for 45 years and has four adult children and fourteen grandchildren. He and his wife have served as foster parents for eight children awaiting adoption. Perdue remains a licensed airplane and helicopter pilot and avid outdoor sportsman.
Co-Founder & CEO, Eat JUST Inc.
Eat Just, Inc. (formerly Hampton Creek) is bringing healthier and more affordable food to everyone, everywhere. We believe that solving the problem means solving the problem for everybody—not just those who can afford it. Our technology, which is based upon understanding plants from every corner of the planet, enables consumers, food manufactures, and the largest retailers around the world, to offer better, healthier products, at a more affordable cost.
Supreme Court Correspondent, The Washington Post
Robert Barnes has been a Washington Post reporter and editor since 1987. He joined the paper to cover Maryland politics, and has served in various editing positions including metropolitan editor and national political editor . He has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006. He gave up law school plans for a life in newspapers after taking a journalism class in college. It did not occur to him, as it apparently did to others, that he could do both.
Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Chair, Lex Politica; Of Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as Chair of Lex Politica's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice overseeing the firm’s strategic appellate litigation and critical motions practice in the trial courts. Erin is an experienced litigator who represents clients in constitutional, regulatory, and appellate matters in federal and state courts throughout the country.
Erin has represented dozens of clients before the Supreme Court of the United States, served as lead counsel in high-profile cases raising novel constitutional and statutory issues, and authored numerous successful petitions for certiorari and briefs in opposition. She has argued in state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Erin represents diverse clients in high-stakes litigation from state governments to faith-based nonprofits to Fortune 100 companies. She possesses expertise on a wide range of subject matters including administrative law, the First Amendment, religious liberty, federal jurisdiction, federal preemption, equitable jurisdiction, tax law, the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX.
Erin represents clients in cases where public communications strategy is paramount. She is a sought-after speaker and writer, has testified multiple times before Congress, and is a frequent presenter on constitutional and administrative law issues, including at the Oxford Union, the National Federalist Society Convention, and university campuses across the country. She is a frequent commentator to media outlets, including Fox News, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, WORLD, USA Today, the Federalist, and the Hill.
Erin previously oversaw Alliance Defending Freedom’s--where she still serves as Of Counsel--litigation strategies to empower women and protect the dignity of life, defend pregnancy centers’ First Amendment rights from government overreach, and safeguard Americans’ freedoms from the ever-encroaching administrative state.
Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
Orin S. Kerr is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, where he teaches and writes in the areas of criminal procedure and computer crime law. Kerr earned mechanical engineering degrees from Princeton University and Stanford University before graduating with a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the United States Supreme Court and Judge Leonard I. Garth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Adjunct Professor, George Washington University Law School
Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor to the President, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
B.A., Yale; J.D., University of Chicago. Lee Liberman Otis is the Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor to the President at the Federalist Society. She also serves as a member of the American Law Institute (ALI), a senior fellow of the Administrative Conference (ACUS), and as the co-chair of the National Constitution Center's Coalition of Freedom Advisory Board. She previously was a special assistant and an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, General Counsel of the Department of Energy, an associate in the appellate section of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, an associate counsel to President George H.W. Bush, and a law clerk to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. She also served as an assistant professor of law at George Mason, where she taught legislation, federal jurisdiction, constitutional law, civil procedure, and appellate advocacy. Ms. Otis has been an important member of the Federalist Society team since the organization’s beginnings. Together with David McIntosh, she led the effort to start what became the Chicago chapter of the Society. She also helped organize the Society’s first conference at Yale, its second conference at Chicago, and its first Lawyers Division chapter in Washington DC, as well as the effort to incorporate the Society, recruit its permanent staff, and obtain its early funding. She was a Founding Director of the Federalist Society.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Elizabeth Papez is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and a member of the firm’s litigation group. Her practice focuses on high-stakes class actions, complex commercial litigation, and related government investigations and appeals.
