Managing Director, Chief US Economist and Head of Macro Strategy, BNP Paribas
Dr. Daniel P. Ahn is a Managing Director, the Chief U.S. Economist, and Head of Markets 360 – North America at BNP Paribas in New York. He is also a non-residential Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Until 2018, he was the chief economist at the U.S. Department of State, where he advised the Secretary of State and senior principals on a wide range of international economic and security topics relevant to U.S. foreign policy, including global macroeconomic growth, financial stability, economic sanctions, international trade, and energy and environmental issues.
Prior to entering public service in 2014, Dr. Ahn was the chief economist for energy and commodities at Citigroup in New York and also held senior positions at Citadel, Barclays Capital, and Lehman Brothers. He has held research and teaching positions at Harvard University, the National Bureau of Economic Research, Columbia University, the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Monetary Fund, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Georgetown University, and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
He is the author of multiple research articles, Congressional testimony, and a textbook, Principles of Commodity Economics and Finance with MIT Press.
Dr. Ahn has extensive experience using state-of-the-art econometrics, data science, geospatial imagery, and machine-learning for economic forecasting, data analysis, financial risk management, project financing, commercial strategy, public policy, and operational solutions.
He was featured in Forbes Magazine as one of 30 under 30 in Finance. He is the recipient of both the Superior Honor Award and the Meritorious Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State.
He completed his A.B. in economics and finance with honors from Princeton University, and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Former Managing Director, BlackRock Inc.
Joanne Medero was until July 2020 a Managing Director at BlackRock where she was member of their Global Public Policy Group and a Senior Advisor to the Vice Chairman on the intersection of public policy and corporate governance. In June 2021, Ms. Medero was appointed a director/trustee of the Nuveen Funds.
Ms. Medero's service with BlackRock dates back to 1996, including her years with Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which merged with BlackRock in 2009. She joined BGI as its Global General Counsel in 1996 and after more than ten years in that role, became the global head of Government Relations and Public Policy for Barclays’ investment banking and investment management businesses. Prior to joining BGI, Ms. Medero was a partner with Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe specializing in derivatives and market regulation issues. Ms. Medero also served as general counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (1989-1993) and as an associate director for legal and financial affairs at the Office of Presidential Personnel, The White House (1986-1989).
Ms. Medero is a graduate of St. Lawrence University and received her JD from George Washington University.
Senior Fellow, George Mason University National Security Institute
Bryan Smith is a Senior Fellow at the George Mason University National Security Institute.
Partner, Murtha Cullina LLP
Proloy K. Das is the chair of the Appellate Practice Group. He has argued over sixty appeals before the Connecticut Supreme Court, Connecticut Appellate Court, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Attorney Das has advanced legal doctrines in cases of first impression in several areas including election law, tort liability, municipal law, contract law, insurance coverage, and felony prosecutions.
He has been named as one of the Connecticut Law Tribune’s New Leaders of the Law (2005), the Hartford Business Journal’s “40 Under Forty” (2007); the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s (NAPABA) Best Under 40 (2011); the “Super Lawyers Rising Stars” list of Connecticut appellate lawyers (2008-2012); and the “Super Lawyers” list of top appellate lawyers in New England from 2013-2017. In 2015, the Connecticut Law Tribune named the appellate department chaired by Attorney Das at his prior law firm as its “2015 Appellate Litigation Department of the Year.” In 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 the publication named Murtha Cullina’s appellate practice group as its “Litigation Department of the Year.”
The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has appointed Attorney Das to its pro bono panel of appellate advocates for indigent appellants. Prior to private practice, Attorney Das served as Assistant State’s Attorney in the Appellate Bureau of the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office. He earned his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.
Attorney Das is the Connecticut State Chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association.
Attorney, Paul, Weiss
An associate in the Restructuring Department, Joshua advises debtors, creditors, sponsors and shareholders, and distressed investment funds in chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings, cross-border insolvency matters, and in bankruptcy litigation at both the trial and appellate courts. He also has significant experience representing the Financial Oversight & Management Board for Puerto Rico, as representative of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and certain of its instrumentalities, in their proceedings under Title III of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA).
Republican Minority Leader (34th District) and Partner, Fasano, Ippolito, Lee & Florentine, LLC
State Senator Len Fasano has represented the 34th Senate District communities of Durham, East Haven, North Haven and Wallingford since 2003.
In the General Assembly, Len Fasano has served as leader of the Senate Republican Caucus since 2014. He has championed bipartisan policies to benefit taxpayers, promote fiscal stability, and protect core services for the most vulnerable. Recent legislative accomplishments include developing first-in-the-nation legislation to make prescription drugs more affordable and bring transparency to health care, passing historic bipartisan state budgets with spending caps and bonding caps, and developing proposals to reform criminal justice, education funding, and bring more opportunities to Connecticut cities.
