Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Ave Maria School of Law
Antony “Tony” Kolenc joined the Ave Maria School of Law faculty in 2022 as the Director of the Veterans and Servicemembers Law Clinic (VSLC), which gives students the opportunity to help those who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, representing them in litigation, administrative proceedings, and veterans treatment courts. Professor Kolenc taught in several law schools after serving over 21 years in the United States Air Force, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel from the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps. During his career as a JAG, he litigated both civil and criminal cases before trial and appellate courts, including the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He has also taught at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and Florida Coastal School of Law as a tenured professor.
Professor Kolenc received his Juris Doctor degree in 1999, graduating at the top of his class from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. While there, he served as a senior editor on the Florida Law Review and as a competitor and coach on the Justice Campbell Thornal Moot Court Board. He also earned his Master of Arts degree in Theology and Christian Ministry from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. His professional writings have focused on matters of constitutional law and military policy, especially focusing on Freedom of Religion. His articles have appeared in several academic legal journals and magazines. He also writes a regular legal column for homeschooling families in Practical Homeschooling Magazine and has penned an award-winning historical fiction trilogy for teens. He and his wife, Alisa, homeschooled their five children. You can learn more about him at www.antonykolenc.com.
Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Christopher J. Motz serves as Senior Counsel with First Liberty Institute. His practice focuses on First Amendment free exercise and Establishment Clause rights of United States service members domestically and internationally, chaplains of varying denominations, veterans, and defense industry contractors. He has also represented Catholic bishops and priests against state officials.
Chris currently serves part-time as a judge advocate in the Air Force Reserve Component, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel. Prior to that, he served as a Marine infantry officer, leading Marines on several combat tours. He has been forward deployed alongside soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and Coast Guardsmen. His advocacy for the religious rights of service members has been published in the Wall Street Journal.
Before joining First Liberty, Chris served as general counsel and chief of staff to a Catholic diocese, where he led the Catholic Church’s efforts to oppose a state constitutional ballot measure reinstating Roe v. Wade, achieving a record-setting 18-point victory, a nationwide first in the wake of the Dobbs decision. Earlier in his career, he led a state Catholic conference, where he steered the successful passage of a state religious freedom restoration act. A member of the Knights of Columbus, he is a past member of the National Diocesan Attorneys Association and the National Association of State Catholic Conference Directors.
He graduated cum laude from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law and Public Policy, represented a Messianic Jewish prisoner before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit with the school’s Religious Liberty Appellate Clinic, and published articles on attorney ethics and legal issues around drone strikes.
Chief Defense Counsel, U.S. Marine Corps
Colonel Iain Pedden currently serves as Chief Defense Counsel of the Marine Corps. His career experience includes trial and appellate litigation, academic instruction, constitutional advocacy, and service-level policy development within the military justice system.
Colonel Pedden’s recent litigation background includes serving as Director of the Appellate Government Division for the Navy and Marine Corps, where he led the representation of the United States in all criminal appeals within the Department of the Navy. He previously served as Chief Victims' Legal Counsel of the Marine Corps, Senior Defense Counsel, and Trial Counsel. His foundational appellate experience includes service as a clerk drafting briefs for the Illinois Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division in cases before the Illinois Supreme Court, the Seventh Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.
Apart from litigation assignments, Colonel Pedden served as Associate Professor of Criminal Law at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, teaching evidence and constitutional law. He later served as Branch Head of Military Justice at Headquarters Marine Corps, advising senior leaders on federal legislation, implementing the Military Justice Act of 2016, and drafting policy on criminal justice data-sharing protocols with the FBI. His operational assignments include a combat deployment to Afghanistan and service as a Staff Judge Advocate (general counsel) to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. He went on to command Marines providing security at diplomatic facilities in Scandinavia, Western Europe and the Mediterranean.
Colonel Pedden holds an M.S. from the National War College, an LL.M. (International Law) from the U.S. Army JAG School, and a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago. He holds certifications as Victims’ Legal Counsel and military judge and is admitted to practice in Illinois and before the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.
