Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, specializing in foreign policy and civil liberties. He worked as special assistant to President Reagan and editor of the political magazine Inquiry. He writes regularly for leading publications such as Fortune magazine, National Interest, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Times. Bandow speaks frequently at academic conferences, on college campuses, and to business groups. Bandow has been a regular commentator on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. He holds a J.D. from Stanford University.
Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, Department of Political Science
Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. His publications include Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It (Chicago 2010) (with James Feldman); Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House 2005); Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell 1996), "Why Economic Sanctions Do Not Work," International Security (1997), "The Determinants of International Moral Action," International Organization (1999); "The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism," American Political Science Review (2003); and "Soft Balancing against the United States," International Security (2005). His commentary on international security policy has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, as well as on Nightline, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and National Public Radio. Before coming to Chicago in 1999, he taught international relations at Dartmouth College for five years and air power strategy for the USAF's School of Advanced Airpower Studies for three years. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. His current work focuses on the causes of suicide terrorism and the politics of unipolarity. He is the director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats.
Professor of Political Science, Ohio State University
Professor Kogan is a Professor of Political Science at The Ohio State University, where his research focuses on American politics, public policy, and the intersection of political institutions and electoral behavior. He is widely recognized for his empirical work on political accountability, voter behavior, and institutional design, with research published in leading academic journals and cited in major policy discussions. Professor Kogan frequently provides policy analysis to state and national audiences, and his insights offer a data-driven perspective on the political and institutional dynamics.
Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech; Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, specializing in foreign policy and civil liberties. He worked as special assistant to President Reagan and editor of the political magazine Inquiry. He writes regularly for leading publications such as Fortune magazine, National Interest, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Times. Bandow speaks frequently at academic conferences, on college campuses, and to business groups. Bandow has been a regular commentator on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. He holds a J.D. from Stanford University.
General Partner, DT Global
John P. DeBlasio is DT Global's General Partner, Chairman of DT Institute, Founder of the Global Peace and Development (GPD) Charitable Trust, and Managing Director of Bootstrap Capital.
John is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Illinois Joining Forces Foundation, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, the Social Science Foundation (Korbel School of International Affairs at Denver University), Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos International (NPHI), and The Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, and MVP Vets.
Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, Department of Political Science
Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. His publications include Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It (Chicago 2010) (with James Feldman); Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House 2005); Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell 1996), "Why Economic Sanctions Do Not Work," International Security (1997), "The Determinants of International Moral Action," International Organization (1999); "The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism," American Political Science Review (2003); and "Soft Balancing against the United States," International Security (2005). His commentary on international security policy has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, as well as on Nightline, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and National Public Radio. Before coming to Chicago in 1999, he taught international relations at Dartmouth College for five years and air power strategy for the USAF's School of Advanced Airpower Studies for three years. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1988 and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. His current work focuses on the causes of suicide terrorism and the politics of unipolarity. He is the director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats.
President, EmpiriLaw
Dr. Adam Feldman is the creator and author of the blog Empirical SCOTUS and the Substack Legalytics. He is also the statistics editor for SCOTUSblog. He also runs the legal analytics/AI consulting business Empiri-Law and teaches college courses in political science. He has a law degree from U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and practiced law as a trial lawyer for several years before starting a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California. Upon completion of the Ph.D. Adam pursued a postdoctoral fellowship through Columbia Law School. He has fifteen published articles in law and peer-reviewed journals.
President, EmpiriLaw
Dr. Adam Feldman is the creator and author of the blog Empirical SCOTUS and the Substack Legalytics. He is also the statistics editor for SCOTUSblog. He also runs the legal analytics/AI consulting business Empiri-Law and teaches college courses in political science. He has a law degree from U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and practiced law as a trial lawyer for several years before starting a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California. Upon completion of the Ph.D. Adam pursued a postdoctoral fellowship through Columbia Law School. He has fifteen published articles in law and peer-reviewed journals.
General Counsel, Strive
Before joining Strive, Alexandra served as the Director of Regulatory Affairs at River Financial, where she handled all regulatory and government matters and served as product counsel. Prior to her time at River, Alexandra worked at the U.S. Department of Treasury, first in the General Counsel’s office and then as the youngest-ever Executive Secretary, where she worked directly with Secretary Mnuchin. Alexandra previously worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump. She clerked for then-Justice Allison Eid on the Colorado Supreme Court and Judge Jennifer Elrod on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She holds a J.D. from the University of Texas and a B.A. from The King’s College.
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Nominee for General Counsel, U.S. Department of Commerce
Pierre is a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce. He is the nominee for General Counsel of the Commerce Department.
Before joining Commerce in February 2025, Pierre served for six years as Chief Legal Officer of McKinsey & Company. He was previously a partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, and was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, where he served in senior legal and risk roles. Early in his career, Pierre was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Pierre has been active in academic life for three decades, including teaching law courses at Yale, Columbia and Fordham, as well as ethics courses at Wharton. He has served on numerous non-profit boards including Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, Princeton’s Center for Public Policy and Finance, the Practicing Law Institute, and the Touro Synagogue Foundation.
