Solicitor General, Arkansas
Autumn Hamit Patterson is currently the Solicitor General of Arkansas.
Autumn’s previous experience includes serving as a Special Assistant Solicitor General for the Office of the Louisiana Attorney General, a Senior Attorney at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Issues and Appeals Associate at Jones Day, and a Solicitor General Fellow for the Office of the Texas Attorney General. Autumn also clerked for Justice Eva Guzman on the Supreme Court of Texas and Judge Andrew Oldham on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In 2021 and 2022, Autumn was named one of “Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch” for appellate practice.
Autumn earned her J.D. from Duke University School of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude. While in law school, she served as co-president of the Federalist Society. Autumn graduated summa cum laude from Furman University, where she received a B.A. in History and Political Science.
Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law & Economics, Columbia Law School
David Schizer served as Dean of Columbia Law School from 2004 to 2014, and as CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a global Jewish humanitarian organization, from 2017 to 2019. A co-chair of Columbia University's new task force on antisemitism, he also is a co-founder and co-chair of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies at Columbia Law School; co-founder and co-chair of the Richman Center for Law, Business, and Public Policy; and a Charter Trustee of Ramaz. He served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Partner, Patrick Doerr
Mr. Rando has represented clients in matters involving computer hardware and software, silicon chip manufacturing, biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemical compounds, food additives, alternative energy, AI, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, consumer electronics, communications, internet, and e-commerce. He has appeared in courts across the country, including the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals.
As appellate counsel, Mr. Rando has served as counsel of record or co-counsel in more than 30 amicus briefs filed before the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Circuit on issues of patent law, statutory interpretation, separation of powers, and constitutional law. Noteworthy filings include eBay Inc. v. MercExchange (2006), Oil States v. Greene’s Energy (2017), American Axle v. Neapco (2021), Amgen v. Sanofi (2023), and Cellect v. Vidal (2024).
Mr. Rando is a Fellow of the Academy of Court-Appointed Masters, having served by judicial appointment as Special Master in numerous complex patent cases, including multi-day Markman hearings and post-discovery proceedings. He also serves as a court-appointed Mediator and Neutral in both patent and commercial disputes.
He has played an active role in judicial and legislative engagement. Mr. Rando co-developed and conducted lecture series for the SDNY and EDNY Patent Pilot Program Judges and Clerks, covering the America Invents Act and Section 101 eligibility post-Alice and Mayo. He represented both the Federal Bar Association (FBA) and New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) at the Tillis/Coons Section 101 Patent Reform Roundtable, and submitted written testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019.
Mr. Rando is a former president of the NYIPLA (2023–2024) and has held nearly every leadership position in the organization. He also served as Chair of the FBA’s Intellectual Property Law Section and was a founding member and president of the FBA’s EDNY Chapter. He is a founding member of the Association of Amicus Counsel, and an active contributor to the Federalist Society IP Practice Group Executive Committee.
He frequently lectures at CLE programs, universities, and legal associations on IP, constitutional law, and appellate advocacy. He has been quoted extensively in publications such as Law360, Bloomberg Law, WIPR, and National Law Journal. His scholarly publications include articles in The Federal Lawyer, Touro Law Review, and IPWatchdog.
Bingham Fellow, Institute for Justice
Anna Goodman is an attorney with the Institute for Justice. She is currently serving as IJ’s Bingham Fellow.
Before joining IJ, Anna clerked for Judge Gregory Frizzell of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. She has also been an Appellate Fellow at Horvitz & Levy and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of Law.
Deputy Counsel, the President
Gary currently is the Deputy Counsel to the President. He was previously a partner at the Dhillon Law Group and worked at the Department of the Interior and Federal Election Commission. He is a native of Virginia, and earned his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia.
Director, Office of Government Information Services, United States National Archives and Records Administration
In December 2016, Alina M. Semo became the Director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ombudsman’s office, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Prior to joining OGIS, Ms. Semo served as the Director of Litigation in NARA's Office of General Counsel for two and a half years. Before coming to NARA, Ms. Semo led the FOIA Litigation Unit in the Office of the General Counsel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for over ten years, and also served as an Assistant General Counsel in the Litigation Branch for nearly five years. Ms. Semo began her federal government career as a Department of Justice trial attorney and later senior counsel in the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division, from 1991 to 1999, and from 1988 to 1991 worked as an associate at Hopkins & Sutter in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Semo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law School; she is licensed in the District of Columbia and Maryland.
