Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Professor Nicholas Bagley teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, regulatory theory, and health law. Prior to joining the Law School faculty, he was an attorney with the appellate staff in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he argued a dozen cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals and acted as lead counsel in many more. Professor Bagley also served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court and to the Hon. David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. Professor Bagley holds a BA in English from Yale University and received his JD, summa cum laude, from New York University School of Law. Before entering law school, he joined Teach For America and taught eighth-grade English at a public school in South Bronx. Professor Bagley's work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. In 2012, he was the recipient of the Law School's L. Hart Wright Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a frequent contributor to The Incidental Economist, a prominent health policy blog.
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Eli Nachmany is an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in the Washington, DC, office. He clerked for Judge Steven J. Menashi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Eli graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Prior to law school, Eli served as the speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and as a domestic policy aide in the White House Office of American Innovation. He graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a B.S. in Sports Management. Eli’s scholarship on administrative law and executive power has appeared in the BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Christopher J. Walker is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Michigan law faculty in 2022, he spent a decade teaching at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He previously clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation. Professor Walker’s research focuses on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. Outside the law school, he chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2020-21 and served as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2016-2022, and he continues to serve in both organizations in various capacities. He also works of counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
Julius E. Davis Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
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 the new book The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction (Cambridge 2026). His previous books include A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism (Cambridge 2017), and The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (Cambridge 2020). He is also the author of the casebook, Administrative Law Theory and Fundamentals: An Integrated Approach (Foundation Press 3d ed. 2025).
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.
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Eli Nachmany is an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in the Washington, DC, office. He clerked for Judge Steven J. Menashi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Eli graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Prior to law school, Eli served as the speechwriter to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and as a domestic policy aide in the White House Office of American Innovation. He graduated summa cum laude from New York University with a B.S. in Sports Management. Eli’s scholarship on administrative law and executive power has appeared in the BYU Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, and Yale Law Journal Forum.
Counsel, Cause of Action Institute
Ryan P. Mulvey has worked as policy counsel at Americans for Prosperity Foundation since December 2019. He previously worked as Counsel as Cause of Action Institute (2013-2019) and continues to volunteer in that position. Ryan’s practice touches on various aspects of government oversight, civic engagement, and administrative and constitutional law. He regularly lectures on government transparency matters and litigates cases under the Freedom of Information Act and Administrative Procedure Act. Ryan has helped to prosecute state public records requests, too, and provided amicus support at various levels of state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court, on various matters. As a policy expert, he regularly advises congressional staff about FOIA reform and cutting-edge transparency issues.
Ryan was graduated from the University of San Diego (2010) summa cum laude with an honors degree in history and political science. He earned his JD and MA in philosophy from Boston University (2013). While a law student, Ryan completed internships at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, as well as the Office of the General Counsel of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. He served as Executive Editor for Notes and Comments at the Review of Banking & Financial Law and worked as a research assistant for the second revised edition of the Heritage Foundation’s Guide to the Constitution (2014).
Ryan is admitted to the practice of law in New York State, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to his work at AFPF, Ryan is the president of the American Society of Access Professionals and a contributor at FOIA Advisor.
Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence; Co-Director of the Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic, New York University School of Law
Sally Katzen served in the Clinton administration as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as deputy assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council in the White House, and then as the deputy director for management at OMB. She served as the head of the Agency Review Group for the Obama/Biden transition with responsibility for the Executive Office of the President and all government-wide agencies. She has taught both undergraduates and at various law schools. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the National Academy of Public Administration, has served on multiple panels for the National Academy of Sciences, testified frequently before Congress, and is on the board of several non-profit organizations. Before joining the Clinton administration, Katzen was a partner in the Washington, DC, law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, specializing in regulatory and legislative matters, while serving in leadership roles in the American Bar Association (including chair of the Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and as DC delegate to the ABA’s House of Delegates), as president of the Federal Communications Bar Association and as president of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund. She graduated from Smith College and the University of Michigan Law School, where she was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Law Review. She clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and served in the Carter administration as the general counsel of the Council on Wage and Price Stability in the Executive Office of the President.
Legal Fellow, Center for the Separation of Powers, Pacific Legal Foundation
Alison Somin joined Pacific Legal Foundation in May 2020 as a legal fellow in the Center for the Separation of Powers and part of the equality before the law practice group.
Before joining the Pacific Legal Foundation team, Alison was a special assistant and counsel for over a decade to Gail Heriot, a member of the bipartisan United States Commission on Civil Rights. She also has deep roots in the liberty movement. Alison was a Koch Associate at the National Federation for Independent Business Legal Foundation and, during law school, completed summer clerkships at the Institute for Justice and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. She holds a J.D. from Emory University School of Law and an A.B. in history from Dartmouth College.
Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Daily Journal, Texas Journal of Law and Politics, and The Federalist Society’s Engage magazine and blog.
