U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Tennessee, U.S. Department of Justice
Braden Boucek was sworn in on December 24, 2025, as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Mr. Boucek served as the senior vice president of litigation at the Southeastern Legal Foundation having previously served as the vice president of legal affairs at the Beacon Center. Mr. Boucek has extensive experience as a prosecutor, starting his career at the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office before serving for two years as an Assistant District Attorney General in Williamson County. He was a federal prosecutor for ten years, first serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Tennessee from 2005 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. Boucek was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee, the district he now leads as the United States Attorney.
Professor of Philosophy & Church-Studies at Baylor University
Francis J. Beckwith is Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies at Baylor University, where he also serves as Associate Director of Graduate Studies in Philosophy. Writing and teaching in the areas of law and religion, jurisprudence, and politics, his over one dozen books include Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith (Cambridge University Press, 2015), A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics (St. Augustine Press, 2013), Politics for Christians: Statecraft as Soulcraft (InterVarsity Press, 2010), Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air (Baker Books, 1998). His articles have appeared in a wide-range of journals including Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, American Journal of Jurisprudence, Journal of Law & Religion, Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, Nevada Law Journal, International Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Medicine & Philosophy, San Diego Law Review, Liberty University Law Review, Ratio Juris, Christian Bioethics, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Journal of Medical Ethics, Philosophia Christi, Catholic Social Science Review, Journal of Church & State, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Chapman Law Review, Journal of Social Philosophy, Human Life Review, and Social Theory and Practice.
Associate, Dechert LLP
Jenna C. Newmark focuses her practice in the area of complex litigation, with a focus on product liability and mass torts. Ms. Newmark has extensive experience handling litigation strategy, including all aspects of motion practice, discovery, expert work, trials and appeals. Ms. Newmark is particularly passionate about the intersection of law and science; and plays a key role in science teams, which are critical to the core defenses at issue in the cases she defends.
Her clients have included Fortune 500 companies located nationwide involved in mass tort and other types of litigations in state and federal court. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Newmark was an associate at another global law firm and represented clients in various complex litigation matters, including product liability matters.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Lawrence VanDyke serves as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to that appointment in January 2020, he served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice. Before that, he served consecutively as the Solicitor General of two western states – Nevada and Montana. At the beginning of his legal career, he worked as an attorney in the Appellate and Constitutional Issues practice group at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP.
Judge VanDyke received his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor on the Harvard Law Review. He has engineering and theology undergraduate degrees and a masters degree in engineering management. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Janice Rogers Brown of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Judge VanDyke and his wife Cheryl live in Reno, Nevada, and they have three children.
Partner, Cooper & Kirk
Megan M. Wold focuses her practice on legal issues and brief-writing in complex commercial matters, constitutional litigation, and administrative law disputes. She has argued cases in both state and federal court, drafted briefs at all levels of state and federal litigation, and regularly practices before the U.S. Supreme Court. She has represented Fortune 500 clients in international arbitrations, complex tort and fraud litigation, class actions, commercial property disputes, and complex multi-district litigation. She has frequently represented clients in regulatory disputes with state and federal agencies.
Ms. Wold previously served as a Simon Karas Fellow and Deputy Solicitor General in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. Ms. Wold has practiced as an associate at Bancroft PLLC and as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Ms. Wold served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame School of Law in 2011 and is a member of the bars of Ohio and the District of Columbia. Ms. Wold graduated summa cum laude from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2008 with an undergraduate degree in international studies and religion. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a recipient of the Meek Family Service Leadership Prize.
Assistant Solicitor General, Office of the Texas Attorney General
Litigating School Choice: The Past and the Future
Idaho Lawyers Chapter and the Idaho Student Chapter
Boise, IDIdaho Supreme Court rejects controversial ethics rule 8.4(g)
Daniel Ortner
The Idaho Supreme Court recently took the extraordinary step of unanimously rejecting a proposal by...
Introductory Remarks
2023 Annual Western Chapters Conference
Simi Valley, CATopics
Department of Veterans Affairs Interim Final Rule on Abortion
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Should Attorneys Need to Work Full-time to Receive Bar Admission Reciprocity?
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After Fifty Years of Clean Water Act Confusion, the Supreme Court Should, in Sackett v. EPA, Finally Apply a Reasonable Standard to Federal Government Regulation
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Life After Roe: The Supreme Court's Decision in Dobbs and the Future of Abortion in America
Co-sponsored by the Hale Institute
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An Emergency of Abortion Misinformation
The moment the U.S. Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and held...
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Religious Liberty Update on Congressional and Executive Branch Actions
Congress On July 19, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Respect for Marriage...
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The Latest Energy and Environmental Regulations
Even for experts who regularly track energy and environmental regulations, it can be difficult to...