Director, Independent Women's Law Center, Independent Women's
Jennifer C. Braceras, a member of the Federalist Society Board of Visitors, is the director of Independent Women’s Law Center and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Ms. Braceras is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Law Review. After law school, she clerked for two federal judges and practiced labor and employment law with the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray.
A long time political columnist and editor, Ms. Braceras's writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Hill, and National Review Online. She co-hosts At the Bar, a bimonthly virtual happy hour discussion about issues at the intersection of law, politics, and culture.
Former Associate Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Judith Cathy Arnold Cowin is a retired justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. She was born in Boston. Cowin received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College and her J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.
Senior Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
Nancy Gertner is a former U.S. federal judge who built her career around standing up for women’s rights, civil liberties and justice for all. Gertner was appointed to the federal bench of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts by President Bill Clinton in 1994. She retired from the bench in 2011 to teach at Harvard Law School.
Named one of “The Most Influential Lawyers of the Past 25 Years” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Gertner has written and spoken throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. She has published widely on sentencing, discrimination, and forensic evidence; women’s rights; and the jury system. Her autobiography, “In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate,” was published in 2011.
She is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and holds a M.A in Political Science and J.D. from Yale University. She has received numerous awards, including the Margaret Brent Award from the ABA commission on the status of Women, Massachusetts Bar Association’s Hennessey Award for judicial excellence in 2011; the Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award from Colby College in 2010; the National Association of Women Lawyers’ highest honor, the Arabella Babb Mansfield Award, in 2011,The Women's Bar Association's highest award, The Lelia Robinson Award, in 2012, and, in 2008, the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, which recognized her contributions to advancing human rights and civil liberties. The Marshall award has been given to one other woman, Justice Ruth Ginsburg.
In November 2014, she gave the Pope and John lecture at Northwestern University. In October 2014, she was a resident scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy; In September she gave the keynote address at the 18th Anniversary Celebration of the Jewish Women’s archive (September 14, 2014).
Gertner is presently working on her second book, Incomplete Sentences, concerning the men who she sentenced over her 17 year career as a federal judge. In addition to writing about them, highlighting the unfairness and disproportionality of their sentences, she is assisting in clemency petitions where appropriate.
Drawing on her wide ranging experience in practice and as a judge, Gertner also consults and litigates in civil right cases (she is of counsel to Neufeld, Scheck & Brustin, a civil rights firm in New York City), white collar criminal case (she is of counsel to Fick and Marx, a white collar criminal defense firm in Boston), as well as in employment discrimination and false claims cases.
Drawing on her judicial experience, Gertner engages in mediation and arbitration with Resolutions, LLC. (with Eric Green) and the Southeast Regional Mediation, Arbitration and Compliance Association (with Bill Nettles and Paul Zwier).
Attorney, Allen Harris Law
Samantha Harris is a nationally recognized attorney advising students and faculty on issues of campus due process, Title IX, free speech, and academic freedom. Drawing on more than 15 years at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), where she served as Vice President for Policy Research, she guides students, faculty, administrators, and attorneys through complex disciplinary and constitutional issues involving free speech, fair hearings, and faculty-student rights.
A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (Articles Editor, Journal of Constitutional Law), Samantha clerked for the Hon. Jay C. Waldman in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and began her legal career at Pepper Hamilton LLP. At FIRE, she led efforts to reform campus policies and defended individuals in high-profile Title IX and free speech disputes.
Now at Allen Harris PLLC, a firm focused on Title IX and campus defense, Samantha represents students and professors in investigations, hearings, appeals, and related litigation. Samantha’s practice emphasizes strategic advocacy in campus disciplinary systems and litigation-ready defense in federal court. Her blend of policy experience, legal skill, and media visibility positions her as a leading resource for issues at the intersection of education law and constitutional rights.
U. S. District Court Judge, District of Massachusetts
Nominated by Barack H. Obama on November 30, 2011, to a seat vacated by Nancy Gertner; Confirmed by the Senate on June 4, 2012, and received commission on June 6, 2012.
U. S. Magistrate Judge, U. S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, 2006-2012
Op-Ed Columnist, The Boston Globe
Jeff Jacoby, who has been a columnist for The Boston Globe since 1994, is a conservative writer with a national reputation.
A native of Cleveland, Jeff has degrees from George Washington University and from Boston University Law School. Before entering journalism, he (briefly) practiced law at the prominent firm of Baker & Hostetler, worked on several political campaigns in Massachusetts, and was an assistant to Dr. John Silber, the president of Boston University. In 1999, Jeff became the first recipient of the Breindel Prize, a major award for excellence in opinion journalism. In 2014, he was included in the “Forward 50,” a list of the most influential American Jews.
