Attorney, Institute for Justice
Keith Neely is an attorney with the Institute for Justice. He joined IJ in 2019 and works on cases involving each of IJ’s Four Pillars.
Before joining IJ, Keith worked as an associate in the Tax Controversy practice of the D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. While employed at Skadden, he also spent six months seconded to the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, where he specialized in eviction defense. Prior to joining Skadden, Keith clerked for Judge Danny Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Keith received his law degree in 2016 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he also served as an editorial board member of the Virginia Law Review. He has an undergraduate degree in History from Vanderbilt University.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 7, 2025. Alongside Secretary Brooke L. Rollins, Deputy Secretary Vaden leads the Department’s operations and implements policies that support America’s food and farm systems. A native of Union City, Tennessee, Deputy Secretary Vaden brings expertise in agricultural policy, law, and rural development. Previously, he served as a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade and as General Counsel of USDA. Throughout Deputy Secretary Vaden’s time as General Counsel, he led successful Supreme Court litigation, advanced regulatory reform, and supported the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Vanderbilt University. A public servant with strong agricultural roots, Deputy Secretary Vaden is committed to revitalizing rural America and ensuring an abundant, affordable, and safe U.S. food supply.
U.S. Attorney, Middle District of Tennessee, U.S. Department of Justice
Braden Boucek was sworn in on December 24, 2025, as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Mr. Boucek served as the senior vice president of litigation at the Southeastern Legal Foundation having previously served as the vice president of legal affairs at the Beacon Center. Mr. Boucek has extensive experience as a prosecutor, starting his career at the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office before serving for two years as an Assistant District Attorney General in Williamson County. He was a federal prosecutor for ten years, first serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Western District of Tennessee from 2005 to 2011. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. Boucek was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Tennessee, the district he now leads as the United States Attorney.
Senior Fellow, American Federation for Children
Shaka Mitchell serves as a Senior Fellow for the American Federation for Children.
He brings experience from several high-performing charter school networks, including Rocketship Education and LEAD Public schools, that serve over 2,500 students in Nashville.
Shaka began his career in education as the Associate Director of Policy and Planning at the D.C.-based Center for Education Reform. He then led outreach efforts at the Institute for Justice, a constitutional law firm based in Arlington, VA.
He is an alumnus of Belmont University where he teaches American Government and Constitutional Law as an adjunct faculty member. He earned his Juris Doctorate from the Wake Forest University School of Law where he sits on the Board of Advisors for the Journal of Law and Policy. Shaka is a co-founder of MoreMarrowDonors.org, a non-profit committed to providing scholarships to bone marrow donors who are matches for patients with various blood diseases. Shaka is the Chair of the Tennessee State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
He is a member of the American Enterprise Institute’s Leadership Network and Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellowship. Shaka and his wife Stephanie are members of Edgefield Church in Nashville and are active in several non-profit organizations.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Stephanos Bibas is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Bibas was previously a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As director of the Penn Law Supreme Court Clinic, he argued six cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and filed briefs in dozens of others. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1989 with a B.A. in political theory and from Oxford University in 1991 with a B.A. in jurisprudence. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1994.
After graduating from Yale Law, Judge Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court and was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, Judge Bibas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted the world’s leading expert in Tiffany stained glass for hiring a grave robber to steal priceless Tiffany windows from cemeteries. Before his tenure at Penn Law, Judge Bibas taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Iowa College of Law and was a research fellow at Yale Law School. He has published two books and seventy scholarly articles.
Executive Director, Alliance For Consumers
O.H. leads Alliance For Consumers, which fights to ensure that consumer protection efforts, class action lawsuits, and attorney general enforcement actions are consistent with the rule of law and benefit everyday consumers, not just class action lawyers and career bureaucrats.
His work with AFC builds off his time with the Arizona Attorney General's Office under Attorney General Mark Brnovich, where he not only defended constitutional questions and served as the State's lead counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court, but also had the privilege of leading Arizona's consumer protection lawsuit against Google over the tracking of consumers' location, and the successful case against Volkswagen over well-publicized diesel-related consumer deception.
O.H. is a 2010 graduate of Harvard Law School. Before joining Attorney General Brnovich in 2016, O.H. practiced at WilmerHale and Ropes & Gray in Boston and clerked for the Hon. J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia.
