Solicitor General, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Stephen F. Raiola, the former Solicitor General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a versatile litigator and business lawyer who has represented companies in business negotiations, assisted companies as an outside general counsel, served on several trial teams, deposed dozens of witnesses, and led discovery strategy in nationwide litigation involving mass torts and class actions as well as matters ranging from consumer protection and privacy litigation to intellectual property, constitutional rights, product liability, and commercial litigation. His representations have been national in scope, spanning federal and state courts throughout the country, including courts in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia.
From 2025 to 2026, Stephen served as Solicitor General of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Executive Leadership Team of the Attorney General and advised the Office on all multistate and affirmative litigation. In that role, Stephen played a key role in interviewing and retaining outside counsel, and in leading Pennsylvania’s efforts to support energy exploration and protect children online from emerging technologies. He also regularly coordinated with industry leaders and stakeholders in other states to help the office develop consumer protection priorities in addition to counseling on appellate matters in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court, and Pennsylvania appellate courts. Stephen also regularly spoke with law students and lawyers throughout the Second and Third Circuit to discuss the emergence of State Solicitors General and the ways in which State AG Offices are driving the current litigation landscape.
Beyond his active trial-level litigation practice, Stephen has been recognized by his peers as a “Rising Star” of the Appellate Bar. He has served as counsel of record on two certiorari petitions before the U.S. Supreme Court, one of which was supported by six amici and recognized as the petition of the week by SCOTUSblog. In addition, Stephen has briefed over 20 appellate matters across seven federal circuits, the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York State Appellate Division, the California Court of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, and the Pennsylvania Superior Court. He also has presented oral argument on 10 occasions before the California Court of Appeal as well as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, and has served as court-appointed amicus curiae for both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
President and CEO, The Federalist Society
Sheldon Gilbert is the President and CEO of The Federalist Society. Gilbert has been involved in the conservative and libertarian legal movement since law school, and has served in prominent roles at both nonprofit organizations as well as corporate America.
A longtime constitutional litigator, Gilbert has represented clients through amicus and party briefs in nearly a hundred cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, at both the certiorari and merits stages. Most recently, Gilbert served as Senior Lead Counsel for Strategic Initiatives at Walmart, the world’s largest company, where he led teams providing legal advice related to government enforcement, internal investigations, government relations, public relations, and special projects at the center of law and policy.
Before joining Walmart, Gilbert served as Vice President for Content and Development and Senior Fellow for Constitutional Studies at the National Constitution Center, a congressionally chartered non-partisan center for constitutional education and debate, where he led both fundraising and programming efforts. While at the NCC, Gilbert helped ensure that the Center’s programming and exhibits incorporated constitutional perspectives from experts on both the right and the left, including the launch of the Center’s landmark permanent exhibit on the Civil War and the Reconstruction Amendments.
Prior to the National Constitution Center, Gilbert served as the director of the Institute for Justice’s Center for Judicial Engagement (CJE), where he educated the public about the role of the courts and the Constitution, where he frequently hosted discussions and debates on constitutional issues, and often spoke at Federalist Society lawyer and student chapters across the country.
He was also a litigator with the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, the litigation arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he represented the U.S. Chamber in over 400 cases in federal and state courts addressing a wide range of legal issues, from free speech to property rights.
Gilbert is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School where he helped found a first-of-its-kind National Religious Freedom Moot Court, which hosted law students from across the country to debate important, emerging religious liberty issues. After graduating from GWU, he also taught as a professorial lecturer at the school.
A graduate of the University of Utah, Gilbert is a child of the Mountain West, where he was born in a coal mining town in Utah and raised in Idaho near the Grand Tetons. Before going to law school, Gilbert’s diverse interests led him to work in a wide range of roles, from software development project management for a nonprofit, to working in his University’s radiobiology research lab, to volunteer service in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for his church.
Gilbert is married with four children.
Solicitor General, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Stephen F. Raiola, the former Solicitor General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a versatile litigator and business lawyer who has represented companies in business negotiations, assisted companies as an outside general counsel, served on several trial teams, deposed dozens of witnesses, and led discovery strategy in nationwide litigation involving mass torts and class actions as well as matters ranging from consumer protection and privacy litigation to intellectual property, constitutional rights, product liability, and commercial litigation. His representations have been national in scope, spanning federal and state courts throughout the country, including courts in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia.
From 2025 to 2026, Stephen served as Solicitor General of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Executive Leadership Team of the Attorney General and advised the Office on all multistate and affirmative litigation. In that role, Stephen played a key role in interviewing and retaining outside counsel, and in leading Pennsylvania’s efforts to support energy exploration and protect children online from emerging technologies. He also regularly coordinated with industry leaders and stakeholders in other states to help the office develop consumer protection priorities in addition to counseling on appellate matters in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court, and Pennsylvania appellate courts. Stephen also regularly spoke with law students and lawyers throughout the Second and Third Circuit to discuss the emergence of State Solicitors General and the ways in which State AG Offices are driving the current litigation landscape.
Beyond his active trial-level litigation practice, Stephen has been recognized by his peers as a “Rising Star” of the Appellate Bar. He has served as counsel of record on two certiorari petitions before the U.S. Supreme Court, one of which was supported by six amici and recognized as the petition of the week by SCOTUSblog. In addition, Stephen has briefed over 20 appellate matters across seven federal circuits, the U.S. Supreme Court, the New York State Appellate Division, the California Court of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, and the Pennsylvania Superior Court. He also has presented oral argument on 10 occasions before the California Court of Appeal as well as the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits, and has served as court-appointed amicus curiae for both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
NYC Young Lawyer Social with the Solicitor General of Pennsylvania
New York City Young Lawyer Chapter
New York City, NYThe Future of the Federalist Society: An Evening with Sheldon Gilbert
Pittsburgh Lawyers Chapter
Pittsburgh, PA