Partner, Quinn Emanuel
John F. Bash is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas from 2017 to 2020. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Bash clerked for Judge Kavanaugh during his first year on the bench and went on to clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia. He then served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he argued ten cases in the United States Supreme Court. He also served briefly as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President before his appointment as United States Attorney.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
James C. Ho is a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before taking the bench on January 4, 2018, he was a partner and co-chair of the national Appellate and Constitutional Law practice group of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
As an appellate litigator for over a decade, including three years as the Solicitor General of Texas, Judge Ho presented 50 oral arguments in federal and state courts nationwide. He won numerous appeals, including three merits cases at the U.S. Supreme Court. He was routinely ranked among the nation’s leading lawyers by Benchmark, Chambers, Law360, The Legal 500, and The National Law Journal, among other publications. His work has been cited favorably by courts at every level of both the federal and state judiciaries. He won a Best Brief Award from the National Association of Attorneys General for every year that he served as solicitor general, and he is the only state solicitor general in history to be invited by the U.S. Supreme Court to express the views of a state.
Judge Ho has served in all three branches of the federal government. On the Senate Judiciary Committee, he served as chief counsel of the Subcommittees on the Constitution and Immigration under Senator John Cornyn. At the Justice Department, he served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and an attorney-advisor at the Office of Legal Counsel. He clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court.
His record of public service also includes appointments as vice chair of the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee in Texas and co-chair of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Judiciary Committee, and as a member of the U.S. Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the Northern District of Texas, the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the Continuity of Government Commission.
In addition, Judge Ho has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law, where he taught seminars on U.S. Supreme Court Litigation and Religious Liberty. He has authored numerous articles in respected law reviews nationwide, including an annual feature on exemplary judicial writing for The Green Bag Almanac & Reader. He previously served as senior editor of The Green Bag and as co-editor of Pub. L. Misc.
Judge Ho graduated from Stanford University with honors and a B.A. in Public Policy in 1995, and the University of Chicago Law School with high honors in 1999. Before law school, he was a legislative aide to California State Senator Quentin Kopp. He and his wife Allyson live in Dallas, Texas, with their twin daughter and son.
Chairman, Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Practice, Baker Botts LLP
Aaron Streett is the Chairman of Baker Botts’ Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Practice. He has presented oral argument in scores of appeals, covering the U.S. Supreme Court and courts around the country—including over 40 arguments between the Fifth and D.C. Circuits alone. Mr. Streett’s practice involves virtually all substantive areas of the law, including commercial litigation, statutory interpretation, constitutional law, administrative law, securities, and jurisdictional issues. Mr. Streett maintains an active practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, having represented parties in merits cases seven times since 2010, as well as filing numerous amicus and certiorari-stage briefs. Mr. Streett was named one of only six “Appellate MVPs” for 2014 by Law360, which had previously recognized him in 2011 as one of the top five appellate “Rising Stars” under age 40. Mr. Streett has been featured on National Law Journal’s Appellate Hot List three times in recent years and in 2021 was named Houston’s “Lawyer of the Year” for Appellate Practice by Best Lawyers magazine. Mr. Streett is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Fifth Circuit Bar Association and previously served as President of the Houston Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. Mr. Streett speaks regularly on the Supreme Court and constitutional law to attorneys and law students around the country. Following graduation from Hillsdale College and University of Texas School of Law, Mr. Streett served as a law clerk to the Honorable David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to the Honorable William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States.
Justice, Texas Supreme Court
James P. Sullivan was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court by Governor Greg Abbott on January 7, 2025, after serving as his General Counsel. He is the proud husband of Alithea and father of Conan. Growing up in Austin, Judge Sully was an extra in the movie "Dazed & Confused." He was a highly unrecruited walk-on at Rice University, until an injury turned him into a debater. Once in law school, he met his wife, Alithea, on the Harvard Law Review. After graduating, he clerked on the D.C. Circuit for Judge Thomas B. Griffith. He also worked under then-Attorney General Abbott in the Office of the Solicitor General, in addition to stints as an adjunct professor at George Mason University and an appellate litigator in private practice.
Robert G. Storey Distinguished Faculty Fellow; Associate Professor of Law Co-Director, Tsai Center for Law, Science and Innovation, SMU Dedman School of Law
David O. Taylor is an Associate Professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law in Dallas, Texas. He also founded and currently serves as a Co-Director of the school’s Tsai Center for Law, Science and Innovation.
Professor Taylor earned his bachelor of science, magna cum laude, in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University and his juris doctor, cum laude, from Harvard Law School. Prior to law school, Professor Taylor worked as an applications engineer at National Instruments Corporation in Austin, Texas. While in law school, he served as an extern for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston, as a member of both the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and as President of the law school's Texas Club.