She lives in northern Virginia with her husband Ilya; two children; and golden retriever Willow. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, baking and cooking, children’s art projects, and training and exercising Willow.
General Counsel, Mountain States Legal Foundation
William E. Trachman is General Counsel for Mountain States Legal Foundation, where he protects the rights of individuals to live freely and securely under the U.S. Constitution. Previously, he was appointed to serve in the Department of Education as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office for Civil Rights. Prior to his appointment, he served as General Counsel to the Douglas County School District, where he helped litigate the fight for school choice in the school district. Presently, Mr. Trachman serves as Chair of the Colorado Federalist Society and the Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Colorado Advisory Board. He previously taught as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. He attended U.C. Berkeley for both undergraduate and law school, and then clerked for the Honorable Harris Hartz on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Trachman is licensed in Colorado, California, and Washington, D.C.
Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance, American Enterprise Institute; Executive Director, Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State
Adam J. White is the Laurence H. Silberman Chair in Constitutional Governance and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on the Supreme Court and the administrative state. He also directs the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State.
He writes on regulation and constitutional government for a variety of publications. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., after clerking for the D.C. Circuit's Judge David Sentelle. He also has been chairman of the ABA's Administrative Law Section.
In 2021, he served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, where he criticized “Court packing” and other efforts to restructure the Supreme Court.
Associate Justice, Alabama Supreme Court
James L. “Jay” Mitchell was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2018.
Prior to serving on the Supreme Court, Justice Mitchell was an accomplished litigation attorney with Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. During his time in private practice, he tried a number of complex cases to verdict, successfully handled appeals, and obtained favorable settlements for clients. He was rated as one of the top litigators in the United States and Alabama, and received the highest possible rating for professional ethics. He also served on Maynard, Cooper & Gale’s executive committee, helping to lead strategic and growth initiatives for the firm.
Justice Mitchell was born in Mobile and grew up in South Alabama and in Homewood. He is a graduate of Homewood High School and received his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Birmingham-Southern College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, served as president of the student body, and played forward on the school’s 1995 national championship basketball team. He holds a Master of Arts from University College in Dublin, Ireland, and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Justice Mitchell has long been active in organizations that benefit the community and enhance the legal profession. In addition to his service with other organizations, he is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and serves on the board of directors at Cornerstone School, an inner city Christian school. He is also a member of the Federalist Society.
Justice Mitchell and his wife, Elizabeth, have been married for 20 years and have four children. They reside in Homewood and are longtime members of Church of the Highlands.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Professor Nicholas Bagley teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, regulatory theory, and health law. Prior to joining the Law School faculty, he was an attorney with the appellate staff in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he argued a dozen cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals and acted as lead counsel in many more. Professor Bagley also served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court and to the Hon. David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. Professor Bagley holds a BA in English from Yale University and received his JD, summa cum laude, from New York University School of Law. Before entering law school, he joined Teach For America and taught eighth-grade English at a public school in South Bronx. Professor Bagley's work has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law. In 2012, he was the recipient of the Law School's L. Hart Wright Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a frequent contributor to The Incidental Economist, a prominent health policy blog.
Harry Kalven, Jr. Professor of Law & Faculty Director, Constitutional Law Institute, University of Chicago Law School
William Baude is a Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School, where he teaches federal courts, constitutional law, and conflict of laws. His current research interests include different aspects of the Fourteenth Amendment (particularly both Section One and Section Three) and the nature of judicial discretion.
Among his other activities Baude is: the co-editor of two textbooks, The Constitution of the United States and Hart & Wechsler's Federal Courts in the Federal System; an Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism; a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance; a member of the American Law Institute; an occasional blogger at The Volokh Conspiracy; and a podcaster on Divided Argument. He also recently served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Professor Baude received his BS in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and his JD from Yale Law School. He then clerked for then-Judge Michael McConnell on the United States Court of Appeals, and Chief Justice John Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. Before joining the Chicago faculty, he was a fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, and a lawyer in Washington, DC.
