Assistant Professor of Law, Liberty University School of Law
Eric Bolinder joined Liberty University as an Assistant Professor of Law after a 10-year career in public interest litigation, working both as counsel at Cause of Action Institute and managing policy counsel at Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
Most notably, Professor Bolinder argued Loper Bright at the D.C. Circuit and was part of the team that took it from the district court to the Supreme Court. In 2024, the Supreme Court decided Loper Bright, overturning the 40-year precedent of Chevron deference. Professor Bolinder was also part of a team that successfully defended an FTC claim for equitable relief at trial, resulting in no monetary judgment against his clients.
At Cause of Action Institute, Professor Bolinder litigated exclusively against the federal government on both plaintiff actions challenging government regulations and as defense counsel in an agency enforcement proceeding.
At Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Professor Bolinder drove community efforts to plan engagement with strategic litigation opportunities. He also led a team dedicated to government oversight: filing FOIA requests and litigation, connecting with Hill staff, and producing investigative reports.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner with Boyden Gray PLLC. He previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mr. McCotter maintains an extensive appellate practice. He has considerable experience identifying and briefing cases that draw the Supreme Court’s attention, having persuaded the Court to grant certiorari in numerous cases raising issues of sovereignty, constitutional rights, due process, and criminal law. He has authored and submitted over 60 briefs at the Court.
He has also personally argued more than fifteen federal appeals across the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Federal, and D.C. Circuits—including once arguing three separate appeals in just four days. He has also twice argued before the 17-judge en banc Fifth Circuit. He has been counsel in over 50 other appeals raising matters from FOIA and the APA to constitutional rights and statutory construction.
As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Mr. McCotter oversaw DOJ’s Civil Appellate and Federal Programs branches, which are responsible for defending nearly all major litigation against the federal government. During his three years as a federal trial attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” Mr. McCotter won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
During his DOJ tenures, Mr. McCotter also assisted with the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices and over a dozen lower-court judges.
Mr. McCotter served as an inaugural clerk to the Hon. Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Senior Advisor to the Governor, State of Florida
Eric Soskin is the team leader for Florida’s DOGE initiative, identifying wasteful and unnecessary spending within the state government, local governments, state colleges, and universities as Senior Advisor to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He previously served in the federal government as Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation, as Senior Trial Counsel and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice.
In extending the DOGE mission to Florida, Gov. DeSantis and Mr. Soskin are assuring that citizens receive efficient and effective government at all levels of our federal system, as taxpayers are entitled to expect. Florida has long been a leader in efficient state government, relying on the fewest state employees per capita to deliver government services with excellence and reliability. Nevertheless, there is more to be done to take advantage of this inspiring moment of public enthusiasm for government reform efforts.
Mr. Soskin was previously nominated by President Trump, and confirmed by the Senate, as the 7th Inspector General of the Department of Transportation. As IG, he provided oversight to the programs and operations of DOT, guiding audits that identified improvements to the Department’s efficiency and effectiveness as well as opportunities to combat waste and fraud. He also led DOT’s principal law enforcement component, with over 100 federal law enforcement officers investigating crimes against America’s transportation networks. While serving, he introduced mandatory training for law enforcement agents in the First and Second Amendments, and educated all agency staff in the U.S. Constitution and highlights from American history. When President Trump removed nearly all then-serving IGs in 2025, Mr. Soskin filed an amicus brief in support of the President’s authority to do so, explaining why IGs should be treated as principal officers for whom statutory removal restrictions cannot be constitutional.
During 14 years at the Department of Justice, Mr. Soskin specialized in constitutional and administrative law, representing the President, Cabinet officials and agencies, and law enforcement in district court. His work included defending President Trump’s Executive Orders on immigration, the public-charge rule, and actions to assert the state secrets privilege and other executive privileges. Mr. Soskin also served as one of DOJ’s leading experts in Second Amendment and firearms litigation and spent four years defending habeas petitions brought by Al Qaeda terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay. He also taught trial advocacy, deposition practice, and received the Attorney General’s 2nd highest award for his work on Supreme Court confirmations.
Mr. Soskin graduated from Williams College and Harvard Law School and clerked for Judge Paul S. Diamond of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Philip Wallach is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies America’s separation of powers, with a focus on regulatory policy issues and the relationship between Congress and the administrative state.
In his latest book Why Congress (Oxford University Press, 2023), Dr. Wallach defends the centrality of Congress in America’s constitutional system, traces the roots of current dysfunction, and suggests how the institution might be restored.
Before joining AEI, Dr. Wallach was a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, where he authored To the Edge: Legality, Legitimacy, and the Responses to the 2008 Financial Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). He was later affiliated with the R Street Institute and served as a fellow with the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in 2019.
Dr. Wallach’s scholarly and popular work has been published widely, including in the publications of the Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets, Studies in American Political Development, Fortune, National Affairs, National Review, Law & Liberty, Los Angeles Times, RealClearPolicy, the Bulwark, the Hill, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. A frequent conference participant, he has lectured at William & Mary, the University of Oregon, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, among others.
