Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Thomas Berry is the director in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and editor in chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Before joining Cato, he was an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation and clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His academic work has appeared in NYU Journal of Law and Liberty, Washington and Lee Law Review Online, and Federalist Society Review. His popular writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Law Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, National Review Online, and The Hill Online. He has testified before the U.S. Senate, and his work has been cited by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Berry holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was a senior editor on the Stanford Law and Policy Review and a Bradley Student Fellow in the Stanford Constitutional Law Center. He graduated with a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College, Santa Fe.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Vice President & Senior Legal Fellow, Defending Education
Sarah Parshall Perry is vice president and senior legal fellow at Defending Education.
Before coming to Defending Education, Sarah served as a Senior Legal Fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, part of the Institute for Constitutional Government at Heritage, where her work centered on civil rights and the proper role of the courts.
Sarah joined Heritage after serving as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education where she focused on policy reform, technical guidance, and the Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) annual report to Congress. While at OCR, she was appointed by the Acting Assistant Secretary to co-chair the Employment Engagement, Diversity, & Inclusion Council and, in coordination with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement oversee the hiring of dozens of attorneys for OCR’s 12 regional offices nationwide. Prior to her tenure at the Department of Education, she spent six years at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. where she was Senior Fellow for Education Reform and later, became the regular substitute host for the “Washington Watch” radio show. Her work at the Family Research Council also included the building and oversight of multiple policy coalitions geared toward the fight against antisemitism in academia, curbing tech censorship, and protecting religious liberty.
Before joining FRC, Sarah was in-house counsel and director of development for a Baltimore advertising agency, providing management of all new business transactions from pitch to contract execution for the multi-million-dollar enterprise. She began her practice at the litigation firm of Simms Showers, LLP where her work included Title VII employment discrimination, maritime/admiralty, and False Claims Act (“Qui Tam”) law. Sarah has a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was an editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law, a recipient of the American Jurisprudence award, a Phi Delta Phi honor society member, and a student practitioner in the appellate litigation clinic where she argued before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. She holds a B.S. in Journalism with honors from Liberty University.
Her commentary and analysis have appeared in media outlets across the country, including the AP, BBC, Fox News, NPR, The Hill, Washington Post, Washington Times, and the New York Times. She is the mother of three children, and the author of just as many books on the trials and triumphs of parenting children on the autism spectrum. Sarah is a member of the Kirkpatrick Society at the American Enterprise Institute, and makes her home north of Baltimore, Maryland.
General Counsel, United States Senator Jim Banks
Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Tim Rosenberger serves as Senior Counsel at the United States Department of Education. He was previously a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Stanford University’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. He was also the founding COO of Verbum Labs and serves as a Chaplain with the Cleveland Division of Police. Before matriculating to law school, he was a legal policy fellow at the Cicero Institute, a parish pastor, and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Tim has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The New York Post, and City Journal. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, testifies before state legislatures, and files dozens of amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court and various circuit courts.
He holds an AB from Georgetown University, a M.Div. from United Lutheran Seminary, a D.Min from the Rawlings School of Divinity, an LL.M. from Universität Wien, and a JD/MBA from Stanford University, where he was Federalist Society Chapter President and served on Law Review. Tim’s research interests lie at the intersection of law, faith, education and entrepreneurship—with a particular focus on leveraging policy to help America’s overlooked populations build lives of dignity.
Pio Cardinal Laghi Distinguished Chair in Law, Professor and Co-director of the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy, University of St. Thomas School of Law - Minnesota
Professor Gregory Sisk is the Pio Cardinal Laghi Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He received his B.A. from Montana State University and his J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law, where he graduated first in his class, was an editor on the law review, and president of the moot court board. Prior to joining the legal academy, he served as a legal advisor in all three branches of the federal government: as a legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, as a law clerk to a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, and as an appellate attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice representing the United States in the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. Subsequent to his government service, he was in private practice as the head of the appellate department of a Seattle law firm.
Professor Sisk joined the University of St. Thomas law faculty in 2003, after teaching for twelve years at the Drake University Law School, where he had also been named as the Richard M. & Anita Calkins Distinguished Professor. He teaches Professional Responsibility and Civil Procedure, as well as a new course with original materials on Litigation with the Federal Government. His casebook, "Litigation With the Federal Government: Cases and Materials," was published by Foundation Press in 2000 and has been adopted at several law schools, including Georgetown University, George Washington University, Catholic University, New York University, the University of Pittsburgh, and McGeorge School of Law.