Author, Lawyer and Social Critic
Wendy Kaminer, a lawyer and social critic, writes about law, liberty, feminism, religion, and popular culture. Her latest book is Worst Instincts: Cowardice, Conformity and the ACLU, (Beacon Press.) A former Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the Smith College Medal, she is the author of seven previous books, including Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today; Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety; True Love Waits: Essays and Criticism; It’s All the Rage: Crime and Culture; I’m Dysfunctional, You’re Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement & Other Self-Help Fashions; and A Fearful Freedom: Women’s Flight from Equality.
Her articles and reviews, dating back to the 1980s, have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The Wall Street Journal, The Village Voice, The American Prospect, Dissent, The Nation, The Wilson Quarterly, Free Inquiry, Slate.com, thefreeforall.net and spiked-online.com. Her commentaries have aired on National Public Radio.
Before embarking on her writing career, Ms. Kaminer briefly practiced law, as a criminal defense attorney for the New York Legal Aid Society and a staff attorney in the New York City Mayor's Office. Law has remained one of her primary subjects, and her writings on such apparently disparate topics as feminism, criminal justice, free speech, religion, spirituality, and popular culture are shaped by common concerns for liberty, individualism, ethics, and rationality. A former board member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Kaminer is an ardent civil libertarian and currently serves on the advisory boards of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Secular Coalition for America. She does not twitter.
Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Daniel Kelly brings over thirty years of experience to the firm’s government contracts group. His practice combines both counseling and acting as an advocate on behalf of clients doing business in the government marketplace. Dan has knowledge of the government contracting process both on a federal and state level, and the specific laws, regulations, contract clauses and dispute resolution mechanisms in this specialized area. He provides advice and guidance to clients who are in the government supply chain, either as prime contractors, subcontractors or vendors. He reviews government solicitations with clients, prepares proposals, and negotiates teaming arrangements and subcontracts with other suppliers. He helps clients build and enhance their compliance programs. He assists clients in protecting their intellectual property and proprietary information concerning their businesses when doing business with the government. He advocates for clients who wrongfully were passed over for a contract award. He prepares claims arising under government contracts as a result of change orders, delays, and terminations for default or convenience. Dan’s practice extends to a broad spectrum of industries and federal and state authorities for whom they supply research, products and services, including emerging and established biomedical, intelligence, pharma, security, and textile R&D, manufacturing and production houses working under prime and subcontracts, SBIRs, CRADAs, OTAs, and grants for DoD and civilian agencies; Medicare and Medicaid audit and investigation service providers; commercial software developers who modify their software for military applications; professional services providers; and raw materials and component suppliers to large military prime contractors.
Dan is the author of the August 2018 edition Thomson Reuters’ Briefing Papers, which provides a comprehensive review of patent rights under “Other Transaction Agreements” (OTAs) with DoD and NASA. Heavily promoted by Congress, and only partially understood by industry, OTAs are quickly becoming DoD’s and NASA’s contractual vehicle of choice to lure commercial companies to sell the Government their latest and greatest technologies. However, OTAs are not governed by standard government contracts laws and regulations, meaning there are significant changes to the common provisions of ownership and license rights incident to government contracts and grants. The Briefing Paper should be required reading before entities enter into an OTA as a vehicle for developing new technologies for NASA and DoD to ensure their company’s intellectual property efforts are properly protected
In the matters, AdvanceMed Corporation, B-415360,B-415360.2,B-415360.3 (Dec 19, 2017), and AdvanceMed Corporation, B-414373.3 (Jan 10, 2018) Dan and the Government Contracts team at McCarter successfully defended its client Health Integrity, LLC (now Qlarant) against protests launched at the Government Accountability Office challenging awards by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Medicare and Medicaid audit and program integrity services.
Dan serves on the Board of Directors for NCMA Boston (National Contract Management Association) and NDIA New England (National Defense Industrial Association), and is a frequent speaker at NCMA and NDIA events.
Dan serves as an adjunct member of the faculty at Suffolk University Law School where he has taught Government Contracts.
Dan receives Mentor of the Year Award in recognition of his contributions and support to NCMA Boston Chapter’s 2017-2018 Program Year.
U.S. Attorney, District of Massachusetts
Before his appointment as U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Andrew Lelling was a federal prosecutor for over 15 years, serving first in the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department and later at the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Virginia and the District of Massachusetts.
During his time as a prosecutor in the District of Massachusetts, Mr. Lelling served as Senior Litigation Counsel and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Economic Crimes Unit and on the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. He was the lead prosecutor in a number of complex fraud, immigration and international drug trafficking investigations including, most recently, the successful prosecution of one of the largest pyramid schemes ever charged by the Department of Justice, which involved over a million victims worldwide and losses of $3 billion. In addition, Mr. Lelling has prosecuted major drug trafficking organizations, domestic branches of Mexican drug cartels, and global drug traffickers based in Eastern Europe. In his role as the Senior Litigation Counsel, Mr. Lelling developed enforcement policy for criminal prosecutions and trained prosecutors and law enforcement officers on criminal practice.
