Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
H. Christopher Bartolomucci is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Chris’ practice focuses on appellate litigation, products liability litigation, and litigation in the higher education space. He presented oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court in South Carolina v. North Carolina, 558 U.S. 256 (2010) and prevailed in the case. He served as lead trial counsel and presented the closing oral argument before a three-judge federal court in a high profile preclearance action under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. See South Carolina v. United States, 898 F. Supp. 2d 30 (D.D.C. 2012). In 2007, as a short-listed candidate for nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the Virginia State Bar gave Chris its highest rating of “Highly Qualified.”
Chris’ government service includes experience in every branch of the federal government. He served in the White House as associate counsel to President George W. Bush. He also served in the Solicitor General’s Office, as associate special counsel to the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee, and as counsel to the D.C. Inspector General. He clerked for Judge William L. Garwood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Austin, Texas.
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Maury Baskin focuses his Washington, DC-based practice on national labor policy, challenging excessive government regulation on behalf of small and large businesses, while advising employers in compliance issues. He has extensive experience in dealing with labor relations and union pressure tactics, employment discrimination and wage and hour law. He has represented a variety of industry sectors, advising clients involved in construction, government contracting, higher education, telecommunications, hospitality, security, and nonprofits.
Mr. Baskin has served as lead counsel at all levels of the federal and state courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has recently led successful challenges against nationwide federal labor regulations on behalf of multi-industry coalitions, including the 2016 “white collar” overtime rule and the so-called “blacklisting” rule. He has also succeeded in the courts in numerous cases involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Labor (DOL). Mr. Baskin is the Chair of Littler's Construction Industry Group and has long represented the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) national trade association and many of its construction industry members. On their behalf, he has been one of the leading advocates against government-mandated project labor agreements, prevailing wage expansion, and union corporate campaigns.
Associate General Counsel, Service Employees International Union
Walter Kamiat is currently Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a position he has held since 2004. He is SEIU’s principal counsel in the home care area, where the SEIU represents over one half million workers. He also is active in the SEIU’s appellate litigation program, including its amicus practice before the Supreme Court and the federal appellate courts. Mr. Kamiat assisted in preparing DC Circuit and Fourth Circuit amicus briefs defending the NLRB Posting Rule.
In 2008, Mr. Kamiat served on the Obama Administration’s Labor Department Transition Team, performing the agency review of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Commission.
Prior to working at the SEIU, Mr. Kamiat had almost 30 years’ experience in a wide variety of positions involving labor law and labor-relations institutions. These included serving as counsel to the AFL-CIO Investment Program, a multi-billion dollar union-sponsored pension investment program investing in urban housing and economic development projects (1997-2004), as Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, teaching and writing in labor and employment law (1994-1997), as Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO (1988-1994), principally focusing on Supreme Court and appellate litigation, and as an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser in Washington, DC (1986-1988), principally representing union, employees, and labor sponsored benefit funds.
Mr. Kamiat is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review. He was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1984-1985) and to DC Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright (1983-1984).
Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Maury Baskin focuses his Washington, DC-based practice on national labor policy, challenging excessive government regulation on behalf of small and large businesses, while advising employers in compliance issues. He has extensive experience in dealing with labor relations and union pressure tactics, employment discrimination and wage and hour law. He has represented a variety of industry sectors, advising clients involved in construction, government contracting, higher education, telecommunications, hospitality, security, and nonprofits.
Mr. Baskin has served as lead counsel at all levels of the federal and state courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has recently led successful challenges against nationwide federal labor regulations on behalf of multi-industry coalitions, including the 2016 “white collar” overtime rule and the so-called “blacklisting” rule. He has also succeeded in the courts in numerous cases involving the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Department of Labor (DOL). Mr. Baskin is the Chair of Littler's Construction Industry Group and has long represented the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) national trade association and many of its construction industry members. On their behalf, he has been one of the leading advocates against government-mandated project labor agreements, prevailing wage expansion, and union corporate campaigns.
Associate General Counsel, Service Employees International Union
Walter Kamiat is currently Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a position he has held since 2004. He is SEIU’s principal counsel in the home care area, where the SEIU represents over one half million workers. He also is active in the SEIU’s appellate litigation program, including its amicus practice before the Supreme Court and the federal appellate courts. Mr. Kamiat assisted in preparing DC Circuit and Fourth Circuit amicus briefs defending the NLRB Posting Rule.
In 2008, Mr. Kamiat served on the Obama Administration’s Labor Department Transition Team, performing the agency review of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Commission.
