Editor-in-Chief, The Federalist
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist, Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College, and a Fox News Contributor. She is a New York Times best-selling author of three books, including "Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.” Hemingway is a recipient of The Bradley Prize, awarded for extraordinary contributions to American scholarship and debate, as well as the Dao Grand Prize for Journalism for her series on the Russia Collusion Hoax.
U.S. Attorney, Western District of Missouri
On August 1st, Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced the appointment of R. Matthew Price as United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri and he was sworn into office by Chief Judge Phillips that same day.
Price served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Jefferson County Missouri and later as an Assistant Circuit Attorney in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office. In 2008, Price joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Tennessee as a Criminal AUSA. After several years with DOJ, Price left to become a Senior Attorney for a Fortune 100 Company, later serving as the Lead Counsel for Compliance, Investigations & Government Litigation, overseeing internal investigations and managing global compliance projects.
In 2014, Price joined the City of Germantown, Tennessee as the Chief Prosecuting Attorney. Later, he worked at another Fortune 100 Company as a Senior Counsel, later promoted to Managing Counsel, where he directed complex investigations and led workstreams related to government inquiries. Most recently, Price has served as the Chief Legal Officer for a large Missouri corporation.
President, JCN
Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the JCN, and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court. As a go-to expert on the confirmation process, Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted in the media. She regularly appears on television, including FOX, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and ABC’s This Week.
Severino writes and speaks on a wide range of judicial issues, including the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She has testified before Congress on constitutional questions and briefed Senators on judicial nominations, and regularly files briefs in high-profile Supreme Court cases. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.), Duke University (B.A., Biology), and Michigan State University (M.A., Linguistics).
Partner, Consovoy McCarthy
Ms. Wyrick represents clients in a variety of matters involving constitutional law, administrative law, congressional and other government investigations, and commercial litigation.
Prior to joining Consovoy McCarthy, Ms. Wyrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where she prosecuted cases involving domestic and international narcotics trafficking and money laundering, white collar crime, material support of terrorism, and export control and sanctions violations. Previously at the Department of Justice, she was a Counselor to the Attorney General. Her portfolio included issues arising from the National Security Division, the Civil Division, and the Civil Rights Division. Before joining the Department, she served as Senior Counsel of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, where she led a number of congressional investigations. Ms. Wyrick also previously served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts.
Ms. Wyrick earned her J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law and B.A. from Auburn University. Ms. Wyrick is a member of the Virginia and Alabama bars.
Editor-in-Chief, The Federalist
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist, Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College, and a Fox News Contributor. She is a New York Times best-selling author of three books, including "Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.” Hemingway is a recipient of The Bradley Prize, awarded for extraordinary contributions to American scholarship and debate, as well as the Dao Grand Prize for Journalism for her series on the Russia Collusion Hoax.
U.S. Attorney, Western District of Missouri
On August 1st, Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced the appointment of R. Matthew Price as United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri and he was sworn into office by Chief Judge Phillips that same day.
Price served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Jefferson County Missouri and later as an Assistant Circuit Attorney in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office. In 2008, Price joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Tennessee as a Criminal AUSA. After several years with DOJ, Price left to become a Senior Attorney for a Fortune 100 Company, later serving as the Lead Counsel for Compliance, Investigations & Government Litigation, overseeing internal investigations and managing global compliance projects.
In 2014, Price joined the City of Germantown, Tennessee as the Chief Prosecuting Attorney. Later, he worked at another Fortune 100 Company as a Senior Counsel, later promoted to Managing Counsel, where he directed complex investigations and led workstreams related to government inquiries. Most recently, Price has served as the Chief Legal Officer for a large Missouri corporation.
President, JCN
Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the JCN, and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court. As a go-to expert on the confirmation process, Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted in the media. She regularly appears on television, including FOX, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and ABC’s This Week.
Severino writes and speaks on a wide range of judicial issues, including the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She has testified before Congress on constitutional questions and briefed Senators on judicial nominations, and regularly files briefs in high-profile Supreme Court cases. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.), Duke University (B.A., Biology), and Michigan State University (M.A., Linguistics).