As a seasoned litigator and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Papez has substantial experience representing clients in the financial services, pharmaceutical, consumer, and product sectors. She regularly handles federal class actions, multidistrict litigation (MDLs) and other complex commercial disputes under federal and state antitrust statutes, banking and securities laws, and false claims acts, as well as parallel regulatory investigations with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Ms. Papez has been repeatedly recognized as one of Benchmark USA’s Top 250 Women in Litigation nationwide, which named her a “client favorite” who is “extremely smart and practical and very charismatic,” and is praised by peers as a “fierce, dynamic, bright, powerhouse of a litigator.” Ms. Papez is also recognized in The Legal 500 for her antitrust and appellate work, and by The Best Lawyers in America 2019 for her appellate practice.
Distinguished Senior Fellow and Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Edward Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021.
Mr. Whelan directs EPPC’s program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture. His areas of expertise include constitutional law and the judicial confirmation process. As a contributor to National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog, he has been a leading commentator on nominations to the Supreme Court and the lower courts and on issues of constitutional law. He has written essays and op-eds for leading newspapers—including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post—opinion journals, and academic symposia and law reviews. The National Law Journal has named Mr. Whelan among its “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C.
Mr. Whelan is co-editor of three volumes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s work: Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (Crown Forum, 2017), a New York Times bestselling collection of speeches by Justice Scalia; On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer (Crown Forum, 2019), a collection of Justice Scalia’s writings on faith and religion; and The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law (Crown Forum, 2020), a collection of Justice Scalia’s views on legal issues.
Mr. Whelan, a lawyer and a former law clerk to Justice Scalia, has served in positions of responsibility in all three branches of the federal government. From just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, until joining EPPC in 2004, Mr. Whelan was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions. Mr. Whelan previously served on Capitol Hill as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to clerking for Justice Scalia, he was a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In 1981 Mr. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard College and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1985 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.
For more on Mr. Whelan’s background, see this interview.
Former Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
Stephen G. Breyer was born in San Francisco, California, August 15, 1938. He married Joanna Hare in 1967, and has three children - Chloe, Nell, and Michael. He received an A.B. from Stanford University, a B.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School. He served as a law clerk to Justice Arthur Goldberg of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1964 Term, as a Special Assistant to the Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Antitrust, 1965–1967, as an Assistant Special Prosecutor of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, 1973, as Special Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 1974–1975, and as Chief Counsel of the committee, 1979–1980. He was an Assistant Professor, Professor of Law, and Lecturer at Harvard Law School, 1967–1994, a Professor at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, 1977–1980, and a Visiting Professor at the College of Law, Sydney, Australia and at the University of Rome. From 1980–1990, he served as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and as its Chief Judge, 1990–1994. He also served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States, 1990–1994, and of the United States Sentencing Commission, 1985–1989. President Clinton nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat August 3, 1994. Justice Breyer retired from the Supreme Court on June 30, 2022.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Frank H. Easterbrook is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a Senior Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Chicago. He was Chief Judge from 2006–2013. Before joining the court in 1985, he was the Lee andBrena Freeman Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he taught and wrote in antitrust, securities, corporate law, jurisprudence, and criminal procedure. He has published The Economic Structure of Corporate Law (with Daniel R. Fischel) and about 100 scholarly articles. He served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1982 to 1991 and as a member of the Judicial Conference’s Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 1991 to 1997. Before joining the faculty of the Law School in 1979, Judge Easterbrook was Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College (B.A. with high honors, 1970) and the University of Chicago (J.D. cum laude, 1973), and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Law Institute, the Mont Pelerin Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Order of the Coif.
