Partner, Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann LLC
Mr. Thomson concentrates his practice in white collar criminal defense, government investigations, and corporate compliance. He has tried over 50 criminal trials to verdict in federal and state courts, and has experience in appellate litigation. His practice also includes civil litigation and information security. Prior to joining Stone Pigman, Mr. Thomson had a 23 year career as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. He served on special assignment with the National Security Agency, where he worked on matters involving information assurance and intelligence collection.
Prior to private practice, Mr. Thomson was recognized numerous times by government agencies, including a Special Commendation Award given by the U.S. Attorney General for completing the Justice Department's Leadership Excellence and Achievement Program; Special Commendation by FBI Director for outstanding performance for successful corruption prosecution after Hurricane Katrina; Special Award from the U.S. Postal Service for prosecution of corrupt employee; Special Award by New Orleans Police Department, ATF and U.S. Department of Justice for his contributions to Project Exile; and Special Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Drug Law Enforcement from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Associate, Trauger & Tuke
Justin Adams joined Trauger & Tuke in 2002. He practices civil litigation and appeals, with an emphasis on business litigation, and advises individuals and businesses on business-related legal issues. He is a member of the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations and the Federalist Society. He is admitted to practice in Tennessee and before the United States District Courts for the Middle and Eastern Districts of Tennessee and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mr. Adams earned his law degree in 2001 from Vanderbilt University, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. He earned his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, in 1998 from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Chief Editor of the Sewanee Legacy.
After law school, Mr. Adams worked in Fairbanks, Alaska as law clerk to the Honorable Andrew J. Kleinfeld, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Adams was an associate member of the Harry Phillips American Inn of Court from 2006 to 2008. In 2008, he was selected by the American Inns of Court as a Pegasus Scholar, an exchange program that sends two American Inns of Court members to London for six weeks to learn about the English legal system.
Tennessee State Senator, 17th District
Senator Mae Beavers is a member of the Tennessee Senate for the 17th District, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and sponsor of SJR 23, which would amend the Tennessee Constitution to provide for the direct popular election of the Tennessee Attorney General and Reporter.
Regional Deputy General Counsel, North America and Lead Counsel, Treasury, Willis Towers Watson
Partner, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP
Paul Summers is a partner with Waller Lansden and practices in the area of trial and appellate litigation; regulatory matters; and government affairs. Prior to joining the firm, he served as Attorney General of the State of Tennessee. As Attorney General, he led a staff of 340, including 170 attorneys, in all civil litigation and criminal appellate litigation before state and federal courts. Major accomplishments during his term included the conclusion of a 36-year-old higher education desegregation lawsuit, Geier v. Sundquist. General Summers also successfully argued the death penalty case of Rahman v. Bell (2002) before the United States Supreme Court. While serving as the state's chief legal officer, General Summers was twice named to Business Tennessee's Power 100 list of Tennessee's most powerful people. He is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.) for his work in commercial litigation and is listed in the 2009-2010 Edition of Who's Who in American Law.
Before he was appointed Attorney General in 1999 by the Tennessee Supreme Court, General Summers served as Judge of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. He was appointed to the bench by Governor Ned McWherter in 1990 and elected in statewide retention elections in 1992 and 1998. Prior to this service, General Summers was elected District Attorney General for the multi-county 25th judicial district in West Tennessee. During his nearly nine-year tenure as a DA, General Summers also served as President of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference. Prior to state service, he was in private practice in his hometown of Somerville, Tenn.
General Summers served as a JAG officer for more than three decades in both active and reserve duty with the Air Force, Army and National Guard. His last duty assignment was Command Staff Judge Advocate, Tennessee Army National Guard. He retired with the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army. Upon his retirement after 33 years of commissioned military service, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen awarded General Summers the National Guard Distinguished Service Medal. General Summers was awarded the Legion of Merit by President George W. Bush.
General Summers is a Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation and the Nashville Bar Foundation. He is the past Chair of the Jason Foundation, Inc., a national nonprofit foundation dedicated to the education and prevention of teenage suicide. He performs regular volunteer work for the Jason Foundation.
