Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida
On April 4, 2019, Judge Altman was confirmed to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. At 36, he became the youngest federal district court judge in the country—and the youngest federal judge ever appointed in the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Altman received a BA from Columbia University, where he played quarterback on the football team and pitched for the baseball team—earning All-Ivy honors. Judge Altman received his JD from the Yale Law School, where he was projects editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, the Judge clerked on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Stanley Marcus.
Judge Altman then became a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, where he twice received the Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys’ Award for Superior Performance by a federal prosecutor. In 2013, Judge Altman was named “Federal Prosecutor of the Year” by the Miami-Dade Chiefs of Police and the Law Enforcement Officers’ Charitable Foundation.
In 2014, Judge Altman became a partner at the Miami law firm of Podhurst Orseck, where he represented the victims of airplane crashes and bank fraud conspiracies.
Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida
On April 4, 2019, Judge Altman was confirmed to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. At 36, he became the youngest federal district court judge in the country—and the youngest federal judge ever appointed in the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Altman received a BA from Columbia University, where he played quarterback on the football team and pitched for the baseball team—earning All-Ivy honors. Judge Altman received his JD from the Yale Law School, where he was projects editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, the Judge clerked on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Stanley Marcus.
Judge Altman then became a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, where he twice received the Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys’ Award for Superior Performance by a federal prosecutor. In 2013, Judge Altman was named “Federal Prosecutor of the Year” by the Miami-Dade Chiefs of Police and the Law Enforcement Officers’ Charitable Foundation.
In 2014, Judge Altman became a partner at the Miami law firm of Podhurst Orseck, where he represented the victims of airplane crashes and bank fraud conspiracies.
Chief Judge, Florida Eleventh Judicial Circuit
Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan was appointed to the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in April 2012 and was sworn in as the Court's Chief Judge in July 2025. She has also served as a judge in the Criminal Division. Prior to her appointment, Judge Fajardo Orshan was a partner in her law firm where she specialized in the area of Family and Matrimonial Law. Judge Fajardo Orshan began her legal career as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County and also worked in the area of civil litigation with the firm of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.
Throughout her legal and judicial career, Judge Fajardo Orshan has been involved with numerous civic and professional organizations, and in many, she assumed leadership positions. She continues to remain involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Cuban American Bar Association, the Dade County Bar Association, the Federalist Society and Kidside. As a member of the judiciary, Judge Fajardo Orshan is also involved with the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Professionalism Committee, the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges, the Florida Bar Family Law Rules Committee, and the Florida Supreme Court Steering Committee on Families and Children.
Judge Fajardo Orshan also enjoys grooming future lawyers as adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law where she teaches Family Law.
Judge Fajardo Orshan has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1996 and is a member of the Federal Bar for the Southern District of Florida. Judge Fajardo Orshan graduated from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center and received a Bachelor's in Science degree from Florida International University.
Senior Legal Fellow, Courts and the Constitution, Legal Policy Center, The Heritage Foundation
Zack is a Senior Legal Fellow of Courts and the Constitution at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Chief Assistant State Attorney, Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office
Stephen K. Talpins is a Chief Assistant State Attorney at the Miami-Dade County (Florida) State Attorney’s Office. He reports directly to the State Attorney and participates on the executive and other key teams. He is responsible for supervising the Felony Divisions in Unit IV, Gang Prosecutions Unit, Treatment Courts Unit, Community Outreach Division, and Media Team. He also serves as the office lead on Smart Justice programming.
Mr. Talpins is a nationally recognized author, advocate, and speaker on Smart Justice and other criminal justice related issues. He has worked collaboratively and diplomatically with public, private, and non-profit stakeholders, published dozens of articles, given well over 150 presentations, served on multiple expert panels, and participated on the Boards of three non-profit associations. His efforts have been recognized by numerous organizations and agencies, including Citizens Against Drunk Impaired Drivers, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the National Commission Against Drunk Driving. During the past decade, The Century Council identified Mr. Talpins as “One of the 20 People to Watch,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave him a Public Safety Award, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (the office of the United States Drug Czar) named him an Advocate for Action, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police recognized him as an Ambassador of the Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Program. Most recently, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) selected him as a member of the 2021 Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) program cohort.
Legal Director, ACLU Florida
Daniel Tilley is legal director of the ACLU of Florida since April 2019. He joined the organization in 2012 as a staff attorney whose work primarily focused on the LGBT community. Among his other work, he served as lead counsel in the ACLU’s federal-court litigation that, as part of a pair of consolidated cases and a team of lawyers, brought marriage equality to Florida in January 2015. Daniel studied classical piano and German language and literature at New York University before returning to his home state for law school at the University of Georgia.
