President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Partner, Goodwin Procter LLP
Jaime A. Santos is a partner in the firm’s Appellate Litigation practice. Her work focuses on appellate matters and complex civil litigation in federal courts, and she has experience in a wide range of areas including ERISA litigation, patent litigation, constitutional law, and product litigation. Ms. Santos has been the primary author of dozens of briefs filed in the Supreme Court, many more briefs filed in federal courts of appeals and federal district courts, and she has presented oral argument in state and federal trial and appellate courts. Ms. Santos also co-hosts the Supreme Court podcast Strict Scrutiny.
Ms. Santos maintains an active pro bono practice. She has been counsel of record in numerous criminal, immigration, and civil rights appeals in the Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits. She has also advocated on behalf of transgender litigants asserting constitutional claims before the Fourth Circuit and the Supreme Court, and represented a criminal defendant challenging his sentence before the Supreme Court. In 2015, Ms. Santos was honored by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for her commitment to pro bono civil rights work.
In addition to her pro bono practice, Ms. Santos has been a thought leader in preventing and addressing bias and harassment in the legal profession. She speaks at conferences across the country and has published several articles on the topic. Since January 2018, she has advised numerous state and federal courts on improving the policies and processes governing inappropriate conduct in the workplace.
Ms. Santos serves on the MacArthur Justice Center Supreme Court & Appellate Advisory Board, and on the National Women’s Law Center’s Leadership Advisory Council.
Before joining Goodwin in 2013, Ms. Santos served as a law clerk to the Honorable George H. King of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and to the Honorable Raymond C. Fisher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In law school, she was a supervising editor for the Harvard Law Review.
Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group Member, Bodman PLC
Mr. Rheaume is a member of Bodman's Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group. He represents clients involved in complex commercial litigation matters and serves as local counsel for national and international law firms.
Mr. Rheaume has been selected to the Michigan Super Lawyers® Rising Stars list since 2013 for business litigation. Prior to joining Bodman, he served as a law clerk to Justice Stephen J. Markman of the Michigan Supreme Court. Based on this experience, Mr. Rheaume is an integral team member of the firm's Appellate Law Practice Group. He has written appellate and amicus briefs in state and federal appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Rheaume is President of The Federalist Society-Michigan Chapter. He serves on the alumni board of the Sigma Chi Fraternity of Michigan State University. He is also a board member of the Detroit Economic Club's Young Leader Program.
Mr. Rheaume graduated from Michigan State University College of Law ranked first in his class. While there, he served as an associate editor on The Michigan State Law Review and received Jurisprudence Awards for outstanding achievement in Secured Transactions, Professional Responsibility, Insurance Law, Construction Law, Decedents Estates & Trusts, Bankruptcy, Negotiations, and Income Taxation.
Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group Member, Bodman PLC
Mr. Kangas is a member of Bodman PLC’s Litigation and ADR Group. He represents diverse clients in complex commercial disputes in both state and federal courts.
Prior to joining Bodman, Mr. Kangas clerked for Hon. Ralph B. Guy, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Hon. Stephen J. Murphy, III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. As a law student, he interned with Chief Justice Robert P. Young of the Michigan Supreme Court and Hon. Robert H. Cleland of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
While in law school, Mr. Kangas served as Editor of the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, as President of the Catholic Law Students Association, and as Publicity Chair of the Federalist Society. He also served as a volunteer Student Attorney with the University of Michigan Law School’s Unemployment Insurance Project. Following law school, Mr. Kangas was accepted into the Georgetown Center for the Constitution's Originalism seminar.
Prior to practicing law, Mr. Kangas founded a presentation consulting firm, advising professionals and organizations on persuasive and impactful presentation skills.
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.
Partner and Co-Chair, Public Policy Group, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Mark Behrens co-chairs Shook's Washington, DC-based Public Policy Practice Group and is a leading national expert on civil justice issues with over thirty years of experience. A substantial part of his practice is working to improve the civil litigation environment through state and federal legislation; in the courts through amicus curiae briefs; through legal scholarship and judicial education; and in the court of public opinion.
Mark is actively involved in civil justice reform efforts at the federal and state levels. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures on behalf of business and civil justice organizations. Mark also has an active amicus brief practice specializing in tort liability and civil justice issues. He has authored or co-authored over 150 amicus briefs in cases before the United States Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations. In addition, Mark routinely files comments on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations regarding potential changes to federal and state court rules. He chairs the International Association of Defense Counsel’s (IADC) Civil Justice Response Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ).
Mark is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). He received his J.D. in 1990 from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He received his B.A. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1987.
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Gates Corporation
Matthew R. A. Heiman joined the Company in May 2026 and has served as the Company’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary since June 2026. As Chief Legal Officer, Mr. Heiman is responsible for all legal functions for Gates, including securities and corporate governance, M&A, litigation, commercial, regulatory, compliance, patents and trademarks, real estate, employment and labor, sustainability and environmental matters. Prior to joining Gates, Mr. Heiman held senior legal leadership roles at Waystar, where he served as Chief Legal & Administrative Officer from 2023 to 2025 and as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary from 2020 to 2023. Prior to that, he was with Johnson Controls, where he served as Vice President, Corporate Secretary, and Associate General Counsel. Mr. Heiman has been a Senior Fellow for the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law since 2018.