Colonel Pedden’s participation in programming, unless noted otherwise, is in his personal capacity. The views expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of War, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps, or the U.S. Government.
Special Counsel, Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Department of Defense
General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Air Force
William K. Lane III is the General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force. As the Chief Legal Officer and Ethics Official for the Air Force and Space Force, Mr. Lane provides oversight and guidance to 680,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen and Guardians. Mr. Lane additionally serves ex officio as Administrator of Wake Island.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Lane was a Partner with Wiley Rein, LLP, a Washington, D.C. based law firm. In his practice, Mr. Lane advocated on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of appellate, constitutional, regulatory and complex commercial litigation.
During President Trump’s first administration, Mr. Lane served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, representing agencies in federal court throughout the United States.
Prior to attending law school, Mr. Lane received a U.S. Army commission in 2008 and served on active duty until 2012 as a Cavalry Officer, before transitioning to the Maryland Army National Guard and ultimately the U.S. Army Reserve. During his time on active duty, Mr. Lane completed a combat deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Founding Partner, The Sander Group, PLLC; Former General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Navy
Bob is the Founding Partner of The Sander Group, PLLC, which is a National Security and Government Contracts Boutique Law Firm located in Alexandria, VA. Bob previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of the Navy after his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate on December 19, 2019. As General Counsel, Bob served as the Department of the Navy’s (DON) Chief Legal Officer and head of the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) where he led a team of over 1,100 civilian and uniformed attorneys and professional support staff in 140 offices worldwide. During this time, Bob provided legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy, the Under Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy and their staffs, and the multiple components of the Department, including the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Previously, in July 2018, Bob became the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Department of the Army. He then became the Chief Legal Officer for the Army serving as The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the General Counsel of the Army in June 2019. During his time with the Army Office of General Counsel, Bob’s duties included providing legal and policy advice to the Secretary of the Army, the Army Secretariat, and other Senior Army leaders.
Prior to becoming Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Army, Bob performed a detail to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Office of General Counsel. From 2010 to 2019, Bob worked as a Federal Prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section. Previously, Bob served as the Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit and the Captain of the Narcotics Enforcement Team in the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office. Bob also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. As a state and federal prosecutor, Bob has handled thousands of cases, which includes trying dozens of jury trials to verdict.
In his military capacity, Bob is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he serves as the Senior Legal Advisor/Staff Judge Advocate (IMA) for the Network Enterprise Technology Command and the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, AZ. Bob previously served as the Chief of the Procurement Fraud/Business Integrity Section for the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir, VA and has performed duties as an Adjunct Professor at the National Intelligence University in Bethesda, Maryland. Bob previously deployed to Djibouti, Africa for 13 months as the Acting/Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, and was deployed for six months in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, where he served as Trial Counsel for V Corps in Darmstadt, Germany.
Bob received his Juris Doctor Degree from the Widener University School of Law, where he was a member of Law Review for the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law and a member of the Student Bar Association. Bob also has a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence Degree from the National Intelligence University and a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance from Temple University. Bob holds an active Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS-SCI) Security Clearance.
General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Air Force
William K. Lane III is the General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force. As the Chief Legal Officer and Ethics Official for the Air Force and Space Force, Mr. Lane provides oversight and guidance to 680,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian Airmen and Guardians. Mr. Lane additionally serves ex officio as Administrator of Wake Island.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Lane was a Partner with Wiley Rein, LLP, a Washington, D.C. based law firm. In his practice, Mr. Lane advocated on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of appellate, constitutional, regulatory and complex commercial litigation.
During President Trump’s first administration, Mr. Lane served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, representing agencies in federal court throughout the United States.
