U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Frank H. Easterbrook is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a Senior Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Chicago. He was Chief Judge from 2006–2013. Before joining the court in 1985, he was the Lee andBrena Freeman Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he taught and wrote in antitrust, securities, corporate law, jurisprudence, and criminal procedure. He has published The Economic Structure of Corporate Law (with Daniel R. Fischel) and about 100 scholarly articles. He served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1982 to 1991 and as a member of the Judicial Conference’s Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 1991 to 1997. Before joining the faculty of the Law School in 1979, Judge Easterbrook was Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College (B.A. with high honors, 1970) and the University of Chicago (J.D. cum laude, 1973), and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Law Institute, the Mont Pelerin Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Order of the Coif.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Lecturer in Law and Director of The Institute for Justice Clinic, University of Chicago Law School
Elizabeth Kregor received her BA magna cum laude in comparative literature from Yale University. She attended law school at the University of Michigan, where she served as managing editor of the Michigan Law Review. After graduating magna cum laude, Ms. Kregor clerked for the Hon. Bruce M. Selya on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Ms. Kregor practiced law with Sidley Austin Brown & Wood for several years, with a focus on intellectual property litigation. In the fall of 2003, she joined the IJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship. As director, she supervises students in the representation of lower- to middle-income entrepreneurs in the inner city. She is expanding the clinic's practice in the field of intellectual property law.
The University of Michigan Law School
JD, magna cum laude, May 1999
Yale University
BA, magna cum laude in comparative literature, May 1996
George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
John O. McGinnis is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He also has an MA degree from Balliol College, Oxford, in philosophy and theology. Professor McGinnis clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. From 1987 to 1991, he was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. He is the author of Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Government Through Technology (Princeton 2013) and Originalism and the Good Constitution (Harvard 2013) (with M. Rappaport). He is a past winner of the Paul Bator award given by the Federalist Society to an outstanding academic under 40. He has been listed by the United States on the roster of panelists who may be called upon to decide World Trade Organization Disputes.
Special Counsel, Hunton Andrews Kurth
After serving on the United State Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit from 2005, Judge Griffith stepped down from the bench in 2020. Currently he is a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, a Fellow at the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University, and Special Counsel in the Washington, DC office of the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth. Most recently, he was a member of President Biden's Commission on the Supreme Court. He is the author of Civic Charity and the Constitution , and the co-author, along with former judges Michael Luttig and Michael McConnell, of Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election. https://lostnotstolen.org/ . Before being appointed to the D. C. Circuit, Judge Griffith was the General Counsel at BYU; Senate Legal Counsel, the non-partisan chief legal officer of the U. S. Senate; and a partner at Wiley, Rein & Fielding. Long active in rule-of-law programs in former communist nations, Judge Griffith is a member of the international advisory board of the CEELI Institute in Prague. He is a graduate of BYU and the University of Virginia School of Law and is a member of the American Law Institute.
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute
Peter Huber, who died in 2021, was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where he wrote on drug development, energy, technology, and the law. He was the author of The Cure in the Code: How 20th Century Law Is Undermining 21st Century Medicine (2013); The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy (2005), coauthored with Mark P. Mills, which Bill Gates said “is the only book I’ve ever seen that really explains energy, its history and what it will be like going forward”; and Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists (2000), which William F. Buckley, Jr., called “the richest contribution ever made to the greening of the political mind” and which set out a new conservative manifesto on the environment that advocates a return to conservation and environmental policy based on sound science and market economics.
Huber’s other books included Judging Science: Scientific Knowledge and the Federal Courts (1999), Law and Disorder in Cyberspace: Abolish the FCC and Let Common Law Rule the Telecosm (1997), Orwell’s Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest (1994), Galileo’s Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom (1991), and Liability: The Legal Revolution and Its Consequences (1988). He published articles in scholarly journals, such as the Harvard Law Review and Yale Law Journal, and in such publications as Science, Wall Street Journal, Reason, Regulation, and National Review. He appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, including Face the Nation and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Before joining MI, Huber was an associate professor at MIT. He clerked on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for Ruth Bader Ginsburg and on the U.S. Supreme Court for Sandra Day O’Connor. Huber was a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen and Todd. He held a J.D. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from MIT.