Deputy Executive Director and Legal Director, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Katie Townsend (@katie_rcfp) is Deputy Executive Director and Legal Director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (www.rcfp.org), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. She oversees the litigation, amicus, and other legal work of Reporters Committee attorneys, and represents the Reporters Committee, news organizations, and individual journalists, including documentary filmmakers, in court access, freedom of information, and other First Amendment and press freedom matters.
Prior to joining the Reporters Committee as its first Litigation Director in 2014, Ms. Townsend was an associate in the Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where her practice focused on media and entertainment litigation. She was recognized in 2015 as a Washington, D.C. “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal and, in 2015, was named one of the “Next Gen – Hollywood’s Up-and-Coming Execs 35 and Under” by the Hollywood Reporter. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and serves on the International Documentary Association’s Enterprise Documentary Fund Advisory Committee.
Ms. Townsend is a 2007 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a member of the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida in 2004 with a B.A. in English and a B.S. in broadcast journalism.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 7, 2025. Alongside Secretary Brooke L. Rollins, Deputy Secretary Vaden leads the Department’s operations and implements policies that support America’s food and farm systems. A native of Union City, Tennessee, Deputy Secretary Vaden brings expertise in agricultural policy, law, and rural development. Previously, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade and as General Counsel of USDA. Throughout Deputy Secretary Vaden’s time as General Counsel, he led successful Supreme Court litigation, advanced regulatory reform, and supported the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Vanderbilt University. A public servant with strong agricultural roots, Deputy Secretary Vaden is committed to revitalizing rural America and ensuring an abundant, affordable, and safe U.S. food supply.
Counsel, Cause of Action Institute
Ryan P. Mulvey has worked as policy counsel at Americans for Prosperity Foundation since December 2019. He previously worked as Counsel as Cause of Action Institute (2013-2019) and continues to volunteer in that position. Ryan’s practice touches on various aspects of government oversight, civic engagement, and administrative and constitutional law. He regularly lectures on government transparency matters and litigates cases under the Freedom of Information Act and Administrative Procedure Act. Ryan has helped to prosecute state public records requests, too, and provided amicus support at various levels of state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, on various matters. As a policy expert, he regularly advises congressional staff about FOIA reform and cutting-edge transparency issues.
Ryan was graduated from the University of San Diego (2010) summa cum laude with an honors degree in history and political science. He earned his JD and MA in philosophy from Boston University (2013). While a law student, Ryan completed internships at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, as well as the Office of the General Counsel of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. He served as Executive Editor for Notes and Comments at the Review of Banking & Financial Law and worked as a research assistant for the second revised edition of the Heritage Foundation’s Guide to the Constitution (2014).
Ryan is admitted to the practice of law in New York State, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to his work at AFPF, Ryan is the president of the American Society of Access Professionals and a contributor at FOIA Advisor.
Deputy Counsel, the President
Gary currently is the Deputy Counsel to the President. He was previously a partner at the Dhillon Law Group and worked at the Department of the Interior and Federal Election Commission. He is a native of Virginia, and earned his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia.
Director, Office of Government Information Services, United States National Archives and Records Administration
In December 2016, Alina M. Semo became the Director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), the Federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ombudsman’s office, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Prior to joining OGIS, Ms. Semo served as the Director of Litigation in NARA's Office of General Counsel for two and a half years. Before coming to NARA, Ms. Semo led the FOIA Litigation Unit in the Office of the General Counsel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for over ten years, and also served as an Assistant General Counsel in the Litigation Branch for nearly five years. Ms. Semo began her federal government career as a Department of Justice trial attorney and later senior counsel in the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division, from 1991 to 1999, and from 1988 to 1991 worked as an associate at Hopkins & Sutter in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Semo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law School; she is licensed in the District of Columbia and Maryland.
Deputy Executive Director and Legal Director, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Katie Townsend (@katie_rcfp) is Deputy Executive Director and Legal Director at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (www.rcfp.org), a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. She oversees the litigation, amicus, and other legal work of Reporters Committee attorneys, and represents the Reporters Committee, news organizations, and individual journalists, including documentary filmmakers, in court access, freedom of information, and other First Amendment and press freedom matters.
