Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University; Former General Counsel at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Alden Abbott is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. Prior to joining Mercatus, he served as the General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). As the Commission’s chief legal officer and adviser, he represented the agency in court and provides legal counsel to the Commission and its bureaus and offices.
Prior to rejoining the FTC in April 2018, Mr. Abbott served in executive positions at the Heritage Foundation (2014-2018) and BlackBerry (2012-2014). He also held a variety of senior positions in the U.S. federal government (in the FTC, the Commerce Department, and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and the Antitrust Division).
He speaks French, Spanish, and Italian.
Consultant, American Edge Project and U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Internet Policy Counsel and Director of Appellate Litigation, TechFreedom
Corbin Barthold is TechFreedom's Internet Policy Counsel and Director of Appellate Litigation.
Corbin clerked for the Hon. Steven D. Merryday (M.D. Fla.) and the Hon. Robert H. Cleland (E.D. Mich.). After his clerkships, he became an associate, and later a partner, in the Los Angeles office of Browne George Ross LLP, where he engaged in high-stakes complex litigation. He then served as Senior Litigation Counsel at Washington Legal Foundation, a D.C. public-interest firm, where his practice focused on appeals involving administrative law, the separation of powers, antitrust, and tech policy.
Corbin received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He also holds a B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, San Diego, and an Msc., with distinction, from the London School of Economics.
Partner, Williams & Connolly
Sarah Harris is a partner in Williams & Connolly’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice, where she represents clients in high-stakes appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts across the country. She has argued five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has presented many arguments in federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts. Her cases have run the gamut of substantive areas, including constitutional law—especially First Amendment and separation-of-powers issues—as well as administrative law, arbitration, class actions, antitrust, False Claims Act litigation, commercial litigation, and federal civil procedure.
Sarah is widely recognized for her appellate advocacy. Chambers USA has recognized her as “Up and Coming” in Appellate Law. She has been named to Bloomberg Law’s 40 Under 40 list of top lawyers nationwide and to Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List,” as well as a an appellate “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal and Law360, a “Next Generation Lawyer” by The Legal 500, and as one of Bloomberg Law’s “Five Fresh Faces to Know in Appellate.”
Sarah clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Laurence Silberman on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Sandra Lynch on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Before joining Williams & Connolly, she served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Sarah received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, and her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. She also holds a Ph.D. and M. Phil. from the University of Cambridge.
Vice President for Legal Strategy, Stand Together
Casey Mattox is Vice President for Legal Strategy at Stand Together and Senior Advisor at
Americans for Prosperity. In these roles he advocates for and creates strategies and
partnerships to ensure a constitutionally limited government that protects the civil liberties of all
Americans. Prior to joining Stand Together and AFP Casey’s legal career focused on defending
the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, healthcare workers and religious organizations.
Casey has a J.D. from Boston College School of Law and an undergraduate degree from the
University of Virginia. You can find him on Twitter at @CaseyMattox_ and on LinkedIn at
@Casey-Mattox-ST.
Trial Attorney, Council on American-Islamic Relations
Justin Sadowsky is a trial attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. As part of CAIR’s civil rights team, Justin helps lead CAIR’s strategic litigation in support of religious, free speech, and equal protection rights of Muslims in the United States, including as employees, incarcerees, and activists. Among the litigation Justin has worked on includes invalidation of the federal terrorism watchlist (TSDB) on Due Process grounds (Elhady v. Kable), a determination that Texas’s anti-BDS law violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech clause (Amawi v. Pflugerville), and a declaration that the Virginia Riverside Regional Jail’s “god pod” providing special accommodations and benefits for Christian inmates violated the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses and the Equal Protection Clause (Young v. Newton).
E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair in Law, University of Richmond School of Law
Professor Kurt Lash teaches and writes about constitutional law. Founder and director of the Richmond Program on the American Constitution, Professor Lash has published widely on the subjects of constitutional law and constitutional history, including The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges or Immunities of American Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2014), The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment (Oxford University Press, 2009), and The American First Amendment in the Twenty-first Century: Cases and Materials(with William W. Van Alstyne) (5th ed., Foundation Press, 2014). An elected member of the American Law Institute, Professor Lash’s work has appeared in numerous legal journals including the Stanford Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, Virginia Law Review, andNotre Dame Law Review. He has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University School of Law and is the former director of the University of Illinois College of Law Program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law.
Associate, Covington & Burling LLP
Carol Weiland represents clients in a variety of complex antitrust and litigation matters. She has particular experience defending financial institutions and innovator pharmaceutical companies in antitrust class actions and multi-district litigations.
Prior to joining Covington, Carol Weiland clerked for Judge Dennis W. Shedd of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.
Executive Vice President and Director of Litigation, EdChoice Legal Advocates
Before founding a public interest law firm at EdChoice, Tom Fisher served as Indiana’s first Solicitor General from 2005-2023. Fisher has argued dozens of high-profile cases before both the Indiana Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. A two-time recipient of the National Association of Attorneys General Best Brief Award, Fisher is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a Sagamore of the Wabash. Fisher is a graduate of Wabash College and Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University; Former General Counsel at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Alden Abbott is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. Prior to joining Mercatus, he served as the General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). As the Commission’s chief legal officer and adviser, he represented the agency in court and provides legal counsel to the Commission and its bureaus and offices.
