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President

Jul 1 1997 Publication

The Line Item Veto Act and the Limits of Executive Power

Timothy E. Flanigan

On April 10, 1997, as this article was being prepared for printing, the United States District...

Sponsors: Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group

Dec 1 1996 Publication

Colloquium: The Future of Environmental Reform

Don Clay, Larry Hart, Dana Joel, Dorothy Ann Kellogg, Debra Knopman, Michael McCloskey, Lynn Scarlett, Jonathan H. Adler, Jay Benforado, F Bush, Henry Diamond, Becky Norton Dunlop, C. Boyden Gray, Andrew Otis, Alan C. Raul, Robert Sussman

The Federalist Society hosted a colloquium on environmental regulatory reform at Georgetown University's Leavey Center...

Sponsors: Energy & Environment Practice Group

Dec 1 1996 Publication

Clinton v. Jones: Are Presidents "Temporarily Immune" from Suit Based Upon Their Unofficial Acts?

Douglas R. Cox

An alleged 1991 encounter between Paula Corbin Jones, an Arkansas state employee, and then-Governor Bill...

Sponsors: Federalism & Separation of Powers Practice Group

Necessary & Proper Episode 93: Executive Orders: Faithful Execution or Legislating from the Oval Office?

John G. Malcolm, Richard J. Pierce, Ilan Wurman, Beth A. Williams

Presidents have used executive orders to direct the executive branch since the founding, but over...

Sponsors: Article I Initiative

Necessary & Proper Episode 94: The End of Humphrey’s Executor?

Jed Shugerman, Ilan Wurman, Aram A. Gavoor

Does the President control independent agencies? This panel will examine the Trump administration’s efforts to...

Sponsors: Article I Initiative

Necessary & Proper Episode 100: Legislative or Executive? The Curious Case of the Library of Congress

Anne Joseph O'Connell, Zvi Rosen, Devin Watkins, Robert J. Rando

The recent dismissal of the Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyrights by President...

Sponsors: Article I Initiative

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Contributor Information

Timothy E. Flanigan

Timothy Flanigan Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Corporate S, Cancer Treatment Centers of America

Biography

Timothy E. Flanigan is the Chief Legal for Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). With a rich background as a leader and senior legal advisor, he has more than 35 years of experience in public companies, the private practice of law, and in senior levels of government service.

Prior to joining CTCA, Mr. Flanigan served as Senior Vice President and Principal Deputy General Counsel at BlackBerry, Limited where he was responsible for the legal, business affairs and corporate security functions, as well as the company’s global government relations efforts. Previously, he was a senior partner with the international law firm McGuireWoods, LLC, and Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Tyco International, where he helped successfully revitalize that $40 billion enterprise.

Mr. Flanigan served the United States in multiple roles throughout his career, including Senior Law Clerk to the Honorable Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States. He also served as Deputy Counsel to President George W. Bush, where he coordinated legal strategy throughout the executive branch on anti-terrorism and other issues. He was nominated by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel.

Mr. Flanigan earned his law degree and his MBA from the University of Virginia, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Brigham Young University.

University of Virginia, MBA, 2012
University of Virginia School of Law, JD, 1981
Brigham Young University, BA, 1976

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Don Clay

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Larry Hart

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Dana Joel

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Dorothy Ann Kellogg

Chemical Manufactures Association

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Debra Knopman

Biography

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Michael McCloskey

Biography

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Lynn Scarlett

Biography

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Jonathan H. Adler

Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor, William & Mary Law School

Biography

Jonathan H. Adler joined the William & Mary law faculty as the Tazwell Taylor Professor of Law and William H. Cabell Research Professor in 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, he was the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Climate Liberalism: Perspectives on Liberty, Property and Pollution (Palgrave, 2023), Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane (Brookings Institution Press, 2020), Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011).

His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2024 study identified Professor Adler as the seventh most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law from 2019 to 2023.

Professor Adler is a contributing editor to Civitas Outlook and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, The Volokh Conspiracy. A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS Newshour and National Public Radio to the Fox News Channel and Entertainment Tonight.

Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. In 2018, Professor Adler was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and helped co-found the organization Checks and Balances. In 2024, Professor Adler was appointed a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.

Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

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Jay Benforado

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F Bush

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Henry Diamond

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Becky Norton Dunlop

Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow, The Heritage Foundation

Biography

Becky Norton Dunlop, a prominent leader, strategist, and counselor in the conservative movement, is The Heritage Foundation’s Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow.

Dunlop, who joined the leading think tank in 1998, holds the only policy chair in the country to be officially named for the 40th president. She succeeds Ed Meese, the U.S. attorney general under Reagan, who assumed emeritus status.

Dunlop oversees special projects, travels as an ambassador for Heritage, and works tirelessly to assure that the legacy of principles, policies, and practices represented by the life and service of Ronald Reagan remain in the hearts and minds of Americans.

Previously, Dunlop was Heritage’s vice president for external relations from 1998 until May 2016. She served on the Trump Transition team.

Dunlop was a senior official in the Reagan administration from 1981-1989 inside the White House, at the Justice Department, and at the Interior Department.

She served from 1994-1998 as Secretary of Natural Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the Cabinet of then-Virginia Gov. George Allen.

As political director for the American Conservative Union from 1973- 1977, she was instrumental in organizing grass-roots activists for Reagan’s unsuccessful 1976 race for the Republican nomination and advised his successful 1980 nomination and general election campaigns.

From Reagan’s first inauguration in 1981 to 1985, her White House posts included Deputy Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel and Special Assistant to the President and Director of his Cabinet office. During Reagan’s second term, Dunlop served as senior special assistant to Meese, then attorney general, in charge of managing Cabinet-level domestic policy issues. She oversaw major policy reports on the environment, the family, federalism, tort reform, privatization, and welfare reform.

She completed her service in the Reagan administration as deputy undersecretary of the Interior Department and as assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks.

Dunlop is one of the few of the insiders from the beginnings of the Reagan era who remain active in public policy leadership.

As Virginia’s natural resources chief, Dunlop worked to streamline, decentralize, and down-size agencies while protecting and improving the environment. She is one of the few “free-market environmentalists” to have headed a state agency and put ideas into action. Her book, “Clearing the Air” (Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, 2000), chronicles some of her experiences in advancing those principles.

In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed her to a part-time post as chairwoman of the Federal Service Impasses Panel. The seven-member panel resolves disputes between federal agencies management and labor unions. Under her leadership, it took on several hundred cases and eliminated backlogs.

Other current leadership roles include the boards of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, the Reagan Ranch Board of Governors, the Reagan Alumni Association, the Association for American Educators and the AAE Foundation, the Council for National Policy and the American Conservative Union.

In addition to topics addressing conservative principles and their roots in the nation’s founding, Dunlop is a sought-after public speaker on the idea that personnel is policy; on energy, natural resources and the environment (including free market environmentalism); on federalism as a former member of a governor’s Cabinet; Capitalism and the Rule of Law, and on the Reagan administration (including the 40th president’s effective leadership style).

A graduate of Miami University in Ohio, she currently resides in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband, George S. Dunlop. The Dunlops are members of Oakland Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia.

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C. Boyden Gray

Founding Partner, Boyden Gray & Associates

Biography

Ambassador C. Boyden Gray is the founding partner of Boyden Gray & Associates, a law and strategy firm in Washington, D.C., focused on constitutional and regulatory issues.

Mr. Gray worked in the White House for twelve years, first as counsel to the Vice President during the Reagan administration and then as White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush. In the Reagan administration, he was Counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, for which he wrote the original Executive Order 12291 requiring cost-benefit analysis and White House review of regulations (later renumbered as current EO 12866). In the George H.W. Bush Administration, Mr. Gray was in charge of judicial selection and was also instrumental in the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and a cap-and-trade system for acid rain emissions. In 1993, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Under President George W. Bush, Mr. Gray was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and U.S. Special Envoy to Europe for Eurasian Energy.

