Partner, Jones Day
Eric Dreiband represents clients in investigations, litigation, and counseling in civil rights, employment discrimination, whistleblower, wage and hour, and other matters. Prior to rejoining Jones Day in 2021, Eric served as the 18th Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and he also served as the 12th General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Under Eric's leadership, DOJ's Civil Rights Division set enforcement records for prosecutions of law enforcement officers and sexual harassment, religious liberty, and servicemember cases; charged the highest number of hate crimes cases in decades; significantly expanded resources for human trafficking prosecutions; prosecuted race and other forms of illegal discrimination in education, employment, housing, lending, and voting; reached historic disability rights settlements with several states; opposed unlawful COVID-19-related civil liberty restrictions; and successfully litigated to protect the Constitutional and civil rights of all people in the United States.
As EEOC general counsel, Eric led the Commission's litigation of the federal employment antidiscrimination laws, and he issued the Regional Attorneys' Manual, which established the policies of EEOC's litigation program. Eric also served at the Department of Labor (DOL) as deputy wage and hour administrator and directed DOL's enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and other laws.
From 1997 to 2000, Eric served as a prosecutor in the Office of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr.
Eric has spoken and written extensively about civil rights and other employment laws, and he has testified about these subjects before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Shareholder, Littler
Bradford J. Kelley has a broad practice representing employers in employment anti-discrimination and wage and hour matters. He focuses on advising clients about emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), and their impact in the workplace.
Brad is an internationally recognized workplace AI authority. He advises clients on how to maximize the benefits of using AI in the workplace while minimizing potential legal and business risks. His deep background in this area provides employers with the tools and insights they need to develop, deploy, and monetize AI and other emerging technologies to bolster business operations and efficiency.
Associate Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Ryan H. Nelson joined the faculty at South Texas College of Law Houston in 2021. His research focuses on leveraging the civil litigation and other dispute resolution systems to advance the rights of poor and other marginalized workers, most often with respect to discrimination, harassment, wages, leaves of absence, and accommodations. His scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review, Fordham Law Review, BYU Law Review, Yale Law and Policy Review, and the online companions to the NYU Law Review, California Law Review, and Vanderbilt Law Review. He has advised state attorneys’ general offices and other administrative agencies on employment law reforms and helped to draft associated proposed legislation and regulations. Moreover, he has provided legal commentary for Fox 26 Houston, KPRC 2 News | Houston, and in periodicals like Slate, USA Today, the Texas Tribune, and the Houston Chronicle.
Before joining South Texas, Ryan completed a research fellowship with the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and taught on the adjunct faculty at Boston University School of Law, New England Law | Boston, and New York Law School. He also spent nearly a decade practicing labor and employment law, including as in-house employment law counsel for one of the world’s largest financial services companies and as an attorney with one of the top labor and employment law firms in the country where he specialized in workplace affirmative action law. He obtained his LL.M. from Harvard Law School where he was awarded the Irving Oberman Memorial Prize for Best Paper on Law and Social Change; his J.D., cum laude, from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Moot Court Honor Society; and his B.S.B.A. with a major in economics from the University of Florida where he was a National Merit Scholar and became an avid fan of Florida Gators football.
AI Innovation and Law Fellow, University of Texas School of Law
Kevin Frazier is an AI Innovation and Law Fellow with University of Texas School of Law.
Senior Fellow, R Street Institute
Prior to R Street, Adam spent 12 years as a senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Before the Mercatus Center, he served as the president of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Adam has also worked for the Adam Smith Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.
Adam has published 10 books on a wide range of topics, including online child safety, internet governance, intellectual property, telecommunications policy, media regulation and federalism.
In 2008, Adam received the Family Online Safety Institute’s “Award for Outstanding Achievement.”