Prior to attending law school, Mr. Lane received a U.S. Army commission in 2008 and served on active duty until 2012 as a Cavalry Officer, before transitioning to the Maryland Army National Guard and ultimately the U.S. Army Reserve. During his time on active duty, Mr. Lane completed a combat deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Founding Partner, The Sander Group, PLLC; Former General Counsel, U.S. Department of the Navy
Bob is the Founding Partner of The Sander Group, PLLC, which is a National Security and Government Contracts Boutique Law Firm located in Alexandria, VA. Bob previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of the Navy after his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate on December 19, 2019. As General Counsel, Bob served as the Department of the Navy’s (DON) Chief Legal Officer and head of the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) where he led a team of over 1,100 civilian and uniformed attorneys and professional support staff in 140 offices worldwide. During this time, Bob provided legal advice to the Secretary of the Navy, the Under Secretary of the Navy, the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy and their staffs, and the multiple components of the Department, including the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Previously, in July 2018, Bob became the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Department of the Army. He then became the Chief Legal Officer for the Army serving as The Senior Official Performing the Duties of the General Counsel of the Army in June 2019. During his time with the Army Office of General Counsel, Bob’s duties included providing legal and policy advice to the Secretary of the Army, the Army Secretariat, and other Senior Army leaders.
Prior to becoming Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Army, Bob performed a detail to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Office of General Counsel. From 2010 to 2019, Bob worked as a Federal Prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice, National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section. Previously, Bob served as the Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit and the Captain of the Narcotics Enforcement Team in the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney’s Office. Bob also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. As a state and federal prosecutor, Bob has handled thousands of cases, which includes trying dozens of jury trials to verdict.
In his military capacity, Bob is a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he serves as the Senior Legal Advisor/Staff Judge Advocate (IMA) for the Network Enterprise Technology Command and the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, AZ. Bob previously served as the Chief of the Procurement Fraud/Business Integrity Section for the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir, VA and has performed duties as an Adjunct Professor at the National Intelligence University in Bethesda, Maryland. Bob previously deployed to Djibouti, Africa for 13 months as the Acting/Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, and was deployed for six months in support of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, where he served as Trial Counsel for V Corps in Darmstadt, Germany.
Bob received his Juris Doctor Degree from the Widener University School of Law, where he was a member of Law Review for the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law and a member of the Student Bar Association. Bob also has a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence Degree from the National Intelligence University and a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance from Temple University. Bob holds an active Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS-SCI) Security Clearance.
Senior Appellate Counsel, U.S. Navy
Stephanie Fisher recently completed six years as an active-duty Navy Judge Advocate and now serves in the Reserves. She will begin as a Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, this summer (2026).
As a Judge Advocate, Stephanie served in numerous roles, including Senior Appellate Government Counsel, Legal Advisor to the Convening Authority for Military Commissions, Adjunct Professor of Law at the United States Naval Academy, and Trial Defense Counsel. She also completed temporary duty assignments with Naval Special Warfare Group 4, Submarine Squadron 6, and Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.
In her most recent role as Senior Appellate Government Counsel, she briefed and argued cases before the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, where the courts affirmed more than 95% of the convictions she defended.
Before joining the JAG Corps, Stephanie clerked on the Arizona Supreme Court for the Honorable Justice William Montgomery. She earned her J.D. from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where she served as a two-time Vice President of the Federalist Society student chapter. She earned her dual bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, where she was a four-year member of the varsity cheerleading team.
Stephanie currently serves on the DC Young Lawyer Chapter Board and the Armed Services Legal Network Executive Committee. In her free time, she enjoys skydiving, weightlifting, hiking, and traveling.
Deputy General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, National Guard Bureau
Colonel Michael Mark Majors serves as Deputy General Counsel for the Office of the General Counsel, National Guard Bureau, with more than 27 years of military legal experience advising senior military leaders and government officials on military justice, administrative law, operational law, national security, and strategic policy. Throughout his career, he has served as a trusted legal advisor on complex issues spanning governance, risk management, compliance, homeland defense, and military operations.
