Senior Research Associate, Urban Institute
Yonah Freemark is senior research associate in Metropolitan Housing and Communities at the Urban Institute. His research focuses on the intersection of land use, affordable housing, and transportation. He has published peer-reviewed scholarship in numerous journals, including Urban Affairs Review, Politics & Society, Housing Policy Debate, and the Journal of the American Planning Association.
Previously, Freemark worked for Chicago’s Metropolitan Planning Council and has written for the New York Times, Next City, and CityLab, among others. He holds master’s degrees in both city planning and in transportation, as well as a PhD in urban studies from MIT.
Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University
Emily Hamilton is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her research focuses on urban economics and land-use policy. Hamilton has authored numerous academic articles and policy papers. Her writing has appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. She contributes to the blog Market Urbanism. Hamilton received her PhD in economics from George Mason University.
Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Luke A. Wake is an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation. Prior to joining PLF, he was a senior staff attorney at the NFIB Small Business Legal Center.
Wake has particular expertise on environmental and land use issues, and has worked on numerous other constitutional issues and matters of importance to small business owners. He is an ardent defender of private property rights, which he believes are essential to the free enterprise system and the foundation of American liberty. As a strong advocate of individual rights and economic liberties, he has built his career defending small business interests.
Wake has focused on a whole host of issues, from employment law matters to regulatory compliance. In addition to serving as a resource for small business owners, Wake is committed to ensuring that the voice of small business is heard in the nation’s courts. As an appellate practitioner, Wake has focused particularly on informing the courts on matters of administrative law and on issues under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. He is also working to advance small business interests in law review articles, and was recently published in the Berkeley Journal of Law & Ecology. See R.S. Radford & Luke A. Wake, Deciphering and Extrapolating: Searching for Sense in Penn Central, 38 Ecology L.Q. 731, 746-747 (2011).
Before joining the Legal Center’s team, Wake completed a prestigious two-year fellowship as an attorney in the Pacific Legal Foundation’s College of Public Interest Law. Wake is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland Ohio, and is a member of the California Bar. He completed his undergraduate studies at Elon University in North Carolina in 2006 where he focused on political theory and corporate communications.
Senior editor, The Dispatch
Vice President and Director of Litigation, EdChoice
Thomas M. Fisher served as a Deputy Attorney General for 22 years and as Indiana’s first Solicitor General from 2005-2023. In that role he handled high profile litigation for the State, defended state statutes against constitutional attack, advised the Attorney General on a range of legal policy issues, and managed the State’s U.S. Supreme Court docket. A two-time recipient of the National Association of Attorneys General Best Brief Award, Fisher has argued five times before the High Court.
His U.S. Supreme Court experience also includes authorship of dozens of cert-stage and merits-stage amicus curiae briefs on a wide range of issues. In addition, Fisher has argued dozens of important and high-profile cases before both the Indiana Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Fisher is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and was recently named a Sagamore of the Wabash by Governor Eric Holcomb.
A native Hoosier, Fisher is a graduate of Wabash College and Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Former Director of Policy Planning Staff, U.S. Department of State
Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. From 2019-2021, he served as the Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, executive secretary of the department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, and senior adviser to the Secretary of State. Peter studies and writes about, among other things, constitutional government, conservatism and progressivism, liberal education, national security and law, and Middle East politics. He is the author of Constitutional Conservatism: Liberty, Self-Government, and Political Moderation; Israel and the Struggle over the International Laws of War; Virtue and the Making of Modern Liberalism; and Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist. He has edited seven volumes on American politics and political institutions. He is a contributor at RealClearPolitics, and has written hundreds of essays, articles, and reviews on many subjects for a variety of publications, including the American Political Science Review, the Atlantic, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Claremont Review of Books, Commentary, First Things, Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post, National Review, the New Republic, the New York Post, the New York Sun, PJ Media, Policy Review, the Public Interest, the Times Literary Supplement, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Weekly Standard, the Wilson Quarterly, and the Yale Law Journal. Peter holds a JD and a PhD in political science from Yale University; an MA in philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and a BA in English literature from Swarthmore College.
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Daren Bakst is Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment and a Senior Fellow. In this role, he manages, develops, and leads the coalition, advocacy, and research activities of the Center, which is one of the most effective advocates for Free Market Environmentalism.
Before joining CEI as Deputy Director in March, 2023, Daren was a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the Heritage Foundation, where he played a leading role in the launch of the organization’s new energy and environment center, and created and hosted the Heritage Foundation’s energy and environment podcast the “PowerCast.” During his decade at Heritage, Daren wrote about energy and environmental policy, food and agricultural policy (including editing and co-authoring the book Farms and Free Enterprise), regulation, and trade among other topics.
Daren also worked on environmental policy and regulation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he was a policy counsel and served as the executive to the association’s Government Oversight, Operations & Consumer Affairs committee, which was responsible for issues such as regulatory process reform. Daren has significant state level experience, working for seven years at the Raleigh, N.C.-based John Locke Foundation, one of the largest state-based, free-market think tanks. As director of legal and regulatory studies, his broad portfolio included energy and environmental policy, regulatory reform, and property rights.
Daren has testified numerous times before Congress, regularly submits comments to federal agencies and has appeared in or been quoted by a wide range of media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Times, CNN, Fox Business News, Al-Jazeera America, and U.S. News and World Report. He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Executive Committee and serves on the College Level Advisory Board for Constituting America, an organization that informs and educates about the importance of the U.S. Constitution.