Director, Center on Technology Policy, New York University
He was previously the head of online expression policy at UNC’s Center on Technology policy, and was a senior policy associate at the Center on Science & Technology Policy at Duke University. Prior to Duke, Scott was a research fellow at the University of Oxford, where he led research for the Oxford Martin Programme on Misinformation, Science, and Media, which examined the interplay between media change and misinformation about science, technology, and health.
Chief Legal Officer and Policy Director, Cicero Institute
Jonathan Wolfson is the Chief Legal Officer and Policy Director at the Cicero Institute. Before joining Cicero, he led the Policy Office at the U.S. Department of Labor where he managed DOL's deregulatory efforts and oversaw DOL's internal policy development think tank. He previously was a litigator and regulatory attorney at an international law firm representing clients before state and federal courts across the country. Following law school he served as a law clerk to The Honorable Edith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before law school, Jonathan was a policy analyst at the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Jonathan received an A.B. in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was an Olin Law and Economic Fellow and won the John M. Olin Prize for best original law and economics research.
Policy Director, Fulcrum Foundation
Reeve T. Bull is the Policy Director of the Fulcrum Foundation. In this role, he promotes executive and legislative reforms designed to update and streamline the regulatory system. These reforms draw upon the work Mr. Bull undertook in his previous role as the Director of the Virginia Office of Regulatory Management (ORM). During his time at ORM, he led the Commonwealth's efforts related to regulatory streamlining and permitting transparency and the development and implementation of artificial intelligence policy.
Previously, Mr. Bull served as the Research Director of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). At ACUS, he worked on projects related to international regulatory cooperation, the use of science by administrative agencies, presidential review of agency rulemaking, cost-benefit analysis, government contractor ethics, and e-rulemaking, among other things. Mr. Bull has also served as an Adjunct Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School and the George Washington University, teaching courses on Administrative Law. Mr. Bull has published numerous articles in highly regarded law journals, including the Administrative Law Review, George Washington Law Review, and Law and Contemporary Problems. Mr. Bull is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Bull worked in the private sector as an associate with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and in government service as a law clerk to the Honorable Alvin A. Schall of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. During his time as an associate with Gibson Dunn, Mr. Bull worked on a variety of litigation and regulatory matters. He participated in cases appearing before the United States Supreme Court, several federal Courts of Appeals, and numerous federal district courts and state trial courts. His experience spanned a variety of practice areas, including administrative, constitutional, intellectual property, antitrust, environmental, securities, and white collar criminal law. During his clerkship for Judge Schall, Mr. Bull assisted with appeals in cases spanning a variety of areas, with particular emphasis on administrative and patent law.
Mr. Bull attended law school at Duke University, where he graduated with highest honors and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. He was one of two recipients of the Willis Smith Award for compiling the most outstanding academic record in the graduating class and the recipient of the James S. Bidlake Memorial Award for achieving the highest grade in his first year legal writing section. Mr. Bull also served as a Note Editor on the Duke Law Journal. Prior to law school, Mr. Bull attended the University of Oklahoma, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelors in Chemistry and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
General Counsel, Office of Indiana Governor Mike Braun
Partner, Clement & Murphy, PLLC
Paul served as the 43rd Solicitor General of the United States from June 2005 until June 2008. Before his confirmation as Solicitor General, he served as Acting Solicitor General for nearly a year and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General for over three years.
Paul has argued over 100 cases before the United States Supreme Court, including McConnell v. FEC, Tennessee v. Lane, United States v. Booker, MGM v. Grokster, Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, Rucho v. Common Cause, Facebook v. Duguid, and TransUnion v. Ramirez. Paul has argued more Supreme Court cases since 2000 than any lawyer in or out of government. He has also argued many important cases in the lower courts, including Walker v. Cheney, United States v. Moussaoui and NFL v. Brady.
Paul’s practice focuses on appellate matters, constitutional litigation and strategic counseling. He represents a broad array of clients in the Supreme Court and in federal and state appellate courts. Last year, for example, he successfully argued Supreme Court cases involving significant issues of energy regulation, statutory interpretation, state sovereign immunity and Article III standing, and successfully argued a trademark appeal in the Fourth Circuit, and a constitutional appeal before the en banc Eleventh Circuit.
