Justice, Florida Supreme Court
On January 14, 2026, Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Justice Adam S. Tanenbaum to be the 94th justice of the Supreme Court of Florida.
Justice Tanenbaum served on the First District Court of Appeal from 2019 to 2026 before joining the Supreme Court.
Before his appointment, Justice Tanenbaum served as general counsel for the Florida House of Representatives (2016–2019). In that position, he provided legal advice and counsel to the Speaker of the House and to House members and staff regarding matters of legislative interest. He also advised House members and senior staff regarding ethics laws, public records requirements, House rules, and issues requiring constitutional or statutory interpretation. He also had primary responsibility for handling litigation affecting the House. Previously, Judge Tanenbaum served as general counsel for the Florida Department of State (2015–2016) and chief deputy solicitor general at the Florida Department of Legal Affairs (2014–2015). He moved with his family to Tallahassee from Tampa in 2014.
Judge Tanenbaum grew up in Pinellas County and was student body president and valedictorian at Seminole High School in Seminole, Florida. He spent most of his professional career living in Tampa and Orlando. He has tried jury and non-jury cases and briefed and argued civil and criminal appeals in state and federal courts. He has worked as an assistant federal public defender in Tampa and Orlando (2008–2010; 2012–2014) and as an assistant public defender in Orlando (2005–2006). He practiced as a private complex commercial litigator in Tampa, Orlando, and New York City, including during several stints at Carlton Fields, P.A. (1997–2001; 2001–2002; 2003–2005; 2010–2011). He also taught complex litigation as an adjunct professor at Stetson University College of Law (2001; 2007). He now teaches a spring course on legislative power as an adjunct professor at Florida State University College of Law.
In 1993 Judge Tanenbaum earned a bachelor of arts degree (major in political science and minor in economics), with honors, from the University of Florida, where he was co-valedictorian; recognized with awards for Outstanding Male Leader and Four-Year Scholar; and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Florida Blue Key, and the UF Hall of Fame. He graduated cum laude with a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1996 and was selected to be his section’s commencement speaker. He started his legal career as a law clerk to then-U.S. District Judge Stanley Marcus in the Southern District of Florida.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Principal, Spero Law LLC
Christopher Mills is the founder of Spero Law LLC. He was previously a partner at a national law firm and a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court during October Term 2018. He also clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle, then-Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has authored briefs and motions in the Supreme Court, courts of appeals, and trial courts, and successfully argued before the D.C. Circuit. He has served as special counsel to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, and is an Adjunct Professor at the Charleston School of Law.
A 2012 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Christopher was a senior editor of the Harvard Law Review, an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and served on the Executive Board of the Harvard Federalist Society. In 2009, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a degree in economics from Furman University.
Christopher lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife, children, and golden retriever.
United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
In November 2020, the Senate confirmed Kathryn Kimball Mizelle as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida. At age 33, she became the youngest Article III judge in the country. Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mizelle was in private practice at Jones Day, where she focused on complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals. Judge Mizelle previously served at the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the Associate Attorney General, in the Southern Criminal Enforcement Section of the Tax Division, and in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge Mizelle has also taught as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Judge Mizelle earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Covenant College, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. After graduation, Judge Mizelle served as a law clerk at every level of the federal judiciary: at the Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas, at the D.C. Circuit for Judge Gregory G. Katsas, at the Eleventh Circuit for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr., and at the Middle District of Florida for Judge James S. Moody Jr.
Tocqueville Associate Professor Department of Political Science and Concurrent Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Associate Professor of Religion & Public Life in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the founding director of Notre Dame's undergraduate minor in Constitutional Studies and directs Notre Dame's Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into Religion and Public Life.
Muñoz writes and teaches across the fields of constitutional law, American politics, and political philosophy with a focus on religious liberty and the American Founding. His first book, God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson (Cambridge University Press, 2009) won the Hubert Morken Award from the American Political Science Association for the best publication on religion and politics in 2009 and 2010. His First Amendment church-state case reader, Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court: The Essential Cases and Documents (Rowman & Littlefield) was first published in 2013 (revised edition, 2015) and is being used at Notre Dame and other leading universities.