Former Executive Director, Federal Defender Program
Mr. MacCarthy graduated at the top of his class from St. Joseph's College in 1955, with a B.A. in Philosophy. After serving as a Lieutenant in the Marines, he attended law school at DePaul, graduating again in the top ten percent of his class in 1960. Following graduation, he served as an Assistant Professor of contracts and real property before beginning a clerkship to former Chief Judge William J. Campbell of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and serving as Illinois Special Assistant Attorney General, specializing in civil trials and appeals. In 1966, he began serving as Executive Director of the Federal Defender Program in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He was selected for the position by the judges of the District Court and the deans of the six Chicago law schools. As Executive Director, Mr. MacCarthy was primarily responsible for the administration of the unique and highly successful program that provides counsel for some 1500 defendants each year who are charged with federal crimes but are unable to afford private counsel. Since its beginning, the office is frequently reported as being one of the best defender offices in the nation. Always a strong believer in mentoring, Mr. MacCarthy has authored and published over twenty legal articles. Terrence MacCarthy is a member of the American, Illinois, Chicago, Federal and Seventh Circuit Bar Associations, the Illinois Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the National College of Criminal Defense, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers serving on the Board of each. He has been awarded the DePaul University College of Law 1994 Alumni Service Award, the 1993 National Association of Criminal Lawyers Distinguished Service Award, the Illinois Attorneys for Criminal Justice 1993 Annual Award for Extraordinary Contribution to the Goals and Ideals of the Association, the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice 1990 Annual Award for Significant Contribution to Criminal Justice and the 1989 University of Virginia School of Law William J. Brennan, Jr. Award, presented to him by Justice Brennan.
President, Education Executives, LLC
Ilene H. Nagel is President of Education Executives, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in the search for AAU and research university presidents, provosts, and deans, as well as the search for senior leaders of distinguished scientific organizations. In addition, Ilene has led the search for the VP for Health Sciences and/or Dean of Medicine for Hopkins, Stanford, UCLA, the University of Michigan, Harvard, Emory, UVA, Brown, UT Southwestern, UAB, Stony Brook, SUNY Buffalo, Indiana University, among others, as well as a variety of chair searches for academic medical centers, and the search for the CEO of the hospital systems for Stanford and for UCLA.
From 2005-2016, Ilene led the Higher Education practice for Russell Reynolds Associates, an internationally renowned executive search firm; her clients included Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Lehigh, USC, Northwestern, the University of Pennsylvania, NYU, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Georgetown, Washington University, Brown, Emory, UCLA, UVA, UCSD, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, UT Austin, the University of Minnesota, and a host of others, including, but not limited to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Smithsonian, the Moore Foundation, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Before becoming a search consultant, Ilene had more than 30 years’ experience as an academic, with professorial appointments in several AAU research universities. Most recently, Ilene served as the Executive Vice Chancellor (chief academic officer) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before joining the University of California, Ilene was Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for Research at the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, she was on the law faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington, where she was a tenured Full Professor, with a joint appointment in the College of Arts and Sciences. During her 20+ year tenure at Indiana University, Ilene took several leaves of absence to accept a variety of visiting faculty appointments at Yale Law School, Cambridge University, Columbia University School of Law, and George Washington University’s National Law Center.
Ilene received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Hunter College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. She did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota, and received her Master’s of Legal Studies from Stanford Law School. She was a Guggenheim Fellow at Yale Law School, a Visiting Scholar at the Bellagio Conference Center in Italy, and a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University.
In addition to her academic appointments, Ilene was nominated by the President, and confirmed by the United States Senate to serve a 6-year term in the federal judiciary, as a Member of the United States Sentencing Commission. She ultimately served for 9 years, full time, from 1985-1994, under three United States presidents, while retaining her faculty appointments on a part time basis.
Ilene serves as a corporate board member of Strada Education Network, an Indiana based Higher Education company, as well as a member of the Board of CGS (the Celerian Group), a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina. In addition, Ilene served for several terms on the Board of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and on the Board of Santa Barbara Visiting Nurse and Hospice Association. She is a past and now honorary member of the Board of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and a prior member of the Alfred University Board of Trustees. She is also presently serving as a Board member of the Cape Ann Museum, and the Birnam Wood Golf Club.
Ilene and her husband, contemporary sculptor Aristides Burton Demetrios, reside in Montecito, California. Aris is a graduate of Harvard University; he is the son of Virginia Lee Burton, renowned children’s book author and illustrator, and George Demetrios, a classical sculptor.