Senior Fellow, Technology Policy, Cato Institute
Jennifer’s research focuses on the intersection of emerging technology and law with a particular interest in the interactions between technology and the administrative state. Her work covers topics including judicial deference, liability protection for Internet platforms, autonomous vehicles and other disruptive transportation technologies, the regulation of data privacy, and the benefits of technology and innovation. Her work has appeared in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Sacramento Bee, the Washington Times, Real Clear Policy, and U.S. News and World Report. Jennifer has a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law and a BA in political science at Wellesley College.
Multistate Policy Director, Common Sense Media
Joseph Jerome serves as Director for Multistate Policy at Common Sense Media, where he focuses on common-sense legislative and policy solutions that support kids’ digital well-being. Joseph has worked at the intersection of law and technology, and has written about AR/VR, the privacy implications of big data, trust deficits in the online sharing economy, and emerging technologies in video games. Previously, he was part of the Privacy & Data Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, an associate in the cybersecurity and privacy practice at WilmerHale, and counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum. He was a fellow with the Internet Law & Policy Foundry and has taught courses on cybersecurity and privacy compliance. Joseph has a J.D. from the New York University School of Law, where he was an International Law and Human Rights Student Fellow.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Partner, Goodwin Procter LLP
Jaime A. Santos is a partner in the firm’s Appellate Litigation practice. Her work focuses on appellate matters and complex civil litigation in federal courts, and she has experience in a wide range of areas including ERISA litigation, patent litigation, constitutional law, and product litigation. Ms. Santos has been the primary author of dozens of briefs filed in the Supreme Court, many more briefs filed in federal courts of appeals and federal district courts, and she has presented oral argument in state and federal trial and appellate courts. Ms. Santos also co-hosts the Supreme Court podcast Strict Scrutiny.
Ms. Santos maintains an active pro bono practice. She has been counsel of record in numerous criminal, immigration, and civil rights appeals in the Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits. She has also advocated on behalf of transgender litigants asserting constitutional claims before the Fourth Circuit and the Supreme Court, and represented a criminal defendant challenging his sentence before the Supreme Court. In 2015, Ms. Santos was honored by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for her commitment to pro bono civil rights work.
In addition to her pro bono practice, Ms. Santos has been a thought leader in preventing and addressing bias and harassment in the legal profession. She speaks at conferences across the country and has published several articles on the topic. Since January 2018, she has advised numerous state and federal courts on improving the policies and processes governing inappropriate conduct in the workplace.
Ms. Santos serves on the MacArthur Justice Center Supreme Court & Appellate Advisory Board, and on the National Women’s Law Center’s Leadership Advisory Council.
Before joining Goodwin in 2013, Ms. Santos served as a law clerk to the Honorable George H. King of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and to the Honorable Raymond C. Fisher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In law school, she was a supervising editor for the Harvard Law Review.
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Prof. Kate Andrias teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional and administrative law, labor law, and the law of democracy. Prof. Andrias previously served as Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to the President of the United States, and as Chief of Staff of the White House Counsel's Office. While in the White House, she focused on constitutional and administrative law issues and on domestic policy, including labor and immigration. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Prof. Andrias was an attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Perkins Coie LLP, where she practiced in the political law and appellate litigation groups. In addition, she clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and taught American Constitutional Law as a visiting professor at L'Institut d'Études Politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris. Prof. Andrias graduated from Yale Law School, where she served on the Yale Law Journal and as a Coker Fellow. Prior to law school, Prof. Andrias worked as a union organizer.
Associate Corporate Counsel and Staff Attorney, National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation, Inc.
Since January 2020, Amanda Freeman has been the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation’s Associate Corporate Counsel, working closely with Corporate Counsel Richard Clair who has been with the Foundation for more than forty-five years.
Amanda has also been, and continues to be, a staff attorney at the Foundation since September 2013. As a staff attorney, Amanda represents both public and private sector employees in disputes in federal and state courts and administrative agencies. She has also handled many settlements with employers and unions resolving disputes before they reached a court or agency.
Amanda was lead attorney in many cases and unfair labor practice charges challenging and seeking implementation of Michigan’s Right to Work law, which was effective March 28, 2013 – February 13, 2024. Clarkston Educ. Ass’n v. Conwell, 319 Mich. App. 422 (2017), appeal denied, 501 Mich. 1027 (2019); Saginaw Educ. Ass’n v. Eady-Miskiewicz, 319 Mich. App. 422 (2017), appeal denied, 501 Mich. 1027 (2018) (lead counsel for Appellees Snyder and Carr).
Prior to joining the Foundation, Amanda clerked for the Honorable Glen A. Huff (August 2011 – August 2013) and for the Honorable Robert J. Humphreys (August 2009 – July 2011) who were both on the Court of Appeals of Virginia.
Before and during law school, Amanda gained experience in the legal field while working as an administrative assistant and then a paralegal at Mauck & Baker, LLC in Chicago, Illinois, and as an intern at Lentz, Stepanovich & Bergethon, PLC in Virginia Beach, VA.
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