Paul focuses on high-stakes appeals. In recent years, he successfully defended a $1.2 billion jury verdict for clients in a Tenth Circuit case, while securing the reversal of an over $2 billion jury verdict for another client in the Seventh Circuit and the approval of a nearly $1 billion dollar class action settlement in the Third Circuit. He has initiated major administrative law challenges and constitutional litigation against the federal government, such as the successful challenge to the HHS drug-pricing rule and threatened challenges that led to the withdrawal of the Treasury Department’s proposed cryptocurrency regulations. He also counsels clients on a variety of strategic legal questions, whether arising from pending legislation, government inquiries or ongoing litigation.
Paul has undertaken substantial pro bono engagements in the Supreme Court, such as twice successfully representing the defendant in Bond v. United States and successfully representing the Omaha Tribe in Nebraska v. Parker, the guardian ad litem in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl, the defendant in Sekhar v. United States, a high school football coach in Kennedy v. Bremerton, and the Little Sisters of the Poor. Paul’s pro bono representation also precipitated the federal government’s confession of error in United States v. Rojas.
Following law school, Paul clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, he went on to serve as Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism and Property Rights.
Paul is a Distinguished Lecturer in Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught in various capacities since 1998. He also serves as a Senior Fellow of the Law Center’s Supreme Court Institute. He is the Justice Joseph Story Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the Gray Center at Scalia Law School.
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.
Chief Legal Officer, Airbnb
Ron Klain oversees Airbnb’s global legal and ethics functions and community policy team.
Ron served as the 30th White House Chief of Staff, from January 2021 to February 2023 – the longest tenure of any Democratic President’s first chief of staff.
Ron’s career in public service began as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Byron White for the Court’s 1987 and 1988 Terms. Following his time clerking at the Supreme Court, Ron was Chief Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Staff Director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committees, Associate Counsel for Judicial Selection under President Clinton, Chief of Staff to Vice President Al Gore, Chief of Staff and Counselor to the US Attorney General, and Chief of Staff to Vice President Joe Biden. In the Obama administration, Ron served as White House Ebola Response Coordinator, to tackle the West African Ebola epidemic of 2014-15.
In the private sector, Ron has served as Partner and National Practice Group Chair at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, from 1999-2004 and again in 2023. Earlier he was General Counsel for the technology investment firm Revolution LLC from 2005 to 2020.
Professor of Law and Executive Director, Law and Economics Center, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Donald Kochan is Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Law & Economics Center (LEC). Professor Kochan is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves as an Adviser to ALI's Restatement of the Law Fourth, Property project. Professor Kochan is a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for the Constitution at Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Visiting Scholar in residence during Fall 2018. Before joining the Antonin Scalia Law School faculty, he was the Parker S. Kennedy Professor in Law at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law from 2004 to 2020. From 2003 to 2004, Professor Kochan was an Olin Fellow at the University of Virginia School of Law. During 2002-2003, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at George Mason’s Scalia Law School.
Professor Kochan’s scholarship focuses on areas of property law, constitutional law, administrative law, local government law, natural resources and environmental law, and law & economics. He has published several books and more than 50 scholarly articles and essays in well-regarded law journals. His work has been cited in more than a dozen state and federal court opinions, in more than 75 briefs filed in state and federal courts including more than 25 filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, in dozens of books and treatises, and in more than 800 scholarly articles.
Professor Kochan received his JD from Cornell Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics and managing editor of the Cornell International Law Journal. During law school, he also served as editor and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy symposium issues in 1997 and 1998. He received his BA from Western Michigan University, magna cum laude, with majors in both political science and philosophy, where he studied as the John W. Gill Medallion Scholar and was honored as the Presidential Scholar (awarded to the top graduate in the political science department).
