Executive Director of External Affairs and Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Mike Berry serves as Executive Director of External Affairs and Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute. Mike returned to First Liberty after serving as Chief Counsel to United States Senator Ted Cruz.
Prior to working on the Hill, Mike spent many years in public interest litigation including with First Liberty from 2013-2024. Prior to that, Mike served for seven years as an attorney with the U.S. Marine Corps, leaving active duty in 2013. Among his numerous positions within the Marine Corps, Mike deployed to Afghanistan in 2008 and he served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the United States Naval Academy. Mike continues to proudly serve our nation as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve.
Mike earned his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, and he earned his law degree from The Ohio State University.
Anna Bower is a senior editor at Lawfare. Anna holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Cambridge and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School. She joined Lawfare as a recipient of Harvard’s Sumner M. Redstone Fellowship in Public Service. Prior to law school, Anna worked as a judicial assistant for a Superior Court judge in the Northeastern Judicial Circuit of Georgia. She also previously worked as a Fulbright Fellow at Anadolu University in Eskişehir, Turkey. A native of Georgia, Anna is based in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Founder, Article III Project
Mike Davis, the former Chief Counsel for Nominations to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, is the founder and president of the Article III Project (A3P). A3P defends constitutionalist judges and the rule of law. Davis also leads the Internet Accountability Project (IAP), an advocacy organization fighting to rein in Big Tech, along with the Unsilenced Majority, an organization dedicated to opposing Cancel Culture and fighting back against the woke mob and their enablers.
As Chief Counsel for Nominations, Davis advised Chairman Grassley and other senators on the confirmation of federal judges and senior Executive Branch appointees, serving as staff lead for 30 hearings and 41 markup meetings. He oversaw the floor votes for 278 nominees, including the confirmations of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the record number of circuit judges confirmed during President Trump’s first two years in office.
Davis has served in all three branches of the federal government, including for President George W. Bush, the Justice Department, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and current Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. Davis also led the outside support team for Justice Gorsuch’s successful confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Before returning to public service in 2017, Davis spent nearly ten years as a civil litigator in Denver, working at one of the largest law firms in the world and one of the top-ranked law firms in Colorado before running his own law practice for more than five years.
Davis is from Des Moines, Iowa. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 2000 and Juris Doctor in 2004, both from the University of Iowa. In 2017, Davis received Iowa Law’s “Emerging Leader Award.” Davis also serves on the University of Iowa Political Science Advisory Board.
United States Attorney, Southern District of Florida
Jason A. Reding Quiñones was sworn in on August 13, 2025, as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, following his nomination by President Donald J. Trump and confirmation by the United States Senate. He is the first U.S. Attorney confirmed during President Trump’s second administration and was administered the oath of office by Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
Prior to his appointment, U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones served as a trial judge in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, where he presided over both civil and criminal domestic violence cases. His previous federal service includes work as a national security official in the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, where he focused on counterterrorism matters and intelligence operations, and as a federal prosecutor in both the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Florida, where he tried both civil and criminal cases on behalf of the United States.
A decorated veteran of more than 22 years of military service, U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones has served in both the United States Army and the United States Air Force as a cavalry scout, infantry officer, logistics officer, and judge advocate. He continues to serve as a reserve lieutenant colonel, providing legal counsel on national security and counterterrorism matters to the Commander, U.S. Central Command.
U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, with a minor in Military Sciences, from the University of Florida, and a Juris Doctor from Florida International University College of Law.
Partner, Continental PLLC
Jesus M. Suarez is a Chambers USA ranked trial lawyer who excels at counseling clients through challenging legal situations. Jesus has broad experience in matters involving complex legal and financial disputes, including controversies involving bankruptcies, civil and criminal litigation, and related governmental inquiries. Jesus often represents parties in litigation matters arising from business disputes, business reorganizations, liquidations, Ponzi schemes, and other fraudulent and insolvent enterprises. He also counsels clients before various municipal, state and federal governments and agencies.
In addition to being recognized by Chambers & Partners USA in the Florida: Bankruptcy Litigation category, he is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, and has been recognized as a Rising Star by Florida Super Lawyers and a Top Up and Comer by Florida Trend. He is a graduate of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (National Session).
Jesus is a member of the Florida Bar and admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida College of Law and inducted into Florida Blue Key.
