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.
Principal, BGR Group
Robin Colwell is a Principal with BGR’s Commerce and Infrastructure Practice. She provides clients with strategic insights and skillful advocacy on complex telecommunications, technology, and cybersecurity policy issues. Robin’s wide-ranging experience includes key roles in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government as well as the private sector.
A Florida native and Florida State University alumna, Robin received her law degree from the College of William & Mary School of Law, and first came to Washington as a law clerk to Chief Judge H. Robert Mayer of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. After several years representing mass media, communications, and technology clients in Wiley, Rein & Fielding LLP’s corporate practice, she developed deep expertise and passion for the public policy framework underlying these industries as Legislative Counsel for Senate Commerce Committee members including Senators Tim Scott, Jim DeMint, and Peter G. Fitzgerald, and as Counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee for Tourism, Competitiveness, and Innovation.
Robin next served as Chief of Staff to Commissioner Michael O’Rielly at the Federal Communications Commission, and later returned to the Hill as Chief Counsel to the House Energy & Commerce Committee for Communications and Technology. As Chief Counsel, Robin collaborated with majority and minority House and Senate Committee members and staff to secure enactment of major legislation including FOSTA/SESTA, protecting victims of online trafficking, and RAY BAUM’s Act, which funded repacking of spectrum following the broadcast incentive auction and included bicameral, bipartisan priorities such as MOBILE NOW and DIG ONCE.
Most recently, Robin served at the White House National Economic Council under former President Trump as a senior advisor to Director Larry Kudlow, developing Administration policy and leading interagency implementation of priorities including 5G deployment, security, and innovative network architecture; spectrum allocation; rural broadband deployment; data privacy and security; and domestic supply chain security. She was a key White House leader in the successful 2020 initiative to make a significant allocation of prime mid-band spectrum available to be auctioned in December 2021 for rapid U.S. deployment of commercial 5G networks.
Managing Partner, Crest Hill Advisors
The founder and Managing Partner of Crest Hill Advisors, Scott Blake Harris has been a legal and policy professional in Washington, D.C. for forty-eight years, primarily focused on telecommunications, technology, and energy issues. He has deep experience both in government and in the private sector.
Prior to founding Crest Hill Advisors, Scott served as the Senior Spectrum Advisor and Director of the National Spectrum Strategy at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce. He previously served in government as General Counsel of the Department of Energy, as the first Chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission, and as Chief Counsel for Export Administration at the Department of Commerce. While at DOE, Scott also served as Co-Chair of the Broadband Subcommittee of the White House National Science and Technology Council.
In 1998, Scott co-founded the law firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP (now HWG LLP) and served as its first Managing Partner and later its first Chairman. Scott has also served as General Counsel of Neustar, Inc. and as Co-Managing Partner of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP. Earlier in his career, he was a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, where he was Chair of the Communications practice, and at Williams & Connolly, where began his career in private practice as a litigator in 1977. Scott served as a law clerk to the Hon. Gerhard A. Gesell on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upon graduation from law school. He is a magna cum laude graduate of both Brown University and Harvard Law School.
Scott has received many honors during his career. He was named both as a “Visionary” and as one of the Top Ten Communications Lawyers by the Legal Times. He has been honored as a “Dean of the Bar” by, and received an award for Distinguished Service from, the Federal Communications Bar Association. He has also received awards for Outstanding Service from the National Association of State Energy Officials and for Special Achievement from the Chairman of the FCC. The National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers presented Scott with the Marconi-Bell Award for his private sector work on unlicensed spectrum. He has also been deemed an “Eminent Practitioner” and “Senior Statesperson” by Chambers USA for his work in the telecommunications sector.
Senior Vice President & General Counsel, CTIA
Umair Javed serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. He joined CTIA in 2023 as Senior Vice President, Spectrum, where he was responsible for advancing the wireless industry’s spectrum priorities both domestically and internationally.
Prior to joining CTIA, Umair influenced global and domestic law and policy as Chief Counsel to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. He served as the FCC designee on President Biden’s Competition Council, led the FCC’s National Security Policy Council, and represented the agency at international treaty-writing conferences. During his time at the FCC, Umair also crafted the FCC’s Spectrum Coordination Initiative, oversaw the third-highest grossing spectrum auction in FCC history, coordinated the deployment of 5G services in the C-band, and partnered with Congress on passage and FCC implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, and Secure Equipment Act.
From October 2017 to January 2019, Umair served as Legal Advisor, Wireless and International in the Office of FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel. He joined the FCC from Wiley Rein LLP, where he was an attorney in the firm’s Telecom, Media, and Technology Group.
Umair was named to the inaugural Lawyers of Color Hot List. He is also a 2021 HTTP “Tech Innovadores” recipient and the 2023 Public Safety Communications Leadership in Regulatory Service award recipient for his service at the FCC.
