Of Counsel, Fisher & Phillips, LLP
Greg Grisham has over 25 years of successful experience counseling and representing employers in all aspects of workplace law in Tennessee and across the United States.
He has helped employers avoid claims, charges and lawsuits with a focus on preventative practices. Preventative practices include counseling in situations involving discipline, termination, demotion, promotion and other workplace changes in the terms and conditions of employment, harassment investigations, wage and hour compliance, FMLA Compliance, Reasonable Accommodation assessment, supervisor training and the review of employment policies and procedures. In addition, Greg's practice includes the representation of business entities subject to Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act in Public Accommodation cases.
Greg has successfully litigated hundreds of administrative charges, employment lawsuits, and arbitration demands on behalf of employers, including federal and state law claims alleging discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, defamation, invasion of privacy, breach of contract, wage and hour violations and ERISA violations, among others. He also represents employers before the National Labor Relations Board in unfair labor practice proceedings. He represents employers in the enforcement of post-employment restrictive covenants such as non-compete, non-solicitation and non-disclosure agreements and related trade secret litigation. Greg's practice also includes the defense of property owners and property management companies in federal and state Housing Discrimination charges and litigation. He also advises Tennessee Public Charter Schools on education law and workplace compliance matters.
Greg has extensive experience working with insurance carriers and their insureds in the defense of EPLI claims. He is a regular speaker at public seminars on workplace law issues and has authored numerous articles on a variety of labor and employment law related topics.
Greg holds an AV Preeminent Peer Review rating from Martindale-Hubbell and has been selected for inclusion in Mid-South Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America for Employment Litigation-Management side. Greg was elected as a 2016 Fellow to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has been selected to the “Top 20 Lawyers in Traditional Labor & Employment Law” list in conjunction with Human Resource Executive Magazine and LawDragon’s 2017 and 2018 “Most Powerful Employment Attorneys” lists and specialty guides. Greg was also named a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation in 2017.
President and Chairman of the Board, Judicial Education Institute
James Heilpern is President and Chairman of the Board of the Judicial Education Institute, a
501(c)(3) organization that provides high quality judicial education seminars to judges
nationwide. He specializes in helping judges harness new technology to improve the
interpretive process. In the last three years alone, he has trained approximately 250 judges
from at least 50 different jurisdictions, as well as hundreds of practicing attorneys, on
topics related artificial intelligence, corpus linguistics, and statutory interpretation. He also
serves as counsel at the law firm Schaerr-Jaffe, where he regularly represents clients at all
three levels of the federal judiciary, as well as before state supreme courts. He was part of
the team the represented the state of Georgia in Texas v. Pennsylvania, et. al., successfully
persuading the Supreme Court to dismiss Texas’ last-ditch effort to overturn the results of
the 2020 presidential election. Heilpern’s scholarship has been cited by the Second
Circuit, the DDC, and the Virginia Supreme Court, as well as dozens of times in the merits
and amicus briefs of Trump v. Anderson. He is a Research Fellow at the Georgetown Center
for the Constitution, and previously served as a Senior Fellow at the BYU Law School; as
General Counsel of an ed-tech start up; and as a strategic advisor to an artificial
intelligence company. He graduated magna cum laude from the BYU Law School and with
highest honors and with distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He
previously clerked from Judge Edith Clement on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit and Judge Robert H. Cleland on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Michigan.
Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig LLP
Troy A. Eid focuses his litigation, mediation and transactional practice on government enforcement, investigations and compliance, environmental law, energy and natural resource development, and Federal Indian law and Native American and Alaska Native tribal law. Troy is a trusted advocate and mediator in the Rocky Mountain West and in federal, state and tribal trial and appellate courtrooms across the country.
Associate, Wiley Rein LLP
Joel S. Nolette is an associate at Wiley Rein LLP, where he advocates on behalf of corporate and individual clients in a broad spectrum of complex litigation matters. In 2017, Joel graduated cum laude from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as the Editor in Chief of Volume 15 of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. From 2019 to 2021, Joel clerked for the Honorable Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; and from 2021 to 2022, he clerked for the Honorable Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Before attending law school, Joel graduated summa cum laude from Gordon College in Wenham, MA, with his Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies and worked as a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Austin E. Owen Research Scholar & Professor of Law, The University of Richmond School of Law
Dean Kristen Jakobsen Osenga teaches and writes in the areas of patent law, antitrust, and legislation and regulation. Some of her recent scholarship focuses on standard development organizations, patent eligible subject matter, patent licensing firms, litigation and remedies for patent infringement, and patent law reform. She has written numerous law review articles on these and other topics, as well as book chapters and op eds on various aspects of patent law. Additionally, she has spoken on these issues at many academic conferences and bar events. Dean Osenga is Chief Policy Counselor for the Inventors Defense Alliance, as well as an active member of the Federal Circuit Bar Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.