Partner, Consovoy McCarthy
Ms. Wyrick represents clients in a variety of matters involving constitutional law, administrative law, congressional and other government investigations, and commercial litigation.
Prior to joining Consovoy McCarthy, Ms. Wyrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where she prosecuted cases involving domestic and international narcotics trafficking and money laundering, white collar crime, material support of terrorism, and export control and sanctions violations. Previously at the Department of Justice, she was a Counselor to the Attorney General. Her portfolio included issues arising from the National Security Division, the Civil Division, and the Civil Rights Division. Before joining the Department, she served as Senior Counsel of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, where she led a number of congressional investigations. Ms. Wyrick also previously served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts.
Ms. Wyrick earned her J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law and B.A. from Auburn University. Ms. Wyrick is a member of the Virginia and Alabama bars.
Assistant Professor of Law, The Ohio State University - Moritz College of Law
Bridget Dooling is a nationally recognized expert on administrative law and regulatory policy. Her scholarship on regulatory matters has been or will be published in leading legal journals including the Duke Law Journal, the Administrative Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review Headnotes, the American University Law Review and The Annals of Health Law.
Professor Dooling teaches courses on legislation and regulation, administrative law and other regulatory topics. She is a Senior Fellow at the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) and recently served on the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.
Prior to joining the faculty at Ohio State, Dooling was a research professor with the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center and a professor of law (by courtesy) at GW Law. Before that, Professor Dooling spent over 10 years in the federal government as a deputy chief, senior policy analyst and attorney for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Boston College Law School; Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Boston College Law School
Professor Lyons is a Professor and Associate Dean at Boston College Law School. He specializes in telecommunications and tech policy, energy, and administrative law. Before joining the faculty, he practiced at the firm of Munger, Tolles and Olson in Los Angeles. He also clerked for the Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Professor Lyons is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he has written over 250 blog posts on tech policy issues, including net neutrality, telecommunications regulation, First Amendment issues with tech regulation, and generative AI.
Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
Professor Mulligan teaches Internet law, intellectual property law, and trusts & estates. Her research addresses efforts to adapt intellectual property law for the digital age, the relationship between law and technology, and theories of constitutional interpretation. Recently, she has written about the Internet of Things, robot punishment, and early translations of the Constitution.
While at Brooklyn, Professor Mulligan researched as a visiting scholar at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and taught as a visiting associate professor at Yale Law School. Previously, she taught at the University of Georgia and was a postdoctoral associate and lecturer in law at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Her scholarship has been published in a variety of journals and law reviews, including Georgia Law Review, SMU Law Review, and Constitutional Commentary.
Professor Mulligan earned her bachelor’s degree cum laude and her law degree cum laude from Harvard University, where she worked as a production and article editor for the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology. Before entering academia, she served as a law clerk for Judge Charles F. Lettow of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Christopher J. Walker is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Michigan law faculty in 2022, he spent a decade teaching at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He previously clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation. Professor Walker’s research focuses on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. Outside the law school, he chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2020-21 and served as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2016-2022, and he continues to serve in both organizations in various capacities. He also works of counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
Professor of Law, Texas A&M University School of Law
Daniel E. Walters is an a Professor of Law at the Texas A&M University School of Law. Prior to joining the Texas A&M faculty, he was an Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State Law, and before that a Regulation Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law. He earned a JD from the University of Michigan Law School and a PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He clerked for the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is also admitted to practice law (but inactive) in Illinois.
Professor Walters writes about administrative and regulatory law, with a particular focus on the implications of democratic theory for the administrative state, on public participation in administrative processes, on deference doctrines, on empirical studies of administrative behavior, and on the court-agency relationship. He also writes about climate change and energy law, with an emphasis on electric transmission lines, grid governance, the food-climate nexus, and climate legislation. His articles have appeared in many of the top journals in law and public administration, including the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, the Emory Law Journal, the Iowa Law Review, the Harvard Environmental Law Review, the Administrative Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, and the Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory (JPART), among others. He is a co-editor, with Cary Coglianese, of a forthcoming book: Regulation in a Turbulent Era. He is a former winner of the Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Administrative & Regulatory Law (student category) and the Beryl A. Radin Award for best article in JPART, and his work has been included in the Environmental Law Institute’s Environmental Law & Policy Review’s list of top environmental law review articles.