Special Counsel, Irell & Manella LLP
Lindsay Kelly is Special Counsel in the Los Angeles office of Irell & Manella LLP. Ms. Kelly's practice encompasses complex commercial litigation, including patent litigation, at both the trial court and appellate levels, as well as government investigations and white collar criminal defense.
Prior to joining Irell, Ms. Kelly was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where she specialized in intellectual property and computer crimes. During her time as a prosecutor, Ms. Kelly served as lead counsel or co-counsel on five trials, including four jury trials, was lead author of several appellate briefs, and argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Ms. Kelly also presented on trademark counterfeiting at training sessions for federal agents and prosecutors, and received awards from the heads of several government agencies and Inspectors General offices.
Previously, Ms. Kelly practiced at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel PLLC in Washington, D.C., where she worked on complex commercial litigation, internal corporate investigations, and matters before the U.S. Supreme Court. At her previous firm, Ms. Kelly served as co-counsel on two trials and was a team member on a large patent infringement jury trial.
Ms. Kelly served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Paul R. Michel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Prior to law school, Ms. Kelly worked as a strategic management consultant. Ms. Kelly is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Gerald Masoudi is a partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office and co-chair of the Food and Drug practice group.
Before joining Covington in 2009, Mr. Masoudi served as Chief Counsel of the Food and Drug Administration. In that capacity he was responsible for supervising FDA’s involvement in civil and criminal litigation and investigations; providing legal review of warning letters, guidances and regulations; and providing advice to the FDA commissioner and senior leadership on matters relating to the products regulated by FDA. Before joining the FDA, Mr. Masoudi served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for international, policy and appellate matters in the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice. He also served as Principal Deputy Chief Counsel for the FDA in 2004 and 2005. Before entering government service, Mr. Masoudi had a decade of experience in private practice in the areas of antitrust, telecommunications, patent law and energy.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Danny Julián Boggs is a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was appointed to a newly created seat on that court on January 29, 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 3, and received his commission on March 25. He served as the Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit from 2003 to 2009.
Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School
Doug Melamed practiced law for 43 years before spending the 2014-15 academic year at the Law School as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law. He was appointed Professor of the Practice of Law in 2015.
From 2009 until 2014, Professor Melamed was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Intel Corporation and was responsible for overseeing Intel’s legal, government affairs and corporate affairs departments. Prior to joining Intel in 2009, he was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of WilmerHale, a global law firm in which he served as a chair of the Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. His practice included appellate and trial court litigation, counseling, and representing clients in matters before government law enforcement and regulatory agencies. He joined WilmerHale’s predecessor in 1971. From 1996 to 2001, Professor Melamed served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division and, before that, as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
Professor Melamed has received numerous professional awards and honors. He has been the Distinguished Visitor from Practice and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and he has authored numerous articles on antitrust and on law and economics. He is a member of the boards of directors of the Nasdaq exchanges and the American Law Institute and a Contributing Editor of the Antitrust Law Journal. He was for many years a member of the Yale University Council and a member of the board of trustees of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Charles M. Merrill of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
The son of an economics professor, Michael Meurer knew by the time he was 13 that he, too, wanted to teach at the university level. An S.B., J.D. and Ph.D. later, he became an economics professor at Duke University and later a law professor at the University of Buffalo. He came to Boston University School of Law in 1999, where he has taught courses in patents, intellectual property and public policy toward the high-tech industry. "It's a special privilege to be able to speak three times a week to an attentive and thoughtful audience," he says.
Professor Meurer has received several grants and fellowships, including two grants from the Pew Charitable Trust, a Ford Foundation grant, an Olin Faculty Fellowship at Yale Law School and a postdoctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Labs. He has served as an expert witness for the Federal Trade Commission on a merger case presenting issues related to patent licensing. He also has consulted with government officials from developing countries about antitrust law, and taught short courses in American intellectual property law at the law faculties of the University of Victoria and the National University of Singapore. "I'm excited by the prospect of having a positive influence on American technology law and policy," Professor Meurer says. Outside of work, he enjoys playing and watching basketball.