Dean Osenga received a B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa, an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude. After law school, she practiced at the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett, & Dunner LLP, (now Finnegan) where she did patent prosecution and litigation. She then clerked for the Judge Richard Linn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. After clerking, she entered academia, teaching first at Chicago-Kent College of Law and then at the University of Richmond, where she has been since 2006. She has also been a Visiting Professor at Emory University School of Law and at William & Mary School of Law.
Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Michael D. Ramsey is Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and International Law. He is the author of The Constitution’s Text in Foreign Affairs (Harvard University Press), co-editor of International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change (Cambridge University Press), and co-author of two casebooks, Transnational Law and Practice (2d ed., Aspen) and International Business Transactions: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook (14th ed., West). His scholarly articles have appeared in publications such as the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal and the American Journal of International Law. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and his J.D. summa cum laude from Stanford Law School. Prior to teaching, he served as a judicial clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, and practiced law with the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he specialized in international finance and investment. He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Political Science and at the University of Paris – Sorbonne, in the Department of Comparative Law.
Partner and Co-Chair, Public Policy Group, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Mark Behrens co-chairs Shook's Washington, DC-based Public Policy Practice Group and is a leading national expert on civil justice issues with over thirty years of experience. A substantial part of his practice is working to improve the civil litigation environment through state and federal legislation; in the courts through amicus curiae briefs; through legal scholarship and judicial education; and in the court of public opinion.
Mark is actively involved in civil justice reform efforts at the federal and state levels. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures on behalf of business and civil justice organizations. Mark also has an active amicus brief practice specializing in tort liability and civil justice issues. He has authored or co-authored over 150 amicus briefs in cases before the United States Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations. In addition, Mark routinely files comments on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations regarding potential changes to federal and state court rules. He chairs the International Association of Defense Counsel’s (IADC) Civil Justice Response Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ).
Mark is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). He received his J.D. in 1990 from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He received his B.A. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1987.
Of Counsel, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Chris’ public policy work focuses on tort law and civil justice system reform. His work is generally divided among legislative efforts, appellate litigation, and liability counseling. Chris has drafted model legislation to be introduced on the state and federal level, testified on numerous legislative initiatives, and authored amicus briefs to state supreme courts and federal appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also serves as an adviser to various business groups and trade associations interested in tort liability issues and civil justice system reform.
In addition, Chris is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI), and has assisted in the development of a variety of ALI projects implicating liability law. He has also been a recurrent guest lecturer at the U.S. Department of Justice and Wake Forest University School of Law, as well as a speaker at numerous legal conferences and industry group meetings, on issues related to tort law. Chris has additionally produced significant scholarship in the area of liability law. He has authored more than 50 legal publications on a wide range of liability issues, including articles in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, UPenn Journal of Business Law, and Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy, and has served as a contributor to tort casebooks.
Partner, Briscoe Prows Kao Ivester & Bazel LLP
Tony Francois is experienced in Water and Real Property Law, Land Use and Zoning, Environmental Regulation, Natural Resources Development, Agricultural Law, and Constitutional Law. He has represented homeowners, builders, farmers and ranchers, trade associations, and water districts in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings before state and federal administrative agencies and state and federal trial and appellate courts. He is a member of the California State Bar and the Northern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California and the Districts of New Mexico and North Dakota, and has litigated cases in federal courts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He has appeared before the Supreme Courts of California, Idaho, Nevada, and the United States.
Prior to attending law school, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Army, and was stationed in the former West Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Tony was an Attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation from 2012 to 2021. He was a lobbyist for 10 years, first with California Farm Bureau Federation from 2003 to 2007, and then with KP Public Affairs from 2007 to 2012. He was an attorney at McQuaid, Bedford & Van Zandt in San Francisco from 1999 – 2003.
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Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
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On March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court decided Rimini Street Inc v. Oracle USA Inc.,...
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Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
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Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
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Kristen Osenga
Note from the Editor: This article discusses the role of the concept of the public...
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Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes seriously its responsibility as a non-partisan institution...
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Note from the Editor: This article discusses the longstanding legal battle over the meaning of...