Chief Justice, Florida Supreme Court
Justice Charles Canady was born in Lakeland, Florida, in 1954. He is married to Jennifer Houghton, and they have two children. He received his B.A. from Haverford College in 1976 and his J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1979.
Justice Canady practiced law with the firm of Holland and Knight in Lakeland from 1979 through 1982. He practiced with the firm of Lane, Trohn, et al., from 1983 through 1992.
From November 1984 to November 1990, Justice Canady served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives, and from January 1993 to January 2001, he served four terms in the United States House of Representatives. Throughout his service in Congress, Justice Canady was a member of the House Judiciary Committee. For three terms, from January 1995 to January 2001, Justice Canady was the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.
Upon leaving Congress, Justice Canady became General Counsel to Governor Jeb Bush. He was appointed by Governor Bush to the Second District Court of Appeal for a term beginning November 20, 2002.
On August 28, 2008, Justice Canady was appointed to the Florida Supreme Court by Governor Charlie Crist and took office on September 8, 2008. He served as Chief Justice from July 2010 through June 2012. In March 2018, he was elected by his colleagues to serve as Chief Justice for a second time, with his two-year term starting July 1, 2018, and a third time starting July 1, 2020.
Author and FoxNews.com Contributor
John R. Lott, Jr. is an economist who has held research and/or teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Stanford, UCLA, Wharton, and Rice and was the chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission during 1988 and 1989. He has published over 100 articles in academic journals. He also is the author of six books including More Guns, Less Crime, Freedomnomics, The Bias Against Guns, and Are Predatory Commitments Credible? He has just released another book entitled "Debacle: Obama's war on jobs and growth and what we can do now to regain our future." Lott is a FoxNews.com contributor and a weekly columnist for them. Opinion pieces by Prof. Lott have appeared in such places as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, USA Today, and The Chicago Tribune. He has appeared on such television programs as the ABC and NBC National Evening News broadcasts, Fox News, "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and the "Today Show." He received his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 1984.
Associate Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School
Professor O'Meara re-joined the Marquette Law School faculty in the fall of 2002. He was a visiting faculty member from the fall of 1997 until the spring of 1999. In 1999 and 2005, Professor O'Meara was the recipient of the James D. Ghiardi Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. During the interim between 1999 and 2002, Professor O'Meara completed his Master of Divinity degree from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology. Greg is also a member of the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus. Professor O'Meara's prior legal experience includes working as an Assistant District Attorney in Milwaukee County, serving as a staff attorney with the Legal Defense Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and teaching at Creighton University School of Law. In addition to criminal law, evidence, and the legal theory seminar, Greg also teaches legal ethics and criminal procedure.
Professor at Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville
Professor Russell L. Weaver graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1978. He was a member of the Missouri Law Review, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and won the Judge Roy Harper Prize. After law school, Professor Weaver was associated with Watson, Ess, Marshall & Enggas in Kansas City, Missouri, and worked for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of General Counsel in Washington, D.C.
Professor Weaver began teaching at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law in 1982, and holds the rank of Professor of Law and Distinguished University Scholar. He teaches Constitutional Law, Advanced Constitutional Law, Remedies, Administrative Law, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure. He has received the Brandeis School of Law's awards for teaching, scholarship, and service, including the Brown Todd & Heyburn Fellowship. He has been awarded the President's Award (University of Louisville) for Outstanding Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity in the Field of Social Science, the President's Award for Outstanding Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity in the Career Achievement Category, and the President's Award for Distinguished Service. He is the Executive Director and past president of the Southeastern Conference of the Association of American Law Schools. He is an Honorary Associate of Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia).
Professor Weaver is a prolific author who has written dozens of books and articles over the last twenty-five years. He was named the Judge Spurgeon Bell Distinguished Visiting Professor at South Texas College of Law (affiliated with Texas A & M University) during the 1998-99 academic year, and he held the Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, University of Memphis, during 1992-93. In addition, he has been asked to speak at law schools and conferences around the world, and has been a visiting professor at law schools in France, England, Germany, Japan, Australia and Canada.
Professor Weaver is particularly noted for his work in the constitutional law area. He has served as a consultant to the constitutional drafting commissions of Belarus and Kyrghyzstan and as a commentator on the Russian Constitution. His constitutional law writings have focused on free speech issues, particularly those relating to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, and include a constitutional law case-book and two anthologies (The First Amendment Anthology and The Constitutional Law Anthology). He has a First Amendment casebook in progress.