Professor Sisk also is author of the leading treatise on the subject, "Litigation With the Federal Government," published as the fourth edition by ALI-ABA in 2006. He has published nearly three dozen articles on litigation with the federal government, judicial decisionmaking, awards of attorney's fees, professional responsibility, constitutional interpretation, law and religion, and tort reform. His articles have been cited by the United States Supreme Court, several federal courts of appeals, and the supreme courts of several states. His empirical study of judicial decisionmaking and the influence of judicial background, co-authored with Professors Michael Heise and Andrew Morriss, was published in the New York University Law Review and received the 1999 Article Prize from the Law and Society Association.
Professor Sisk has remained active as a member of the legal profession. He served as reporter for the Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct Drafting Committee appointed by the Iowa Supreme Court to draft the new set of ethics rules to govern lawyers in Iowa. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the nation's premier law reform organization. He maintains a limited practice, primarily as an appellate attorney and as an expert witness on professional ethics and conduct. For example, he briefed a leading environmental/federal-common-law case as counsel for amicus curiae and then was invited to argue the central issue before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. More important than success on the merits, however, was the testament that the court gave to the attorneys in the case: "Litigation often produces criticism for its participants. This case, however, was extraordinarily well briefed and argued by consummate professionals on both sides and we are grateful for that." Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Brown & Bryant, Inc., 132 F.3d 1295, 1303 n.5 (9th Cir. 1997), amended, 159 F.3d 358, 365 n.6 (9th Cir. 1998).
Professor Sisk is also active with the Conference on Catholic Legal Thought, writing and speaking about religion and public life and the role of faith in professional life. He occasionally participates as a member of the Mirror of Justice blog, which present a diverse array of Catholic perspectives on the law, public life, and social justice.
J.D., University of Washington Law School
B.A., Montana State University
Former Chief, DOJ Tax Division, Appellate Section
Francesca Ugolini spent 22 years in the Appellate Section of DOJ’s Tax Division, where she directed all of the federal government’s civil tax litigation in the courts of appeals and assisted the Solicitor General’s office with tax cases in the Supreme Court. Ms. Ugolini received her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and her B.S. from the University of Maryland at College Park.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Judge Duncan received his B.A. from Louisiana State University in 1994, his J.D. from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in 1997, and his LL.M. from Columbia Law School in 2004.
After graduating from law school, he clerked for Louisiana-based Circuit Judge John Malcolm Duhé Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
From 2008–2012, Duncan served as Appellate Chief for Louisiana's Attorney General's office. From 2012–2014, he served as general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. From 2004-2008, he was an assistant professor of law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
Before becoming a judge, Duncan practiced at the Washington, D.C. firm of Schaerr Duncan LLP, where he was a founding partner. He was appointed by President Trump to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on May 1, 2018.
General Counsel, United States Senator Jim Banks
Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Thomas Berry is the director in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and editor in chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Before joining Cato, he was an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation and clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His academic work has appeared in NYU Journal of Law and Liberty, Washington and Lee Law Review Online, and Federalist Society Review. His popular writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Law Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, National Review Online, and The Hill Online. He has testified before the U.S. Senate, and his work has been cited by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Berry holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was a senior editor on the Stanford Law and Policy Review and a Bradley Student Fellow in the Stanford Constitutional Law Center. He graduated with a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College, Santa Fe.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Vice President & Senior Legal Fellow, Defending Education
Sarah Parshall Perry is vice president and senior legal fellow at Defending Education.
Before coming to Defending Education, Sarah served as a Senior Legal Fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, part of the Institute for Constitutional Government at Heritage, where her work centered on civil rights and the proper role of the courts.
Sarah joined Heritage after serving as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education where she focused on policy reform, technical guidance, and the Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) annual report to Congress. While at OCR, she was appointed by the Acting Assistant Secretary to co-chair the Employment Engagement, Diversity, & Inclusion Council and, in coordination with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement oversee the hiring of dozens of attorneys for OCR’s 12 regional offices nationwide. Prior to her tenure at the Department of Education, she spent six years at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. where she was Senior Fellow for Education Reform and later, became the regular substitute host for the “Washington Watch” radio show. Her work at the Family Research Council also included the building and oversight of multiple policy coalitions geared toward the fight against antisemitism in academia, curbing tech censorship, and protecting religious liberty.