Mr. Gray practiced law for 25 years at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and was chairman of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the American Bar Association from 2000 to 2002. Early in his career, Mr. Gray helped to develop the Business Roundtable and served as its first counsel. He is an adjunct professor at Antonin Scalia Law School and a former adjunct professor at NYU Law School (teaching energy and environmental law). Mr. Gray is on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council, the Federalist Society, Reason Foundation, and the Trust for the National Mall.

Mr. Gray earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard, where he was an editor of the Crimson, and his J.D. with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Mr. Gray served in the United States Marine Corps, and after law school, he clerked for Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

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Andrew Otis

Biography

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Alan C. Raul

Partner, Sidley Austin LLP

Biography

Alan Raul is the founder and leader of Sidley’s highly ranked Privacy, Data Security and Information Law practice. He represents companies on federal, state and international privacy and cybersecurity issues, including global data protection and compliance programs, data breaches, consumer protection issues and Internet law. Mr. Raul advises companies regarding their cybersecurity and information governance and preparedness, and helps them address crisis management for data security incidents. Mr. Raul’s practice involves litigation and counseling regarding consumer class actions and investigations, enforcement actions and policy development by the FTC, State Attorneys General, SEC, Department of Justice and other government agencies.

Mr. Raul provides clients with perspective gained from extensive government service. He previously served as Vice Chairman of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget, General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Associate Counsel to the President.

Mr. Raul serves as a member of the Data Security, Privacy, and Intellectual Property Litigation Advisory Committee of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center (affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce). He also serves ex officio on the American Bar Association’s Cybersecurity Legal Task Force by past appointment of the ABA President, and as a member of the Practicing Law Institute’s (PLI) Privacy Law Advisors Group.

Mr. Raul has represented a Special Cybersecurity Review Committee of the Board of Directors of a major tech company in connection with its independent investigation of the company’s handling of major data breaches.

In addition to leading a “Privacy and Data Security” practice nationally rated by Chambers Global and Chambers USA, Mr. Raul is ranked by Chambers in its top tier of Privacy and Data Security practitioners. Chambers USA has described Mr. Raul as a “true ‘ambassador’ for the privacy sector” who “attracts praise for his deep knowledge of the field. Interviewees stress that ‘he gives invaluable advice’ and is known to be a strong litigator. He also earns plaudits for his regulatory compliance and data protection policy expertise.” He has been named as a leading international Internet and E-Commerce Lawyer in Who’s Who Legal. Mr. Raul was also named to Ethisphere Institute’s “Attorneys Who Matter” in Data Privacy/Security, which recognizes lawyers with the highest commitment to public service, legal community engagement and academic involvement. In 2016, the Washingtonian named Mr. Raul one of Washington, DC’s Best Lawyers: Cybersecurity.

In 1991, Mr. Raul co-founded the “Lawyers Have Heart” 10K run and walk, to benefit the American Heart Association. He continues his active involvement with the event.

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Robert Sussman

Principal, Sussman & Associates and Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Biography

Bob Sussman is the principal in Sussman and Associates, a consulting firm that offers advice and support on energy and environmental policy issues to clients in the non-profit and private sectors.

Professor Sussman recently completed four and a half years of service in the Obama Administration, first as C0-Chair of the Transition Team for EPA and then as Senior Policy Counsel to the EPA Administrator. In this position, Professor Sussman functioned as the Administrator’s principal policy advisor, providing oversight and guidance on the full suite of policy issues across the Agency. He worked closely with all of EPA’s senior officials in Washington and the Regions. He also played a key role in EPA’s interface with OMB, CEQ and other White House offices and worked closely with other agencies, particularly the Department of Energy and Department of Interior.

Professor Sussman served in the Clinton Administration as the EPA Deputy Administrator during 1993-94. He was the Agency’s Chief Operating Officer and Regulatory Policy Officer, testified frequently before Congress and represented EPA at several international meetings.

