Judge, Ohio Twelfth District Court of Appeals
Judge Matthew R. Byrne was elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Twelfth District in 2020, and his first term began on January 1, 2021. He is currently serving as the court's elected Administrative Judge. The Twelfth District Court of Appeals hears civil and criminal appeals from the trial courts in eight counties in southwest Ohio. Judge Byrne is active in the Ohio Judicial Conference and the Ohio Court of Appeals Judges Association. He also currently serves as a member and vice chair of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure (where he previously chaired the Appellate Rules Committee). He previously served as a member of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on Character and Fitness.
From January 2010 to December 2020, Judge Byrne practiced law at the national law firm of Jackson Lewis P.C. He was a member of the firm's General Employment Litigation Practice Group and the Wage and Hour Practice Group. From 2007 to 2010 he practiced at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. At both firms, Judge Byrne represented clients ranging from small businesses to international corporations in state and federal trial and appellate litigation, including multiple class and collective actions. He also represented clients in arbitration and before numerous administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
Judge Byrne earned his law degree, cum laude, from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. During law school he was symposium editor of the Ohio State Law Journal and the winner of the Donald S. Teller Memorial Award for student writing contributing most significantly to the Ohio State Law Journal. During law school he clerked for the Acting General Counsel of the United States Department of the Treasury. Judge Byrne earned his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Xavier University, where he majored in International Affairs (Business) and Political Science.
Prior to entering law school Judge Byrne served in President George W. Bush's Administration as a member of the White House staff in the Office of Presidential Personnel, the office responsible for selecting candidates to recommend to the President for appointment or nomination to high-level government positions, and for coordinating with the Offices of White House Counsel, Press Secretary, and Executive Clerk regarding candidate background clearances, press announcements, and the status of appointments/nominations.
Judge Byrne has been a member of the Federalist Society since law school and he served for five years as president of the Federalist Society's Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter. He is a member of a number of other community and civic organizations, including the Ohio State Bar Association and the bar associations of Butler, Clermont, and Warren Counties. Judge Byrne previously was a member of the Advisory Board of Pregnancy Center East and a board member and president of the St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Greater Cincinnati.
Judge Byrne is an active parishioner at his church, where he is a lector, a former member and president of the Education Commission, and a former member of the Finance and Administration Commission.
Judge Byrne resides in Deerfield Township, Warren County, Ohio with his wife Julie and their three children.
General Counsel, House Republican Caucus , Michigan House of Representatives
State Rep. Andrew Fink was first elected to serve the 35th District in the Michigan House of Representatives in November 2020. The district encompasses all of Branch and Hillsdale counties, and the city of Hudson in Lenawee County. Rep. Fink serves as Republican vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Last term, he served as vice chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military and Veterans Affairs and State Police, and also as a member of the House Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Insurance and Financial Services, and General Government Appropriations subcommittees, as well as the Health Policy Committee.
Before taking office, Rep. Fink went into active duty and worked as a judge advocate for Marines and their families. He left the military as a captain in 2014. In 2017, he moved to Hillsdale from Ypsilanti to open a local office of his family’s law firm, Fink and Fink.
Rep. Fink graduated from Hillsdale College in 2006 with a B.A. in Politics. He then earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law school in 2010.
Judge, Wisconsin Second District Court of Appeals
HON. MARIA S. LAZAR, Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District II, August, 2022—present. Waukesha
County Circuit Court Judge, August, 2015-July, 2022, rotations included Presiding Judge Juvenile
Division; Criminal Division, Presiding Judge; Drug Treatment Court Judge; and Civil Division. Formerly
a Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General, in the Special Litigation and Appeals unit and was in private
practice for 20 years. She was President of the Milwaukee Bar Association, was on its Board of Directors
and served two terms on the State of Wisconsin’s Board of Governors. Judge Lazar earned her B.A.
degree, magna cum laude, from Mount Mary College and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law
Center.
