Founder and Partner, Dowd Scheffel PLLC
Matthew Dowd focuses his skills on complex appellate and trial litigation, with an emphasis on patent and intellectual property issues. Through his years of practice, Mr. Dowd has successfully worked on numerous high-stakes and eclectic legal matters, focusing primarily on all stages of complex patent matters (AIA proceedings, litigation, prosecution, and counseling). Mr. Dowd's expertise and leadership are regularly consulted, as he is frequently asked to comment in the press on leading intellectual property issues.
Mr. Dowd has substantial experience with Hatch-Waxman litigation, including all stages of opinion analysis, litigation, and appeals. His technical background in medicinal chemistry is ideally suited for litigating pharmaceutical patents. He has represented clients in a range of trial forums for patent disputes, such as the Eastern District of Texas and the District of Delaware, as well as the Patent Trial and Appeal Board at the USPTO.
He has argued and briefed numerous appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and other courts involving issues such as patent law, Hatch-Waxman, administrative law, Fifth Amendment takings, contract claims, government employment issues, and criminal law. In 2018, Mr. Dowd is co-counsel with the Hon. Richard Posner (ret.) of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in an appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
In 2013, Mr. Dowd represented Nobel Laureate James Watson, co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, as amicus curiae in the groundbreaking 2013 Supreme Court gene patent case. Mr. Dowd has over 15 years of experience representing clients before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Mr. Dowd is also well-known for his successful pro bono representation in the "free-range kids" case. The case was widely reported in the national, local, and international news.
Mr. Dowd attended The George Washington University Law School, graduating with high honors and being awarded Order of the Coif. While attending law school and before, Mr. Dowd worked full-time as a registered patent agent at the renowned IP boutique Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox.
After law school, Mr. Dowd clerked for the Honorable Paul R. Michel, Chief Judge (ret.) of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. While a law clerk, Mr. Dowd gained an insider's perspective on the appellate process. Understanding the appellate process is critical to maximizing success at the earlier stages of a case.
Mr. Dowd is currently appointed as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School. He teaches appellate advocacy and is the coach for the student moot court team for the AIPLA Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Competition.
Prior to his legal career, Mr. Dowd spent four years in a Ph.D. program in medical chemistry, studying organic chemistry, pharmacology, and pharmaceutical drug design. During his Ph.D. program, Mr. Dowd's research discovered a novel structure-activity relationship for nicotinic ligands with potential utility in treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Mr. Dowd attended The College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, VA, and Regis High School in New York City.
Partner, Duane Morris LLP
Brian Pandya is Partner at Duane Morris LLP. A member of the firm’s Trial Practice Group, Brian represents technology, manufacturing, and healthcare companies in high-stakes litigation, arbitrations, investigations and appeals. He has served as lead trial counsel in a range of intellectual property, antitrust, complex commercial and white-collar matters. He also regularly counsels clients on cybersecurity and national security issues, particularly matters concerning emerging technologies and artificial intelligence.
Before joining Duane Morris, Brian served at the U.S. Department of Justice as Deputy Associate Attorney General from 2019-21, where he oversaw investigations and litigation undertaken by the Antitrust Division and Civil Division and served on several high-profile task forces and trial teams. Brian was also previously a litigation and IP partner at another prominent Washington, DC firm.
Brian clerked for Judge Leonard Davis on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. He is a two-time recipient of the Federal Circuit Bar Association’s Pro Bono Advocacy Award for work on behalf of military veterans and has served as volunteer federal public defender in the Eastern District of Virginia, among many other bar and community engagements.
Brian graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was articles editor of the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, and with honors and high distinction in mechanical engineering from Penn State University, where he received the Ralph Dorn Hetzel Memorial Award.
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.
Circuit Court Judge, Waukesha County, Wisconsin
Brad Schimel grew up in the Town of Vernon and graduated Mukwonago High School. He attended UW Waukesha for 2 years and then finished his Bachelor Degree at UW Milwaukee. He began his career in the Waukesha County Courthouse as an intern in the DA's Office in 1989, and after graduating UW Law School in 1990, was hired as an Assistant DA. He served as an Assistant DA until he was elected Waukesha County District Attorney in 2006 and was twice reelected as DA. He left the courthouse in 2015 after being elected Wisconsin Attorney General. Brad and his family stayed here in Waukesha County, and he returned to the courthouse as a Circuit Court Judge presiding over Br. 6 in January, 2019.