After graduating from law school, Professor Taylor clerked for the current Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Honorable Sharon Prost. Professor Taylor also worked for seven years at the law firm of Baker Botts LLP in its Dallas office. While at Baker Botts, Professor Taylor engaged in patent litigation in various district courts and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. His litigation experience includes both bench and jury trials. A registered patent attorney, he also gained significant experience in the fields of intellectual property licensing and patent prosecution. During his time in practice he assisted with several advanced patent law courses at SMU Dedman School of Law, including Patent Litigation, Intellectual Property Licensing, and Patent Prosecution, and successfully represented clients in pro bono matters, including before the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals.
At SMU, Professor Taylor teaches in the areas of contracts and patent law. His scholarship focuses on patent law, patent policy, patent litigation, and civil procedure. Professor Taylor has published articles in various journals, including the Connecticut Law Review, Georgia Law Review, New York University Law Review, and in an assortment of intellectual property specialty journals. His publications have been cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and various district courts.
A frequent speaker, he has made academic presentations at law schools across the United States, including Boston College, California Berkeley, Cardozo, Chicago-Kent, DePaul, Houston, Kansas, San Diego, Stanford, and Texas, and internationally in Chongqing, China; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Taipei, Taiwan. He also is a regular speaker at various continuing legal education (CLE) events, including events sponsored by the Dallas Bar Association, the Eastern District of Texas Bar Association, the Center for American and International Law, and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
In addition to these activities, Professor Taylor has organized numerous symposia and conferences, helped launch SMU’s Patent and Trademark Clinics, and helped draft the proposal to secure the funding to launch the Tsai Center for Law, Science and Innovation. He serves on several law school committees and is an advisor to both the SMU Science and Technology Law Review and The International Lawyer. Professor Taylor also serves as an advisor to the law school's chapter of the Federalist Society, which regularly hosts speakers addressing hot topics in the field of constitutional law. SMU granted Professor Taylor tenure in 2016.
Professor Taylor serves in various leadership positions. He is a member of the Advisory Council for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He serves on the Executive Board of the Institute for Law and Technology at the Center for American and International Law. He also is currently the Reporter for the Patentable Subject Matter Task Force of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and he serves as a member of the AIPLA's Amicus Committee. He is a Director of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Dallas Bar Association (DBA), and he previously served as the Chair of the Computer Law Section of the DBA. In addition to these leadership activities, Professor Taylor has served as an expert and consultant in various intellectual property disputes.
He has received several accolades. Professor Taylor is the recipient of a Thomas Edison Innovation Fellowship from the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School. He has also been named a founding Barrister of the Honorable Barbara M.G. Lynn American Inn of Court, an Honorary Barrister of the SMU Dedman School of Law Board of Advocates, and an Outstanding Graduate of the Irving Independent School District. In addition to these awards, he has received numerous research and course development grants.
Outside of his work at the law school and the field of intellectual property law, Professor Taylor has engaged in public service with diverse groups including Advocates for Community Transformation, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, and the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program.
Professor Taylor is married. Together with his wife Rachel, he enjoys spending time with his three children: Caroline, Emily, and Joshua.
President, Harned Strategies LLC
Karen Harned is President at Harned Strategies LLC. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, a post she held from 2002-2022. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Ms. Harned was an attorney at a Washington, D.C. law firm specializing in food and drug law, where she represented several small and large businesses and their respective trade associations before Congress and federal agencies. She also served as Assistant Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma from August of 1989 to March of 1993. Ms. Harned received her B.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 and her J.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.
As Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center, Ms. Harned commented regularly on small business cases before federal and state courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. She has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, as well as National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and radio outlets across the country. Her opinion editorials and articles regarding healthcare, lawsuit abuse, regulation, and other issues important to small business have been published in newspapers and other publications nationwide.
Ms. Harned has testified before Congress on the small business impact of regulation and the civil justice system. Additionally, she has conducted numerous webinars and legal compliance seminars for small business owners across the country on issues relating to employment law, including unionization and immigration.
Shareholder, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart
Chris Murray is Co-Chair of the firm’s Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group. In this role, he assists attorneys throughout the firm and clients nationwide to create, roll out, and enforce effective employment arbitration agreements and other ADR programs. Mr. Murray has extensive experience with class/collective action waivers in employment arbitration. Mr. Murray was part of the Ogletree team that successfully defended the use of such waivers in the Fifth Circuit’s landmark decision in D.R. Horton, Inc. v. N.L.R.B. Since then, he has successfully defended the enforceability of class action waivers in numerous subsequent cases and submitted an amicus brief on the subject on behalf of several major employers’ associations in the Supreme Court’s Murphy Oil case. Mr. Murray assists clients and the Firm’s attorneys to draft or revise arbitration programs focused on a client’s specific needs and goals and in light of changing law and evolving best practices.
