Board Member, Center for Equal Opportunity
Roger Clegg is a Board Member at and former President and General Counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity. He focuses on legal issues arising from civil rights laws--including the regulatory impact on business and the problems in higher education created by affirmative action. A former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Clegg held the second highest positions in both the Civil Rights Division (1987-91) and in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (1991-93). He has held several other positions at the U.S. Justice Department, including Assistant to the Solicitor General (1985-87), Associate Deputy Attorney General (1984-85), and Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy (1984). Clegg is a graduate of Yale University Law School (1981).
Senior fellow, Manhattan Institute; Columnist, Wall Street Journal
Jason Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, where he worked for more than 20 years writing opinion pieces on politics, economics, education, immigration and race, among other subjects. He’s also a commentator for Fox News, where he’s appeared for more than a decade.
After joining the Journal in 1994, he was named a senior editorial page writer in 2000 and a member of the Editorial Board in 2005. He joined the Manhattan Institute in 2015. In 2008 he published Let Them In, which argues for a more free-market oriented U.S. immigration policy. His second book, Please Stop Helping Us, which is about the track record of government efforts to help the black underclass, was published in 2014. His most recent book, False Black Power?, is an assessment of why black political success has not translated into more black economic success and was published in June.
Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Mr. Riley earned a bachelor's degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has also worked for USA Today and the Buffalo News. He lives in suburban New York City.
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Neil Eggleston is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Neil has a distinguished record of public service, and has held a number of senior government roles. He was White House Counsel to President Obama from 2014 to 2017, and advised the president on all legal and constitutional issues across a broad spectrum of domestic and foreign policy matters. Neil’s practice focuses on enforcement defense including at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and other enforcement agencies.
Earlier in his career, Neil served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton from 1993 to 1994. Heals o served as Deputy Chief Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee Investigating the Iran/Contra Affair (1987-1988); Assistant U.S. Attorney (1981-1987); and Chief Appellate Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1986-1987).
Neil served as a law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1978-1979) and for Chief Justice Warren E. Burger on the United States Supreme Court (1979-1980).
Neil teaches a seminar in Presidential Power at Harvard Law School in the spring of 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021 and at Yale Law School in the spring of 2018. He also frequently lectures at American Bar Association and similar seminars.
Professor of Law and Director, Center for the Middle East and International Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
Professor of Law Eugene Kontorovich is one of the world’s preeminent experts on universal jurisdiction and maritime piracy, as well as international law and the Israel-Arab conflict. He is also the Director of Scalia Law School's Center for the Middle East and International Law. Professor Kontorovich joined the Scalia Law School from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law where he was a Professor of Law from 2011 to 2018 and an Associate Professor from 2007 to 2011. Previously, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago from 2005 to 2007 and an Assistant Professor at George Mason School of Law from 2003 to 2007.
Professor Kontorovich has published over thirty major scholarly articles and book chapters in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed journals in the United States and Europe, including the American Journal of International Law, International Review of Law & Economics, Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Virginia Law Review. His scholarship has been cited in leading foreign relations and international law
His expertise is often sought out and quoted by major news organizations such the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR News, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and numerous television and radio programs. Prof. Kontorovich’s popular writings have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, POLITICO, Commentary, Haaretz, and numerous other leading publications. He is also a regular contributor to the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy legal blog.
He attended the University of Chicago for college and law school. After law school, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He has been honored with a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, in 2011-12, and with the Federalist Society’s prestigious Bator Award, given annually to a young scholar (under 40), for outstanding scholarship and teaching.
Charles R. Weiner Professor of Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
Peter J. Spiro holds the Charles Weiner Chair in international law. Before joining Temple’s faculty in 2006, Professor Spiro was Rusk Professor of Law at the University of Georgia Law School. A former law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court, Spiro specializes in international, immigration, and constitutional law. Spiro is the author of Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization (Oxford University Press 2008) and At Home in Two Countries: The Past and Future of Dual Citizenship (NYU Press 2016). He has contributed commentary to such publications as The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic, and is frequently quoted in the media on international and immigration law issues.