Muñoz's current project is a scholarly monograph on the natural right of religious liberty and the original meaning of the First Amendment's Religion Clauses. Articles from that project have appeared in American Political Science Review, The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Notre Dame Law Review, American Political Thought, and the University of Pennsylvania's Journal of Constitutional Law.
Vice President & General Counsel, Paligen Technologies
Eliot Peace is Vice President and General Counsel at Paligen Technologies, a worldwide leader in the manufacture of energetic materials; the design and production of munitions, aerospace, and naval products; and the production of metal components for defense and commercial operations. In this role, he leads the Legal and Compliance departments and provides full-spectrum legal support to the company.
Previously, he was the Deputy General Counsel for General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. In this role, he served as legal advisor to a multi-billion-dollar global aerospace/defense business unit, where he was responsible for government and commercial contracts; litigation and disputes; government enforcement and investigations; and regulatory, international, and trade compliance.
Prior to joining GD-OTS in 2020, he worked as an attorney for an AmLaw 100 law firm in Tampa, FL, handling commercial litigation and government enforcement/investigations in the aerospace/defense, manufacturing, and firearms industries. From 2012-2017, he served as a member of the US Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He remains a major in the US Air Force Reserve.
Prior to accepting his commission, he clerked for Justice John W. Kittredge at the South Carolina Supreme Court and Judge Timothy M. Cain on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. He is Chair of the Second District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, a member of the Florida Polytechnic University Board of Trustees, and a previous member of the Executive Committee of the Florida Defense Contractors Association. A graduate of the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina School of Law, he and his wife have five children and live in Dunedin, FL.
General Counsel, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
James H. Percival graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Virginia School of Law. Before his work at the Department of Homeland Security, he was Chief of Staff to then Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. James previously served in a number of other roles for Attorney General Moody and as Senior Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. Before beginning his public service, James worked for a global law firm and clerked for Judge Emmett Ripley Cox of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In between college and law school, James worked as a substitute teacher and as a missionary in South America.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Paul Avelar is the Managing Attorney of the Institute for Justice Arizona Office. He joined the Institute in March 2010 and litigates free speech, property rights, economic liberty, school choice and other constitutional cases in federal and state courts.
As the head of IJ’s national Braiding Freedom Initiative, Paul represents natural hair braiders across the country to protect their right to earn an honest living. The Initiative uses lawsuits, activism and research to remove laws that require potential braiders to undergo hundreds of costly training hours just to braid hair. Since IJ launched the Braiding Freedom Initiative in 2014, 12 additional states have freed braiders from unnecessary licensing burdens. Paul drafted the model Natural Hair Braiding Protection Act, which has been adopted in Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Texas and South Dakota. He is currently representing braiders in Missouri, where state laws infringe upon their right to earn an honest living.
In his free speech work, Paul has challenged numerous laws that trample First Amendment rights. In Arizona Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett, he represented candidates and independent groups in a successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the “matching funds” provision of Arizona’s publicly financed elections system. He represented grassroots groups and individuals in Arizona, Mississippi and Washington, where state laws burdened their political speech by requiring them to register with the government, to navigate complex regulations and to face fines and possible criminal penalties merely because they talked about political issues. In Washington, Paul protected a lawyer’s right to defend, pro-bono, the First Amendment rights of political speakers. Through litigation and legislation, Paul leads the fight against abusive civil forfeiture laws in Arizona and elsewhere.
Paul also co-authored the most comprehensive published study of economic liberty protections in the Arizona Constitution. The Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court appointed Paul to the Task Force on the Review of the Role and Governance Structure of the State Bar of Arizona, where he dissented from the majority report and called on leaders to substantially reform the Bar and state regulation of the practice of law. He often speaks at law schools across the country about constitutional issues and his work at IJ.