Associate, Trauger & Tuke
Justin Adams joined Trauger & Tuke in 2002. He practices civil litigation and appeals, with an emphasis on business litigation, and advises individuals and businesses on business-related legal issues. He is a member of the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations and the Federalist Society. He is admitted to practice in Tennessee and before the United States District Courts for the Middle and Eastern Districts of Tennessee and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mr. Adams earned his law degree in 2001 from Vanderbilt University, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. He earned his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, in 1998 from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Chief Editor of the Sewanee Legacy.
After law school, Mr. Adams worked in Fairbanks, Alaska as law clerk to the Honorable Andrew J. Kleinfeld, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Adams was an associate member of the Harry Phillips American Inn of Court from 2006 to 2008. In 2008, he was selected by the American Inns of Court as a Pegasus Scholar, an exchange program that sends two American Inns of Court members to London for six weeks to learn about the English legal system.
Tennessee State Senator, 17th District
Senator Mae Beavers is a member of the Tennessee Senate for the 17th District, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and sponsor of SJR 23, which would amend the Tennessee Constitution to provide for the direct popular election of the Tennessee Attorney General and Reporter.
Regional Deputy General Counsel, North America and Lead Counsel, Treasury, Willis Towers Watson
Partner, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP
Paul Summers is a partner with Waller Lansden and practices in the area of trial and appellate litigation; regulatory matters; and government affairs. Prior to joining the firm, he served as Attorney General of the State of Tennessee. As Attorney General, he led a staff of 340, including 170 attorneys, in all civil litigation and criminal appellate litigation before state and federal courts. Major accomplishments during his term included the conclusion of a 36-year-old higher education desegregation lawsuit, Geier v. Sundquist. General Summers also successfully argued the death penalty case of Rahman v. Bell (2002) before the United States Supreme Court. While serving as the state's chief legal officer, General Summers was twice named to Business Tennessee's Power 100 list of Tennessee's most powerful people. He is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.) for his work in commercial litigation and is listed in the 2009-2010 Edition of Who's Who in American Law.
Before he was appointed Attorney General in 1999 by the Tennessee Supreme Court, General Summers served as Judge of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. He was appointed to the bench by Governor Ned McWherter in 1990 and elected in statewide retention elections in 1992 and 1998. Prior to this service, General Summers was elected District Attorney General for the multi-county 25th judicial district in West Tennessee. During his nearly nine-year tenure as a DA, General Summers also served as President of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference. Prior to state service, he was in private practice in his hometown of Somerville, Tenn.
General Summers served as a JAG officer for more than three decades in both active and reserve duty with the Air Force, Army and National Guard. His last duty assignment was Command Staff Judge Advocate, Tennessee Army National Guard. He retired with the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army. Upon his retirement after 33 years of commissioned military service, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen awarded General Summers the National Guard Distinguished Service Medal. General Summers was awarded the Legion of Merit by President George W. Bush.
General Summers is a Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation and the Nashville Bar Foundation. He is the past Chair of the Jason Foundation, Inc., a national nonprofit foundation dedicated to the education and prevention of teenage suicide. He performs regular volunteer work for the Jason Foundation.
Regional Deputy General Counsel, North America and Lead Counsel, Treasury, Willis Towers Watson
Regional Deputy General Counsel, North America and Lead Counsel, Treasury, Willis Towers Watson
Partner, Baker Botts LLP
Drawing from two decades of experience in senior government, in-house corporate, and private law firm roles, Jeff Wood helps clients with federal enforcement, compliance, litigation, permitting, and policy challenges primarily in the energy and environmental fields.
Prior to joining Baker Botts, Mr. Wood served for almost two years as the Acting Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). In that capacity, Mr. Wood led ENRD and its more than 600 attorneys and staff representing EPA, Departments of the Interior, Energy, and Defense, and other agencies in civil and criminal enforcement and defensive environmental, energy, and natural resources litigation.
As the top official in ENRD, Mr. Wood managed a complex organization with an annual budget exceeding $200 million and a docket of more than 6,000 cases and matters. E&E News noted that “Wood maintains a strong relationship with ENRD's career staff” (Greenwire, Oct. 31, 2018). He previously served on the staff of the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
At the Justice Department, Mr. Wood oversaw the Division's civil and criminal enforcement programs and was responsible for developing legal strategies and approving briefs in key cases including filings before the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals in coordination with the Office of Solicitor General. In this role, Mr. Wood held the highest level security clearance and worked closely with top leadership at DOJ, EPA, the Interior Department, USDA, the Energy Department, Transportation Department, FERC, NRC and across the Executive Branch, including the White House.