As leader of the Senate Republican Caucus, Senator Fasano is committed to making state government more cost-effective and efficient. He rallied bipartisan support to implement a spending cap, after decades of attempts by lawmakers to define the cap approved over 25 years ago. He also championed a bonding cap and volatility cap to reduce state debt and create more stability in state finances.
Senator Fasano established an urban affairs initiative within the Senate Republican Caucus in 2014 to start a dialogue between Republican lawmakers and Connecticut cities to enhance educational and economic opportunities. He has also proposed plans to reform the state’s justice system, to reduce recidivism and help people access the tools they need to succeed in all aspects of life.
As an advocate for the most vulnerable, Sen. Fasano has been named a “Children’s Champion” by the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance and has proposed legislation to reform the state’s child welfare agency to better protect, monitor and support the children in its care. Senator Fasano has also worked closely with advocates for individuals with disabilities, passing legislation to address the growing needs of individuals on the state’s waitlist for services and legislation to better protect children with disabilities who are suspected or documented victims of abuse and neglect.
Senator Fasano is the co-creator of the Bipartisan Round Table on Hospitals and Health Care, established in 2014 in partnership with Senate President Martin Looney to help ensure continued access to affordable quality care in Connecticut. Senator Fasano, whose father was a doctor in New Haven, has advocated for legislation that seeks to remedy the problems caused by the rapid consolidation of physician practices in Connecticut and the resulting impacts on health care costs and patient choice. He was also successful in passing bipartisan legislation to bring more transparency to medical expenses and to ban “gag clauses” that prevented pharmacists from telling consumers if cheaper prescription drug alternatives were available.
Senator Fasano is the President and Founder of Fasano, Ippolito, Lee, & Florentine, a law firm with offices in New Haven and Branford. He is also an East Haven business owner. Fasano earned his Bachelor of Science Degree from Yale University in 1981, a Juris Doctorate from Quinnipiac Law School in 1984, and an L.L.M. Degree in Taxation from Boston University Law School in 1985. He played football at Yale under legendary coach, Carm Cozza.
Senator Fasano has spent all of his life in New Haven and surrounding communities. He has three adult children and two grandchildren. He currently resides in North Haven with his wife, Jill.
The William J. and Dorothy K. O'Neill Chair in Law Emeritus, Notre Dame Law School
Professor G. Robert Blakey, the nation's foremost authority on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), has served on the Notre Dame Law School faculty for more than 30 years. He teaches in the areas of criminal law and procedure, federal criminal law and procedure, terrorism, and jurisprudence. Blakey's extensive legislative drafting experience resulted in the passage of the Crime Control Act of 1973, the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970 and the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Title IX of which is known as RICO. He has been personally involved in drafting and implementing RICO-type legislation in 22 of the more than 30 states that have enacted racketeering laws. He frequently argues in or consults on cases involving RICO statutes at both the federal and state levels, including several cases before the United States Supreme Court. Blakey has considerable expertise in federal and state wiretapping statutes as well. He helped draft and secure passage of Title III on wiretapping of the federal 1968 Crime Control Act, and has been personally involved in drafting and implementing wiretapping legislation in 39 of the 43 states that have enacted such laws. Blakey has extensively investigated the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He served as chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977 to 1979, and helped to draft the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. Blakey gave remarks at the 2012 Law School Hooding/Diploma Commencement Ceremony on May 19, 2012. Blakey received Emeritus status in December 2012.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (ret.) and former U.S. Senator
James L. Buckley was born in New York City in 1923, grew up in rural Connecticut, and received his B.A. degree from Yale. Following service as a naval officer in World War II, he returned to New Haven to secure his law degree. After several years in private practice, he joined a group of small companies engaged in oil exploration abroad. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1970 as the candidate of New York's Conservative Party. He failed of re-election; but he has since served as an under secretary of state in the Reagan administration, as president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, Germany, and, most recently, as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He retired in 2000 and now resides in Bethesda, Maryland.
Founding Partner, diGenova & Toensing LLP
Joseph E. diGenova, founding partner of the Washington, D.C. law firm of diGenova & Toensing, LLP represents individuals, corporations and other entities before the Federal courts, Congress, and U.S. cabinet departments and agencies on criminal, civil, administrative and investigative matters. In December 1992, he was appointed Independent Counsel in the Clinton Passport File Search matter. He was appointed Chairman of the Grievance Committee of the D.C. District Court in 1995 by the judges of that court. In 1997, he was named Special Counsel by the U.S. House of Representatives to probe the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. As a result of that assignment, he was appointed by the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, to sit on the Independent Review Board, which oversees the Teamsters pursuant to a 1989 Consent Decree. He is on that Board with former FBI and CIA Director William Webster and former U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti. In 2007, Mr. diGenova was retained by the New York State Senate to investigate then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in the Troopergate matter.
