Senior Counsel, Litigation, Defense of Freedom Institute
Don Daugherty is Senior Counsel, Litigation, at the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies. He previously served as a Senior Counsel at the Institute for Free Speech and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. Before that, he was a partner at three of Wisconsin’s largest firms, with nearly 30 years of trial and appellate litigation experience. He has been consistently recognized as among the “Best Lawyers in America,” as well as Wisconsin’s “Super Lawyers.” He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from Northwestern University Law School. After law school, he served as a clerk to the Honorable Roger J. Miner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Don is on the Board of Advisors for the Milwaukee Lawyers’ Chapter of the Federalist Society, and on the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society’s Litigation Practice Group.
David C. Tryon is the director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. In this role, he supervises all litigation and outside litigation counsel and actively participates in Buckeye’s cases in both state and federal court.
Immediately prior to joining Buckeye, Tryon served as deputy solicitor general in the West Virginia Attorney General’s office, where he handled both trials and appellate matters, including preparing amicus curiae briefs. Many of the matters either challenged federal laws and regulations that infringed on state’s rights or defended the validity of West Virginia laws against constitutional challenges.
Tryon served as the deputy assistant secretary for policy and development in the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education from 2019-2020. While there, he assisted with developing and implementing new policies and guidance and was responsible for the Civil Rights Data Collection, which covers all primary and secondary schools receiving federal funds.
Nominated as the chief counsel for advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration, Tryon was favorably voted out of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In connection with his nomination, he had numerous meetings with small business organizations to learn the concerns and needs of small businesses.
Tryon has had more than 30 years of commercial litigation experience in state and federal courts, including trials and appeals. Several of these cases involved the U.S. Constitution or the Ohio Constitution. In Arnold v. City of Cleveland, he was successful in having the Ohio Supreme Court declare the right to bear arms a fundamental right under the Ohio Constitution.
Tryon has dedicated much of his time to civic affairs. He served on the local school board for four years, two of those as school board president. During his nine years on the Executive Board for the Greater Cleveland Council of the Boy Scouts of America, he organized two major parades, created a personnel committee for leadership training of professional staff, and was involved in restructuring the Council. From 2015 to 2020, he served on the Ohio Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He was part of a select group to participate in Leadership Cleveland, Class of 2016. He also led the Cleveland Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society for nearly 20 years.
Tryon received a Bachelor of Science Degree (magna cum laude) from Brigham Young University and his Juris Doctorate (cum laude) from the University of Michigan.
United States Attorney, Eastern District of California
Mr. Grant was appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California beginning on August 11, 2025. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), he was further appointed by the district court effective December 9, 2025.
Mr. Grant is a veteran of the Department of Justice, having served twice in Washington, D.C.: from 1991 to 1993 as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel, and from 2017 to 2021 as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). During his tenure at ENRD, he supervised more than a hundred Department litigators advancing the interests of the United States and its agencies in both enforcement and defensive matters, both civil and criminal.
In addition to his service in the Department, Mr. Grant has decades of experience in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. That experience includes arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and numerous other federal and state courts.
Mr. Grant served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (retired) and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during the Supreme Court’s October 1994 Term. Earlier he served as a law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Grant grew up in Modesto, California and raised his family in Sacramento County. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics (1986) and a law degree (1990).
Emmett Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law in Environmental Law, Harvard Law School
Andrew Mergen is a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. Prior to joining the Harvard Law School faculty, Andrew Mergen served in the Appellate Section of the Environment & Natural Resources Division (ENRD) at the United States Department of Justice. Professor Mergen began his career at the Justice Department in the Honors Program and concluded his career as Chief of ENRD’s Appellate Section. He has presented oral arguments in all 13 federal courts of appeals, including two en banc courts, and before several state intermediate and supreme courts. He has also worked on over a dozen merits cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. In addition, in 2009, Professor Mergen assisted the Office of White House Counsel on the confirmation of the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. During his career at the Justice Department, Professor Mergen received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service three times. He also received ENRD’s Muskee-Chafee Award, honoring his work’s significant contribution to protecting the environment.
Before entering clinical teaching, Professor Mergen taught at several law schools including, Harvard Law School (Advanced Environmental Law), the University of Michigan Law School (Natural Resources Law) and the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii-Manoa (Administrative Law). Professor Mergen has written about federal water rights in “A Misplaced Sensitivity: The Draft Opinions in Wyoming v. United States” (68 Colo. L. Rev. 683 (1997), with Sylvia F. Liu); energy development on public lands in “Surface Tension: The Problem of Federal Private Split Estates” (33 Land & Water L. Rev. 419 (1998)); climate change and the Endangered Species Act in “The Role of Climate Change in ESA Listing Decisions” (53 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Fdn. 67 (2016), with Murray Feldman) and the accommodation of Native American sacred sites on federal land in “Finding the Path Forward for Indigenous Sacred and Cultural Spaces on Federal Public Land,” 68 Nat. Resources & Energy L. Inst. 32-1 (2022). Professor Mergen is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin—Madison and the George Washington University Law School.