During law school, Daniel received the Spurgeon Public Interest Fellowship, was a member of the Georgia Law Review and the Order of the Coif, and interned in Arusha, Tanzania at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Before joining the ACLU, Daniel clerked in Atlanta at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. While in D.C., he served on the D.C. Lawyer Chapter board of the American Constitution Society.
Judge, Florida Third District Court of Appeal
Judge Alexander S. Bokor began his service on the Third District Court of Appeal on September 1, 2020 after his appointment by Governor Ron DeSantis. Previously, Judge Bokor served as a trial judge for four years, most recently as a circuit judge in the civil division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit from 2018, and before that as a county judge for Miami-Dade County since 2016. Judge Bokor was appointed to both trial court positions by Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott, and subsequently retained without opposition for each seat.
As a circuit judge, in addition to managing a full civil trial docket, Judge Bokor served as part of the Chief Judge’s task force charged with pandemic planning, responsible for enabling and implementing remote video appearances and remote evidentiary procedures for all of circuit and county court. Judge Bokor also served as a visiting Associate Judge on the Fourth District Court of Appeal in March 2020 and has served on multiple circuit appellate panels. As a county judge, Judge Bokor served in North Dade, South Dade, and downtown Miami, primarily in civil divisions. He also served in a criminal misdemeanor/traffic branch division.
Prior to taking the bench, Judge Bokor served in both the private and public sectors. From 2008 to 2016, he served as an Assistant Miami-Dade County Attorney focusing on transportation issues, public private partnerships, transit-oriented developments, complex commercial litigation, and property tax issues. From 2002 to 2008, he was a commercial litigator in private practice at prominent state and national firms in both New York and Florida. Judge Bokor also clerked for now-Chief Judge Steven D. Merryday of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Judge Bokor is a proud graduate of Southern Methodist University, where he obtained a B.A. in history, Foreign Languages (Spanish and German), and Latin American Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he earned his J.D. and served as an editor on the Journal of Constitutional Law.
General Counsel, WSSC Water
Amanda Stakem Conn is the General Counsel to WSSC Water, the 8th largest water and sewer utility in the country serving over 1.8 million customers. Amanda has held a variety of legal, policy, legislative, and management positions over the past 30 years in Maryland in state and local government. She has appeared in front of the Maryland General Assembly for close to 3 decades drafting numerous complex bills that have been enacted into law.
Ms. Conn serves as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School where she teaches local government law. She has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at both the University of Maryland School of Law and the University of Baltimore School of Law where she co-taught a course on legislation for many years.
Ms. Conn is admitted to the Maryland Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
She is the current Chair of the State and Local Government Law Section of the Maryland State Bar Association. She is the co-author of The Court of Appeals at the Cocktail Party: The Use and Misuse of Legislative History, 54 Md.L.Rev. 432 (1995) and Battling the Voices of Unreason: HUD Plays Foul in its Fight to Uphold the FHA, UB Law Forum (1995)
Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia and President of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia
Craig E. Leen is an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He also serves as the 139th President of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia and a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University School of Law.
Prior to being sworn in, Judge Leen was a partner at K&L Gates in the Washington, DC office focused on labor & employment, litigation, government contracts, and administrative & regulatory law. He was also the pro bono coordinator for the DC office.
Judge Leen was formerly a federal agency head, serving as Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Prior to his federal service at OFCCP, Judge Leen was the City Attorney of the City of Coral Gables, and before that was Chief of the Appeals Section and then Chief of the Federal Litigation Section at the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office. Earlier in his career, Judge Leen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert E. Keeton, United States District Judge, District of Massachusetts.
In recognition of his public service, Judge Leen received the Secretary's Exceptional Achievement Award - Professional while at the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Paul S. Buchman Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Area of Legal Public Service while in local government.
Judge Leen received his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, graduating as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and having served as a teaching fellow in both Contracts and Torts. Judge Leen received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Georgetown University, where he majored in both Government and Economics.
Executive Director, City of Naples Commission on Ethics and Governmental Integrity
Michael Murawski is the Executive Director of the Commission on Ethics and Governmental Integrity in the City of Naples Florida where he has served since 2021.
