Solicitor General of Missouri
Lou Capozzi is the Solicitor General of Missouri. In that role, he oversees all appeals for the State of Missouri. He is also the Director of Special Litigation and litigates high-stakes cases at trial.
Lou previously worked at Jones Day, where he specialized in administrative and election law. At Jones Day, he helped lead a six-week bench trial in federal court, during which he cross-examined important expert and fact witnesses, delivered closing argument, asserted evidentiary objections, and argued several motions, including a motion for a directed verdict. He has also authored briefs at all phases of litigation--from evidentiary motions to dispositive motions and appeals.
Lou is also Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He has published several academic articles focusing on administrative law.
Lou clerked for Justice Neil Gorsuch at the United States Supreme Court in the 2021 Term, as well as for Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Anthony Scirica of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He gradated as the valedictorian from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2019.
Special Projects Officer, National Guard Bureau, Office of the Inspector General; Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland Global Campus
John McGlothlin currently serves as a special projects officer with the National Guard Bureau. His duties include oversight of the investigation of whistleblower allegations and the development and delivery of training on ethics.
John was previously counsel at Cause of Action, a non-profit law firm dedicated to government transparency. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at University of Maryland Global Campus and previously taught an honors seminar at the Virginia Military Institute.
His military career began in intelligence and included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan along with working across Europe. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law and transferred to the JAG Corps and to the D.C. National Guard, where he mobilized during the summer 2020 civil unrest and after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, the artist MK Bailey, and recently authored his first book, How to Deal with Damn Near Anything – The Paratrooper’s Guide to Life.
He is here today in his personal capacity and his views do not represent the Department of Defense nor any of its components.
Legal Scholar and Solo Practitioner
Jack received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 1977, graduating with Highest Distinction. After graduating Yale Law School in 1980, he served active duty in the U.S. Army's JAG Corps, rising to the rank of Major, where he represented the United States in more than 250 cases.
He practiced for a decade as an Associate for Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama. He proudly served the State of Alabama in the Office of the Attorney General, both as Deputy and Assistant Attorney General, handling complex civil and criminal litigation cases for the people of Alabama. In 2000, he won the "Best Brief Award" from the National Association of Attorneys General for his brief in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, James Alexander v. Martha Sandoval – a case he won. He was Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for the Heritage Foundation, Of Counsel at Strickland Brockington Lewis, a solo practitioner, and General Counsel for Indigo Energy.
Most recently, he "re-upped" for military service, volunteering his legal services to the Georgia State Defense Force where twice each month he provided legal services for National Guardsmen who were being deployed. He wore his military uniform for the last time in October 2024.
Jack Park passed away on March 16, 2026.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Devon Westhill is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Westhill on October 7, 2025.
Westhill returns to the USDA where he previously headed the civil rights office as Deputy Assistant Secretary in President Trump’s first term. His previous government appointments also include service at the U.S. Department of Labor, liaison to the Administrative Conference of the U.S., and liaison to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Prior to returning to government service, Westhill was President and General Counsel of a nonprofit civil rights organization.
Westhill has testified on civil rights matters before Congress, federal agencies, and as an expert witness in federal court. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio and TV programs, and he is frequently quoted in print publications, and his writing has appeared in numerous national outlets. A U.S. Navy veteran, Westhill earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Florida.
General Counsel, xAI and X
Senior Fellow, Technology Policy, Cato Institute
Jennifer’s research focuses on the intersection of emerging technology and law with a particular interest in the interactions between technology and the administrative state. Her work covers topics including judicial deference, liability protection for Internet platforms, autonomous vehicles and other disruptive transportation technologies, the regulation of data privacy, and the benefits of technology and innovation. Her work has appeared in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Sacramento Bee, the Washington Times, Real Clear Policy, and U.S. News and World Report. Jennifer has a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law and a BA in political science at Wellesley College.
Partner, Keller Postman
Ashley Keller is one of the founding Partners of Keller Postman LLC. An experienced trial and appellate lawyer, Ashley helps set strategic direction across virtually all of the firm’s cases. He represents clients in a wide variety of practice areas and types of claims, including product-liability, antitrust, class action, and arbitration matters.