Former Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
Stephen G. Breyer was born in San Francisco, California, August 15, 1938. He married Joanna Hare in 1967, and has three children - Chloe, Nell, and Michael. He received an A.B. from Stanford University, a B.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School. He served as a law clerk to Justice Arthur Goldberg of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1964 Term, as a Special Assistant to the Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Antitrust, 1965–1967, as an Assistant Special Prosecutor of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, 1973, as Special Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 1974–1975, and as Chief Counsel of the committee, 1979–1980. He was an Assistant Professor, Professor of Law, and Lecturer at Harvard Law School, 1967–1994, a Professor at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, 1977–1980, and a Visiting Professor at the College of Law, Sydney, Australia and at the University of Rome. From 1980–1990, he served as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and as its Chief Judge, 1990–1994. He also served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States, 1990–1994, and of the United States Sentencing Commission, 1985–1989. President Clinton nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat August 3, 1994. Justice Breyer retired from the Supreme Court on June 30, 2022.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Frank H. Easterbrook is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a Senior Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Chicago. He was Chief Judge from 2006–2013. Before joining the court in 1985, he was the Lee andBrena Freeman Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he taught and wrote in antitrust, securities, corporate law, jurisprudence, and criminal procedure. He has published The Economic Structure of Corporate Law (with Daniel R. Fischel) and about 100 scholarly articles. He served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1982 to 1991 and as a member of the Judicial Conference’s Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 1991 to 1997. Before joining the faculty of the Law School in 1979, Judge Easterbrook was Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College (B.A. with high honors, 1970) and the University of Chicago (J.D. cum laude, 1973), and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Law Institute, the Mont Pelerin Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Order of the Coif.
Former Executive Director, Federal Defender Program
Mr. MacCarthy graduated at the top of his class from St. Joseph's College in 1955, with a B.A. in Philosophy. After serving as a Lieutenant in the Marines, he attended law school at DePaul, graduating again in the top ten percent of his class in 1960. Following graduation, he served as an Assistant Professor of contracts and real property before beginning a clerkship to former Chief Judge William J. Campbell of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and serving as Illinois Special Assistant Attorney General, specializing in civil trials and appeals. In 1966, he began serving as Executive Director of the Federal Defender Program in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He was selected for the position by the judges of the District Court and the deans of the six Chicago law schools. As Executive Director, Mr. MacCarthy was primarily responsible for the administration of the unique and highly successful program that provides counsel for some 1500 defendants each year who are charged with federal crimes but are unable to afford private counsel. Since its beginning, the office is frequently reported as being one of the best defender offices in the nation. Always a strong believer in mentoring, Mr. MacCarthy has authored and published over twenty legal articles. Terrence MacCarthy is a member of the American, Illinois, Chicago, Federal and Seventh Circuit Bar Associations, the Illinois Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the National College of Criminal Defense, the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers serving on the Board of each. He has been awarded the DePaul University College of Law 1994 Alumni Service Award, the 1993 National Association of Criminal Lawyers Distinguished Service Award, the Illinois Attorneys for Criminal Justice 1993 Annual Award for Extraordinary Contribution to the Goals and Ideals of the Association, the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice 1990 Annual Award for Significant Contribution to Criminal Justice and the 1989 University of Virginia School of Law William J. Brennan, Jr. Award, presented to him by Justice Brennan.
President, Education Executives, LLC
Ilene H. Nagel is President of Education Executives, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in the search for AAU and research university presidents, provosts, and deans, as well as the search for senior leaders of distinguished scientific organizations. In addition, Ilene has led the search for the VP for Health Sciences and/or Dean of Medicine for Hopkins, Stanford, UCLA, the University of Michigan, Harvard, Emory, UVA, Brown, UT Southwestern, UAB, Stony Brook, SUNY Buffalo, Indiana University, among others, as well as a variety of chair searches for academic medical centers, and the search for the CEO of the hospital systems for Stanford and for UCLA.