Partner and Lecturer
Adam Mortara graduated from the University of Chicago in 1996 with a B.Sc. in chemistry. He then attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received a masters degree in astrophysics on a British Marshall Scholarship.
Mr. Mortara graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with highest honors in 2001. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then for Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. After his clerkships, he was a Temple Bar Scholar of the American Inns of Court.
From 2003 to 2020, Mr. Mortara was with Bartlit Beck LLP where he tried high stakes intellectual property cases and, more notably, Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard. He retired from Bartlit Beck and founded Lawfair LLC, a civil and voting rights firm. He has been a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School since 2007, where he teaches Federal Habeas Corpus, Federal Jurisdiction, Criminal Procedure, and Writing for the Judiciary.
Vice President - Chief IP Counsel, Intellectual Ventures
Phyllis T. Turner-Brim is Vice President, Chief IP Counsel of Intellectual Ventures headquartered in Bellevue, WA.
In this role, Phyllis is responsible for managing and coordinating legal services supporting patent asset acquisitions and divestitures, licensing, prosecution and related transactions. Phyllis’ current team consists of over fifty-five attorneys, para-professionals, assistants and clerks. Immediately prior to this post, Phyllis was Licensing Attorney Director – Program Development at IV.
Prior to joining IV, Phyllis had dual legal and business roles as IP Counsel and Director of RFID Strategy and Licensing at Intermec Technologies Corporation. In her legal role as IP Counsel, Phyllis had responsibility for managing and providing a full spectrum of intellectual property services and related legal counseling including, managing the IP Legal budget, selecting and managing outside prosecution counsel, managing and developing licensing programs, docketing and litigation support. In her business role as Director of RFID Strategy and Licensing, Phyllis had the general management responsibility for Intermec’s RFID BU. In this regard, Phyllis was responsible for driving RFID revenue, developing and implementing product strategy and roadmaps, managing internal and external partner relationships, developing and managing budget, and managing all business unit functions and personnel.
From 2000 to 2004, Phyllis was Associate General Counsel – Intellectual Property at Cabot Microelectronics Corporation. In this position, Ms. Turner-Brim established a full service intellectual property department as part of a corporate “spin-off,” and had responsibility for the corporate intellectual property function worldwide. In addition, Phyllis was responsible for providing legal counseling in the areas of Labor and Employment, Product Stewardship, Environmental Law, and Immigration.
Prior to her post at Intermec, Phyllis served briefly as Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in Bentonville, Arkansas. She has also served as Intellectual Property Attorney for Amoco Corporation (now BP), and as an associate attorney at the IP boutique firm of McAndrews, Held and Malloy, Ltd.
Phyllis is a 1993 graduate of the University of Cincinnati Law School, and a 1986 honors graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology (B.S. Chemical Engineering). She has served as a lecturer/presenter on several topics including, developing business focused licensing programs, diversity in the law, recruitment and retention of minorities and women in technical professions, chemical patent drafting, IP strategy development, career development and personal risk taking. Phyllis accepted an invitation to join the Board of Trustees for the AIPLEF in 2013. She has also been a member of the Board of Trustees for the Snohomish County YMCA since 2012 and in 2011, she was elected to Board of Trustees for Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, WA. Prior to pursuing a career in the law, Ms. Turner-Brim held technical management positions with General Electric Co. and Procter and Gamble Co.
Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor of Law & Faculty Director, Constitutional Law Institute, University of Chicago Law School
William Baude is a Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches federal courts, constitutional law, and conflict of laws. His current research interests include different aspects of the Fourteenth Amendment (particularly both Section One and Section Three) and the nature of judicial discretion.
Among his other activities Baude is: the co-editor of two textbooks, The Constitution of the United States and Hart & Wechsler's Federal Courts in the Federal System; an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism; a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance; a member of the American Law Institute; an occasional blogger at The Volokh Conspiracy; and a podcaster on Divided Argument. He also recently served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Baude received his BS in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and his JD from Yale Law School. He then clerked for then-Judge Michael McConnell on the United States Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice John Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. Before joining the Chicago faculty, he was a fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, and a lawyer in Washington, DC.