Attorney General of Tennessee
Jonathan Skrmetti was sworn in to an eight-year term as Tennessee’s Attorney General and Reporter on September 1, 2022.
Prior to his current role, General Skrmetti served as Chief Counsel to Governor Bill Lee and as Chief Deputy Attorney General to his predecessor, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery.
Before working for the State of Tennessee, General Skrmetti was a partner at Butler Snow LLP in Memphis. His legal career began with nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor. He worked at the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice and then at the Memphis U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecuted sex traffickers, corrupt government officials, and violent white supremacists. In addition, General Skrmetti taught cyberlaw as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis.
General Skrmetti earned honors degrees from George Washington University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, Jonathan clerked for Judge Steven Colloton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and four children.
Former Executive Director, National Association of Attorneys General
Chris Toth retired as executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) in June 2022 after serving in this role since December 2017. He previously served as the organization’s deputy executive director from February 2004. Chris supervised support for NAAG committees in the areas of antitrust, consumer protection, criminal law, cyberspace law, and energy and environment, among others. He also supervised the NAAG Center for Tobacco and Public Health, which coordinates enforcement of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the major tobacco manufacturers and 46 states, the Center for Supreme Court Advocacy, which prepares state attorneys to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Center for Public Integrity. Chris also helped found and served as director of the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute (NAGTRI), a NAAG branch, from its 2007 inception until December 2017. In addition to serving on the NAGTRI faculty, Chris has served as a faculty member for the National District Attorneys Association.
Prior to joining NAAG, Chris was elected and served as the prosecuting attorney in St. Joseph County (South Bend), Indiana. As prosecuting attorney Chris initiated numerous innovative programs in the areas of community prosecution, cold-case investigations, DUI prevention, and domestic violence prevention. He also previously served as deputy prosecuting attorney and in private legal practice.
Chris attended Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School and received his commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served several tours on active duty in the Navy, including deployments on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy and on the staff of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe Commander in London, England, before attending law school. Following law school, Chris served as an NCIS agent (through the Navy Reserves).
In addition to serving as a naval officer on both active duty and the reserves, Chris served both on active duty and in the reserves as an Army officer, retiring from the Army Reserve in 2011. He was deployed multiple times during his career, including to Bosnia, Kuwait, and Iraq. His assignments included serving as the commander of a unit that conducted missions against indicted war criminals and in support of the Global War on Terrorism in Bosnia, and as the commander of the provincial reconstruction team military detachment in Diwaniyah Province, Iraq. His military awards include the Bronze Star for Service, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Combat Action Badge, Army Airborne Parachutist Badge, Army Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, as well as various expeditionary, unit, and service awards.
Chris recently concluded an eight year term on the executive committee of the International Association of Prosecutors and became the first American to serve as the organization’s vice president in 2020. He is a Master Gardener and Master Naturalist and participates in community volunteer efforts to teach sound ecological and sustainable practices. He is also an alumnus of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, having served as a delegate with the 2002 delegation to Taiwan and the senior delegate with the 2008 delegation to Turkey with this bipartisan, U.S. State Department sponsored organization. He is also a beekeeper and an avid runner, having completed twelve marathons.
Legal Fellow and Manager, Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program, The Heritage Foundation
Zack is a Legal Fellow and Manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
He previously served for several years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Florida. Prior to that, he spent two years as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which he joined after clerking for the Hon. Emmett R. Cox on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Smith received his undergraduate, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida. During law school, Smith served as the Editor in Chief of the Florida Law Review and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the UF Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Stephanos Bibas is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Bibas was previously a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As director of the Penn Law Supreme Court Clinic, he argued six cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and filed briefs in dozens of others. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1989 with a B.A. in political theory and from Oxford University in 1991 with a B.A. in jurisprudence. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1994.
After graduating from Yale Law, Judge Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court and was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, Judge Bibas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted the world’s leading expert in Tiffany stained glass for hiring a grave robber to steal priceless Tiffany windows from cemeteries. Before his tenure at Penn Law, Judge Bibas taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Iowa College of Law and was a research fellow at Yale Law School. He has published two books and seventy scholarly articles.