Spiro has held fellowships at the European University Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Open Society Institute. He has also held visiting appointments at the University of Texas, the Australian National University, and Sungkyunkwan University. Spiro is a member of the International Mobility Treaty Commission and the Investment Migration Council, and a former member of the U.S. Department of State’s Historical Advisory Committee. He is co-chair of the Migration Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law. Spiro serves as U.S. country expert for the European University Institute’s Citizenship Observatory. In July 2011, he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the application of the War Powers Act to U.S. participation in NATO operations in Libya. In 2007 and 2016 surveys, Professor Spiro ranked in the top 25 nationally among international law scholars on the basis of academic citation frequency.
In addition to his 1990-91 Supreme Court clerkship, Spiro served as a law clerk to Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has also served as director for democracy on the staff of the National Security Council, as an attorney-adviser in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser and as a resident associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Spiro holds a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Director of Regulation Policy, American Action Forum
Sam Batkins is director of regulatory policy at the American Action Forum. Batkins focuses his research on examining the rulemaking efforts of administrative agencies and Congress. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Hill, Reuters, and The Washington Post, among other publications. He has testified before the U.S. House, Senate, and state legislatures across the country.
Prior to joining the Forum, Batkins worked at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Institute for Legal Reform and the National Taxpayers Union. At the U.S. Chamber, he focused on lawsuit abuse, tort reform, and federal regulation. During his time at the National Taxpayers Union, he conducted studies on state and federal spending.
Batkins received his B.A. in political science from Sewanee: The University of the South, where he graduated summa cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. He is a member of the Maryland Bar.
Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance, American Enterprise Institute; Executive Director, Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State
Adam J. White is the Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the Supreme Court and the administrative state. He also directs the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.
He writes on regulation and constitutional government for a variety of publications. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., after clerking for the D.C. Circuit's Judge David Sentelle. He also has been chairman of the ABA's Administrative Law Section.
In 2021, he served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, where he criticized “Court packing” and other efforts to restructure the Supreme Court.
Senior Policy Analyst, The George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center
Sofie Miller's regulatory research portfolio includes economic analysis of energy efficiency standards, analysis of regulatory benefits, use of cost benefit analysis by agencies, retrospective review of existing rules, regressive effects of regulations, and the efficacy of public participation within the rulemaking process. Sofie has submitted public comments on regulations establishing energy efficiency standards, airline passenger protections, consumer product safety, and standards to prevent foodborne illnesses. Sofie has published articles in Regulation Magazine and the journal Engage, and is the editor of the GW Regulatory Studies Center's weekly Regulation Digest, which tracks regulatory developments in federal agencies, think tanks, and the media.
Distinguished Senior Fellow and Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Edward Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and holds EPPC’s Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies. He is the longest-serving President in EPPC’s history, having held that position from March 2004 through January 2021.
Mr. Whelan directs EPPC’s program on The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture. His areas of expertise include constitutional law and the judicial confirmation process. As a contributor to National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog, he has been a leading commentator on nominations to the Supreme Court and the lower courts and on issues of constitutional law. He has written essays and op-eds for leading newspapers—including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post—opinion journals, and academic symposia and law reviews. The National Law Journal has named Mr. Whelan among its “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C.
Mr. Whelan is co-editor of three volumes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s work: Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived (Crown Forum, 2017), a New York Times bestselling collection of speeches by Justice Scalia; On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer (Crown Forum, 2019), a collection of Justice Scalia’s writings on faith and religion; and The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law (Crown Forum, 2020), a collection of Justice Scalia’s views on legal issues.
Mr. Whelan, a lawyer and a former law clerk to Justice Scalia, has served in positions of responsibility in all three branches of the federal government. From just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, until joining EPPC in 2004, Mr. Whelan was the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. In that capacity, he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General and other senior DOJ officials, and departments and agencies throughout the executive branch on difficult and sensitive legal questions. Mr. Whelan previously served on Capitol Hill as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In addition to clerking for Justice Scalia, he was a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In 1981 Mr. Whelan graduated with honors from Harvard College and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1985 from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review.
For more on Mr. Whelan’s background, see this interview.