Prior to joining IJ-AZ, Paul worked as an attorney in Philadelphia. He clerked for Judge Roger Miner on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Justice Andrew Hurwitz on the Arizona Supreme Court, and Judge Daniel Barker on the Arizona Court of Appeals.
Paul graduated manga cum laude from the Arizona State University College of Law in 2004 and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 2000.
Judge, United States District Court for the District of Arizona
United States District Judge Michael T. Liburdi began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Ruth V. McGregor of the Arizona Supreme Court.
He entered private practice with the law firm of Brown & Bain P.A., which became the Phoenix office of Perkins Coie LLP. He later practiced at Snell & Wilmer L.L.P.
From 2015-2018, Judge Liburdi served as General Counsel to Arizona Governor Douglas A. Ducey. Judge Liburdi provided legal advice to the Governor, advised on appointments to the state judiciary, directed litigation involving the state agencies, and worked with Arizona’s Congressional delegation on legal policy issues.
Immediately prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Liburdi was a shareholder at the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Judge Liburdi’s private sector practice included complex commercial litigation, antitrust, constitutional law, and political and election law.
Judge Liburdi has served as an adjunct professor of law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Judge Liburdi earned his Juris Doctorate from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University.
President & CEO, Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Danny brings more than 16 years of experience in global public affairs and government relations, as well as handling complex legal matters in private practice and public sector service. Prior to joining the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Danny was general counsel to the Valor Global leadership team. He focused on helping achieve growth objectives as well as providing continued public affairs guidance in AZ, WA and other States.
Danny worked at Intel, was a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig where he chaired the Phoenix office government law and policy practice. Danny served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Arizona Governor Doug Ducey from 2014 to 2018 where he assisted in the passage of landmark legislation including the Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act and K–12 education funding ballot referral.
Danny was recently named among 2020 Leaders of the Year in Public Policy by Arizona Capitol Times for his contributions in the field of law and public policy. Danny earned his Juris Doctor (cum laude) from Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) from Pepperdine University. Danny serves as an adjunct professor at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, is a board member of numerous community organizations. Danny is passionate about orphan care and volunteers with Orphan Outreach for orphaned and vulnerable children in Mathare, Nairobi and Bungoma, Kenya. He and his wife Ann, live in Phoenix with their three children.
Associate Professor of Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University
Jennifer L. Selin is an associate professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Her published and ongoing scholarship explores legal institutions and how they work. Using both legal analysis and empirical tools, she demonstrates the structure of the administrative decision-making environment has important consequences for policy implementation.
Prior to joining ASU in 2024, Professor Selin served as senior attorney advisor at the Administrative Conference of the United States. Before working in the federal executive branch, she was a professor at the Universities of Illinois and Missouri.
Selin's scholarship has been published in political science, public administration, and law journals and has been utilized by the Obama, Trump and Biden Administrations, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the media. A proud graduate of Lebanon Valley College, Selin holds a J.D. from Wake Forest University and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. Before first joining academia, she practiced administrative law and specialized in federal electricity market regulation and alternative energy development, licensing and regulation.
Attorney General, Florida
James Uthmeier is the Attorney General of the State of Florida. Before this, he served as Chief of Staff to Governor Ron DeSantis. Previously, he was General Counsel to the Governor, overseeing litigation and judicial nominations. He also served as a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce. A Georgetown Law graduate, Uthmeier is an adjunct professor at Florida State University College of Law and co-teaches religious education in Tallahassee.
United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
In November 2020, the Senate confirmed Kathryn Kimball Mizelle as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida. At age 33, she became the youngest Article III judge in the country. Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mizelle was in private practice at Jones Day, where she focused on complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals. Judge Mizelle previously served at the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the Associate Attorney General, in the Southern Criminal Enforcement Section of the Tax Division, and in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge Mizelle has also taught as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Judge Mizelle earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Covenant College, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. After graduation, Judge Mizelle served as a law clerk at every level of the federal judiciary: at the Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas, at the D.C. Circuit for Judge Gregory G. Katsas, at the Eleventh Circuit for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr., and at the Middle District of Florida for Judge James S. Moody Jr.