His practice emphasizes representation to resolve disputes with various branches of the Federal government through negotiation, litigation, and/or legislation. He does white collar criminal defense work for individuals (such as the former CEO of BCCI) and corporations, conducting internal investigations as well. He represents individuals and organizations in Congressional investigations.
For four years, diGenova was United States Attorney, District of Columbia, which is the largest such office, having more than 400 attorneys. He supervised complex Federal criminal and civil matters including international drug smuggling, public corruption, espionage, insider trading, tax fraud, extradition, fraud, RICO, export control and international terrorism. Many of these prosecutions involved negotiations with foreign governments. He conducted a wide-ranging probe of corruption in the D.C. government, which led to the conviction of two deputy mayors. He led the prosecution of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. He was the Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney during the prosecution of attempted Presidential assassin, John W. Hinckley.
DiGenova has extensive experience on Capitol Hill. He was Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the Senate Rules Committee and Counsel to the Senate Judiciary, Governmental Affairs and Select Intelligence Committees. He has conducted confirmation, investigative, legislative and oversight hearings, drafted legislation and testified before both Houses of Congress. He also served as Administrative Assistant and Legislative Director to U.S. Senator Charles Mathias.
Mr. diGenova has published articles on criminal law, terrorism, and Congressional oversight and has spoken on those and other issues to various organizations throughout the United States. As part of his advocacy approach, he has appeared on Court TV, Lehrer News Hour, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Nightline, 60 Minutes, Crossfire, This Week With David Brinkley, John McLaughlin’s One On One, Today Show, Good Morning America, and other national television programs. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati and his law degree from Georgetown University.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Sentelle was appointed United States Circuit Judge in October 1987, served as Chief Judge from February 11, 2008 until February 11, 2013, and took senior status on February 12, 2013. He is a 1968 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School. Following law school, he practiced with the firm of Uzzell & DuMont until he became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Charlotte, N.C. in 1970. From 1974 to 1977, he served as a North Carolina State District Judge but left the bench in 1977 to become a partner with the firm of Tucker, Hicks, Sentelle, Moon & Hodge. In 1985, Judge Sentelle joined the U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina, in Asheville, where he served until his appointment to the D.C. Circuit. Judge Sentelle was the Presiding Judge of the Special Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels (1992-2006). He also served as the Chair of the U.S. Judicial Conference's Executive Committee (2010-2013). Judge Sentelle served for over 20 years as President of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of the American Inns of Court.
Professor of Law, Emeritus, Marshall-Wythe Law School at the College of William and Mary
William W. Van Alstyne, one of the nation's foremost constitutional law scholars, and William & Mary’s Lee Professor of Law from 2004 to 2012, died on January 29, 2019, in Southern California.
Professor Van Alstyne was appointed Lee Professor of Law at the Marshall-Wythe Law School at the College of William and Mary in 2004. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California (B.A. in philosophy, magna cum laude) and Stanford University Law School (J.D., Articles and Book Review Editor of The Stanford Law Review). Following his admission to the California Bar and brief service as Deputy Attorney General of California, he joined the Civil Rights Division of the U. S. Department of Justice handling voting rights cases in the South. After active duty with the U. S. Air Force, he was appointed to the law faculty of the Ohio State University, advancing to full professor in three years. Appointed to the Duke law faculty shortly thereafter, he was named to the William R. & Thomas S. Perkins Chair of Law in 1974.
Professor Van Alstyne’s professional writings have appeared during four decades in the principal law journals in the United States, with frequent republication in foreign journals. They address virtually every major subject in the field of constitutional law. His work has been cited in a large number of judicial opinions including those of the Supreme Court. The Journal of Legal Studies for January, 2000, named Professor Van Alstyne in the top forty most frequently cited legal scholars in the United States of the preceding half-century.
Professor Van Alstyne has also taught and given professional papers internationally, in Germany, Austria, and Denmark, in Chile, the former Soviet Union, China, Japan, Canada, and Australia. He has been a visiting faculty member on the law faculties of the University of Chicago, Stanford, California (Berkeley and UCLA), Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois, a Fulbright Lecturer in Chile, a Senior Fellow at the Yale Law School, and a faculty fellow at the Hague International Court of Justice. He has appeared as counsel and as amicus curiae in constitutional litigation in the federal courts, including the Supreme Court. He has also appeared in numerous hearings before Senate and House Committees, on legislation affecting the separation of powers, war powers, constitutional amendments, impeachments, legislation affecting civil rights and civil liberties, and nominations to the Supreme Court.
