Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution
Sarah Binder is senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and professor of political science at George Washington University, where she specializes in Congress and legislative politics. Binder’s current research explores the historical and contemporary relationship between Congress and the Federal Reserve, and she is the co-author with Mark Spindel of The Myth of Independence: How Congress Governs the Federal Reserve (Princeton University Press, 2017). She is also an associate editor of The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog.
Binder is a former co-editor of Legislative Studies Quarterly, a co-author with Forrest Maltzman of Advice and Dissent: The Struggle to Shape the Federal Judiciary (Brookings, 2009), author of Stalemate: Causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock (Brookings, 2003), Minority Rights, Majority Rule: Partisanship and the Development of Congress (Cambridge University Press, 1997), and co-author with Steven S. Smith of Politics or Principle? Filibustering in the United States Senate (Brookings, 1997). Her other work on Congressional politics has appeared in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and elsewhere.
Her book on legislative gridlock was awarded the 2003 Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize by the American Political Science Association for the best book published on legislative politics, and she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015.
Binder received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota in 1995 and B.A. from Yale University in 1986. She joined Brookings in 1995 and George Washington University in 1999. Between 1986 and 1990, she served as legislative aide and press secretary to Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Indiana).
Senior Counsel, Committee on Oversight and Accountability, U.S. House of Representatives
Daniel Flores is a Senior Counsel on the Republican staff of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to his current position, he served in the House as Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law. Before coming to the House, he served as an Acting Associate Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and in other roles in EPA's Office of General Counsel, as a Senior Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, and as an attorney in private practice in Washington, D.C. He serves as a House liaison to the Administrative Conference of the United States and has served on the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section on Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice
Judge, United States District Court, District of Columbia
Judge Trevor N. McFadden was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2017. He received his B.A. in 2001 from Wheaton College, IL, magna cum laude. In 2006, he received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was an editor for the Virginia Law Review.
Following graduation from law school, Judge McFadden clerked for Judge Steven Colloton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He then joined the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. Judge McFadden subsequently became a partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP in Washington, DC, where he focused on white collar investigations. He is also co-author of a treatise, Corporate Settlement Tools: DPAs, NPAs, and Cooperation Agreements.
After four years in private practice, Judge McFadden returned to the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was Deputy Assistant Attorney General and acted as the second-in-command of the Department's Criminal Division. As Deputy Assistant Attorney General, he managed the Division's Fraud and Appellate Sections.
Judge McFadden also has extensive experience in law enforcement. He served as an officer with the Fairfax County, VA, Police Department and as a deputy sheriff in Madison County, VA.
Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor James W. Coleman is a scholar of energy law. He specializes in North American energy infrastructure, transport, and trade. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focused on energy policy.
Professor Coleman has testified before Congress on steps to speed up energy infrastructure permits. He also worked with a team of experts as part of Alberta's Royalty Review to revise the Canadian province's management of its vast oil and gas resources.
Before joining Minnesota, Professor Coleman taught at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, the University of Calgary’s law and business schools, and Harvard Law School. Earlier, he practiced environmental and appellate law at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Honorable Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Professor Coleman received two degrees from Harvard University—a J.D. (cum laude) and B.A. in biology (magna cum laude with highest honors in the field). As a result of his undergraduate thesis on butterfly genetics, which required fieldwork in Central Asia, a species of lycaenid butterfly was named after him—Agrodiaetus ripartii colemani.
Partner, Baker Botts
George Fibbe represents clients in complex commercial disputes and regulatory matters, focusing on high-stakes matters across the energy sector. Before joining Baker Botts, he served as the Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, Regulation & Enforcement for the U.S. Department of Energy. Mr. Fibbe is a commercial trial attorney who practiced with Yetter Coleman, LLP in Houston for over ten years. He then served as head of litigation for the petroleum division of an international mining corporation. Before joining the Department of Energy, he served as General Counsel for a private solar company.
Managing Director, SCF Partners
Daniel G. West invests in energy services, equipment, and technology companies at SCF Partners in Houston, Texas. He provides equity capital and strategic growth assistance to entrepreneurs and leaders of both start-up ventures and established, growing businesses.