Wendell H. Ford Professor of Law, University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law
Paul E. Salamanca graduated from Dartmouth College in 1983 and Boston College Law School in 1989, where he was a note editor for the Boston College Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.
Professor Salamanca served as a law clerk to Judge David H. Souter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and subsequently clerked for Justice Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. He practiced law with the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York from 1991 to 1994 and was a visiting assistant professor of law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans before joining the faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Law in June 1995.
Professor Salamanca writes in the areas of separation of powers, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and privacy. He has published articles on these subjects in the University of Cincinnati Law Review, the Missouri Law Review, the Georgia Law Review and the Kentucky Law Journal, among other places.
From 2019 until 2021, Professor Salamanca served as a Senior Counsel and then as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the United States Department of Justice. His duties included supervision of the Natural Resources and Land Acquisition Sections of ENRD.
Associate, Wiley Rein LLP
Boyd litigates and provides regulatory advice for a wide variety of telecommunications and technology clients.
Attorney, Kniffin Law PLLC, Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Eric Kniffin is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he works on a range of initiatives to protect and strengthen religious liberty as part of EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project.
Kniffin also practices law at Kniffin Law PLLC, where he helps religious organizations and individuals protect their liberty and advance their mission. Before starting his solo practice, Kniffin worked at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, at the Becket Fund, and was a partner at Lewis Roca.
Kniffin has protected hundreds of religious employers from the HHS contraception and abortifacient mandate and the HHS gender transition mandate. He has represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Knights of Columbus, and the Assemblies of God, among others, in amicus briefs before the Supreme Court. His work helping religious organizations understand, maximize, and defend their religious liberties has made him a nationally recognized expert in the field.
Kniffin is a sought-after commentator on religious liberty issues and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Huffington Post, National Catholic Register, Inside Higher Ed, and Washington Times, and has spoken regularly for The Federalist Society and The Heritage Foundation.
Regulatory Counsel, Americans for Prosperity Foundation
Mike Pepson is regulatory counsel at Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which frequently files amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and state Supreme Courts, as well as public comments in various federal and state regulatory proceedings. Mike assists AFPF with its efforts involving separation of powers, administrative process, criminal justice reform, tech and innovation, and other issues.
He is also Special Counsel for Administrative Law at Cause of Action Institute, where he has been involved in complex civil and criminal litigation in federal district and appellate courts and administrative litigation before federal agencies in a variety of matters, including agency enforcement actions, statutory and constitutional challenges to federal regulations and agency decisions, and Section 1983 challenges to state statutes.
He received his LL.M. from Columbia Law School, J.D. from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and B.A. from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland.
Partner, Shapiro Arato Bach LLP
Alexandra Shapiro is one of the nation’s leading appellate lawyers. Noted for successful results in high profile white collar matters, she has won appellate reversals in many criminal and civil cases. These victories include two Supreme Court decisions narrowing the scope of the federal fraud statutes, Ciminelli v. United States and Percoco v. United States, as well as multiple Second Circuit rulings granting judgments of acquittal and new trials. Alexandra argued Salman v. United States, the first insider trading case heard by the Supreme Court in 20 years.
Alexandra is also an experienced trial lawyer, who began her career over 30 years ago as one of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s first clerks on the Supreme Court. Her practice focuses on appeals, white collar defense, and complex civil litigation. She has successfully represented prominent Wall Street professionals, public officials, as well as major public and private companies.
She served as President of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers and received its Ostrow Award honoring her work in the defense of liberty and the preservation of individual rights.
Prior to co-founding Shapiro Arato Bach LLP in 2009, Alexandra was a partner of a leading international law firm, and before that, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where she also served as Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney. In addition, she served as an attorney-adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Alexandra wrote a novel about a wrongful white-collar prosecution, Presumed Guilty, which was published in 2022 and has received acclaim from Forbes, the New York Law Journal, and other publications.
Senior Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee
Tessa E. Shurr serves as Senior Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee (Majority).