Before joining FRC, Sarah was in-house counsel and director of development for a Baltimore advertising agency, providing management of all new business transactions from pitch to contract execution for the multi-million-dollar enterprise. She began her practice at the litigation firm of Simms Showers, LLP where her work included Title VII employment discrimination, maritime/admiralty, and False Claims Act (“Qui Tam”) law. Sarah has a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was an editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law, a recipient of the American Jurisprudence award, a Phi Delta Phi honor society member, and a student practitioner in the appellate litigation clinic where she argued before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. She holds a B.S. in Journalism with honors from Liberty University.
Her commentary and analysis have appeared in media outlets across the country, including the AP, BBC, Fox News, NPR, The Hill, Washington Post, Washington Times, and the New York Times. She is the mother of three children, and the author of just as many books on the trials and triumphs of parenting children on the autism spectrum. Sarah is a member of the Kirkpatrick Society at the American Enterprise Institute, and makes her home north of Baltimore, Maryland.
Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Tim Rosenberger serves as Senior Counsel at the United States Department of Education. He was previously a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and Stanford University’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. He was also the founding COO of Verbum Labs and serves as a Chaplain with the Cleveland Division of Police. Before matriculating to law school, he was a legal policy fellow at the Cicero Institute, a parish pastor, and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Tim has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, The New York Post, and City Journal. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, testifies before state legislatures, and files dozens of amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court and various circuit courts.
He holds an AB from Georgetown University, a M.Div. from United Lutheran Seminary, a D.Min from the Rawlings School of Divinity, an LL.M. from Universität Wien, and a JD/MBA from Stanford University, where he was Federalist Society Chapter President and served on Law Review. Tim’s research interests lie at the intersection of law, faith, education and entrepreneurship—with a particular focus on leveraging policy to help America’s overlooked populations build lives of dignity.
Pio Cardinal Laghi Distinguished Chair in Law, Professor and Co-director of the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy, University of St. Thomas School of Law - Minnesota
Professor Gregory Sisk is the Pio Cardinal Laghi Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He received his B.A. from Montana State University and his J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law, where he graduated first in his class, was an editor on the law review, and president of the moot court board. Prior to joining the legal academy, he served as a legal advisor in all three branches of the federal government: as a legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, as a law clerk to a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, and as an appellate attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice representing the United States in the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. Subsequent to his government service, he was in private practice as the head of the appellate department of a Seattle law firm.
Professor Sisk joined the University of St. Thomas law faculty in 2003, after teaching for twelve years at the Drake University Law School, where he had also been named as the Richard M. & Anita Calkins Distinguished Professor. He teaches Professional Responsibility and Civil Procedure, as well as a new course with original materials on Litigation with the Federal Government. His casebook, "Litigation With the Federal Government: Cases and Materials," was published by Foundation Press in 2000 and has been adopted at several law schools, including Georgetown University, George Washington University, Catholic University, New York University, the University of Pittsburgh, and McGeorge School of Law.
Professor Sisk also is author of the leading treatise on the subject, "Litigation With the Federal Government," published as the fourth edition by ALI-ABA in 2006. He has published nearly three dozen articles on litigation with the federal government, judicial decisionmaking, awards of attorney's fees, professional responsibility, constitutional interpretation, law and religion, and tort reform. His articles have been cited by the United States Supreme Court, several federal courts of appeals, and the supreme courts of several states. His empirical study of judicial decisionmaking and the influence of judicial background, co-authored with Professors Michael Heise and Andrew Morriss, was published in the New York University Law Review and received the 1999 Article Prize from the Law and Society Association.
Professor Sisk has remained active as a member of the legal profession. He served as reporter for the Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct Drafting Committee appointed by the Iowa Supreme Court to draft the new set of ethics rules to govern lawyers in Iowa. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the nation's premier law reform organization. He maintains a limited practice, primarily as an appellate attorney and as an expert witness on professional ethics and conduct. For example, he briefed a leading environmental/federal-common-law case as counsel for amicus curiae and then was invited to argue the central issue before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. More important than success on the merits, however, was the testament that the court gave to the attorneys in the case: "Litigation often produces criticism for its participants. This case, however, was extraordinarily well briefed and argued by consummate professionals on both sides and we are grateful for that." Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Brown & Bryant, Inc., 132 F.3d 1295, 1303 n.5 (9th Cir. 1997), amended, 159 F.3d 358, 365 n.6 (9th Cir. 1998).