Professor Walters is an active volunteer in several professional organizations, including the ABA Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice (the Section) and the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (FNREL). Since 2020, he has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Administrative & Regulatory Law News, the ABA Section’s quarterly magazine, and in 2023 he was recently elected to a three-year term on the Section’s Council of Advisors. He has served since 2022 on the Natural Resources Law Teacher’s Planning Committee within FNREL, and before that he was a Trustee with the organization from 2021-2022.
Executive Director & Secretary, American Civil Rights Project
Dan Morenoff is the executive director at the American Civil Rights Project and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
His work focuses on protecting and, where necessary, restoring the primacy of all Americans' shared civil rights against the identitarian alternative.
Before practicing law, Morenoff served on the legislative staff of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX). Morenoff holds a B.A. from Columbia College of Columbia University in the City of New York and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He has also served as an officer or director of several community organizations in Dallas, Texas.
Partner, Duane Morris LLP; Managing Principal, Duane Morris Institute
Jonathan A. Segal is a partner at Duane Morris LLP in the Employment, Labor, Benefits and Immigration Practice Group. He is also the managing principal of the Duane Morris Institute. The Duane Morris Institute provides training for human resource professionals, in-house counsel, benefits administrators and managers at Duane Morris, at client sites and by way of webinar on myriad employment, labor, benefits and immigration matters.
Previously a litigator, Jonathan’s practice now focuses almost entirely on helping employers meet their business objectives or missions by minimizing legal risk, maximizing compliance and focusing on relationship with business objectives or mission and legal requirements or restrictions.
Legal Fellow, Center for the Separation of Powers, Pacific Legal Foundation
Alison Somin joined Pacific Legal Foundation in May 2020 as a legal fellow in the Center for the Separation of Powers and part of the equality before the law practice group.
Before joining the Pacific Legal Foundation team, Alison was a special assistant and counsel for over a decade to Gail Heriot, a member of the bipartisan United States Commission on Civil Rights. She also has deep roots in the liberty movement. Alison was a Koch Associate at the National Federation for Independent Business Legal Foundation and, during law school, completed summer clerkships at the Institute for Justice and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. She holds a J.D. from Emory University School of Law and an A.B. in history from Dartmouth College.
Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Daily Journal, Texas Journal of Law and Politics, and The Federalist Society’s Engage magazine and blog.
She lives in northern Virginia with her husband Ilya; two children; and golden retriever Willow. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking and cooking, children’s art projects, and training and exercising Willow.
Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida
On April 4, 2019, Judge Altman was confirmed to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. At 36, he became the youngest federal district court judge in the country—and the youngest federal judge ever appointed in the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Altman received a BA from Columbia University, where he played quarterback on the football team and pitched for the baseball team—earning All-Ivy honors. Judge Altman received his JD from the Yale Law School, where he was projects editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, the Judge clerked on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Stanley Marcus.
Judge Altman then became a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, where he twice received the Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys’ Award for Superior Performance by a federal prosecutor. In 2013, Judge Altman was named “Federal Prosecutor of the Year” by the Miami-Dade Chiefs of Police and the Law Enforcement Officers’ Charitable Foundation.
In 2014, Judge Altman became a partner at the Miami law firm of Podhurst Orseck, where he represented the victims of airplane crashes and bank fraud conspiracies.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
On March 20, 2018, Judge Elizabeth L. Branch (Lisa) was sworn in as a United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
Judge Branch attended and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina (B.A., cum laude, 1990), and Emory University School of Law (J.D., with distinction, 1994).
After graduating from law school, Judge Branch served as a federal law clerk to The Honorable J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia from 1994 to 1996. Following her clerkship, Judge Branch joined the litigation department of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta as an associate and then a partner.