Jesus earned his Bachelor of Business Administration, cum laude, from Loyola University Chicago, where he majored in finance and international business. Jesus is a member of the Belen Jesuit Alumni Association and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Jesus is the 2024-2025 Chair of the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission. He was appointed to the JNC by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2021.
Director, Asia & Latin American Program, Inter-American Dialogue
Margaret Myers is director of the Asia & Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, adjunct researcher with the Núcleo Milenio sobre los Impactos de China en América Latina (ICLAC), and a senior advisor to the United States Institute of Peace. She established the Dialogue’s China and Latin America Working Group in 2011 to examine China’s growing presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Myers also developed the China-Latin America Finance Database, the first publicly available source of empirical data on Chinese state lending in Latin America, in cooperation with Global China Initiative at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.
In addition to maintaining the Dialogue’s China and Latin America and 美洲对话 blogs, Myers has published numerous articles on Chinese leadership dynamics, international capital flows, Chinese agricultural policy, and Asia-Latin America relations, among other topics. The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations and The Changing Currents of Trans-Pacific Integration: China, the TPP, and Beyond, her co-edited volumes with Dr. Carol Wise and Dr. Adrian Hearn, respectively, were published in 2016. Myers has testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Senate Finance and Foreign Relations Committees, and the US-China Security and Economic Commission on the China-Latin America relationship. She is also regularly featured in major domestic and international media, including the Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, El Comercio, El País, Folha de São Paulo, CNN en Español, and BBC. In 2018, she was identified by Global Americans as part of the “new generation of public intellectuals.”
Before arriving at the Dialogue, Myers worked as a Latin America analyst and China analyst for the US Department of Defense, during which time she was deployed with the US Navy in support of Partnership of the Americas. Myers has also worked as a senior China analyst for Science Applications International Corporation; a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank; a faculty member at Georgetown University, the George Washington University, and Johns Hopkins SAIS; a mentor for the Indian Foreign Policy Research Institute’s School of Foreign Policy; and for Fauquier County Schools, where she developed the county’s first Mandarin language program. Myers received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and conducted her graduate work at The George Washington University, Zhejiang University of Technology, and the Johns Hopkins University/Nanjing University Center for Chinese-American Studies. Myers was a Council on Foreign Relations term member. She was also the recipient of a Freeman fellowship for China studies, a Fulbright Specialist grant to research China-Colombia relations in Bogotá, and a Woodrow Wilson Center fellowship to write a forthcoming book on China-Latin America relations.
Judicial Law Clerk, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Nitin is a recent graduate of Cornell Law School. Before his time in Ithaca, he majored in International Studies and Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and focused on power competition in South Asia during his graduate studies at the University of Oxford.
Senior Fellow, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Mihaela Papa is a Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School, where she has co-founded and led the Rising Power Alliances project and served as faculty in sustainable development and global governance.
Papa is an expert in negotiation strategy and coalition building, with a focus on BRICS and the transition to sustainability. She started her BRICS research as postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Law School and a visiting scholar at Fudan University's Center for BRICS Studies. Her recent publications analyze BRICS convergence and BRICS-US relations (EJIR, 2023), whether BRICS can de-dollarize global finance (CUP 2022 and ISA-West award), and BRICS resilience (Global Policy 2021). Her publications on environmental foreign policy, climate diplomacy, and global governance appeared in Global Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Change, Climate Policy, and other journals. Her commentary was featured in Foreign Affairs and The Conversation, as well as on CNN, Bloomberg, BBC, AP, News24, the South China Morning Post, and other media outlets.
Papa is also an active practitioner with a proven track record advising institutions on global strategies and leading international collaborations and programs, including at MIT and the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She served as a consultant for the U.S. government, the European Commission, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Originally a trade economist with a BA from Croatia, she completed her MA in Law and Diplomacy and PhD in International Relations at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Panel 4: Modern Lawfare and the American Democracy
Michael D. Berry, Anna Bower, Mike Davis, Jason A. Reding Quiñones, Jesus Manuel Suarez
The courtroom has emerged as the new battleground for political wars. Increasingly, political candidates are...
BRICS Expansion and Corresponding Implications
Margaret Myers, Nitin R. Nainani, Mihaela Papa
Before the 2010s, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa were flagged as future growth...