Dr. Wallach received a master’s and doctorate in politics from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University’s College of Social Studies.
Associate, Jones Day
Louis Capozzi is an associate at the Washington D.C. office of Jones Day and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. As a lawyer, he specializes in appellate advocacy and motions practice.
Mr. Capozzi clerked for Justice Neil Gorsuch during the October 2021 Term, as well as for Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Anthony J. Scirica of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He graduated as the valedictorian from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2019.
Partner, Dechert LLP
In a career spanning both private and public practice, Steven A. Engel is a leading litigator and counselor, acting as an advocate in high-profile trial and appellate matters and advising clients on their most sensitive and complex legal issues. Mr. Engel is the Chair of Dechert’s Appellate and Regulatory Litigation Group and has appeared in courts across the country, handling a wide range of civil litigation matters, including administrative law, commercial litigation, constitutional law and securities cases. He regularly counsels clients on challenges to agency regulations and in connection with government, congressional and internal investigations.
Until January 2021, Mr. Engel served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. As the head of the office, Mr. Engel served as the chief counsel to the Attorney General and the principal legal adviser to the Executive Branch, providing legal advice to the President and cabinet secretaries on the most critical constitutional and statutory questions, including matters pertaining to national security, administrative law, criminal law, congressional oversight, and executive orders. In December 2020, Mr. Engel was awarded the Department of Justice’s highest honor, the Edmund J. Randolph Award, for outstanding service to the Department.
Before his appointment as Assistant Attorney General in 2017, Mr. Engel had been a partner at Dechert since 2009 and previously served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. Mr. Engel clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court for Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for Judge Alex Kozinski.
Mr. Engel is a member of the Advisory Committee on Rules for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the Administrative Conference of the United States. He has been an Adjunct Professor at the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University and the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America and was formerly the Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. He has been nationally ranked as a leading lawyer in The Legal 500 USA and Benchmark Litigation. Mr. Engel has frequently commented on legal subjects in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and has appeared on national news programs as a legal analyst, including on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network. Mr. Engel has testified on several occasions before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
John Gore is a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) senior official who delivers results for clients in high-stakes litigation and crisis matters. John's broad litigation experience includes arguing in the United States Supreme Court and first-chairing trials and appeals in federal and state courts across the country. He also represents clients facing Congressional oversight and government investigations.
John previously served as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at DOJ. As the head of one of DOJ's most significant litigating components, John led the Department's civil and criminal civil rights enforcement nationwide under such statutes as the Voting Rights Act (VRA), Title VII, 8 U.S.C. 1324b of the Immigration and Nationality Act, Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Fair Housing Act, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
During his DOJ tenure, John launched several successful law enforcement initiatives, including a record-setting initiative to combat housing discrimination and initiatives to end employment discrimination, to protect religious liberty, and to uphold First Amendment freedoms. Moreover, under John's leadership, the Civil Rights Division prosecuted several high-profile hate crimes and contributed to DOJ's record-setting numbers of human trafficking prosecutions. John also testified twice before Congress on DOJ's civil rights enforcement efforts.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
Judge Hardiman was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on January 9, 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate (95-0) on March 15, 2007. Prior to becoming an appellate judge, Judge Hardiman served as a trial judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as of November 1, 2003. In 2008, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Hardiman was appointed Chairman of the IT Committee in 2013 and served in that capacity until September 2021. In 2021 he was appointed by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to serve as Chair of the Judiciary IT Security Task Force, which completed its work in fall 2023. Chief Justice Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Board of the Federal Judicial Center to serve from March 2020 until March 2024. As part of his work with the Center, Judge Hardiman now serves as Editor in Chief for the Manual for Complex Civil Litigation, Fifth.
Before entering judicial service, Judge Hardiman handled a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts as a partner at Reed Smith LLP (1999-2003), a partner at Titus & McConomy LLP (1996-1999), and as an associate with its predecessor firm, Cindrich & Titus (1992-1996). Judge Hardiman began his legal career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (1990-1992).
A 1987 honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Judge Hardiman received his law degree in 1990 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a Notes and Comments Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. In 2012, Judge Hardiman was elected as a member of the American Law Institute and was elected to its Council in 2019 and its Executive Committee in 2025. Judge Hardiman regularly teaches a seminar on Advanced Constitutional Law at Duquesne University School of Law and a one-week course entitled “Constitutional Law: the First and Second Amendments” at Georgetown University Law Center.
A native of Waltham, Massachusetts, Judge Hardiman has chambers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Lori married in 1992 and have three children.