Prior to joining the Reporters Committee as its first Litigation Director in 2014, Ms. Townsend was an associate in the Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where her practice focused on media and entertainment litigation. She was recognized in 2015 as a Washington, D.C. “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal and, in 2015, was named one of the “Next Gen – Hollywood’s Up-and-Coming Execs 35 and Under” by the Hollywood Reporter. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and serves on the International Documentary Association’s Enterprise Documentary Fund Advisory Committee.
Ms. Townsend is a 2007 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a member of the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida in 2004 with a B.A. in English and a B.S. in broadcast journalism.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 7, 2025. Alongside Secretary Brooke L. Rollins, Deputy Secretary Vaden leads the Department’s operations and implements policies that support America’s food and farm systems. A native of Union City, Tennessee, Deputy Secretary Vaden brings expertise in agricultural policy, law, and rural development. Previously, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade and as General Counsel of USDA. Throughout Deputy Secretary Vaden’s time as General Counsel, he led successful Supreme Court litigation, advanced regulatory reform, and supported the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Vanderbilt University. A public servant with strong agricultural roots, Deputy Secretary Vaden is committed to revitalizing rural America and ensuring an abundant, affordable, and safe U.S. food supply.
Counsel, Cause of Action Institute
Ryan P. Mulvey has worked as policy counsel at Americans for Prosperity Foundation since December 2019. He previously worked as Counsel as Cause of Action Institute (2013-2019) and continues to volunteer in that position. Ryan’s practice touches on various aspects of government oversight, civic engagement, and administrative and constitutional law. He regularly lectures on government transparency matters and litigates cases under the Freedom of Information Act and Administrative Procedure Act. Ryan has helped to prosecute state public records requests, too, and provided amicus support at various levels of state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, on various matters. As a policy expert, he regularly advises congressional staff about FOIA reform and cutting-edge transparency issues.
Ryan was graduated from the University of San Diego (2010) summa cum laude with an honors degree in history and political science. He earned his JD and MA in philosophy from Boston University (2013). While a law student, Ryan completed internships at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, as well as the Office of the General Counsel of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. He served as Executive Editor for Notes and Comments at the Review of Banking & Financial Law and worked as a research assistant for the second revised edition of the Heritage Foundation’s Guide to the Constitution (2014).
Ryan is admitted to the practice of law in New York State, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to his work at AFPF, Ryan is the president of the American Society of Access Professionals and a contributor at FOIA Advisor.
Director, Washington Ofice, Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy
Elise Bean became counsel to U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., on the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in 1985. She worked for him on three subcommittees, under the leadership of Linda Gustitus. In 2003, Levin appointed Bean as staff director and chief counsel of the committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which he chaired. Bean retired from the Senate with Levin at the end of 2014.
During her tenure, Bean handled a variety of investigations, hearings and legislation, including matters involving offshore tax abuses, money laundering, foreign corruption, unfair credit card practices, health care fraud, abuses involving derivatives and structured finance, and shell companies with hidden owners. Investigations headed by her included inquiries into the 2008 financial crisis, HSBC money laundering problems, London whale trades at JPMorgan Chase, collapse of Enron, and offshore tax avoidance by Apple, Microsoft and Caterpillar.
In 2016 and 2015, she was included in the Global Tax 50, a list compiled by International Tax Review of the year's top 50 individuals and organizations influencing tax policy and practice. In 2013 and 2011, the Washingtonian magazine named her one of Washington's 100 most powerful women. In 2010, she was selected by the National Law Journal as one of Washington's most influential women lawyers.
Bean graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University in 1978 and earned her law degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 1982. She served as a law clerk to former Chief Judge of the U.S. Claims Court Alex Kozinski, who later served as the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She worked for two years as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Frauds Section. Earlier in her career, she worked for U.S. Rep. John Joseph Moakley, D-Mass.
Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation
Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.
Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.
Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.
Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.
Senior Project Director and In Residence Adjunct, American University Washington College of Law
Alex Joel is a Scholar-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor at the Washington College of Law. He is conducting research, developing programming, and teaching courses focused on the intersections between the law, national security, technology, and privacy. Previously, he was a senior officer with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where until June 2019 he served as the Chief of the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency (CLPT). CLPT works to ensure that the Intelligence Community carries out its national security mission in a manner that protects privacy and civil liberties, and provides appropriate public transparency. As Chief of CLPT, Mr. Joel was the ODNI’s Civil Liberties Protection Officer, a position established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act of 2004. Mr. Joel served in that position since the ODNI stood up in 2005.