Partner, Dechert LLP
In a career spanning both private and public practice, Steven A. Engel is a leading litigator and counselor, acting as an advocate in high-profile trial and appellate matters and advising clients on their most sensitive and complex legal issues. Mr. Engel is the Chair of Dechert’s Appellate and Regulatory Litigation Group and has appeared in courts across the country, handling a wide range of civil litigation matters, including administrative law, commercial litigation, constitutional law and securities cases. He regularly counsels clients on challenges to agency regulations and in connection with government, congressional and internal investigations.
Until January 2021, Mr. Engel served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. As the head of the office, Mr. Engel served as the chief counsel to the Attorney General and the principal legal adviser to the Executive Branch, providing legal advice to the President and cabinet secretaries on the most critical constitutional and statutory questions, including matters pertaining to national security, administrative law, criminal law, congressional oversight, and executive orders. In December 2020, Mr. Engel was awarded the Department of Justice’s highest honor, the Edmund J. Randolph Award, for outstanding service to the Department.
Before his appointment as Assistant Attorney General in 2017, Mr. Engel had been a partner at Dechert since 2009 and previously served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. Mr. Engel clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court for Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for Judge Alex Kozinski.
Mr. Engel is a member of the Advisory Committee on Rules for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Administrative Conference of the United States. He has been an Adjunct Professor at the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University and the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America and was formerly the Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. He has been nationally ranked as a leading lawyer in The Legal 500 USA and Benchmark Litigation. Mr. Engel has frequently commented on legal subjects in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and has appeared on national news programs as a legal analyst, including on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network. Mr. Engel has testified on several occasions before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
Director of the Center on National Security, Fordham Law School
Professor Greenberg is a noted expert on national security, terrorism, and civil liberties. She is the author of Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, out on May 24, 2016. She is also the author of The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days (2009), which was selected as one of the best books of 2009 by The Washington Post and Slate.com. She is co-editor with Joshua L. Dratel of The Enemy Combatant Papers: American Justice, the Courts, and the War on Terror (2008) and The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib (2005); editor of the books The Torture Debate in America (2006) and Al Qaeda Now (2005); and editor of the Terrorist Trial Report Card, 2001–2011. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, The National Interest, Mother Jones, TomDispatch.com, and on major news channels. She is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Josh Blackman is a national thought leader on constitutional law and the United States Supreme Court. Josh’s work was quoted during two presidential impeachment trials. He has testified before Congress and advises federal and state lawmakers. Josh regularly appears on TV, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the BBC. Josh is also a frequent guest on NPR and other syndicated radio programs. He has published commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and leading national publications.
Since 2012, Josh has served as a professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston. He holds the Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law. Josh is an Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Josh has written more than seven dozen law review articles that have been cited more than a thousand times. Josh was selected as the Jurist of the Year by the Texas Journal of Law & Public Policy, received the inaugural Meese III Originalism Award, and was awarded the Inaugural Joseph Story Award. Josh was selected by Forbes Magazine for the “30 Under 30” in Law and Policy. Josh is the President of the Harlan Institute, and founded FantasySCOTUS, the Internet’s Premier Supreme Court Fantasy League. He blogs at the Volokh Conspiracyand posts@JoshMBlackman.
Shareholder, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart PC
Hal Coxson is a nationally recognized lawyer with over 35 years experience in all aspects of labor and employment law in Washington, DC. He is highly respected for his experience and expertise in government relations and as an advocate on behalf of business clients before Congress, the Executive Branch and independent federal regulatory agencies. He chairs the Firm’s Government Relations Practice Group and is a Principal in Ogletree Governmental Affairs, Inc., the Firm’s wholly-owned subsidiary.
Mr. Coxson concentrates on traditional labor law and international labor relations. He has helped shape national labor policy through oral arguments and the filing of amicus curiae briefs on behalf of business clients in numerous landmark cases before the National Labor Relations Board and federal courts of appeals, including the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, he has represented the U.S. Employer community before the International Labor Organization, and has defended clients in global corporate campaigns.
In his government relations practice, Mr. Coxson represents individual corporations and national trade associations, as well as business coalitions which he has been responsible for organizing on a variety of the most important workplace issues over the past quarter century. He has testified on behalf of business clients and as an expert witness before federal administrative agencies and both Houses of Congress.
