General Counsel, Center for Individual Rights
Darpana Sheth joined CIR as General Counsel in May 2025. She is a nationally recognized constitutional litigator with over two decades of experience serving in in leadership roles at other nonprofit organizations.
Before joining CIR, Darpana served for four years as Vice President of Litigation for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Prior to that, Darpana was a Senior Attorney with the Institute for Justice, where she also served as Director of the Institute’s National Initiative to End Forfeiture Abuse.
Before finding her calling as a public-interest attorney, Darpana served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York and worked in private practice as a litigation associate at the Manhattan law firm of Chadbourne & Parke, LLP. She also served as law clerk to the Honorable Jerome A. Holmes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
A native of Philadelphia, Darpana graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History. She earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
Partner, Graves Garrett LLC
Todd Graves is a lawyer in private practice with the law firm of Graves Garrett. Todd represents individuals and businesses nationwide before federal and state courts and administrative agencies. His areas of expertise include white collar criminal defense, political speech and election law, internal investigations, regulatory compliance, and complex commercial litigation. Todd is admitted to the United States Supreme Court, the Missouri Bar, the Kansas Bar, the Texas Bar, the Iowa Bar, the Federal Courts of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the Eighth Circuit and the Sixth Circuit, and the Federal District Courts for the Western District of Missouri, Eastern District of Missouri, the District of Kansas, and the Western District of Michigan.
Todd currently serves as Executive Vice-President of the Pony Express Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Royal Association and a founding board member of the Kansas City Missouri Police Foundation.
Before forming Graves Garrett, Todd served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. As United States Attorney, Todd was responsible for prosecuting federal crimes including mail and wire fraud, money laundering, public corruption, health care fraud, child pornography, firearms violations, narcotics trafficking, pharmaceutical diversion, corporate fraud, and terrorism financing. During Graves’ tenure, felony filings doubled.
In addition, Todd was responsible for defending civil lawsuits brought against the United States, handling federal forfeiture actions, and collecting debts and restitution. Todd managed a staff of 120 with headquarters in Kansas City and two branch offices.
Todd also served as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, advising the Attorney General on Department of Justice national priorities and policies. Todd participated in drafting Department of Justice policies in corporate investigations including charging, pre-trial diversion, and sentencing. Todd was also a member of the national Executive Working Group, which includes six Department of Justice officials, six state attorneys general, and six district attorneys.
Todd was appointed United States Attorney from his position as Platte County Prosecuting Attorney, an office to which he was elected in 1994 and 1998. At the time of his election in 1994, he was the youngest full-time prosecuting attorney in Missouri. In that position, he oversaw a yearly caseload of approximately 400 felonies, 2500 misdemeanors and 14,000 traffic offenses.
As Prosecuting Attorney and as United States Attorney, Todd actively managed cases and trials under his authority and personally tried numerous jury trials to verdict, including cases of child molestation, drug distribution, murder and capital murder.
Prior to his service as Platte County Prosecuting Attorney, Todd was in private practice with the Bryan Cave law firm. Before joining Bryan Cave, he was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Missouri.
In 1991, Todd received his law degree and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Virginia. He received a bachelor’s degree, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Missouri in 1988.
Raised on a family farm near Tarkio, Missouri, Todd has been married 24 years to his wife, Tracy. The couple has four children, and they reside on a 270 acre farm north of Kansas City that has been in the family since 1867.
Partner, Alston & Bird LLP
Edward (Ted) Kang’s practice focuses on white collar defense and compliance in the areas of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), False Claims Act (FCA), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, anti-money laundering, antitrust, and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).
Ted represents companies and individuals under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal and state enforcement agencies. He also counsels and conducts internal investigations for clients in a wide range of industries. Ted is an accomplished courtroom lawyer and has tried a dozen cases to verdict and argued nine cases on appeal to federal circuit courts.
Ted served for eight years as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, where he prosecuted some of the department’s most high-profile fraud and public corruption cases. He is a recipient of the 2012 Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service and was named a 2014 D.C. “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal.
Ted is frequently called upon to provide expert analysis on white collar matters. He has provided legal commentary for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and was a television analyst for WUSA9-DC.
Vice President, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
John G. Malcolm oversees Advancing American Freedom’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as Vice President of the organization’s Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law. Malcolm brings to the challenge a wealth of legal expertise and experience in both the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining Advancing American Freedom in 2025, Malcolm was the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government and the Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage in 2012, Malcolm was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association.
Malcolm served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations. Immediately prior to that, he was a founding partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP.
From 1990 to 1997, Malcolm was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was honored with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work in connection with the successful prosecution of Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who assassinated an 11th Circuit judge and the head of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College, Malcolm began his career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge, and as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan (new Eversheds Sutherland).
Malcolm, who resides in Washington, D.C., serves on the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera and is a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.
