Legal Director, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
Will began defending student and faculty rights for FIRE in 2006 after graduating from New York University School of Law, where he served as an associate executive editor for the New York University Law Review. Will has appeared on national cable television and radio on behalf of FIRE and has spoken to students, faculty, administrators, and attorneys at events across the country. Will’s writing has been published by The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jurist, Inside Higher Ed, Daily Journal, the Charleston Law Review, and many other outlets. Will edited the second edition of FIRE’s Guide to Due Process and Campus Justice, co-edited the second edition of FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus, and has coauthored amicus curiae briefs submitted to a number of courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Third, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits. Will has taught FIRE’s Continuing Legal Education programs in New York, Pennsylvania, and online. A member of the New York State Bar and the First Amendment Lawyers Association, Will serves as Co-Chair of the Education Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.
Will graduated magna cum laude from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2003. A proud native of Buffalo, New York, Will now lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children.
Partner, Clement & Murphy, PLLC
Erin Murphy is founding partner of Clement & Murphy, PLLC. She is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading Supreme Court and appellate advocates. She has argued dozens of cases in appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court and nearly all of the federal courts of appeals. Erin has long been ranked by Chambers & Partners rankings as a leading appellate practitioner, and the National Law Journal has named her one of the nation’s “Outstanding Women Lawyers.” Erin also has an active pro bono practice, through which she has successfully represented many religious organizations and adherents, criminal defendants, asylum applicants, adoptive parents, and more.
Erin is an adjunct professor at her alma mater the Georgetown University Law Center, a member and former officer of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a frequent speaker on topics relating to the Supreme Court and appellate advocacy. In her spare time, Erin serves on the board of directors of Street Law.
Judge, Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One
The Honorable Jennifer M. Perkins began service on the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, on October 30, 2017. At the time of her appointment by Governor Douglas Ducey, Judge Perkins was Assistant Solicitor General for the State of Arizona.
Judge Perkins was born in Portales, New Mexico, and primarily raised in Albuquerque. She attended the prestigious Albuquerque Academy from 1988-1995, before moving to Washington D.C. to attend the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University as a National Merit Scholar. Therafter, she relocated again to Dallas, Texas, and earned her juris doctor from the SMU Dedman School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2002.
Judge Perkins started her career at the law firm of Browning & Peifer (now Peifer, Hanson, Mullins, and Baker) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While there, she litigated complex commercial matters including class action plaintiff and defense work, and assisted with employment and contract litigation. In 2003, the judge accompanied the Honorable James O. Browning in transitioning to the federal district court bench, serving as his first law clerk.
After her clerkship, Judge Perkins moved to Arizona to work for the Institute for Justice, Arizona Chapter, a public interest law firm. She spent five years with IJ-AZ litigating civil rights cases in Arizona and across the country. In 2009, the judge became Disciplinary Counsel for the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct, where she reviewed and prosecuted ethics complaints against state court judges throughout Arizona. After five years serving the state in this capacity, Judge Perkins entered private practice by joining an appellate law firm in Phoenix. While there, she worked on state and federal appeals involving a wide range of legal subjects, including complex business disputes, property rights, judicial ethics, and personal injury matters.
In January 2015, Judge Perkins joined the Office of the Arizona Attorney General to serve as the first Assistant Solicitor General; in that capacity, she was responsible for oversight of Attorney General Opinions and served as ethics counsel to the entire office. In addition to these two primary roles, the judge assisted on a variety of matters including trial and appellate litigation of election-related matters; federal appellate litigation with the Federalism Unit; state criminal appeals; and drafting amicus briefs on behalf of Arizona in state and federal courts.
Associate Professor of Government, Hillsdale College, Washington, D.C. Campus
Richard Samuelson is an Associate Professor of Government at Hillsdale College’s Washington, D.C., campus. Dr. Samuelson is an historian of the American founding and of American politics and constitutional thought. He graduated from Bates College and received his MA and PhD in American history from the University of Virginia. Dr. Samuelson taught at California State University San Bernardino from 2007 to 2022. He was the 2009-2010 Garwood Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s James Madison Program.
Dr. Samuelson has written extensively on John Adams and on the Adams family of Massachusetts, and on the constitutional politics of the founding more largely. His work also connects the founding with more contemporary issues, with a particular focus on religious liberty, and the challenge the modern American state, and contemporary civil rights laws present to religious liberty.
