General Counsel, Office of Speaker Mike Johnson
Ashley Callen has served in the legislative and executive branches for nearly 25 years. Currently, she serves as General Counsel to Speaker Mike Johnson. Prior to her current role, she was General Counsel to Majority Leader Steve Scalise. She got to know Leader Scalise during the 117th Congress serving as the top staffer on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as well as serving then-Ranking Member James Comer as Deputy Staff Director of the Oversight and Reform Committee. Ashley has also served as a top oversight and investigations staffer at the House Agriculture Committee (Chairman Mike Conaway), the Science Space and Technology Committee (Chairman Lamar Smith), and the House Judiciary Committee (Ranking Member Doug Collins). She began her career on the Senate side working for her home state senator, Strom Thurmond. After the Senator retired in 2003, Ashley worked for the Air Force General Counsel’s Office. Ashley earned her BA in English at the University of South Carolina and her JD at the Antonin Scalia Law School. She lives in Arlington, VA with her husband and three children
Partner, Mayer Brown
Kimberly Hamm is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Public Policy, Regulatory & Government Affairs practices. She also leads the firm’s congressional investigations group. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Kim served as the General Counsel to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy where she provided strategic guidance to House committees on congressional investigations and oversight, including issuance and enforcement of committee subpoenas to agencies and private parties. Before joining Speaker McCarthy’s senior team, Kim worked in the public policy group of a global asset management firm, where she led advocacy and external engagement in the areas of financial stability, corporate governance, and regulatory frameworks impacting mutual funds. Kim also served as Republican Chief Counsel for Investigations for the Senate Committee on Rules & Administration.
From 2019 to 2021, Kim was chief counsel to SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, where she oversaw regulatory initiatives across all divisions of the SEC, including the issuance of more than 45 final rules. She also advised on significant legal and policy matters, including cross-border regulation, financial stability risks, major market events, and congressional inquiries.
She also previously served for over four years at the House of Representatives’ Office of General Counsel, where she advised committees on all aspects of congressional investigations and handled litigation arising from subpoena disputes. Kim also represented the House, its members and committees in numerous grand jury, trial, and appellate proceedings on a wide range of other issues arising from official duties, including criminal investigations and constitutional litigation.
Kim began her legal career in the litigation department of an international law firm in London and New York, where she practiced for over a decade and advised clients on securities, compliance, antitrust, insurance, regulatory, and internal investigation matters.
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Judge Roumel was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims in 2020 and served as Chief Judge from 2020-2021. She serves as Chair of the court’s Advisory Council for Intellectual Property, is the Chair of the court’s Attorney Discipline Panel, serves on the court’s Pro Bono Policy Committee, and is the court’s Liaison Representative on the Administrative Conference of the United States. Judge Roumel previously served as the Deputy Counsel to Vice President Pence. Prior to her tenure at the White House, she served as Assistant General Counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives Office of General Counsel, where she advised and represented the U.S. House of Representatives, Members of Congress, and congressional staff in federal trial and appellate courts across the country.
Judge Roumel previously was a partner with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, in Charleston, South Carolina, and before that practiced at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, LLP in New York City. She also was an adjunct professor at the Charleston School of Law, where she taught intellectual property law. Judge Roumel served as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Pauley III, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Tulane Law School, where she graduated Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Tulane Law Review. Judge Roumel also received her M.B.A. from Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business. She earned her B.A., cum laude, from Wake Forest University.
Professor of History, East Stroudsburg University
Dr. Brooks is currently professor of history at East Stroudsburg University, where he teaches several courses, including African Americans and the Courts and US Constitutional History and Law and other courses in legal history. Further to his work at ESU, he is also a founding member and vice president of the Harrisburg lawyers' chapter of the Federalist Society.
Professor Brooks received his BA and MA in US History from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. He then received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to Edinburgh University (Scotland), where he studied British influences on the US judiciary. He completed his doctoral work at Kassel University (Germany). There he worked on the international “Modern Constitutionalism” project, editing and translating constitutions from German to English and English to German. His doctoral work there focused in particular on eleventh amendment sovereignty issues and law during the US founding era.
While in Germany, Prof. Brooks was an active member of the Center for North American Research, where he focused on constitutional and legal history, especially as it pertained to jurisprudential matters. He ran a solo business where he trained attorneys in several mid- to large-sized German and international law firms in legal English and communication. Prof. Brooks also did legal translation for many firms and for Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, that nation’s highest court. Two books resulting from his work there include German Employment Law: 618 Questions Frequently Asked by Foreigners (2014) and Expats in Germany - Inbound and Outbound: Questions Frequently Asked by Foreigners (2017).