Professor Weaver is also noted for his writings on legal education and his work in the administrative law area. In 1992 and 1993, he served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States. His writings have focused on agency interpretations of statutes and regulations, and he is co-author of one of the leading administrative law casebooks.
Professor Weaver has served on many community and professional committees. He served on the Louisville Bar Association's (LBA) Professional Responsibility Committee, and as Chair of the Association of American Law Schools' (AALS) Criminal Justice Section and serves on the AALS Planning Committee for the New Law Teacher's Workshop. He has also served on the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky's Legal Panel and Board of Directors.
In his 35 years at the Justice Department and in private practice, Mike Carvin was one of the leading appellate and trial lawyers challenging state and federal regulations on constitutional and statutory grounds, with 10 Supreme Court arguments and numerous high-profile victories. In addition to his numerous cases in the United States Supreme Court, he argued in virtually every federal appeals court. His major cases include the recent constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the decisions invalidating Sarbanes-Oxley's accounting board, preventing the Justice Department from obtaining monetary relief against the tobacco industry under RICO, overturning the federal government's plan to statistically adjust the census, limiting the Justice Department's ability to create "majority-minority" districts, and upholding Proposition 209's ban on racial preferences in California.
Mike was one of the lead lawyers, and argued before the Florida Supreme Court, on behalf of George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election Florida recount controversy. He also has represented state governments, financial institutions, telecommunications, and energy companies in "takings," First Amendment, civil rights, and statutory challenges to federal government actions.
Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown Law
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1971, Professor Seidman served as a law clerk for J. Skelly Wright of the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He then was a staff attorney with the D.C. Public Defender Service until joining the Law Center faculty in 1976. He teaches a variety of courses in the fields of constitutional and criminal law. He is co-author of a constitutional law casebook and the author of many articles concerning criminal justice and constitutional law. His most recent books are Silence and Freedom (Stanford 2007), Our Unsettled Constitution: A New Defense of Constitutionalism and Judicial Review (Yale 2001) and Equal Protection of the Laws (Foundation 2002).
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Gerald B. Lefcourt, PC
Gerald B. Lefcourt has spent his legal career practicing principally in the areas of criminal law and complex civil litigation. He is recognized as one of the country's foremost trial attorneys and is frequently called upon to represent individuals and corporations charged with the most serious crimes. In his thirty years practicing law, his clients have spanned the spectrum, from Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman and Black Panther Party leaders to Drexel Burnham Lambert securities trader Bruce Newberg, real estate mogul Harry Helmsley, actor Russell Crowe, New York State Assembly Speaker Mel Miller, and hip hop music promoter and Murder Inc. record label head Irv Gotti.
Mr. Lefcourt serves as the Speaker of the N.Y.S. Assembly's designee to the Statewide Commission on Judicial Nomination, which committee recommends to the Governor a slate of candidates for the New York Court of Appeals. He also serves on the Magistrate Selection Committee of the Southern District of New York. In the past, he has been a member of numerous other governmental and professional committees, including those addressing representation of the indigent, sentencing guidelines and the attorney-client privilege.
Mr. Lefcourt is currently President of the Criminal Justice Foundation of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He also serves as program co-chair of the annual White Collar Crime Conference at Fordham Law School sponsored by the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys.
Mr. Lefcourt served for several years as the Chair of the Criminal Advocacy Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and other committees. He is past president of the National Association of Criminal Lawyers; a founder of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; and founder and past president of the New York Criminal Bar Association. He has been recognized in New York Magazine's survey of Outstanding Practitioners and in both Who's Who in the Criminal Defense Bar and in theInternational Who’s Who of Business Crime Defence and is AV rated.
Mr. Lefcourt has also been recognized by fellow practitioners as an outstanding lawyer, including by receipt of the Robert C. Heeney Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; New York State Bar Association's Outstanding Practitioner Award; and New York University School of Law's Milton S. Gould Award for Outstanding Oral Advocacy. He was recently the Guest of Honor at a dinner sponsored by the New York Criminal Bar Association in recognition of "the distinction and commitment [he has] brought as an advocate for the rights of criminal defendants."
Mr. Lefcourt has also been recognized by Super Lawyers in each of 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 as among New York City's Best Criminal Lawyers.
Mr. Lefcourt was named in the 2010 edition of New York Area's Best Lawyers in the categories of both Criminal Defense: White-Collar and Criminal Defense: Non White-Collar.
