President, American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
Caroline Fredrickson joined ACS in 2009 and serves as president. She oversees the group and provides a steady hand of leadership to the nation’s leading progressive legal organization.
During her tenure, Caroline has helped grow ACS, which now has more than 40 lawyer chapters across the country, student chapters in nearly every law school in the United States, and thousands of members throughout the nation. She is an eloquent spokesperson for ACS and the progressive movement on issues such as civil and human rights, judicial nominations and the importance of the courts in America, marriage equality, voting rights, the role of money in politics, labor law, anti-discrimination efforts, and so much more.
She has been widely published on a wide range of legal and constitutional issues and is a frequent guest on television and radio shows, including a notable and well-covered appearance on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor in 2012 defending the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
Before joining ACS, Caroline served as the director of the ACLU’s Washington legislative office and as general counsel and legal director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. In addition, Caroline was chief of staff to Sen. Maria Cantwell and deputy chief of staff to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. During the Clinton administration, she served as special assistant to the president for legislative affairs.
Caroline graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in Russian and East European Studies in 1986 and from Columbia University School of Law with a J.D. in 1992. In law school, she was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, served on the Columbia Law Review and co-founded the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. Following law school she clerked for James L. Oakes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She currently is a member of Law Students for Reproductive Justice's Advisory Board.
Professor of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Tuan Samahon teaches and writes in the areas of federal courts and constitutional law. His articles have been published in the Stanford Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, Hastings Law Journal, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, University of Chicago Legal Forum, Denver Law Review, and Villanova Law Review, among others.
Beyond his scholarship, Tuan is engaged in interpreting and fashioning federal constitutional law. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, and has served as counsel in separation-of-powers and Freedom of Information Act litigation in federal trial and appellate courts. Recently, Tuan prevailed against the CIA in a civil action for the release of the draft fifth volume of its secret history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs operation. In addition to representing others, for a book he is researching, Tuan successfully sued the FBI for the release of agency records detailing high-ranking executive and judicial officers' abuses of power.
Tuan received his B.A. from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was an Olin Law and Economics Research Fellow and was co-awarded the Olin Prize in Law and Economics. Prior to entering teaching, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson on the Eastern District of Virginia and for U.S. Circuit Judge Jay S. Bybee on the Ninth Circuit. He also practiced in the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling. Professor Samahon was named "Professor of the Year" by his students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He teaches civil procedure, federal courts, and constitutional law subjects.
During spring 2017, Tuan served as a Fulbright scholar with the law faculty at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Former Chairman and Board Member of the National Labor Relations Board
Peter Carey Schaumber served on the National Labor Relations Board from December 17, 2002 to August 27, 2010.
Prior to his appointment as a member of the Board, Mr. Schaumber practiced as a labor arbitrator serving on a number of industry panels and through national arbitration rosters.
Mr. Schaumber began his legal career as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the District of Columbia. Subsequently, he was appointed Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and served in that office's Criminal and Civil Divisions. Upon leaving the United States Attorney's Office, he became Senior Trial Attorney and Associate Director of a Law Department Division in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Upon leaving government service, Mr. Schaumber entered private law practice in Washington, D.C. and was director of his firm's Litigation Department. His practice included a wide range of trial and appellate civil litigation.
Mr. Schaumber taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the National Law Center of George Washington University and as an Adjunct Professor in the MBA Program of Georgetown University School of Business. He also has been an arbitration instructor for union advocates at the George Meany Center for Labor Studies.
A native of New York, Mr. Schaumber graduated from Georgetown University in 1964 and received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1968. He resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Kathleen Charbonnet Schaumber. They have three children, Kathleen, Drew and Alexandra.
Washington Correspondent, USA Today
Richard Wolf covers the White House as well as economic and domestic policy for USA TODAY. He has served as the paper's congressional editor and previously covered Congress, politics, health care and welfare policy. Before coming to USA TODAY in 1987, he worked for Gannett newspapers in New York, covering local and state government.