Prior to joining the private sector, Mr. West served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a platoon commander with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Mesa Verde, he led the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel force in support of the NATO aerial campaign over Libya. He then served as executive officer of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines as it mentored Afghan forces to assume lead security responsibility and executed counter-narcotics missions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He also served as a clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. West holds degrees in law, business administration, and economics from Harvard University, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and taught undergraduate courses in economics and government. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International & National Security Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor James W. Coleman is a scholar of energy law. He specializes in North American energy infrastructure, transport, and trade. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focused on energy policy.
Professor Coleman has testified before Congress on steps to speed up energy infrastructure permits. He also worked with a team of experts as part of Alberta's Royalty Review to revise the Canadian province's management of its vast oil and gas resources.
Before joining Minnesota, Professor Coleman taught at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, the University of Calgary’s law and business schools, and Harvard Law School. Earlier, he practiced environmental and appellate law at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Honorable Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Professor Coleman received two degrees from Harvard University—a J.D. (cum laude) and B.A. in biology (magna cum laude with highest honors in the field). As a result of his undergraduate thesis on butterfly genetics, which required fieldwork in Central Asia, a species of lycaenid butterfly was named after him—Agrodiaetus ripartii colemani.
Partner, Baker Botts
George Fibbe represents clients in complex commercial disputes and regulatory matters, focusing on high-stakes matters across the energy sector. Before joining Baker Botts, he served as the Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, Regulation & Enforcement for the U.S. Department of Energy. Mr. Fibbe is a commercial trial attorney who practiced with Yetter Coleman, LLP in Houston for over ten years. He then served as head of litigation for the petroleum division of an international mining corporation. Before joining the Department of Energy, he served as General Counsel for a private solar company.
Managing Director, SCF Partners
Daniel G. West invests in energy services, equipment, and technology companies at SCF Partners in Houston, Texas. He provides equity capital and strategic growth assistance to entrepreneurs and leaders of both start-up ventures and established, growing businesses.
Prior to joining the private sector, Mr. West served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a platoon commander with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Mesa Verde, he led the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel force in support of the NATO aerial campaign over Libya. He then served as executive officer of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines as it mentored Afghan forces to assume lead security responsibility and executed counter-narcotics missions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He also served as a clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. West holds degrees in law, business administration, and economics from Harvard University, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and taught undergraduate courses in economics and government. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International & National Security Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
R. B. Price and Isabelle Wade & Paul C. Lyda Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Missouri School of Law
Carl H. Esbeck is R.B. Price Professor and Isabelle Wade & Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law emeritus at the University of Missouri. After attending Cornell University School of Law where he served as an editor on the Cornell Law Review, he held a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Howard C. Bratton, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in New Mexico.
Professor Esbeck publishes widely in the area of religious liberty and church-state relations. He is recognized as the progenitor of "Charitable Choice," an integral part of the 1996 Federal Welfare Reform Act, later made a part of the faith-based initiative and equal-treatment regulations under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In addition, he has taken the lead in recognizing that the modern Supreme Court has applied the Establishment Clause not as a personal right, but as a structural limit on the government's authority in disputes involving church governance. While on leave from 1999 to 2002, Professor Esbeck directed the Center for Law & Religious Freedom (CLRF) and later served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. While directing the CLRF, Professor Esbeck was a central part of the congressional advocacy behind the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). While at the Department of Justice one of his duties was to direct a task force to remove barriers to the equal-treatment of faith-based organizations applying for social service grants. He is the author of Disestablishment and Religious Dissent: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776 - 1833 (U. of MO Press, 2019).
Associate General Counsel, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Jennifer Goldstein is the Associate General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where she leads the Office of General Counsel’s Appellate Litigation Division. In that role, she oversees the filing of Commission party and amicus briefs in the U.S. Courts of Appeals on a range of issues arising under the federal anti-discrimination statutes, including religious discrimination. Prior to her tenure with the EEOC, Ms. Goldstein was a law clerk to Judge Stephanie K. Seymour of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Ms. Goldstein is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School.
Principal, Sharon Fast Gustafson, Attorney at Law, PLC
SHARON FAST GUSTAFSON is the immediate past General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she enforced Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Ms. Gustafson graduated with honors from Georgetown Law Center in 1991 and has concentrated her practice in employment law. She worked for four years in the labor and employment law group at Jones, Day in Washington, D.C. Since that time, she has had a broad-based solo practice advising and representing employers and employees in handling all aspects of the employment relationship, in compliance with federal and state workplace laws, and in designing and implementing sound employment policies and practices.