Acting Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Office of Professional Responsibility, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Brian M. Fish is currently the Senior Advisor to the General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security where he works on immigration and law enforcement issues. Previously, he was a trial attorney with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where he represented the Department of Homeland Security in removal hearings before the U.S. Immigration Court. Additionally, he was a Special Assistant United States Attorney and a Baltimore City homicide prosecutor. He is a member of the Federalist Society's Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Executive Committee and the President of its Baltimore Lawyers Chapter. He earned his B.A. from LaSalle University in 1992 and his J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 1998.
Director of Litigation, Immigration Reform Law Institute
Mr. Hajec joined the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) in 2017 as its Director of Litigation, and is responsible for overseeing IRLI’s public interest litigation. Previously, he has focused his career on constitutional and other civil rights law in the public interest, and has had an abiding concern about the many adverse effects of illegal and excessive legal immigration on American jobs and communities.
At IRLI, in addition to representing plaintiffs in immigration-related civil lawsuits, he has overseen the drafting and filing of nearly 100 briefs, mostly amicus curiae briefs in defense of the Trump administration’s immigration initiatives, which have been subjected to an unprecedented degree of legal assault by well-funded interest groups.
Prior to joining IRLI, Mr. Hajec was an attorney at the Center for Individual Rights (CIR), where he litigated a string of high-profile cases, including the defense of videographer James O’Keefe in suits brought by former ACORN employees, a class action suit on behalf of Asian American students discriminated against by the New York City public schools, and a case that resulted in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s striking down Texas’s psychologists licensing statute as an overbroad restriction on free speech.
Before CIR, Mr. Hajec was an officer in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he served as a defense counsel before courts-martial and then as Appellate Government Counsel, arguing over 100 appeals before the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He received the Navy Commendation Medal for his legal work, and also because of his poor handling of an emergency during a hurricane.
He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his undergraduate degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Miami, and studied philosophy and sociology at Oxford University.
Partner, Klasko Immigration Law Partners, LLP
William A. Stock (Bill) is one of the country’s leading immigration lawyers. A founding member of Klasko Immigration Law Partners, LLP, he has practiced immigration law exclusively for over twenty years. His clients include small businesses, medium sized companies, and multinational corporations and their employees, as well as individual clients, investors and researchers.
Bill leads a team of thirty-two attorneys, senior and junior paralegals in obtaining employment-based immigration benefits for clients, such as nonimmigrant visa classification (H-1B, L-1, E-1 and E-2, TN and O-1); permanent residence or “green card” status through Labor Certification or as immigrants of Exceptional or Extraordinary Ability (EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3); investment-based immigration (EB-5); and unusual or complicated matters such as physician J-1 waivers, visas for entrepreneurs, and mandamus or APA review actions brought in federal court.
Bill served as President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the 16,000 member national organization of immigration lawyers in 2017. He has long been active in the association on both a national and state level and has served several terms on the Association’s Board of Governors. In 2000, he received the Association’s Joseph Minsky Award for outstanding accomplishments in immigration law.
Bill is a Senior Editor of AILA’s annual Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook, and is the co-author of the “J Visa Guidebook” from Lexis Publishing. He was an Adjunct Professor at the Villanova University School of Law. He has been included since 2004 in Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/ White Inc.); since 2006 in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business (Chambers and Partners), Who’s Who in American Law, and The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers. Bill is also featured as a 20 top practitioner in the area of Immigration Law by Lawdragon.
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN), (B.A.1990), he received his law degree from the University of Minnesota (J.D., magna cum laude, 1993) where he was a member of the Order of the Coif.
Partner, Baker & Hostetler LLP
Richard Raile is a partner at Baker Hostetler, where he is a member of their Litigation team. He focuses his practice on appeals and major motions. He frequently plays the principal role in drafting briefs for clients and in delivering oral argument, including on dispositive motions, bench trials and appeals. He has represented parties and amici curiae at every level of the judiciary, from trial courts to merits litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and state supreme courts.
His litigation experience runs the gamut of subject matters, including everything from commercial, civil rights, constitutional, campaign finance, voting rights, labor and bankruptcy law.
Vice President, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
John G. Malcolm oversees Advancing American Freedom’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as Vice President of the organization’s Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law. Malcolm brings to the challenge a wealth of legal expertise and experience in both the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining Advancing American Freedom in 2025, Malcolm was the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government and the Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage in 2012, Malcolm was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association.
Malcolm served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations. Immediately prior to that, he was a founding partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP.
From 1990 to 1997, Malcolm was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was honored with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work in connection with the successful prosecution of Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who assassinated an 11th Circuit judge and the head of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College, Malcolm began his career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge, and as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan (new Eversheds Sutherland).
Malcolm, who resides in Washington, D.C., serves on the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera and is a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the United States.