In 1987, Professor Van Alstyne was selected in a poll of federal judges, lawyers, and academics by the New York Law Journal as one of three academics among "the ten most qualified" persons in the country for appointment to the Supreme Court, a distinction repeated in a similar poll by The American Lawyer, in 1991. Past National President of the American Association of University Professors, and former member of the National Board of Directors of the A.C.L.U., he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.
The William J. and Dorothy K. O'Neill Chair in Law Emeritus, Notre Dame Law School
Professor G. Robert Blakey, the nation's foremost authority on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), has served on the Notre Dame Law School faculty for more than 30 years. He teaches in the areas of criminal law and procedure, federal criminal law and procedure, terrorism, and jurisprudence. Blakey's extensive legislative drafting experience resulted in the passage of the Crime Control Act of 1973, the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1970 and the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Title IX of which is known as RICO. He has been personally involved in drafting and implementing RICO-type legislation in 22 of the more than 30 states that have enacted racketeering laws. He frequently argues in or consults on cases involving RICO statutes at both the federal and state levels, including several cases before the United States Supreme Court. Blakey has considerable expertise in federal and state wiretapping statutes as well. He helped draft and secure passage of Title III on wiretapping of the federal 1968 Crime Control Act, and has been personally involved in drafting and implementing wiretapping legislation in 39 of the 43 states that have enacted such laws. Blakey has extensively investigated the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He served as chief counsel and staff director to the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977 to 1979, and helped to draft the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. Blakey gave remarks at the 2012 Law School Hooding/Diploma Commencement Ceremony on May 19, 2012. Blakey received Emeritus status in December 2012.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (ret.) and former U.S. Senator
James L. Buckley was born in New York City in 1923, grew up in rural Connecticut, and received his B.A. degree from Yale. Following service as a naval officer in World War II, he returned to New Haven to secure his law degree. After several years in private practice, he joined a group of small companies engaged in oil exploration abroad. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1970 as the candidate of New York's Conservative Party. He failed of re-election; but he has since served as an under secretary of state in the Reagan administration, as president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, Germany, and, most recently, as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He retired in 2000 and now resides in Bethesda, Maryland.
Founding Partner, diGenova & Toensing LLP
Joseph E. diGenova, founding partner of the Washington, D.C. law firm of diGenova & Toensing, LLP represents individuals, corporations and other entities before the Federal courts, Congress, and U.S. cabinet departments and agencies on criminal, civil, administrative and investigative matters. In December 1992, he was appointed Independent Counsel in the Clinton Passport File Search matter. He was appointed Chairman of the Grievance Committee of the D.C. District Court in 1995 by the judges of that court. In 1997, he was named Special Counsel by the U.S. House of Representatives to probe the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. As a result of that assignment, he was appointed by the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, to sit on the Independent Review Board, which oversees the Teamsters pursuant to a 1989 Consent Decree. He is on that Board with former FBI and CIA Director William Webster and former U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti. In 2007, Mr. diGenova was retained by the New York State Senate to investigate then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in the Troopergate matter.
His practice emphasizes representation to resolve disputes with various branches of the Federal government through negotiation, litigation, and/or legislation. He does white collar criminal defense work for individuals (such as the former CEO of BCCI) and corporations, conducting internal investigations as well. He represents individuals and organizations in Congressional investigations.
For four years, diGenova was United States Attorney, District of Columbia, which is the largest such office, having more than 400 attorneys. He supervised complex Federal criminal and civil matters including international drug smuggling, public corruption, espionage, insider trading, tax fraud, extradition, fraud, RICO, export control and international terrorism. Many of these prosecutions involved negotiations with foreign governments. He conducted a wide-ranging probe of corruption in the D.C. government, which led to the conviction of two deputy mayors. He led the prosecution of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. He was the Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney during the prosecution of attempted Presidential assassin, John W. Hinckley.
DiGenova has extensive experience on Capitol Hill. He was Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the Senate Rules Committee and Counsel to the Senate Judiciary, Governmental Affairs and Select Intelligence Committees. He has conducted confirmation, investigative, legislative and oversight hearings, drafted legislation and testified before both Houses of Congress. He also served as Administrative Assistant and Legislative Director to U.S. Senator Charles Mathias.