Prior to rejoining the FTC in April 2018, Mr. Abbott served in executive positions at the Heritage Foundation (2014-2018) and BlackBerry (2012-2014). He also held a variety of senior positions in the U.S. federal government (in the FTC, the Commerce Department, and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and the Antitrust Division).
He speaks French, Spanish, and Italian.
Consultant, American Edge Project and U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Internet Policy Counsel and Director of Appellate Litigation, TechFreedom
Corbin Barthold is TechFreedom's Internet Policy Counsel and Director of Appellate Litigation.
Corbin clerked for the Hon. Steven D. Merryday (M.D. Fla.) and the Hon. Robert H. Cleland (E.D. Mich.). After his clerkships, he became an associate, and later a partner, in the Los Angeles office of Browne George Ross LLP, where he engaged in high-stakes complex litigation. He then served as Senior Litigation Counsel at Washington Legal Foundation, a D.C. public-interest firm, where his practice focused on appeals involving administrative law, the separation of powers, antitrust, and tech policy.
Corbin received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He also holds a B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, San Diego, and an Msc., with distinction, from the London School of Economics.
Partner, Williams & Connolly
Sarah Harris is a partner in Williams & Connolly’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice, where she represents clients in high-stakes appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts across the country. She has argued five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has presented many arguments in federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts. Her cases have run the gamut of substantive areas, including constitutional law—especially First Amendment and separation-of-powers issues—as well as administrative law, arbitration, class actions, antitrust, False Claims Act litigation, commercial litigation, and federal civil procedure.
Sarah is widely recognized for her appellate advocacy. Chambers USA has recognized her as “Up and Coming” in Appellate Law. She has been named to Bloomberg Law’s 40 Under 40 list of top lawyers nationwide and to Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List,” as well as a an appellate “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal and Law360, a “Next Generation Lawyer” by The Legal 500, and as one of Bloomberg Law’s “Five Fresh Faces to Know in Appellate.”
Sarah clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Laurence Silberman on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Sandra Lynch on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Before joining Williams & Connolly, she served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Sarah received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, and her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. She also holds a Ph.D. and M. Phil. from the University of Cambridge.
Vice President for Legal Strategy, Stand Together
Casey Mattox is Vice President for Legal Strategy at Stand Together and Senior Advisor at
Americans for Prosperity. In these roles he advocates for and creates strategies and
partnerships to ensure a constitutionally limited government that protects the civil liberties of all
Americans. Prior to joining Stand Together and AFP Casey’s legal career focused on defending
the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, healthcare workers and religious organizations.
Casey has a J.D. from Boston College School of Law and an undergraduate degree from the
University of Virginia. You can find him on Twitter at @CaseyMattox_ and on LinkedIn at
@Casey-Mattox-ST.
Trial Attorney, Council on American-Islamic Relations
Justin Sadowsky is a trial attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. As part of CAIR’s civil rights team, Justin helps lead CAIR’s strategic litigation in support of religious, free speech, and equal protection rights of Muslims in the United States, including as employees, incarcerees, and activists. Among the litigation Justin has worked on includes invalidation of the federal terrorism watchlist (TSDB) on Due Process grounds (Elhady v. Kable), a determination that Texas’s anti-BDS law violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech clause (Amawi v. Pflugerville), and a declaration that the Virginia Riverside Regional Jail’s “god pod” providing special accommodations and benefits for Christian inmates violated the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses and the Equal Protection Clause (Young v. Newton).
Partner, Troutman Pepper Locke LLP
Misha leads Troutman Peppers' national appellate and Supreme Court practice. Most recently, he successfully obtained orders from the Supreme Court blocking an unconstitutional restriction on places of worship, as well as overturning a lower court order that had blocked several state election laws. He has also argued and prevailed before the Supreme Court in Gill v. Whitford, one of the most significant redistricting cases in decades, as well as Murr v. Wisconsin, a high-stakes regulatory taking case.
Before joining Troutman, Misha served as Solicitor General of the State of Wisconsin. Misha previously served as a law clerk for the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court, Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit, and Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit. He graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was President of the Federalist Society Chapter.
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument Teleforum: AMG Capital Management v. FTC
Alden F. Abbott, Asheesh Agarwal, Corbin K. Barthold
On January 13, 2021, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in AMG Capital Management v....
Ten Surprising Highlights from OCR’s New Annual Report
On January 13, the Trump Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which I headed...
Litigation Update: BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
TeleforumTopics
Carr v. Saul: Issue Exhaustion & Constitutional Adjudication
On March 3, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Carr v. Saul—a case...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument Teleforum: Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski
Sarah M. Harris, Casey Mattox, Justin Sadowsky
On Tuesday, January 12, 2021, the Supreme Court hears oral argument in Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski. The issue the...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument Teleforum: AMG Capital Management v. FTC
TeleforumHamlet Without the Prince
Kurt T. Lash
A review of The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment, by Ilan Wurman...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument Teleforum: Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski
TeleforumApple v. Pepper: When Can a Private Individual Sue for an Antitrust Violation?
Carol Szurkowski Weiland
Private individuals are allowed to file antitrust suits against corporations. However, it is not always...
Freedom of Worship in an Age of Pandemic: A Discussion of 'Agudath Israel of America v. Cuomo'
Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter - Virtual Event