Principal, Clear IP, LLC
Joseph Matal is the Principal at Clear IP, LLC.
Joe has served as both the U.S. Patent and Trademark’s Acting Director and Acting Solicitor. As Acting Solicitor, he defended the agency in intellectual property cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. In his role in the Solicitor’s Office, he participated in briefing almost every major case involving PTAB trials that has come before the Federal Circuit, including cases that have defined the Board’s powers and the evidence that it may consider, the content of final decisions, and the burdens and scope of motions to amend. Recent cases include Uniloc v. Hulu, Thryv v. Click-to-Call, and Aqua Products v. Matal. Previously, Joe served in senior legal roles for more than a decade for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. In that capacity, he negotiated and drafted many of the key provisions of the America Invents Act.
In his roles at the USPTO, Joe briefed and argued numerous appeals of patent and trademark decisions before the Federal Circuit; oversaw the management of the USPTO and its 13,000 employees; and advised the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office in key IP cases before the Supreme Court.
Visiting Fellow, National Security Institute, George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School
Mr. Taylor was counsel and chief counsel of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, for over 20 years, where he shepherded dozens of bills through committee to be signed into law by presidents of both political parties. He was also counsel to the House Oversight Committee, where he handled constitutional and civil rights issues. He is the author of over a dozen law review articles on legal reform, continuity in government, religious liberty, congressional powers, civil rights, and patent law. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute (the first active congressional staff person elected to that body in its 100-year history), a 1991 graduate of Yale University (BA, summa cum laude), and a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School (JD, cum laude). He is a Visiting Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School.
Former Congressman, United States House of Representatives
Bob Goodlatte served in the United States House of Representatives representing Virginia's 6th congressional district for 13 terms.
Goodlatte’s service to the people of the Sixth District began in 1977 when he became District Director for former Congressman Caldwell Butler. He served in this position for two years until 1979, and was responsible for helping folks across the District seeking assistance with or encountering problems from various federal agencies. In 1979, he founded his own private law practice in Roanoke. Later, he was a partner in the law firm of Bird, Kinder and Huffman, working there from 1981 until taking office.
Rep. Goodlatte was first elected to serve as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in the 113th Congress. He was the first Judiciary Committee Chairman from Virginia in the last 125 years. Rep. Goodlatte was an active Member of the Judiciary Committee since arriving in Congress, serving in a variety of leadership positions on the Committee including taking the lead on many intellectual property issues. During his time in Congress, Rep. Goodlatte made a name for himself as a leader on Internet and technology issues. He was Co-Chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus and the International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus.
Rep. Goodlatte is a graduate of Washington and Lee University School of Law, and his undergraduate degree in Government was earned at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
Attorney, Allen Harris Law
Samantha Harris is a nationally recognized attorney advising students and faculty on issues of campus due process, Title IX, free speech, and academic freedom. Drawing on more than 15 years at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), where she served as Vice President for Policy Research, she guides students, faculty, administrators, and attorneys through complex disciplinary and constitutional issues involving free speech, fair hearings, and faculty-student rights.
A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (Articles Editor, Journal of Constitutional Law), Samantha clerked for the Hon. Jay C. Waldman in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and began her legal career at Pepper Hamilton LLP. At FIRE, she led efforts to reform campus policies and defended individuals in high-profile Title IX and free speech disputes.
Now at Allen Harris PLLC, a firm focused on Title IX and campus defense, Samantha represents students and professors in investigations, hearings, appeals, and related litigation. Samantha’s practice emphasizes strategic advocacy in campus disciplinary systems and litigation-ready defense in federal court. Her blend of policy experience, legal skill, and media visibility positions her as a leading resource for issues at the intersection of education law and constitutional rights.
Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration and the Masters of Law: Life Sciences program, Suffolk University
Professor Renée Landers is a Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration and the Masters of Science in Law: Life Sciences program at Suffolk University Law School in Boston.