Mr. diGenova has published articles on criminal law, terrorism, and Congressional oversight and has spoken on those and other issues to various organizations throughout the United States. As part of his advocacy approach, he has appeared on Court TV, Lehrer News Hour, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, Nightline, 60 Minutes, Crossfire, This Week With David Brinkley, John McLaughlin’s One On One, Today Show, Good Morning America, and other national television programs. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati and his law degree from Georgetown University.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Sentelle was appointed United States Circuit Judge in October 1987, served as Chief Judge from February 11, 2008 until February 11, 2013, and took senior status on February 12, 2013. He is a 1968 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School. Following law school, he practiced with the firm of Uzzell & DuMont until he became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Charlotte, N.C. in 1970. From 1974 to 1977, he served as a North Carolina State District Judge but left the bench in 1977 to become a partner with the firm of Tucker, Hicks, Sentelle, Moon & Hodge. In 1985, Judge Sentelle joined the U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina, in Asheville, where he served until his appointment to the D.C. Circuit. Judge Sentelle was the Presiding Judge of the Special Division for the Purpose of Appointing Independent Counsels (1992-2006). He also served as the Chair of the U.S. Judicial Conference's Executive Committee (2010-2013). Judge Sentelle served for over 20 years as President of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of the American Inns of Court.
Professor of Law, Emeritus, Marshall-Wythe Law School at the College of William and Mary
William W. Van Alstyne, one of the nation's foremost constitutional law scholars, and William & Mary’s Lee Professor of Law from 2004 to 2012, died on January 29, 2019, in Southern California.
Professor Van Alstyne was appointed Lee Professor of Law at the Marshall-Wythe Law School at the College of William and Mary in 2004. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California (B.A. in philosophy, magna cum laude) and Stanford University Law School (J.D., Articles and Book Review Editor of The Stanford Law Review). Following his admission to the California Bar and brief service as Deputy Attorney General of California, he joined the Civil Rights Division of the U. S. Department of Justice handling voting rights cases in the South. After active duty with the U. S. Air Force, he was appointed to the law faculty of the Ohio State University, advancing to full professor in three years. Appointed to the Duke law faculty shortly thereafter, he was named to the William R. & Thomas S. Perkins Chair of Law in 1974.
Professor Van Alstyne’s professional writings have appeared during four decades in the principal law journals in the United States, with frequent republication in foreign journals. They address virtually every major subject in the field of constitutional law. His work has been cited in a large number of judicial opinions including those of the Supreme Court. The Journal of Legal Studies for January, 2000, named Professor Van Alstyne in the top forty most frequently cited legal scholars in the United States of the preceding half-century.
Professor Van Alstyne has also taught and given professional papers internationally, in Germany, Austria, and Denmark, in Chile, the former Soviet Union, China, Japan, Canada, and Australia. He has been a visiting faculty member on the law faculties of the University of Chicago, Stanford, California (Berkeley and UCLA), Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois, a Fulbright Lecturer in Chile, a Senior Fellow at the Yale Law School, and a faculty fellow at the Hague International Court of Justice. He has appeared as counsel and as amicus curiae in constitutional litigation in the federal courts, including the Supreme Court. He has also appeared in numerous hearings before Senate and House Committees, on legislation affecting the separation of powers, war powers, constitutional amendments, impeachments, legislation affecting civil rights and civil liberties, and nominations to the Supreme Court.
In 1987, Professor Van Alstyne was selected in a poll of federal judges, lawyers, and academics by the New York Law Journal as one of three academics among "the ten most qualified" persons in the country for appointment to the Supreme Court, a distinction repeated in a similar poll by The American Lawyer, in 1991. Past National President of the American Association of University Professors, and former member of the National Board of Directors of the A.C.L.U., he was elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994.
Staff Attorney, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Glenn Taubman is a Staff Attorney for the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation (1982 to the present). He was a Law Clerk for Senior Circuit Judge Warren L. Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, Jacksonville, Florida, from 1981-82, and a Staff Attorney for the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, from 1980-81. His Bar Admissions include: Georgia, 1980; New York, 1981; U.S. Supreme Court, 1983; District of Columbia, 1985. He regularly appears before the National Labor Relations Board and various federal courts, representing individual employees only.
He is the author of "'Neutrality Agreements' and the Destruction of Employees' Section 7 Rights" (2005) and co-author of "Union Discipline and Employee Rights," a monograph published by the National Right to Work Foundation.