Ashley is one of the leaders of Keller Postman’s national product-liability practice. He leverages his ability to detangle complex concepts and develop novel legal theories to support individual client matters and as counsel on numerous product-liability multidistrict litigation matters. He chairs the plaintiffs’ Law & Briefing Committee in the Zantac (Ranitidine) Product Liability MDL in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Ashley also litigates complex antitrust and class action matters. Among his notable cases, Ashley represents numerous States in antitrust litigation against Google for monopolizing products and services used by advertisers and publishers in online-display advertising.
Ashley also has played a central role in developing the firm’s pioneering arbitration practice, which includes pursuing individual arbitrations for clients whose claims are subject to arbitration clauses with class-action waivers. In part through managing the complexity of pursuing these individual claims simultaneously, the firm has secured millions in settlements for more than 500,000 employees and consumers.
Before launching Keller Postman, Ashley co-founded the litigation finance firm Gerchen Keller Capital, which grew to more than $1.3 billion in assets under management and was the world’s largest private investment manager focused on legal and regulatory risk prior to being acquired by Burford Capital in 2016.
Previously, Ashley was a partner at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, The American Lawyer’s litigation boutique of the year. While there, he handled various trial and appellate matters involving multi-billion-dollar securities and patent cases, contract disputes, mass torts, and class actions.
Ashley also worked as an analyst at Alyeska Investment Group, a Chicago-based market-neutral hedge fund, where he focused on investments in companies facing litigation and other complicated regulatory matters.
Ashley was named a 2021 Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazer by the National Law Journal. He is also listed on Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers, Lawdragon’s Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers, National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100, and Illinois Super Lawyers.
Ashley was a law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Richard Posner at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, received his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated first in his class.
Director, NetChoice Litigation Center
As Director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, Marchese manages NetChoice’s litigation portfolio. The Litigation Center’s portfolio focuses on protecting online freedom and digital liberty in the courtroom and court of public opinion. Marchese’s legal expertise includes First Amendment litigation, administrative law, and antitrust law.
Before joining NetChoice in 2019, Marchese worked at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, served as a law clerk for the Senate Judiciary Committee and for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and worked as a communications assistant at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
Marchese earned his J.D. from Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, and a B.A. in History and Political Science at Boston College. He is a member of the D.C. Bar and is an adjunct professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
Associate Professor, Charleston School of Law
Bill Merkel joined the Charleston School of Law faculty in 2012. Merkel graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in history in 1988 and proceeded to work as a cook in Baltimore and then as an analyst with the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. before returning to graduate studies in history and law.
He completed his J.D. at Columbia Law School in 1996 and then worked in appellate litigation with Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C. from 1997-1998. Merkel is the author, with the late Richard Uviller, of The Militia and the Right to Arms, Or, How the Second Amendment Fell Silent (Duke University Press, 2002). He taught American history at Oxford University from 2001-2003 and Comparative Introduction to American Law to foreign trained LL.M. students at Columbia Law School from 2003-2005. From 2005-2011, Merkel was an Associate Professor of Law at Washburn Law School in Topeka, Kansas, where he was named Professor of the Year by the graduating class in 2008. At Washburn, Merkel taught Constitutional Law I & II, Comparative Constitutional Law, Public International Law, and International Criminal Law and the Law of War. He received a doctorate in history from Oxford University in 2007.
Merkel has held visiting positions at the University of North Dakota School of Law in 2009 and at the University of South Carolina School of Law in 2011-12. In 2013 and 2014, Merkel taught The United States and the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands as part of the Charleston School of Law’s summer school consortium program administered by Stetson University School of Law. At the Charleston School of Law, Merkel continues to teach courses in Constitutional Law, International Law, Comparative Law, and Legal History. Merkel’s article “Jefferson’s Failed Anti-Slavery Proviso of 1784 and the Nascence of Free Soil Constitutionalism” was selected as the best submission in constitutional history by the Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum in 2006. Merkel is in the process of revising his Oxford doctoral thesis “Race, Liberty, and Law: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery, 1770-1800” for publication as a book to be titled Ambiguous Beginnings: Thomas Jefferson, Slavery, and the Foundations of American Constitutionalism. Merkel has published numerous articles in journals including the Chicago-Kent Law Review, Connecticut Law Review, Lewis and Clark Law Review, Santa Clara Law Review, Seton Hall Law Review, Rutgers Law Review, and Law and History Review. His scholarship on the Second Amendment has been cited by many authors and jurists, including Justice Breyer in a dissenting opinion in McDonald v. City of Chicago. In 2013, following the successful defense of his dissertation “The Second Amendment and the Constitutional Right to Self-Defense,” Merkel was awarded a J.S.D. degree by Columbia University.