With many years of both private law firm and in-house legal experience, Mr. Wood has handled complex environmental enforcement, regulatory, policy, and litigation matters for electric utilities, energy companies, maritime companies, mining companies, real estate developers, financial institutions, industrial companies and manufacturers, business coalitions, associations, small businesses, and individual property owners. Drawing from his experiences in-house, Mr. Wood brings a common-sense, cost-effective, client-focused approach to his work every day.
With a strong national reputation, Mr. Wood is a frequent speaker on environmental law and policy matters, with recent speeches and presentations at the Environmental Law Institute, Harvard Law School, Vanderbilt Law School, American University Law School, American Bar Association Environmental Law Conferences, the Texas Environmental SuperConference, Air Force Judge Advocate General School's Advanced Environmental Law Course, Baker Institute's Center for Energy Studies (Rice University), and many other venues. He frequently appears in national news to share insights on significant environmental law and policy issues, including recent quotes in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Law360, and E&E News, among others.
Attorney Specializing in Government Relations
Alec D. Rogers is an attorney specializing in government practice and policy in Washington, DC.
A graduate of James Madison College at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan Law School, he practiced law for several years before spending over a decade on Capitol Hill as a staffer to various Members and Committees.
He has reviewed books for the Washington Times, Hardball Times, The Journal of the American Revolution, and The Weekly Standard, and writes on legal matters in Engage, an online publication of the Federalist Society.
Regional Deputy General Counsel, North America and Lead Counsel, Treasury, Willis Towers Watson
Associate, Trauger & Tuke
Justin Adams joined Trauger & Tuke in 2002. He practices civil litigation and appeals, with an emphasis on business litigation, and advises individuals and businesses on business-related legal issues. He is a member of the Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations and the Federalist Society. He is admitted to practice in Tennessee and before the United States District Courts for the Middle and Eastern Districts of Tennessee and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Mr. Adams earned his law degree in 2001 from Vanderbilt University, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. He earned his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, in 1998 from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Chief Editor of the Sewanee Legacy.
After law school, Mr. Adams worked in Fairbanks, Alaska as law clerk to the Honorable Andrew J. Kleinfeld, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Adams was an associate member of the Harry Phillips American Inn of Court from 2006 to 2008. In 2008, he was selected by the American Inns of Court as a Pegasus Scholar, an exchange program that sends two American Inns of Court members to London for six weeks to learn about the English legal system.
Tennessee State Senator, 17th District
Senator Mae Beavers is a member of the Tennessee Senate for the 17th District, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and sponsor of SJR 23, which would amend the Tennessee Constitution to provide for the direct popular election of the Tennessee Attorney General and Reporter.
Regional Deputy General Counsel, North America and Lead Counsel, Treasury, Willis Towers Watson
Partner, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis LLP
Paul Summers is a partner with Waller Lansden and practices in the area of trial and appellate litigation; regulatory matters; and government affairs. Prior to joining the firm, he served as Attorney General of the State of Tennessee. As Attorney General, he led a staff of 340, including 170 attorneys, in all civil litigation and criminal appellate litigation before state and federal courts. Major accomplishments during his term included the conclusion of a 36-year-old higher education desegregation lawsuit, Geier v. Sundquist. General Summers also successfully argued the death penalty case of Rahman v. Bell (2002) before the United States Supreme Court. While serving as the state's chief legal officer, General Summers was twice named to Business Tennessee's Power 100 list of Tennessee's most powerful people. He is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.) for his work in commercial litigation and is listed in the 2009-2010 Edition of Who's Who in American Law.
Before he was appointed Attorney General in 1999 by the Tennessee Supreme Court, General Summers served as Judge of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. He was appointed to the bench by Governor Ned McWherter in 1990 and elected in statewide retention elections in 1992 and 1998. Prior to this service, General Summers was elected District Attorney General for the multi-county 25th judicial district in West Tennessee. During his nearly nine-year tenure as a DA, General Summers also served as President of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference. Prior to state service, he was in private practice in his hometown of Somerville, Tenn.