From 2005-2016, Ilene led the Higher Education practice for Russell Reynolds Associates, an internationally renowned executive search firm; her clients included Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Lehigh, USC, Northwestern, the University of Pennsylvania, NYU, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Georgetown, Washington University, Brown, Emory, UCLA, UVA, UCSD, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, UT Austin, the University of Minnesota, and a host of others, including, but not limited to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Smithsonian, the Moore Foundation, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Before becoming a search consultant, Ilene had more than 30 years’ experience as an academic, with professorial appointments in several AAU research universities. Most recently, Ilene served as the Executive Vice Chancellor (chief academic officer) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before joining the University of California, Ilene was Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for Research at the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, she was on the law faculty at Indiana University, Bloomington, where she was a tenured Full Professor, with a joint appointment in the College of Arts and Sciences. During her 20+ year tenure at Indiana University, Ilene took several leaves of absence to accept a variety of visiting faculty appointments at Yale Law School, Cambridge University, Columbia University School of Law, and George Washington University’s National Law Center.
Ilene received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Hunter College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. She did a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota, and received her Master’s of Legal Studies from Stanford Law School. She was a Guggenheim Fellow at Yale Law School, a Visiting Scholar at the Bellagio Conference Center in Italy, and a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University.
In addition to her academic appointments, Ilene was nominated by the President, and confirmed by the United States Senate to serve a 6-year term in the federal judiciary, as a Member of the United States Sentencing Commission. She ultimately served for 9 years, full time, from 1985-1994, under three United States presidents, while retaining her faculty appointments on a part time basis.
Ilene serves as a corporate board member of Strada Education Network, an Indiana based Higher Education company, as well as a member of the Board of CGS (the Celerian Group), a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina. In addition, Ilene served for several terms on the Board of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and on the Board of Santa Barbara Visiting Nurse and Hospice Association. She is a past and now honorary member of the Board of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and a prior member of the Alfred University Board of Trustees. She is also presently serving as a Board member of the Cape Ann Museum, and the Birnam Wood Golf Club.
Ilene and her husband, contemporary sculptor Aristides Burton Demetrios, reside in Montecito, California. Aris is a graduate of Harvard University; he is the son of Virginia Lee Burton, renowned children’s book author and illustrator, and George Demetrios, a classical sculptor.
Constitutional Scholarship Director and Senior Legal Analyst, Pacific Legal Foundation
Anastasia Boden is Director of Constitutional Scholarship at Pacific Legal Foundation, where she leads the organization’s Supreme Court commentary and directs scholarly analysis in support of the firm’s litigation. She has represented entrepreneurs and small businesses nationwide in challenges to onerous licensing regimes, anti-competitive titling restrictions, Certificate of Need (“competitor’s veto”) laws, and other forms of unnecessary red tape that block economic opportunity.
Prior to this role, Anastasia developed nearly a dozen constitutional challenges to Certificate of Need laws across the country, helping spur legislative reform in Montana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Her victories include a ruling invalidating Houston’s busking restrictions, multiple appellate decisions expanding access to the courts for civil rights plaintiffs, and the legislative repeal of Virginia’s happy-hour advertising ban.
Her writings on law and liberty have been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, and more, and she has appeared on Headline News, CBS News, Fox News, ReasonTV, Newsmax, and John Stossel. In 2020, she was featured on Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen’s Supreme Court shortlist.
Anastasia earned her BA with dean’s honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was research assistant to Professor Randy E. Barnett—the “intellectual godfather” of the constitutional challenge to Obamacare. She is the co-creator of the podcast Dissed, about infamous Supreme Court dissents. She authors the biweekly newsletter SCOTUS Scoop and the column, “In Dissent” for SCOTUSblog.