Acting Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Office of Professional Responsibility, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Brian M. Fish is currently the Senior Advisor to the General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security where he works on immigration and law enforcement issues. Previously, he was a trial attorney with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where he represented the Department of Homeland Security in removal hearings before the U.S. Immigration Court. Additionally, he was a Special Assistant United States Attorney and a Baltimore City homicide prosecutor. He is a member of the Federalist Society's Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Executive Committee and the President of its Baltimore Lawyers Chapter. He earned his B.A. from LaSalle University in 1992 and his J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law in 1998.
Director of Litigation, Immigration Reform Law Institute
Mr. Hajec joined the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) in 2017 as its Director of Litigation, and is responsible for overseeing IRLI’s public interest litigation. Previously, he has focused his career on constitutional and other civil rights law in the public interest, and has had an abiding concern about the many adverse effects of illegal and excessive legal immigration on American jobs and communities.
At IRLI, in addition to representing plaintiffs in immigration-related civil lawsuits, he has overseen the drafting and filing of nearly 100 briefs, mostly amicus curiae briefs in defense of the Trump administration’s immigration initiatives, which have been subjected to an unprecedented degree of legal assault by well-funded interest groups.
Prior to joining IRLI, Mr. Hajec was an attorney at the Center for Individual Rights (CIR), where he litigated a string of high-profile cases, including the defense of videographer James O’Keefe in suits brought by former ACORN employees, a class action suit on behalf of Asian American students discriminated against by the New York City public schools, and a case that resulted in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s striking down Texas’s psychologists licensing statute as an overbroad restriction on free speech.
Before CIR, Mr. Hajec was an officer in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he served as a defense counsel before courts-martial and then as Appellate Government Counsel, arguing over 100 appeals before the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He received the Navy Commendation Medal for his legal work, and also because of his poor handling of an emergency during a hurricane.
He received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his undergraduate degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Miami, and studied philosophy and sociology at Oxford University.
Partner, Klasko Immigration Law Partners, LLP
William A. Stock (Bill) is one of the country’s leading immigration lawyers. A founding member of Klasko Immigration Law Partners, LLP, he has practiced immigration law exclusively for over twenty years. His clients include small businesses, medium sized companies, and multinational corporations and their employees, as well as individual clients, investors and researchers.
Bill leads a team of thirty-two attorneys, senior and junior paralegals in obtaining employment-based immigration benefits for clients, such as nonimmigrant visa classification (H-1B, L-1, E-1 and E-2, TN and O-1); permanent residence or “green card” status through Labor Certification or as immigrants of Exceptional or Extraordinary Ability (EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3); investment-based immigration (EB-5); and unusual or complicated matters such as physician J-1 waivers, visas for entrepreneurs, and mandamus or APA review actions brought in federal court.
Bill served as President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the 16,000 member national organization of immigration lawyers in 2017. He has long been active in the association on both a national and state level and has served several terms on the Association’s Board of Governors. In 2000, he received the Association’s Joseph Minsky Award for outstanding accomplishments in immigration law.
Bill is a Senior Editor of AILA’s annual Immigration & Nationality Law Handbook, and is the co-author of the “J Visa Guidebook” from Lexis Publishing. He was an Adjunct Professor at the Villanova University School of Law. He has been included since 2004 in Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/ White Inc.); since 2006 in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business (Chambers and Partners), Who’s Who in American Law, and The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers. Bill is also featured as a 20 top practitioner in the area of Immigration Law by Lawdragon.
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN), (B.A.1990), he received his law degree from the University of Minnesota (J.D., magna cum laude, 1993) where he was a member of the Order of the Coif.
Supreme Court Review: Justice Gorsuch at Year One
2018 Texas Chapters Conference
Fort Worth, TX2018 Texas Chapters Conference
Fort Worth, TXTopics
State AG Watch: Five States Win $839 Million Obamacare Lawsuit
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading a five-state coalition that on Thursday won an...
Partisan Gerrymandering and Party Rights: Why Gill v. Whitford Undermines All Future Partisan-Gerrymandering Claims
Richard B. Raile
Note from the Editor: This article discusses the Supreme Court’s opinion in Gill v. Whitford...
Capital Punishment: A One-Sided Contribution to a Complex Debate
John G. Malcolm
A review of: End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice, by...
Sanctuary Cities
Brian M. Fish, Christopher Hajec, William A. Stock
In 2015, 32-year old Kate Steinle was shot in San Francisco by an Illegal Immigrant....
Topics
Liberty Month Revisited: The Tweeter Laureate of Texas Discusses Judges' Use of Social Media
This month we are sharing a selection of pieces from The Federalist Society's Liberty Month...
Topics
Liberty Month Revisited: Regulation by Litigation
This month we are sharing a selection of paired pieces from The Federalist Society's Liberty...
Persuader Rule
Labor and Employment Law and Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
TeleforumSanctuary Cities
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Teleforum
Teleforum