President and CEO, The Buckeye Institute
Robert Alt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Buckeye Institute where he has catalyzed exponential growth since he took the organization’s helm in 2012. He has since founded Buckeye’s renowned Economic Research Center and established its impactful Legal Center.
Alt is a distinguished scholar and attorney with particular expertise in legal policy, criminal justice, national security, and constitutional law. He previously worked for former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, regularly provides commentary on television and radio programs, and his writings have appeared in countless outlets.
In 2004, Alt spent five months in Iraq as an embedded war correspondent.
Alt has testified before Congress multiple times—including at the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan—the Federal Election Commission regarding matters of constitutional and administrative law, and numerous state legislatures.
Alt serves as an officer on the boards of The Philadelphia Society and the Federalist Society’s Columbus Lawyers Chapter. He taught national security law, criminal law, and legislation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, as well as constitutional law and political parties and interest groups at Ashland University.
Alt earned his Doctor of Law degree from The University of Chicago Law School, where he was Symposium Editor and the winner of the Mulroy Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy as well as research assistant to Professor Richard Epstein. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Alice Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Alt graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and political science magna cum laude from Azusa Pacific University where he also won the Outstanding Senior Award in Political Science.
Alt is an accomplished high-altitude alpinist and endurance athlete who has successfully climbed 6.75 of the famed Seven Summits of the World including Mount Everest. He is the creator of PROFOUND CLIMBING™ and a frequent speaker across the country and around the world on legal and public policy topics as well as effective leadership, management, decision-making, and teamwork in contexts ranging from extraordinary life/death situations to ordinary professional/business settings.
Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Jim Manley is an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, where he litigates in defense of free speech, economic liberty, and property rights. For more than a decade, he has been fighting to protect and expand freedom through strategic litigation and policymaking.
Before joining PLF, Jim litigated at the Goldwater Institute and Mountain States Legal Foundation. In his first case after graduating from law school, he sued his alma mater and won at the Colorado Supreme Court, guaranteeing the right of self-defense on college campuses. Since then, he has successfully challenged many unconstitutional laws—including striking down part of the Kentucky Constitution—saved a man from jail for the “crime” of repairing windshields, prevented a foster child from being ripped away from her pre-adoptive parents because of her race, and helped enact laws protecting free speech on college campuses. His cases defending free speech, the right to keep and bear arms, taxpayer rights, and property rights have set important precedents for liberty in state and federal courts across the country.
A native of Michigan, he graduated from Arizona State University, with a double major in Political Science and Journalism. He earned his J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School, where he was an Associate Editor of the Law Review and President of the Federalist Society. Before attending law school, he was a professional ski instructor in Telluride, Colorado. He is licensed to practice law in Arizona and Colorado.
Jim lives in Phoenix with his wife, Marlene, and their children, Milton and Cora. They have a cat named Martha Washington.
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