United States District Judge, Eastern District of Texas
Prior to taking the bench, Judge Barker served as Deputy Solicitor General of Texas, arguing appeals and public-law cases for the State. Before his state-government service, Judge Barker was an appellate and IP partner at Yetter Coleman in Houston. Before that, he spent four years in the Appellate Section of the DOJ’s Criminal Division. While there, he taught appellate advocacy at the National Advocacy Center, completed a Pegasus Scholarship with the English Inns of Court, and served on detail as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge Barker served as a law clerk to Judge William Bryson on the Federal Circuit and Chief Judge John Walker on the Second Circuit. He earned his B.S. in computer engineering summa cum laude from Texas A&M and his J.D. from the University of Texas, where he graduated first in his class.
Clinical Professor, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
John Greil co-teaches the Law and Religion Clinic, where he supervises student-led representations of clients in need of litigation, transaction, and consulting services. He is an active trial-level and appellate litigator in state and federal court and regularly supports clients in the United States Supreme Court. An expert on law and religion, Professor Greil also teaches a seminar titled Understanding Conservative Legal Thought. Before joining the faculty, he practiced at Vinson & Elkins LLP and clerked on the federal district and court of appeals.
Partner and Co-Chair, Constitutional and Appellate Law Practice Group, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Allyson N. Ho is a partner in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and co‐chair of the Firm’s nationwide Appellate and Constitutional Law practice group.
Mrs. Ho is “undoubtedly one of the premier appellate lawyers in the United States” (Chambers). She has presented over 100 oral arguments in federal and state courts nationwide, including multiple high‐stakes cases on behalf of business before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Her most significant winning arguments include a U.S. Supreme Court reversal worth billions of dollars for unionized employers in the Sixth Circuit; a U.S. Supreme Court reversal limiting the power of federal regulators; a multi‐billion dollar environmental win in the Fifth Circuit; a multi‐billion dollar commercial victory for the founder of a technology company in the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court; a billion dollar environmental win in the Houston Court of Appeals; a nine‐figure commercial victory in the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals; and a nine‐figure arbitration win in the Fifth Circuit.
Among her numerous accolades, Mrs. Ho is one of only a small group of appellate lawyers nationwide, and the only one in Texas, to be nationally ranked by Chambers every year for the past ten years (2012‐21). She is also one of the few appellate lawyers nationwide to be named to the BTI Client Service All‐Stars List, an honor bestowed by the corporate counsel community for lawyers “who stand above all the others in delivering the absolute best in client service.” She is also routinely named as a leading appellate lawyer by Benchmark, The Best Lawyers in America®, The Legal 500, Texas Super Lawyers, and D Magazine.
Mrs. Ho has received the Gregory S. Coleman Outstanding Appellate Lawyer Award (Texas Bar Foundation, June 22, 2018), been named a “Distinguished Leader” (Texas Lawyer, Sep. 1, 2017) and “Appellate MVP” (Law360, Nov. 23, 2015), and been recognized on the “Appellate Hot List” (National Law Journal, Nov. 16, 2015). In addition, she has been profiled in “Texas Powerhouse” (Law360, Aug. 2, 2021), “Texas Appellate Power Couple” (Texas Lawbook, January 7, 2021), “Litigators of the Week” (The American Lawyer, May 8, 2020), “Litigation Powerhouse” (Law360, Aug. 10, 2016), “Supreme Court Insider” (National Law Journal, July 21, 2016), “Supreme Court Specialists, Mostly Male, Dominated Arguments This Term” (National Law Journal, May 11, 2016), “Attorney of the Year Finalist” (Texas Lawyer, Nov. 2, 2015), “Litigation Department of the Year” (Texas Lawyer, June 1, 2015), “Employment Group of the Year” (Law360, Jan. 13, 2015), “A Supreme Month: Lawyer Credits Preparedness in Ability to Argue Two U.S. High Court Cases in Three Weeks” (Texas Lawyer, Dec. 8, 2014), “High Court Debuts for Two Lawyers” (National Law Journal, Nov. 3, 2014), “Women in Business Awards” (Dallas Business Journal, Aug 29, 2014), “Litigation Departments of the Year” (Texas Lawyer, June 2, 2014), “Winning Women” (Texas Lawyer, Aug. 22, 2011), and “High court practitioners: increasingly diverse” (National Law Journal, June 6, 2011).