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Kathryn Bi is an Associate at Covington & Burling LLP. She graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 2015 and from Dartmouth College in 2009 where she earned Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Arts degrees. Prior to law school Kathryn worked for three years as a chemical engineer at DuPont Corporation in Palo Alto and Genzyme Corporation in Boston.
Senior Associate to the President and Secretary of the University of Arizona
Jon Dudas has served as the Senior Associate to the President and Secretary of the University of Arizona since July 2014.
Mr. Dudas spent fourteen years in service to the U.S. Government, and as head of the USPTO, he led a performance-based government agency with 9,000 employees and a nearly $2 billion annual budget. During his tenure, the USPTO achieved record-level performance in meeting key annual objectives, and led key patent cooperation and development missions with China, India, Europe, Brazil and several other countries.
In addition to holding his post as Director of the USPTO from 2004 – 2009, Mr. Dudas’s public sector experience includes serving as Counsel for Legal Policy and Senior Floor Assistant for The Speaker of the House for the U.S. House of Representatives and Staff Director and Deputy General Counsel for the Committee on the Judiciary. After his appointment as Director of the USPTO, Mr. Dudas was a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP in Washington D.C. and then President of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a national nonprofit that works to educate and inspire children to pursue careers in technology, science and innovation. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Conversant Intellectual Property Management, Inc., of Ottowa, Ontario. Mr. Dudas holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois.
Chief Counsel, U.S. Chamber Litigation Center
Steven P. Lehotsky has significant experience developing and executing litigation strategies to help businesses and trade associations address their most important regulatory and public-policy challenges.
Before founding Lehotsky Keller LLP, Mr. Lehotsky directed the litigation strategy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's leading business federation, where he worked from 2013-2021. While at the U.S. Chamber’s Litigation Center, he served as chief litigation counsel. Mr. Lehotsky led the Chamber's efforts to bring successful challenges to federal, state, and local regulations of business. He also directed the U.S. Chamber's efforts to defend pro-growth regulatory reforms. Mr. Lehotsky also led and implemented the U.S. Chamber’s strategies for filing hundreds of amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appellate and district courts, and state supreme and appellate courts. He is a frequent speaker at events and conferences on litigation and regulatory trends.
Mr. Lehotsky previously was an attorney at WilmerHale LLP in both the Washington D.C. and Boston offices, where he practiced government and regulatory litigation, appellate litigation, and counseling on constitutional, statutory, and regulatory issues for clients across a wide variety of industry sectors. He also previously practiced as a commercial litigator at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston.
In addition, Mr. Lehotsky was an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2006-2009, advising the White House and executive departments and agencies on constitutional and statutory issues relating to national security, immigration, international sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and other programs, the response to the 2008 financial crisis, pandemic influenza and infectious-disease mitigation, cybersecurity, and congressional investigations, among many other subjects.
Mr. Lehotsky was a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States and Chief Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Justice, Michigan Supreme Court
Stephen Markman was appointed Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court on October 1, 1999. He served as the Chief Justice from 2017-2019. Before his appointment, he served as Judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals from 1995-1999. Prior to this, he practiced law with the firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone in Detroit.
From 1989-1993, Justice Markman served as United States Attorney, or federal prosecutor, in Michigan, after having been nominated by President George H. W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate. From 1985-1989, he served as Assistant Attorney General of the United States, after having been nominated by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the United States Senate. In that position, he headed the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, which served as the principal policy development office within the Department, and which coordinated the federal judicial selection process. Prior to this, he served for seven years as Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, and as Deputy Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.
Justice Markman has authored articles for such publications as the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, the Detroit College of Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the American Criminal Justice Law Review, the Barrister’s Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the American University Law Review. He has also served as a contributing editor of National Review magazine, and has authored chapters in such books as “In the Name of Justice: The Aims of the Criminal Law,” “Still the Law of the Land,” and “Originalism: A Quarter Century of Debate.”
Justice Markman has taught constitutional law at Hillsdale College since 1993. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He traveled to Ukraine on two occasions on behalf of the State Department, to provide assistance in the development of that nation’s post-Soviet constitution. He is a Fellow of the Michigan Bar Foundation, a Master of the Bench of the Inns of Court, and a member of the One Hundred Club. He has spoken before hundreds of youth, civic, charitable, and legal groups throughout Michigan and nationally, and has coached Little League baseball and basketball. He lives with his wife Mary Kathleen in Mason, and has two sons, James and Charles.