As Deputy General Counsel, Colonel Majors advises senior National Guard leadership on legal and policy matters affecting more than 430,000 Soldiers and Airmen serving across the 54 states, territories, and the District of Columbia. In his primary role as Chief of the Strategic Engagement Division, he directs nationwide military legal professional development, accessions, and strategic engagement for more than 1,100 National Guard Judge Advocates and Legal Advisors. He develops and teaches National Guard legal education programs, authoring policy and regulatory guidance, and works closely with the Judge Advocate General's Corps, State Judge Advocates, and military legal organizations to strengthen legal readiness throughout the National Guard.
Colonel Majors has deployed in support of multinational operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, Bahrain, and Kosovo. His operational assignments include serving as Chief Deputy Legal Advisor for the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), advising senior commanders on the law of armed conflict, rules of engagement, international agreements, fiscal law, claims, and operational legal issues during a period of heightened regional instability following Russia's expanded invasion of Ukraine.
Colonel Majors is currently pursuing a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, with a concentration in national security, space operations, commercial remote sensing, and international space law. He holds Master of Arts degrees in Defense and Strategic Studies from both the U.S. Army War College and the U.S. Naval War College, a Juris Doctor from Mississippi College School of Law, and a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from Samford University.
He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and multiple federal courts. Colonel Majors serves on the Board of Directors of the Judge Advocate Association, is a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar, and is a frequent lecturer on military law, national security law, operational law, leadership, and emerging issues in air and space law. His military decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal (two awards), the Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), and the Combat Action Badge.
Director, International Legal Studies Program, Vanderbilt Law School
Michael Newton is an expert on terrorism, accountability, transnational justice, and conduct of hostilities issues. Over the course of his career, he has published more than 90 books, articles, op-eds and book chapters. He has been an expert witness in terrorism related trials and is admitted to the counsel list of the International Criminal Court, where, in 2018, he helped prepare the appeal of Jean-Pierre Bemba and participated in oral arguments in the Appeals Chamber. At Vanderbilt, he developed and teaches the innovative International Law Practice Lab, which provides expert assistance to judges, lawyers, legislatures, governments, and policy makers around the world. Professor Newton is most recently the editor of The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual: Commentary and Critique, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
An authority on the law of armed conflict, Professor Newton served as the senior adviser to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the U.S. State Department from January 1999 to August 2002, during which he implemented a wide range of policy positions, including U.S. support to accountability mechanisms worldwide. He negotiated the “Elements of Crimes” for the International Criminal Court, and was the senior member of the team teaching international law to the first group of Iraqis who began to think about accountability mechanisms and a constitutional structure in November 2000. He shuttled to Baghdad repeatedly to aid international and Iraqi lawyers and jurists in drafting the Statute of the Iraqi High Tribunal while serving as the International Law Adviser to the Judicial Chambers from 2006 to 2008. He began assisting Iraqi officials, victims and civil society groups on legal issues associated with documentation and investigation of crimes committed by Da’esh on Iraqi soil days after Yazidi victims fled towards Mount Sinjar. He was the U.S. representative on the U.N. Planning Mission for the Sierra Leone Special Court and a founding member of its academic consortium. He is an elected member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law and on the expert roster of Justice Rapid Response. In addition to teaching the Practice Lab, he develops and coordinates externships and educational opportunities for students interested in international legal issues, having supervised more than 150 such opportunities.
Professor Newton has served on the executive council of the American Society of International Law and as an invited expert for the Genocide Prevention Task Force established by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is currently on the Advisory Board of the ABA International Criminal Court Project.