A partial listing of his reported cases includes: Lucas v. NLRB, 333 F.3d 927 (9th Cir. 2003);Penrod v. NLRB, 203 F.3d 41 (D.C. Cir. 2000);Production Workers v. NLRB, 161 F.3d 1047 (7th Cir. 1998);Food & Commercial Workers Local 951 v. Mulder, 31 F.3d 365 (6th Cir. 1994);NLRB v. Office Employees Local 2, 902 F.2d 1164 (4th Cir. 1990);Tierney v. City of Toledo, 917 F.2d 927 (6th Cir. 1990);Lowary v. Lexington Local Board of Education, 902 F.2d 422 (6th Cir. 1990);Lowary v. Lexington Local Board of Education, 854 F.2d 131 (6th Cir. 1988);Tierney v. City of Toledo, 824 F.2d 1497 (6th Cir. 1987);Masiello v. US Airways, Inc., 113 F. Supp. 2d 870 (W.D.N.C. 2000);Jordan v. City of Bucyrus, 739 F. Supp. 1124 (1990),further proceedings, 754 F. Supp. 554 (N.D. Ohio 1991);Dana Corp., 341 N.L.R.B. No. 150, 2004 WL 1329345 (June 7, 2004);California Saw & Knife Works, 320 N.L.R.B. 224 (1995),enforced, 133 F.3d 1012 (7th Cir. 1998).
Senior Counselor, The Cohen Group
Over the course of a 34-year career in the Foreign Service, Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow became one of America's most senior and well-respected diplomats. He has extensive experience in both Latin America and Africa, having served as US Ambassador to Mexico, Venezuela, and Zambia. He also headed the State Department's efforts in Latin America, serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. He retired in 2003 from the US State Department with the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest position in the Foreign Service which, by law, can be held by no more than five individuals at one time.
In 1993, President Clinton nominated Ambassador Davidow to be US Ambassador to Venezuela, a position he held until 1996. From 1996 to 1998, he was the State Department's chief policymaker for the Western Hemisphere, serving as Assistant Secretary of State for that region. President Clinton nominated Ambassador Davidow again in 1998, this time as US Ambassador to Mexico. Ambassador Davidow held this post from 1998 until 2002. After leaving Mexico in September 2002, he became a Visiting Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.
Ambassador Davidow joined the US Foreign Service in 1969 and began his career at the American Embassy in Guatemala. He later became the head of the liaison office at the US Embassy in Zimbabwe and later returned to the US to act as the Director of the Office of Southern African Affairs in 1985. He also pursued a fellowship at Harvard University. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan nominated him to be US Ambassador to Zambia, a position he held until 1990. After his ambassadorship to Zambia, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. Ambassador Davidow spent many years involved in multiple negotiations in southern Africa - Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa itself - that helped bring relative peace to that region.
Since leaving the Foreign Service, Ambassador Davidow has served as President of the Institute of the Americas in San Diego. Established in 1983, the Institute of the Americas is a leading institution in United States-Canada-Latin America cooperation. The Institute, best known for its energy and technology programs, brings together business and government leaders and representatives of civil society in forums designed to seek ways in which public and private entities can collaborate, clarify rules and regulations so private enterprise can flourish, promote the development of infrastructure through public-private funding, and implement effective policies for managing economic growth in Latin America.
Ambassador Davidow is also an accomplished public speaker and author. He has published articles in Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs and authored two books, one on international negotiations and the other, The US and Mexico: The Bear and the Porcupine, a bestseller in Mexico and a prominent textbook at American universities. He speaks frequently on hemispheric policy and on Mexican developments for organizations such as the North American Forum, the Trilateral Commission, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Pacific Council, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the InterAmerican Development Bank, and many university and other groups. He also served as an adviser to President Obama for the 2009 Summit of the Americas.
A native of Massachusetts, Ambassador Davidow received a BA from the University of Massachusetts in 1965 and an MA from the University of Minnesota in 1967. He also did postgraduate work in India in 1968 on a Fulbright travel grant.
Senior Policy Analyst, Latin America and the Western Hemisphere, The Heritage Foundation
Ana Rosa Quintana leads The Heritage Foundation’s efforts on U.S. policy toward Latin America.
She has authored numerous policy studies included but not limited to Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela. She has written articles for a wide range of outlets including The Atlantic, Real Clear World, the National Interest, The Hill, and various publications. She has presented at the State Department and other U.S. government agencies. Her work has been cited in media venues such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business, The Guardian, and she has been a commentator on media outlets like Fox News, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera. She has also testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress.
Quintana holds a Master of Arts degree in global affairs and a bachelor’s degree in political science, both from Florida International University. She also received certificates in National Security, Latin American and Caribbean studies. She was a scholar in the university’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship Studies. She’s fluent in Spanish and studied in Minas Gerais, Brazil, on a scholarship sponsored by the Department of Defense.