Merkel is a member of the District of Columbia, New York, and United States Supreme Court Bars.
Senior Fellow, Ave Maria School of Law and Host of the Four Boxes Diner Second Amendment Channel
Mark W. Smith is a visiting member of the Senior Common Room, New College, Oxford University and a Visiting Fellow in Pharmaceutical Public Policy and Law in the Department of Pharmacology, Oxford University. Mark is also a Distinguished Scholar and Senior Fellow of Law and Public Policy at the Ave Maria School of Law. He hosts the Four Boxes Diner YouTube Channel (youtube.com/TheFourBoxesDiner), which addresses Second Amendment scholarship, cases, history and related issues, and whose videos have received almost 90 million views. Mark's scholarship has been cited by federal courts and by parties before the United States Supreme Court in Viramontes v. Cook County, New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen and in United States v. Rahimi. He is a graduate of the NYU School of Law. Mark is also a New York Times bestselling author who appears frequently in the national media including on the Fox News Channel.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee. He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.
Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.
Managing Partner, Cooper & Kirk PLLC
David Thompson is the Managing Partner of Cooper & Kirk and joined the firm at its founding. Mr. Thompson has extensive trial and appellate experience in a wide range of matters and has secured victories worth billions of dollars. He has successfully challenged numerous laws on Second Amendment grounds. He has also litigated cases in over 30 federal district courts, argued in each of the 13 federal circuit courts of appeal, and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as many state courts. Mr. Thompson was awarded an A.B. degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard University in 1991, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1994, Mr. Thompson received a J.D. degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Special Projects Officer, National Guard Bureau, Office of the Inspector General; Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland Global Campus
John McGlothlin currently serves as a special projects officer with the National Guard Bureau. His duties include oversight of the investigation of whistleblower allegations and the development and delivery of training on ethics.
John was previously counsel at Cause of Action, a non-profit law firm dedicated to government transparency. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at University of Maryland Global Campus and previously taught an honors seminar at the Virginia Military Institute.
His military career began in intelligence and included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan along with working across Europe. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law and transferred to the JAG Corps and to the D.C. National Guard, where he mobilized during the summer 2020 civil unrest and after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, the artist MK Bailey, and recently authored his first book, How to Deal with Damn Near Anything – The Paratrooper’s Guide to Life.
He is here today in his personal capacity and his views do not represent the Department of Defense nor any of its components.
Legal Scholar and Solo Practitioner
Jack received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 1977, graduating with Highest Distinction. After graduating Yale Law School in 1980, he served active duty in the U.S. Army's JAG Corps, rising to the rank of Major, where he represented the United States in more than 250 cases.
He practiced for a decade as an Associate for Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama. He proudly served the State of Alabama in the Office of the Attorney General, both as Deputy and Assistant Attorney General, handling complex civil and criminal litigation cases for the people of Alabama. In 2000, he won the "Best Brief Award" from the National Association of Attorneys General for his brief in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, James Alexander v. Martha Sandoval – a case he won. He was Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for the Heritage Foundation, Of Counsel at Strickland Brockington Lewis, a solo practitioner, and General Counsel for Indigo Energy.
Most recently, he "re-upped" for military service, volunteering his legal services to the Georgia State Defense Force where twice each month he provided legal services for National Guardsmen who were being deployed. He wore his military uniform for the last time in October 2024.
Jack Park passed away on March 16, 2026.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Devon Westhill is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Westhill on October 7, 2025.
Westhill returns to the USDA where he previously headed the civil rights office as Deputy Assistant Secretary in President Trump’s first term. His previous government appointments also include service at the U.S. Department of Labor, liaison to the Administrative Conference of the U.S., and liaison to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Prior to returning to government service, Westhill was President and General Counsel of a nonprofit civil rights organization.