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.
Founder, President, and General Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty
Rick Esenberg is the founder and current President and General Counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a rapidly expanding law and policy organization headquartered in Milwaukee. Under Rick’s leadership, WILL has grown into one of the more active state-based think tanks and litigation centers in the country. Rick is a frequent litigator in state and federal courts and nationally recognized scholar and commentator on constitutional law, particularly the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech and religion. He is one of the leading experts on the Wisconsin Constitution and a frequent advocate before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Rick’s work seeks to advance the rule of law and individual liberty, formed by a robust civil society that forms individual and community character, preserving the wisdom of the past and an openness to the future.
Rick’s commentary has been featured in such outlets as the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Weekly Standard, Real Clear Politics, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Washington Examiner. Formerly on the faculty of Marquette University Law School, his scholarship has appeared in such publications as the Harvard Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Wake Forest Law Review and William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. Back when they were a thing, he operated a blog called Shark and Shepherd where he tried to suggest something about the duality of man – “the Jungian thing.”
Rick holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and a B.A., summa cum laude, in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In addition to service on the Marquette Faculty, he was formerly a litigation partner at Foley & Lardner and General Counsel of an international manufacturing firm headquartered in Wisconsin. He lives in Mequon Wisconsin with his wife Karen, golden retrievers Cooper and Riley and more books than he can find places for.
Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Jordan Lorence is Senior Counsel in FLI’s Washington, D.C. office, where he represents First Liberty in strategic efforts promoting religious liberty, and works on important First Amendment projects and litigation, including those at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lorence has a long career of litigating religious liberty cases since 1984. He has worked for many public interest law firms, including Alliance Defending Freedom, Home School Legal Defense Association, the North Star Legal Center and Concerned Women for America.
He has worked on important religious liberty cases. Lorence worked on school choice cases at the Supreme Court, such as Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986), and Trinity Lutheran (2016), which laid the foundation for First Liberty’s crucial win in Carson v. Makin (2022), requiring Maine to include religious schools in its school choice program.
Lorence argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Regents of the University of Wisconsin v. Southworth (2000). He represented prolife Christian law students from the University of Wisconsin Law School who objected to the University’s requirement that they pay a mandatory student fee that funded the advocacy of student pro-abortion groups. Other Supreme Court cases Lorence has worked on include NIFLA v. Becerra (2018), protecting prolife pregnancy centers from a California statute requiring them to post signs explaining how pregnant women could obtain state-funded abortions; Masterpiece Cakeshop (2017), involving a Christian cake artist sued by the State of Colorado for declining to design a case celebrating the wedding of a same-sex couple and other cases such as Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2012), Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995), Hurley v. GLIB (1995) and Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Center Moriches School District (1993).
Churches and other religious groups in New York City obtained the right to rent vacant public schools on weekends to conduct worship services after Lorence’s tenacious 20 years of litigation in Bronx Household of Faith. Lorence won protection for churches facing eviction from discriminatory zoning ordinances in Minnesota in Cornerstone Bible Church v. City of Hastings, Minnesota (1991). He also argued at the New Mexico Supreme Court one of the first cases in the nation defending a Christian wedding photographer charged by the State of New Mexico with discrimination for declining to create photos celebrating the commitment ceremony of a lesbian couple in Elane Photography v. Willock (2013).
Lorence defended home schooling families from intrusive school officials during his time working at Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) in the 1980s and 1990s. HSLDA also tasked Lorence with establishing a sister organization in Canada to protect home schooling families there. He traveled extensively in Canada from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island speaking to families how they could protect their right to home school under relevant Canadian law.
Lorence earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from Stanford University and his law degree from the University of Minnesota, his home state. Lorence was born and raised in Minnesota, where he worked one summer building Mighty Dump trucks at Tonka Toys in Mound, Minnesota. For two years immediately after he graduated from law school, Lorence served as the head administrator for a Minnesota Senate committee.
He speaks extensively on First Amendment and other legal issues. Lorence has spoken at least 75 law schools and many legal conferences. Prominent publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and others have printed his opinion pieces on key legal issues involving religious liberty and freedom of speech. He has appeared on such media outlets as Fox News, CNN, National Public Radio, NBC’s Today Show, BBC radio and many others.