Professor Newton served in the U.S. Army more than 21 years, beginning with his commission from the U.S. Military Academy in May 1984 as an armor officer in the 4th Battalion, 68th Armor at Fort Carson, Colorado. After his selection for the Funded Legal Education Program, Newton served as chief of operational law with the Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) during Operation Desert Storm, and as the group judge advocate for the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne). His deployments include Northern Iraq on Operation Provide Comfort to assist Kurdish civilians, and Haiti with 194th Armored Brigade (Separate), where he organized and led human rights and rules of engagement education for multinational forces, including police. He has taught international and operational law at the Judge Advocate General's School and Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, and taught international law at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Judge Nelson was confirmed to the Ninth Circuit in October 2018, as the youngest Circuit Judge to serve from Idaho and he has chambers in his hometown of Idaho Falls. Prior to his confirmation, Judge Nelson served for nine years as General Counsel of Idaho Falls-based Melaleuca, Inc., a consumer goods company. He previously worked in Washington, DC, where he served in all three branches of the federal government, including as Special Counsel for Supreme Court nominations to the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Deputy General Counsel to the White House Office of Management and Budget; Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice; and a law clerk to Judge Henderson of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has argued in most of the federal courts of appeals and worked on dozens of Supreme Court briefs. He started in the Washington, DC office of Sidley Austin as an appellate lawyer, after clerking for Judges Mosk and Brower of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague, and for now-Judge Tom Griffith, then-Senate Legal Counsel, during the impeachment trial of President Clinton. Judge Nelson earned his B.A. from Brigham Young University and his J.D., with honors, from BYU Law School. Judge Nelson has been a member of the Federalist Society since 1998.
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.
Director, International Legal Studies Program, Vanderbilt Law School
Michael Newton is an expert on terrorism, accountability, transnational justice, and conduct of hostilities issues. Over the course of his career, he has published more than 90 books, articles, op-eds and book chapters. He has been an expert witness in terrorism related trials and is admitted to the counsel list of the International Criminal Court, where, in 2018, he helped prepare the appeal of Jean-Pierre Bemba and participated in oral arguments in the Appeals Chamber. At Vanderbilt, he developed and teaches the innovative International Law Practice Lab, which provides expert assistance to judges, lawyers, legislatures, governments, and policy makers around the world. Professor Newton is most recently the editor of The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual: Commentary and Critique, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
An authority on the law of armed conflict, Professor Newton served as the senior adviser to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the U.S. State Department from January 1999 to August 2002, during which he implemented a wide range of policy positions, including U.S. support to accountability mechanisms worldwide. He negotiated the “Elements of Crimes” for the International Criminal Court, and was the senior member of the team teaching international law to the first group of Iraqis who began to think about accountability mechanisms and a constitutional structure in November 2000. He shuttled to Baghdad repeatedly to aid international and Iraqi lawyers and jurists in drafting the Statute of the Iraqi High Tribunal while serving as the International Law Adviser to the Judicial Chambers from 2006 to 2008. He began assisting Iraqi officials, victims and civil society groups on legal issues associated with documentation and investigation of crimes committed by Da’esh on Iraqi soil days after Yazidi victims fled towards Mount Sinjar. He was the U.S. representative on the U.N. Planning Mission for the Sierra Leone Special Court and a founding member of its academic consortium. He is an elected member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law and on the expert roster of Justice Rapid Response. In addition to teaching the Practice Lab, he develops and coordinates externships and educational opportunities for students interested in international legal issues, having supervised more than 150 such opportunities.
Professor Newton has served on the executive council of the American Society of International Law and as an invited expert for the Genocide Prevention Task Force established by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is currently on the Advisory Board of the ABA International Criminal Court Project.
Professor Newton served in the U.S. Army more than 21 years, beginning with his commission from the U.S. Military Academy in May 1984 as an armor officer in the 4th Battalion, 68th Armor at Fort Carson, Colorado. After his selection for the Funded Legal Education Program, Newton served as chief of operational law with the Army Special Forces Command (Airborne) during Operation Desert Storm, and as the group judge advocate for the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne). His deployments include Northern Iraq on Operation Provide Comfort to assist Kurdish civilians, and Haiti with 194th Armored Brigade (Separate), where he organized and led human rights and rules of engagement education for multinational forces, including police. He has taught international and operational law at the Judge Advocate General's School and Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, and taught international law at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Professor Emeritus of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jeremy A. Rabkin is a Professor Emeritus of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. Before joining the faculty in June 2007, he was for over two decades a professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Professor Rabkin serves on the board of directors of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously he was a board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the board of academic advisors of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Rabkin’s books include Law Without Nations? (Princeton University Press, 2005). He authored “If You Need a Friend, Don’t Call a Cosmopolitan,” a chapter in Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship (Sigal R. Ben-Porath & Rogers M. Smith eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in major law reviews and political science journals and his journalistic contributions in a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Partner, Balch & Bingham LLP
General Counsel to the Mississippi Manufacturers Association, Pepper Crutcher advises and advocates for a wide range of Southeast U.S., private sector employers. Pepper regularly defends employment litigation, including class and collective actions, and both defends and prosecutes unfair competition claims. Pepper’s labor law practice involves all types of NLRB proceedings, labor contract negotiation and arbitration. Pepper also helps employers, insurers, brokers, administrators and providers achieve Affordable Care Act compliance and appeal ACA tax assessments.