After graduating from law school, Professor Kochan was a law clerk to The Honorable Richard F. Suhrheinrich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Professor Kochan was an associate with the firm of Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in natural resources & environmental law as well as tort, products, and consumer civil litigation & legislative affairs.
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.
Independent Consultant
Since 2001, Dr. Richard Belzer has been an independent consultant in regulation, risk, economics and information quality. Previously he was a visiting professor of public policy at Washington University in St. Louis and economist in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. He received his Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University (1989), Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government (now Harvard Kennedy School) (1982), and MS and BS degrees in agricultural economics from the University of California at Davis (1979, 1980). He is a regular contributor to scholarly professions through journal peer review and service to professional societies. He was elected Treasurer of the Society for Risk Analysis (1998, 2000) elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis (2008, 2010, 2012). He earned multiple awards for exemplary performance at OMB, the SRA’s Distinguished Service Award (2003), and the SBCA’s Richard O. Zerbe, Jr. Distinguished Service Award (2017). In 1995, he was named a Fellow of the Cecil and Ida Green Center for the Study of Science and Society. In 2017, Dr. Belzer completed a 2-year term as a member of the USEPA Science Advisory Board Panel on Economy-wide Modeling. He serves as a member of the RTP Energy and Environment Working Group.
Managing Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Michael Buschbacher is the managing partner of Boyden Gray PLLC. He represents public and private companies, trade associations, non-profits, and individuals in high-stakes litigation and administrative proceedings, with a particular focus on environmental and energy matters.
In addition to trial-level work, Mr. Buschbacher maintains an active appellate practice, both as merits counsel and as counsel for amici curiae. He has written amicus briefs quoted by the Seventh and Ninth Circuits. And his Supreme Court advocacy has been cited by The New Yorker, The New York Times, and E&E News. Mr. Buschbacher’s commentary on legal issues has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and The American Conservative.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Buschbacher served at the U.S. Department of Justice as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. There, he advised senior Department leadership, served as the lead attorney on several lawsuits, and helped draft policy memoranda for the Department on the proper scope and procedure for environmental enforcement. Prior to serving in the government, Mr. Buschbacher was an associate in the D.C. office of Sidley Austin.
Mr. Buschbacher is a former clerk to Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and to Magistrate Judge Paul R. Cherry of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.
Mr. Buschbacher holds a B.A. in Music and Germanic Studies from Indiana University and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School.
Associate Attorney, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Laura Stanley is an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She practices in the firm’s Litigation Department and is a member of the Environmental Litigation and Mass Tort Practice Group. Laura previously served as an economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she developed regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
Laura graduated with high honors from The George Washington University Law School and was awarded Order of the Coif. Laura served as an Articles Editor of the George Washington Law Review, and she was awarded the ABA Gellhorn-Sargentich Award for the best student essay in administrative law. Laura received a Master of Arts degree in Economics from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from James Madison University.
She previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ryan D. Nelson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Stephen S. Schwartz of the United States Court of Federal Claims.
She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Director, GW Regulatory Studies Center & Distinguished Professor of Practice, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, The George Washington University
Susan Dudley is the Founder and Director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, established in 2009 to raise awareness of regulations’ effects and improve regulatory policy through research, education, and outreach. She is also a distinguished professor of practice in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. She is past-president of the Society for Benefit Cost Analysis, a senior fellow of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and on the Regulatory Transparency Project Regulatory Practice Working Group. Her book, Regulation: A Primer, with Jerry Brito, is available on Amazon.com.
From April 2007 through January 2009, Professor Dudley served as the Presidentially-appointed Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and was responsible for the review of draft executive branch regulations under Executive Order 12866, the collection of federal-government-wide information under the Paperwork Reduction Act, the development and implementation of government-wide policies in the areas of information policy, privacy, and statistical policy, and international regulatory cooperation efforts.