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Maury Baskin focuses his Washington, DC-based practice on national labor policy, challenging excessive government regulation on behalf of small and large businesses, while advising employers in compliance issues. He has extensive experience in dealing with labor relations and union pressure tactics, employment discrimination and wage and hour law. He has represented a variety of industry sectors, advising clients involved in construction, government contracting, higher education, telecommunications, hospitality, security, and nonprofits.
Mr. Baskin has served as lead counsel at all levels of the federal and state courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has recently led successful challenges against nationwide federal labor regulations on behalf of multi-industry coalitions, including the 2016 “white collar” overtime rule and the so-called “blacklisting” rule. He has also succeeded in the courts in numerous cases involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Labor (DOL). Mr. Baskin is the Chair of Littler's Construction Industry Group and has long represented the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) national trade association and many of its construction industry members. On their behalf, he has been one of the leading advocates against government-mandated project labor agreements, prevailing wage expansion, and union corporate campaigns.
Associate General Counsel, Service Employees International Union
Walter Kamiat is currently Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a position he has held since 2004. He is SEIU’s principal counsel in the home care area, where the SEIU represents over one half million workers. He also is active in the SEIU’s appellate litigation program, including its amicus practice before the Supreme Court and the federal appellate courts. Mr. Kamiat assisted in preparing DC Circuit and Fourth Circuit amicus briefs defending the NLRB Posting Rule.
In 2008, Mr. Kamiat served on the Obama Administration’s Labor Department Transition Team, performing the agency review of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Commission.
Prior to working at the SEIU, Mr. Kamiat had almost 30 years’ experience in a wide variety of positions involving labor law and labor-relations institutions. These included serving as counsel to the AFL-CIO Investment Program, a multi-billion dollar union-sponsored pension investment program investing in urban housing and economic development projects (1997-2004), as Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, teaching and writing in labor and employment law (1994-1997), as Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO (1988-1994), principally focusing on Supreme Court and appellate litigation, and as an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser in Washington, DC (1986-1988), principally representing union, employees, and labor sponsored benefit funds.
Mr. Kamiat is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review. He was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1984-1985) and to DC Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright (1983-1984).
Executive Vice President of Global Governance, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Walmart Inc.
Rachel Brand is Walmart’s executive vice president of global governance, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary. She oversees the company’s global legal, compliance, ethics, corporate governance, digital citizenship, aviation, investigative, and corporate security functions, including Walmart’s Emergency Operations Center.
Immediately before joining Walmart, Rachel served as the United States Associate Attorney General and holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve in this role. She had previously served in the U.S. Department of Justice as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy during President George W. Bush’s administration. Her other government service includes an appointment by President Obama to serve as a Member of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, service as an Associate Counsel to the President at the White House, and judicial clerkships with Justice Charles Fried of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court of the United States. In the private sector, Rachel was a lawyer in private practice at two law firms in Washington, D.C. and served as the Vice President and Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center.
Rachel serves on the board of directors for the Walmart Foundation and is the executive sponsor for Walmart’s Tribal Voices Associate Resource Group. Outside of Walmart, she serves on the board of directors for the International Justice Mission and is a member of The American Law Institute.
Rachel earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota-Morris and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Partner, Arnold & Porter
John Elwood is the head of Arnold & Porter’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice. He has argued before the Supreme Court nine times, and appeared before most of the federal courts of appeals. He has successfully argued cases across a broad cross-section of subjects, with particular experience in environmental law, the False Claims Act, government contracting, and federal criminal law
Mr. Elwood’s work has earned him recognition as one of Washington’s top Supreme Court lawyers (Washingtonian, 2013), as one of “a small group of lawyers” with an “outsized influence at the U.S. Supreme Court” (Reuters, 2014), and as one of the country’s most innovative lawyers (Financial Times, 2014). Chambers USA reports that “[t]he much-admired John Elwood is praised for his advocacy skills” (2013), and describes Mr. Elwood as “phenomenal” (2014), “incredibly talented” (2012), and “a much-loved and widely respected lawyer who is quick on his feet” (2010).