Prior to joining the Judiciary Committee staff, Tessa served as a Litigation Associate at the Fairness Center, a non-profit law firm, where she represented clients who had been harmed by their public-sector union. Before that, she counseled high-level leadership at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy on legislative and regulatory matters, assisted the U.S. Department of Defense with procurement of supplies and services, and worked on both civil and criminal cases at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Tessa graduated from Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. There, she served as Managing Editor of the Dickinson Law Review, one of the oldest legal journals in the United States. During her time in law school, Tessa earned CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Advanced Federal Income Tax; Congressional Investigations; and Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, & Law. She also published an academic comment proposing a new regulatory scheme for digital assets and cryptocurrency.
Policy Advisor, Heartland Institute
Jeff Stier is a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute.
He is widely quoted in the media and has written health policy op-eds for The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The New York Post, The Washington Examiner, and Foxnews.com. The New York Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR and other major outlets have interviewed and quoted Stier on a wide range of topics.
Stier has testified at state and local legislatures throughout the U.S., at FDA scientific hearings and at the Office of Management and Budget. He has also been a voice for freedom at hearings at the United Nations and in Israel’s Knesset. During more than two decades of advancing public health and defending liberty, Stier has been a speaker at CPAC, policy retreats for elected officials and medical and legal conferences.
Stier advises leading investment firms on regulatory and legal risk.
Earlier, Mr. Stier crafted health and environmental policy in the Office of the Mayor during the Giuliani administration in New York City.
Mr. Stier serves on the boards of the non-profit Jewish International Connections and Park City Jewish Collective. While earning his law degree at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Mr. Stier served two terms as Editor-In-Chief of the Cardozo Law Forum. Jeff and his canine, BB, served as a Certified Crisis Response Strike Team with NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines, supporting survivors and first-responders.
Former Acting Assistant Attorney General, United States Department of Justice; Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP
Jonathan “Jon” Brightbill is a trial and appellate lawyer in Winston’s Washington, D.C. office, and a partner in the firm’s Litigation and White Collar, Regulatory Defense, and Investigations Practices. He represents public and private companies, corporate officers, and other individuals across white collar, regulatory defense, and government and internal investigation matters and rulemaking challenges, as well as complex commercial disputes, citizen suits, and class actions. His commercial litigation experience encompasses business disputes, false advertising, consumer protection and fraud, FCA, and extensive class action defense work; antitrust and unfair competition matters; and intellectual property litigation, such as trademarks, patents, and trade secrets.
Jon served as the Nation’s lead environmental civil and criminal enforcement official and litigator, as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment & Natural Resources Division (“ENRD”) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Jon led ENRD’s 425 lawyers, overseeing 6,500 active matters and managing an annual budget of more than $150 million. Jon brings highly experienced executive leadership from among the most senior level of DOJ on white collar and regulatory enforcement, as well as on federal policymaking and rulemaking development and challenges. He speaks with authority on government decision-making processes, and the arguments and perspectives that move regulators and enforcers, best advising and positioning clients to deal with challenges.
Jon argued many of the government’s most significant cases during his time with the DOJ. This included the Navigable Waters Protection Rule and Clean Water Rule Repeal (10th Cir., district courts), the Affordable Clean Energy Rule and Clean Power Plan Repeal (D.C. Cir), defense of EPA actions on pesticide tolerances under FIFRA and the FDCA (9th Cir. en banc), among numerous others. Jon represented the United States in trial courts in both enforcement and defensive cases, including federal enforcement action against Jeffrey Lowe and the Tiger King Park, of Netflix fame, securing a first-of-its-kind injunction for violations of the Endangered Species Act and Animal Welfare Act. Jon directed the litigation and briefing of scores of additional federal cases nationwide, covering all of the major environmental and natural resources statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, FIFRA (pesticides), FDCA (food safety), TSCA (toxics), CERCLA (land remediation), RCRA (waste), National Environmental Policy Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, and numerous other land- and resource-management statutes.
Jon has unmatched experience litigating legal and technical issues relating to climate change. He argued in the courts of appeals, including the D.C. Circuit, regarding the most significant climate change regulations by EPA, as well as the preemptive scope of the Clean Air Act. Jon also litigated climate change-related credit and trading schemes and international agreements in district court. During Jon’s time in leadership at ENRD, it successfully defeated one of the most wide-ranging lawsuits regarding climate change to date—obtaining a stay pending interlocutory appeal and dismissal just weeks before a scheduled three-month trial on federal government liability for climate change.
An accomplished trial lawyer, prior to working at DOJ, Jon was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of another global law firm. He not only represents clients in court, but creatively counsels corporations on balancing business needs and realities with a broad range of litigation risks and compliance obligations. Jon is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He served on the American Bar Association’s E-Discovery Working Group for Bankruptcy Practice, and was a frequent lecturer for District of Columbia Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Programs.