Since 2015, he also served as the ODNI’s Chief Transparency Officer, appointed to the position by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Mr. Joel formerly served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the world’s largest association of privacy professionals. Previously, Mr. Joel worked as an attorney at the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of General Counsel. Before that, he worked in private practice, as a technology attorney at the law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge in Washington, D.C. (now Pillsbury Winthrop), and as the privacy, technology, and e-commerce attorney for Marriott International, Inc. Mr. Joel began his legal career as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
Judge, United States District Court, District of Columbia
Judge Carl J. Nichols was appointed to the District Court in June 2019. He received a B.A., cum laude and with high honors in Philosophy, from Dartmouth College in 1992, and a J.D., with high honors and Order of the Coif, from The University of Chicago Law School in 1996.
Immediately after law school, Judge Nichols served as a law clerk to Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. Following his clerkships, Judge Nichols was an associate and then partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. From 2005-2009, he served in the U.S. Department of Justice, first as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, and then as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General. Judge Nichols was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP from 2010 until his appointment to the bench in 2019.
Director, Washington Ofice, Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy
Elise Bean became counsel to U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., on the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in 1985. She worked for him on three subcommittees, under the leadership of Linda Gustitus. In 2003, Levin appointed Bean as staff director and chief counsel of the committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which he chaired. Bean retired from the Senate with Levin at the end of 2014.
During her tenure, Bean handled a variety of investigations, hearings and legislation, including matters involving offshore tax abuses, money laundering, foreign corruption, unfair credit card practices, health care fraud, abuses involving derivatives and structured finance, and shell companies with hidden owners. Investigations headed by her included inquiries into the 2008 financial crisis, HSBC money laundering problems, London whale trades at JPMorgan Chase, collapse of Enron, and offshore tax avoidance by Apple, Microsoft and Caterpillar.
In 2016 and 2015, she was included in the Global Tax 50, a list compiled by International Tax Review of the year's top 50 individuals and organizations influencing tax policy and practice. In 2013 and 2011, the Washingtonian magazine named her one of Washington's 100 most powerful women. In 2010, she was selected by the National Law Journal as one of Washington's most influential women lawyers.
Bean graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University in 1978 and earned her law degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 1982. She served as a law clerk to former Chief Judge of the U.S. Claims Court Alex Kozinski, who later served as the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She worked for two years as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Frauds Section. Earlier in her career, she worked for U.S. Rep. John Joseph Moakley, D-Mass.
Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation
Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.
Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.
Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.
Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.
Senior Project Director and In Residence Adjunct, American University Washington College of Law
Alex Joel is a Scholar-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor at the Washington College of Law. He is conducting research, developing programming, and teaching courses focused on the intersections between the law, national security, technology, and privacy. Previously, he was a senior officer with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where until June 2019 he served as the Chief of the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency (CLPT). CLPT works to ensure that the Intelligence Community carries out its national security mission in a manner that protects privacy and civil liberties, and provides appropriate public transparency. As Chief of CLPT, Mr. Joel was the ODNI’s Civil Liberties Protection Officer, a position established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act of 2004. Mr. Joel served in that position since the ODNI stood up in 2005.
Since 2015, he also served as the ODNI’s Chief Transparency Officer, appointed to the position by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Mr. Joel formerly served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the world’s largest association of privacy professionals. Previously, Mr. Joel worked as an attorney at the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of General Counsel. Before that, he worked in private practice, as a technology attorney at the law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge in Washington, D.C. (now Pillsbury Winthrop), and as the privacy, technology, and e-commerce attorney for Marriott International, Inc. Mr. Joel began his legal career as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
Judge, United States District Court, District of Columbia
Judge Carl J. Nichols was appointed to the District Court in June 2019. He received a B.A., cum laude and with high honors in Philosophy, from Dartmouth College in 1992, and a J.D., with high honors and Order of the Coif, from The University of Chicago Law School in 1996.
Immediately after law school, Judge Nichols served as a law clerk to Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and to Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. Following his clerkships, Judge Nichols was an associate and then partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP. From 2005-2009, he served in the U.S. Department of Justice, first as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, and then as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General. Judge Nichols was a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP from 2010 until his appointment to the bench in 2019.
Chairman and Managing Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner
David Boies has been the Chairman and a Managing Partner of Boies Schiller Flexner since its founding in 1997.