Professor Sisk is also active with the Conference on Catholic Legal Thought, writing and speaking about religion and public life and the role of faith in professional life. He occasionally participates as a member of the Mirror of Justice blog, which present a diverse array of Catholic perspectives on the law, public life, and social justice.
J.D., University of Washington Law School
B.A., Montana State University
Former Chief, DOJ Tax Division, Appellate Section
Francesca Ugolini spent 22 years in the Appellate Section of DOJ’s Tax Division, where she directed all of the federal government’s civil tax litigation in the courts of appeals and assisted the Solicitor General’s office with tax cases in the Supreme Court. Ms. Ugolini received her JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and her B.S. from the University of Maryland at College Park.
State Representative, 56th District, Ohio House of Representatives
State Representative Adam Mathews is serving his second term in the Ohio House of Representatives. He represents the 56th Ohio House District, which encompasses southwest and central Warren County including Lebanon, South Lebanon, and Mason.
Rep. Mathews worked as a civilian engineer for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program before returning to Notre Dame to become an intellectual property attorney. He continues to practice and represents inventors, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. He formerly served as the Vice Mayor of Lebanon.
Mathews is also very involved in his community. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Elizabeth’s New Life Center, a network of pro-life women’s centers throughout Southwest Ohio. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Cincinnati Federalist Society, St. Thomas More Society of Cincinnati, the Warren County Republican Party, and Kiwanis of Lebanon.
Mathews acts as Chairman of the Intellectual Property Section of the Ohio State Bar Association, Vice President of the Notre Dame Club of Dayton, and a member of the St. Francis de Sales Parish Council and Knights of Columbus.
He married his wife Amanda in 2011, and they live with their five children in Lebanon.
Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Renu Mukherjee is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Mukherjee’s research focuses on education, affirmative action, public interest groups, and political and policy attitudes among racial and ethnic minorities in the United States – particularly Asian Americans. Previously, Mukherjee was a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute. She is also a PhD student in American politics at Boston College, where her dissertation will focus on affirmative action.
Mukherjee’s recent contributions to City Journal include an analysis of Justice Lewis Powell’s opinion in the 1978 Bakke case on affirmative action and how it should inform the current affirmative action cases addressing evidence of discrimination against Asian American applicants to Harvard and the University of North Carolina. She has also written pieces with Professor Michael Hartney examining the electoral consequences of prolonged schools closures during the pandemic and the role that Asian American voters played in the recall of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Mukherjee has been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New York Post, and The Hill.
Attorney and Managing Partner, Plakas Mannos Law Firm
Mr. Plakas has been involved in hundreds of civil jury trials during his career in both State and Federal Courts. His record of courtroom successes has been recognized in national CBS and Fox television interviews, radio interviews, and numerous legal articles and commentaries in national newspapers including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and newspapers throughout Ohio. He has also had the honor of being asked to give litigation presentations to more than two thousand attorneys and judges in national and state continuing legal education seminars in the last several years alone.
Mr. Plakas’ record of trial successes is unique in the broad spectrum of types of cases in which he has won multi-million-dollar verdicts. His successes include the highest defamation verdict in Ohio’s history – a $44 million verdict in the case of Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College. A $14 million-dollar result against a hospital system for corrupt activities, and million-dollar plus verdicts and judgments in business breach of contract, medical malpractice, employment sexual harassment, nursing home negligence, workplace safety cases, and personal injury cases.
He represents both individuals and businesses, winning some of the highest verdicts in Stark County’s legal history in business litigation, employment discrimination/harassment, and nursing home negligence. Mr. Plakas also represents businesses and corporations that operate on national and international levels. He has also successfully represented businesses in age and sex discrimination, contracts, intellectual property, and other commercial litigation. Further, he has experience in protecting landowners in energy, oil/gas, and other mineral extraction cases. He has also been involved in cases dealing with complex environmental and waste disposal.
In 2021, Attorney Plakas received the Prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ohio Association for Justice. He was honored for his years of excellence in the courtroom and dedication to clients and the civil justice system. Mr. Plakas joins a prestigious list of honorees, including several Ohio Supreme Court Justices.