Mr. Crutcher has been rated "AV" by Martindale Hubbell and since 2004 has been selected to be included in Chambers USA America's Leading Lawyers for Business: The Client's Guide (Employment, Mississippi). He is also listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Intellectual Property Law and Labor & Employment Law.
Shareholder & Co-Chair of the Workplace Policy Institute, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Alexander T. MacDonald advises employers on all aspects of the employment and labor landscape, focusing on emerging legislation and regulation. He has extensive experience advising businesses on worker classification, arbitration, the administrative and regulatory process, and the future of work. He frequently writes, publishes, and speaks on these subjects. His work has been cited by scholars and appellate courts. He is a recognized voice for the management perspective.
Alexander is a co-chair of the Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) team. With WPI, he advises employers on legislative, administrative, and regulatory developments at the state and federal level. He advocates for employers in the regulatory and administrative process. He also helps employers protect their businesses by understanding and anticipating cutting-edge legal developments.
Alexander also has extensive experience in traditional labor law. He represents management in all aspects of labor-management relations, including unfair labor practice charges, grievance arbitrations, representation elections, contract negotiations, and related litigation, including litigation in the U.S. courts of appeals.
Before joining Littler, Alexander served as the director, future of work, for a major technology company. He also worked in a national labor and employment law firm and a major public-sector general counsel’s office. He was a law clerk to the senior judges in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
He is also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. In law school, he graduated first in his class
Tammy McCutchen is a leading authority on federal and state wage-hour laws and prevailing wage laws. She counsels businesses on wage-hour compliance, including conducting internal audits on independent contractor status, overtime exemptions, and other pay practices. She also represents employers during investigations by the U.S. Department of Labor and serves as an expert witness in wage-hour class actions. She was a founding officer of ComplianceHR, a law and technology company, where she created AI-based applications to evaluate independent contractor and overtime exempt status.
Ms. McCutchen served as Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2001. She was the primary architect of the 2004 revisions to the overtime exemption regulations, the first major changes to the regulations in 55 years.
Before joining DOL, she was senior counsel for the Hershey Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Ms. McCutchen has been a volunteer leader of the Federalist Society since 1989. She served in leadership roles for the Northwestern Student Chapter and Chicago Lawyers Chapter. She currently serves in leadership for the Labor & Employment Practice Group, the Regulatory Transparency Project, and the Knoxville, TN Lawyers Chapter. She served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Law360, the Labor Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Legal Advisory Board of the National Federation of Independent Business, and a Policy Fellow at the ACU Foundation.
Ms. McCutchen is a graduate of Western Illinois University and Northwestern University School of Law. She clerked for the Hon. Daniel Manion on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Shareholder, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart
Chris Murray is Co-Chair of the firm’s Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group. In this role, he assists attorneys throughout the firm and clients nationwide to create, roll out, and enforce effective employment arbitration agreements and other ADR programs. Mr. Murray has extensive experience with class/collective action waivers in employment arbitration. Mr. Murray was part of the Ogletree team that successfully defended the use of such waivers in the Fifth Circuit’s landmark decision in D.R. Horton, Inc. v. N.L.R.B. Since then, he has successfully defended the enforceability of class action waivers in numerous subsequent cases and submitted an amicus brief on the subject on behalf of several major employers’ associations in the Supreme Court’s Murphy Oil case. Mr. Murray assists clients and the Firm’s attorneys to draft or revise arbitration programs focused on a client’s specific needs and goals and in light of changing law and evolving best practices.