Before joining the firm, Mr. Elwood served in senior-level positions in the U.S. Department of Justice. Beginning as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and continuing with the firm, he has briefed more than 20 merits cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, and has briefed approximately 135 cases at the certiorari stage. As the senior Deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel, he advised the White House and federal agencies on a range of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory issues.
Vice President & Assistant General Counsel, Boeing Inc.
Howard Marc Radzely was the Deputy Secretary of Labor, the chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Labor, a Cabinet agency with over 15,000 employees and an annual budget of over $50 billion, from December 19, 2007, through February 2, 2009. During that same period, Mr. Radzely also served on the board of directors for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a government agency that aids U.S. businesses in overseas investment and economic development, and he was a designated member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which monitors China’s human rights record and legal development. President George W. Bush designated Mr. Radzely the Acting Deputy Secretary of Labor effective January 24, 2007, and nominated him for the permanent position on May 10, 2007. Mr. Radzely was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Deputy Secretary on December 19, 2007. Before serving as the Acting Deputy Secretary and Deputy Secretary, Mr. Radzely spent over three years as the Solicitor of Labor, the chief legal officer in the Department; he was confirmed as Solicitor on December 9, 2003. Mr. Radzely first joined the Department on June 4, 2001, as the Deputy Solicitor of Labor. He served as both the Deputy Solicitor and Acting Solicitor from June 2001 until January 2002. He also served as Acting Solicitor from January 2003 until his confirmation as Solicitor. Before joining the Department, Radzely was an attorney in private practice in Washington, D.C. , concentrating in labor and employment law. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review. After graduating from law school, but before entering private practice, Radzely clerked for the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and for the Honorable Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court of the United States. Radzely served as the Acting Secretary of Labor from January 20, 2009, until February 2, 2009. As of the latter date, President Barack Obama appointed Department of Labor Deputy Assistant Secretary Edward C. Hugler to act as Secretary. On July 1, 2009, Radzely joined the global law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as a partner in its labor and employment law practice. He is now Vice President & Assistant General Counsel at Boeing Inc.
Shareholder, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart P.C.
Mr. Chapman serves on the Firm’s five-member Board of Directors. He is Board Certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and represents employers in all areas of labor and employment law, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, non-competition and non-disclosure covenants, leaves of absence, employment agreements and policies, union campaigns, collective bargaining, unfair labor practices, and workplace safety.
Mr. Chapman has defended clients in over 25 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including class and collective actions, and regularly provides counseling to help clients navigate both legal and practical considerations. Representative clients include Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, FedEx Office, Fossil, GameStop, Hertz, Omni Hotels, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, and Valero.
Member, NLRB
Bill works with a broad range of clients, including trade associations, hospitals and other health care institutions, school districts, transportation and logistics companies and manufacturing companies.
He is a member of Littler Mendelson's Traditional Labor Practice Group and editor of the firm's traditional labor blog, Labor Relations Counsel. He also authored several amicus curiae briefs on behalf of trade associations in cases challenging state laws that allow labor unions to trespass on the private property of employers, including a landmark case now pending at the California Supreme Court.
Special Counsel, Hunton & Williams
Mr. Meisburg is a former National Labor Relations Board Member and General Counsel.
Prior to joining Hunton & Williams LLP, Ronald co-chaired the labor-management relations practice at an international law firm. Over the course of his 40-year career, which began with the Office of the Solicitor of the US Department of Labor, Mr. Meisburg has handled matters arising under federal labor and employment law in complex business transactions before federal agencies and courts.
Mr. Meisburg joined the NLRB in 2004, following a recess appointment by President George W. Bush. Two years later, President Bush appointed him to a four-year term as NLRB General Counsel, a position independent from the Board. Serving under the Bush and Obama Administrations as the chief prosecutor under the National Labor Relations Act and chief administrator of the agency’s 32 regional offices, he oversaw a $280 million budget and 1,200 staff.
