Executive Director & Secretary, American Civil Rights Project
Dan Morenoff is the executive director at the American Civil Rights Project and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
His work focuses on protecting and, where necessary, restoring the primacy of all Americans' shared civil rights against the identitarian alternative.
Before practicing law, Morenoff served on the legislative staff of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX). Morenoff holds a B.A. from Columbia College of Columbia University in the City of New York and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He has also served as an officer or director of several community organizations in Dallas, Texas.
Associate, Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC
Ken Daines is an associate at Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky & Josefiak PLLC. His practice focuses on trial and appellate litigation in federal and state courts, including matters presenting constitutional law, redistricting, and election-related issues.
Before joining the firm, Ken clerked for Judge Ryan D. Nelson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Dee V. Benson on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. He also practiced election law and government ethics at a large law firm in Washington, D.C.
Ken earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A. in International Relations and Chinese, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University. While in law school, he worked as a student attorney for the Religious Liberty Clinic and served as Executive Vice-President for the Stanford Law chapter of the Federalist Society. Ken is a member of the District of Columbia and Maryland Bars, the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, and the Federalist Society.
Andrew Pardue is an associate at Holtzman Vogel Baran Torchinsky Josefiak PLLC specializing in election and campaign finance law.
Prior to joining the firm, Andrew served as a law clerk for the D.C. Criminal Code Reform Commission and the Office of the Virginia Attorney General’s Civil Litigation Division, Consumer Protection Section. He also interned in the chambers of Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Andrew graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Government and a secondary concentration in Economics. He earned his J.D. from William & Mary Law School. While in law school, he served as Senior Notes Editor on the William & Mary Law Review and authored a published student note on congressional investigations of the executive branch. He also served as a graduate research fellow with the Center for the Study of Law and Markets. Andrew is a member of the Virginia Bar, the Federalist Society, and the Republican National Lawyers Association.
Senior Associate, Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky PLLC
Drew Watkins is a senior associate with Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky PLLC, providing counsel in the areas of campaign finance and election law, lobbying and ethics compliance, and tax-exempt organizations.
Prior to joining the firm, Drew served as a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph R. Goeke, Senior Judge of the United States Tax Court in Washington, D.C., and worked in the Office of General Counsel for the Governor of Kentucky, Matthew G. Bevin. While in law school, Drew served as a law clerk for the Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission and interned for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in his office in Washington, D.C.
Drew graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.S. in Justice Administration. He earned his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Kentucky College of Law and was a member of the Order of the Coif. During law school, he served as a senior staff editor on the Kentucky Law Journal and authored a published student note on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. He is a member of the Kentucky, D.C. and Virginia bars and the Federalist Society.
Stephen Cranney has a dual PhD in sociology and demography from the University of Pennsylvania and is a freelance data scientist in the Washington, DC, area.
Partner, Hollingsworth LLP, Washington, DC.
Mr. Lasker litigates a wide variety of complex civil matters, with a current focus on toxic torts, environmental litigation, Alien Tort Statute litigation, and pharmaceutical products liability. Mr. Lasker has also represented clients in a variety of civil and criminal government investigation-related matters involving bank regulatory compliance, False Claims Act claims, and alleged price fixing, and he served as lead counsel in successfully defending a foreign client against a Foreign Corrupt Practices claim in a jury trial that was featured in the Legal Times. He represents clients in jury and bench trials, before arbitral panels and administrative courts, and both at trial and on appeal.
Mr. Lasker has significant experience defending against all matter of legal claims involving FDA- and EPA-regulated products and alleged toxins and environmental contaminants. He has represented clients in pharmaceutical products liability claims involving antipsychotic medications, obstetrical drugs, antifungals, antiepileptics, and cough/cold medicines, and in toxics/environmental matters involving herbicides, asbestos, lead paint, nonionizing radiation, and chemical solvents. He has represented clients in matters arising both in the United States and abroad, and in matters arising under both domestic and international law. Mr. Lasker's practice also includes matters involving sensitive national security issues, and he has represented his clients’ interests in meetings with both U.S. and foreign government officials. He has extensive expertise in developing and implementing sophisticated medical causation and science-based defenses, and he has successfully litigated issues involving Daubert, the federal preemption defense, and natural resource damages claims. He also assists clients in due diligence investigations as relates to environmental and toxics liabilities and through amicus briefing on key legal issues.
Mr. Lasker played a prominent role in helping to establish asbestos defendants’ rights to insurance non-products coverage through a successful amicus effort that secured one of the seminal judicial opinions recognizing the existence of such coverage, litigation efforts resulting in securing several hundreds of millions of dollars in asbestos non-products insurance recoveries, and oral presentations and publications on issues involving non-products coverage. He has also defended personal injury claims in asbestos litigation, advancing medical causation defenses as the asbestos litigation has extended to tertiary and even more remotely-situated corporate defendants.
Mr. Lasker is frequently requested to speak and publish on issues of interest to his clients, and he has been interviewed on such topics in numerous fora, including the AMA's American Medical News, Bloomberg News, the National Law Journal, and thePhiladelphia Inquirer. Mr. Lasker serves on the Board of Editors of LJN's Product Liability Law & Strategy newsletter and he is the Chair of the Toxics & Hazardous Substances Committee of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), an invitation-only professional association for corporate and insurance defense attorneys around the world. He also serves as a member of the Defense Research Institute (DRI).
Partner, Hollingsworth LLP, Washington, DC.
Ms. Womeldorf joined the Hollingsworth LLP following clerkships with the Honorable Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court. She previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert R. Merhige, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Ms. Womeldorf concentrates her practice on complex civil litigation. She has substantial experience in the defense of high-stakes mass torts, including serving as a member of the defense steering committee in the substantial welding fume Multidistrict Litigation (“MDL”) pending in Cleveland. She also represents pharmaceutical manufacturers in the defense of personal injury claims involving prescription drugs.
Ms. Womeldorf counsels clients on a wide range of issues designed to minimize potential liability, including issues related to workplace practices, Sunshine in Litigation legislation and class action treatment of medical monitoring claims. She is a member of the Sedona Conference Working Group on Protective Orders, Confidentiality and Public Access, and she actively participates with Lawyers for Civil Justice (“LCJ”). Her practice extends into general complex commercial litigation and employment law issues, and she previously served as counsel in the Office of the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment of the United States Senate.
Ms. Womeldorf participates in the Georgetown University Law Center’s Supreme Court Institute, which conducts moot courts for approximately 50 percent of the cases argued before the United States Supreme Court in any given term. She served as Lead Articles Editor for the Washington & Lee Law Review, and is a member of the Defense Research Institute (DRI).
Ms. Womeldorf is recognized in the Washington, DC edition of Super Lawyers for 2013 as she was in 2012.
Disparate-Impact Liability: Unfounded, Unconstitutional, & Not Long For This World
Dan Morenoff
For more than fifty years—ever since the Supreme Court decided Griggs v. Duke Power Co.[1]—almost...
Topics
The Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission
On March 31, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in its first religious freedom case...
North Carolina Supreme Court Invalidates Redistricting Map and Voter ID Law Enacted By Legislature
Ken Daines, Andrew Pardue, Andrew Watkins
State courts often play an important role in reviewing and interpreting state laws that govern...
Measuring and Evaluating Public Responses to Religious Rights Rulings
Creighton Roland Meland, Stephen Cranney
The story of Jack Phillips and his cake shop—Masterpiece Cakeshop—is by now familiar. Jack Phillips...
Preemption of Punitive Damages in Prescription Drug Litigation
Eric Lasker, Rebecca A. Womeldorf
Over the past 16 years, the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly addressed the question...