Justice Markman was re-elected to the Supreme Court in 2000, 2004, and 2012. His present term expires January 1, 2021.
Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Jennifer Nou is Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Nou’s main research interests are in administrative law, executive branch dynamics, regulatory policy, and constitutional separation-of-powers. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a Public Law Fellow at the Law School and also worked as a policy analyst and special assistant at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Nou is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, and received an MPhil in Politics from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar. After law school, she was a law clerk to Judge Richard Posner of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then to Justice Stephen Breyer of the US Supreme Court. She is currently a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
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.
Former Director, State Courts, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Peter Bisbee served as Director of State Courts for the Federalist Society. In this capacity, he lead a comprehensive effort to promote the discussion on the role of courts in states across the country. Peter also executed the Society’s government and coalition outreach efforts at the national level as Deputy Director of External Relations, working as a liaison to Congress and other public policy organizations. He previously served as Director of Membership at the Society, where he managed relations with the Society’s network of over 70,000 individuals, created outreach campaigns to increase engagement, and developed the organization's recordkeeping and communication systems. Peter holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in History and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.
Immigration Policy Attorney, National Immigration Law Center
Kamal Essaheb engages in advocacy and technical assistance relating to state and local enforcement of immigration law and access to legal status for immigrants. At NILC, his advocacy focuses on passage of the DREAM Act, implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and state and local enforcement of immigration law. Prior to joining NILC, Mr. Essaheb was a practicing immigration attorney at CUNY Citizenship Now, a nonprofit immigration legal services provider in New York City. He is a graduate of Fordham Law School, where he was a Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics. He is an immigrant from Morocco and is fluent in Arabic.
Partner, Baker Hostetler LLP
David Rivkin is a member of the firm's litigation, international and environmental teams and is co-leader of the firm's national appellate practice. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative and international law litigation and has been involved in numerous high-profile cases. With his prior experience in the government sector, David draws on a wealth of knowledge when providing compliance advice to companies and handling enforcement proceedings before government agencies on issues arising out of multilateral and unilateral sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-boycott issues, bankruptcy and financial fraud matters, and environmental and energy issues.
David has developed and implemented legislative, regulatory and litigation initiatives for two presidential administrations. Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles, op-eds, book reviews and book chapters on a variety of international, legal, constitutional, defense, arms control, foreign policy, environmental and energy issues for various newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times, and has been a frequent commentator and guest on TV and radio shows including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR and PBS.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Welpton & Wise Professor of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law
Professor Rick Duncan is the Welpton & Wise Professor of Law at the University Of Nebraska College Of Law. He is a graduate of the Cornell Law School and served as an editor of the Cornell Law Review. He teaches Constitutional Law with a special emphasis on the law of religious freedom, free speech, and federalism. Duncan has written numerous books, articles, and commentaries on a wide variety of legal topics. His recent publications include an article on Justice Scalia’s legacy, another on Kermit Gosnell and Roe v. Wade, a piece on the Electoral College and Federalism, a 2019 piece on Masterpiece Cakeshop and the First Amendment, and three recent articles on the “no compelled speech” doctrine as a First Amendment defense against authoritarianism and tyranny. His most recent article, on School Choice and the First Amendment, will be published in 2023 in Case Western Law Review. He is also the co-author of a book on Secured Transactions under Article 9 of the UCC. He served as Chairman of the Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights during the Reagan Administration. He also loves to speak at Federalist Society meetings around the country on life, liberty, and the pursuit of federalism.
Duncan has five children, five grandchildren, and a wonderful wife who help him pursue happiness. He loves lifting weights (particularly going heavy on the incline bench press), attending Broadway musicals and plays, including Hamilton: An American Musical which he has seen 12 times (possibly a Nebraska record). He regularly reads both the Bible and the New York Times because it is important to keep up with what both sides have to say. He loves following major league baseball, especially the San Diego Padres. And his favorite legal aphorism is “first come rights then comes government to secure those rights.”