Westhill has testified on civil rights matters before Congress, federal agencies, and as an expert witness in federal court. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio and TV programs, and he is frequently quoted in print publications, and his writing has appeared in numerous national outlets. A U.S. Navy veteran, Westhill earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Florida.
Special Projects Officer, National Guard Bureau, Office of the Inspector General; Adjunct Professor, University of Maryland Global Campus
John McGlothlin currently serves as a special projects officer with the National Guard Bureau. His duties include oversight of the investigation of whistleblower allegations and the development and delivery of training on ethics.
John was previously counsel at Cause of Action, a non-profit law firm dedicated to government transparency. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at University of Maryland Global Campus and previously taught an honors seminar at the Virginia Military Institute.
His military career began in intelligence and included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan along with working across Europe. He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law and transferred to the JAG Corps and to the D.C. National Guard, where he mobilized during the summer 2020 civil unrest and after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, the artist MK Bailey, and recently authored his first book, How to Deal with Damn Near Anything – The Paratrooper’s Guide to Life.
He is here today in his personal capacity and his views do not represent the Department of Defense nor any of its components.
Legal Scholar and Solo Practitioner
Jack received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia in 1977, graduating with Highest Distinction. After graduating Yale Law School in 1980, he served active duty in the U.S. Army's JAG Corps, rising to the rank of Major, where he represented the United States in more than 250 cases.
He practiced for a decade as an Associate for Bradley Arant in Birmingham, Alabama. He proudly served the State of Alabama in the Office of the Attorney General, both as Deputy and Assistant Attorney General, handling complex civil and criminal litigation cases for the people of Alabama. In 2000, he won the "Best Brief Award" from the National Association of Attorneys General for his brief in a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, James Alexander v. Martha Sandoval – a case he won. He was Special Assistant to the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, Visiting Legal Fellow for the Center for Judicial and Legal Studies for the Heritage Foundation, Of Counsel at Strickland Brockington Lewis, a solo practitioner, and General Counsel for Indigo Energy.
Most recently, he "re-upped" for military service, volunteering his legal services to the Georgia State Defense Force where twice each month he provided legal services for National Guardsmen who were being deployed. He wore his military uniform for the last time in October 2024.
Jack Park passed away on March 16, 2026.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Devon Westhill is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Westhill on October 7, 2025.
Westhill returns to the USDA where he previously headed the civil rights office as Deputy Assistant Secretary in President Trump’s first term. His previous government appointments also include service at the U.S. Department of Labor, liaison to the Administrative Conference of the U.S., and liaison to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Prior to returning to government service, Westhill was President and General Counsel of a nonprofit civil rights organization.
Westhill has testified on civil rights matters before Congress, federal agencies, and as an expert witness in federal court. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio and TV programs, and he is frequently quoted in print publications, and his writing has appeared in numerous national outlets. A U.S. Navy veteran, Westhill earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his JD from the University of Florida.
Partner, Jenner & Block
Matthew S. Hellman is a litigator. He has been lead counsel in dozens of appellate matters, and has presented arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and in state appellate courts. In addition, he routinely presents arguments in the trial courts. Mr. Hellman’s cases involve a variety of issues such as commercial law, intellectual property and administrative law. He has argued important cases for corporations like Marriott, GE and General Dynamics.
In 2010, Law360 recognized Mr. Hellman as a “Rising Legal Star” in the practice of Appellate Law. In 2007, Jenner & Block recognized Mr. Hellman with the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Pro Bono Award, which annually recognizes attorneys in the Firm with a strong commitment to pro bono or public service work. He has argued or supervised more than a dozen pro bono cases in the courts of appeals, including two capital cases.
Mr. Hellman is member of the firm’s Appellate and Supreme Court Practice. He is also a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and an Associate Trustee for the Washington Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. He serves as the Co-Chair of the DC Hiring and the Hiring Executive Committees and is also a member of the Associate Development and Evaluation Committee and the Finance Committee.
Partner, Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Practice, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
Willy Jay is a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and head of the firm’s Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Practice.