Senior Fellow, National Review
Bestselling author Andrew C. McCarthy is a contributing editor at National Review, a senior fellow at National Review Institute, and a Fox News contributor. He is a former Chief Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and led the terrorism prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh” (Omar Abdel Rahman) and eleven other jihadists for conducting a war of urban terrorism against the United States that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. During is 20-year career as a prosecutor, he received numerous honors, including the Justice Department’s highest awards. Andy speaks and writes widely on law and national security, radical Islam, politics, and culture. He has testified before Congress as an expert on issues of constitutional law, counterterrorism, and law-enforcement. He is a columnist for The Hill, and his essays and book reviews appear frequently at The New Criterion. His most recent New York Times bestselling book is Ball of Collusion (Encounter Books, 2019), about the Russiagate controversy (an updated version was published in 2020). His other books include Willful Blindness (2008), The Grand Jihad (2010), Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (2012), and Faithless Execution (2014). He has also written several pamphlets in the Broadside series published by Encounter Books, most recently Islam and Free Speech (2015).
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Joseph Tartakovsky, Author of The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America's Supreme Law.
Joseph Tartakovsky is author of The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America’s Supreme Law (2018) and the former Deputy Solicitor General of Nevada. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times.
Partner, Wigdor LLP
David E. Gottlieb is a Partner at Wigdor LLP. Mr. Gottlieb is a leading employment rights attorney and a zealous advocate for employees who have been subjected to harassment, discrimination, retaliation wage and hour violations and other forms of unlawful workplace misconduct. Mr. Gottlieb has successfully represented thousands of plaintiffs in individual, multi-plaintiff, collective and class action litigation before a wide array of federal and state trial and appellate courts, administrative agencies, and arbitral forums.
Shareholder, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart
Chris Murray is Co-Chair of the firm’s Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group. In this role, he assists attorneys throughout the firm and clients nationwide to create, roll out, and enforce effective employment arbitration agreements and other ADR programs. Mr. Murray has extensive experience with class/collective action waivers in employment arbitration. Mr. Murray was part of the Ogletree team that successfully defended the use of such waivers in the Fifth Circuit’s landmark decision in D.R. Horton, Inc. v. N.L.R.B. Since then, he has successfully defended the enforceability of class action waivers in numerous subsequent cases and submitted an amicus brief on the subject on behalf of several major employers’ associations in the Supreme Court’s Murphy Oil case. Mr. Murray assists clients and the Firm’s attorneys to draft or revise arbitration programs focused on a client’s specific needs and goals and in light of changing law and evolving best practices.
President & CEO, International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).
Allen Waxman is the President & CEO of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR). He has an extensive career as a partner in law firms and as a general counsel and business executive in the life sciences industry, and is a committed advocate of finding innovative ways to avoid disputes and resolve them effectively and efficiently where they arise.
Prior to joining CPR, Mr. Waxman served as General Counsel of Pfizer, at Eisai Inc - the North American affiliate of the Japanese-based pharmaceutical company, Eisai Co Ltd - where he also led the Market Access business unit, and at Roivant Sciences, a start-up building biotech and healthcare technology companies.
He also practiced law as a partner at Williams & Connolly, in Washington, D.C., where he tried criminal and civil cases. Later in his career, he joined Kaye Scholer LLP (now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer) in New York as a partner. He led the firm’s multidisciplinary Life Sciences Group, while also developing and executing on resolution strategies for clients.
Mr. Waxman has also served on the board of a variety of professional and social justice organizations, including as the Chairman of the Bioethics Committee of the board of BIO, and as Chairman of the Boards of Equal Justice Works, the Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School in Washington, D.C., and Day One in New York City. He currently serves on the board of Rising Ground, a human services organization dedicated to helping children, adults and families in need in the greater New York City area, as well as on the Leadership Council of Convergence, a national not-for-profit dedicated to convening people of divergent views and forming alliances for action on critical national issues. Earlier in his career, he also was an adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Mr. Waxman began his career as a law clerk to the late, Honorable Thomas Penfield Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, after receiving his J.D. from the Harvard Law School and his A.B. from Dartmouth College.