Umair has a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and a bachelor of arts in Political Philosophy, Policy, and Law from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia and Virginia. Umair also is a volunteer firefighter in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Senior Fellow for Law, Economics, and Technology, The Heritage Foundation; Professor, Florida International University
Mario Loyola is a Senior Fellow for Law, Economics, and Technology at The Heritage Foundation.
Loyola served in the Trump Administration as Associate Director for Regulatory Reform at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In that role, he was one of the principal drafters of the One Federal Decision policy, which helped to streamline the permitting and environmental review of large infrastructure projects. While at CEQ, he was a member of the U.S. delegation to the USMCA free trade negotiations with Mexico and Canada, as well as the United Nations conference on biodiversity on the high seas. Loyola initially joined the White House in February 2017 as a Presidential Speechwriter, employing his expertise in many areas of foreign and domestic policy.
After beginning his career in M&A and corporate finance law, Loyola served in the Bush 43 Administration as a special assistant to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. He left that position to start writing on national defense issues in magazines such as National Review and The Weekly Standard, reporting from the front lines of the war on terrorism in Lebanon, Israel, and Iraq. He finished the Bush Administration as Foreign and Defense Counsel to the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee, then under the chairmanship of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. He subsequently moved to Texas and joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where he specialized in energy, environment, and federalism.
Loyola is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and The Atlantic, among others. He teaches environmental and administrative law at Florida International University, where he is Founding Director of the Environmental Finance and Risk Management program in FIU’s prestigious Institute of Environment. He received a bachelor’s degree in European history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a J.D. from Washington University School of Law.
Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Michael H. Park was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in May 2019. He earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Princeton University and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Upon graduation from law school in 2001, Judge Park served as a law clerk to then-Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the Third Circuit, for whom he also clerked on the Supreme Court during the 2008 Term. Judge Park was an associate in the New York office of the Wilmer Hale law firm from 2002 to 2006, and he served as an Attorney-Adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel from 2006 to 2008. Judge Park worked in the New York office of the Dechert law firm, first as counsel (2009-2011) and then as a partner (2012-2015). In 2015, Judge Park joined the law firm Consovoy McCarthy Park as a name partner, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. During that time, he also served as an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Vice President, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
John G. Malcolm oversees Advancing American Freedom’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as Vice President of the organization’s Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law. Malcolm brings to the challenge a wealth of legal expertise and experience in both the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining Advancing American Freedom in 2025, Malcolm was the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government and the Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage in 2012, Malcolm was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association.
Malcolm served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations. Immediately prior to that, he was a founding partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP.
From 1990 to 1997, Malcolm was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was honored with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work in connection with the successful prosecution of Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who assassinated an 11th Circuit judge and the head of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College, Malcolm began his career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge, and as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan (new Eversheds Sutherland).
Malcolm, who resides in Washington, D.C., serves on the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera and is a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.
Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, The Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also the Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023. Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War; Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare; and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.
He is a co-author of volumes 1 and 2 of R. Rossum, G. Tarr, V. Munoz & J. Yoo American Constitution Law (Routledge, 2026), and a co-editor of the eight-volume series on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, We Hold These Truths, with Yuval Levin and Adam White of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court. He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.
Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government. He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership, Seoul National University, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Keio University, Trento University, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center. He also serves on the boards of Founding Forward, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Ulysses Grant Institute, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Originalism Lectureship.
Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair in Law, University of Richmond School of Law
Professor Kurt Lash teaches and writes about constitutional law. Founder and director of the Richmond Program on the American Constitution, Professor Lash has published widely on the subjects of constitutional law and constitutional history, including The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges or Immunities of American Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2014), The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment (Oxford University Press, 2009), and The American First Amendment in the Twenty-first Century: Cases and Materials(with William W. Van Alstyne) (5th ed., Foundation Press, 2014). An elected member of the American Law Institute, Professor Lash’s work has appeared in numerous legal journals including the Stanford Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, Virginia Law Review, andNotre Dame Law Review. He has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University School of Law and is the former director of the University of Illinois College of Law Program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law.
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...
Telecommunications & Electronic Media Practice Group: Administration in Review and What Lies Ahead: Communications and Technology Policy Challenges in Times of Transformational Change
Robin Colwell, Scott Blake Harris, Umair Javed, Mario Loyola, Michael H. Park
Featuring a conversation addressing regulation of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, tech platform regulation, privacy, spectrum policy,...
Conservatives Talk Presidential Power: Disqualification & Contempt
John G. Malcolm, John C. Yoo
As we enter the new year, John Malcolm and John Yoo examine the latest regarding...
The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges and Immunities of American Citizenship
Elizabeth Price Foley, Kurt T. Lash
In his new book, The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges and Immunities of American Citizenship,...