Federal and State Appellate Practice
Mrs. Ho has argued a series of high stakes, landmark cases on behalf of the business community before the U.S. Supreme Court. National Law Journal called her a “Veteran SCOTUS Advocate” in the “upper echelons of Supreme Court practice.” Law360 named her a “Supreme Court Star” and “one of the nation’s preeminent appellate lawyers.” And EmpiricalSCOTUS.com ranked her among “the most successful attorneys that currently practice before the Court.” Mrs. Ho once argued two significant business cases before the Court within the span of 21 days—including a “significant ruling for employers” that “paved a new path for companies paying millions of dollars in retiree health care benefits” (Law360), as well as a landmark administrative law dispute in which “several justices agreed with Ho’s contention that SCOTUS should revisit and overrule its own precedent” (Law360). She also prevailed against the EEOC in a case that the employment defense bar called “good news for employers across the country.” And in “the most important patent case in modern history” according to patent law experts, her argument before the Court was credited for “pick[ing] up two votes that pundits thought unreachable.”
She has appeared before every federal court of appeals in the country, including en banc arguments before the Fourth and Sixth Circuits. She has successfully represented business clients in every circuit, including the First (Pruco Life Insurance Company), Second (Swiss Federation; Rite Aid), Third (Johnson & Johnson), Fourth (Genex Services), Fifth (United Space Alliance LLC; Elliott Co.; MERSCORP; 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc.; Stream Energy; Health Management Systems), Sixth (Deutsche Bank; American Airlines; M&G Polymers), Seventh (Expedia), Eighth (Cotter), Ninth (Boeing; JP Morgan Chase Bank), Tenth (Mitchell International), Eleventh (AstraZeneca), D.C. (FedEx), and Federal (Repros Therapeutics) Circuits.
In addition, Mrs. Ho regularly appears in state appellate courts across the country. She has argued numerous cases in the Texas Supreme Court, Texas appellate courts in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Eastland, and state appellate courts in Arizona, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, prevailing on behalf of Ford Motor Company, PepsiCo, International Paper, Tenet, GameStop, Deutsche Bank, and Unit.
Government and Public Service Experience
Mrs. Ho has a distinguished record of experience at the highest levels of the federal government. She served as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, Counselor to Attorney General John Ashcroft, and law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Her record of public service also includes appointments to various boards and commissions. Among the most notable are her election as a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a trustee of the United States Supreme Court Historical Society, and a trustee of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. She is also vice chair of the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, appointed by U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to evaluate potential appointments of all federal judges and U.S. Attorneys in Texas, and has previously served on the U.S. Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the Northern District of Texas.
Other Background Information
An active pro bono litigator, Mrs. Ho works most frequently with the First Liberty Institute and as amicus counsel for the State and Local Legal Center, the National Organization for Victim Assistance, and the National Crime Victim Law Institute. She is a frequent public speaker and active member of the Federalist Society, the American Law Institute, and the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Policy Advisory Board.
Mrs. Ho graduated from Duke University magna cum laude with a B.A. in English, Rice University with an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature, and the University of Chicago Law School with high honors. She was a member of the Law Review and Order of the Coif. She and her husband Jim, a federal judge, have a twin daughter and son.
Managing Attorney, Institute for Justice
Arif Panju serves as a managing attorney with the Institute for Justice. He leads IJ’s Texas office and litigates cases involving free speech, property rights, economic liberty, and educational choice.
Arif is co-counsel in the case of Carson v. Makin in the U.S. Supreme Court. Carson is a challenge to Maine’s exclusion of religious educational options from the state’s school choice program.