Prior to taking that role, he worked as an Advocate at the Miami-Date County Commission on Ethics and Public trust from 2000-2021. Mr. Murawski has also served as a Criminal Defense Trial Attorney, Assistant State Attorney at the Roward State Attorney's Office, and an Assistant District Attorney at Kings County Attorney's Office in New York.
He received a JD from St. Johns University School of Law, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Florida International University.
Office of the Florida Attorney General
JEFFREY DESOUSA served as the Acting Solicitor General in the Florida Attorney General’s Office, where he focused on criminal appeals and constitutional litigation, primarily in the United States and Florida Supreme Courts, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal, and the Florida district courts. He is a member of the Florida Bar’s Appellate Court Rules Committee and the First District Appellate American Inn of Court. After graduating with honors from Georgetown Law, Jeffrey served as an appellate attorney for the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office. He has worked on hundreds of appellate cases and presented oral argument in approximately 70, including 18 in the Florida Supreme Court.
Senior Legal Fellow, the Meese Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Paul J. Larkin is a Senior Legal Fellow in the Meese Institute for the Rule of Law at Advancing American Freedom. Paul has held various positions in the federal and state governments throughout his career, such as being an attorney in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, Special Agent-in-Charge and Acting Director of the Criminal Investigation Division at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a member of the Parole Abolition and Sentencing Reform Commission and of the Juvenile Justice Reform Commission in the Office of Virginia Governor George Allen.
He has also worked at Verizon Communications and two law firms in Washington, D.C. His current research is principally in the fields of drug policy, criminal justice policy, and administrative law and policy. He has published numerous articles in law and public policy journals, both in print and online.
Senior Fellow, National Review
Bestselling author Andrew C. McCarthy is a contributing editor at National Review, a senior fellow at National Review Institute, and a Fox News contributor. He is a former Chief Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and led the terrorism prosecution against the “Blind Sheikh” (Omar Abdel Rahman) and eleven other jihadists for conducting a war of urban terrorism against the United States that included the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. During is 20-year career as a prosecutor, he received numerous honors, including the Justice Department’s highest awards. Andy speaks and writes widely on law and national security, radical Islam, politics, and culture. He has testified before Congress as an expert on issues of constitutional law, counterterrorism, and law-enforcement. He is a columnist for The Hill, and his essays and book reviews appear frequently at The New Criterion. His most recent New York Times bestselling book is Ball of Collusion (Encounter Books, 2019), about the Russiagate controversy (an updated version was published in 2020). His other books include Willful Blindness (2008), The Grand Jihad (2010), Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (2012), and Faithless Execution (2014). He has also written several pamphlets in the Broadside series published by Encounter Books, most recently Islam and Free Speech (2015).
Member, Ifrah Law
After 27 years as a prosecutor, James (“Jim”) Trusty brings to Ifrah Law extensive experience in complex, multi-district white collar litigation, especially in matters involving RICO, The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986.
Jim has represented a wide variety of individuals and corporations in the white-collar space. He regularly represents professional athletes, both criminally and civilly, and during 2022 and 2023 he represented President Trump during pre-indictment litigation relating to the Mar-a-Lago and January 6 cases.
Prior to joining Ifrah Law, Jim had a long career in public service, most recently as Chief of the Organized Crime Section at the United States Department of Justice. For seven years, Jim was ultimately responsible for investigating and prosecuting regional, national, and international cases, supervising significant pleadings, and providing strategic and tactical guidance in investigations and multi-defendant trials. In addition to running the RICO Review Unit, which reviewed and approved all criminal RICO cases brought by federal prosecutors, he also was in charge of establishing and promoting policies focused on immigration reform, firearms trafficking, proposed Congressional testimony for DOJ officials, and internet gambling. Significant and sensitive matters on which he worked include the post-conviction review of the Alaska corruption case related to U.S. v. Theodore Stevens and the investigation into allegations of misconduct by a sitting U.S. Attorney and one of her subordinates.
Prior to his work at DOJ, Jim acted as Assistant U.S. Attorney in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of white-collar and other criminal cases, including The Washington area Sniper investigation. He also prosecuted three death penalty cases and was a member of the Attorney General’s Capital Review Committee, responsible for assessing capital-eligible cases such as the Boston Marathon Bomber and the Charleston Church massacre.
In 2018, Jim was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve on The Task Force to Study Maryland’s Criminal Gang Statutes. The Task Force assessed the efficacy of existing state laws as they apply to gang-related criminal activity in the state and presented its findings and recommendations to the Governor.