General Summers served as a JAG officer for more than three decades in both active and reserve duty with the Air Force, Army and National Guard. His last duty assignment was Command Staff Judge Advocate, Tennessee Army National Guard. He retired with the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army. Upon his retirement after 33 years of commissioned military service, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen awarded General Summers the National Guard Distinguished Service Medal. General Summers was awarded the Legion of Merit by President George W. Bush.
General Summers is a Fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation and the Nashville Bar Foundation. He is the past Chair of the Jason Foundation, Inc., a national nonprofit foundation dedicated to the education and prevention of teenage suicide. He performs regular volunteer work for the Jason Foundation.
Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
Professor Friedman is one of the country’s leading authorities on constitutional law and the federal courts. He is a prolific scholar, working at the intersections of law, politics and history. Friedman teaches a wide variety of courses including Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, and Criminal Procedure. He writes extensively about judicial review, constitutional law and theory, federal jurisdiction and judicial behavior. His scholarship appears regularly in the nation’s top law and peer-edited reviews. He is the author of widely-recognized The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2009), which examines the history of the relationship between popular opinion and the Supreme Court, from 1776 to the present. Along with his co-author Stephen Burbank, Friedman co-edited and contributed to Judicial Independence at the Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Approach, which questions common assumptions about the nature of judicial independence and how it can be protected. The book has been cited and relied upon countless times by scholars and policymakers alike. Professor Friedman is a frequent contributor to the nation's leading journals, both on-line and print. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, The Los Angeles Times, Politico andThe New Republic, among others.
Professor Friedman is a frequent speaker at events of all sorts. Given the interdisciplinary nature of his work, Professor Friedman regularly appears at conferences in law, political science and history. He is a founder and co-convener of the “roughly biennial” Constitutional Theory Conference. He organizes many multi-disciplinary conferences, including one on Modeling Law, and another – done under the auspices of the American Constitution Society – on Reconstruction: America’s Second Founding. He presents papers regularly at home and abroad. He has been a visiting scholar and lecturer at the Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, the Groupe d’Etudes et de Recherches sur law Justice Constitutionnelle Aix-en-Provence, Sciences-Po in Aix-en-Provence, and Hong Kong University.
Professor Friedman regularly serves as a litigator or litigation consultant in a variety of matters in the federal and state courts. He has represented a wide range of clients, both public and private. Notably, he represents both civil liberties claimants and state and local governments. He has been active in the areas of reproductive rights, the jurisdictional allocation of cases between the federal and state courts, and the proper scope of the federal government’s commerce power. He has filed a number of amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Actively engaged in a range of important service activities, at NYU Professor Friedman created the Academic Careers Program and founded and is now co-director of the Furman Academic Program. Both programs are dedicated to preparing young scholars for academic careers. In the past he was extensively involved with the American Judicature Society, was President of the Tennessee Civil Liberties Union, served on the Board of the State and Local Legal Center, and on the steering committee of New York University’s Institute for Law and Society. He recently completed a term as Vice Dean of New York University School of Law.
Professor Friedman graduated from the University of Chicago and received his law degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. He clerked for the Honorable Phyllis A. Kravitch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and also worked as a litigation associate at Davis, Polk & Wardwell in Washington D.C. He was a professor at Vanderbilt Law School before joining the NYU faculty in 2000. In 1995 he won the Clarence Darrow Award from the ACLU of Tennessee for his work in defense of civil liberties.
J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1982
B.A., University of Chicago, 1978
Adjunct Professor, Fordham University School of Law
Ms. McAvoy is an attorney, a former federal prosecutor and former in-house counsel for financial institutions. She specializes in Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing issues. She is an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School and heads Fordham’s Adjunct Faculty Committee. Ms. McAvoy has been politically active as well, including having run for the position of Comptroller of the City of New York as Rudy Giuliani’s running mate. She also was on John McCain’s NY Steering Committee and was Co-Chair of NY Women for McCain during his most recent presidential bid.