Jon served as an appellate clerk for the Honorable D. Brooks Smith, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, after graduating magna cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center. He worked in state government as an Executive Policy Specialist for air, waste, land remediation, and radiation matters at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Senior Attorney of the Clean Energy Program, Earthjustice
Thomas Cmar is a senior attorney for the Clean Energy Program, and is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Thomas first joined Earthjustice in 2012 after working for six years as an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he specialized in energy and water issues. Thomas was deputy managing attorney of the Earthjustice Coal Program from 2018 to 2021. In 2021, Thomas moved back home to Ohio and spent a year working in private practice before rejoining Earthjustice in 2022.
Thomas has also worked as an adjunct lecturer in the Environmental Policy & Culture Program at Northwestern University, as an attorney with the International Labor Rights Fund in Washington, D.C., and as a law clerk for United States Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He is a 2004 graduate of Harvard Law School and has a B.A. in Politics & Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh.
Director of Energy Policy, Chamber of Digital Commerce, Digital Power Network
Ms. Czapla is the Director of Energy Policy of the Chamber of Digital Commerce at the Digital Power Network. Prior to her current job, she worked on energy and climate policy at Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions and the American Action Forum. In addition, Ms. Czapla worked for more than 5 years at Arbo, where she advised developers as well as the federal government on regulatory issues that arise throughout the planning, siting, construction and operation of energy infrastructure projects.
She earned a JD from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, as well as a BS in Geological Sciences, and a BA in Philosophy with a concentration in Public Affairs, from George Washington University.
Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Kara Rollins, Litigation Counsel, comes to NCLA with experience in vindicating client’s rights from agency overreach and holding the administrative state accountable through government transparency projects. Before joining NCLA, Kara was Counsel for Cause of Action Institute where she represented clients in various Federal Trade Commission enforcement actions. She also engaged in strategic research and oversight of Executive Branch agencies, focusing on administrative rulemaking and government oversight and compliance. Prior to joining the Cause of Action Institute in 2016, she clerked for the Hon. Karen M. Cassidy, A.J.S.C. in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Union Vicinage. Preceding her legal career, Kara served as the Political Programs Manager for the National Federation of Independent Business, where she worked with small business owners throughout the country and learned firsthand about the adverse impact the regulatory state has on individuals.
Kara graduated with honors from Rutgers College, Rutgers University with a B.A. in Political Science in 2007, and cum laude from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law in 2014. During law school, she was a member of The Catholic University Law Review and a Moot Court Associate for the Seigenthaler-Sutherland Cup National First Amendment Moot Court Competition.
Kara is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, New York, and New Jersey, as well as to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her work has been published on The Hill.com.
Former Deputy Attorney General for Virginia
Kennerly Davis has over forty years of experience in corporate management, public service, and the private practice of law. He has held senior executive positions in a Fortune 500 electric and gas company. He has served as Deputy Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as a legislative aide to a U.S. Senator and a U.S. Congressman. He practiced law for 25 years with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.
Davis is active in the Federalist Society as a member of the Regulatory Process Working Group of the Regulatory Transparency Project, and as a member of the Execuitve Committee of the Administrative Law and Regulation Practice Group. He is active in the national Alumni Free Speech Alliance, and involved in AFSA-chapter initiatives, including litigation, to publicize and correct the serious legal problems created by university Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and the anonymous bias reporting systems used to enforce those DEI programs.
Davis writes and speaks on a wide variety of topics, including those related to the Founding of America, the natural rights foundation of our Republic, the constitutional rule of law, equal protection and free speech, DEI programs and bias reporting systems, capitalism, regulation and regulatory reform, and economic development. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Examiner, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Federalist Society Review, the FedSoc Blog, Real Clear Energy, Townhall, the Daily Caller, reports of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and other publications. He appears frequently on radio, podcasts, and television.
Davis graduated with honors from Cornell University with an A.B. degree in Government. He earned an M.A. degree from Pembroke College, Oxford, in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He was awarded a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, and an M.B.A. degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Davis lives in Richmond, Virginia. He can be contacted by email: j.kendavis@verizon.net, and by phone: (804) 624-8525.
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.
Deputy Litigation Director, Institute for Justice
Robert McNamara serves as Deputy Litigation Director with the Institute for Justice. He joined the Institute in August 2006 and litigates cutting-edge constitutional cases protecting free speech, property rights, economic liberty and other individual liberties in both federal and state courts.
Robert’s work has resulted in court victories for property owners fighting eminent domain abuse, tour guides fighting unconstitutional restrictions on their speech, taxi drivers seeking the right to own their own business, and many others. Robert also litigates in defense of innovation and entrepreneurship in medical care and was co-counsel in Flynn v. Holder, IJ’s landmark challenge to the federal prohibition on compensating bone marrow donors.