Partner, King & Spalding
John Richter is a trial and investigations partner in the Special Matters and Investigations Practice Group, and represents and defends companies, Boards of Directors, Board committees, and individuals facing a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, parallel civil litigation, and internal corporate investigations. John previously served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, having been nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate.
Partner, Graves Garrett LLC
Todd Graves is a lawyer in private practice with the law firm of Graves Garrett. Todd represents individuals and businesses nationwide before federal and state courts and administrative agencies. His areas of expertise include white collar criminal defense, political speech and election law, internal investigations, regulatory compliance, and complex commercial litigation. Todd is admitted to the United States Supreme Court, the Missouri Bar, the Kansas Bar, the Texas Bar, the Iowa Bar, the Federal Courts of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the Eighth Circuit and the Sixth Circuit, and the Federal District Courts for the Western District of Missouri, Eastern District of Missouri, the District of Kansas, and the Western District of Michigan.
Todd currently serves as Executive Vice-President of the Pony Express Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Royal Association and a founding board member of the Kansas City Missouri Police Foundation.
Before forming Graves Garrett, Todd served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. As United States Attorney, Todd was responsible for prosecuting federal crimes including mail and wire fraud, money laundering, public corruption, health care fraud, child pornography, firearms violations, narcotics trafficking, pharmaceutical diversion, corporate fraud, and terrorism financing. During Graves’ tenure, felony filings doubled.
In addition, Todd was responsible for defending civil lawsuits brought against the United States, handling federal forfeiture actions, and collecting debts and restitution. Todd managed a staff of 120 with headquarters in Kansas City and two branch offices.
Todd also served as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, advising the Attorney General on Department of Justice national priorities and policies. Todd participated in drafting Department of Justice policies in corporate investigations including charging, pre-trial diversion, and sentencing. Todd was also a member of the national Executive Working Group, which includes six Department of Justice officials, six state attorneys general, and six district attorneys.
Todd was appointed United States Attorney from his position as Platte County Prosecuting Attorney, an office to which he was elected in 1994 and 1998. At the time of his election in 1994, he was the youngest full-time prosecuting attorney in Missouri. In that position, he oversaw a yearly caseload of approximately 400 felonies, 2500 misdemeanors and 14,000 traffic offenses.
As Prosecuting Attorney and as United States Attorney, Todd actively managed cases and trials under his authority and personally tried numerous jury trials to verdict, including cases of child molestation, drug distribution, murder and capital murder.
Prior to his service as Platte County Prosecuting Attorney, Todd was in private practice with the Bryan Cave law firm. Before joining Bryan Cave, he was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Missouri.
In 1991, Todd received his law degree and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Virginia. He received a bachelor’s degree, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Missouri in 1988.
Raised on a family farm near Tarkio, Missouri, Todd has been married 24 years to his wife, Tracy. The couple has four children, and they reside on a 270 acre farm north of Kansas City that has been in the family since 1867.
Partner, Alston & Bird LLP
Edward (Ted) Kang’s practice focuses on white collar defense and compliance in the areas of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), False Claims Act (FCA), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, anti-money laundering, antitrust, and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).
Ted represents companies and individuals under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal and state enforcement agencies. He also counsels and conducts internal investigations for clients in a wide range of industries. Ted is an accomplished courtroom lawyer and has tried a dozen cases to verdict and argued nine cases on appeal to federal circuit courts.
Ted served for eight years as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, where he prosecuted some of the department’s most high-profile fraud and public corruption cases. He is a recipient of the 2012 Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service and was named a 2014 D.C. “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal.
Ted is frequently called upon to provide expert analysis on white collar matters. He has provided legal commentary for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and was a television analyst for WUSA9-DC.
Vice President, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
John G. Malcolm oversees Advancing American Freedom’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as Vice President of the organization’s Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law. Malcolm brings to the challenge a wealth of legal expertise and experience in both the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining Advancing American Freedom in 2025, Malcolm was the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government and the Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage in 2012, Malcolm was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association.
Malcolm served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations. Immediately prior to that, he was a founding partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP.
From 1990 to 1997, Malcolm was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was honored with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work in connection with the successful prosecution of Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who assassinated an 11th Circuit judge and the head of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College, Malcolm began his career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge, and as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan (new Eversheds Sutherland).
Malcolm, who resides in Washington, D.C., serves on the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera and is a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.
Partner, King & Spalding
John Richter is a trial and investigations partner in the Special Matters and Investigations Practice Group, and represents and defends companies, Boards of Directors, Board committees, and individuals facing a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, parallel civil litigation, and internal corporate investigations. John previously served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, having been nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate.
Partner, Barr & Klein PLLC
Steve Klein, a partner at Barr & Klein PLLC, is an experienced free speech attorney who has successfully fought for the First Amendment rights of his clients against local, state and federal regulators. As a lobbyist, Steve’s advocacy has led to the successful amendment of state laws to respect political engagement and prevented the enactment of laws that burden it. Steve has published articles in several legal journals, and his commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Detroit News, and other outlets. Steve earned a bachelors degree in politics at Hillsdale College and a law degree from Ave Maria School of Law, where he served as Managing Editor of the Ave Maria Law Review. He is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Illinois and Michigan.