Senior Counsel - Civil Rights Division, US Department of Justice
Andrew Darlington was appointed in 2025 to serve as Senior Counsel to the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. He graduated the US Naval Academy in May, 2010 and was commissioned into the United States Marine Corps. He deployed twice to Afghanistan as an infantry officer. For his actions, he was awarded the Purple Heart and other personal combat awards. He later graduated Fordham University School of Law, and has since served as a prosecutor and in private practice. He joined the Florida Department of State in 2022 and was appointed Director of the Office of Election Crimes and Security in March, 2023. He is a member of the Madison Club, the National Security and International Law Practice Group, and the Washington, DC, Chapter.
Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School
Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School
Robert Leider is an Assistant Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. His scholarly interests are in criminal law, criminal procedure, and constitutional law, especially concerning questions about the use of force and the rule of law. He has written on the law of self-defense, the constitutional allocation of military power, and gun control. Among other places, he has published in the Florida Law Review (forthcoming), the Indiana Law Journal, and the Wall Street Journal.
Before joining Antonin Scalia Law School, Professor Leider was at Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC. He was previously with Mayer Brown LLP and was an Olin-Searle-Smith Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has clerked for Judge Diane S. Sykes, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Justice Clarence Thomas. Professor Leider earned a BA, summa cum laude, from The George Washington University, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in Philosophy (dissertation defended with distinction) from Georgetown University. While at Yale, he served as an articles editor for the Yale Law Journal.
Professor Leider teaches criminal law and torts.
Federal Special Master, US District Court For The District Of Columbia
Julian McCarthy has had a distinguished career in both military and civilian legal service. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1977 and served as a Surface Warfare Officer aboard the USS Dale (CG-19) from 1977 to 1980. Following his military service at sea, he pursued legal studies, earning his Juris Doctor with honors from Duke University School of Law in 1983.
McCarthy began his legal career as a Trial Counsel at the Naval Legal Service Office in Jacksonville, Florida, from 1983 to 1986. He then served as the Staff Judge Advocate at Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines, from 1986 to 1990. In 1991, he earned a Master of Laws degree with highest honors from The George Washington University Law School. He subsequently served as Executive Assistant to the Navy Judge Advocate General from 1991 to 1992 and as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy from 1992 to 1998. He later commanded the Trial Service Office Southeast from 1998 to 2002, before retiring as a Captain in the United States Navy.
Following his military career, McCarthy continued his service in the legal profession and public sector. He practiced law at Holland & Knight before becoming the Director of Military Affairs, Veterans Services, and Disabled Services for the City of Jacksonville. He later served as the Chief Assistant State Attorney for Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit. McCarthy also worked as the Director of Special Programs for the Wounded Warrior Project and served as the Marshal of Florida’s First District Court of Appeal.
Currently, he serves as a Federal Special Master, where he continues his commitment to justice and public service.
Service Members & the First Amendment
Antony Kolenc, Christopher J. Motz, Iain Pedden, Thomas N. Wheatley
Recent litigation has resurfaced longstanding debates over the scope of First Amendment protections for members...
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Join us for a virtual fireside chat with William Lane, General Counsel of the Department...
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Join us for a virtual fireside chat with William Lane, General Counsel of the Department...
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For more than fifty years—ever since the Supreme Court decided Griggs v. Duke Power Co.[1]—almost...
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The Administrative Procedure Act directs federal courts to review and to set aside final agency...
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What constitutional protections exist for retired admirals and generals commenting on political candidates, campaigns, and sitting presidents?...
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U.S. Navy SEALs 1-26 v. Biden: A New Settlement Agreement Protects Religious Servicemembers
When the United States military mandated COVID-19 vaccinations and categorically denied religious accommodations, servicemembers whose...