Before serving as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Lelling was Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, focusing on criminal civil rights enforcement, voting rights enforcement actions, and civil investigations of major city police departments. In this role, Mr. Lelling led the Department’s investigation of the 2000 Presidential election in Florida and negotiated human rights issues with the Chinese government. In addition, Mr. Lelling advised on the drafting of the USA PATRIOT Act in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and led the Department’s task force for responding to backlash crimes.
Before joining the Justice Department, Mr. Lelling was a senior litigation associate at Goodwin Procter in Boston and a litigation associate at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae in New York. He also clerked for the U.S. District Court Chief Judge B. Avant Edenfield in the Southern District of Georgia.
Mr. Lelling graduated cum laude from University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1994 and received a Bachelor of Arts in Literature & Rhetoric from Binghamton University in 1991. He is a member of the Federalist Society and a former member of the Boston Bar Journal’s Board of Editors.
Practice Group Leader - Complex Trial & Appellate Litigation, Choate Hall & Stewart LLP
For more than thirty years, Joan Lukey has tried complex business litigation, employment and other cases in state and federal court in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and nationwide. She has tried approximately 100 jury trials and a myriad of bench trials and arbitrations in all aspects of business disputes. In addition, she is an accomplished appellate lawyer, having argued approximately 60 federal and state appeals.
Since 1983, Ms. Lukey has been selected by her peers for each edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of business, bet-the-company, commercial, personal injury, employment and First Amendment litigation. She has also been routinely recognized for the last several years in Chambers USA and Chambers Global as a Band One Litigator.
Ms. Lukey is a past President of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers, the first woman ever to hold this position. Before joining Choate in 2014, she was a partner at Ropes & Gray in the Complex Business Litigation Practice Group from 2008 until 2014, after almost thirty years as a partner at WilmerHale. She has served twice as a Massachusetts Special Assistant Attorney General and has written extensively on issues of Gubernatorial and Presidential Executive Privilege.
Founding Artistic Director, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
Steven Maler is the Founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC). At CSC he has been directing Free Shakespeare on the Boston Common productions since 1996, including Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Coriolanus, All’s Well That Ends Well, Othello, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Henry V, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, and Romeo & Juliet. In collaboration with Boston Landmarks Orchestra, he directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featuring the Overture and Incidental Music of Felix Mendelssohn, as well as concert stagings of The Boys from Syracuse and Kiss Me, Kate at Boston’s iconic Hatch Shell.
In a joint venture between CSC and Google, he most recently directed a Virtual Reality adaption of Hamlet entitled Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit, which is currently available for viewing on Boston public media producer WGBH’s YouTube channel.
Other CSC works include the critically acclaimed production of Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, the world premiere of Jake Broder’s Our American Hamlet, and the world premiere of Robert Brustein’s The Last Will. He directed Peter Eötvös’s operatic treatment of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (U.S. Premiere) and Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face, The Turn of the Screw at New Repertory Theatre, Santaland Diaries and Chay Yew’s Porcelain at SpeakEasy Stage Company, Top Girls and Weldon Rising at Coyote Theatre, and The L.A. Plays by Han Ong at A.R.T. His New York City credits include the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of Without You, written by and starring Anthony Rapp. The production has been seen in Boston, Edinburgh, Toronto, London and Seoul.
He received the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence as well as for Best Production, Twelfth Night;Outstanding Director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Best Production, Suburbia; Best Solo Performance, John Kuntz’s Starf***ers (which also won Best Solo Performance Award at New York International Fringe Festival).
His feature film “The Autumn Heart”, starring Tyne Daly and Ally Sheedy, was in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
U.S. District Court Judge, District of Massachusetts
Nominated by William J. Clinton on April 4, 1995, to a new seat created by 104 Stat. 5089; Confirmed by the Senate on May 25, 1995, and received commission on May 26, 1995.
Associate Artistic Director, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
Adam Sanders is the Associate Artistic Director at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, theater-in-residence at Babson College. He serves as director of the Apprentice Program, and is the director and originator of CSC2, a cohort of early-career actors. Directing credits for CSC include: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesar (CSC2 Company), Symphonic Shakespeare, (in collaboration with Boston Landmarks Orchestra at the Boston Hatch Shell); co-director: Kiss Me Kate, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Boys From Syracuse (also BLO/Hatch Shell collaborations), co-director/dramaturg: Shakespeare and Leadership (2013 – 2017), and CSCs unprecedented Shakespeare at Fenway performance in 2014; director: Shakespeare and the Law (2017). At Babson College, Adam is the Associate Director of the Sorenson Center for the Arts where he supports the artistic development of undergraduate students within a business focused curriculum. Adam holds a Master of Arts in theater education from Emerson College and is a Master of Business Administration candidate at Babson College.