Ms. Gustafson is an experienced litigator in federal and state courts; before administrative agencies, including the EEOC, state and local civil rights offices, and the Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division; and in mediation and arbitration. She is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and in the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Gustafson successfully litigated a pregnancy discrimination case, Young v. UPS, 575 U.S. 206 (2015), from EEOC intake to a successful outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2016, she received the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association’s “Lawyer of the Year” award “in recognition of outstanding dedication to Civil Rights, Equality, and Justice.”
Ms. Gustafson represents both employers and employees in matters relating to employment law.
R. B. Price and Isabelle Wade & Paul C. Lyda Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Missouri School of Law
Carl H. Esbeck is R.B. Price Professor and Isabelle Wade & Paul C. Lyda Professor of Law emeritus at the University of Missouri. After attending Cornell University School of Law where he served as an editor on the Cornell Law Review, he held a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Howard C. Bratton, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in New Mexico.
Professor Esbeck publishes widely in the area of religious liberty and church-state relations. He is recognized as the progenitor of "Charitable Choice," an integral part of the 1996 Federal Welfare Reform Act, later made a part of the faith-based initiative and equal-treatment regulations under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. In addition, he has taken the lead in recognizing that the modern Supreme Court has applied the Establishment Clause not as a personal right, but as a structural limit on the government's authority in disputes involving church governance. While on leave from 1999 to 2002, Professor Esbeck directed the Center for Law & Religious Freedom (CLRF) and later served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. While directing the CLRF, Professor Esbeck was a central part of the congressional advocacy behind the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA). While at the Department of Justice one of his duties was to direct a task force to remove barriers to the equal-treatment of faith-based organizations applying for social service grants. He is the author of Disestablishment and Religious Dissent: Church-State Relations in the New American States, 1776 - 1833 (U. of MO Press, 2019).
Associate General Counsel, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Jennifer Goldstein is the Associate General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission where she leads the Office of General Counsel’s Appellate Litigation Division. In that role, she oversees the filing of Commission party and amicus briefs in the U.S. Courts of Appeals on a range of issues arising under the federal anti-discrimination statutes, including religious discrimination. Prior to her tenure with the EEOC, Ms. Goldstein was a law clerk to Judge Stephanie K. Seymour of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Ms. Goldstein is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School.
Principal, Sharon Fast Gustafson, Attorney at Law, PLC
SHARON FAST GUSTAFSON is the immediate past General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where she enforced Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
Ms. Gustafson graduated with honors from Georgetown Law Center in 1991 and has concentrated her practice in employment law. She worked for four years in the labor and employment law group at Jones, Day in Washington, D.C. Since that time, she has had a broad-based solo practice advising and representing employers and employees in handling all aspects of the employment relationship, in compliance with federal and state workplace laws, and in designing and implementing sound employment policies and practices.
Ms. Gustafson is an experienced litigator in federal and state courts; before administrative agencies, including the EEOC, state and local civil rights offices, and the Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division; and in mediation and arbitration. She is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and in the United States Supreme Court.
Ms. Gustafson successfully litigated a pregnancy discrimination case, Young v. UPS, 575 U.S. 206 (2015), from EEOC intake to a successful outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2016, she received the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association’s “Lawyer of the Year” award “in recognition of outstanding dedication to Civil Rights, Equality, and Justice.”
Ms. Gustafson represents both employers and employees in matters relating to employment law.
Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, Brookings Institution
Sarah Binder is senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and professor of political science at George Washington University, where she specializes in Congress and legislative politics. Binder’s current research explores the historical and contemporary relationship between Congress and the Federal Reserve, and she is the co-author with Mark Spindel of The Myth of Independence: How Congress Governs the Federal Reserve (Princeton University Press, 2017). She is also an associate editor of The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog.
Binder is a former co-editor of Legislative Studies Quarterly, a co-author with Forrest Maltzman of Advice and Dissent: The Struggle to Shape the Federal Judiciary (Brookings, 2009), author of Stalemate: Causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock (Brookings, 2003), Minority Rights, Majority Rule: Partisanship and the Development of Congress (Cambridge University Press, 1997), and co-author with Steven S. Smith of Politics or Principle? Filibustering in the United States Senate (Brookings, 1997). Her other work on Congressional politics has appeared in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and elsewhere.