Prior to OIRA, she directed the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and taught courses on regulation at the George Mason University School of Law. Earlier in her career, Professor Dudley served as an economist at OIRA, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She was also a consultant to government and private clients at Economists Incorporated. She holds a Master of Science degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a Bachelor of Science degree (summa cum laude) in Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Andrew Dickson White Professor, Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University
Donald Kenkel’s expertise is in areas of health economics and public sector economics. Broadly speaking, he studies the economics of disease prevention and health promotion. Professor Kenkel has conducted a series of studies on the economics of public health policies, including alcohol taxes and other policies to prevent alcohol problems; cigarette taxes to prevent youth smoking; and advertising to promote smoking cessation. His current research is on the economics of tobacco regulation and the market for e-cigarettes. He has published his research in the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economics & Statistics, the Journal of Health Economics, and the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, among others.
Professor Kenkel is a former President of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis. From 2018 through 2020, he served as Senior Economist and then Chief Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President.
Professor Kenkel’s undergraduate degree is from the University of Kentucky and his master’s and Ph.D. are from the University of Chicago.
Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP
The Honorable Paul J. Ray is currently Of Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP where he advises clients on regulatory opportunities and challenges and helps them formulate and execute advocacy strategies for their regulatory policy priorities before the executive branch and Congress.
During the first Trump Administration, Paul held various senior positions at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, including as acting, and then Senate-confirmed, head of the office. As OIRA Administrator (the "regulations czar"), Paul supervised the review of hundreds of regulations from across the government, drafted numerous executive orders governing the regulatory process, and led the Administration’s regulatory reform effort. As a result of this experience, Paul is well-positioned to help clients understand and achieve regulatory policy priorities in the context of the government’s regulatory agenda and ongoing reform efforts.
Most recently, Paul was also the Director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In that role, he supervised the formulation of the Foundation’s economic and regulatory policy recommendations and provided technical assistance to congressional committees and staff regarding legislative changes to the regulatory process. In addition to his role at The Heritage Foundation, Paul also served as a Senior Advisor at a strategic advisory firm. Before his time in government, Paul practiced law at a law firm in Washington, specializing in administrative law matters.
Prior to his role at the White House, Paul was Counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor. There he led departmental efforts in high-profile rulemakings and helped formulate the Department’s legal positions and strategy.
Paul served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and as a law clerk to the Honorable Debra Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Paul is a thought leader in the conservative legal movement and is a frequent commentator and speaker on regulatory policy and reform matters, including at law schools, professional gatherings, and other venues. He is the Chairman of Innovations in Peacebuilding International and the Regulatory Process Working Group of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. Paul is also an adjunct lecturer at the Hillsdale College School of Government.
Managing Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Michael Buschbacher is the managing partner of Boyden Gray PLLC. He represents public and private companies, trade associations, non-profits, and individuals in high-stakes litigation and administrative proceedings, with a particular focus on environmental and energy matters.
In addition to trial-level work, Mr. Buschbacher maintains an active appellate practice, both as merits counsel and as counsel for amici curiae. He has written amicus briefs quoted by the Seventh and Ninth Circuits. And his Supreme Court advocacy has been cited by The New Yorker, The New York Times, and E&E News. Mr. Buschbacher’s commentary on legal issues has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and The American Conservative.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Buschbacher served at the U.S. Department of Justice as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. There, he advised senior Department leadership, served as the lead attorney on several lawsuits, and helped draft policy memoranda for the Department on the proper scope and procedure for environmental enforcement. Prior to serving in the government, Mr. Buschbacher was an associate in the D.C. office of Sidley Austin.
Mr. Buschbacher is a former clerk to Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and to Magistrate Judge Paul R. Cherry of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.
Mr. Buschbacher holds a B.A. in Music and Germanic Studies from Indiana University and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School.
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Daren Bakst is Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment and a Senior Fellow. In this role, he manages, develops, and leads the coalition, advocacy, and research activities of the Center, which is one of the most effective advocates for Free Market Environmentalism.