Lorence and his wife Marilyn have been married 40 years. They live in the Washington, D.C. area where they raised their seven children.
Senior Partner, Pines Bach LLP
Lester Pines is a Senior Partner in the firm.
A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, he is a respected civil and criminal litigator and appellate advocate. In his over 40 years of practice, he has appeared in trial and appellate courts throughout Wisconsin, in numerous federal district courts, and before the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. After a recent trial, one of Lester’s clients wrote:
"Seeing you in action was like watching an artist create a classic painting from a blank canvas but instead of paint you used facts, figures and, most importantly, words to achieve a masterpiece in the courtroom."
His wide-ranging civil trial practice encompasses commercial claims, employment disputes, constitutional and civil rights matters, personal injury and intellectual property cases. His criminal defense work has involved many high profile cases, especially involving teachers, police officers and other public employees. He is counsel to Madison Teachers Inc., which represents the employees of the Madison Metropolitan School District.
Recently, Lester was featured in a cover story in Isthmus, a Madison weekly newspaper, " Activist Attorney – Lester Pines draws on faith and family in his practice and beyond."
Recent challenges to the constitutionality of newly enacted laws that Lester brought on behalf of his clients include:
Previously, in cases in which he was appointed by former Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, Lester defended Wisconsin’s law creating domestic partnerships for same sex couples and stopped an attempt by then Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to suppress voting in the 2008 Presidential election.
Among the many cases Lester has argued before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, two in particular have shaped Wisconsin law. In 2010 he represented the Zurich American Insurance Company inMiller v. Hanover Insurance, securing the reversal of a $2,000,000 default judgment against his client and achieving a significant change in Wisconsin law regarding relief from such judgments. In an original action in 1996, he successfully argued the case of Thompson v. Craney, which delineated the constitutionally vested powers of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and protected them from being altered by the Legislature, which the Wisconsin Supreme Court reaffirmed in 2016 in Coyne v. Walker.
Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Howard Schweber joined the department in Fall 1999. He received his PhD in Government from Cornell University and an MA in History from the University of Chicago after spending five years practicing law in Seattle and San Francisco. Schweber teaches courses focusing on constitutional law and legal and political theory. He is the author of "Democracy and Authenticity" (Cambridge, 2012), "The Language of Liberal Constitutionalism" (Cambridge, 2007), "The Creation of American Common Law"(Cambridge, 2004), and "Speech, Conduct, and the First Amendment" (Peter Lang, 2003) as well as articles, essays and book chapters on a variety of related topics. His current areas of research include comparative constitutional law and democratic theories of representation. In addition to his position in the Political Science Department Schweber is a core faculty member of the Legal Studies program. From 2011 to 2013 he was Visiting Professor and the first Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, and in 2012 he was the Australian Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Politics.
Schweber is a regular guest on Wisconsin radio and gives frequent newspaper, radio, and television interviews in the local, national, and international press. He is also a contributing blogger at Huffingtonpost.com and an occasional guest blogger on other sites, and a frequent public speaker both on and off campus. Schweber was previously the faculty advisor and coach for the UW College Mock Trial Team and is currently the advisor for "Sifting and Winnowing," Wisconsin's undergraduate politics and law journal. In 2004 he was the recipient of the William H. Kiekhoffer Award for Distinguished Teaching. He has also twice been selected as the Pi Sigma Alpha Professor of the year, and has received numerous other teaching awards while at Wisconsin. Earlier, while a graduate student at Cornell University, Schweber received the Stephen and Marjorie Russell Award for Outstanding Teaching, the highest award for teaching at any level awarded by the College of Arts and Sciences.
Partner, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP
Misha leads Troutman Peppers' national appellate and Supreme Court practice. Most recently, he successfully obtained orders from the Supreme Court blocking an unconstitutional restriction on places of worship, as well as overturning a lower court order that had blocked several state election laws. He has also argued and prevailed before the Supreme Court in Gill v. Whitford, one of the most significant redistricting cases in decades, as well as Murr v. Wisconsin, a high-stakes regulatory taking case.
Before joining Troutman, Misha served as Solicitor General of the State of Wisconsin. Misha previously served as a law clerk for the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court, Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit, and Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was President of the Federalist Society Chapter.