She was formerly a National Security Fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Penn Kemble Democracy Forum Fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy.
Prior to joining Heritage, she was a student trainee at the Defense Intelligence Agency. She also held internships at Virginia-based International Relief and Development, where she worked on rule of law issues in Latin America, and at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she worked on civilian-military cooperation.
Of Counsel, DLA Piper LLP (US)
Harout J. Samra – a Board Certified Specialist in International Law – focuses his practice on international dispute resolution and arbitration matters, including international civil litigation in US courts.
Harout has represented clients from both the public and private sectors, including foreign governments, public officials and clients from a variety of industries. He has experience in international arbitrations administered under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Bogota Chamber of Commerce, Madrid Court of Arbitration and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitration rules.
Harout currently serves as a member of the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, by appointment of Governor Ron DeSantis. He previously served, by appointment of Governor Rick Scott, as a member of the Florida Third District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, and was elected as Chair of the Commission from 2018-2019.
Director, Center for Legal Policy, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
James R. Copland is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and director of Legal Policy. In those roles, he develops and communicates novel, sound ideas on how to improve America’s civil- and criminal-justice systems. His forthcoming book, The Unelected: How an Unaccountable Elite is Governing America (Encounter Books) will be released on September 8, 2020. He has testified before Congress as well as state and municipal legislatures; and has authored many policy briefs, book chapters, articles and opinion pieces in a variety of publications, including the Harvard Business Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation, the Wall Street Journal, National Law Journal, and USA Today. Copland speaks regularly on civil- and criminal-justice issues; has made hundreds of media appearances in such outlets as PBS, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, C-Span, and NPR; and is frequently cited in news articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Economist, and Forbes. In 2011 and 2012, he was named to the National Association of Corporate Directors “Directorship 100” list, which designates the individuals most influential over U.S. corporate governance.
Prior to joining MI, Copland was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company in New York. Earlier, he was a law clerk for Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Copland has been a director of two privately held manufacturing companies since 1997 and has served on many public and nonprofit boards. He holds a J.D. and an M.B.A. from Yale, where he was an Olin Fellow in Law and Economics; an M.Sc. in the politics of the world economy from the London School of Economics; and a B.A. in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Scholar.
President, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Religious Liberty, Catholic University; Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School
Mark joined the Becket team in 2011 and splits his time as Associate Professor at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and as Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Mark teaches constitutional law, religious liberty, torts, and evidence. He has been voted Teacher of the Year three years in a row by the Law School’s Student Bar Association.
Mark has broad experience litigating First Amendment religious exercise and free speech cases. He has represented the winning parties in a variety of Supreme Court First Amendment cases including Hobby Lobby, Little Sisters, Wheaton College, and Holt. In January 2014, Mark argued before the Supreme Court in McCullen v. Coakley, a First Amendment challenge to a Massachusetts speech restriction outside of abortion clinics. The Justices ruled in favor of his clients 9-0. Mark also led a successful eight-year litigation battle against Governor Blagojevich’s effort to force religious pharmacists to distribute the morning-after and week-after pills.
Mark’s academic writing focuses on the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and has appeared in a variety of prestigious journals, including the Harvard Law Review.
Mark is a widely sought after speaker on constitutional issues, particularly concerning abortion and the First Amendment. Professor Rienzi has been invited to discuss these issues at Harvard Law School, Columbia University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Notre Dame Law School, the National Press Club, and the Capitol. He has been quoted on constitutional law issues on NPR, in the Washington Times, The New York Daily News, and the Chicago Sun-Times. Mark has also been featured on the Kelly File, Fox News Sunday, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Geraldo at Large, CNN Tonight, CNN Live, Andrea Mitchell Reports, and Wall Street Journal Live.
Prior to joining Becket, Mark served as counsel for the litigation department and the intellectual property litigation practice group of WilmerHale LLP. His practice focused on complex civil and appellate litigation with a particular emphasis on intellectual property and First Amendment issues. Prior to joining WilmerHale, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Stephen F. Williams, senior circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Prior to that, Mark was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Princeton University, both with honors.
Director of the Program in Human Rights, Catholic University of America
William L. Saunders is Chair Emeritus of the Religious Liberties Practice Group of the Federalist Society. He is also a religious liberty and human rights scholar as well as director of the Center for Human rights at The Catholic University of America. He is Law Fellow with the Institute for Human Ecology, Professor and Director of the Program in Human Rights in the School of Arts & Sciences and Co-director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Columbus School of Law. Before joining The Catholic University of America, Mr. Saunders served as Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel with Americans United for Life for ten years. From 1999 to 2009, he was Senior Fellow in Bioethics and Human Rights Counsel at the Family Research Council.