Judge, Michigan First District Court of Appeals
Hon. Michael J. Riordan was appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals by Governor Rick Snyder on March 16, 2012. In November 2012, he was elected to a full six-year term, and he was reelected in 2018 and 2024. Previously, Judge Riordan served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, as assistant general counsel for the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network in Milwaukee, and as a senior attorney in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He also was an inspector with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (now known as Customs and Border Protection). On graduation from law school, he served as a federal judicial law clerk for the Honorable Robert E. DeMascio of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Judge Riordan has also been an adjunct professor of securities regulation, business organizations, and administrative law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law for 25 years. He is a past president of the Federal Bar Association of the Eastern District of Michigan and of the Incorporated Society of Irish American Lawyers, the Michigan Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law Alumni Association. Judge Riordan is also on the board of directors of the Catholic Lawyers Society and the Marywood Nursing Care Center, and is a past member of the board of directors for Detroit’s Loyola High School and PBJ Outreach. He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, having served on its Board of Commissioners and in its Representative Assembly, and has represented the state bar on ICLE's Executive Committee since 2017.
Judge, Illinois 18th Judicial Circuit
Judge Kenton Skarin serves on the Illinois 18th Judicial Circuit, a trial court of general jurisdiction that serves almost one million people in the western suburbs of Chicago.
Judge Skarin graduated first in his class from Northwestern University School of Law and summa cum laude from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.
Earlier in his career, Judge Skarin clerked for Associate Justice Clarence Thomas at the United States Supreme Court and for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Judge Skarin also practiced appellate law in the Chicago office of Jones Day and served as Deputy General Counsel to the Governor of Illinois.
Judge Skarin is a lifelong native of Wheaton, Illinois, where he lives with his wife and children.
Co-Director, IBM PolicyLab
Ryan Hagemann is a Technology Policy Executive at IBM. He was previously a senior policy fellow at the International Center for Law & Economics. Before joining the International Center for Law & Economics, he was a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, where he also served as the senior director for policy and director of technology policy. His policy expertise focuses on regulatory governance of emerging technologies, as well as a broader research portfolio that includes genetic modification and regenerative medicine, bioengineering and healthcare IT, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, commercial drones, the Internet of Things, and other issues at the intersection of technology, regulation, and the digital economy. His work on “soft law” governance systems, autonomous vehicles, and commercial drones has been featured in numerous academic journals, and his research and comments have been cited by The New York Times, MIT Technology Review, and The Atlantic, among other outlets. He has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Review, The Washington Examiner, U.S. News & World Report, The Hill, and elsewhere.
Ryan graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in international relations, foreign policy, and security studies and holds a Master of Public Policy in science and technology policy from George Mason University.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Rao was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in March 2019. She graduated from Yale College in 1995 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1999. Following graduation, she served as a law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and, in the 2001 October Term, as law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. Between her clerkships, Judge Rao served as counsel for nominations and constitutional law to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In 2002, she joined the international arbitration group of Clifford Chance LLP in London, England. From 2005-2006, she served as Special Assistant and Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush. From 2006 to 2017, Judge Rao was a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where she taught constitutional law, legislation and statutory interpretation, and the history and foundations of the administrative state. In 2014, she founded the Center for the Study of the Administrative State, a non-profit Center that promotes academic scholarship and public policy debates about administrative law. In July 2017, she was appointed to serve as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management Budget. She served in this position until her appointment to the D.C. Circuit.
Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
Patrick Daugherty is a senior corporate and securities law partner of Foley & Lardner LLP, based in Chicago. He also is an adjunct professor of Cornell Law School, where he teaches in residence each Fall Term.