Executive Director, Alliance For Consumers
O.H. leads Alliance For Consumers, which fights to ensure that consumer protection efforts, class action lawsuits, and attorney general enforcement actions are consistent with the rule of law and benefit everyday consumers, not just class action lawyers and career bureaucrats.
His work with AFC builds off his time with the Arizona Attorney General's Office under Attorney General Mark Brnovich, where he not only defended constitutional questions and served as the State's lead counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court, but also had the privilege of leading Arizona's consumer protection lawsuit against Google over the tracking of consumers' location, and the successful case against Volkswagen over well-publicized diesel-related consumer deception.
O.H. is a 2010 graduate of Harvard Law School. Before joining Attorney General Brnovich in 2016, O.H. practiced at WilmerHale and Ropes & Gray in Boston and clerked for the Hon. J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia.
Attorney General of Tennessee
Jonathan Skrmetti was sworn in to an eight-year term as Tennessee’s Attorney General and Reporter on September 1, 2022.
Prior to his current role, General Skrmetti served as Chief Counsel to Governor Bill Lee and as Chief Deputy Attorney General to his predecessor, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery.
Before working for the State of Tennessee, General Skrmetti was a partner at Butler Snow LLP in Memphis. His legal career began with nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor. He worked at the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice and then at the Memphis U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecuted sex traffickers, corrupt government officials, and violent white supremacists. In addition, General Skrmetti taught cyberlaw as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis.
General Skrmetti earned honors degrees from George Washington University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, Jonathan clerked for Judge Steven Colloton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and four children.
Former Executive Director, National Association of Attorneys General
Chris Toth retired as executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) in June 2022 after serving in this role since December 2017. He previously served as the organization’s deputy executive director from February 2004. Chris supervised support for NAAG committees in the areas of antitrust, consumer protection, criminal law, cyberspace law, and energy and environment, among others. He also supervised the NAAG Center for Tobacco and Public Health, which coordinates enforcement of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the major tobacco manufacturers and 46 states, the Center for Supreme Court Advocacy, which prepares state attorneys to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Center for Public Integrity. Chris also helped found and served as director of the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute (NAGTRI), a NAAG branch, from its 2007 inception until December 2017. In addition to serving on the NAGTRI faculty, Chris has served as a faculty member for the National District Attorneys Association.
Prior to joining NAAG, Chris was elected and served as the prosecuting attorney in St. Joseph County (South Bend), Indiana. As prosecuting attorney Chris initiated numerous innovative programs in the areas of community prosecution, cold-case investigations, DUI prevention, and domestic violence prevention. He also previously served as deputy prosecuting attorney and in private legal practice.
Chris attended Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School and received his commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served several tours on active duty in the Navy, including deployments on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy and on the staff of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe Commander in London, England, before attending law school. Following law school, Chris served as an NCIS agent (through the Navy Reserves).
In addition to serving as a naval officer on both active duty and the reserves, Chris served both on active duty and in the reserves as an Army officer, retiring from the Army Reserve in 2011. He was deployed multiple times during his career, including to Bosnia, Kuwait, and Iraq. His assignments included serving as the commander of a unit that conducted missions against indicted war criminals and in support of the Global War on Terrorism in Bosnia, and as the commander of the provincial reconstruction team military detachment in Diwaniyah Province, Iraq. His military awards include the Bronze Star for Service, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Combat Action Badge, Army Airborne Parachutist Badge, Army Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, as well as various expeditionary, unit, and service awards.
Chris recently concluded an eight year term on the executive committee of the International Association of Prosecutors and became the first American to serve as the organization’s vice president in 2020. He is a Master Gardener and Master Naturalist and participates in community volunteer efforts to teach sound ecological and sustainable practices. He is also an alumnus of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, having served as a delegate with the 2002 delegation to Taiwan and the senior delegate with the 2008 delegation to Turkey with this bipartisan, U.S. State Department sponsored organization. He is also a beekeeper and an avid runner, having completed twelve marathons.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Stephanos Bibas is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Bibas was previously a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As director of the Penn Law Supreme Court Clinic, he argued six cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and filed briefs in dozens of others. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1989 with a B.A. in political theory and from Oxford University in 1991 with a B.A. in jurisprudence. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1994.