Before joining CEI as Deputy Director in March, 2023, Daren was a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the Heritage Foundation, where he played a leading role in the launch of the organization’s new energy and environment center, and created and hosted the Heritage Foundation’s energy and environment podcast the “PowerCast.” During his decade at Heritage, Daren wrote about energy and environmental policy, food and agricultural policy (including editing and co-authoring the book Farms and Free Enterprise), regulation, and trade among other topics.
Daren also worked on environmental policy and regulation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he was a policy counsel and served as the executive to the association’s Government Oversight, Operations & Consumer Affairs committee, which was responsible for issues such as regulatory process reform. Daren has significant state level experience, working for seven years at the Raleigh, N.C.-based John Locke Foundation, one of the largest state-based, free-market think tanks. As director of legal and regulatory studies, his broad portfolio included energy and environmental policy, regulatory reform, and property rights.
Daren has testified numerous times before Congress, regularly submits comments to federal agencies and has appeared in or been quoted by a wide range of media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Times, CNN, Fox Business News, Al-Jazeera America, and U.S. News and World Report. He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Executive Committee and serves on the College Level Advisory Board for Constituting America, an organization that informs and educates about the importance of the U.S. Constitution.
Daren, who hails from Florida, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from George Washington University. A licensed attorney, he holds a law degree from the University of Miami and a master of laws degree from American University.
Senior Legal Fellow, Courts and the Constitution, Legal Policy Center, The Heritage Foundation
Zack is a Senior Legal Fellow of Courts and the Constitution at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Partner, O'Melveny & Myers LLP
Gregory Jacob is a partner in O’Melveny’s Washington, D.C. office. Greg Jacob represents financial services companies including banks, investment managers, health care payors, and insurers, as well as other employers, in class action and other litigation concerning ERISA and other labor and employment matters. A former Solicitor of Labor, Greg has extensive knowledge on a wide variety of labor and employment issues including ERISA, FLSA, OFCCP, and whistleblower law. He regularly litigates in federal courts throughout the country, defends clients against Department of Labor investigations, and provides counseling to plans and plan sponsors.
Prior to rejoining O’Melveny in 2021, Greg served as Counsel to Vice President Pence and Deputy Assistant to the President. He directly advised the Vice President on all legal issues relating to the Office of the Vice President, and advised the White House Coronavirus Task Force concerning the Defense Production Act and other legal issues related to bolstering the domestic supply chain.
Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Sheng Li is Litigation Counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Prior to joining NCLA, Sheng served as Counselor to the Administrator of Wage and Hour at the U.S. Department of Labor. In that role, he led numerous efforts to remove or simplify unduly burdensome regulations. He has also worked in the private sector as a litigation associate at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler and at Kirkland & Ellis.
Sheng is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Yale Law School, where he was managing editor of the Yale Journal of International Law. After graduating law school, Sheng served as law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Philip A. Miscimarra is the former Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Phil leads the firm’s NLRB special appeals practice and is co-leader of Morgan Lewis Workforce Change, which manages all employment, labor, benefits, and related issues arising from mergers, acquisitions, startups, workforce reductions, and other types of business restructuring. He represents clients on a wide range of labor and employment issues, with a focus on labor-management relations, business acquisitions and restructuring, and employment litigation. Phil is also a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and the Wharton Center for Human Resources. He is admitted in Illinois only, and his practice is supervised by DC Bar members.
Phil was named Chairman of the NLRB by President Donald J. Trump on April 24, 2017, after previously serving as Acting Chairman and a Board Member. He was appointed to the NLRB by President Barack Obama on April 9, 2013, and was approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on May 22, 2013. He was confirmed by voice vote in the US Senate on July 30, 2013, and served from August 7, 2013, to December 16, 2017. Upon the completion of his term, Phil served on the NLRB longer than 26 other board members over the past 30 years.