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Oliver Dunford joined the Pacific Legal Foundation in March 2017. He litigates across the country to defend and advance individual liberty and the rule of law. Oliver’s cases involve the separation of powers, economic liberty, property rights, and the First Amendment.
Oliver remains inspired by the Classical Liberal ideals upon which our Founders declared independence and secured the blessings of liberty. The Constitution’s promises, however, are not self-executing. As James Madison explained, “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” Oliver feels lucky that his work helps oblige the government to control itself—to the end that all individuals may pursue their rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Before joining PLF, Oliver clerked at the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio Court of Appeals, and spent more than a decade in private practice working on complex commercial litigation. Originally from Cleveland, Oliver is a graduate of the University of Dayton and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where he was a managing editor for the Cleveland State Law Review. Oliver is admitted to the state bars of Florida, California, and Ohio, as well as several federal courts including the United States Supreme Court.
Oliver spends all of his free time following the Cleveland Indians.
Staff Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Jennifer F. Thompson is a staff attorney in PLF’s property rights practice group. She advocates for landowners’ constitutional rights to the productive use and enjoyment of property.
Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Luke A. Wake is an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation. Prior to joining PLF, he was a senior staff attorney at the NFIB Small Business Legal Center.
Wake has particular expertise on environmental and land use issues, and has worked on numerous other constitutional issues and matters of importance to small business owners. He is an ardent defender of private property rights, which he believes are essential to the free enterprise system and the foundation of American liberty. As a strong advocate of individual rights and economic liberties, he has built his career defending small business interests.
Wake has focused on a whole host of issues, from employment law matters to regulatory compliance. In addition to serving as a resource for small business owners, Wake is committed to ensuring that the voice of small business is heard in the nation’s courts. As an appellate practitioner, Wake has focused particularly on informing the courts on matters of administrative law and on issues under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. He is also working to advance small business interests in law review articles, and was recently published in the Berkeley Journal of Law & Ecology. See R.S. Radford & Luke A. Wake, Deciphering and Extrapolating: Searching for Sense in Penn Central, 38 Ecology L.Q. 731, 746-747 (2011).
Before joining the Legal Center’s team, Wake completed a prestigious two-year fellowship as an attorney in the Pacific Legal Foundation’s College of Public Interest Law. Wake is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland Ohio, and is a member of the California Bar. He completed his undergraduate studies at Elon University in North Carolina in 2006 where he focused on political theory and corporate communications.
Associate, Clark & Sauer, LLC
Ms. Weinberg is an associate attorney with Clark Law Firm, LLC in St. Louis, Missouri, concentrating in complex commercial litigation and state constitutional litigation.
Judge, United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri
Stephen R. Clark the chief United States district judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. He was appointed to the bench by President Trump in 2018 and became the chief judge in 2022. Prior to serving on the court, Judge Clark was the founder and managing partner of the Runnymede Law Group in St. Louis, Missouri, from 2008 to 2019. He also served as the president of the Federalist Society’s St. Louis Lawyers Chapter.
Lunch with U.S. Senator-Elect David Perdue
Atlanta, GeorgiaThe Criminalization of Politics
Todd P. Graves, Edward T. Kang, John G. Malcolm, John C. Richter
What actions are political and what actions are criminal? Where should prosecutors and courts draw...
"Uber, Occupational Licensing, and the Right to Earn an Honest Living"
Minneapolis, MinnesotaCivil Forfeiture: Does It Go Too Far?
Philadelphia Lawyers Chapter
Philadelphia, PAPowers v. State of Wyoming: Separation of Powers and the Role of the Judiciary
Stephen R. Klein
In its 2013 General Session, the Wyoming Legislature passed Senate File 104, or Senate Enrolled...
Supreme Court of Ohio Upholds Challenge to the Application of Zoning Restrictions
Oliver Dunford
Introduction The Supreme Court of Ohio has long held that land-use restrictions may not apply...
New Mexico Supreme Court Eliminates Foreseeability from Tort Duty Analysis
Jennifer F. Thompson, Deborah Fetra
On May 8, 2014, the New Mexico Supreme Court significantly altered the state’s tort law...
Minnesota Supreme Court Holds Municipality Cannot Revoke Right to Maintain an Existing Commercial Land Use
Luke A. Wake
A difficult and recurring question of municipal law is how, and when, can an existing land-use...
Missouri Supreme Court Unanimously Declares Cap on Punitive Damages Unconstitutional
Kristin Weinberg, Stephen R. Clark
In Lewellen v. Franklin (Lewellen),1 the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously held that a mandatory cap...
The Criminalization of Politics
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group
Washington, DC