At the end of 2007, Professor Sussman retired as a partner at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he headed the firm’s environmental practice in DC for ten years. He joined Latham in 1987 to start its environmental practice in DC after being a partner at Covington & Burling since 1974. Professor Sussman worked with a wide range of companies and trade associations on all aspects of energy and environmental policy, functioning as a policy advisor, advocate and litigator.

For several years, Professor Sussman was named one of the leading environmental lawyers in Washington, DC by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers and The International Who’s Who of Environmental Lawyers.

Professor Sussman was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress in 2008, writing and speaking about climate change and energy.

Professor Sussman is a magna cum laude 1969 graduate of Yale College and a 1973 graduate of Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Bob clerked for Judge Walter K. Stapleton of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

B.A., LL.B., Yale

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Douglas R. Cox

Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

Biography

Douglas R. Cox is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Vice-Chair of the firm's Crisis Management Practice Group. He practices in the areas of constitutional and general commercial litigation, appellate law, and governmental matters.

Mr. Cox has represented numerous clients in litigation before federal and state trial and appellate courts. He played a principal role in the firm's successful representation of the prevailing candidate before the Supreme Court of the United States in Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and Bush v. Gore, stemming from the 2000 presidential election, and in other cases before the Supreme Court involving equal protection, voting rights and election law, the scope of the jury trial right under the Seventh Amendment, and other constitutional and statutory issues.

Mr. Cox successfully represented the National Association of Securities Dealers ("NASD") in a series of trial and appellate matters, including DL Capital Group, LLC v. Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc., 409 F.3d 93 (2d Cir. 2005) and Sparta Surgical Corp. v. NASD, 159 F.3d 1209 (9th Cir. 1998).

Mr. Cox frequently represents accounting firms in a variety of matters, including matters involving the SEC and PCAOB. He also has substantial experience representing clients before congressional investigating committees.

Mr. Cox previously served for five years during the Reagan and Bush Administrations in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, becoming Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General during the Bush Administration. In that Office, he provided legal advice to Executive Branch departments; resolved legal disputes on behalf of the Attorney General between Executive Branch departments; prepared formal opinions of the Attorney General; drafted and issued opinions on legal issues of importance to the Executive Branch; and advised Congress as to the constitutionality of pending legislation.

From 1981 through 1987, Mr. Cox practiced in New York City with a national firm, representing major corporations in state and federal courts. His practice focused on intellectual property, securities, and international tax litigation.

Mr. Cox received his law degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1980, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy from 1979-1980. He received his undergraduate degree in history, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1977. He attended Oxford University on a Knox Scholarship in 1980-1981.

In 2005, Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Mr. Cox to serve as a member of the Judicial Conference Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure. In 2008 he was reappointed by Chief Justice Roberts.

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John G. Malcolm

Vice President, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom

Biography

John G. Malcolm oversees Advancing American Freedom’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as Vice President of the organization’s Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law. Malcolm brings to the challenge a wealth of legal expertise and experience in both the public and private sectors.

Prior to joining Advancing American Freedom in 2025, Malcolm was the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government and the Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage in 2012, Malcolm was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association.

Malcolm served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations. Immediately prior to that, he was a founding partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP.

From 1990 to 1997, Malcolm was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was honored with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work in connection with the successful prosecution of Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who assassinated an 11th Circuit judge and the head of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP.

A graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College, Malcolm began his career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge, and as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan (new Eversheds Sutherland).
Malcolm, who resides in Washington, D.C., serves on the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera and is a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.

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Richard J. Pierce

Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School

Biography

Professor Pierce is author of over twenty books and 130 articles on administrative law, government regulation, and the effects of various forms of government intervention on the performance of markets. His books and articles have been cited in hundreds of judicial opinions, including over a dozen opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Ilan Wurman

Professor, University of Minnesota Law School

Biography

Ilan Wurman is the Julius E. Davis Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches administrative law and constitutional law. He previously taught at Arizona State University. He writes primarily on the Fourteenth Amendment, administrative law, separation of powers, and constitutionalism. His academic writing has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Minnesota Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the Texas Law Review among other journals.