Ronald has been quoted as a labor law authority by numerous national publications and news organizations, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, SHRM Online, Associated Press, Corporate Counsel Magazine, Bloomberg, Reuters, Employment Law 360 and BNA. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences sponsored by trade associations, professional groups and educational institutions, including the US Chamber of Commerce, numerous elite law schools and universities around the world, the Council on Labor Law Equality, Committee for a Democratic Workplace, Labor and Employment Research Association, Equal Employment Advisory Council, Human Resources Policy Association, Labor Relations Advisory Committee, National Retail Federation, Retail Leaders Industry Association, Energy and Mineral Law Foundation, American Arbitration Association and numerous bar associations. Mr. Meisburg has also been recognized by Legal500 USA.
Mr. Meisburg is admitted to practice in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and District of Columbia Circuits, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Maury Baskin focuses his Washington, DC-based practice on national labor policy, challenging excessive government regulation on behalf of small and large businesses, while advising employers in compliance issues. He has extensive experience in dealing with labor relations and union pressure tactics, employment discrimination and wage and hour law. He has represented a variety of industry sectors, advising clients involved in construction, government contracting, higher education, telecommunications, hospitality, security, and nonprofits.
Mr. Baskin has served as lead counsel at all levels of the federal and state courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has recently led successful challenges against nationwide federal labor regulations on behalf of multi-industry coalitions, including the 2016 “white collar” overtime rule and the so-called “blacklisting” rule. He has also succeeded in the courts in numerous cases involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Labor (DOL). Mr. Baskin is the Chair of Littler's Construction Industry Group and has long represented the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) national trade association and many of its construction industry members. On their behalf, he has been one of the leading advocates against government-mandated project labor agreements, prevailing wage expansion, and union corporate campaigns.
Associate General Counsel, Service Employees International Union
Walter Kamiat is currently Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a position he has held since 2004. He is SEIU’s principal counsel in the home care area, where the SEIU represents over one half million workers. He also is active in the SEIU’s appellate litigation program, including its amicus practice before the Supreme Court and the federal appellate courts. Mr. Kamiat assisted in preparing DC Circuit and Fourth Circuit amicus briefs defending the NLRB Posting Rule.
In 2008, Mr. Kamiat served on the Obama Administration’s Labor Department Transition Team, performing the agency review of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Commission.
Prior to working at the SEIU, Mr. Kamiat had almost 30 years’ experience in a wide variety of positions involving labor law and labor-relations institutions. These included serving as counsel to the AFL-CIO Investment Program, a multi-billion dollar union-sponsored pension investment program investing in urban housing and economic development projects (1997-2004), as Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, teaching and writing in labor and employment law (1994-1997), as Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO (1988-1994), principally focusing on Supreme Court and appellate litigation, and as an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser in Washington, DC (1986-1988), principally representing union, employees, and labor sponsored benefit funds.
Mr. Kamiat is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review. He was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1984-1985) and to DC Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright (1983-1984).
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Shareholder, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart P.C.
Mr. Chapman serves on the Firm’s five-member Board of Directors. He is Board Certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and represents employers in all areas of labor and employment law, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, non-competition and non-disclosure covenants, leaves of absence, employment agreements and policies, union campaigns, collective bargaining, unfair labor practices, and workplace safety.
Mr. Chapman has defended clients in over 25 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including class and collective actions, and regularly provides counseling to help clients navigate both legal and practical considerations. Representative clients include Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, FedEx Office, Fossil, GameStop, Hertz, Omni Hotels, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, and Valero.
Special Counsel, Hunton & Williams
Mr. Meisburg is a former National Labor Relations Board Member and General Counsel.
Prior to joining Hunton & Williams LLP, Ronald co-chaired the labor-management relations practice at an international law firm. Over the course of his 40-year career, which began with the Office of the Solicitor of the US Department of Labor, Mr. Meisburg has handled matters arising under federal labor and employment law in complex business transactions before federal agencies and courts.