Pierre is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School.
Partner, International Trade, King & Spalding LLP
Stephen P. Vaughn is a Partner in the International Trade Team of King & Spalding who works primarily on international trade litigation and policy matters. In April 2019, Stephen completed more than two years of service as the General Counsel for the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In that position, he managed a team of government attorneys representing U.S. interests in both trade negotiations and trade litigation. During two months in early 2017, Stephen also served as the acting U.S. Trade Representative. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on current U.S. trade policy, as well as one of the most talented U.S. trade remedy litigators.
Former Associate, Office of White House Counsel, Office of White House Counsel
Annie Croslow is most recently the former Chief Special Counsel to Ranking Member Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee where she coordinated the Republican response to the Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson. Before her time in the Senate, Annie served in the White House Counsel’s Office for President Trump during his first term, where she worked on numerous judicial and executive nominations including that of Justice Amy Coney Barrett and served as clearance counsel.
Before joining the White House, Annie was an associate for Debevoise & Plimpton where her practice focused on white collar defense and sensitive investigations. Annie earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, her Masters in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame, and her Bachelors in Business Administration from Belmont University. Annie holds her CPA license. Before attending law school, Annie worked as an auditor for Deloitte.
President, EmpiriLaw
Dr. Adam Feldman is the creator and author of the blog Empirical SCOTUS and the Substack Legalytics. He is also the statistics editor for SCOTUSblog. He also runs the legal analytics/AI consulting business Empiri-Law and teaches college courses in political science. He has a law degree from U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and practiced law as a trial lawyer for several years before starting a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Southern California. Upon completion of the Ph.D. Adam pursued a postdoctoral fellowship through Columbia Law School. He has fifteen published articles in law and peer-reviewed journals.
Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University
Robert Luther III was appointed Associate Professor of Law in 2025 after serving as Distinguished Professor of Law from 2024-2025 and Adjunct Professor of Law from 2019-2024. He teaches and writes on the federal courts, legal and judicial ethics, political law, Congress, and professional sports. He has served at high levels in all three branches of the federal government and recently founded Constitutional Solutions PLLC—a law firm that navigates judicial candidates, judges, elected officials, professional athletes, and executives through high-stakes hearings, investigations, and reputational attacks.
Immediately before joining the Scalia Law faculty, Professor Luther spent over five years in the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day, where his practice focused on strategic counseling, crisis management, and litigation. Prior to joining Jones Day, he served as Associate Counsel to the President of the United States in the White House Counsel’s Office. In the White House, he co-managed the judicial selection process and supervised the preparation of over 150 federal judicial nominees for their successful U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. The New York Times Magazine referred to his work on judicial selection during this period as “unique in White House history.” Before joining the White House, Professor Luther served as Counsel to then–U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where he served as a core member of the team that prepared the Senator for confirmation as United States Attorney General. Professor Luther was also a law clerk to Judge Daniel A. Manion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Earlier in his career, Professor Luther practiced civil and appellate litigation at a boutique firm in Williamsburg, Va. and taught at William & Mary Law School.
Professor Luther frequently speaks on the legal profession, political law, and federal judicial selection. His public work has been covered by or appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Fox News, The Hill, Politico, the Washington Examiner, National Law Journal, Law360, The Washington Reporter, and elsewhere, while his scholarship is published in the law journals of nearly twenty universities including three journals of Harvard University. He holds active law licenses in Virginia, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and half of the U.S. Courts of Appeals.
In 2025, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin appointed Professor Luther to the Board of Visitors to Mount Vernon. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and serves on the Advisory Board of the Wilson Center for Leadership at Hampden-Sydney College. Since 2019, he has helped over 200 of his students secure clerkships with federal judges.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
David J. Porter is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed on October 11, 2018. Before his appointment, he was a shareholder at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, where he practiced commercial and civil litigation. Porter received his bachelor’s degree from Grove City College and his J.D. from the George Mason University School of Law. He clerked for Judge D. Brooks Smith on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The World Aflame: Protecting Trust and Liberty in Times of Wars in the Middle East and Europe, Economic Instability, and Approaching Domestic Elections
Chicago Lawyer Chapter
Chicago, ILJanuary Luncheon with Minister Kentaro Fujimoto
Montgomery Lawyer Chapter
Montgomery, AL7 Minute Presentations of Works in Progress Panel 1-A
New Orleans, LA27th Annual Faculty Conference
New Orleans, LANRSC v. FEC: The Future of Campaign Finance
Columbus Lawyer Chapter
Columbus, OHThe World Aflame - How Executive Power is Reshaping the World and Responding to Domestic Instability
Chicago Lawyer Chapter
Chicago, IL2024-2025 Supreme Court Wrap Up - Las Vegas Chapter
Las Vegas Lawyers Chapter
Las Vegas, NVLunch & Plenary Panel 1: The Effect of the New Administration on Business, and What’s Still to Come
Chicago, ILFourth Annual In-House Counsel Network Conference
Chicago, ILLuncheon & Session 2: The Road to the Bench Within the Third Circuit
2025 Third Circuit Chapters Conference
Philadelphia, PA