Current areas of research include state appellate judicial selection reform, early black attorneys, and comparative employment law.
Dr. Brooks has also written extensively Real Clear Politics, Real Clear Pennsylvania, and Allentown’s The Morning Call. His work has also appeared in New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Hill.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law & Director, Religious Freedom Clinic, Harvard Law School
Josh is the Director of Harvard Law School’s Religious Freedom Clinic, a pro bono program that gives students a hands-on, supervised experience representing a diverse group of clients in First Amendment and religious freedom cases.
Before entering clinical teaching, Josh clerked for the Honorable Cormac J. Carney of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the Honorable Jay S. Bybee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In addition to serving as a staff attorney in the clinic’s inaugural semester in 2020, he was previously a trial litigator at Munger, Tolles & Olson and an appellate litigator at Horvitz & Levy, where he specialized in representing individual and organizational clients in both commercial and civil rights cases, with particular expertise in First Amendment and religious freedom issues.
While in private practice, Josh received a Daily Journal 2022 California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (CLAY) award, was twice named a “One to Watch” in appellate law by Best Lawyers, and argued in numerous appellate courts and courts of last resort, including twice before the California Supreme Court. His amicus brief for Jewish schools in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court was quoted by Justice Kavanaugh at oral argument.
Josh earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University and graduated first in his class from UCLA School of Law.
Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor to the President, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
B.A., Yale; J.D., University of Chicago. Lee Liberman Otis is the Executive Vice President and Senior Counselor to the President at the Federalist Society. She also serves as a member of the American Law Institute (ALI), a senior fellow of the Administrative Conference (ACUS), and as the co-chair of the National Constitution Center's Coalition of Freedom Advisory Board. She previously was a special assistant and an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, General Counsel of the Department of Energy, an associate in the appellate section of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, an associate counsel to President George H.W. Bush, and a law clerk to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. She also served as an assistant professor of law at George Mason, where she taught legislation, federal jurisdiction, constitutional law, civil procedure, and appellate advocacy. Ms. Otis has been an important member of the Federalist Society team since the organization’s beginnings. Together with David McIntosh, she led the effort to start what became the Chicago chapter of the Society. She also helped organize the Society’s first conference at Yale, its second conference at Chicago, and its first Lawyers Division chapter in Washington DC, as well as the effort to incorporate the Society, recruit its permanent staff, and obtain its early funding. She was a Founding Director of the Federalist Society.
Antonin Scalia Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Stephen E. Sachs is the Antonin Scalia Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches civil procedure, conflict of laws, and seminars on constitutional law. His research focuses on the law and theory of constitutional interpretation, the jurisdiction of state and federal courts, the history of procedure and private law, and the role of the general common law in the U.S. legal system.
Sachs has authored numerous articles, essays, and book chapters. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, an adviser to the ALI’s project on the Restatement of the Law (Third), Conflict of Laws, a former member of the Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules, and a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance.
In 2020, Sachs received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award, which recognizes a young academic who has demonstrated excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact in a manner that advances the rule of law in a free society.
Sachs previously taught at Duke University School of Law and as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Before entering academia, he practiced in the Washington, D.C., litigation group of Mayer Brown LLP, and he clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. as well as for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Sachs received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was executive editor of the Yale Law Journal and served both as executive editor and articles editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review. A Rhodes Scholar, he graduated from Oxford University with a first-class BA (Hons) degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. He received his A.B. degree summa cum laude in history from Harvard University, earning the Sophia Freund Prize.
Sachs is a licensed attorney in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, and he is authorized to practice before the D.C. Circuit, the Second Circuit, the Seventh Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Christopher J. Walker is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Michigan law faculty in 2022, he spent a decade teaching at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He previously clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation. Professor Walker’s research focuses on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. Outside the law school, he chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2020-21 and served as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2016-2022, and he continues to serve in both organizations in various capacities. He also works of counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
Solicitor General of Missouri
Lou Capozzi is the Solicitor General of Missouri. In that role, he oversees all appeals for the State of Missouri. He is also the Director of Special Litigation and litigates high-stakes cases at trial.