Judge, Hamilton County Courts
Hon. Megan E. Shanahan is a judge for the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas (General Division) in Ohio. She was appointed to the bench by former Governor John Kasich on March 6, 2015 to fill the vacancy created by the Hon. Ralph E. Winkler after his election to the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Probate Division.
Prior to her appointment, Shanahan had presided as a judge for the Hamilton County Municipal Court, a position to which she was elected in 2011.
She received a B.A. in political science from Kent State University in 1995. SHanahan went on to complete a J.D. at the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 2000.
After graduating from law school, she began her legal career as an assistant prosecutor with the Butler county Prosecutor’s Office, where she served in the appellate, municipal, and trial divisions and prosecuted cases involving the violation of the obscenity law as well as child pornography cases. In 2005, Shanahan moved to the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office. During her tenure in that position, she prosecuted child predators and served in the Felony Trial Division.
Her legal career also included acting as a prosecutor for the Mt. Healthy Mayor’s Court.
Shanahan received the Peggy Caldwell Award ini 20009.
From a civic standpoint, she has been a supporter of the Cincinnati Living Hope organization which provides transitional housing or homeless women and children.
She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania, the youngest of eight children. At the time of her appointment, Shanahan and her family resided in Cincinnati.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Don Willett serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Before joining the federal bench, Judge Willett served 13 years on the Supreme Court
of Texas. His career spans decades of public service, including roles as legal counsel to
a Texas Attorney General, a Texas Governor, a U.S. Attorney General, and the
President of the United States.
Raised by a heroic widowed mom in a doublewide trailer in a town of 32, Judge
Willett is his family’s first college graduate. He earned a triple-major B.B.A. from Baylor
University—where he serves on the Board of Regents—and three degrees from Duke
University—where he serves on the Board of Visitors: a J.D. with honors, an A.M. in
political science, and an LL.M. in judicial studies. After law school, he clerked on the
Fifth Circuit and practiced at Haynes and Boone before entering public service.
Judge Willett publishes widely in both leading law reviews and national media, including
The Yale Law Journal, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Wall Street
Journal. The longtime editor-in-chief of Judicature—the Scholarly Journal for Judges, he
holds academic appointments at various law schools and has received more than a
dozen Green Bag honors for “exemplary legal writing.” He was named Distinguished
Jurist of the Year by the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and he is a member of the
American Law Institute and a Life Fellow of the American, Texas, and Austin Bar
Foundations.
A onetime bull rider and professional drummer, Judge Willett was named “Tweeter
Laureate of Texas” in 2015. He is the namesake of Don R. Willett Elementary
School—home of mighty Willett Wranglers—located just a mile from where he grew up.
He and his radiant wife, Tiffany have three children—Jacob, Shane-David, and
Geneviève—plus the family pup, Amicus.
A Seat at the Sitting - April 2025
Thomas Berry, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Sarah Parshall Perry, Elle Rogers Bernstein, Tim Rosenberger, Gregory Sisk, Francesca Ugolini
Each month, a panel of constitutional experts convenes to discuss the Court’s upcoming docket sitting...
A Seat at the Sitting - April 2025
The April Docket in 90 Minutes or Less
Panel 1: Reform for Higher Education
2025 Ohio Chapters Conference
Columbus, OHThe Case of Mahmoud Khalil: Free Speech or National Security?
Conor Fitzpatrick, Casey Mattox, Ilya Shapiro
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian green card holder, was detained by ICE on March 8 and...
The Case of Mahmoud Khalil: Free Speech or National Security?
Conor Fitzpatrick, Casey Mattox, Ilya Shapiro
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian green card holder, was detained by ICE on March 8 and...
The Case of Mahmoud Khalil: Free Speech or National Security?
The Corruption of Law Schools and the Health of Our Democracy
Stuart Kyle Duncan
A review of Ilya Shapiro, Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) The legal scholar...
Cancelling Justice? The Decline of Legal Education and Critical Reasoning
Puerto Rico Lawyers Chapter
San Juan, PRFree Speech, DEI, and the Crisis in Legal Education
New Mexico Lawyers Chapter
Albuquerque, NMThe Miseducation of America's Elites: A Book Talk with Ilya Shapiro
Austin Lawyers Chapter
Austin, TX