David has been selected as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine (2010). He has been named Global International Litigator of the Year by Who’s Who Legal an unprecedented seven times. David has been named the Litigator of the Year by The American Lawyer; the Lawyer of the Year by The National Law Journal (twice); the Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the New York Bar Association; Best Lawyers in America from 1987-2021; Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers; and an Eminent Practitioner by Chambers USA. He was named one of the Top 50 Big Law Innovators of the Last 50 Years by The American Lawyer in 2013.
David is the recipient of Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Redlands (2000), New York Law School (2007), University of New Hampshire School of Law (2013), and New York University (2013) and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Chicago Theological Seminary (2011). His awards include the Award of Merit from the Yale Law School, the ABA Medal from the American Bar Association, the Vanderbilt Medal from New York University Law School, the Pinnacle Award from the International Dyslexia Association, the William Brennan Award from the University of Virginia, the Role Model Award from Equality Forum, the Lead by Example Award from the National Association of Women Lawyers, the Torch of Learning Award from the American Friends of Hebrew University, the Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award from the Union for Reform Judaism, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Center for Justice.
David served as Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Antitrust Subcommittee in 1978 and Chief Counsel and Staff Director of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in 1979.
In 1991-1993, he was counsel to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, recovering $1.2 billion from companies who sold junk bonds to failed savings and loan associations.
In 1998-2000, he served as Special Trial Counsel for the United States Department of Justice in its antitrust suit against Microsoft. David also served as the lead counsel for former Vice-President Al Gore in connection with litigation relating to the 2000 election Florida vote count. As co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Perry v. Brown, he won the first judgment establishing the right to marry for gay and lesbian citizens under the U.S. Constitution.
David was born in Sycamore, Illinois on March 11, 1941. He attended the University of Redlands (1960-62), and received a B.S. from Northwestern University (1964), an LL.B., magna cum laude from Yale University (1966), and an LL.M. from New York University (1967).
He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers; and a Trustee of the National Constitution Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York University Law School Foundation and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He is the author of numerous publications including Courting Justice (2004), Redeeming the Dream (with Ted Olson), and Public Control of Business (with Paul Verkuil), published by Little Brown in 1977. He has taught courses at New York University Law School and Cardozo Law School.
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Reginald “Reg” Brown is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He has a vibrant and diverse crisis and governmental investigations practice, and regularly counsels financial institutions and other industry-leading clients facing complex and significant regulatory, enforcement and reputational matters.
Reg provides investigations-related guidance, strategic counsel and crisis management assistance to a broad range of companies and senior executives confronting challenges and opportunities at the intersection of government, law, media and public policy. He has assisted leading institutions and high-profile individual clients with more than a hundred congressional inquiries, as well as numerous federal, state and global government investigations and crisis avoidance and mitigation matters.
Reg leads teams of lawyers responding to some of the most challenging Department of Justice (DOJ), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), State Attorneys General and other regulatory or enforcement matters for financial institutions. Many of his clients are among the world's most prominent banks, hedge funds, private equity and venture firms, energy companies, government contractors, healthcare institutions and technology firms, as well as CEOs and high-ranking public officials. Reg has also assisted prospective and incumbent high-level public officials in connection with complex ethics agreements and governmental controversies.
Prior to joining Kirkland, Reg was a partner at WilmerHale, where he served as chairman of the firm's Financial Institutions Group and led the firm's congressional investigations practice as vice chair of the Crisis Management and Strategic Response Group. He previously served in the White House Counsel's office, where he was the White House's principal legal liaison to the Departments of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development, as well as many independent financial services agencies. In this role, he provided counsel on a wide variety of issues. Among other things, Reg served as a counselor for the White House Office of Political Affairs, Presidential Personnel Office and the National Economic Council.
Prior to his government service, Reg served as assistant to the CEO and vice president of corporate strategy at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, and as the deputy general counsel to former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Federated States of Micronesia early in his professional career.
Founding Partner, Cooper & Kirk PLLC
Charles J. Cooper is a founding member and the chairman of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, “one of the Nation’s leading litigation boutiques” (Above The Law 2017). The National Law Journal recently wrote that Mr. Cooper’s “brilliant legal career has so far spanned five decades and thrust Cooper into the spotlight in some of the most historic moments of the country’s modern history.” He has argued nine cases before the United States Supreme Court and scores of appeals before each of the 13 federal courts of appeals and several state supreme courts. He has been lead trial counsel in numerous complex, weeks-long trials in federal courts throughout the country. Named by the National Law Journal as one of the 10 best litigators in Washington D.C., Mr. Cooper’s work has been reported in numerous press accounts, and he has been called a “powerhouse attorney” (Fortune 2015), “a hard-nosed litigator” (Washington Post 2017), and “one of the country’s most in-demand civil litigators and a Washington legal institution unto himself” (The American Spectator 2014).
After graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1977, where he ranked first in his class and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Alabama Law Review, Mr. Cooper began his career as a law clerk to Judge Paul Roney on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and to Justice William H. Rehnquist in 1978–79. He then practiced law in Atlanta for two years before joining the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of, among other things, appellate matters. In 1985 President Reagan appointed him to the position of Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, which is the office responsible for providing legal opinions and advice to the White House, the Attorney General, and Executive Branch departments and agencies on issues covering the full spectrum of federal constitutional, statutory, and regulatory law.
In 1988 he returned to private practice as a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. office of McGuireWoods. From 1990 until the founding of Cooper & Kirk in 1996, he was a partner at Shaw Pittman (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman), where he headed the firm’s Constitutional and Government Litigation Group.
Mr. Cooper has represented a wide range of public and private clients in highly complex constitutional, civil rights, antitrust, healthcare, banking, intellectual property, elections, campaign finance, administrative, commercial, and government contract cases. He has led trial teams in cases that have won judgments and settlements valued in the billions of dollars and that have established ground-breaking constitutional precedents.
Much of Mr. Cooper’s practice has involved representing high-profile clients in nationally prominent matters, including: the State of Florida in a First Amendment suit brought by the Disney Company concerning its autonomous regulatory authority over its Disney World property; the Commonwealth of Virginia in a suit seeking to enjoin the removal of noncitizens from its voter rolls; 38 members of the Duke Lacrosse team falsely accused of rape by officials of Duke University and the City of Durham; Harper Lee in a copyright dispute with the heirs of Gregory Peck; high-ranking former government officials such as former Attorneys General John Ashcroft, Jeff Sessions, and William Barr, and Ambassador John Bolton; several Governors and United States Senators; over 100 Members of Congress; and many state, territorial, and local government bodies and officials. He has also represented and advised government officials and public figures in connection with sensitive private issues that needed to be, and were, resolved discreetly without becoming matters of public record.
In 1998 Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Mr. Cooper to the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States, where he served for three terms. He also served as a Public Member, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, of the National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal. He is a member of numerous professional associations, including the American Law Institute (since 1993) and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers (since 1996). He is also an active member of the Federalist Society and the Republican National Lawyers Association, which in 2010 named him Republican Lawyer of the Year and in 2016 honored him with its Edwin Meese III Award.
Mr. Cooper has published scores of articles and spoken extensively on constitutional and legal policy topics. He has appeared before congressional committees on 26 occasions, testifying as an expert on a wide variety of legal issues, including the Chevron doctrine of judicial deference to administrative agencies, the diversity of citizenship jurisdiction of federal courts, statehood bills for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and the impeachment of President Clinton.
President, American Bar Association
Deborah Enix-Ross, a senior adviser to the International Dispute Resolution Group of Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City, is president of the American Bar Association, the world’s largest voluntary association of lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals.
Enix-Ross served as chair of the ABA’s policymaking House of Delegates and as chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights. As chair of the ABA International Law Section, she co-founded the Women’s Interest Network and worked with the International Bar Association to create its Women’s Interest Group. She also led an international legal exchange delegation to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ghana, where she delivered an address commemorating the country’s 50th anniversary of independence.
Enix-Ross is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has served as vice president of the World Justice Project, chair of the ABA Section Officers Conference, vice chair of the International Bar Association’s Bar Issues Commission, and ABA representative to the IBA. She is a member of the American Law Institute.
Enix-Ross joined Debevoise & Plimpton in 2002. Previously, she served as senior legal officer with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva, Switzerland. She also was a director of international litigation with Price Waterhouse and the American representative to the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration. She started her legal career with MFY Legal Services in New York City.
Enix-Ross was appointed by the U.S. Departments of Commerce and State as one of the original eight U.S. members of the trilateral NAFTA Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Disputes. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the New York Law School Alternative Dispute Resolution Skills Program. She is also a former member of the advisory board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, the ADR Advisory Board of the International Law Institute, and the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association.
Enix-Ross earned a B.A. in broadcast journalism from the University of Miami and J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law. She also received a diploma in comparative law from the Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law of Columbia University and a certificate in international law from the London School of Economics.
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