Arif’s work has resulted in court victories in both federal and state court. He vindicated the free speech rights of tour guides in Billups v. City of Charleston. He secured a victory for economic liberty in Brantley v. Kuntz, freeing hairbraiding schools in Texas from onerous restrictions and paving the way for the abolishment of the state’s braiding license at the Texas Legislature. In Patel v. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Arif helped secure a landmark victory in the Texas Supreme Court, establishing a new test for reviewing the constitutionality of economic regulations.
Arif’s work at IJ has been featured by outlets including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Texas Tribune, and dozens more nationwide. His opinions and views on legal issues have been published in several outlets, including the Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, and USA Today. Arif sits on the board for the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
Arif graduated law school with honors from Southern Methodist University. During law school he clerked on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Arif lives in Austin, Texas.
Partner, Lehotsky Cohn LLP
Will Thompson handles clients’ most sensitive and complicated matters. He specializes in complex litigation and solving time-sensitive problems.
Mr. Thompson has represented clients at every stage of complex litigation. He has first-chaired trials in state and federal court and led trial teams through multiple, high-profile evidentiary hearings on preliminary injunctions. He has handled complicated commercial matters, including antitrust, class-action, and constitutional issues. For example, Mr. Thompson represented major construction firms in a multi-billion-dollar construction dispute that resulted in no liability for his clients. He also has argued an expedited appeal in the Fifth Circuit and successfully obtained multiple emergency stays of lower-court orders.
Before joining Lehotsky Cohn LLP, Mr. Thompson served as Acting Chief of the Special Litigation Unit at the Texas Attorney General’s Office, where he gained extensive trial litigation experience. He secured multiple injunctions against federal agency action and successfully challenged local regulations as preempted by state law in both federal and state courts. Mr. Thompson also successfully defended Texas’s redistricting maps against constitutional challenges in both federal and state courts.
Mr. Thompson also previously served as an Assistant General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. In that role, he provided in-house counsel to the Governor on numerous regulatory matters, including writing and submitting comments on proposed federal regulatory actions and monitoring state regulatory agencies. He also oversaw outside litigation teams representing the Governor in court.
Mr. Thompson was formerly a litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He was a law clerk for Judge Andrew S. Oldham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit and Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Partner, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC
Abhishek (Abhi) Kambli is a partner at Holtzman Vogel who represents clients in high-stakes appellate and complex litigation, constitutional challenges, and matters involving state attorneys general and federal agencies. He is one of a handful of lawyers nationally who has both led federal litigation from inside the Department of Justice and multi-state coalition work from a State Attorney General’s office—giving clients a 360-degree perspective on government enforcement, regulatory challenges, and constitutional advocacy.
Prior to joining Holtzman Vogel, Abhi served as Deputy Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice, where he acted as lead counsel in high-priority matters for the Trump Administration, oversaw the Department’s civil components on behalf of the Associate Attorney General, advised the White House Counsel’s Office and federal agencies on litigation risk and strategy, and developed the Department’s national affirmative civil litigation strategy.
Earlier, he served as Deputy Attorney General and Division Chief of the Special Litigation and Constitutional Issues Division at the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, where he launched the division and led multi-state coalitions in trial and appellate courts nationwide, including the United States Supreme Court. He began his career as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Indiana, prosecuting more than 100 federal cases from investigation through appeal.
Abhi is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps, having served on active duty and in the reserves since 2013. His military service includes criminal trials as both prosecutor and defense attorney, appellate representation before the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and representation of a high-profile detainee before the Military Commissions at Guantánamo Bay.
Supervising Senior Attorney, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
Conor Fitzpatrick comes to FIRE by way of Detroit, Michigan, where he was a principal at Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone. Conor has extensive litigation experience at the state and federal level. He has first-chaired multiple jury trials and briefed and argued several eight-figure cases on appeal.
Conor also comes to FIRE with a track record of supporting civil liberties and the First Amendment. Before joining FIRE, he taught First Amendment law as an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He has extensive experience litigating First Amendment cases pro bono on behalf of the incarcerated: His First Amendment work for inmates includes trying a First Amendment free exercise case to a federal jury, which resulted in a six-figure, mid-trial settlement following his cross examination of the key defendant. In another case, Conor secured a published decision from the Sixth Circuit denying qualified immunity to five prison employees, cementing his client’s First Amendment right to peacefully criticize government employees. Conor’s work on these and other cases earned him the 2018 Richard J. Seryak Award for Pro Bono Service.