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Emily Bremer teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, regulatory process, and civil procedure. Her scholarship focuses primarily on matters of procedural design, with a recent focus on the history and interpretation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). She is a recipient of the AALS’s award for the year’s best administrative law scholarship by a junior scholar and the AALL’s Joseph L. Andrew’s Legal Literature Award for her contribution to the Bremer-Kovacs Collection of Historical Documents Related to the APA (HeinOnline). Bremer’s articles include a defense forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review of the constitutionality of the APA’s regime for ensuring the competence and impartiality of Administrative Law Judges; a plea in the Yale Journal on Regulation for administrative law to take greater account of the on-the-ground reality of administration; twin articles uncovering the intellectual foundation and meaning of the APA’s adjudication and rulemaking provisions; and three separate studies that served as the basis of recommendations of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) on the subjects of agency declaratory orders, incorporation by reference, and statutory limitations on the jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims. Bremer serves as a Senior Fellow of ACUS, a co-editor of the administrative law section of Jotwell, and a regular contributor to the Yale Journal on Regulation’s Notice & Comment blog.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Christopher J. Walker is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Michigan law faculty in 2022, he spent a decade teaching at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He previously clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation. Professor Walker’s research focuses on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. Outside the law school, he chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2020-21 and served as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2016-2022, and he continues to serve in both organizations in various capacities. He also works of counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law & Economics, Columbia Law School
David Schizer is Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law & Economics at Columbia Law School. He served as Dean from 2004 to 2014, and as CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a global Jewish humanitarian organization, from 2017 to 2019. He is the author of How to Save the World in Six (Not So Easy) Steps: Bringing Out the Best in Nonprofits. Schizer serves on the Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society. He is Second Vice Chair of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association, a co-founder and co-chair of the Richman Center for Law, Business, and Public Policy at Columbia University, and a co-founder and co-chair of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies at Columbia Law School. Schizer served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Retired
Tom Gede retired in 2023 as a principal in Morgan Lewis Consulting LLC and of counsel to the firm. He currently consults on a variety of legal and policy matters for both public and private clients. Tom has a national reputation and distinguished background in federal Indian law. Prior to retirement, he represented clients in complex governmental matters in litigation, administrative and regulatory proceedings, including high-profile matters involving state governments. A former senior deputy in the California Attorney General’s office, Tom was amicus coordinator and Supreme Court counsel, and argued cases in the US Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and numerous state and federal appellate courts.
Tom also served as executive director of the Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG), coordinating activities on key legal and policy issues, such as federal Indian law, energy, environmental, public lands, financial services, and telecommunications, for the attorneys general of 18 western states and territories. In 2016, Tom was elected as a Member of the American Law Institute (ALI), and served as an Adviser on the Restatement of the Law Third - The Law of American Indians. Tom also taught federal Indian law as an adjunct law professor at the University of the Pacific - McGeorge School of Law. He served as an assistant editor for and the author of the Indian gaming chapter in CWAG’s American Indian Law Deskbook (2d & 3d eds.). He has been engaged in Indian gaming and Indian law matters for more than three decades, having focused on the gaming compacts with Indian tribes, as well as complex civil and criminal jurisdiction, land, natural resources, water and law enforcement issues in Indian country. He has testified before Congress on American Indian and Native Alaskan issues. In 2012 he was appointed by Speaker John Boehner to serve on the United States Indian Law and Order Commission, where he examined criminal justice issues in Indian country and Alaska, resulting in the issuance of an important report to the President and Congress.
Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law & Economics, Columbia Law School
David Schizer is Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law & Economics at Columbia Law School. He served as Dean from 2004 to 2014, and as CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a global Jewish humanitarian organization, from 2017 to 2019. He is the author of How to Save the World in Six (Not So Easy) Steps: Bringing Out the Best in Nonprofits. Schizer serves on the Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society. He is Second Vice Chair of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association, a co-founder and co-chair of the Richman Center for Law, Business, and Public Policy at Columbia University, and a co-founder and co-chair of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies at Columbia Law School. Schizer served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Partner, King & Spalding
John Richter is a trial and investigations partner in the Special Matters and Investigations Practice Group, and represents and defends companies, Boards of Directors, Board committees, and individuals facing a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, parallel civil litigation, and internal corporate investigations. John previously served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice and as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, having been nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate.
Associate Professor of Law, Ave Maria School of Law
Before arriving at Ave Maria School of Law, Professor Jennifer (Barrow) Jenkins was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard University School of Law. Professor Barrow was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and grew up in Tampa, Florida. Professor Barrow received a B.S. in the American Legal System from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She served as an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan and Iraq, receiving the Bronze Star in 2010. Professor Barrow is a graduate of Harvard Law School and was an editor for the International Law Journal, Journal of Law and Public Policy, Journal on Legislation, and the National Security Journal. After law school, Professor Barrow clerked for Judge Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She then served as a Supreme Court Fellow, placed at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she helped revise a draft amendment to the career offender provision of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Her primary teaching interests include criminal law and procedure, torts, and military law. Her scholarship focuses on criminal law and military law, with an emphasis on sentencing. Her research scrutinizes the increased power of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches at the expense of the jury and suggests reforms.
State Representative, Ohio House of Representatives, District 56
State Representative Adam Mathews is serving his second term in the Ohio House of Representatives. He represents the 56th Ohio House District, which encompasses southwest and central Warren County including Lebanon, South Lebanon, and Mason.