From 2004 to 2008, Judge Branch was a senior official in the Administration of President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. She served first as the Associate General Counsel for Rules and Legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and then as the Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U. S. Office of Management and Budget.
She returned to Smith Gambrell in 2008 as a litigation partner. Judge Branch then was appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia by Governor Nathan Deal, taking office on September 4, 2012, where she served until March 19, 2018.
Judge Branch is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School; Former President, American Civil Liberties Union
Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Professor Emerita and Senior Fellow at FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), was national President of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008. An internationally acclaimed free speech scholar and advocate, who regularly addresses diverse audiences and provides media commentary around the world, Strossen is also the Host and Project Consultant for Free To Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series distributed on public television in 2023. Her books about free speech include: Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know® (Oxford University Press 2023); HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (Oxford University Press 2018); and Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights (Scribner 1995), which was republished with a new Preface in 2024 as part of the NYU Classics Series. Her many honors and awards include the National Coalition Against Censorship’s Judy Blume Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech. She serves on the Advisory Boards of several organizations that do free speech work, including: ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin.
CEO and Director, National Jewish Advocacy Center
Rabbi Dr. Mark Goldfeder, Esq. is the CEO and Director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Inc. He has served as the founding Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on Law and Judaism, a Trustee of the Center for Israel Education, and, by Presidential appointment, as a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council.
Goldfeder has taught law across the country and around the world as Senior Lecturer at Emory University School of Law, Spruill Family Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Director of the Restoring Religious Freedom Project, and as a visiting professor at Georgia State University School of Law, Florida Southern College, University of Padua (Italy), Scuola Galileana (Italy), IDC’s Radzyner Law School (Israel) and Bar Ilan Law School (Israel).
Goldfeder holds two rabbinic ordinations (yoreh yoreh; Yeshiva University and Rivavot Ephraim) and two judicial ordinations (yadin yadin; Rav Gedaliah Dov Schwartz, Av Beth Din, Rabbinical Council of America and Chicago Rabbinical Council, and Rav Dovid Schochet, President, Toronto Rabbinical Council).
Goldfeder’s work focuses on law and religion, constitutional law, and international law. He publishes widely in those areas, including both academically and in popular publications like CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Forbes, and other major media outlets. He is also co-author of the five-volume treatise Religious Organizations and the Law (Westlaw). Goldfeder handles cases involving antisemitism issues around the country, and lectures and writes widely on those topics. He has worked with local, state, and federal legislators on measures to support the Jewish community, and has defended students, professors, businesses, and nonprofits targeted for their support of the Jewish State. He has worked on cases at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, and has successfully represented clients including American and Israeli nonprofits in federal litigation.
In 2017, he received the Opher Aviran Stand with Israel Award from Hillel, and in 2018, the Jon Barkan Israel Advocacy Award from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in recognition of his work. He received his Doctorate and LLM degrees from Emory University and his Juris Doctor degree from NYU School of Law. He received his Bachelor of Arts at Yeshiva University in Journalism.
Co-Founder and President, Zachor Legal Institute
Marc Greendorfer, the co-founder of Zachor Legal Institute, is an experienced attorney with an extensive background in legal advocacy and scholarship. Marc graduated magna cum laude from Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1996, where he was an editor of the Cardozo Law Review. Marc started his legal career at the prominent New York City law firm of Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon and has practiced law at AmLaw 100 law firms in New York City and San Francisco.
Marc is active in constitutional law advocacy, writing and publishing a number of law review articles and participating in Supreme Court and lower federal court cases as amicus curiae. Marc is admitted to practice in the states of California, Montana and New York and is admitted to the Supreme Court bar as well as most Courts of Appeal in the United States.
Marc’s advocacy work has been cited and incorporated in the work of many other scholars, rights organizations, courts and state attorneys general. In recent years, Marc has also provided testimony and other expert advice to the United States Congress, state legislative bodies and prominent advocacy organizations on the topics of terror funding and the applicability of federal and state laws to antizionist activity.
Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law
Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus is an internationally recognized expert in civil and human rights, as well as a leader in the fight against anti-Semitism on and off university campuses. He is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the leading civil rights legal organization fighting against anti-Semitism. The New York Times has called him “The Man Who Helped Redefine Campus Anti-Semitism.” He been described, in that paper, as “the single most effective and respected force” to combat anti-Semitism.
During his public service career, Marcus served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights; Staff Director at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and General Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
In academia, he serves as Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University. He formerly held the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at the City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College, served as Visiting Research Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva University, and was a Board of Visitors member George Mason University and Distinguished Senior Fellow at that university’s law school. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism and previously served as Associate Editor of the Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
Marcus is also author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism (Oxford University Press) and Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge University Press). He has published widely in academic journals as well as in more popular venues such as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, USA Today, and Politico. He is a graduate of Williams College and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
Earlier in his career, he was a litigation partner in two major law firms, where he conducted complex commercial and constitutional litigation. He also serves as Chairman emeritus of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Civil Rights Practice Group.
Special Counsel, Campus Advocacy, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
One of FIRE’s longest-serving employees, Robert Shibley began at FIRE straight out of Duke Law School in 2003, with the intention of doing nonprofit work for a couple of years before finding a permanent job. This lasted 19 years, including six as FIRE’s executive director. During his time at FIRE, Robert launched FIRE’s first major litigation initiative, traveled to dozens of campuses to speak about the First Amendment and Title IX issues on campus, and oversaw FIRE’s expansion into off-campus issues before a stint representing students and faculty members in private practice at the firm of Allen Harris PLLC.
Having realized things on campus were even worse than he had believed, Robert returned to FIRE as Special Counsel for Campus Advocacy in order to finish the job he started: restoring free speech and due process to America’s college campuses. Robert is the author of Twisting Title IX, from Encounter Books. His writing has appeared everywhere from The Wall Street Journal to The Washington Post, USA Today, and TIME, and he has appeared on national and international broadcasts including the BBC and NPR, The O’Reilly Factor, CNN Tonight, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and (perhaps most famously) Dr. Phil.
Chief Legal Officer, American Jewish Committee
Marc Stern is an expert in legal advocacy on issues of concern to the Jewish community, including the new field of "lawfare"—pursuing war through the use of international legal procedures. He came to AJC after 33 years at the American Jewish Congress, where he was General Counsel since 1999 and acting Co-Executive Director since 2008. Stern has authored numerous legal briefs, published many scholarly articles, and has argued four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He earned a B.A. at Yeshiva University and a J.D. at the Columbia University School of Law.
Executive Director & Secretary, American Civil Rights Project
Dan Morenoff is the executive director at the American Civil Rights Project and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
His work focuses on protecting and, where necessary, restoring the primacy of all Americans' shared civil rights against the identitarian alternative.
Before practicing law, Morenoff served on the legislative staff of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX). Morenoff holds a B.A. from Columbia College of Columbia University in the City of New York and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He has also served as an officer or director of several community organizations in Dallas, Texas.
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.
Chairman, Project 21 National Advisory Board, National Center for Public Policy Research
Horace Cooper is a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, chairman of the Project 21 National Advisory Board and a legal commentator.
Horace averages over 400 talk radio appearances per year representing the National Center and Project 21, in addition to regular television appearances and interviews by the print media.
Horace taught constitutional law at George Mason University in Virginia and was a senior counsel to U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
Principal, Beveridge & Diamond, PC
John offers clients the benefit of decades of experience as a top environmental lawyer, a leader of major bar and environmental organizations, and a distinguished military career.
John provides strategic counsel on high-stakes environmental and natural resources litigation, civil and criminal enforcement, and compliance. Working with clients makes the practice of law worthy and valuable to him as they advance strategic needs while protecting human health and the environment.
For more than two decades, John served as a senior leader on environment and natural resource matters at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), where he supervised some of the department’s most significant litigation, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Love Canal, and Bunker Hill litigation. As the Senate-confirmed, Assistant Attorney General, ENRD, John worked on the most high-profile environment cases, and personally negotiated the multi-billion dollar resolutions of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the Volkswagen emissions scandal. These cases required a great deal of coordination, expert assistance, and sophisticated management of numerous players to reach successful outcomes. This experience has given John insight into the workings of large corporations, as well as into the challenges that major companies face in lawsuits.