Mr. Lefcourt is a graduate of New York University (B.A. Political Science 1964); Brooklyn Law School (J.D. 1967); and New York University School of Law (L.L.M. Tax 1968). He is admitted to practice in New York, the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and numerous Circuit Courts of Appeals.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Partner, King & Spalding LLP
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, a 34-county district with an area that stretches from the Oregon border to Bakersfield, Greg Scott is an experienced trial lawyer who represents major companies facing government investigations and litigation, with a focus in the healthcare, retail, and construction industries. He has extensive knowledge on matters involving consumer protection, construction disputes, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the False Claims Act (FCA).
Greg represents corporations under investigation by state district attorneys concerning potential violations of consumer protection laws, as well as corporations operating senior assisted livingfacilities under investigation by the state attorney general regarding potential violations of elder abuse laws. In addition, he represents construction companies under investigation by state district attorneys when employees are involved in serious accidents at worksites.
A retired Lieutenant Colonel after serving more than 20 years in the California Army National Guard & United States Army Reserve, Greg went on to become a deputy district attorney in Contra Costa County and twice-elected District Attorney of Shasta County. He also served as an Adjunct Professor of National Security Law at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law following his first term as U.S. Attorney for the E.D. of California. Between his two terms as U.S. Attorney for the E.D. of California, Greg was the vice chair of the white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice at an AmLaw 50 firm.
Partner, Jenner & Block
Thomas P. Sullivan has handled civil and criminal trial and appellate litigation for over 55 years. He has been with the firm since 1954, except for his time as U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, 1977-81. He has argued many cases in the Illinois Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, and many federal Courts of Appeal. He served as Co-Chair of Illinois Governor George Ryan’s Commission on Capital Punishment (2000-02), and the Illinois General Assembly’s Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee, whose reports recommending sweeping changes to Illinois homicide law and procedure were influential in Governor Ryan’s decision in 2003 to clear Illinois’ death row, and Governor Quinn’s signing the bill abolishing Illinois’ death penalty in 2010. He has represented many indigent persons in civil and criminal litigation, including prisoners incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Mr. Sullivan is a member of the Firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations and Class Action practices. He serves as an arbitrator in a wide variety of business disputes. He is also a lecturer and author on civil and criminal trial and appellate litigation.
Of Counsel, Squire
George Kendall’s practice focuses primarily on pro bono matters. George handles capital, criminal and civil rights cases around the United States at trial, on appeal and in post-conviction proceedings including in the United States Supreme Court, where he has represented clients for more than 25 years. He also regularly consults with capital defense lawyers nationwide. George has worked with the Defender Services Division of the Administrative Office of the US Courts in improving the quality of legal representation in federal criminal cases and has also worked closely with The Innocence Project and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund (LDF) on policy initiatives. While at the LDF he was editor of the newsletter Race Notes, which identifies arguments and strategies citizens can use to lessen the influence of racial bias in the criminal justice system.
He is a former staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Eleventh Circuit Capital Litigation Project. George has taught courses on criminal justice issues at several law schools including Yale Law School, Florida State University College of Law and St. John’s School of Law.
George is the recipient of numerous awards including the Life in the Balance Achievement Award from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association in 1999, the New York State Defenders Association Service of Justice Award in 1997, ACLU of Georgia Bill of Rights Award in 1987 and the Stuart Still Memorial Award in 1987.
George frequently appears as a panelist or keynote speaker at capital litigation seminars. He is a board member of the Death Penalty Information Center and Southern Public Defender Training Center. George is also a member of the Advisory Group for the Georgetown University Law Center Supreme Court Institute.
In 2010 George was the recipient of the Equal Justice Champion Award from the Equal Justice Initiative for assistance in juvenile life without parole cases and other matters, and the Constitutional Champion Award from the Constitution Project, a highly respected DC-based organization that assembles bipartisan commissions to work toward sensible policy solutions to some of our toughest legal issues.
Assistant Attorney General & Senior Trial Counsel to the Criminal Bureau, Massachusetts Attorney General
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Gerald B. Lefcourt, PC
Gerald B. Lefcourt has spent his legal career practicing principally in the areas of criminal law and complex civil litigation. He is recognized as one of the country's foremost trial attorneys and is frequently called upon to represent individuals and corporations charged with the most serious crimes. In his thirty years practicing law, his clients have spanned the spectrum, from Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman and Black Panther Party leaders to Drexel Burnham Lambert securities trader Bruce Newberg, real estate mogul Harry Helmsley, actor Russell Crowe, New York State Assembly Speaker Mel Miller, and hip hop music promoter and Murder Inc. record label head Irv Gotti.