Professor of Law, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
Founder and Principal, Fillmore Global Strategies LLC
Ambassador Nathan A. Sales is the founder and principal of Fillmore Global Strategies LLC, a consultancy that provides legal and strategic advisory services on matters at the intersection of law, policy, and diplomacy.
From 2017 to 2021, Ambassador Sales served at the U.S. Department of State as Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights (acting). He oversaw nine bureaus and offices led by Senate-confirmed principals, with 1,300 employees and a combined foreign assistance budget of more than $5 billion annually, and the mission of preventing and countering threats to civilian security, including terrorism, mass atrocities, and violations of human rights and the rule of law.
Concurrently, Ambassador Sales was Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism. After being nominated by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he was sworn in on August 10, 2017. He served as the principal adviser to the Secretary of State on international counterterrorism matters, and led the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, a 200-person team with an annual foreign assistance budget of $400 million. He was also the Special Presidential Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, leading U.S. relations with the 83-member Coalition and efforts to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS in the Middle East and around the world.
While at the State Department, Ambassador Sales led the elements of the U.S. government’s China strategy promoting democratic values and human rights, including with respect to Hong Kong and Xinjiang. He oversaw the development and implementation of a wide range of U.S. government sanctions, including Global Magnitsky actions and Executive Order 13,936, targeting those responsible for undermining Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy. Ambassador Sales was the architect of the landmark 2017 UN Security Council Resolution 2396 on terrorist travel, and successfully pressed NATO to make counterterrorism a core Alliance mission. He led diplomatic engagements to persuade a dozen key partners in Europe and the Americas to designate Hizballah as a terrorist organization in its entirety. He launched the Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial, in which heads of state and minister-level officials meet bianually to coordinate efforts against terrorist threats in the region. He led the U.S. government’s international efforts to combat white supremacist terrorism. Under his leadership, the State Department imposed terrorism sanctions on the Russian Imperial Movement – the first-ever U.S. designation of white supremacist terrorists.
Before joining the State Department, Ambassador Sales was Of Counsel at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP (formerly Bancroft PLLC). He was also a tenured law professor, teaching and writing in the fields of administrative law, constitutional law, and national security law. His scholarship has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court multiple times.
Ambassador Sales previously was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He led DHS’s efforts to draft and implement legislation that strengthened the security of and expanded the Visa Waiver Program (which allows citizens of certain countries to travel to the United States without a visa). He headed the U.S. delegation in talks with seven countries to implement the new security measures and was the Secretary of Homeland Security’s Special Envoy to South Korea.
Ambassador Sales also served at the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on regulatory initiatives, counterterrorism, and judicial confirmations. In 2005, he managed DOJ’s “war room” for the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts. He received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service – the Justice Department’s highest honor – for his role in drafting the USA PATRIOT Act, as well as the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for his work on judicial confirmations.
In addition to his work at Fillmore Global Strategies, Ambassador Sales is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a senior advisor at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consultancy. He serves on a number of advisory boards, including for the Counter-Extremism Project (a nonprofit and nonpartisan international policy organization formed to combat the growing threat from extremist ideologies), the Secure Community Network (the official safety and security organization for the North American Jewish community), and the Sue J. Henry Center for Pre-Law Education at Miami University.
An Ohio native, Ambassador Sales received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Duke Law School, where he was Research Editor of the Duke Law Journal and joined the Order of the Coif. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Former Director, State Courts, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Peter Bisbee served as Director of State Courts for the Federalist Society. In this capacity, he lead a comprehensive effort to promote the discussion on the role of courts in states across the country. Peter also executed the Society’s government and coalition outreach efforts at the national level as Deputy Director of External Relations, working as a liaison to Congress and other public policy organizations. He previously served as Director of Membership at the Society, where he managed relations with the Society’s network of over 70,000 individuals, created outreach campaigns to increase engagement, and developed the organization's recordkeeping and communication systems. Peter holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in History and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.
Immigration Policy Attorney, National Immigration Law Center
Kamal Essaheb engages in advocacy and technical assistance relating to state and local enforcement of immigration law and access to legal status for immigrants. At NILC, his advocacy focuses on passage of the DREAM Act, implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and state and local enforcement of immigration law. Prior to joining NILC, Mr. Essaheb was a practicing immigration attorney at CUNY Citizenship Now, a nonprofit immigration legal services provider in New York City. He is a graduate of Fordham Law School, where he was a Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics. He is an immigrant from Morocco and is fluent in Arabic.