Her book on legislative gridlock was awarded the 2003 Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize by the American Political Science Association for the best book published on legislative politics, and she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015.
Binder received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota in 1995 and B.A. from Yale University in 1986. She joined Brookings in 1995 and George Washington University in 1999. Between 1986 and 1990, she served as legislative aide and press secretary to Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Indiana).
Senior Counsel, Committee on Oversight and Accountability, U.S. House of Representatives
Daniel Flores is a Senior Counsel on the Republican staff of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to his current position, he served in the House as Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law. Before coming to the House, he served as an Acting Associate Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and in other roles in EPA's Office of General Counsel, as a Senior Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, and as an attorney in private practice in Washington, D.C. He serves as a House liaison to the Administrative Conference of the United States and has served on the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section on Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice
Judge, United States District Court, District of Columbia
Judge Trevor N. McFadden was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2017. He received his B.A. in 2001 from Wheaton College, IL, magna cum laude. In 2006, he received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he graduated Order of the Coif and was an editor for the Virginia Law Review.
Following graduation from law school, Judge McFadden clerked for Judge Steven Colloton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He then joined the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General and as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. Judge McFadden subsequently became a partner at Baker & McKenzie LLP in Washington, DC, where he focused on white collar investigations. He is also co-author of a treatise, Corporate Settlement Tools: DPAs, NPAs, and Cooperation Agreements.
After four years in private practice, Judge McFadden returned to the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was Deputy Assistant Attorney General and acted as the second-in-command of the Department's Criminal Division. As Deputy Assistant Attorney General, he managed the Division's Fraud and Appellate Sections.
Judge McFadden also has extensive experience in law enforcement. He served as an officer with the Fairfax County, VA, Police Department and as a deputy sheriff in Madison County, VA.
Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Constitutional Law Center, Stanford Law School
Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 2002 to 2009, he served as a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican, and confirmed by a Democratic Senate by unanimous consent. McConnell has previously held chaired professorships at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, and visiting professorships at Harvard and NYU. He teaches courses on constitutional law, constitutional history, First Amendment, and interpretive theory. He has published widely in the fields of constitutional law and theory, especially church and state, equal protection, and separation of powers. His book, “The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution,” was published by Princeton University Press in 2020, based on the Tanner Lectures in Human Values, which he delivered at Princeton in 2019. His latest book, co-authored with Nathan Chapman, “Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience,” was published by Oxford University Press in mid-2023. McConnell has argued sixteen cases in the United States Supreme Court, most recently Carney v. Adams (2020). defending a provision of the Delaware Constitution requiring political balance on that state’s courts. More recently, he was co-counsel in Gonzalez v. Google. He earned his B.A. from Michigan State University and his J.D. from the University of Chicago, and has received honorary degrees from Notre Dame University and Michigan State. He served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. and D.C. Circuit Chief Judge J. Skelly Wright. He has been Assistant General Counsel of the Office of Management & Budget, Assistant to the Solicitor General of the Department of Justice, and a member of the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board. He is Senior of Counsel to the law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, and is co-chair of Meta’s Oversight Review Board.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Don Willett serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Before joining the federal bench, Judge Willett served 13 years on the Supreme Court
of Texas. His career spans decades of public service, including roles as legal counsel to
a Texas Attorney General, a Texas Governor, a U.S. Attorney General, and the
President of the United States.
Raised by a heroic widowed mom in a doublewide trailer in a town of 32, Judge
Willett is his family’s first college graduate. He earned a triple-major B.B.A. from Baylor
University—where he serves on the Board of Regents—and three degrees from Duke
University—where he serves on the Board of Visitors: a J.D. with honors, an A.M. in
political science, and an LL.M. in judicial studies. After law school, he clerked on the
Fifth Circuit and practiced at Haynes and Boone before entering public service.
Judge Willett publishes widely in both leading law reviews and national media, including
The Yale Law Journal, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Wall Street
Journal. The longtime editor-in-chief of Judicature—the Scholarly Journal for Judges, he
holds academic appointments at various law schools and has received more than a
dozen Green Bag honors for “exemplary legal writing.” He was named Distinguished
Jurist of the Year by the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and he is a member of the
American Law Institute and a Life Fellow of the American, Texas, and Austin Bar
Foundations.