United States District Judge for the District of Massachusetts
Patti B. Saris is the Chief United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She is also the former Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission.
U.S. District Court Judge, District of Massachusetts
F. Dennis Saylor IV is a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He joined the court in 2004 after being nominated by President George W. Bush. At the time of appointment, Saylor served as Special Counsel & Chief of Staff to the Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC. Saylor also serves on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. His term runs from May 19, 2011 until May 18, 2018.
U.S. District Court Judge, District of Massachusetts
Douglas Preston Woodlock is a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He joined the court in 1986 after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan. At the time of appointment, Woodlock served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services.
U.S. District Court Judge, District of Massachusetts
Rya Weickert Zobel is a federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She joined the court in 1979 after being nominated by President Jimmy Carter. At the time of her appointment, Zobel was a private practice attorney inMassachusetts.
Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Theodore B. Olson is a Partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C. office; a founder of the Firm’s Crisis Management, Sports Law, and Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Groups.
Mr. Olson was Solicitor General of the United States during the period 2001-2004. From 1981-1984, he was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965.
Selected by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Mr. Olson is one of the nation’s premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates. He has argued 65 cases in the Supreme Court and has prevailed in over 75% of those cases. These include the two Bush v Gore cases arising out of the 2000 presidential election; Citizens United v Federal Election Commission; Hollingsworth v Perry, the case affirming the overturning of California’s Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriages; Murphy v NCAA, overturning a federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting; and U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security v Regents of the Univ. of Calif., challenging the Trump Administration’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”). Mr. Olson’s practice is concentrated on appellate and constitutional law, federal legislation, media and commercial disputes, and assisting clients with strategies for the containment, management and resolution of major legal crises. He has handled cases at all levels of state and federal court systems throughout the United States. Mr. Olson co-authored “Redeeming the Dream, the Case for Marriage Equality” with David Boies. Both were featured in HBO’s award-winning documentary, “The Case Against 8.”
Mr. Olson's Supreme Court arguments have included cases involving separation of powers; federalism; voting rights; the Tenth Amendment; the First Amendment; the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses; jury trial rights; punitive damages; takings of property; the Commerce Clause; administrative law; taxation; criminal law; sports wagering; copyright, patent and antitrust; securities; campaign finance; foreign sovereign immunities; telecommunications; the environment; the internet; the Supremacy Clause; and other federal constitutional and statutory questions. As Solicitor General, during the presidency of George W. Bush, Mr. Olson was the Government's principal advocate in the United States Supreme Court, responsible for supervising and coordinating all appellate litigation of the United States, and a legal adviser to the President and the Attorney General. As Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel during the Reagan Administration, Mr. Olson was the Executive Branch's principal legal adviser, rendering legal guidance to the President and to the heads of the Executive Branch departments on a wide range of constitutional and federal statutory questions, and assisting in formulating and articulating the Executive Branch's position on constitutional issues.
Mr. Olson has served as private counsel to two Presidents, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush, in addition to serving those two Presidents in high-level positions in the Department of Justice. He has twice been awarded the United States Department of Justice's Edmund J. Randolph Award, its highest award for public service and leadership, and also received the Department of Defense's Distinguished Public Service Award, its highest civilian award, for his advocacy in the courts of the United States, including the Supreme Court. He also received the American Bar Association Medal, its highest award for “exceptionally distinguished service by a lawyer or lawyers to the cause of American jurisprudence.” Mr. Olson is to receive the 2021 Jack Valenti Friend of the White House Fellows Award in the Fall of 2021 to be presented by the White House Fellows Foundation and Association.
Mr. Olson is a member of the Commission on White House Fellowships; a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation; a member of the Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society; the Board of Directors of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University; and the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Foundation. He was a visiting scholar at the National Constitution Center in 2007. He served on the President's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2006 to 2008; and of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2010 to 2020. He was Co-Chair of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy from 2008-2009, and served two terms on the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts.
Mr. Olson is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He has been repeatedly listed in legal publications as one of the nation’s leading appellate lawyers. The late New York Times columnist William Safire described Mr. Olson as his generation's "most persuasive advocate" before the Supreme Court and "the most effective Solicitor General in decades.”
Mr. Olson received his law degree in 1965 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) where he was a member of the California Law Review and Order of the Coif. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of the Pacific, where he was recognized as the outstanding graduating student in both forensics and journalism. He has written and lectured extensively on appellate advocacy, oral communication in the courtroom, civil justice reform, and constitutional and administrative law.
Shakespeare and the Law 2019 - Belief and the Burden of Proof through the Lens of Six of the Bard's Plays
The Boston Lawyers Chapter, McCarter & English, and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
Boston, MA1st Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture - Transcript
Theodore B. Olson
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