Robert Mundheim Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Amy Wax's work addresses issues in social welfare law and policy as well as the relationship of the family, the workplace, and labor markets. By bringing to bear her training in biomedical sciences and appellate practice as well as her interest in economic analysis, Wax has developed a uniquely insightful approach to problems in her areas of expertise.
Wax's career has been stellar. As an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wax argued 15 cases before the United States Supreme Court. She taught for seven years at the University of Virginia Law School before joining the Penn Law faculty in 2001.
Wax has published widely in law journals, including Chicago, Virginia, Villanova, Indiana, Emory, the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law, Yale Journal on Regulation and the Michigan Journal of Race and Law. Papers in press address liberal theory and welfare work requirements as well as the economics of federal disability laws. Current work in progress includes articles on law and evolutionary psychology, the political psychology of social security reform, and economic models of the family-friendly workplace. Wax has also received the A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Course.
Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School
Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).
His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.
Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Partner, Mayer Brown LLP
An experienced appellate lawyer, Tim Bishop has argued five cases and briefed more than 60 before the US Supreme Court and has successfully handled dozens of appeals in federal and state appellate courts. He also represents clients in dispositive dismissal, summary judgment, and class certification motions in federal and state trial courts. Tim is co-author of the leading treatise, Supreme Court Practice(9th ed., 2007), a contributor to Federal Appellate Practice (2008), and a prolific author and speaker in the areas of appellate practice, environmental law, and securities law.
Tim has substantial experience in environmental and land use litigation (especially under the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, federal and state Takings Clauses, and nuisance law), securities and antitrust litigation, class certification, federal and state tax controversies, labor and employment law, and constitutional appeals and litigation. In the securities area, he has submitted successful party or amicus briefs in most of the Supreme Court’s recent cases, including Dabit, Dura, Tellabs, Billing, Stoneridge, andAmchem, as well as in leading lower-court cases such as In re IPO Securities Litigation and Newton. He has broad experience in defeating class certification in complex litigation.
In the environmental law area Tim has been ranked as a top practitioner by Chambers, Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney's Best of the Best USA, and other publications, which have called him "the go-to guy if you have a serious environmental issue on appeal - he is excellent at spotting issues and is a great appellate advocate" (Chambers 2009). Tim is ranked Band 1 in Chambers USA 2012 in Environmental Law ("sources unanimously consider Bishop to be an exceptionally strong appellate lawyer") and Legal 500 2012 comments, "Bishop is 'superb and provides exemplary service.'" Tim successfully argued Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County in the Supreme Court, in which the Court struck down the Corps of Engineer’s "migratory bird rule." One leading environmental law professor and practitioner has written that Tim is "industry’s leading Supreme Court lawyer in environmental cases."
Since 1995, Tim has been a partner in Mayer Brown LLP’s 60-strong Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Practice (which "stands head and shoulders above its competitors," according to Chambers USA 2008). Previously, he served as Law Clerk to US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and to Judge James L. Oakes, US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and was Staff Counsel and Skadden Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union. Recently, Tim was named one of Benchmark’s 2013 Appellate Illinois Litigation Stars.Chambers USA (2007) notes Tim’s “high visibility” and “incredible reputation for appellate law,” and he has been described in theLawdragon 500 as "a high court superstar" and a "top advocate" (2006).
Former Criminal Court Judge & Senior Counsel to DOJ
Former Trial Lawyer, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
Former Alabama Chief Deputy & Deputy Attorney General
Senior Advisor and Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation
Allen Mendenhall is a Senior Advisor for the Capital Markets Initiative and Research Fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Previously, he served as Associate Dean and Grady Rosier Professor in the Sorrell College of Business at Troy University, where he also directed the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Madden Center for Value Creation at Florida Atlantic University.
His books include Literature and Liberty: Essays in Libertarian Literary Criticism (2014), Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Pragmatism, and the Jurisprudence of Agon: Aesthetic Dissent and the Common Law (2017), Of Bees and Boys: Lines from a Southern Lawyer (2017), The Southern Philosopher: Collected Essays of John William Corrington (2017), Writers on Writing: Conversations with Allen Mendenhall (2019), The Three Ps of Liberty: Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Polycentricity (2020), Shouting Softly: Essays on Law, Literature, and Culture (2021), A Glooming Peace This Morning (2023, a novel), and Controversies Among Conservatives: Conversations on Conservatism, Vol. II (2024, edited with Marcus Witcher and Kevin Hughes). His monthly segment “Word to the Wise” appears on Troy Public Radio (WTSU 89.9, WRWA 88.7, WTJB 91.7), and he writes a weekly column for 1819 News, Alabama’s bold and innovative conservative news outlet.