Mr. Meisburg joined the NLRB in 2004, following a recess appointment by President George W. Bush. Two years later, President Bush appointed him to a four-year term as NLRB General Counsel, a position independent from the Board. Serving under the Bush and Obama Administrations as the chief prosecutor under the National Labor Relations Act and chief administrator of the agency’s 32 regional offices, he oversaw a $280 million budget and 1,200 staff.
Ronald has been quoted as a labor law authority by numerous national publications and news organizations, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, SHRM Online, Associated Press, Corporate Counsel Magazine, Bloomberg, Reuters, Employment Law 360 and BNA. He is a frequent speaker at national conferences sponsored by trade associations, professional groups and educational institutions, including the US Chamber of Commerce, numerous elite law schools and universities around the world, the Council on Labor Law Equality, Committee for a Democratic Workplace, Labor and Employment Research Association, Equal Employment Advisory Council, Human Resources Policy Association, Labor Relations Advisory Committee, National Retail Federation, Retail Leaders Industry Association, Energy and Mineral Law Foundation, American Arbitration Association and numerous bar associations. Mr. Meisburg has also been recognized by Legal500 USA.
Mr. Meisburg is admitted to practice in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and District of Columbia Circuits, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Member, NLRB
Bill works with a broad range of clients, including trade associations, hospitals and other health care institutions, school districts, transportation and logistics companies and manufacturing companies.
He is a member of Littler Mendelson's Traditional Labor Practice Group and editor of the firm's traditional labor blog, Labor Relations Counsel. He also authored several amicus curiae briefs on behalf of trade associations in cases challenging state laws that allow labor unions to trespass on the private property of employers, including a landmark case now pending at the California Supreme Court.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Vice President & Assistant General Counsel, Boeing Inc.
Howard Marc Radzely was the Deputy Secretary of Labor, the chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Labor, a Cabinet agency with over 15,000 employees and an annual budget of over $50 billion, from December 19, 2007, through February 2, 2009. During that same period, Mr. Radzely also served on the board of directors for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, a government agency that aids U.S. businesses in overseas investment and economic development, and he was a designated member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which monitors China’s human rights record and legal development. President George W. Bush designated Mr. Radzely the Acting Deputy Secretary of Labor effective January 24, 2007, and nominated him for the permanent position on May 10, 2007. Mr. Radzely was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Deputy Secretary on December 19, 2007. Before serving as the Acting Deputy Secretary and Deputy Secretary, Mr. Radzely spent over three years as the Solicitor of Labor, the chief legal officer in the Department; he was confirmed as Solicitor on December 9, 2003. Mr. Radzely first joined the Department on June 4, 2001, as the Deputy Solicitor of Labor. He served as both the Deputy Solicitor and Acting Solicitor from June 2001 until January 2002. He also served as Acting Solicitor from January 2003 until his confirmation as Solicitor. Before joining the Department, Radzely was an attorney in private practice in Washington, D.C. , concentrating in labor and employment law. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School, where he served on the Harvard Law Review. After graduating from law school, but before entering private practice, Radzely clerked for the Honorable J. Michael Luttig, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and for the Honorable Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court of the United States. Radzely served as the Acting Secretary of Labor from January 20, 2009, until February 2, 2009. As of the latter date, President Barack Obama appointed Department of Labor Deputy Assistant Secretary Edward C. Hugler to act as Secretary. On July 1, 2009, Radzely joined the global law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as a partner in its labor and employment law practice. He is now Vice President & Assistant General Counsel at Boeing Inc.
Partner, Arnold & Porter
John Elwood is the head of Arnold & Porter’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice. He has argued before the Supreme Court nine times, and appeared before most of the federal courts of appeals. He has successfully argued cases across a broad cross-section of subjects, with particular experience in environmental law, the False Claims Act, government contracting, and federal criminal law
Mr. Elwood’s work has earned him recognition as one of Washington’s top Supreme Court lawyers (Washingtonian, 2013), as one of “a small group of lawyers” with an “outsized influence at the U.S. Supreme Court” (Reuters, 2014), and as one of the country’s most innovative lawyers (Financial Times, 2014). Chambers USA reports that “[t]he much-admired John Elwood is praised for his advocacy skills” (2013), and describes Mr. Elwood as “phenomenal” (2014), “incredibly talented” (2012), and “a much-loved and widely respected lawyer who is quick on his feet” (2010).