His essays and reviews have appeared in The Review of Politics, The William and Mary Quarterly, Commentary, The Claremont Review of Books, The Public Interest, National Review, and other publications. He has also contributed many essays and reviews to such online publications as Mosaic, Law and Liberty, Realclearpolitics, and other platforms.
Professor of Law, Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law
Eric Alden is a Professor of Law who came to Chase from Palo Alto, California, where he had previously been a full equity partner with two major AmLaw 100 firms in corporate and securities law in Silicon Valley. He has broad securities regulatory and transactional experience, including public company disclosure counseling, securities regulatory compliance, corporate governance, public and private offerings of equity, debt and hybrid securities, mergers and acquisitions, the formation of private investment funds and the representation of banks and hedge funds in their interactions with the public markets, with an overall emphasis on technical securities law and SEC compliance matters.
During 2005-2006, Alden served as an Attorney Fellow at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C., in the Division of Corporation Finance, Office of Chief Counsel. In that capacity, he oversaw and administered for the 2006 proxy season the SEC's Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposal program, which has functioned as the central battleground of corporate governance disputes between institutional shareholders and public company boards of directors.
Prior to joining Chase, Alden taught Corporate Governance as a Lecturer at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, and taught Securities Regulation as an Adjunct Professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law. During 2010-2011, he was a Research Fellow in Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance at the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy. He has published articles in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Berkeley Business Law Journal, Hawaii Law Review, the Nevada Law Journal, and Northeastern University Law Review (forthcoming), in addition to various industry publications. His areas of teaching focus are Contracts, Corporations, Business Organizations, Startups and Venture Capital, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Securities Regulation.
Assistant Professor of Law & Director of Field Placements, Belmont University College of Law
Prior to joining the Belmont faculty, Ellen Black was an associate at Chadbourne & Parke LLP in New York City where she practiced in the areas of products liability and commercial litigation. While at Chadbourne, she served on the recruiting committee and was actively engaged in pro bono projects, including counseling incarcerated women on their child visitation and custodial rights, representing a criminal defendant in a pro bono appeal, and assisting New York Interfaith Disaster Services on various legal issues. Professor Black also attended and graduated from the International Association Defense Counsel Trial Academy. Prior to practicing at Chadbourne, Professor Black worked as an associate at the firm Gholson, Hicks & Nichols in Columbus, Mississippi, where she focused on litigation involving medical malpractice, toxic tort, and construction cases. She also taught as an adjunct instructor at Mississippi University for Women.
Professor Black serves on the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services Board and the Mississippi University for Women Foundation Board and is a member of the Food and Drug Law Institute. She is admitted to the New York, Tennessee, and Mississippi bars. She teaches Medical Malpractice, Products Liability and Family Law and serves as Director of the Field Placements Program. She is also the faculty sponsor for the Women’s Law Student Association.
Professor Black earned her Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from Mississippi University for Women and her Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude from Texas Tech University School of Law, where she held the position of articles editor on the Texas Tech Law Review.
Professor of Law, Washburn University School of Law
Professor Boyack has an extensive background practicing, teaching and writing about legal topics at the nexus of contract and property law. She has written and presented on issues relating to the housing crisis, the secondary mortgage market, common interest community governance, and bankruptcy, and is currently working on projects exploring transactional freedom and individual liberties in the context of real property development and control. Professor Boyack is an innovative teacher and is involved in the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning as well as other joint pedagogical projects focused on improving teaching in law schools. Professor Boyack has participated in Washburn Law's commercial law project in the Republic of Georgia, and was a featured presenter at Free University's 2013 Commercial Law Symposium in Tbilisi. She was voted Professor of the Year at Washburn Law in 2015.
Prior to joining the faculty at Washburn University School of Law, Professor Boyack taught Contracts, Property, Real Estate Transactions, Professional Responsibility and Public International Law as a visiting professor at Fordham University School of Law, George Washington University School of Law, and Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law. She also taught Real Estate Finance as an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law.
After graduating from University of Virginia School of Law in 1995, Professor Boyack practiced corporate finance and real estate law for 13 years in New York City and the Washington, D.C. area with Reed Smith; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Goodwin Proctor; and O'Melveny & Myers and as in-house regional counsel to Toll Brothers, Inc., the largest publicly held national development company. While in law school, she was notes editor for the Virginia Journal of International Law and directed the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Professor Boyack also clerked for Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York.