Mendenhall holds a B.A. in English from Furman University, an M.A. in English from West Virginia University, a J.D. from West Virginia University College of Law, an LL.M. in transnational law from Temple University Beasley School of Law, and a Ph.D. in English from Auburn University.
From 2016 to 2020, he was Associate Dean and Founding Executive Director of the Blackstone & Burke Center for Law & Liberty at Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Alabama. He edited Southern Literary Review for over a decade (2011–2022) and has served as a visiting scholar (2020) and trustee (2023) at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), an adjunct legal associate at the Cato Institute (2009), a Mises Canada Emerging Scholar with the Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada (2014), an elected member of the Mont Pelerin Society (2024), an associate of the Abbeville Institute (2011–present), a Humane Studies Fellow with the Institute for Humane Studies (2011–2012), a staff attorney for Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of the Supreme Court of Alabama (2013–2016), an Assistant Attorney General in the State of Alabama Office of Attorney General Luther Strange (2016), an AmPhil Fundraising Fellow with the Center for Civil Society of American Philanthropic (2023–2024), an Advisory Council Member of the Law & Liberty Circle at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín (2024–present), an elected member (2012) and former trustee (2018–2022) of the Philadelphia Society, an associated scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute (2017–present), a policy adviser for the Heartland Institute (2016–present), former president of the Alabama Association of Scholars (2017–2020), president of the Montgomery Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society (2013–present), and Chairman of the Board of Managers of the Alabama Center for Law & Liberty (2022–2024). In 2023, he was an inaugural recipient of the Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize from the Heritage Foundation. In 2024, he was a Club For Growth Foundation Fellow and a Lincoln Fellow with the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey appointed him to the 2025–26 State Textbook Committee of the Alabama Department of Education.
He has taught in university English departments, business schools, a humanities department, a law school, a Japanese private school (juku), and a penitentiary, and he serves or has served on numerous boards of organizations as wide-ranging as the Alabama Public Television Foundation Authority (2019–2025), the Young Professionals Board of the Alabama Humanities Foundation (2015–2016), the Society for Law and Culture (a division of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal) (2017–present), Trinity Christian School (2017–2020), Ivy Classical Academy (2025–present), and the Philadelphia Society (2018–2022). He served on the advisory council of the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s Master of Arts degree and Certificate Program in Austrian Economics from 2021–2023. While in private practice in Atlanta, he represented non-profit corporations and litigated cases involving real property, contracts, collections, foreclosures, restrictive covenants, and real estate transactions. He graduated from Leadership Lee County (Alabama), the Alabama State Bar Leadership Forum (Class 14), and the Atlas Leadership Academy of Atlas Network. He has authored hundreds of publications, including fiction and poetry, and studied under the creative writers Gilbert Allen, Michael Blumenthal, William Aarnes, and Chantel Acevedo.
His academic writing has appeared or is forthcoming in such peer-reviewed journals as The Journal Jurisprudence, The Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Public Choice, The Political Science Reviewer, Journal of Markets & Morality, Journal of Private Enterprise, The Texas Review of Law and Politics, European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy, Contemporary Pragmatism, The South Carolina Review, Academic Questions, The Independent Review, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Modernist Cultures, The British Journal of American Legal Studies, and in law reviews published by Georgetown University Law Center, UC Berkeley School of Law, The University of Texas School of Law, Emory University School of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law, and Michigan State University College of Law.
His writing for popular media has appeared in Newsweek, Fox News, Fox Business, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, Pacific Standard, The Hill, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The American Conservative, City Journal, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, Public Discourse, Law & Liberty, The Epoch Times, The American Mind, The Freeman, Liberty, RealClearMarkets, The University Bookman, The Daily Signal, Chronicles, The Christian Lawyer, Writer’s Digest, The Conversation, and elsewhere. He has spoken at Harvard University, Brown University, Georgetown University Law Center, Francisco Marroquín University, Furman University, George Mason University, University of British Columbia, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Auburn University, West Virginia University, the Alabama State Capitol, the Alabama Supreme Court, and other universities and locations.