Assistant Professor of Law, Liberty University School of Law
Eric Bolinder joined Liberty University as an Assistant Professor of Law after a 10-year career in public interest litigation, working both as counsel at Cause of Action Institute and managing policy counsel at Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
Most notably, Professor Bolinder argued Loper Bright at the D.C. Circuit and was part of the team that took it from the district court to the Supreme Court. In 2024, the Supreme Court decided Loper Bright, overturning the 40-year precedent of Chevron deference. Professor Bolinder was also part of a team that successfully defended an FTC claim for equitable relief at trial, resulting in no monetary judgment against his clients.
At Cause of Action Institute, Professor Bolinder litigated exclusively against the federal government on both plaintiff actions challenging government regulations and as defense counsel in an agency enforcement proceeding.
At Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Professor Bolinder drove community efforts to plan engagement with strategic litigation opportunities. He also led a team dedicated to government oversight: filing FOIA requests and litigation, connecting with Hill staff, and producing investigative reports.
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner with Boyden Gray PLLC. He previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Mr. McCotter maintains an extensive appellate practice. He has considerable experience identifying and briefing cases that draw the Supreme Court’s attention, having persuaded the Court to grant certiorari in numerous cases raising issues of sovereignty, constitutional rights, due process, and criminal law. He has authored and submitted over 60 briefs at the Court.
He has also personally argued more than fifteen federal appeals across the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Federal, and D.C. Circuits—including once arguing three separate appeals in just four days. He has also twice argued before the 17-judge en banc Fifth Circuit. He has been counsel in over 50 other appeals raising matters from FOIA and the APA to constitutional rights and statutory construction.
As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Mr. McCotter oversaw DOJ’s Civil Appellate and Federal Programs branches, which are responsible for defending nearly all major litigation against the federal government. During his three years as a federal trial attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” Mr. McCotter won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
During his DOJ tenures, Mr. McCotter also assisted with the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices and over a dozen lower-court judges.
Mr. McCotter served as an inaugural clerk to the Hon. Steven J. Menashi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Senior Advisor to the Governor, State of Florida
Eric Soskin is the team leader for Florida’s DOGE initiative, identifying wasteful and unnecessary spending within the state government, local governments, state colleges, and universities as Senior Advisor to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He previously served in the federal government as Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation, as Senior Trial Counsel and Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice.
In extending the DOGE mission to Florida, Gov. DeSantis and Mr. Soskin are assuring that citizens receive efficient and effective government at all levels of our federal system, as taxpayers are entitled to expect. Florida has long been a leader in efficient state government, relying on the fewest state employees per capita to deliver government services with excellence and reliability. Nevertheless, there is more to be done to take advantage of this inspiring moment of public enthusiasm for government reform efforts.
Mr. Soskin was previously nominated by President Trump, and confirmed by the Senate, as the 7th Inspector General of the Department of Transportation. As IG, he provided oversight to the programs and operations of DOT, guiding audits that identified improvements to the Department’s efficiency and effectiveness as well as opportunities to combat waste and fraud. He also led DOT’s principal law enforcement component, with over 100 federal law enforcement officers investigating crimes against America’s transportation networks. While serving, he introduced mandatory training for law enforcement agents in the First and Second Amendments, and educated all agency staff in the U.S. Constitution and highlights from American history. When President Trump removed nearly all then-serving IGs in 2025, Mr. Soskin filed an amicus brief in support of the President’s authority to do so, explaining why IGs should be treated as principal officers for whom statutory removal restrictions cannot be constitutional.
During 14 years at the Department of Justice, Mr. Soskin specialized in constitutional and administrative law, representing the President, Cabinet officials and agencies, and law enforcement in district court. His work included defending President Trump’s Executive Orders on immigration, the public-charge rule, and actions to assert the state secrets privilege and other executive privileges. Mr. Soskin also served as one of DOJ’s leading experts in Second Amendment and firearms litigation and spent four years defending habeas petitions brought by Al Qaeda terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay. He also taught trial advocacy, deposition practice, and received the Attorney General’s 2nd highest award for his work on Supreme Court confirmations.
Mr. Soskin graduated from Williams College and Harvard Law School and clerked for Judge Paul S. Diamond of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Philip Wallach is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies America’s separation of powers, with a focus on regulatory policy issues and the relationship between Congress and the administrative state.
In his latest book Why Congress (Oxford University Press, 2023), Dr. Wallach defends the centrality of Congress in America’s constitutional system, traces the roots of current dysfunction, and suggests how the institution might be restored.
Before joining AEI, Dr. Wallach was a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, where he authored To the Edge: Legality, Legitimacy, and the Responses to the 2008 Financial Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). He was later affiliated with the R Street Institute and served as a fellow with the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in 2019.
Dr. Wallach’s scholarly and popular work has been published widely, including in the publications of the Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets, Studies in American Political Development, Fortune, National Affairs, National Review, Law & Liberty, Los Angeles Times, RealClearPolicy, the Bulwark, the Hill, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. A frequent conference participant, he has lectured at William & Mary, the University of Oregon, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and the University of Michigan, among others.
Dr. Wallach received a master’s and doctorate in politics from Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University’s College of Social Studies.
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