Robert’s writing has been published by outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and dozens more nationwide. His opinions and views on legal issues have been featured in radio and television programs ranging from National Public Radio’s All Things Considered to Fox News Channel’s Hannity & Colmes.
Robert is a graduate of Boston University and the New York University School of Law, where he was a founding member and eventual editor-in-chief of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife and children.
Robert McNamara is a member of the Virginia bar.
Vice President of Litigation and Deputy General Counsel, National Association of Manufacturers
Peter Tolsdorf is the vice president of litigation and deputy general counsel at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). As part of the Manufacturers’ Center for Legal Action, Mr. Tolsdorf works to strengthen the NAM’s ability to promote manufacturing policy objectives through litigation. He also serves as general counsel of The Manufacturing Institute, a nonprofit organization that seeks to help the manufacturing industry attract and develop world-class manufacturing talent.
Mr. Tolsdorf has extensive litigation experience on energy and the environment, labor and employment, product and civil liability, intellectual property, corporate governance and trade issues. At the American Petroleum Institute, he challenged regulatory overreach of the oil and natural gas industry. Mr. Tolsdorf previously served as an attorney at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), where he litigated energy generation and transmission matters. Before the FERC, he litigated cases at major international law firms Bingham McCutchen and McDermott Will & Emery.
Mr. Tolsdorf graduated from The George Washington University Law School, where he served as notes editor of The George Washington Law Review. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and two sons.
Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Atlantic Legal Foundation
Larry Ebner brings more than 50 years of litigation knowledge, experience, and skills to the Atlantic Legal Foundation, where he is Executive Vice President & General Counsel. He oversees ALF’s judicial advocacy activities, including its renowned, nationwide, amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) program. In addition to monitoring and analyzing cases for possible ALF amicus participation, Larry reviews requests for ALF amicus support and personally authors ALF’s amicus briefs on a wide variety of cutting-edge legal issues in the Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals, and state appellate courts. Since joining ALF in September 2020, Larry has authored or managed more than 100 Supreme Court and other amicus briefs on behalf of the foundation.
Larry began practicing law in 1972 following graduation from Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. His first legal position was as an Honors Program attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Larry then spent 42 years as a Washington, D.C.-based litigator and appellate practice leader at a now-global law firm, where he focused on federal constitutional, statutory, and regulatory issues . In 2016 Larry launched his own, independent, nationwide appellate litigation boutique, Capital Appellate Advocacy PLLC.
Larry devotes most of his professional time to ALF, where he joins the foundation’s officers, directors, advisors, and supporters in advocating for individual liberty, free enterprise, property rights, limited and responsible government, sound science in judicial and regulatory proceedings, and effective education, including parental rights and school choice.
Larry has been elected as one of approximately 350 Fellows of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, whose membership is reserved for highly skilled and experienced appellate advocates. His volunteer professional activities include serving as Chair of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel’s Appellate Law Section. During 2023 & 2024 he was Chair of the DRI Center for Law and Public Policy.
In July 2025 FDCC awarded Larry its John Appleman Award, which “honors the Substantive Law Section Chair who has made the most outstanding contribution to the advancement of the FDCC’s educational goals through the work of his or her Section.”
In October 2024 DRI awarded Larry its Tom Segalla Excellence In Education Award. The Award is given to a “member of DRI whose contributions through legal scholarship exemplify the highest educational standards of the organization and further its mission of improvingthe skills of the defense practitioner.” DRI is the largest bar association of civil defense attorneys and in-house counsel.
Thomson Reuters has repeatedly selected Larry as one of only several Washington, D.C.-based, solo-practitioner Appellate “Super Lawyers.”
Larry is a prolific author and sought-after speaker on appellate practice-related subjects, such as strategic use and effective drafting of amicus briefs.
Barbara and Larry Ebner have been married for 53 years. They enjoy traveling throughout the United States and spending time with their daughters and grandchildren.
General Counsel and Vice-President of Litigation, Washington Legal Foundation
Cory Andrews is General Counsel and Vice-President of Litigation for the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF). As counsel of record for WLF and other clients, he has authored more than 100 briefs, at petition and merits stages, in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also frequently litigates in state and federal appellate courts. Before joining WLF, Cory practiced trial and appellate law for White & Case LLP, where he litigated in state and federal courts on behalf of clients in the telecommunications, hospitality, and banking industries. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Florida, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Florida Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. Upon graduation, Cory served as a law clerk to the Honorable Steven D. Merryday of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
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