Phil is the author or co-author of several books involving labor law issues, including The NLRB and Managerial Discretion: Subcontracting, Relocations, Closings, Sales, Layoffs, and Technological Change (2d ed. 2010) (by Miscimarra, Turner, Friedman, Callahan, Conrad, Lignowski and Scroggins); The NLRB and Secondary Boycotts (3d ed. 2002) (by Miscimarra, Berkowitz, Wiener and Ditelberg); and Government Protection of Employees Involved in Mergers and Acquisitions (1989 and 1997 supp.) (by Northrup and Miscimarra); and other publications. He has also testified on labor and employment law issues in the United States Congress.
Chambers USA named Phil one of the leading lawyers for employment law in the United States from 2004 to 2012, based on the views of clients, peers, and other industry professionals. He has been described as a "fantastic lawyer" and "prolific writer," with clients admiring his "multilayered abilities and business savvy" and his "high level of integrity."
Former Solicitor of Labor, 2021-2025
Seema Nanda served as the U.S. Solicitor of Labor, from 2021 to 2025.
Associate Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University
Tyler Lindley joined BYU Law School in 2024 as an Associate Professor of Law. His research centers on the judicial role and the historical evolution of the judiciary in America. He has extensively examined and published on judicial remedies, federal courts, constitutional law, and administrative law. His scholarly contributions have been or will be featured in the Alabama Law Review, BYU Law Review, Georgia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, and Wake Forest Law Review.
Professor Lindley holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Brigham Young University (2018) and a Juris Doctor from The University of Chicago Law School (2021). During his legal studies, he served as a judicial extern for Judge Ryan Nelson on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to joining the faculty at BYU Law, he clerked for Chief Judge William Pryor on the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and Judge Gregory Katsas on the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also served as a Research Fellow at BYU Law between his clerkships.
EEOC in the Trump Era
Eric Dreiband, Bradford J. Kelley, Ryan H. Nelson
Shortly after taking office, President Trump reportedly removed two Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) commissioners...
Tech Roundup Episode 27 - AI on the Senate Floor: Is it Time for a Moratorium?
Kevin Frazier, Adam Thierer, Scott Babwah Brennen
President Trump's budget bill, having recently passed the House of Representatives, is headed for the...
Explainer Episode 89 - State Lessons for DOGE
Jonathan Wolfson, Reeve T. Bull, Patrick Price
In a little over 100 days, the Department of Government Efficiency, or "DOGE," has fundamentally...
Property & Personal Rights: A Discussion of Short-Term Rental Regulations
Paul D. Clement, Tony Francois, Ron Klain, Donald J. Kochan
Short-term rentals—popularized by Airbnb and Vrbo—have been given modern platforms for the customary alternative to...
Confronting the Questions: A Discussion on the EPA’s Proposed Revisions to Endangerment Finding
Jonathan H. Adler, Richard B. Belzer, Michael Buschbacher, Laura Stanley
Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to regulate emissions...
Weighing Regulations: The Metrics of White House Review
Susan E. Dudley, Donald Kenkel, Paul J. Ray
Amidst the flurry of new Executive Orders that launched the second Trump Administration, many questions...
Explainer Episode 88 - How Congress Can Reform Environmental Regulation and the EPA
Michael Buschbacher, Daren Bakst
In March of 2025, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a major new publication, “Modernizing...
Glossip v. Oklahoma - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Zack Smith
On February 25, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued their 5-3 opinion in Glossip v. Oklahoma. The Court...
Regulatory Ferment at DOL and the NLRB
Gregory Frederick Jacob, Sheng Li, Philip A. Miscimarra, Seema Nanda
In a time of rapidly shifting administrative law norms, the Department of Labor and NLRB...
Williams v. Reed - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Tyler B. Lindley
On February 21, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued their 9-0 opinion in Williams v. Reed. The...