Tocqueville Associate Professor Department of Political Science and Concurrent Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Associate Professor of Religion & Public Life in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the founding director of Notre Dame's undergraduate minor in Constitutional Studies and directs Notre Dame's Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into Religion and Public Life.
Muñoz writes and teaches across the fields of constitutional law, American politics, and political philosophy with a focus on religious liberty and the American Founding. His first book, God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson (Cambridge University Press, 2009) won the Hubert Morken Award from the American Political Science Association for the best publication on religion and politics in 2009 and 2010. His First Amendment church-state case reader, Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court: The Essential Cases and Documents (Rowman & Littlefield) was first published in 2013 (revised edition, 2015) and is being used at Notre Dame and other leading universities.
Muñoz's current project is a scholarly monograph on the natural right of religious liberty and the original meaning of the First Amendment's Religion Clauses. Articles from that project have appeared in American Political Science Review, The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Notre Dame Law Review, American Political Thought, and the University of Pennsylvania's Journal of Constitutional Law.
General Counsel, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
James H. Percival graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Virginia School of Law. Before his work at the Department of Homeland Security, he was Chief of Staff to then Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. James previously served in a number of other roles for Attorney General Moody and as Senior Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. Before beginning his public service, James worked for a global law firm and clerked for Judge Emmett Ripley Cox of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In between college and law school, James worked as a substitute teacher and as a missionary in South America.
Principal, Spero Law LLC
Christopher Mills is the founder of Spero Law LLC. He was previously a partner at a national law firm and a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court during October Term 2018. He also clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle, then-Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has authored briefs and motions in the Supreme Court, courts of appeals, and trial courts, and successfully argued before the D.C. Circuit. He has served as special counsel to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, and is an Adjunct Professor at the Charleston School of Law.
A 2012 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Christopher was a senior editor of the Harvard Law Review, an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and served on the Executive Board of the Harvard Federalist Society. In 2009, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a degree in economics from Furman University.
Christopher lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife, children, and golden retriever.
Vice President & General Counsel, Paligen Technologies
Eliot Peace is Vice President and General Counsel at Paligen Technologies, a worldwide leader in the manufacture of energetic materials; the design and production of munitions, aerospace, and naval products; and the production of metal components for defense and commercial operations. In this role, he leads the Legal and Compliance departments and provides full-spectrum legal support to the company.
Previously, he was the Deputy General Counsel for General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. In this role, he served as legal advisor to a multi-billion-dollar global aerospace/defense business unit, where he was responsible for government and commercial contracts; litigation and disputes; government enforcement and investigations; and regulatory, international, and trade compliance.
Prior to joining GD-OTS in 2020, he worked as an attorney for an AmLaw 100 law firm in Tampa, FL, handling commercial litigation and government enforcement/investigations in the aerospace/defense, manufacturing, and firearms industries. From 2012-2017, he served as a member of the US Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He remains a major in the US Air Force Reserve.
Prior to accepting his commission, he clerked for Justice John W. Kittredge at the South Carolina Supreme Court and Judge Timothy M. Cain on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. He is Chair of the Second District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, a member of the Florida Polytechnic University Board of Trustees, and a previous member of the Executive Committee of the Florida Defense Contractors Association. A graduate of the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina School of Law, he and his wife have five children and live in Dunedin, FL.
Principal, Spero Law LLC
Christopher Mills is the founder of Spero Law LLC. He was previously a partner at a national law firm and a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court during October Term 2018. He also clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle, then-Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He has authored briefs and motions in the Supreme Court, courts of appeals, and trial courts, and successfully argued before the D.C. Circuit. He has served as special counsel to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, and is an Adjunct Professor at the Charleston School of Law.