After graduating from Yale Law, Judge Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court and was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, Judge Bibas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted the world’s leading expert in Tiffany stained glass for hiring a grave robber to steal priceless Tiffany windows from cemeteries. Before his tenure at Penn Law, Judge Bibas taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Iowa College of Law and was a research fellow at Yale Law School. He has published two books and seventy scholarly articles.
Executive Director, Alliance For Consumers
O.H. leads Alliance For Consumers, which fights to ensure that consumer protection efforts, class action lawsuits, and attorney general enforcement actions are consistent with the rule of law and benefit everyday consumers, not just class action lawyers and career bureaucrats.
His work with AFC builds off his time with the Arizona Attorney General's Office under Attorney General Mark Brnovich, where he not only defended constitutional questions and served as the State's lead counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court, but also had the privilege of leading Arizona's consumer protection lawsuit against Google over the tracking of consumers' location, and the successful case against Volkswagen over well-publicized diesel-related consumer deception.
O.H. is a 2010 graduate of Harvard Law School. Before joining Attorney General Brnovich in 2016, O.H. practiced at WilmerHale and Ropes & Gray in Boston and clerked for the Hon. J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia.
Attorney General of Tennessee
Jonathan Skrmetti was sworn in to an eight-year term as Tennessee’s Attorney General and Reporter on September 1, 2022.
Prior to his current role, General Skrmetti served as Chief Counsel to Governor Bill Lee and as Chief Deputy Attorney General to his predecessor, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery.
Before working for the State of Tennessee, General Skrmetti was a partner at Butler Snow LLP in Memphis. His legal career began with nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor. He worked at the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice and then at the Memphis U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecuted sex traffickers, corrupt government officials, and violent white supremacists. In addition, General Skrmetti taught cyberlaw as an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis.
General Skrmetti earned honors degrees from George Washington University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Following law school, Jonathan clerked for Judge Steven Colloton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with his wife and four children.
Former Executive Director, National Association of Attorneys General
Chris Toth retired as executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) in June 2022 after serving in this role since December 2017. He previously served as the organization’s deputy executive director from February 2004. Chris supervised support for NAAG committees in the areas of antitrust, consumer protection, criminal law, cyberspace law, and energy and environment, among others. He also supervised the NAAG Center for Tobacco and Public Health, which coordinates enforcement of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the major tobacco manufacturers and 46 states, the Center for Supreme Court Advocacy, which prepares state attorneys to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Center for Public Integrity. Chris also helped found and served as director of the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute (NAGTRI), a NAAG branch, from its 2007 inception until December 2017. In addition to serving on the NAGTRI faculty, Chris has served as a faculty member for the National District Attorneys Association.
Prior to joining NAAG, Chris was elected and served as the prosecuting attorney in St. Joseph County (South Bend), Indiana. As prosecuting attorney Chris initiated numerous innovative programs in the areas of community prosecution, cold-case investigations, DUI prevention, and domestic violence prevention. He also previously served as deputy prosecuting attorney and in private legal practice.
Chris attended Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School and received his commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served several tours on active duty in the Navy, including deployments on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy and on the staff of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe Commander in London, England, before attending law school. Following law school, Chris served as an NCIS agent (through the Navy Reserves).
In addition to serving as a naval officer on both active duty and the reserves, Chris served both on active duty and in the reserves as an Army officer, retiring from the Army Reserve in 2011. He was deployed multiple times during his career, including to Bosnia, Kuwait, and Iraq. His assignments included serving as the commander of a unit that conducted missions against indicted war criminals and in support of the Global War on Terrorism in Bosnia, and as the commander of the provincial reconstruction team military detachment in Diwaniyah Province, Iraq. His military awards include the Bronze Star for Service, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Combat Action Badge, Army Airborne Parachutist Badge, Army Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, as well as various expeditionary, unit, and service awards.
Chris recently concluded an eight year term on the executive committee of the International Association of Prosecutors and became the first American to serve as the organization’s vice president in 2020. He is a Master Gardener and Master Naturalist and participates in community volunteer efforts to teach sound ecological and sustainable practices. He is also an alumnus of the American Council of Young Political Leaders, having served as a delegate with the 2002 delegation to Taiwan and the senior delegate with the 2008 delegation to Turkey with this bipartisan, U.S. State Department sponsored organization. He is also a beekeeper and an avid runner, having completed twelve marathons.
Married to the Law
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