A onetime bull rider and professional drummer, Judge Willett was named “Tweeter
Laureate of Texas” in 2015. He is the namesake of Don R. Willett Elementary
School—home of mighty Willett Wranglers—located just a mile from where he grew up.
He and his radiant wife, Tiffany have three children—Jacob, Shane-David, and
Geneviève—plus the family pup, Amicus.
Counsel, Debevoise & Plimpton
Carter Burwell is a litigation counsel based in the Washington, D.C. office of Debevoise & Plimpton and a member of the firm’s White Collar & Regulatory Defense practice. His practice focuses on white collar criminal defense, government investigations and internal investigations, and national security matters.
Mr. Burwell joins Debevoise with more than 15 years of experience in senior roles across the federal government. Most recently, Mr. Burwell served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Finance Intelligence, where he advised on matters involving financial sanctions and illicit finance, international corruption and human rights abuses and digital assets. At Treasury, Mr. Burwell worked directly with the National Security Council, other senior executive branch officials, foreign leaders and the private sector to develop and implement policies to protect domestic and international financial systems from national security threats. He also participated in the CFIUS review process and advanced anti-money laundering reforms under the Bank Secrecy Act.
Prior to his role at the Treasury Department, Mr. Burwell served as one of the top lawyers on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, including as Chief Counsel to former Assistant Majority Leader and U.S. Senator John Cornyn and as Counsel to former Chairman and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley. In the Senate, Mr. Burwell worked on bipartisan efforts to modernize national security and technology laws, reform the criminal justice system and conduct rigorous oversight of government officials and the private sector on matters of national consequence. Mr. Burwell also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Violent Crime and Terrorism Unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) and in the National Security and International Crimes Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). As a federal prosecutor at EDNY and EDVA, Mr. Burwell supervised and participated in a wide variety of investigations and prosecutions involving international and domestic terrorist groups, international cartels and racketeering organizations, as well as financial and cyber crimes. He successfully tried numerous cases to verdict and briefed and argued appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Earlier on in his career, Mr. Burwell served as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Gleeson, now a Debevoise litigation partner, before going on to clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for the Hon. Judge Karen Henderson. Mr. Burwell was also a litigation associate at another international law firm.
He received his J.D. from the University Virginia School of Law in 2002, an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge in 1998, and his B.A. from Columbia College in 1996.
Senior Counsel and Director of Global Regulatory Matters, ConsenSys Software
Bill Hughes is senior counsel and director of global regulatory matters for ConsenSys Software, the leading Ethereum blockchain software company. Bill focuses on the diverse and ever evolving crypto global regulatory landscape, and the legal and public policy issues with which ConsenSys and the broader crypto ecosystem is grappling.
Bill joined ConsenSys after serving as an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, where he managed, among other things, the Department’s work on prospective regulations, legislative proposals, and policies across a broad spectrum of legal and operational issues. He worked closely with the White House and other federal agencies on regulatory and policy initiatives and coordinated DOJ’s law enforcement response to COVID-19-related consumer fraud and money laundering. Bill also has served at the White House, where he oversaw various operational components. Bill began his career by clerking for a federal judge in New York and litigating with the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Bill received his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and his BA from Vanderbilt University.
Chairman, The Bitcoin Foundation
Brock Pierce is a blockchain pioneer, impact investor and philanthropist with an extensive track record of founding, advising and investing in disruptive businesses. He's been credited with pioneering the market for digital currency and has raised more than $5B for companies he has founded. Pierce is the Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation and co-founder of EOS Alliance, Block.one, Blockchain Capital, Tether, Mastercoin (first ICO), and Lighthouse NFT, the first ground-up physical NFT smart gallery. In 2020, Pierce ran for President of the United States as an Independent, receiving the first-ever US presidential vote cast on the blockchain.
Block.one was co-founded by Pierce in 2017. Block.one has sold over $4B tokens in the EOS crowd sale making it the largest ever. Blockchain Capital was founded in 2013 and is the first sector-focused venture fund that invests solely in Blockchain technology companies. Pierce led the firm through the first ICO of a venture fund, which created the first security token, BCAP. Blockchain Capital has made more than 100 investments in the sector across its four funds. The firm was named the most active FinTech Venture Fund by Pitchbook. Tether, the first stable coin and asset-backed token, is the most traded cryptocurrency by volume.
