President, Americas and Global Chief Legal Officer, Merkle Science
Mary Beth Buchanan is currently President, Americas and Global Chief Legal Officer at Merkle Science. She was former General Counsel for Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange. She was a partner at Bryan Cave LLP in the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations and Securities Litigation and Enforcement Client Service Groups. She concentrated her practice on white collar criminal defense, SEC and FINRA enforcement matters, corporate and accounting fraud, internal investigations, corporate compliance, foreign corrupt practices violations, Congressional investigations and complex civil litigation.
Ms. Buchanan served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania from September 2001 to November 2009, having been appointed by President George W. Bush. She is the only woman in Pennsylvania's history to be presidentially appointed to this position. As the United States Attorney, Ms. Buchanan oversaw the prosecution of more than 5,000 cases, including corporate and securities fraud, bank fraud, foreign corrupt practices, false claims, money laundering, health care fraud, public corruption and a broad range of violent crimes. Prior to that time, Ms. Buchanan spent more than 13 years as an Assistant United States Attorney litigating criminal, civil and appellate cases.
During her tenure as the United States Attorney, Ms. Buchanan also held several posts at the DOJ, including serving as the director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, acting director of the DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women and chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. Ms. Buchanan also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's Organizational Guidelines Advisory Committee, which made recommendations to the Commission for amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines for Business Organizations.
Associate, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
Brooke Cook is a member of the firm’s Commercial Disputes and Investigations, Financial Regulation, and White Collar Practice Groups. She serves as counsel in a variety of complex commercial litigation matters in both state and federal court, including business litigation, commercial contract disputes, real estate litigation, and employment litigation. Her practice also includes representing both individuals and large companies in government enforcement actions and investigations. Ms. Cook also maintains an active pro bono practice.
Ms. Cook was a summer associate in Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s New York office in 2016. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Cook was a judicial intern to the Honorable Norman K. Moon of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia and an extern for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California in the criminal division. During law school, Ms. Cook served as a Dillard Fellow for the Legal Research and Writing program at the University of Virginia School of Law where she assisted first year law students with drafting legal memoranda and appellate briefs and judged an appellate oral argument competition. She was also the assistant managing editor for the Journal of Law & Politics.
Before law school, Ms. Cook worked in public policy in Washington, D.C.
Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations; Former Governor of South Carolina; Author, With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace
Nikki Haley is the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration. She is the 29th person to serve in the position.
President Donald Trump asked Haley to serve in the position on November 23, 2016. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 24, 2017 and served until December 2018.
Haley previously served as the 116th governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. From 2005 to 2010, Haley served in the South Carolina House of Representatives, representing District 87, Lexington County.
Attorney, Writer and Consultant
Dennis Saffran is an appellate attorney and political and policy writer based in Queens, NY. He has served as chief of appellate litigation for Nassau County, NY, chief lawyer of the New York State Division of Housing, and a Special Assistant to the New York State Attorney General, and was the founder of the New York office and then national Executive Director of the Center for the Community Interest, a public interest group that supported anti-crime and quality-of-life initiatives like those of the Giuliani and Bloomberg Administrations in New York City.
Dennis has litigated constitutional and municipal law cases in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the New York State Court of Appeals, and other appellate courts, and has submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court and other courts supporting the plaintiffs in the landmark case of Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, as well as in the pending case before SCOTUS of Chiles v. Salazar concerning the constitutionality of bans on so-called "conversion therapy." He has also written on legal, political and public policy issues for various publications including the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News and New York Post, Newsweek, RealClear Policy and Quillette, and has been a guest on various television and radio news and talk shows.
In 2001 and 2013, Dennis was the Republican candidate for the New York City Council from Northeast Queens, one of the few competitive districts in the city, receiving 48% of the vote and losing by a 1% margin in 2001 in the closest election in the city that year.
Dennis grew up in Queens and is an honors graduate of Forest Hills High School, Harvard College and New York University Law School. He and his wife Jane Stewart Saffran live in Douglaston, NY, where they raised their two children: Kristina, the founder of Equip, a telehealth treatment program for eating disorders, and Nick, a senior editor at the Manhattan Institute.
Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
President, Americas and Global Chief Legal Officer, Merkle Science
Mary Beth Buchanan is currently President, Americas and Global Chief Legal Officer at Merkle Science. She was former General Counsel for Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange. She was a partner at Bryan Cave LLP in the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations and Securities Litigation and Enforcement Client Service Groups. She concentrated her practice on white collar criminal defense, SEC and FINRA enforcement matters, corporate and accounting fraud, internal investigations, corporate compliance, foreign corrupt practices violations, Congressional investigations and complex civil litigation.
Ms. Buchanan served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania from September 2001 to November 2009, having been appointed by President George W. Bush. She is the only woman in Pennsylvania's history to be presidentially appointed to this position. As the United States Attorney, Ms. Buchanan oversaw the prosecution of more than 5,000 cases, including corporate and securities fraud, bank fraud, foreign corrupt practices, false claims, money laundering, health care fraud, public corruption and a broad range of violent crimes. Prior to that time, Ms. Buchanan spent more than 13 years as an Assistant United States Attorney litigating criminal, civil and appellate cases.
During her tenure as the United States Attorney, Ms. Buchanan also held several posts at the DOJ, including serving as the director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, acting director of the DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women and chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. Ms. Buchanan also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's Organizational Guidelines Advisory Committee, which made recommendations to the Commission for amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines for Business Organizations.
Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations; Former Governor of South Carolina; Author, With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace
Nikki Haley is the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration. She is the 29th person to serve in the position.
President Donald Trump asked Haley to serve in the position on November 23, 2016. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 24, 2017 and served until December 2018.
Haley previously served as the 116th governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. From 2005 to 2010, Haley served in the South Carolina House of Representatives, representing District 87, Lexington County.
Associate, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
Brooke Cook is a member of the firm’s Commercial Disputes and Investigations, Financial Regulation, and White Collar Practice Groups. She serves as counsel in a variety of complex commercial litigation matters in both state and federal court, including business litigation, commercial contract disputes, real estate litigation, and employment litigation. Her practice also includes representing both individuals and large companies in government enforcement actions and investigations. Ms. Cook also maintains an active pro bono practice.
Ms. Cook was a summer associate in Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s New York office in 2016. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Cook was a judicial intern to the Honorable Norman K. Moon of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia and an extern for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California in the criminal division. During law school, Ms. Cook served as a Dillard Fellow for the Legal Research and Writing program at the University of Virginia School of Law where she assisted first year law students with drafting legal memoranda and appellate briefs and judged an appellate oral argument competition. She was also the assistant managing editor for the Journal of Law & Politics.
Before law school, Ms. Cook worked in public policy in Washington, D.C.
Attorney, Writer and Consultant
Dennis Saffran is an appellate attorney and political and policy writer based in Queens, NY. He has served as chief of appellate litigation for Nassau County, NY, chief lawyer of the New York State Division of Housing, and a Special Assistant to the New York State Attorney General, and was the founder of the New York office and then national Executive Director of the Center for the Community Interest, a public interest group that supported anti-crime and quality-of-life initiatives like those of the Giuliani and Bloomberg Administrations in New York City.
Dennis has litigated constitutional and municipal law cases in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the New York State Court of Appeals, and other appellate courts, and has submitted amicus briefs to the Supreme Court and other courts supporting the plaintiffs in the landmark case of Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, as well as in the pending case before SCOTUS of Chiles v. Salazar concerning the constitutionality of bans on so-called "conversion therapy." He has also written on legal, political and public policy issues for various publications including the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News and New York Post, Newsweek, RealClear Policy and Quillette, and has been a guest on various television and radio news and talk shows.
In 2001 and 2013, Dennis was the Republican candidate for the New York City Council from Northeast Queens, one of the few competitive districts in the city, receiving 48% of the vote and losing by a 1% margin in 2001 in the closest election in the city that year.
Dennis grew up in Queens and is an honors graduate of Forest Hills High School, Harvard College and New York University Law School. He and his wife Jane Stewart Saffran live in Douglaston, NY, where they raised their two children: Kristina, the founder of Equip, a telehealth treatment program for eating disorders, and Nick, a senior editor at the Manhattan Institute.
Producer, They Say It Can’t be Done
Patrick is the lead Producer on They Say It Can’t be Done. He previously produced the award-winning feature length documentary Of Dogs and Men. He is co-creator and producer on an animated comedy web series based on the NY Times bestselling book series, “The Politically Incorrect Guides,” also to be released Fall 2019. Through his work with corporate partners, Patrick has produced more than 300 animated, documentary, virtual reality and narrative projects. He holds a B.A. from Emory University in Creative Writing and Philosophy
Of Counsel, GrayRobinson
Charlie Trippe practiced civil litigation for the 14 years between 1980 and 1994, most of that with Jones Day, where he was a partner in the New York office. He was the chief litigation counsel of CSX Transportation, Inc., one of the country’s largest freight railroads, from 1994 through 2001. He returned to private practice in Jacksonville in 2001, continuing to practice in the area of civil litigation. He also served as General Counsel to both the Governor of Florida (2010-2011) and the Attorney General of Florida (2020-2022), and as the Chief Counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration (2017-2019). Since 2025 he has been Of Counsel to the Florida firm of GrayRobinson. He is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Civil Mediator, as well as an experienced arbitrator.
A Discussion with Hon. Nikki Haley
Mary Beth Buchanan, Brooke Cook Wilson, Nikki R. Haley
On January 16, 2020, the Federalist Society's New York City Lawyers and Young Lawyers Chapters...
A Discussion with Hon. Nikki Haley
New York City Lawyers Chapter and New York City Young Lawyers Chapter
New York, NYDiversity and Elimination of Bias CLE Teleforum: The Harvard Case and the Meaning of Diversity in a Multi-Racial Era
Dennis J. Saffran
*** Please note: CLE is no longer available for this teleforum/podcast.*** Electronic Sign In: Click...
Diversity and Elimination of Bias CLE Teleforum: The Harvard Case and the Meaning of Diversity in a Multi-Racial Era
Professional Responsibilities & Legal Education Teleforum
TeleforumTopics
Second Amendment in the Highest Court: NYSPRA v. City of New York
How much is too much? That was a principal question in the partisan gerrymandering case...
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York, New York [SCOTUSbrief]
Josh Blackman
For the first time in nearly a decade, the Supreme Court is taking another look...
Topics
Originalism, Populism, and the Second Amendment’s Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Less than a month from now, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in New York...
They Say It Can't Be Done
Brooklyn Student Chapter
Brooklyn, NYTopics
This Land is Your Land
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the national debt will have...
Confronting the Administrative State: De-Regulation in the Trump Administration
Jacksonville Lawyers Chapter
Jacksonville, FL