Vice President and Deputy Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty
Chief Judge, Florida Eleventh Judicial Circuit
Chief Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan was appointed to the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in April 2012 and was sworn in as the Court's Chief Judge in July 2025. She has also served as a judge in the Criminal Division. Prior to her appointment, Judge Fajardo Orshan was a partner in her law firm where she specialized in the area of Family and Matrimonial Law. Judge Fajardo Orshan began her legal career as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County and also worked in the area of civil litigation with the firm of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.
Throughout her legal and judicial career, Judge Fajardo Orshan has been involved with numerous civic and professional organizations, and in many, she assumed leadership positions. She continues to remain involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Cuban American Bar Association, the Dade County Bar Association, the Federalist Society and Kidside. As a member of the judiciary, Judge Fajardo Orshan is also involved with the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Professionalism Committee, the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges, the Florida Bar Family Law Rules Committee, and the Florida Supreme Court Steering Committee on Families and Children.
Judge Fajardo Orshan also enjoys grooming future lawyers as adjunct professor at Florida International University College of Law where she teaches Family Law.
Judge Fajardo Orshan has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1996 and is a member of the Federal Bar for the Southern District of Florida. Judge Fajardo Orshan graduated from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center and received a Bachelor's in Science degree from Florida International University.
Senior Legal Fellow, Courts and the Constitution, Legal Policy Center, The Heritage Foundation
Zack is a Senior Legal Fellow of Courts and the Constitution at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Chief Assistant State Attorney, Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office
Stephen K. Talpins is a Chief Assistant State Attorney at the Miami-Dade County (Florida) State Attorney’s Office. He reports directly to the State Attorney and participates on the executive and other key teams. He is responsible for supervising the Felony Divisions in Unit IV, Gang Prosecutions Unit, Treatment Courts Unit, Community Outreach Division, and Media Team. He also serves as the office lead on Smart Justice programming.
Mr. Talpins is a nationally recognized author, advocate, and speaker on Smart Justice and other criminal justice related issues. He has worked collaboratively and diplomatically with public, private, and non-profit stakeholders, published dozens of articles, given well over 150 presentations, served on multiple expert panels, and participated on the Boards of three non-profit associations. His efforts have been recognized by numerous organizations and agencies, including Citizens Against Drunk Impaired Drivers, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the National Commission Against Drunk Driving. During the past decade, The Century Council identified Mr. Talpins as “One of the 20 People to Watch,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave him a Public Safety Award, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (the office of the United States Drug Czar) named him an Advocate for Action, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police recognized him as an Ambassador of the Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Program. Most recently, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) selected him as a member of the 2021 Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) program cohort.
Legal Director, ACLU Florida
Daniel Tilley is legal director of the ACLU of Florida since April 2019. He joined the organization in 2012 as a staff attorney whose work primarily focused on the LGBT community. Among his other work, he served as lead counsel in the ACLU’s federal-court litigation that, as part of a pair of consolidated cases and a team of lawyers, brought marriage equality to Florida in January 2015. Daniel studied classical piano and German language and literature at New York University before returning to his home state for law school at the University of Georgia.
During law school, Daniel received the Spurgeon Public Interest Fellowship, was a member of the Georgia Law Review and the Order of the Coif, and interned in Arusha, Tanzania at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Before joining the ACLU, Daniel clerked in Atlanta at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. While in D.C., he served on the D.C. Lawyer Chapter board of the American Constitution Society.
Judge, Florida Third District Court of Appeal
Judge Alexander S. Bokor began his service on the Third District Court of Appeal on September 1, 2020 after his appointment by Governor Ron DeSantis. Previously, Judge Bokor served as a trial judge for four years, most recently as a circuit judge in the civil division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit from 2018, and before that as a county judge for Miami-Dade County since 2016. Judge Bokor was appointed to both trial court positions by Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott, and subsequently retained without opposition for each seat.
As a circuit judge, in addition to managing a full civil trial docket, Judge Bokor served as part of the Chief Judge’s task force charged with pandemic planning, responsible for enabling and implementing remote video appearances and remote evidentiary procedures for all of circuit and county court. Judge Bokor also served as a visiting Associate Judge on the Fourth District Court of Appeal in March 2020 and has served on multiple circuit appellate panels. As a county judge, Judge Bokor served in North Dade, South Dade, and downtown Miami, primarily in civil divisions. He also served in a criminal misdemeanor/traffic branch division.