Prior to joining Paul, Weiss, Willy Jay was a partner in Goodwin’s Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation practice. After ten years leading that practice, he became co-chair of Goodwin’s broader Complex Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice. Willy used his deep experience litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals, including more than 80 oral arguments, to help clients formulate winning appellate strategy. His appellate skill led Benchmark Litigation to name him the nationwide Appellate Lawyer of the Year for 2020. A former Assistant to the Solicitor General and Supreme Court clerk, he has argued 19 cases before the Supreme Court, briefed more than 60 Supreme Court cases on the merits, and briefed more than 150 cases at the certiorari stage. In recent years he argued five of the most significant intellectual-property cases at the Court, involving patent, copyright, and trademark law.
Willy has handled cases in every federal court of appeals as well. He has filed more than 300 briefs in federal and state appeals courts and argued in 11 federal circuits. He is a prominent advocate at the Federal Circuit, where he has argued 30 times, filed more than 120 briefs in patent appeals, and been recognized as “Appellate Litigator of the Year" by both Managing IP and LMG Life Sciences. Willy also regularly counsels clients on appellate strategy at the trial level, preparing and arguing key motions and post-trial briefing before district courts and federal and state administrative agencies.
Willy is recognized in Band 1 in two different appellate categories in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, where clients praise him for being "a rocket scientist" whose "spectacular brief writing" and "keen and analytical mind" enable him to “take any issue on appeal.” Another client noted that Willy "is an extraordinary litigator" who "has a unique way of synthesizing complex arguments and making them understandable." Other clients comment that Willy is “A super-efficient appellate litigator who is able to cut straight to the most critical issues and construct simple, persuasive arguments from extremely complex legal and factual records." Forbes named him to its inaugural list of America’s Top 200 Lawyers. Willy is also listed in Legal500 and Best Lawyers in America. Law360 named him an “Appellate MVP.” He has been named “Litigator of the Week” by the AmLaw Litigation Daily.
Willy has particular experience in appellate cases involving intellectual property (including patent, copyright, and trademark law), financial services, administrative law (with a particular focus on pharmaceutical regulation), environmental law, class action practice, federal preemption of state law, and the First Amendment (including campaign finance regulation, election law, and election crimes).
David L. Brennan Endowed Chair, Associate Professor, and Associate Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Technology, The University of Akron School of Law
Emily Michiko Morris, an experienced teacher and scholar in specializing in patent law, particularly as it relates to biotechnology and university research, and is an expert on intellectual property and regulatory issues related to the pharmaceutical industry. Her research also focuses on comparative law and comparative intellectual property law. Professor Morris’ work has been published in books and leading journals, such as the Connecticut Law Review, the Stanford Technology Law Review, and the Harvard Journal of Gender and Law. Professor Morris is also currently a Scholar and Edison Fellow at the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy at George Mason University in Washington, D.C.
Professor Morris has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a three-year, $250,000 fellowship as an Eastern Scholar at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, where she lived and worked for a year as a visiting professor. She has also taught as a visiting or guest professor at other universities in a number of other countries.
Before joining academia, Professor Morris earned her A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard University and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was an articles editor on the Michigan Law Review. Following graduation from law school, Professor Morris clerked for the Honorable Bruce M. Selya on the First Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced for three years as an associate in the Issue & Appeals group in the Washington D.C. office of Jones Day.
Partner, Duane Morris LLP
Brian Pandya is Partner at Duane Morris LLP. A member of the firm’s Trial Practice Group, Brian represents technology, manufacturing, and healthcare companies in high-stakes litigation, arbitrations, investigations and appeals. He has served as lead trial counsel in a range of intellectual property, antitrust, complex commercial and white-collar matters. He also regularly counsels clients on cybersecurity and national security issues, particularly matters concerning emerging technologies and artificial intelligence.
Before joining Duane Morris, Brian served at the U.S. Department of Justice as Deputy Associate Attorney General from 2019-21, where he oversaw investigations and litigation undertaken by the Antitrust Division and Civil Division and served on several high-profile task forces and trial teams. Brian was also previously a litigation and IP partner at another prominent Washington, DC firm.