Prior to working at the SEIU, Mr. Kamiat had almost 30 years’ experience in a wide variety of positions involving labor law and labor-relations institutions. These included serving as counsel to the AFL-CIO Investment Program, a multi-billion dollar union-sponsored pension investment program investing in urban housing and economic development projects (1997-2004), as Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School, teaching and writing in labor and employment law (1994-1997), as Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO (1988-1994), principally focusing on Supreme Court and appellate litigation, and as an associate at Bredhoff & Kaiser in Washington, DC (1986-1988), principally representing union, employees, and labor sponsored benefit funds.
Mr. Kamiat is a graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review. He was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1984-1985) and to DC Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright (1983-1984).
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.
Senior Counsel, Vice President of Allied Legal Affairs, Alliance Defending Freedom
Brett Harvey serves as senior counsel and vice president of Allied Legal Affairs with Alliance Defending Freedom.
Since joining ADF in 2000, Harvey has coordinated the efforts of the volunteer network of attorneys who collaborate with ADF. In 2002, his role expanded to direct the grant program. To date, Harvey and his team have awarded approximately $54 million in grant funds to thousands of legal projects and cases, many of which have set national and multinational precedents.
Harvey leads the Allied Legal Affairs team, which is dedicated to creating opportunities for attorneys aligned with the ADF mission to actively engage in the protection and promotion of religious liberty. Harvey and his team focus on recruitment, professional engagement, and integration of allies into ADF’s advocacy efforts, including coordinating amicus efforts at state supreme courts, circuit courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Harvey has also litigated in a variety of state and federal courts, focusing on the protection of life and religious freedom. Most notably, he successfully spearheaded a national litigation strategy culminating in Town of Greece v. Galloway, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the freedom of Americans to pray at public meetings.
Harvey earned his J.D. in 1995 from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University in Georgia. He is admitted to the bar in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia. He has also been admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court in Colorado, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 4th, 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Senior Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Joel L. Oster serves as senior legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom at its Kansas City Regional Service Center in Kansas, where he plays a significant role in litigation efforts defending church autonomy. Before joining Alliance Defending Freedom in 2004, he earned his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law. Oster is admitted to the bar in Kansas, Missouri, Florida, and numerous federal courts, and has practiced law since 1997.
Clinical Professor of Law, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, Chapman University
Vice President & Legal Director, National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., is Vice President and Legal Director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a non-profit legal aid organization. He was the first Staff Attorney employed by the Foundation and has more than forty-five years of experience helping workers in litigation in federal and state courts and administrative agencies over the abuses of compulsory unionism.
Mr. LaJeunesse has argued four cases in the United States Supreme Court. Those cases include Lehnert v. Ferris Faculty Ass’n, 500 U.S. 507 (1991), which limited the purposes for which compulsory union fees collected from public employees may lawfully be spent; Air Line Pilots Ass’n v. Miller, 523 U.S. 866 (1998), which established that unions cannot compel nonmembers to exhaust union-established remedies before going to court to challenge compulsory union fees; and Marquez v. Screen Actors Guild, 525 U.S. 33 (1998), in which the Court recognized that unions must notify employees that they can satisfy the “membership” requirement of “union shop” agreements by just paying fees for union bargaining activities and need not join and pay full dues to keep their jobs. He also was lead attorney in Hohe v. Casey, 956 F.2d 399 (3d Cir. 1992), in which more than $8.3 million in compulsory agency fees was recovered from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for a class of 57,000 nonmembers.
Mr. LaJeunesse is the author of several published articles about labor law, has testified before Congressional committees several times, and was an Advisor on the Transition Team for Labor- Related Agencies, Office of the President-Elect, in 1980-81 and a legislative aide to a member of the Virginia state legislature. He is a Vice Chairman of the Federalist Society’s Labor and Employment Law Practice Group and has spoken or debated at the Society’s National Lawyers Convention and at many Lawyers and Student Chapters on such topics as Right to Work laws, compulsory unionism arrangements, the misuse of union dues for politics, union organizing tactics (“card check” vs. secret-ballot elections), and the future of the union movement.
Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Andy excels at solving complex problems for his clients using a variety of effective strategies. As former Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, Andy Cook has extensive experience representing businesses before state Attorneys General involving investigations and lawsuits. His strong relationships with Attorneys General and their senior staff frequently facilitate the successful resolution of client issues through diplomacy and negotiations. When litigation becomes necessary, Andy effectively advocates for clients throughout the litigation process.
Andy combines his legal expertise in numerous areas of law covered by state Attorneys General, an understanding of how state AG offices operate, and vast knowledge of legal and regulatory issues facing his clients. This substantive and comprehensive legal approach is crucial to effectively representing clients before state Attorneys General. Andy also has substantial experience drafting and enacting complex civil liability reforms before state legislatures to successfully address client goals.