Mr. Saunders attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Morehead scholarship. He obtained his degree in law from the Harvard Law School.
Mr. Saunders was featured in Harvard’s first Guide to Conservative Public Interest Law in 2003 and again in the 2008 edition. He served on Harvard’s Advisory Committee for its 2008 celebration of public interest law. A member of the Supreme Court bar, he has authored numerous legal briefs in state, federal, foreign, and international courts.
Mr. Saunders’ book, Unborn Human Life and Fundamental Rights: Leading Constitutional Cases Under Scrutiny, was published in 2019. His articles and book chapters have been published by the university presses of Harvard, Villanova, Brigham Young, Fordham, Georgetown, Houston, Scranton, and the Catholic University of America, as well as by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Freedom House, Greenhaven Press, Rowan & Littlefield, Praeger, St. Augustine’s, and Intervarsity press. He has given lectures and participated in debates at many colleges, universities, and law schools, including Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. He delivered the annual J. Michael Miller Lecture at the University of St. Thomas (on international law) in February 2007, the annual R. Wayne Kraft Memorial Lecture (on bioethics) at DeSales University in February 2004 and the annual James Moore Lecture (on human rights violations in Sudan) at Millikin University in 1999. He has also lectured, and/or has been published, in many foreign countries, including Italy, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Mexico, Qatar, Malaysia, Romania, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.
In addition to speaking and writing frequently on bioethics topics, Mr. Saunders has submitted testimony to the President’s Council on Bioethics, as well as to UNESCO’s Committee on Bioethics, and has briefed Congressional staff and state legislatures. He is a regular columnist for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly.
Mr. Saunders has appeared often in the media, including BBC World News, CNN, Fox News, Vatican Radio, and National Public Radio. His articles on issues have appeared in a variety of journals, such as First Things, Human Events, Human Life Review, The Legal Times, Communio, The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy, Ethics & Medics, and Touchstone.
Mr. Saunders served on the official United States delegation to the UN Special Session on Children in 2001/02. In 2011, he was a speaker at an official briefing at the UN, addressing the topic, why euthanasia is not a human right.
In 2004, he served on the NGO Working Committee in connection with the Doha Intergovernmental Conference for the Family.
Mr. Saunders is Senior Fellow with the Religious Freedom Institute, and Affiliated Scholar with the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Ethics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and a member of the boards of the International Association of Catholic Bioethicists, the International Right to Life Federation, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and the Society of Catholic Social Scientists.
In 1999, Mr. Saunders founded Sudan Relief and Rescue, Inc., to aid the persecuted church in Sudan. He has worked for and written on behalf of the persecuted church for many years.
Deputy Associate Attorney General, Office of the Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
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.
Deputy Associate Attorney General, Office of the Associate Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
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.
Supply Chain Security and Global Power Competition: Should the United States Get China Out of its Supply Chain?
TeleforumFederalism and the Scope of Federal Criminal Law [Archive Collection]
G. Robert Blakey, James L. Buckley, Joseph E. diGenova, David B. Sentelle, William Van Alstyne
On September 9-10, 1988, The Federalist Society hosted its second annual National Lawyers Convention at...
Federalism and the Scope of Federal Criminal Law [Archive Collection]
G. Robert Blakey, James L. Buckley, Joseph E. diGenova, David B. Sentelle, William Van Alstyne
On September 9-10, 1988, The Federalist Society hosted its second annual National Lawyers Convention at...
Litigation Update: United Nurses and Allied Professionals v. NLRB
Glenn Taubman
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Judges Kayatta, Selya and retired Justice...
USMCA in Practice: What it Means for the Future of US-Mexico Relations
Jeffrey Davidow, Ana Rosa Quintana, Harout J. Samra
The new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) entered into force in the United States on July...
Race and Policing
James R. Copland
In this teleforum, James R. Copland will discuss competing legislative proposals in Congress, in the...
Religious Liberty at the Supreme Court: Previewing the New Term
Mark L. Rienzi, William L. Saunders
The Supreme Court's most recent term ended with several high-profile liberty rulings, including Espinoza v. Montana...
The Judicial Philosophy of Amy Coney Barrett
John Adams, Robert S. Driscoll, Amanda Lee Rauh-Bieri, Ryan J. Walsh
President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the United States Court of Appeals...
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John Adams, Robert S. Driscoll, Amanda Lee Rauh-Bieri, Ryan J. Walsh
President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the United States Court of Appeals...
Absentee Balloting in Connecticut- The Law and Practice of Conducting Fair and Secure Elections this November
Connecticut Lawyers Chapter - Online Event