Mr. Lefcourt serves as the Speaker of the N.Y.S. Assembly's designee to the Statewide Commission on Judicial Nomination, which committee recommends to the Governor a slate of candidates for the New York Court of Appeals. He also serves on the Magistrate Selection Committee of the Southern District of New York. In the past, he has been a member of numerous other governmental and professional committees, including those addressing representation of the indigent, sentencing guidelines and the attorney-client privilege.
Mr. Lefcourt is currently President of the Criminal Justice Foundation of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He also serves as program co-chair of the annual White Collar Crime Conference at Fordham Law School sponsored by the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys.
Mr. Lefcourt served for several years as the Chair of the Criminal Advocacy Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and other committees. He is past president of the National Association of Criminal Lawyers; a founder of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; and founder and past president of the New York Criminal Bar Association. He has been recognized in New York Magazine's survey of Outstanding Practitioners and in both Who's Who in the Criminal Defense Bar and in theInternational Who’s Who of Business Crime Defence and is AV rated.
Mr. Lefcourt has also been recognized by fellow practitioners as an outstanding lawyer, including by receipt of the Robert C. Heeney Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; New York State Bar Association's Outstanding Practitioner Award; and New York University School of Law's Milton S. Gould Award for Outstanding Oral Advocacy. He was recently the Guest of Honor at a dinner sponsored by the New York Criminal Bar Association in recognition of "the distinction and commitment [he has] brought as an advocate for the rights of criminal defendants."
Mr. Lefcourt has also been recognized by Super Lawyers in each of 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 as among New York City's Best Criminal Lawyers.
Mr. Lefcourt was named in the 2010 edition of New York Area's Best Lawyers in the categories of both Criminal Defense: White-Collar and Criminal Defense: Non White-Collar.
Mr. Lefcourt is a graduate of New York University (B.A. Political Science 1964); Brooklyn Law School (J.D. 1967); and New York University School of Law (L.L.M. Tax 1968). He is admitted to practice in New York, the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and numerous Circuit Courts of Appeals.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Partner, King & Spalding LLP
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, a 34-county district with an area that stretches from the Oregon border to Bakersfield, Greg Scott is an experienced trial lawyer who represents major companies facing government investigations and litigation, with a focus in the healthcare, retail, and construction industries. He has extensive knowledge on matters involving consumer protection, construction disputes, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the False Claims Act (FCA).
Greg represents corporations under investigation by state district attorneys concerning potential violations of consumer protection laws, as well as corporations operating senior assisted livingfacilities under investigation by the state attorney general regarding potential violations of elder abuse laws. In addition, he represents construction companies under investigation by state district attorneys when employees are involved in serious accidents at worksites.
A retired Lieutenant Colonel after serving more than 20 years in the California Army National Guard & United States Army Reserve, Greg went on to become a deputy district attorney in Contra Costa County and twice-elected District Attorney of Shasta County. He also served as an Adjunct Professor of National Security Law at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law following his first term as U.S. Attorney for the E.D. of California. Between his two terms as U.S. Attorney for the E.D. of California, Greg was the vice chair of the white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice at an AmLaw 50 firm.
Partner, Jenner & Block
Thomas P. Sullivan has handled civil and criminal trial and appellate litigation for over 55 years. He has been with the firm since 1954, except for his time as U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, 1977-81. He has argued many cases in the Illinois Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, and many federal Courts of Appeal. He served as Co-Chair of Illinois Governor George Ryan’s Commission on Capital Punishment (2000-02), and the Illinois General Assembly’s Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee, whose reports recommending sweeping changes to Illinois homicide law and procedure were influential in Governor Ryan’s decision in 2003 to clear Illinois’ death row, and Governor Quinn’s signing the bill abolishing Illinois’ death penalty in 2010. He has represented many indigent persons in civil and criminal litigation, including prisoners incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Mr. Sullivan is a member of the Firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations and Class Action practices. He serves as an arbitrator in a wide variety of business disputes. He is also a lecturer and author on civil and criminal trial and appellate litigation.
Judging and the Rule of Law
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