Partner, Baker Hostetler LLP
David Rivkin is a member of the firm's litigation, international and environmental teams and is co-leader of the firm's national appellate practice. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative and international law litigation and has been involved in numerous high-profile cases. With his prior experience in the government sector, David draws on a wealth of knowledge when providing compliance advice to companies and handling enforcement proceedings before government agencies on issues arising out of multilateral and unilateral sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-boycott issues, bankruptcy and financial fraud matters, and environmental and energy issues.
David has developed and implemented legislative, regulatory and litigation initiatives for two presidential administrations. Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles, op-eds, book reviews and book chapters on a variety of international, legal, constitutional, defense, arms control, foreign policy, environmental and energy issues for various newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times, and has been a frequent commentator and guest on TV and radio shows including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR and PBS.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Former Director, State Courts, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Peter Bisbee served as Director of State Courts for the Federalist Society. In this capacity, he lead a comprehensive effort to promote the discussion on the role of courts in states across the country. Peter also executed the Society’s government and coalition outreach efforts at the national level as Deputy Director of External Relations, working as a liaison to Congress and other public policy organizations. He previously served as Director of Membership at the Society, where he managed relations with the Society’s network of over 70,000 individuals, created outreach campaigns to increase engagement, and developed the organization's recordkeeping and communication systems. Peter holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in History and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.
Immigration Policy Attorney, National Immigration Law Center
Kamal Essaheb engages in advocacy and technical assistance relating to state and local enforcement of immigration law and access to legal status for immigrants. At NILC, his advocacy focuses on passage of the DREAM Act, implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and state and local enforcement of immigration law. Prior to joining NILC, Mr. Essaheb was a practicing immigration attorney at CUNY Citizenship Now, a nonprofit immigration legal services provider in New York City. He is a graduate of Fordham Law School, where he was a Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics. He is an immigrant from Morocco and is fluent in Arabic.
Partner, Baker Hostetler LLP
David Rivkin is a member of the firm's litigation, international and environmental teams and is co-leader of the firm's national appellate practice. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative and international law litigation and has been involved in numerous high-profile cases. With his prior experience in the government sector, David draws on a wealth of knowledge when providing compliance advice to companies and handling enforcement proceedings before government agencies on issues arising out of multilateral and unilateral sanctions, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), anti-boycott issues, bankruptcy and financial fraud matters, and environmental and energy issues.
David has developed and implemented legislative, regulatory and litigation initiatives for two presidential administrations. Over the years, he has published hundreds of articles, op-eds, book reviews and book chapters on a variety of international, legal, constitutional, defense, arms control, foreign policy, environmental and energy issues for various newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times, and has been a frequent commentator and guest on TV and radio shows including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, NPR and PBS.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Panel IV: Innovation and Inequality: Conservative and Libertarian Perspectives
2015 National Student Symposium
Chicago, ILPanel III: Innovation and Health Care
2015 National Student Symposium
Chicago, ILPanel II: Current Issues in Patent Law
2015 National Student Symposium
Chicago, ILPanel I: Innovation and the Administrative State
2015 National Student Symposium
Chicago, ILExecutive Action on Immigration
Peter Bisbee, Kamal Essaheb, David B. Rivkin, Ilya Shapiro
On November 20, 2014, President Obama, with much attention from the media and the public,...
Executive Action on Immigration
Peter Bisbee, Kamal Essaheb, David B. Rivkin, Ilya Shapiro
On November 20, 2014, President Obama, with much attention from the media and the public,...
Is There a Right to be Forgotten? Privacy, Google, and the First Amendment
Executive Action on Immigration
Sponsored by the Federalist Society's Practice Groups
Washington, DCReligious Liberty vs. the Contraceptive Mandate: Why the Hobby Lobby Decision Should have Been Unanimous
Macon, GeorgiaCan Law Prevent Leaks? Snowden, Manning, and the Espionage Act