Brian clerked for Judge Leonard Davis on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. He is a two-time recipient of the Federal Circuit Bar Association’s Pro Bono Advocacy Award for work on behalf of military veterans and has served as volunteer federal public defender in the Eastern District of Virginia, among many other bar and community engagements.
Brian graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was articles editor of the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, and with honors and high distinction in mechanical engineering from Penn State University, where he received the Ralph Dorn Hetzel Memorial Award.
Partner, Clement & Murphy PLLC
Matt’s practice focuses on solving complex legal issues wherever they arise. Matt has developed winning strategies and written successful motions and briefs in a wide array of complicated, high-profile cases at every level of the federal court system and in multiple state courts. At the Supreme Court, Matt has written dozens of successful cert-stage and merits briefs. At the court of appeals level, Matt has briefed and delivered oral argument on a wide range of constitutional and statutory issues. At the trial level, Matt has helped craft litigation strategy from the ground up, and has delivered closing argument in a week-long bench trial. Matt’s cutting-edge work has been recognized by the American Lawyer and Legal 500 U.S. Matt’s matters have addressed administrative law, antitrust, bankruptcy, federal jurisdiction, habeas corpus, intellectual property, labor and employment, products liability, res judicata, securities law, and statutory interpretation; the First, Second, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Fourteenth, and Twenty-first Amendments; and multiple separation of powers and federalism issues. Matt maintains a robust pro bono practice, through which he has helped wrongly convicted criminal defendants secure their freedom.
Outside of Clement & Murphy, Matt teaches classes on constitutional law and the Supreme Court at Georgetown University. Matt is an avid, long-suffering fan of his hometown Angels and his adopted Arsenal Football Club. When he is not thinking about the law or watching sports, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and golden retriever.
Securities Lawyer
He regularly represents clients before U.S. federal and state financial regulatory authorities, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He also represents clients in filing comment letters and amicus briefs in connection with SEC rulemakings.
Senior Counsel, Corporate Engagement Team, Alliance Defending Freedom
Brian Knight serves as senior counsel on the Corporate Engagement Team. His work focuses on issues of financial access, debanking, and preventing the power of the private sector from being weaponized against people of faith by both public and private actors.
Prior to joining ADF, Knight spent almost nine years at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, as both a senior research fellow and as a program director. In addition to managing a team of scholars, Knight’s research focused on financial regulation and the politicization of financial services. His research helped inform legislation and regulation at the federal and state level. He was also the lead author for two amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of National Rifle Association v. Vullo.
Before joining Mercatus, Knight worked at the Milken Institute, where he focused on financial technology. He was also an entrepreneur, co-founding a firm focused on compliance for crowdfunding.
Knight earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary.
Director of Financial Regulation Studies, Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, Cato Institute
Jennifer Schulp is the Director of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, where she focuses on the regulation of securities and capital markets. Before joining Cato, Schulp was a director in the Department of Enforcement at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA), representing FINRA in investigations and disciplinary proceedings relating to violations of the federal securities laws and self‐regulatory organization rules. She was a lawyer in private practice at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Prior to private practice, Schulp clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She received her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was awarded the Karl Llewelyn Cup and the Thomas R. Mulroy Award for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy. She holds an A.B. in political science from the University of Chicago.
Director, Independent Women's Law Center, Independent Women's
Jennifer C. Braceras, a member of the Federalist Society Board of Visitors, is the director of Independent Women’s Law Center and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Ms. Braceras is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Law Review. After law school, she clerked for two federal judges and practiced labor and employment law with the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray.
A long time political columnist and editor, Ms. Braceras's writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Hill, and National Review Online. She co-hosts At the Bar, a bimonthly virtual happy hour discussion about issues at the intersection of law, politics, and culture.
Thomas L. Perkins Distinguished Professor of Law, Duke Law School
Doriane Coleman is the Thomas L. Perkins Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke Law School, where she specializes in interdisciplinary scholarship focused on women, children, medicine, sports, and law. Her work, single- and co-authored, has been published in numerous U.S. and international journals. She also writes op-eds and is regularly cited in the press.