Professor Boyack is admitted to practice in New York, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. She is proficient in Russian.
Professor Boyack is Co-Director of the Business and Transactional Law Center.
Professor of Law and the Mike and Teresa Baker College Professor, The University of Houston Law Center
Johnny Rex Buckles has been a faculty member of the University of Houston Law Center since August of 2000. He has also served as a Visiting Professor of Law at the Washington & Lee University School of Law. Professor Buckles has taught Taxation of Exempt Organizations, Federal Income Tax, Law & Theology, Estate Planning, Trusts & Wills, Contracts and Tax Policy Seminar. Professor Buckles’ primary research interests are in the law of tax and charity, and in law and theology. His publications include a number of law review articles and contributions to collective works. Professor Buckles holds a Juris Doctorate from the Harvard Law School, a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Science from Oklahoma State University.
Director of Legal Studies, The University of Southern Mississippi
Mike Lavender was born and raised in Athens, Georgia. After attending the University of Georgia and completing his undergraduate degree at Liberty University, he received his JD from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. He has studied European Human Rights Law and Russian Law at the University of London.
Mr. Lavender practiced law in Georgia for 10 years primarily in the areas of corporate law, nonprofit law and real estate law. While practicing law, he was recognized as a future leader by the Georgia Bar Association and as a Rising Star by Super Lawyer in the area of Nonprofit Organizations.
Mr. Lavender serves as the Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Civil Liberties. Mr. Lavender serves as a site team member for the American Bar Association and is a frequent speaker on undergraduate legal education.
Professor of Law, University of Wyoming College of Law
George Mocsary is an expert in corporate and small-business law, and the law of firearms.
Currently, he is Professor of Law, Founder & Director of Firearms Research Center, and Director of the Business Planning Practicum and at the University of Wyoming College of Law.
Professor Mocsary teaches and writes about Agency & Partnership, Contracts, Corporations, Securities Regulation, the Second Amendment, and Firearms Law, including the intersection of Firearms Law and private law. He is a co-author of Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights, and Policy (3rd ed. 2021), the first casebook on this topic.
Prior to his appointment at Wyoming, he served as an Associate Professor of Law at the Southern Illinois University School of Law and spent two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He practiced corporate and bankruptcy law at Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York, and clerked for the Honorable Harris L. Hartz of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Professor Mocsary holds a J.D. from Fordham Law School and an M.B.A. from the University of Rochester Simon School of Business. At Fordham, he graduated first in his class, and served as Notes and Articles Editor of the Fordham Law Review. He has published in the George Washington Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Duke Law Journal Online, and other journals. His work has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, several U.S. Courts of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Illinois, the Delaware Court of Chancery, and other courts.
Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
Saurabh Vishnubhakat is a Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program at Cardozo Law. He is also a Research Fellow at the Duke Law Center for Innovation Policy and a Senior Scholar at the George Mason University Center for IP and Innovation Policy. Previously, he held joint appointments as a Professor of Law and Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Professor Vishnubhakat’s expertise is in intellectual property, administrative law and federal litigation, especially from an empirical perspective. His legal writings have been cited in federal judicial opinions, agency regulations and over two dozen Supreme Court briefs. His latest work is published or forthcoming in the Indiana Law Journal, the Washington and Lee Law Review and the Iowa Law Review as well as the peer-reviewed Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.
His research explores the interaction of the U.S. intellectual property system with federal courts and agencies, among other topics. With a background in the natural sciences, Professor Vishnubhakat brings a scientific mindset to legal thinking and is dedicated to teaching students how to build arguments with analytical rigor.
Prior to his appointment at Texas A&M, Professor Vishnubhakat served in the United States Patent and Trademark Office as principal legal advisor to that agency’s first two chief economists. He was also a faculty fellow at Duke Law School, where he co-taught patent law and was a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Center for Public Genomics, where he researched law and policy issues surrounding innovation in genetics and biomedicine.
Professor Vishnubhakat holds both a J.D. and LL.M. in intellectual property from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He also holds a B.S. in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is admitted to the bars of Texas, Illinois, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Lessons From John Adams: Defending Unpopular Clients from the Founding Era to the Present
The Founders Gave Us the Tools Series
7 Minute Presentations of Works in Progress Panel 1-B
20th Annual Federalist Society Faculty Conference
San Diego, CATopics
SCOTUS Orders: 10/5/2015
Following on the cert grants from late last week, the Supreme Court issued another order...