Shareholder, Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A.
A versatile litigation and appellate attorney with deep ties to his native Charleston, South Carolina, Mac McQuillin blends an established government and business litigation practice with an emerging practice as a certified South Carolina Mediator. In addition to his law practice, Mac was elected in 2014 to serve on the Berkeley County School District Board (the fourth largest school district in South Carolina) and currently serves as the school board’s Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Facilities and Capital Planning Committee.
Prior to Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, Mac served as a law clerk to then South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, where he researched existing and proposed legislation and its impact on South Carolina. He also advised the Governor’s Chief Legal Counsel on various legal matters involving the Executive Office. Mac also clerked for South Carolina Senator George E. (Chip) Campsen III. While working for Senator Campsen, he was responsible for constituent research and provided assistance during Senate debates on tort reform.
Mac is listed in The Best Lawyers in America© Commercial Litigation (2020-2021) and South Carolina Super Lawyers® “Rising Stars” Business Litigation (2014-2020). In 2017, Mac was awarded the South Carolina Lawyers Weekly Leadership in Law Award and recognized by Charleston Business Magazine as one of the “Legal Elite of the Lowcountry” for Government Affairs.
Mac is a frequent speaker on government and litigation topics, including “Local Government Litigation Update – Impact Fee Litigation, Opioid Litigation (State and Federal) and FOIA,” “Legal Issues Affecting Local Government and Municipalities,” and “Recent Developments Under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”
Mac received his law degree, with honors, from the University of South Carolina School of Law (Order of Coif) and undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina.
Vice President, Americans for Prosperity
Vice Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Law, UCLA Law
Joanna Schwartz is Vice Dean for Faculty Development and Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. She teaches Civil Procedure and a variety of courses on police accountability and public interest lawyering. In 2015, she received UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award.
Professor Schwartz is one of the country's leading experts on police misconduct litigation. Professor Schwartz additionally studies the dynamics of modern civil litigation. She is co-author, with Stephen Yeazell, of a leading casebook, Civil Procedure (9th Edition), and her scholarship has appeared in the New York University Law Review, the Texas Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal, among others.
Professor Schwartz is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School. After law school, Professor Schwartz clerked for Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York and Judge Harry Pregerson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was then associated with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP, in New York City, where she specialized in police misconduct, prisoners' rights, and First Amendment litigation.
Police Auditor, Fairfax County, Virginia
Richard Schott is Fairfax County's first independent police auditor. He assumed the position in April 2017.
Schott has spent his entire 27-year FBI career as a special agent working with local law enforcement officers, and for the past 16 years has provided training to members of state and local law enforcement agencies, including legal issues associated with police officers’ use of force and deadly force.
He has extensive experience with Color of Law violations, including reviewing police reports and citizen complaints, recommending to U.S. Department of Justice attorneys whether or not to proceed with investigations and conducting the ensuing investigations.
Schott is also an instructor at the FBI Academy in Quantico, where he has taught thousands of new agents on basic constitutional criminal procedure and the legal ramifications involved when an agent uses force.
He was previously the associate division counsel for the Atlanta Division of the FBI, where he supervised the division’s forfeiture program. As a special agent for the Birmingham Division, he orchestrated security for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games’ soccer events in the area.
Schott has published 12 articles on various legal topics and is a member of the United States Supreme Court Bar and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Schott is also an adjunct faculty member for the University of Virginia.
Schott received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of New Orleans and his juris doctorate from the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.
Partner, Briscoe Prows Kao Ivester & Bazel LLP
Tony Francois is experienced in Water and Real Property Law, Land Use and Zoning, Environmental Regulation, Natural Resources Development, Agricultural Law, and Constitutional Law. He has represented homeowners, builders, farmers and ranchers, trade associations, and water districts in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings before state and federal administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and the Districts of New Mexico and North Dakota, and has litigated cases in federal courts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has appeared before the Supreme Courts of California, Idaho, Nevada, and the United States.
Prior to attending law school, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Army, and was stationed in the former West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tony was an Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation from 2012 to 2021. He was a lobbyist for 10 years, first with California Farm Bureau Federation from 2003 to 2007, and then with KP Public Affairs from 2007 to 2012. He was an attorney at McQuaid, Bedford & Van Zandt in San Francisco from 1999 – 2003.
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument: Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid
TeleforumSupreme Court reviews FTC monetary awards
In AMG Capital Management LLC v. FTC, No. 19-508, the Supreme Court is reviewing the...
State Court Docket Watch: Adams v. McMaster
Stafford (Mac) J. McQuillin
Background In early March, South Carolina’s Governor, Henry McMaster, issued a State of Emergency following...
State Court Docket Watch: In Re Individuals in Custody of the State of Hawai’i
Jeremiah Grant Mosteller
As COVID-19 spread across our country, many jurisdictions struggled with how to protect those in...
Topics
Judicial Overreach in the Flynn Case?
The Michael Flynn case took a remarkable turn last week when the presiding federal judge,...
Topics
American Justice 2018: Book Review
“The Shifting Supreme Court” is the latest from the University of Pennsylvania’s “American Justice” series,...
Qualified Immunity In America: An Overview & Conversation [POLICYbrief]
Joanna C. Schwartz, Richard Schott
Created by the Supreme Court in 1967, the legal doctrine of qualified immunity shields government...
Topics
Argument Spotlight: Return Mail v. USPS
On February 20, 2019 the Supreme Court heard yet another case stemming from the...
Topics
Supreme Court Declines Connected Vehicle Lawsuit, Leaving Standing Issues in Tech and Security for Future Resolution
Who is best positioned to develop security and privacy standards for emerging technologies that malicious...
Will We Soon Have Clarity on Navigable Waters?: How the Supreme Court’s October 2017 Term Set the Stage
Tony Francois
Note from the Editor: This article discusses the longstanding legal battle over the meaning of...