Professor Wurman is the author of a casebook, Administrative Law Theory and Fundamentals: An Integrated Approach (Foundation Press 2d ed. 2024). He is also the author of A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism (Cambridge 2017), and The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (Cambridge 2020). His next book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, is also forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

Professor Wurman practices law with the firm Tully Bailey. He has litigated a variety of administrative law and constitutional law cases, including cases involving COVID-19 restrictions, transmission lines, and Appointments Clause challenges. He also devised winning public nuisance theories to force city governments to address the increasingly challenging public camping crises throughout the country.

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Beth A. Williams

Board Member, U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

Biography

Beth A. Williams is a Board Member of the United States Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an agency whose mission is to ensure that the federal government's efforts to prevent terrorism are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties.

Prior to her Board service, Ms. Williams was the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy at the United States Department of Justice from August 2017 to December 2020. In that role, she served as the primary policy advisor to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General, and as the Chief Regulatory Officer for the Department. Ms. Williams also led the judicial nomination process for the Department, assisting in the selection and confirmation of more than 230 Article III judges to the bench.

Prior to becoming Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Williams was a litigation and appellate partner at a national law firm, where her practice focused on complex commercial, securities, appellate, and First Amendment litigation. From 2005-2006, Ms. Williams served as Special Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where she assisted with the confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to the United States Supreme Court.

Ms. Williams clerked for the Hon. Richard C. Wesley on the United State Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude, with a degree in History and Literature, and she earned her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she served as Executive Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.

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Jed Shugerman

Professor, Boston University School of Law

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Ilan Wurman

Professor, University of Minnesota Law School

Biography

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Aram A. Gavoor

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, The George Washington University Law School

Biography

Aram A. Gavoor is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an internationally recognized scholar in American administrative law, national security, and federal courts. His co-authored work was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Department of Commerce v. New York (2019). His scholarship has earned placement in the Florida Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Ohio State Law Journal, and other law journals. He has briefed and argued over a dozen high-profile public law cases before a majority of the U.S. Courts of Appeals and numerous cases before almost a third of the 94 U.S. District Courts. Associate Dean Gavoor frequently shares his national security, artificial intelligence policy, and federal courts expertise with international news media, including CNN, BBC World News, Wall Street Journal, NBC News, and ABC (Australia) World News. In 2021, the National Law Journal named Associate Dean Gavoor a Rising Star (top 40 under 40) honoree.

Earlier in his career, Associate Dean Gavoor served as Senior Counsel for National Security in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, as third-in-rank Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget, and in private practice. He received the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service in 2019, the Civil Division Special Commendation Award in 2020, 2019, and 2018, and a Commendation from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section of the Criminal Division in 2018.

Associate Dean Gavoor previously served on the law school’s part-time faculty from 2008-2017 before accepting a term-limited position as Visiting Associate Professor from 2017-2019. He received GW Law’s Distinguished Adjunct Faculty Teaching Award from the 2020 and 2017 graduating classes. He currently teaches Constitutional Law II, Administrative Law, National Security Law, and Federal Courts.

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Anne Joseph O'Connell

Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

Biography

Anne Joseph O’Connell is a lawyer and social scientist (with graduate training in economics and political science) whose research and teaching focus on administrative law and the federal bureaucracy. Outside of the law school, she was a presidentially appointed member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent federal agency dedicated to improving regulatory procedures, from October 2022 to January 2025. O’Connell is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration and an elected member of the American Law Institute. She frequently consults with congressional staff, nonprofit organizations, and others, and has testified before Congress. She is a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences for the 2024-2025 academic year.

At Stanford Law School, O’Connell teaches Administrative Law, Advanced Administrative Law, and Constitutional Law. The class of 2020 chose her to receive the Hurlbut Award, which is given to one professor “who strives to make teaching an art.” She co-chaired the steering committee for Stanford University’s Faculty Women’s Forum, which works to enable all women faculty to thrive, from August 2022 to January 2024 and jointly conducted two surveys on COVID’s impacts on faculty for FWF. Prior to joining Stanford University in 2018, O’Connell was the George Johnson Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. While there, she received the Distinguished Teaching Award (the campus’s most prestigious honor for teaching) in 2016 and Berkeley Law’s Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction in 2012. From April 2013 to July 2015, she served as associate dean for faculty development and research under three different deans. In 2013-2014, O’Connell was co-president of the Society for Empirical Legal Studies (co-organizing the 2014 Conference on Empirical Legal Studies).