Pierce is an early investor in Bitcoin and one of the largest investors in the Ethereum crowd sale. He is the founder of IMI Exchange, the world's leading digital currency marketplace for games, with annual sales exceeding $1B and investors such as Goldman Sachs (sold in 2016 for more than $100M). Pierce founded ZAM, one of the world's largest media properties for gamers, which was acquired by Tencent in 2012. He founded IGE, the pioneer of digital currency and virtual assets in online games, achieving revenues exceeding $100 million in 2006 and sold in 2007.
Pierce is also a co-founder of D10e, GoCoin, the first cryptocurrency platform ot fund a political campaign, Blade Payments, Five Delta (sold NASDAQ: SRAX), Xfire 2.0, Playsino, Evertune, and GamesTV. He serves as an advisor to a number of companies, including Airswap, Bancor, BitGo, BitGuild, Bloq, DNA, Element Group, Metronome, Shyft, tZERO, ODX and BlockV, the first NFT platform in the world. He is a General Partner in Space Fund and sits on the Board of Directors for Bitdigital, one of the largest cryptocurrency mining companies in the US.
Pierce is an active supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the Center for Individual Rights, and the Brennan Center for Human Rights. Pierce is Chairman of the Integro Foundation, a Puerto Rico-based non-profit focused on helping Puerto Ricans and supporting environmental and humanitarian efforts throughout the Caribbean region. Pierce is also Vice Chair of the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots Foundation of New York, Long Island and Puerto Rico. In 2021, Pierce sponsored the NYPD Gaming Trucks Initiative, building inroads between police and the communities they serve. As co-founder of the United Council of Rising Nations, Pierce advises political and industry leaders around the world on the future of finance, technology, and sustainable development.
Pierce is a frequent lecturer at Singularity University and has spoken at the Milken Global Conference, Mobile World Congress, Wired, INK, Stanford University, USC, and UCLA. He has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, Wired, Rolling Stone, Politico, New York Magazine, L’Officiel, VTDigger and the Vermont Business Magazine.
Associate Professor, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law
Zvi S. Rosen is an Associate Professor at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law and the Faculty Director of the Franklin Pierce Society for Intellectual Property. He has served as a Assistant Professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Law, as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, and as a Visiting Scholar and Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University School of Law.
In 2015-2016, he was the Abraham L. Kaminstein Scholar in Residence at the U.S. Copyright Office. Mr. Rosen received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 2005 and LLM in Intellectual Property in 2006 from the George Washington University Law School. He has practiced at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP as well as smaller firms and his own practice, and clerked for the Hon. Thomas B. Bennett of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He has written extensively on the development of modern copyright and trademark law, as well as on bankruptcy law.
Creatures of Statute III: Congress’ Responsibility to Answer the Major Questions
Sarah Binder, Daniel M. Flores, Trevor N. McFadden
Join the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and Capitol Hill Chapter for the third in...
Creatures of Statute III: Congress’ Responsibility to Answer the Major Questions
Washington, DCTen Year Anniversary Gala and Thomas M. Cooley Judicial Lecture
Washington, DCCrypto: Regulation and National Security Implications
Puerto Rico Lawyers Chapter
San Juan, PRA Conversation with Matt Clark
Montgomery Lawyers Chapter
Montgomery, ALCourthouse Steps Oral Argument: Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith
TeleforumEnergy Security After Ukraine: What are the Challenges and Opportunities for the U.S. and its Allies?
James W. Coleman, George Fibbe, Daniel G. West
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shocked the world – and directed renewed attention to the global...
Energy Security After Ukraine: What are the Challenges and Opportunities for the U.S. and its Allies?
James W. Coleman, George Fibbe, Daniel G. West
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shocked the world – and directed renewed attention to the global...
Suing Religious Employers: The Extent of Exemptions in Title VII
Carl H. Esbeck, Jennifer Goldstein, Sharon Fast Gustafson
Religious employers are exempt under §§ 702(a) and 703(e)(1), 42 U.S.C.2000e—1(a) and 2000e—2(e)(1), when sued...
Suing Religious Employers: The Extent of Exemptions in Title VII
Carl H. Esbeck, Jennifer Goldstein, Sharon Fast Gustafson
Religious employers are exempt under §§ 702(a) and 703(e)(1), 42 U.S.C.2000e—1(a) and 2000e—2(e)(1), when sued...