Mr. Daugherty is a member of the Bar in New York, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Michigan and Illinois. Credentialing organizations have named him “Lawyer of the Year” in both Michigan (2007) and Illinois (2022). A graduate of Northwestern University and of Cornell Law School (Class of 1981), he clerked for SDNY Chief Judge Lloyd F. MacMahon for a year before entering private practice. Mr. Daugherty also served as Counsel to SEC Commissioner Edward H. Fleischman in Washington, D.C., from 1986 to 1989. An Emeritus Member of the American Law Institute, he is the author, co-author or editor of several books and many articles on securities regulation and new financial products.
Mr. Daugherty believes that he was the first lawyer inside the SEC to join the Federalist Society when he became a member in the late 1980s. A mainstay of the Chicago Lawyers Chapter, at the national level of the Society he serves on the Executive Committee for the Financial Services & E-Commerce Practice Group.
Head of Policy & General Counsel, Crypto, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
Miles Jennings joined the a16z Crypto team as General Counsel in August 2021.
Miles was most recently a partner at Latham & Watkins, where he focused on working with startups and investors in heavily regulated sectors including life sciences and, most importantly, crypto. He has been the go-to, trusted advisor for countless startups and crypto projects, guiding them from incorporation through financings, acquisitions, token offerings, and governance matters.
Miles’ experience within the sector stretches back to 2017, when he first began working with ConsenSys, a firm client, and he quickly became one of the most sought-after legal minds working in crypto. During his time at Latham, he co-chaired its global blockchain and cryptocurrency task force, which was composed of over 80 lawyers around the globe. In addition, he worked regularly with almost every venture firm operating in crypto, designing several of the investment structures they use today, and he was counsel to dozens of startups in the sector, including Aave, Bitwise, Avalanche, Element, Idle, Connext, 3Box, and Aztec. Miles was also an editor of Latham’s Global Fintech & Payments blog and has published several articles relating to legal matters relevant to crypto startups.
Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Steven Lofchie advises financial institutions on regulatory issues and financial instruments.
In his regulatory practice, Steven counsels clients on securities laws, the CEA, and related bankruptcy issues. His transactional practice focuses on securities credit and derivative transactions.
Steven is the founder and manager of an acclaimed legal website (now renamed Fried Frank Regulatory Intelligence) that has been endorsed by former chairpersons of both the SEC and CFTC. Subscribers to the website include government regulators and major buy- and sell-side firms.
Chambers USA has ranked Steven in Band 1 for eight years running, for both financial services regulation and derivatives. He is the only lawyer in the country to be top-ranked in both of those categories. Steven was also part of the team that was named 2020 Regulatory Team of the Year by IFLR Americas. The Best Lawyers in America recognized Steven as “Lawyer of the Year” for Administrative/Regulatory Law in New York in 2017, and U.S. News and World Report ranked him as the best regulatory lawyer in New York for 2014. In 2012, a derivatives transaction developed by Steven was cited as the best international structured product of the year by International Financial Law Review.
General Counsel, Ava Labs
Lee Schneider serves as General Counsel for Ava Labs, a leading blockchain software company. Mr. Schneider is responsible for all aspects of the legal function as well as the company’s government affairs initiatives.
As an early lawyer in the financial services and technology space (FinTech) and a leading voice in blockchain law and policy, Mr. Schneider has been involved in many significant projects in FinTech and blockchain, including some of the largest and most popular token sales. He also co-hosts a FinTech podcast with former SEC Commissioner Troy Paredes, available on iTunes and other podcast services.
Prior to Ava Labs, Mr. Schneider served as General Counsel of block.one and as a practice leader at two major US law firms. Mr. Schneider has a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law (’91).
Head of Legal for the Americas, Crypto.com
Justin is Head of Legal for the Americas at Crypto.com where he leads the company's North and South American legal and regulatory strategy. Prior to joining Crypto.com, he was a partner with the international law firm of K&L Gates where his practice focused on the rapidly evolving legal and regulatory issues impacting decentralized technologies including cryptocurrencies, decentralized financial (DeFi) platforms, smart contracts, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other related concepts.
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