Prior to taking the bench, Judge Bokor served in both the private and public sectors. From 2008 to 2016, he served as an Assistant Miami-Dade County Attorney focusing on transportation issues, public private partnerships, transit-oriented developments, complex commercial litigation, and property tax issues. From 2002 to 2008, he was a commercial litigator in private practice at prominent state and national firms in both New York and Florida. Judge Bokor also clerked for now-Chief Judge Steven D. Merryday of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Judge Bokor is a proud graduate of Southern Methodist University, where he obtained a B.A. in history, Foreign Languages (Spanish and German), and Latin American Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he earned his J.D. and served as an editor on the Journal of Constitutional Law.
General Counsel, WSSC Water
Amanda Stakem Conn is the General Counsel to WSSC Water, the 8th largest water and sewer utility in the country serving over 1.8 million customers. Amanda has held a variety of legal, policy, legislative, and management positions over the past 30 years in Maryland in state and local government. She has appeared in front of the Maryland General Assembly for close to 3 decades drafting numerous complex bills that have been enacted into law.
Ms. Conn serves as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School where she teaches local government law. She has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at both the University of Maryland School of Law and the University of Baltimore School of Law where she co-taught a course on legislation for many years.
Ms. Conn is admitted to the Maryland Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
She is the current Chair of the State and Local Government Law Section of the Maryland State Bar Association. She is the co-author of The Court of Appeals at the Cocktail Party: The Use and Misuse of Legislative History, 54 Md.L.Rev. 432 (1995) and Battling the Voices of Unreason: HUD Plays Foul in its Fight to Uphold the FHA, UB Law Forum (1995)
Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia and President of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia
Craig E. Leen is an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He also serves as the 139th President of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia and a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University School of Law.
Prior to being sworn in, Judge Leen was a partner at K&L Gates in the Washington, DC office focused on labor & employment, litigation, government contracts, and administrative & regulatory law. He was also the pro bono coordinator for the DC office.
Judge Leen was formerly a federal agency head, serving as Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Prior to his federal service at OFCCP, Judge Leen was the City Attorney of the City of Coral Gables, and before that was Chief of the Appeals Section and then Chief of the Federal Litigation Section at the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office. Earlier in his career, Judge Leen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert E. Keeton, United States District Judge, District of Massachusetts.
In recognition of his public service, Judge Leen received the Secretary's Exceptional Achievement Award - Professional while at the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Paul S. Buchman Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Area of Legal Public Service while in local government.
Judge Leen received his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, graduating as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and having served as a teaching fellow in both Contracts and Torts. Judge Leen received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Georgetown University, where he majored in both Government and Economics.
Executive Director, City of Naples Commission on Ethics and Governmental Integrity
Michael Murawski is the Executive Director of the Commission on Ethics and Governmental Integrity in the City of Naples Florida where he has served since 2021.
Prior to taking that role, he worked as an Advocate at the Miami-Date County Commission on Ethics and Public trust from 2000-2021. Mr. Murawski has also served as a Criminal Defense Trial Attorney, Assistant State Attorney at the Roward State Attorney's Office, and an Assistant District Attorney at Kings County Attorney's Office in New York.
He received a JD from St. Johns University School of Law, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Florida International University.
Judge, Florida Third District Court of Appeal
Judge Alexander S. Bokor began his service on the Third District Court of Appeal on September 1, 2020 after his appointment by Governor Ron DeSantis. Previously, Judge Bokor served as a trial judge for four years, most recently as a circuit judge in the civil division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit from 2018, and before that as a county judge for Miami-Dade County since 2016. Judge Bokor was appointed to both trial court positions by Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott, and subsequently retained without opposition for each seat.
As a circuit judge, in addition to managing a full civil trial docket, Judge Bokor served as part of the Chief Judge’s task force charged with pandemic planning, responsible for enabling and implementing remote video appearances and remote evidentiary procedures for all of circuit and county court. Judge Bokor also served as a visiting Associate Judge on the Fourth District Court of Appeal in March 2020 and has served on multiple circuit appellate panels. As a county judge, Judge Bokor served in North Dade, South Dade, and downtown Miami, primarily in civil divisions. He also served in a criminal misdemeanor/traffic branch division.