Before joining the firm, Mr. Elwood served in senior-level positions in the U.S. Department of Justice. Beginning as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and continuing with the firm, he has briefed more than 20 merits cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, and has briefed approximately 135 cases at the certiorari stage. As the senior Deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel, he advised the White House and federal agencies on a range of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory issues.
Executive Vice President of Global Governance, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Walmart Inc.
Rachel Brand is Walmart’s executive vice president of global governance, chief legal officer, and corporate secretary. She oversees the company’s global legal, compliance, ethics, corporate governance, digital citizenship, aviation, investigative, and corporate security functions, including Walmart’s Emergency Operations Center.
Immediately before joining Walmart, Rachel served as the United States Associate Attorney General and holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve in this role. She had previously served in the U.S. Department of Justice as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy during President George W. Bush’s administration. Her other government service includes an appointment by President Obama to serve as a Member of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, service as an Associate Counsel to the President at the White House, and judicial clerkships with Justice Charles Fried of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court of the United States. In the private sector, Rachel was a lawyer in private practice at two law firms in Washington, D.C. and served as the Vice President and Chief Counsel for Regulatory Litigation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center.
Rachel serves on the board of directors for the Walmart Foundation and is the executive sponsor for Walmart’s Tribal Voices Associate Resource Group. Outside of Walmart, she serves on the board of directors for the International Justice Mission and is a member of The American Law Institute.
Rachel earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota-Morris and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Solicitor General, Montana Attorney General's Office
Christian is currently Solicitor General of Montana, where he serves as the chief litigator and principal legal advisor to Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. In that capacity, he manages litigation before the federal district courts, courts of appeal, and the United States Supreme Court, as well as the Montana Supreme Court. He previously served in the Trump Administration as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to government service, he was a public interest constitutional litigator at Mountain States Legal Foundation and a fellow at the Institute for Justice. He clerked for Justice Caleb Stegall on the Kansas Supreme Court. He also served as Director of Publications for the Federalist Society's national headquarters.
Christian earned his B.A. in Political Science in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania before attending the University of Kansas School of Law. Christian is admitted to practice law in Kansas and Montana. A Kansas native, he is a die-hard fan of the Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas City Chiefs, and Kansas City Royals.
Christian is a member of the Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group's Executive Committee.
Partner-in-Charge Washington, Jones Day
Noel Francisco served as the 47th Solicitor General of the United States in the Trump Administration, from 2017 to 2020. He has argued some of the most important cases the Supreme Court has heard in recent years on a wide array of issues.
For example, as Solicitor General, he argued Trump v. Hawaii, where he successfully defended the president's orders restricting travel from countries deemed to present security risks; Janus v. AFSCME, which upheld the First Amendment rights of public employees who decline to join labor unions; Kisor v. Wilkie, which adopted his argument that the "Auer deference doctrine" should be significantly curtailed but retained in its core applications; Apple Inc. v. Pepper, which addressed whether Apple's App Store customers had standing to sue the company for antitrust violations; Knick v. Township of Scott, which held that property owners could sue state and local governments in federal court to vindicate Fifth Amendment takings claims; and Seila Law LLC v. CFPB, which invalidated restrictions on the president's authority to remove the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
He also spearheaded the government's general strategy to seek emergency relief in the appellate courts and the Supreme Court when lower courts issued nationwide injunctions against important government programs.
Noel's service as Solicitor General built on his previous tenure at Jones Day, during which he argued McDonnell v. United States, which reversed the federal bribery conviction of the governor of Virginia; NLRB v. Noel Canning, which limited the president's constitutional recess appointments power; and Zubik v. Burwell, which challenged federal insurance coverage regulations that violated Catholic organizations' religious beliefs.