He has been quoted or cited in Fox Business, Fox News, Forbes, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The National Review, The Daily Caller, Le Monde, Times Higher Education, The College Fix, The Blaze Media, Campus Reform, Inside Higher Education, and U.S. News and World Report, and published by such organizations as the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Ludwig von Mises Institute Canada, the Mercatus Center, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the American Institute for Economic Research, the Charlemagne Institute, the Independent Institute, the Rockford Institute, the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, the American Ideas Institute, Atlas Society, the Heartland Institute, the Abbeville Institute, the National Association of Scholars, the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, and the Libertarian Alliance. He frequently appears on radio and television on networks as wide-ranging as Fox News, Newsmax, Alabama Public Television, NewsNation, Al Jazeera, C-SPAN, Bill O’Reilly’s “No Spin News,” NTD News, The Daily Wire, Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” and BBC World News.
Partner, Briscoe Prows Kao Ivester & Bazel LLP
Tony Francois is experienced in Water and Real Property Law, Land Use and Zoning, Environmental Regulation, Natural Resources Development, Agricultural Law, and Constitutional Law. He has represented homeowners, builders, farmers and ranchers, trade associations, and water districts in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings before state and federal administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and the Districts of New Mexico and North Dakota, and has litigated cases in federal courts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has appeared before the Supreme Courts of California, Idaho, Nevada, and the United States.
Prior to attending law school, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Army, and was stationed in the former West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tony was an Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation from 2012 to 2021. He was a lobbyist for 10 years, first with California Farm Bureau Federation from 2003 to 2007, and then with KP Public Affairs from 2007 to 2012. He was an attorney at McQuaid, Bedford & Van Zandt in San Francisco from 1999 – 2003.
Attorney, Briscoe Ivester & Bazel LLP
Peter Prows counsels public agencies, private clients, and sovereigns on all manner of water, land use, and environmental issues, from neighbor disputes and development-permit issues to national-profile bet-the-company federal litigation. He is experienced in California’s water rights and quality laws, the Clean Water Act and wetlands regulation, the Coastal Act, CEQA and NEPA, the public trust doctrine, real property, and the law of the sea. He litigates in state and federal trial and appellate courts, including the California and U.S. Supreme Courts, while also counseling clients on compliance matters to avoid disputes and help projects proceed. Mr. Prows also defends clients in environmental enforcement matters, whether administrative, civil, or criminal. Representative matters include:
Drakes Bay Oyster Company v. Jewell. Won an injunction from the Ninth Circuit keeping historic family oyster farm, which the federal and state governments wanted shut down, in business for an extra nearly 2 1/2 years. Organized amicus and other material litigation support from a national coalition of sustainable food advocates, environmentalists, scientists, historians, community members, and affected employees.
Duarte Nursery, Inc. v. United States. With some 600 jobs at risk, settled high-profile federal Clean Water Act enforcement action against wheat farmer for tiny fraction of government’s demand. Organized national coalition of farming interests to support defense. Discussed prosecution with federal elected representatives and staffs; opposition to prosecution became a talking point for federal officials interested in regulatory reform.
American Farm Bureau and California Farm Bureau (various matters). Filed U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs, at both certiorari and merits stages, on Due Process concerns with the Clean Water Act. Those concerns were picked up by Justice Kennedy in his concurrence in one of these cases, Hawkes v. United States.
The Republic of Palau. Represented Palau in United Nations negotiations over destructive fishing practices in the high seas, the security and resource implications of climate change, and the extended continental shelf.
Bay Island Club v. California Coastal Commission. Complete win in Court of Appeal for client challenging a public-access condition in a coastal development permit.
Mark Pasternak d/b/a Devil’s Gulch Ranch (various matters). Successfully tried, through judgment, neighbor dispute over client’s historic farm road. Successfully challenged Marin County decision to restrict client’s use permit for agriculturally related activities on property. Successfully co-defended client in misdemeanor Fish & Game Code charge, resulting in complete dismissal of charge on the day of trial.