Andy’s main practice focuses on advising Fortune 500 companies before state Attorneys General in the areas of antitrust, consumer protection, False Claims Act, environmental law, and cybersecurity and data privacy. Andy, in collaboration with a team of attorneys, successfully navigated a client through antitrust regulatory review by state Attorneys General in one of the nation’s largest mergers of two major telecommunication companies. Andy also worked with a team of lawyers representing a large corporation involving the multistate opioids litigation brought by state Attorneys General.
Andy gained valuable experience serving as Deputy Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin where he was the second in command of the 700-plus state agency. In his role as Chief Deputy Attorney General, Andy oversaw the day-to-day operations at the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ); directed the State’s litigation strategy; negotiated, reviewed, and approved all settlements; drafted and reviewed attorney general opinions; managed the agency’s budget; oversaw civil and criminal investigations handled by DOJ; and managed DOJ’s legislative agenda.
Andy played college hockey and remains active by running, cross country skiing, and playing golf. On the weekends, Andy and his wife enjoy watching their kids’ sporting events, including soccer, baseball, gymnastics, and track. In his rare spare time, Andy reads history books.
Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Andy excels at solving complex problems for his clients using a variety of effective strategies. As former Chief Deputy Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, Andy Cook has extensive experience representing businesses before state Attorneys General involving investigations and lawsuits. His strong relationships with Attorneys General and their senior staff frequently facilitate the successful resolution of client issues through diplomacy and negotiations. When litigation becomes necessary, Andy effectively advocates for clients throughout the litigation process.
Andy combines his legal expertise in numerous areas of law covered by state Attorneys General, an understanding of how state AG offices operate, and vast knowledge of legal and regulatory issues facing his clients. This substantive and comprehensive legal approach is crucial to effectively representing clients before state Attorneys General. Andy also has substantial experience drafting and enacting complex civil liability reforms before state legislatures to successfully address client goals.
Andy’s main practice focuses on advising Fortune 500 companies before state Attorneys General in the areas of antitrust, consumer protection, False Claims Act, environmental law, and cybersecurity and data privacy. Andy, in collaboration with a team of attorneys, successfully navigated a client through antitrust regulatory review by state Attorneys General in one of the nation’s largest mergers of two major telecommunication companies. Andy also worked with a team of lawyers representing a large corporation involving the multistate opioids litigation brought by state Attorneys General.
Andy gained valuable experience serving as Deputy Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin where he was the second in command of the 700-plus state agency. In his role as Chief Deputy Attorney General, Andy oversaw the day-to-day operations at the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ); directed the State’s litigation strategy; negotiated, reviewed, and approved all settlements; drafted and reviewed attorney general opinions; managed the agency’s budget; oversaw civil and criminal investigations handled by DOJ; and managed DOJ’s legislative agenda.
Andy played college hockey and remains active by running, cross country skiing, and playing golf. On the weekends, Andy and his wife enjoy watching their kids’ sporting events, including soccer, baseball, gymnastics, and track. In his rare spare time, Andy reads history books.
Associate, Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom, Terre Haute, Indiana; B.A. (honors), Calvin College, 2001; J.D., Valparaiso University School of Law, 2004.
Identification Please: State Voter ID Laws and the Voting Rights Act
The Austin Lawyers Chapter
Austin, TXNLRB Posting Regulations - Podcast
Maury Baskin, Walter Kamiat, Dean Reuter
On August 30, 2011, with the then-one Republican member dissenting, the National Labor Relations Board...
Who Said That?: A Simple Question That May Change the Way Courts View Legislative Prayer
Brett Harvey, Joel Oster
Related Opinions & Briefs: • Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Town of Greece v. Galloway:...
Luncheon with Attorney General Alan Wilson
Columbia, South CarolinaNLRB Posting Regulations
Can States Require Proof of Citizenship for Voter Registration?--Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona
Anthony (Tom) Caso
Introduction This term the Court will hear a case examining a perceived clash between state...
Union Organizing and the NLRB Under President Obama
Raymond J. LaJeunesse
Note from the Editor: This paper analyzes union organizing and the NLRB under the Obama...
Tort Reform Update: Recently Enacted Legislative Reforms and State Court Challenges
Andrew Cook
Introduction Since the 2010 elections altered the makeup of many state legislative and executive branches,...
Tort Reform Update: Recently Enacted Legislative Reforms and State Court Challenges
Andrew Cook
Introduction Since the 2010 elections altered the makeup of many state legislative and executive...
Pennsylvania High Court Hears Challenge to Voter ID Law
Anita Y. Woudenberg
Voter ID laws, defined as laws requiring photo evidence of identification at the polls, are...