Staff Attorney, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Glenn Taubman is a Staff Attorney for the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation (1982 to the present). He was a Law Clerk for Senior Circuit Judge Warren L. Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, Jacksonville, Florida, from 1981-82, and a Staff Attorney for the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, from 1980-81. His Bar Admissions include: Georgia, 1980; New York, 1981; U.S. Supreme Court, 1983; District of Columbia, 1985. He regularly appears before the National Labor Relations Board and various federal courts, representing individual employees only.
He is the author of "'Neutrality Agreements' and the Destruction of Employees' Section 7 Rights" (2005) and co-author of "Union Discipline and Employee Rights," a monograph published by the National Right to Work Foundation.
A partial listing of his reported cases includes: Lucas v. NLRB, 333 F.3d 927 (9th Cir. 2003);Penrod v. NLRB, 203 F.3d 41 (D.C. Cir. 2000);Production Workers v. NLRB, 161 F.3d 1047 (7th Cir. 1998);Food & Commercial Workers Local 951 v. Mulder, 31 F.3d 365 (6th Cir. 1994);NLRB v. Office Employees Local 2, 902 F.2d 1164 (4th Cir. 1990);Tierney v. City of Toledo, 917 F.2d 927 (6th Cir. 1990);Lowary v. Lexington Local Board of Education, 902 F.2d 422 (6th Cir. 1990);Lowary v. Lexington Local Board of Education, 854 F.2d 131 (6th Cir. 1988);Tierney v. City of Toledo, 824 F.2d 1497 (6th Cir. 1987);Masiello v. US Airways, Inc., 113 F. Supp. 2d 870 (W.D.N.C. 2000);Jordan v. City of Bucyrus, 739 F. Supp. 1124 (1990),further proceedings, 754 F. Supp. 554 (N.D. Ohio 1991);Dana Corp., 341 N.L.R.B. No. 150, 2004 WL 1329345 (June 7, 2004);California Saw & Knife Works, 320 N.L.R.B. 224 (1995),enforced, 133 F.3d 1012 (7th Cir. 1998).
Vice President & Legal Director, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., is Vice President and Legal Director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a non-profit legal aid organization. He was the first Staff Attorney employed by the Foundation and has more than forty-five years of experience helping workers in litigation in federal and state courts and administrative agencies over the abuses of compulsory unionism.
Mr. LaJeunesse has argued four cases in the United States Supreme Court. Those cases include Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Ass’n, 500 U.S. 507 (1991), which limited the purposes for which compulsory union fees collected from public employees may lawfully be spent; Air Line Pilots Ass’n v. Miller, 523 U.S. 866 (1998), which established that unions cannot compel nonmembers to exhaust union-established remedies before going to court to challenge compulsory union fees; and Marquez v. Screen Actors Guild, 525 U.S. 33 (1998), in which the Court recognized that unions must notify employees that they can satisfy the “membership” requirement of “union shop” agreements by just paying fees for union bargaining activities and need not join and pay full dues to keep their jobs. He also was lead attorney in Hohe v. Casey, 956 F.2d 399 (3d Cir. 1992), in which more than $8.3 million in compulsory agency fees was recovered from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for a class of 57,000 nonmembers.
Mr. LaJeunesse is the author of several published articles about labor law, has testified before Congressional committees several times, and was an Advisor on the Transition Team for Labor- Related Agencies, Office of the President-Elect, in 1980-81 and a legislative aide to a member of the Virginia state legislature. He is a Vice Chairman of the Federalist Society’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group and has spoken or debated at the Society’s National Lawyers Convention and at many Lawyers and Student Chapters on such topics as Right to Work laws, compulsory unionism arrangements, the misuse of union dues for politics, union organizing tactics (“card check” vs. secret-ballot elections), and the future of the union movement.
Recent Developments in Labor and Employment Law
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