Rep. Mathews worked as a civilian engineer for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program before returning to Notre Dame to become an intellectual property attorney. He continues to practice and represents inventors, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. He formerly served as the Vice Mayor of Lebanon. The representative is also an intellectual property and corporate attorney, and that he is licensed and has appeared before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States
Mathews is also very involved in his community. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Elizabeth’s New Life Center, a network of pro-life women’s centers throughout Southwest Ohio. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Cincinnati Federalist Society, St. Thomas More Society of Cincinnati, the Warren County Republican Party, and Kiwanis of Lebanon.
Mathews was formerly Chairman of the Intellectual Property Section of the Ohio State Bar Association, President of the Notre Dame Club of Dayton, and a member of the St. Francis de Sales Parish Council and Knights of Columbus. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce.
He married his wife Amanda in 2011, and they live with their five children in Lebanon.
Partner, Taft Stettinius & Hollister
Robert McBride is the partner-in-charge of the Kentucky office of Taft Stettinius & Hollister. As a seasoned trial attorney, he is experienced in investigating and prosecuting a wide variety of criminal matters. As lead attorney, Bob prosecuted cases involving complex financial frauds, money laundering, federal tax violations, healthcare fraud, national security matters, violations of the Export Control Act, immigration, and human trafficking crimes, and public corruption. He also prosecuted narcotics trafficking organizations, firearms violations and crimes against children. As a prosecutor, Bob successfully tried many federal cases to jury verdict. Bob is also experienced in litigating forfeiture claims, habeas actions and appeals before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bob has a long record serving the United States as an attorney before entering private practice. He was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky for over 15 years. As an AUSA, Bob first chaired criminal jury trials in U.S. District Court and handled appeals before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Additionally, he was the District’s National Security Prosecutor and the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council Coordinator. Bob also held several leadership positions. In 2006, he was assigned as the manager of the London Branch Office. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Criminal Chief and served in that position until January 2010. As Criminal Chief, Bob supervised the Criminal Division’s personnel and exercised oversight of all prosecutions in the District. More recently, he was the supervisor of the Ft. Mitchell Branch Office, where he handled a number of high profile investigations and prosecutions.
Bob also served in the United States Navy, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, for 10 years. His major assignments included senior prosecutor on the Island of Guam, Officer-in-Charge of a Detachment in New Orleans focusing on criminal defense, and Staff Judge Advocate, Recruit Training Command. Bob attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He was also an enlisted Combat Engineer in the Army National Guard.
Partner, Patrick Doerr
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.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Kansas School of Law
Stephen Ware is the author of five books, over 60 law review articles and many other publications. His writings have been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States and in at least 37 other cases. Ware teaches and writes on:
each with an international or comparative dimension. An experienced teacher of lawyering skills exercises in which student groups negotiate, mediate, and draft legal documents, Professor Ware takes this approach in his Transnational Dispute Resolution course, which he has customized for universities from Beijing to Istanbul to Kansas.
Ware has testified before both houses of the U.S. Congress, several state legislatures and, as an expert witness, in court. He is a frequent guest lecturer and speaker at academic and professional conferences—having given such presentations throughout the U.S. and in several other countries. He has appeared on numerous television and radio stations and been quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Financial Times, National Law Journal and many other news outlets. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and has served, at various times in his career, on the editorial board of the Journal of Legal Education and as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.
Ware was named as the Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law in 2019.
Loper Bright and the Next Steps for Chevron Deference at the Supreme Court
Nicholas Bagley, Eli Nachmany, Christopher J. Walker, Ilan Wurman
This Term, the Supreme Court will hear Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo—a case concerning judicial...
Litigation Update: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
Eli Nachmany, Ryan Patrick Mulvey
For the past thirty years, the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) has given the National Marine Fisheries...
On “Regulatory Whiplash”
Sally Katzen, Alison E. Somin, William E. Trachman, Adam White
The regulatory environment in the United States is often complex. State and federal laws sometimes...
Textualism in Alabama
Jay Mitchell
Textualism is alive and well in Alabama. This interpretive doctrine teaches that legal texts have...
What is the Future of Textualism?
Nicholas Bagley, William Baude, Emily Bremer, Gregory G. Katsas, Christopher J. Walker
Recently, the application of Textualism by the Supreme Court of the United States--the predominant method...
Polselli v. Internal Revenue Service - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
David M. Schizer
On May 18, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Polselli v. Internal Revenue...
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians v. Coughlin - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Thomas F. Gede
On April 24, 2023, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Lac du Flambeau Band of...
Polselli v. Internal Revenue Service - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
David M. Schizer
On March 29, 2023, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Polselli v. Internal Revenue Service....
Dubin v. United States - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
John C. Richter
On February 27, 2023, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Dubin v. United...
A Seat at the Sitting - March 2023
Jennifer Jenkins, Adam Mathews, Robert K. McBride, Robert J. Rando, Elizabeth Slattery, Stephen J. Ware
Each month, a panel of constitutional experts convenes to discuss the Court’s upcoming docket sitting...