Professor, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, Chapman University
Professor Bell joined the faculty of Fowler School of Law in 1998. Professor Bell specializes in high-tech legal issues and has written a variety of works on intellectual property and Internet law, including the book, Intellectual Privilege: Copyright, Common Law, and the Common Good (2014). He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1993, where he served both as a member of the University of Chicago Law Review and as Articles Editor and cofounder of the University of Chicago Legal Roundtable. After graduating from law school, Professor Bell joined the Silicon Valley law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He entered teaching in 1995, when he became an Assistant Professor of Law in the Law and Technology Program at the University of Dayton School of Law. During a one year leave of absence from that school, and just prior to joining the Fowler School of Law faculty, he served as Director of Telecommunications and Technology Studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Professor Bell joined the faculty of Fowler School of Law in 1998. In addition to writing a steady stream of scholarly works, Professor Bell has appeared on or been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Economist, Los Angeles Times, and many other news sources, and starred in several online videos addressing timely legal issues.
Executive Director, Southeastern Legal Foundation
Kimberly Hermann serves as Executive Director for Southeastern Legal Foundation.
Kim has worked with Southeastern Legal Foundation since 2009. Her belief in liberty and desire to serve started at a young age – instilled by her parents’ dedication to hard work, family values, and love for America.
After earning her undergraduate degree in Analytical Finance and graduate degree in Accounting from Wake Forest University, Kim worked as a licensed CPA with an international accounting firm. But her strong belief in individual liberty, the rule of law, and accountability in government led her to pursue a career in law. While in law school at Georgia State University College of Law, Kim served as a law clerk at SLF. After graduating, Kim worked at a private law firm in Atlanta where she specialized in financial and business litigation but continued to serve SLF in a pro bono capacity. In 2013, Kim returned to SLF full-time and is proud to dedicate her career to the freedom-based law movement.
Kim advances liberty through litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts on issues ranging from government overreach, free speech, property rights, and economic liberty. In addition to representing clients, Kim testifies before state legislatures, drafts model legislation, and regularly publishes legal articles. Through SLF’s legal initiatives, she informs Americans about their constitutional rights, equipping them with the tools they need to stand up to government overreach. Her work and that of Southeastern Legal Foundation is regularly covered by national media and you will frequently hear or see her on radio, podcasts, and television.
Kim is an active member of the Federalist Society where she serves as an expert on the Federalist Society’s Civil Rights Executive Committee. She is also an active member of her community and when she isn’t fighting for liberty, you can find her at her children’s school or on the sports fields cheering them on. She lives in the Atlanta area with her husband and two children.
Producer, They Say It Can’t be Done
Patrick is the lead Producer on They Say It Can’t be Done. He previously produced the award-winning feature length documentary Of Dogs and Men. He is co-creator and producer on an animated comedy web series based on the NY Times bestselling book series, “The Politically Incorrect Guides,” also to be released Fall 2019. Through his work with corporate partners, Patrick has produced more than 300 animated, documentary, virtual reality and narrative projects. He holds a B.A. from Emory University in Creative Writing and Philosophy
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Primary Ocean Producers
Scott graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration of Finance. He has extensive start-up, operating, financial, and managerial experience, where he has earned a strong understanding of accounting, project management, logistics, marketing, and financial reporting. Scott began his career with the co-founding of Impulse One, a full-service CPG marketing company, where he oversaw the development of SOP’s, sales and marketing campaigns, brand development, the development of an international supply chain, managed compliance with FDA, USDA, and the Department of Agriculture in all 50 states, oversaw one corporate acquisition, one joint venture with a public company, and managed growth to over $21M in revenues. Shortly thereafter, Scott made his first real estate investments and subsequently co-founded a real estate syndicate, Building Forts Real Estate Investment Fund, and Climbing Fences, a real estate construction company, where he serves as CEO and President, respectively. In 2014, Scott co-founded Venice Fixes, a bicycle marketing and e-commerce platform, where he served as Chief Operating Officer and oversaw sourcing and logistics. Venice Fixies turned a profit in year 1 and was divested. Scott Schmidt currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of the Schmidt 2001 FLP and manages equity and debt investments in the petrochemical, medical, real estate, and beverage industries, and maintains a Directors role in the early and growth-stage companies.