Before joining the Berkeley Law faculty in 2004, O’Connell clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court during the October 2003 term. From 2001 to 2003, she was a trial attorney for the Federal Programs Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division, receiving commendations for her work. She clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 2000 to 2001. A Truman Scholar, O’Connell worked for a number of federal agencies in earlier years, including the Department of Defense (Offices of the General Counsel and Inspector General), Federal Trade Commission (Bureau of Competition), Department of Justice (Office of Legal Counsel), and U.S. Army (RDE). She is a member of the New York bar and served as a volunteer for the Biden-Harris Campaign’s policy team.

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Zvi Rosen

Associate Professor, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law

Biography

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.

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Devin Watkins

Attorney, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Biography

Devin Watkins is an attorney at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Devin Watkins previously worked at the Cato Institute as a legal associate and interned at the Institute for Justice. At the Cato Institute, Watkins worked on a variety of Supreme Court cases, and one of the briefs he worked on was cited by the Court. His op-eds have appeared in National Review Online, The Hill, Time, and The Federalist among others.

Watkins holds a Juris Doctor cum laude from George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, where he was the development editor on the Mason Law Review. Prior to his legal career Watkins was a senior software developer at Intel and WebMD. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Watkins is a member of the Virginia State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Bar, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Bar.

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Robert J. Rando

Partner, Patrick Doerr

Biography

Robert J. Rando is a partner at Patrick | Doerr, where he brings over three decades of experience in intellectual property, complex commercial litigation, and appellate advocacy. His practice spans patent and trademark litigation, constitutional and administrative law, and high-stakes federal litigation across a wide spectrum of industries and technologies.

Mr. Rando has represented clients in matters involving computer hardware and software, silicon chip manufacturing, biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemical compounds, food additives, alternative energy, AI, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, consumer electronics, communications, internet, and e-commerce. He has appeared in courts across the country, including the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals.

As appellate counsel, Mr. Rando has served as counsel of record or co-counsel in more than 30 amicus briefs filed before the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Circuit on issues of patent law, statutory interpretation, separation of powers, and constitutional law. Noteworthy filings include eBay Inc. v. MercExchange (2006), Oil States v. Greene’s Energy (2017), American Axle v. Neapco (2021), Amgen v. Sanofi (2023), and Cellect v. Vidal (2024).

Mr. Rando is a Fellow of the Academy of Court-Appointed Masters, having served by judicial appointment as Special Master in numerous complex patent cases, including multi-day Markman hearings and post-discovery proceedings. He also serves as a court-appointed Mediator and Neutral in both patent and commercial disputes.

He has played an active role in judicial and legislative engagement. Mr. Rando co-developed and conducted lecture series for the SDNY and EDNY Patent Pilot Program Judges and Clerks, covering the America Invents Act and Section 101 eligibility post-Alice and Mayo. He represented both the Federal Bar Association (FBA) and New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) at the Tillis/Coons Section 101 Patent Reform Roundtable, and submitted written testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019.

Mr. Rando is a former president of the NYIPLA (2023–2024) and has held nearly every leadership position in the organization. He also served as Chair of the FBA’s Intellectual Property Law Section and was a founding member and president of the FBA’s EDNY Chapter. He is a founding member of the Association of Amicus Counsel, and an active contributor to the Federalist Society IP Practice Group Executive Committee.

He frequently lectures at CLE programs, universities, and legal associations on IP, constitutional law, and appellate advocacy. He has been quoted extensively in publications such as Law360, Bloomberg Law, WIPR, and National Law Journal. His scholarly publications include articles in The Federal Lawyer, Touro Law Review, and IPWatchdog.

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