Daren, who hails from Florida, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from George Washington University. A licensed attorney, he holds a law degree from the University of Miami and a master of laws degree from American University.
Vice President, Energy & Resources Policy, The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)
Rachel Jones is vice president of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Ms. Jones oversees the NAM’s energy and environmental policy work and has expertise on issues ranging from energy production and use to air and water quality, climate change, energy efficiency and environmental regulation. She is a key voice for manufacturing on Capitol Hill, at federal agencies and across all forms of media.
Before joining the NAM, Jones was the environment and energy counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, where she advised the Committee on EPA, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, FERC, NASA, NOAA and the White House Office of Science and Technology activities. She served as a legal fellow for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and as executive student notes and comments editor for the Energy Law Journal.
Ms. Jones’s relentless drive has made her a powerful advocate for our members and a respected voice on the Hill and in the Administration on issues ranging from environmental policy to energy production to infrastructure and regulatory issues.
Ms. Jones has a B.A. from Oklahoma Baptist University and a J.D. from University of Tulsa College of Law.
Policy Fellow for Regulations, Americans for Prosperity
Clint Woods is the policy fellow for regulations at Americans for Prosperity. From 2017 to 2019, he served as the deputy assistant administrator for Air and Radiation at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and previously worked as executive director for the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies, and in positions with the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, American Legislative Exchange Council, and the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. He has also served on a number of state and national committees, including the U.S. Group on Earth Observations of the National Science and Technology Council and the National Advisory Council on Environmental Policy and Technology. He holds an MA in international commerce and policy from George Mason University and a BA from the University of Mary Washington. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he now resides in Delaware County, Ohio with his family.
Partner at K&L Gates, Former OFCCP Director, and President-Elect of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia
Craig E. Leen is a partner in the Washington, DC office of K&L Gates, where he is a member of the Labor, Employment, and Workplace Safety practice group. Mr. Leen is also the President-Elect of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia.
Mr. Leen was formerly the Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the U.S. Department of Labor, where he reported directly to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Labor.
Mr. Leen serves as a Professorial Lecturer in Law and Professor of Government Lawyering at The George Washington University Law School, as Vice Chair of the District of Columbia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, as Co-Chair of the DC Family Support Council, and as Chair of the Civil and Human Rights Committee of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia.
Prior to his federal service at OFCCP, Mr. Leen was the City Attorney of the City of Coral Gables, and before that was Chief of the Appeals Section and then Chief of the Federal Litigation Section at the Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office. Earlier in his career, Mr. Leen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Robert E. Keeton, United States District Judge, District of Massachusetts.
In recognition of his public service, Mr. Leen received the Secretary's Exceptional Achievement Award - Professional while at the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Paul S. Buchman Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Area of Legal Public Service while in local government.
Mr. Leen is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York, and is also board certified by The Florida Bar in city, county, and local government law.
Mr. Leen received his Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School, graduating as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and having served as a teaching fellow in both Contracts and Torts. Mr. Leen received his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Georgetown University, where he majored in both Government and Economics.
Partner, Williams & Connolly
Sarah Harris is a partner in Williams & Connolly’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice, where she represents clients in high-stakes appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts across the country. She has argued five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has presented many arguments in federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts. Her cases have run the gamut of substantive areas, including constitutional law—especially First Amendment and separation-of-powers issues—as well as administrative law, arbitration, class actions, antitrust, False Claims Act litigation, commercial litigation, and federal civil procedure.
Sarah is widely recognized for her appellate advocacy. Chambers USA has recognized her as “Up and Coming” in Appellate Law. She has been named to Bloomberg Law’s 40 Under 40 list of top lawyers nationwide and to Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List,” as well as a an appellate “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal and Law360, a “Next Generation Lawyer” by The Legal 500, and as one of Bloomberg Law’s “Five Fresh Faces to Know in Appellate.”
Sarah clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Laurence Silberman on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Sandra Lynch on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Before joining Williams & Connolly, she served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Sarah received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, and her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. She also holds a Ph.D. and M. Phil. from the University of Cambridge.
Vice President for Legal Strategy, Stand Together
Casey Mattox is Vice President for Legal Strategy at Stand Together and Senior Advisor at
Americans for Prosperity. In these roles he advocates for and creates strategies and
partnerships to ensure a constitutionally limited government that protects the civil liberties of all
Americans. Prior to joining Stand Together and AFP Casey’s legal career focused on defending
the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, healthcare workers and religious organizations.
Casey has a J.D. from Boston College School of Law and an undergraduate degree from the
University of Virginia. You can find him on Twitter at @CaseyMattox_ and on LinkedIn at
@Casey-Mattox-ST.
Trial Attorney, Council on American-Islamic Relations
Justin Sadowsky is a trial attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. As part of CAIR’s civil rights team, Justin helps lead CAIR’s strategic litigation in support of religious, free speech, and equal protection rights of Muslims in the United States, including as employees, incarcerees, and activists. Among the litigation Justin has worked on includes invalidation of the federal terrorism watchlist (TSDB) on Due Process grounds (Elhady v. Kable), a determination that Texas’s anti-BDS law violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech clause (Amawi v. Pflugerville), and a declaration that the Virginia Riverside Regional Jail’s “god pod” providing special accommodations and benefits for Christian inmates violated the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses and the Equal Protection Clause (Young v. Newton).
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