Prior to coming to Briscoe Ivester & Bazel in 2008, Mr. Prows clerked for Judge Charles N. Brower of 20 Essex Street Chambers, London, in his private international arbitration practice, and for Judge Abdul G. Koroma of Sierra Leone at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Counsel, Venable LLP
Tyler Welti is counsel in Venable's Environmental Practice in the San Francisco office. Drawing on his experience with the U.S. Department of Justice's Environment & Natural Resources Division, he represents clients in a wide range of federal and state environmental, natural resources, land use, and other litigation matters, including government enforcement actions, citizen suits, California Environmental Quality Act petitions, and Administrative Procedure Act challenges and appeals. He has particular expertise in counseling and defending project developments involving a federal or state nexus, including transportation, renewable and conventional energy development, timber, mining, water, and other infrastructure projects.
Mr. Welti's experience includes counseling and litigation involving the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Clean Air Act (CAA), Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), National Forest Management Act (NFMA), Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), Mining Law, Mineral Leasing Act, Antiquities Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and many other state and federal laws and regulations.
He began his career as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Environment & Natural Resources Division, where he served as lead counsel on a number of major environmental cases. He received a special distinction award for tireless efforts on behalf of the American public for his work on the Deepwater Horizon litigation. He also served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Consuelo M. Callahan for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Vice President of Law & Policy, Property and Environment Research Center
Jonathan Wood is vice president of law and policy at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). An attorney, Jonathan has litigated environmental and property-rights cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, federal and state appellate courts, and trial courts across the country. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Review, Reason, and other outlets. And his research has been published in journals such as Environmental Law Reporter, Yale Journal on Regulation Notice & Comment, Pace Environmental Law Review, and California Western Law Review.
Prior to coming to PERC, Jonathan was a senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, where he litigated cases concerning the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and other federal environmental laws. He was co-counsel for forest landowners in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in which the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that private land could not be arbitrarily regulated as critical habitat under the ESA. He also led a successful effort to reform regulation of threatened species to better align the incentives of private landowners with the interests of rare species.
Jonathan has testified before several congressional committees on wildlife conservation and endangered species topics. He has also appeared on national television and radio, including NPR’s All Things Considered, C-Span’s Washington Journal, Stossel, Fox News, and Hill.TV.
Jonathan has a law degree from the New York University School of Law, a masters degree in economic policy from the London School of Economics, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Texas. He is on the executive committee for the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Group and a steering committee member for the Environmental Law Institute’s Emerging Leaders Initiative.
Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Jason Delisle is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he works on higher education financing with an emphasis on student loan programs.
Mr. Delisle started his career on Capitol Hill, first in the office of Representative Thomas Petri, then as an analyst for the US Senate Committee on the Budget. His work has led him to study the history and mechanics of federal student loans and other financial aid policies and to recommend budget process reforms for rules covering financial risk in government programs — including working on fair-value accounting for loan programs.
Before joining AEI, Mr. Delisle served as director of the Federal Education Budget Project at New America, where he worked to improve the quality of public information on federal funding for education and the support of well-targeted federal education policies. He was also an informal adviser on higher education reform for Governor Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Mr. Delisle has written for a variety of publications, including Bloomberg View, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also appeared on numerous national television and radio programs, including Fox Business, National Public Radio, and the “PBS NewsHour.”
Mr. Delisle has a master’s of public policy in budget and public finance from the George Washington University and a bachelor of arts degree in government from Lawrence University.
Attorney, Law Office of Adam S. Minky
Adam S. Minsky is one of the nation’s leading experts on student debt and is a pioneer in his field. He established the first law firm in Massachusetts devoted entirely to assisting student loan borrowers, and has since expanded his practice to include New York. He remains one of the only attorneys in the country with a practice focused exclusively in this field of law. Attorney Minsky has published numerous books and articles on student debt, and he regularly speaks at colleges, nonprofit organizations, and professional associations about developments in student loan law and higher education financing. Major media outlets frequently seek his expert opinions on national news and policy stories.
Attorney Minsky founded this practice because he took out student loans to help finance his own education, but when he encountered a serious problem with one of his student loan servicers, he couldn’t find anyone to help him. He established this firm shortly thereafter to help other borrowers who feel alone and overwhelmed by a student debt issue, and he has since helped hundreds of clients work through major problems with their student loans.