Her most recent scholarship has centered on sex, its evolving definition, and the implications of this evolution for law and society. The first two articles in this series – Sex in Sport and Re-affirming the Value of the Sports Exception to Title IX's General Non-Discrimination Rule – have been widely read and used in the development of eligibility criteria for the female category. A third article – Sex Neutrality – traces the history of sex in law and addresses the merits of a final move from sex skepticism to sex-blindness. Her book On Sex and Gender – A Commonsense Approach (2024) expands on these themes for a broader audience.
At Duke, Coleman is a Faculty Fellow and Member of the Advisory Council of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and a Faculty Associate of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at the School of Medicine, and the University’s Initiative for Science & Society. She is also a member of the University’s Athletic Council and co-director of the Law School’s Center for Sports Law and Policy.
She received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown Law and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University. She was a litigation associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering before beginning her academic career at Howard University School of Law.
Before law school, Coleman ran the 800 meters in collegiate and international competition. She was a multiple All American, All East, and All Ivy athlete, the U.S. National Collegiate Indoor Champion in the 800 meters in 1982, the U.S. National Indoor Champion in the 4 x 400 meters relay in 1982, and the Swiss National Champion in the 800 meters in 1982 and 1983. Over the course of her athletic career she competed for Villanova and Cornell, the Swiss and U.S. National Teams, Athletics West, the Santa Monica and Atoms Track Clubs, and Lausanne Sports.
Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Chair, Lex Politica; Of Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom
Erin Morrow Hawley serves as Chair of Lex Politica's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice overseeing the firm’s strategic appellate litigation and critical motions practice in the trial courts. Erin is an experienced litigator who represents clients in constitutional, regulatory, and appellate matters in federal and state courts throughout the country.
Erin has represented dozens of clients before the Supreme Court of the United States, served as lead counsel in high-profile cases raising novel constitutional and statutory issues, and authored numerous successful petitions for certiorari and briefs in opposition. She has argued in state and federal appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court of the United States. Erin represents diverse clients in high-stakes litigation from state governments to faith-based nonprofits to Fortune 100 companies. She possesses expertise on a wide range of subject matters including administrative law, the First Amendment, religious liberty, federal jurisdiction, federal preemption, equitable jurisdiction, tax law, the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX.
Erin represents clients in cases where public communications strategy is paramount. She is a sought-after speaker and writer, has testified multiple times before Congress, and is a frequent presenter on constitutional and administrative law issues, including at the Oxford Union, the National Federalist Society Convention, and university campuses across the country. She is a frequent commentator to media outlets, including Fox News, MSNBC, the Wall Street Journal, WORLD, USA Today, the Federalist, and the Hill.
Erin previously oversaw Alliance Defending Freedom’s--where she still serves as Of Counsel--litigation strategies to empower women and protect the dignity of life, defend pregnancy centers’ First Amendment rights from government overreach, and safeguard Americans’ freedoms from the ever-encroaching administrative state.
Chair, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Solicitor General, United States of America
On April 4, 2025, D. John Sauer became the 49th Solicitor General of the United States. He previously served as Solicitor General of Missouri from 2017 to 2023.. Before that, he served as a federal prosecutor for five years and spent time in civil practice at boutique law firms, including the firm he founded, the James Otis Law Group. Mr. Sauer has first-chaired many jury and bench trials, and served as lead counsel in many appeals. He has presented oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the Supreme Court of Missouri, and many other state and federal appellate courts. Mr. Sauer served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was a Rhodes Scholar and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School.
Supreme Court A Clerk's Perspective & the Death of Chevron
Elon Student Chapter
Greensboro, NCMilitary Academies Litigation After SFFA
John E. McGlothlin, John J. Park, Devon Westhill
Last year, the Supreme Court decided the cases of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard...
Military Academies Litigation After SFFA
John E. McGlothlin, John J. Park, Devon Westhill
Last year, the Supreme Court decided the cases of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard...
Military Academies Litigation After SFFA
Does Jarkesy Doom the Preserve Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act?
Matthew S. Hellman, William M. Jay, Emily Michiko Morris, Brian Pandya, Matthew D. Rowen
Reducing the cost of prescription drugs has been a bipartisan priority for years. One recent...
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2024 National Lawyers Convention
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Showcase Panel III: Sex, Gender, and the Law
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