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.
Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Georgia
Chief Justice Nels Peterson was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2016, and was elected to full six-year terms in 2018 and 2024. He previously served in a variety of other roles in Georgia state government, including as judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals, general counsel for the University System of Georgia, Georgia’s first solicitor general in the Attorney General’s Office, and executive counsel to the Governor.
Before entering state government, Nels practiced at King & Spalding LLP in Atlanta and clerked for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He is a graduate of Kennesaw State University and Harvard Law School. Nels and his wife Jennifer have two children and live in Cobb County, where they teach adult Sunday school at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
Vice President for Legal Affairs, Goldwater Institute
Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
JEFFREY S. SUTTON is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He has served as Chair of the Federal Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules, and Chair of the Supreme Court Fellows Commission. He currently serves as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Since 1993, Chief Judge Sutton has been an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University College of Law, where he teaches seminars on State Constitutional Law, the United States Supreme Court, and Appellate Advocacy. He also teaches a class on State Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. Among other publications, he is the author of Who Decides? States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation and 51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law. He is the co-author of a casebook, State Constitutional Law: The Modern Experience, as well as The Law of Judicial Precedent. He is also the co-editor of The Essential Scalia: On the Constitution, the Courts, and the Rule of Law. In 2006, Chief Judge Sutton was elected to the American Law Institute, and in 2017 he was elected to its Council.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Judge Duncan received his B.A. from Louisiana State University in 1994, his J.D. from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in 1997, and his LL.M. from Columbia Law School in 2004.
After graduating from law school, he clerked for Louisiana-based Circuit Judge John Malcolm Duhé Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
From 2008–2012, Duncan served as Appellate Chief for Louisiana's Attorney General's office. From 2012–2014, he served as general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. From 2004-2008, he was an assistant professor of law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
Before becoming a judge, Duncan practiced at the Washington, D.C. firm of Schaerr Duncan LLP, where he was a founding partner. He was appointed by President Trump to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on May 1, 2018.
Erin Smith serves as Associate Counsel at First Liberty Institute. Before joining First Liberty, Erin served as Assistant General Counsel for the Oklahoma State Department of Education. She also served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General in the Criminal Appeals Unit.
Erin graduated summa cum laude from the Oklahoma City University School of Law. During law school, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Oklahoma City University Law Review, president of the OKC Student Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and vice president of the OCU Christian Legal Society. She externed for the Solicitor General of Oklahoma, and published her note, Almost Only Counts in Horseshoes, Hand Grenades … and Hardison? The 45-year Reign Continues, in the Oklahoma City University Law Review. Erin spent her summers interning at First Liberty Institute and the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General.
Erin received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Oklahoma State University in 2019, graduating summa cum laude.
Erin is licensed to practice law in Oklahoma.
Dean & CEO, Ave Maria School of Law
Dean Czarnetzky is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S., 1982, Chemistry) and the University of Virginia (J.D., 1989).
Before law school, Dean Czarnetzky was an officer in the United States Army, where he served as an intelligence analyst, specializing in foreign chemical, biological and nuclear capabilities. After law school, he practiced bankruptcy and commercial law with Sidley & Austin in Chicago, and McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe in Richmond, Virginia.
Dean Czarnetzky joined the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1994, teaching courses in bankruptcy, corporate reorganizations, secured transactions, civil procedure, business associations, and international trade. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Elsie M. Hood Award for the “outstanding professor at the University of Mississippi,” the highest honor awarded to faculty members at the University of Mississippi.
Dean Czarnetzky also serves as a legal adviser to the Holy See’s Mission to the United Nations, representing the Holy See in negotiations, including establishing the International Criminal Court and several international treaties, including one on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Dean Czarnetzky is a lay member of the Dominican Order and a third-degree Knight of Columbus.
Co-Founder and President, Defense of Freedom Institute
Bob is a co-founder and President of DFI. He previously served as Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Education from 2017 through 2020 and Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education from 2005 until 2009.
During his most recent tenure at the Department, Bob served on the Secretary’s Leadership Team as a strategic and legal adviser on higher education, civil rights, and congressional oversight matters. As the Department’s Regulatory Reform Officer, he also supervised the implementation of the Secretary’s regulatory agenda and was an architect of the Secretary’s reforms concerning Title IX and the Higher Education Act. As Deputy General Counsel, Bob advised on a wide variety of regulatory, legislative, and oversight matters.
Prior to joining the Department in 2017, Bob was vice president for regulatory compliance matters for several postsecondary institutions and practiced education and employment law in Washington, D.C. Before coming to the Department in 2005, he practiced law in New Orleans, litigating commercial, employment, and bankruptcy cases in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi.
Bob earned his A.B. in History from Georgetown University, studied British government and international politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and received his law degree from Tulane University Law School. His articles have been published by National Review, Real Clear Education, Washington Examiner, and other media outlets. Fox News has featured his work.
Bob is a member of the District of Columbia and Louisiana Bars and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Senior Scholar, Manhattan Institute; Professor of Law Emerita, University of San Diego
Gail Heriot is a Senior Scholar at the Manhattan Institute, a Professor of Law Emerita at the University of San Diego and the Chairman of the Board of the American Civil Rights Project. She served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights for 18 years. Her new book is entitled “Why We Walk on Eggshells: How Our Civil Rights Laws Stifle Our Public Discourse.”
Former principal deputy under secretary, U.S. Department of Education
Diane Auer Jones recently retired from a thirty-year career as an educator, scientist, administrator, and public policy official. Although she began her career as a nursing assistant, upon completion of undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology and applied molecular biology, she worked as a molecular biology research and later as the founding director of an EPA-certified analytical chemistry laboratory. Through an adjunct faculty position at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), she realized that working with students was her true passion and she joined the full-time faculty at CCBC. Over the course of her career, her work in higher education also included leadership positions at Princeton University, The Washington Campus and Career Education Corporation. Despite her passion for teaching, after serving as a program director at the National Science Foundation, Diane’s career focus shifted to science and education policy. She subsequently served as a professional staffer and acting staff director for the Research Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology and as the deputy to the associate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She was nominated by President George W. Bush, and confirmed by the Senate, to serve as the assistant secretary for post-secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education. She returned to the U.S. Department of Education to conclude her career, serving as the principal deputy undersecretary delegated the duties of undersecretary during the Donald J. Trump administration.
Founder & President, Postsecondary Commission
Stig Leschly is the founder and President of the Postsecondary Commission, a new accreditor of outcomes-focused and innovative colleges. Stig has been a Senior Lecturer teaching entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School on and off for more than 20 years. Formerly, Stig was the CEO of Match Education, an education-related nonprofit that runs charter schools and trains teachers. Early in his career, Stig was a high tech entrepreneur and an executive at Amazon.com. He is also the co-founder and board chair of Duet.org, a hybrid college that operates in partnership with Southern New Hampshire University. Stig has a JD-MBA from Harvard and BA from Princeton.
Stig holds a Bachelor of Arts in comparative literature (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Princeton University (1992) and a combined JD-MBA degree from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School (1998). Stig lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his wife, Sherry Riva. They have three daughters.
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