Do you need help with your student loans? Do you want personalized, individual attention to your student loan issue? Contact Attorney Minsky.
Founder, Bunch O Balloons
Josh Malone quit his corporate job in 2006 to take his shot at the American (Inventor’s) Dream. Eight years later, savings depleted and orthodontics and college unfunded, he took one last swing before trudging back to the corporate world. And hit the homerun with Bunch O Balloons. His solution to the 63 year old problem of filling and tying water balloons instantly became the number one selling spring/summer toy. It was just as quickly knocked off resulting in a patent litigation now totaling 6 patents, 5 patent suits, 5 PTAB petitions/trials, 4 preliminary injunctions, and 8 appeals at the Federal Circuit. He is currently a Fellow with US Inventor working to restore the patent system.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Adam Mossoff is Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. He has published extensively on why patents, copyrights, and other intellectual property rights have been—and should be—legally secured to innovators and creators as property rights. His scholarship has been relied on by the United States Supreme Court, by lower federal courts, and by U.S. federal agencies. He has been invited to testify numerous times before the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives on intellectual property legislation. His writings on intellectual property policy have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Investors Business Daily, and in other media outlets. His journal articles can be downloaded here.
Professor Mossoff is a longstanding member of the Executive Committee of the Intellectual Property Practice Group of the Federalist Society, on which he served as Chairperson from 2016-2018, and he is Chair of the Intellectual Property Working Group of the Regulatory Transparency Project of the Federalist Society. He is a Senior Fellow and Chair of the Forum for Intellectual Property at the Hudson Institute, a Visiting Intellectual Property Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Intellectual Property Understanding. He is a member of the Intellectual Property Rights Policy Committee of ANSI and he has served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the IEEE-USA, on which he remains a member in good standing.
Associate Counsel and Director of Intellectual Property Policy, Biotechnology Innovation Organization
Melissa Brand is Associate Counsel and Director of Intellectual Property Policy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Ilan Wurman is the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches administrative law and constitutional law. He previously taught at Arizona State University. He writes primarily on the Fourteenth Amendment, administrative law, separation of powers, and constitutionalism. His academic writing has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the Texas Law Review among other journals.
Professor Wurman is the author of a casebook, Administrative Law Theory and Fundamentals: An Integrated Approach (Foundation Press 2d ed. 2024). He is also the author of A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism (Cambridge 2017), and The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (Cambridge 2020). His next book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, is also forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.
Professor Wurman practices law with the firm Tully Bailey. He has litigated a variety of administrative law and constitutional law cases, including cases involving COVID-19 restrictions, transmission lines, and Appointments Clause challenges. He also devised winning public nuisance theories to force city governments to address the increasingly challenging public camping crises throughout the country.
Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
Saurabh Vishnubhakat is a Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program at Cardozo Law. He is also a Research Fellow at the Duke Law Center for Innovation Policy and a Senior Scholar at the George Mason University Center for IP and Innovation Policy. Previously, he held joint appointments as a Professor of Law and Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Professor Vishnubhakat’s expertise is in intellectual property, administrative law and federal litigation, especially from an empirical perspective. His legal writings have been cited in federal judicial opinions, agency regulations and over two dozen Supreme Court briefs. His latest work is published or forthcoming in the Indiana Law Journal, the Washington and Lee Law Review and the Iowa Law Review as well as the peer-reviewed Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
His research explores the interaction of the U.S. intellectual property system with federal courts and agencies, among other topics. With a background in the natural sciences, Professor Vishnubhakat brings a scientific mindset to legal thinking and is dedicated to teaching students how to build arguments with analytical rigor.
Prior to his appointment at Texas A&M, Professor Vishnubhakat served in the United States Patent and Trademark Office as principal legal advisor to that agency’s first two chief economists. He was also a faculty fellow at Duke Law School, where he co-taught patent law and was a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Center for Public Genomics, where he researched law and policy issues surrounding innovation in genetics and biomedicine.
Professor Vishnubhakat holds both a J.D. and LL.M. in intellectual property from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He also holds a B.S. in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is admitted to the bars of Texas, Illinois, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
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Intellectual Property Practice Group and Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
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Since 1958, the United States federal government has offered loans to help college students pay...
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Environmental Law & Property Rights Practice Group, Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group, and Regulatory Transparency Project
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