A 2012 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, Christopher was a senior editor of the Harvard Law Review, an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and served on the Executive Board of the Harvard Federalist Society. In 2009, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a degree in economics from Furman University.
Christopher lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife, children, and golden retriever.
United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
In November 2020, the Senate confirmed Kathryn Kimball Mizelle as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida. At age 33, she became the youngest Article III judge in the country. Prior to her confirmation, Judge Mizelle was in private practice at Jones Day, where she focused on complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals. Judge Mizelle previously served at the United States Department of Justice in the Office of the Associate Attorney General, in the Southern Criminal Enforcement Section of the Tax Division, and in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge Mizelle has also taught as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Judge Mizelle earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Covenant College, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. After graduation, Judge Mizelle served as a law clerk at every level of the federal judiciary: at the Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas, at the D.C. Circuit for Judge Gregory G. Katsas, at the Eleventh Circuit for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr., and at the Middle District of Florida for Judge James S. Moody Jr.
Tocqueville Associate Professor Department of Political Science and Concurrent Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Associate Professor of Religion & Public Life in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the founding director of Notre Dame's undergraduate minor in Constitutional Studies and directs Notre Dame's Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into Religion and Public Life.
Muñoz writes and teaches across the fields of constitutional law, American politics, and political philosophy with a focus on religious liberty and the American Founding. His first book, God and the Founders: Madison, Washington, and Jefferson (Cambridge University Press, 2009) won the Hubert Morken Award from the American Political Science Association for the best publication on religion and politics in 2009 and 2010. His First Amendment church-state case reader, Religious Liberty and the American Supreme Court: The Essential Cases and Documents (Rowman & Littlefield) was first published in 2013 (revised edition, 2015) and is being used at Notre Dame and other leading universities.
Muñoz's current project is a scholarly monograph on the natural right of religious liberty and the original meaning of the First Amendment's Religion Clauses. Articles from that project have appeared in American Political Science Review, The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Notre Dame Law Review, American Political Thought, and the University of Pennsylvania's Journal of Constitutional Law.
Vice President & General Counsel, Paligen Technologies
Eliot Peace is Vice President and General Counsel at Paligen Technologies, a worldwide leader in the manufacture of energetic materials; the design and production of munitions, aerospace, and naval products; and the production of metal components for defense and commercial operations. In this role, he leads the Legal and Compliance departments and provides full-spectrum legal support to the company.
Previously, he was the Deputy General Counsel for General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. In this role, he served as legal advisor to a multi-billion-dollar global aerospace/defense business unit, where he was responsible for government and commercial contracts; litigation and disputes; government enforcement and investigations; and regulatory, international, and trade compliance.
Prior to joining GD-OTS in 2020, he worked as an attorney for an AmLaw 100 law firm in Tampa, FL, handling commercial litigation and government enforcement/investigations in the aerospace/defense, manufacturing, and firearms industries. From 2012-2017, he served as a member of the US Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He remains a major in the US Air Force Reserve.
Prior to accepting his commission, he clerked for Justice John W. Kittredge at the South Carolina Supreme Court and Judge Timothy M. Cain on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. He is Chair of the Second District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, a member of the Florida Polytechnic University Board of Trustees, and a previous member of the Executive Committee of the Florida Defense Contractors Association. A graduate of the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina School of Law, he and his wife have five children and live in Dunedin, FL.
General Counsel, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
James H. Percival graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Virginia School of Law. Before his work at the Department of Homeland Security, he was Chief of Staff to then Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. James previously served in a number of other roles for Attorney General Moody and as Senior Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. Before beginning his public service, James worked for a global law firm and clerked for Judge Emmett Ripley Cox of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In between college and law school, James worked as a substitute teacher and as a missionary in South America.
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On January 30, 2021, The Federalist Society's Florida lawyers chapters hosted their annual Florida Chapters...
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