Lou previously worked at Jones Day, where he specialized in administrative and election law. At Jones Day, he helped lead a six-week bench trial in federal court, during which he cross-examined important expert and fact witnesses, delivered closing argument, asserted evidentiary objections, and argued several motions, including a motion for a directed verdict. He has also authored briefs at all phases of litigation--from evidentiary motions to dispositive motions and appeals.
Lou is also Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He has published several academic articles focusing on administrative law.
Lou clerked for Justice Neil Gorsuch at the United States Supreme Court in the 2021 Term, as well as for Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Anthony Scirica of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He gradated as the valedictorian from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2019.
Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships, First Liberty Institute
Lisa Budzynski Ezell is the former Vice President and Director of the Federalist Society’s Lawyers Chapters. In this role, she managed a growing network of over 90 lawyers chapters nationwide, including oversight of leadership recruitment, chapter programming, state conferences, civics education outreach, and young lawyers activities. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Mary’s College in Political Science and History and a Master of Public Policy from George Mason University.
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Eli Nachmany is an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in the Washington, DC, office. He clerked for Judge Steven J. Menashi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Eli graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Prior to law school, Eli served as the speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and as a domestic policy aide in the White House Office of American Innovation. He graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a B.S. in Sports Management. Eli’s scholarship on administrative law and executive power has appeared in the BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum.
Associate, Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP
Thaddeus R. Beal Professor of Practice, Harvard Law School
Sheila Heen is the Thaddeus R. Beal Professor of Practice, and serves as a Deputy Director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, where she has been developing negotiation theory and practice since 1995. Heen also teaches in the executive education programs, including the Harvard Negotiation Institute’s Advanced Negotiation course, and the PON Master Class.
Heen specializes in particularly difficult negotiations – where emotions run high and relationships are strained. She is also a co-author of two New York Times bestsellers, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (with Douglas Stone and Bruce Patton, 2nd ed Penguin 2010) and Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well (Even When It’s Off-Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and Frankly, You’re Not in the Mood) (with Douglas Stone, Viking/Penguin 2014). She has written for the Harvard Business Review, and the New York Times as a guest expert, and as a Modern Love columnist.
Heen and her co-authors are currently working on a 3rd edition of Difficult Conversations, revising and updating the content with what they have learned since (for release in 2022).
Heen is a Founder of Triad Consulting Group, a corporate education and consulting firm that serves clients on six continents. Her corporate clients have included Pixar, Hugo Boss, the NBA, the Federal Reserve Bank, Ford, Novartis, Converse, American Express, and numerous family businesses. She often works with executive teams, helping them to work through conflict, repair working relationships and make sound decisions together. In the public sector she has also provided training for the New England Organ Bank, the Singapore Supreme Court, the Obama White House and theologians struggling with disagreement over the nature of truth and God.
Sheila is a frequent media guest and has appeared on shows as diverse as Oprah, NPR, Fox News, and CNBC’s Power Lunch. She can be heard on podcast episodes of Shane Parrish’s Knowledge Project, Adam Grant’s WorkLife, Hidden Brain, and The Tim Ferriss Show. She has spoken at the Global Leadership Summit, the Nordic Business Forum, the Smithsonian, Apple, Google, Microsoft and the Leadership & Character Conference at the U.S. Air Force Academy. She got to fly along on a training mission in an F-16 while collaborating with the Air Force to strengthen feedback to pilots in training.
Heen is a graduate of Occidental College and Harvard Law School. She is schooled in negotiation daily by her three children.
Senior Fellow, Platte Institute
Laura Ebke, Ph.D. is the Platte Institute’s Senior Fellow, assisting policymakers and the public as the Nebraska Legislature implements the new Occupational Board Reform Act. The Act is Nebraska’s first comprehensive review of the state’s job licensing laws, and is a law Laura sponsored as a Nebraska state senator.
Laura is a lifelong Nebraskan, growing up in Fairbury and graduating from the Class of 1980. She has resided in Crete for 26 years.
Laura holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Nebraska. In addition to serving as the chair of the Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, she served for 12 years on the Crete Public Schools Board of Education.
As a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts, Laura has volunteered for the organization for over 20 years, including as a board member and Vice President of Homestead Council Girl Scouts. She is also a merit badge counselor for Cornhusker Council Boy Scouts.
She is married to her high school sweetheart, Russ Ebke, a U.S. Navy veteran and family physician in Crete. Laura and Russ have three children, Jennifer, Tasha, and Isaac, and one granddaughter, Tamzin.
The Ebke family pets include cats Molly and Daisy, and Pip the bearded dragon.
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