When not thinking about the First Amendment, Conor enjoys reading, running, and eating sushi. He also avidly supports Detroit’s sports teams, but he rarely enjoys it.
Senior Counsel, Director of Center for Academic Freedom, Alliance Defending Freedom
Tyson Langhofer serves as senior counsel and director of the Center for Academic Freedom with Alliance Defending Freedom.
Langhofer represents students and faculty at public high schools and colleges in defending their First Amendment rights. For example, in Denton v. Hecht, he successfully defended a Florida State University student after he was removed as Student Senate President simply for sharing his Catholic views in a private group chat. In Cross v. Loudoun County Public Schools, he successfully defended an elementary school gym teacher after the school suspended him for peacefully sharing his views on a proposed policy at a public school board meeting.
Langhofer has extensive experience in civil litigation and constitutional law. Before joining ADF, Langhofer was a partner with Stinson LLP, where he worked as a commercial litigation attorney from 2000 until he joined ADF in 2015.
Langhofer is Peer Review Rated AV® Preeminent in Martindale-Hubbell. He is a sought-after speaker on legal and cultural issues. He regularly comments on free speech issues in television, radio, and print media. He has appeared as a guest and written pieces for numerous major media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Washington Times, USA Today, Townhall, The Federalist, and The Daily Wire.
Langhofer earned his Juris Doctor from Regent University School of Law in 1999, graduating cum laude. Langhofer is admitted to practice in multiple states, the Supreme Court, and numerous federal district and appellate courts.
Vice President for Legal Strategy, Stand Together
Casey Mattox is Vice President for Legal Strategy at Stand Together and Senior Advisor at
Americans for Prosperity. In these roles he advocates for and creates strategies and
partnerships to ensure a constitutionally limited government that protects the civil liberties of all
Americans. Prior to joining Stand Together and AFP Casey’s legal career focused on defending
the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, healthcare workers and religious organizations.
Casey has a J.D. from Boston College School of Law and an undergraduate degree from the
University of Virginia. You can find him on Twitter at @CaseyMattox_ and on LinkedIn at
@Casey-Mattox-ST.
Partner, Lex Politico
Audrey Perry Martin is a national and California political law expert with nearly 20 years of experience. Her practice is focused on advising corporations, candidates, political action committees (PACs), political parties, and major campaign donors in the areas of political and election law.
Prior to joining The Gober Group, Audrey gained extensive knowledge and experience working at the Federal Election Commission, for Congress, a think tank, and at private law firms in Washington, D.C. and California. Audrey had previously worked as Deputy Campaign Manager and General Counsel for Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s 2010 California Gubernatorial race. She has extensive presidential election experience, serving as FEC counsel for McCain-Palin 2008, Deputy General Counsel for Romney for President in 2008, and as a consultant for Romney’s 2012 campaign. Audrey also worked as Legal Counsel to the Committee on House Administration of the U.S. House of Representatives, where she focused on issues such as HAVA implementation, election integrity, congressional ethics, and campaign finance.
Audrey has taught election law at Brigham Young University law school and serves as the Vice President of Judicial Affairs for the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA). Audrey has appeared on numerous media outlets, including Fox News and NPR. Audrey is very active on social media and frequently posts about current political law issues on her blog, www.legallypolitical.com. She received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree in political science and journalism from Brigham Young University.
Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County
George R. La Noue is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. He has served as a trial expert in twenty cases involving public procurement preferences. For thirty years, he was Director of the Project on Civil Rights and Public Contracts at UMBC which recently contributed 289 public contracting disparity studies to the Library of Congress. He has been a consultant to nine governments and trial expert in thirty cases where the validity of disparity studies was at issue.
Prof. La Noue can be reached by email at glanoue@umbc.edu.
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