In addition, Hal has a close working relationship with many of the national trade associations in Washington. He is Executive Director of the First Tuesday Group, an informal organization of thirty-five national trade associations and professional organizations involved in workplace issues. He serves on the Boards and committees of many trade associations, including the Labor Relations Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where he co-chairs its International Perspectives Subcommittee.
Hal is a frequent speaker on labor and employment topics. He appears as a guest on radio and television talk shows and panels. In addition, he has written several noteworthy publications on workplace law, including most recently “The National Labor Relations Board in the Obama Administration: What Changes to Expect” (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 2009) which has become required reading in several law schools throughout the country. Currently, he is co-editor of “NLRB Insight,” published bi-monthly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and is on the Board of Trustees of HR Advisor.
Hal has had numerous speeches and debates before LERA, the Council on Labor Law Equality, US LERN, the Mercer Oil Forum, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, Society for Human Resource Management, Edison Electric Institute, Associated General Contractors of America, American Bakers Association, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, North American Transportation Employee Relations Association, National Association of Waterfront Employers, Retail Industry Leaders Association, Food Marketing Institute, National Retail Federation, the Business Roundtable, WCI, South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, and Indiana Chamber of Commerce, as well as at meetings/conferences sponsored by the American Bar Association, National Labor Relations Board, and the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service. He speaks frequently at Ogletree Deakins Annual Workplace Strategies Seminars, Not Your Father’s NLRB, and various Ogletree Deakins Office Seminars across the country.
Co-Chairman, Workplace Policy Institute and Shareholder, Littler Mendelson PC
Michael J. Lotito is the founder and co-chair of Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute® (WPI®), the firm’s government relations and public policy arm. He provides strategic advice to C-suite executives and policy makers on the complex intersection of public policy, communications and the law at the international, national and local levels. Michael takes a proactive and holistic approach to advocating for the interests of employers on a global scale, working with companies, trade associations, business groups and other influencers to define and shape the laws, regulations and policies that have critical implications for the workplace.
Michael focuses on giving employers a voice in the midst of changes affecting their workplaces. He has been at the forefront of challenging numerous rules and regulations impacting employers, such as the expansion of the joint employer doctrine, changes to the definition of an independent contractor, new overtime pay requirements, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, and the Persuader Rule. Michael also advocates for employers on issues including nominations to government agencies, state level developments impacting freedom of speech for corporations, and the rapid expansion of sectoral bargaining boards. He serves as labor and policy counsel to the International Franchise Association, as a member of the Labor Relations Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the California Business Roundtable’s board of directors.
Michael speaks around the world on workplace topics and writes extensively on emerging issues for the workplace. He has testified before committees in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, as well as before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). He is regularly quoted and published in such media outlets as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, Chief Executive Magazine, Law360, Fox Business, National Law Journal, CNBC, The Hill and Politico, and has a significant social media presence on LinkedIn. Michael was inducted into Human Resource Executive magazine’s Most Powerful Employment Attorneys Hall of Fame, and Villanova University Graduate School of Human Resources named him HR Alumnus of the 20th Century.
Through the Emma Coalition – a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that he co-founded in 2018 to address the technology-induced displacement of employment (TIDE™) – Michael has been at the vanguard of preparing American business and the American workforce for the future of work. As technological innovation drives significant changes in employers’ talent needs, the Emma Coalition focuses on understanding the skills the American workforce will need in the future and addressing the country’s varied and complex workforce challenges through education, training and engagement with policymakers.
* Member of the California Bar; not licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia. Practice is limited primarily to governmental affairs advocacy but also includes the practice before Federal Agencies authorized by Rule 49(c)(3) and does not constitute the practice of law under Rule 49 of the District Columbia Court of Appeals.
Member, NLRB
Bill works with a broad range of clients, including trade associations, hospitals and other health care institutions, school districts, transportation and logistics companies and manufacturing companies.
He is a member of Littler Mendelson's Traditional Labor Practice Group and editor of the firm's traditional labor blog, Labor Relations Counsel. He also authored several amicus curiae briefs on behalf of trade associations in cases challenging state laws that allow labor unions to trespass on the private property of employers, including a landmark case now pending at the California Supreme Court.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Mr. Mirengoff is a retired attorney in Washington, D.C. and is a blogger at powerlineblog.com.
Topics
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