CEO & Board Chair, World Future Society
Julie Friedman Steele is on the Board of Advisors of the United Nations Women for Peace and the Board Chair, and driving force, behind the World Future Society, the most influential international authority for the past 50 years in future thinking.
With a background in education, AI & technology, entertainment, science and child advocacy, Julie is working to realize the vision that utilizing a futurist mindset in education will change the world. She is passionate about emerging technology and accelerating its adoption to make complex technology tools accessible to all. Julie thrives at the cutting edge of disruption and empathy.
Julie is a regular keynote speaker and panelist including for universities discussing the future of education and jobs, TEDX, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, TechWeek, the International Manufacturing Trade Show, and the Chicago Innovation Awards, to name a few. Since becoming Board Chair of the World Future Society, she has advised governments and world leaders across the globe.
Julie has garnered national and international media attention appearing in over 20 countries in print, radio, and television including The Today Show, Al Jazeera, Vanity Fair Italy, Time Magazine, and a profile in Entrepreneur Magazine. She has also been named by The Chicago Tribune as a top 100 Innovator in the City.
As a social entrepreneur and producer Julie created The 3D Printer Experience (3DPX), built an International MPEG standard to make all TV and Film video content searchable and indexable on the internet and produced and directed the Genesis Award winning documentary, Best Friend Forgotten starring actor David Duchovny.
Julie studied biochemistry and molecular biology at Boston University, Music Synthesis at the famed Berklee College of Music, and Artificial Intelligence through Stanford University. With a background in stand-up comedy, Julie brings a fresh and passionate approach to her advisory roles and appearances.
Vice President, Networks, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Nathan Kaczmarek is Vice President for Networks at the Federalist Society. He began his legal career in Detroit representing nationwide clients in all phases of healthcare litigation and complex medical malpractice claims. He has since served as a Senior Legal and Policy Advisor in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Counsel for the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management in the U.S. Senate. Prior to overseeing the Networks, he was Director of the Practice Groups, the Regulatory Transparency Project, and the Article I Initiative for the Federalist Society.
Nathan holds degrees from Hillsdale College and Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is a Liaison Representative for The Administrative Conference of the United States. He also serves as Vice President of the Associates of St. John Bosco, a Virginia based non-profit dedicated to Catholic high school and college students.
The Judicial Philosophy of Amy Coney Barrett
Wisconsin Lawyers Chapters
It Can Be Done Live: The Future of Our Food
A Four-Part Virtual Movie Premiere
Equality vs. Discretion in Sentencing [Archive Collection]
Stephen G. Breyer, Frank H. Easterbrook, Terence F. MacCarthy, Ilene H. Nagel
On September 9-10, 1988, The Federalist Society hosted its second annual National Lawyers Convention at...
Equality vs. Discretion in Sentencing [Archive Collection]
Stephen G. Breyer, Frank H. Easterbrook, Terence F. MacCarthy, Ilene H. Nagel
On September 9-10, 1988, The Federalist Society hosted its second annual National Lawyers Convention at...
Supreme Court Roundup: October Term 2019 [SCOTUSbrief]
Anastasia P. Boden
While the Supreme Court’s last term included a number of blockbuster decisions, the majority of...
The Accidental Defender of the Constitution
Andrew McCarthy
A Review of Defender in Chief: Donald Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power, by John Yoo,...
Supreme Court Preview: What Is in Store for October Term 2020?
Co-Sponsored by the Faculty Division and Practice Groups
Book Review: Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court
Ilya Shapiro, Joseph Tartakovsky
The brutal confirmation battles we saw over Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh are...
Mass Arbitrations: Challenges, Benefits, and Proposals for Improvement
David E. Gottlieb, Christopher C. Murray, Allen Waxman
In Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, the Supreme Court confirmed that federal law permits employers...
It Can Be Done Live: The Future of Our Seas
Thomas W. Bell, Kimberly Hermann, Patrick Reasonover, Scott Schmidt, Julie Friedman Steele, Nathan Kaczmarek
The creators of the award-winning documentary, They Say It Can't Be Done, in partnership with the...