As the former President of the Environmental Law Institute, the former Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section on Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources, and the immediate past President of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, John has led each of the premier environmental organizations in the United States. In addition, he was the first government attorney to be elected and serve as the President of the District of Columbia Bar, now the largest bar in the nation.
Professional Background
John’s leadership is a defining characteristic of his long and distinguished legal career. Before joining the DOJ, John was the Chief Legislative Counsel of the U.S. Army. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, John served in Airborne, Ranger, and Special Forces units in Germany and Vietnam. His subsequent military assignments include as a criminal prosecutor in Germany and civil trial lawyer in the Pentagon; Chief of Litigation Branch, Europe; General Counsel, Defense Nuclear Agency; Staff Judge Advocate in Germany; and Director of Administrative and Civil Law, Judge Advocate General’s School, Charlottesville, Virginia. His military education includes being a Fellow, Army War College, and the Command and General Staff College. He is a graduate of the University of Santa Clara Law school (summa cum laude) and the University of Virginia (MA with honors).
John’s awards for government and military service include the President Rank Award from three different Presidents, the Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star.
Partner, Secil Law
John Irving brings nearly three decades of experience in white collar criminal defense, government investigations, and high-stakes congressional and corporate inquiries. A former federal prosecutor and trusted advisor within the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency, John is known for his calm under pressure, strategic clarity, and unwavering discretion.
His clients have included Members of Congress, senior executives, political appointees, and corporate entities navigating complex criminal, civil, and regulatory matters—including matters that have dominated national headlines. John’s practice today is defined by sophisticated representation in sensitive investigations, classified matters, and strategic crisis response—often involving multiple enforcement authorities.
John served for over a decade in the U.S. Department of Justice, including as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., where he prosecuted a wide range of criminal cases and appeared regularly in court. He later served as Counsel to two Deputy Attorneys General and as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, advising on departmental policy and enforcement matters at the highest levels.
Prior to his tenure at DOJ, John served as Investigative Counsel to the (then-named) U.S. House Committee on Government Reform & Oversight and as an Associate Independent Counsel in the investigation of former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Before joining SECIL Law, John was a Partner at E&W Law, a boutique firm focused on environmental and white-collar litigation, and previously spent over a decade at Holland & Knight LLP in Washington, D.C. There, he was a key member of the firm’s White-Collar Defense, Investigations & Compliance team.
His private practice experience includes:
John’s clients appreciate his deep fluency in government processes, his strategic precision in high-pressure moments, and his ability to quietly resolve matters that others cannot.
Senior Vice President, Environmental Health, Natural Resources Defense Counsel
As the chief visionary and strategist for NRDC’s advocacy to protect human health, Matthew Tejada oversees NRDC's clean air, water, toxics, and adaptation programs. He is also responsible for leading, scaling, and operationalizing the teams, structures, partnerships, and policy initiatives needed to tackle major health threats facing communities.
Prior to joining NRDC, Tejada served most recently as the deputy assistant administrator for environmental justice within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office for Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. In his 10 years with the EPA, Tejada led all aspects of environmental justice work throughout the agency and in coordination with other federal agencies, including the development of an array of grants and technical assistance vehicles, and the creation and deployment of a nationally consistent screening and mapping tool that highlights environmental justice issues across the United States. His work also direct community engagement, outreach and communication, and management of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Previously, Tejada was the executive director of Air Alliance Houston, an environmental justice organization that works to reduce the public health impacts from air pollution. His background also includes working as a public advocate with the Texas Public Interest Research Group—where he managed several advocacy programs focused on consumer, health and environmental issues, including federal ozone NAAQS review and urban transit planning—and as a teacher of English as a foreign language in the U.S. Peace Corps.
Tejada earned his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Texas, Austin, and also holds a master’s degree in Russian and East European studies, as well as a PhD in modern history from St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He is based in the Washington, D.C., office.
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