Prior to taking the bench, Judge Bokor served in both the private and public sectors. From 2008 to 2016, he served as an Assistant Miami-Dade County Attorney focusing on transportation issues, public private partnerships, transit-oriented developments, complex commercial litigation, and property tax issues. From 2002 to 2008, he was a commercial litigator in private practice at prominent state and national firms in both New York and Florida. Judge Bokor also clerked for now-Chief Judge Steven D. Merryday of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Judge Bokor is a proud graduate of Southern Methodist University, where he obtained a B.A. in history, Foreign Languages (Spanish and German), and Latin American Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he earned his J.D. and served as an editor on the Journal of Constitutional Law.
General Counsel, WSSC Water
Amanda Stakem Conn is the General Counsel to WSSC Water, the 8th largest water and sewer utility in the country serving over 1.8 million customers. Amanda has held a variety of legal, policy, legislative, and management positions over the past 30 years in Maryland in state and local government. She has appeared in front of the Maryland General Assembly for close to 3 decades drafting numerous complex bills that have been enacted into law.
Ms. Conn serves as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School where she teaches local government law. She has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at both the University of Maryland School of Law and the University of Baltimore School of Law where she co-taught a course on legislation for many years.
Ms. Conn is admitted to the Maryland Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
She is the current Chair of the State and Local Government Law Section of the Maryland State Bar Association. She is the co-author of The Court of Appeals at the Cocktail Party: The Use and Misuse of Legislative History, 54 Md.L.Rev. 432 (1995) and Battling the Voices of Unreason: HUD Plays Foul in its Fight to Uphold the FHA, UB Law Forum (1995)
Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia and President of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia
Craig E. Leen is an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He also serves as the 139th President of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia and a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University School of Law.
Prior to being sworn in, Judge Leen was a partner at K&L Gates in the Washington, DC office focused on labor & employment, litigation, government contracts, and administrative & regulatory law. He was also the pro bono coordinator for the DC office.
Judge Leen was formerly a federal agency head, serving as Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Prior to his federal service at OFCCP, Judge Leen was the City Attorney of the City of Coral Gables, and before that was Chief of the Appeals Section and then Chief of the Federal Litigation Section at the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office. Earlier in his career, Judge Leen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert E. Keeton, United States District Judge, District of Massachusetts.
In recognition of his public service, Judge Leen received the Secretary's Exceptional Achievement Award - Professional while at the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Paul S. Buchman Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Area of Legal Public Service while in local government.
Judge Leen received his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, graduating as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and having served as a teaching fellow in both Contracts and Torts. Judge Leen received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Georgetown University, where he majored in both Government and Economics.
Executive Director, City of Naples Commission on Ethics and Governmental Integrity
Michael Murawski is the Executive Director of the Commission on Ethics and Governmental Integrity in the City of Naples Florida where he has served since 2021.
Prior to taking that role, he worked as an Advocate at the Miami-Date County Commission on Ethics and Public trust from 2000-2021. Mr. Murawski has also served as a Criminal Defense Trial Attorney, Assistant State Attorney at the Roward State Attorney's Office, and an Assistant District Attorney at Kings County Attorney's Office in New York.
He received a JD from St. Johns University School of Law, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Florida International University.
Israel on Trial: A Conversation with Judge Roy Altman - Orange Co
Orange County Lawyer Chapter
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Orange County Lawyer Chapter
Irvine, CAWhat Did the Founders Think of the President’s Pardon Power?
Jeffrey DeSousa, Paul James Larkin, Andrew McCarthy, James Trusty
In this Federalist Society America250 series, experts analyze modern legal and policy debates through the...
The Twin Commands: Streamlining Equality Litigation Based on Students for Fair Admissions
Daniel Lennington
Each year, government contracting programs dole out tens of billions of dollars to businesses that...
Rogue or Righteous? Debating the Role of Prosecutors in Today's Legal Landscape
Ariana Fajardo Orshan, Zack Smith, Stephen Talpins, Daniel Boaz Tilley
Please join the Miami Lawyers Chapter for a panel event discussing the role of prosecutors...
Rogue or Righteous? Debating the Role of Prosecutors in Today's Legal Landscape
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Coral Gables, FLLaw Review and Journal Topic Selection Night
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Coral Gables, FLCity Hall and Chevron: Administrative Deference at the Local Government Level
Alexander S. Bokor, Amanda Conn, Craig E. Leen, Michael Murawski
Most of the public debate about administrative deference has been focused on federal agencies and...
City Hall and Chevron: Administrative Deference at the Local Government Level
Alexander S. Bokor, Amanda Conn, Craig E. Leen, Michael Murawski
Most of the public debate about administrative deference has been focused on federal agencies and...
City Hall and Chevron: Administrative Deference at the Local Government Level
Teleforum