She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. John’s University in 1984, where she graduated summa cum laude as valedictorian and was NYS debate champion. Ms. McAvoy received a Juris Doctor degree from Fordham Law School in 1987 where she participated as a member of its National Moot Court team.
Ms. McAvoy began practicing law as a litigation associate at Mudge Rose Guthrie & Ferdon. After that she became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the EDNY’s Civil and Criminal Divisions, where she received awards from both the U.S. Customs Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She practiced in US District Court, the US Court of Appeals for the 2d Circuit, Surrogate’s Court and US Bankruptcy Court. Civil cases she handled included employment discrimination, forfeitures, medical malpractice, suits brought against government employees, Social Security disability, personal injury and tax cases. The criminal matters she handled included money laundering, bank robbery, mail fraud, illegal weapons sales, insurance fraud, credit card fraud, Food Stamp fraud, counterfeiting and narcotics violations.
After leaving the US Attorney’s Office, Ms. McAvoy became Senior Attorney at Morgan Stanley, where she was in charge of anti-money laundering prevention efforts and the reporting of suspicious activity. She also handled insider trading matters, fraud issues, general securities litigation and criminal matters. She received an award from the U.S. Secret Service for her work and as a member of the Securities Industry Ad Hoc Bank Secrecy Act Group she assisted the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board in drafting suspicious activity regulations relating to the securities industry.
Ms. McAvoy thereafter joined Citigroup, where she was Senior Legal Counsel for Citigroup Corporate Security and Investigative Services, providing legal advice on fraud issues, corporate security, investigations and anti-money laundering compliance for Citigroup’s businesses, including Citibank, Travelers Insurance, Salomon Smith Barney and Primerica Financial Services.
Since 2000 Ms. McAvoy has been doing private consulting work for the financial industry. She has conducted extensive training for banks, securities firms, the NASD and law enforcement. She has also participated in internal corporate investigations and look-backs at financial institutions, has helped institutions develop appropriate policies and procedures and has acted as an expert consulting witness for law firms. She also continues to teach at Fordham Law School as an adjunct professor and remains active in politics.
Ms. McAvoy has provided legal, political and business commentary on a variety of television networks and on radio. She is a regular commentator on foxnews.com’s Strategy Room and has appeared on various programs on the Fox Cable News Channel including The O’Reilly Factor. She is a legal contributor for the Grinder Show on NY 970 The Apple, a nationally broadcast radio show which also streams live on the internet.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
A Comprehensive Strategy Targeting Recidivist Criminals with Continuous Real-Time GPS Monitoring: Is Reverse Engineering Crime Control Possible?
Peter M. Thomson
One of the most pressing criminal justice challenges facing the nation is reducing the incidence...
A Panel Discussion on Attorney General Selection in Tennessee
Memphis Lawyers Chapter & University of Memphis Student Chapter
Memphis, TNAttorney General Selection in Tennessee
Justin Adams, Mae Beavers, J. Ammon Smartt, Paul Summers
The Nashville Lawyers Chapter hosted this panel discussion on "Attorney General Selection in Tennessee" on...
Attorney General Selection in Tennessee
Justin Adams, Mae Beavers, J. Ammon Smartt, Paul Summers
The Nashville Lawyers Chapter hosted this panel discussion on "Attorney General Selection in Tennessee" on...
Attorney General Selection in Tennessee
Nashville Lawyers Chapter
Nashville, TNA Report on Tennessee Attorney General Selection
Keith W. Randall, J. Ammon Smartt
Under the Tennessee Constitution, attorneys general are selected by the justices of the Supreme Court...
A Report on Tennessee Attorney General Selection
Keith W. Randall, J. Ammon Smartt
Under the Tennessee Constitution, attorneys general are selected by the justices of the Supreme Court...
American Power Act: Senators Kerry and Lieberman Release “Discussion Draft” of New Climate Change Bill
Jeffrey H. Wood, Alec D. Rogers
Brought to you by the Environmental Law & Property Rights Practice GroupThe Federalist Society takes no...
What’s Right (and Wrong) with the Confirmation Process . . . And Elena Kagan
New York, New YorkShould Ohio Adopt Merit Selection? An Analysis of Lessons From Missouri and Tennessee
Cleveland, Ohio