She was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance during her fall 2018 sabbatical leave. She was also the President of the Boston Bar Association in 2003-2004, and was the first woman of color and the first law professor to serve in that position. Professor Landers has worked in private practice and served as Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton Administration.
Professor Landers served as Chair of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association in 2016 – 2017 and chaired the Section’s Nominating Committee in 2018 - 2019. She is a Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital and New England Donor Services and is a former Trustee of the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary. In 2019, she rejoined the board of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and became President of the Board beginning in July 2020. Recently, she co-chaired the Boston Bar Association’s Task Force on Judicial Independence which issued a report in August 2019. She was a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct and served as Vice Chair of the Commission from 2009 to 2010. She also served on the task force that drafted the revised Massachusetts Code of Judicial Conduct effective in 2016 and currently is a member of the Committee on Judicial Ethics which advises judges on compliance with the Code. Previously, she was a member of the Supreme Judicial Court’s committees studying gender bias and racial and ethnic bias in the courts.
An elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2008, she is Vice President of the NASI Board of Directors. Landers was a member of the Academy’s study panels on Strengthening Medicare’s Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Health Insurance Exchanges, and Examining Approaches to Expand Medicare Eligibility. She currently co-chairs a study panel on Economic Security. She is the author of articles on the potential for Massachusetts health care reform initiatives to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care and aspects of the Affordable Care Act. In addition to health care, Landers has written on diversity in the legal profession and privacy and is a regular commentator on legal developments in constitutional law, health law, and administrative law for media organizations.
In summer 2019, she was appointed to serve as an observer representing the ABA Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice on a Telehealth Study Committee. And, after March 2020, she was appointed to serve as an observer representing the ABA Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice on a Public Health Emergencies Study Committee.
Professor Landers has served as the president of the Boards of Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, the Shady Hill School, the Harvard Board of Overseers, and has also served on the Board of WGBH and the Board of Overseers of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is a member of the American Law Institute and Phi Beta Kappa, and has received awards from Radcliffe College, Boston College Law School, Harvard College, the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Network. In November 2018 she was elected a Fellow of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.
Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law
Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus is an internationally recognized expert in civil and human rights, as well as a leader in the fight against anti-Semitism on and off university campuses. He is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the leading civil rights legal organization fighting against anti-Semitism. The New York Times has called him “The Man Who Helped Redefine Campus Anti-Semitism.” He been described, in that paper, as “the single most effective and respected force” to combat anti-Semitism.
During his public service career, Marcus served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights; Staff Director at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and General Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
In academia, he serves as Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University. He formerly held the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at the City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College, served as Visiting Research Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva University, and was a Board of Visitors member George Mason University and Distinguished Senior Fellow at that university’s law school. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism and previously served as Associate Editor of the Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
Marcus is also author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism (Oxford University Press) and Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge University Press). He has published widely in academic journals as well as in more popular venues such as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, USA Today, and Politico. He is a graduate of Williams College and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
Earlier in his career, he was a litigation partner in two major law firms, where he conducted complex commercial and constitutional litigation. He also serves as Chairman emeritus of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Civil Rights Practice Group.
Director, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Graham Steele is the director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining Stanford GSB, Graham was a member of the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
From 2015 to 2017, Graham was the Minority Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs. From 2010 to 2015 he was a Legislative Assistant for United States Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), handling the Senator’s work as a member of the Senate Banking Committee. He also spent four years as the staff director of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions & Consumer Protection. Prior to joining Senator Brown’s staff, Graham was a policy counsel at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch in Washington, D.C.
Graham received his bachelors degree in political science from the University of Rochester and his law degree from The George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar. He is originally from Brookline, Massachusetts.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Assistant Professor of Business Law, Michigan Ross School of Law
Jeremy Kress is an Assistant Professor of Business Law at Michigan Ross and Co-Faculty Director of the University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law & Policy. His research focuses on bank regulation, systemic risk, and financial stability. Professor Kress' written work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Southern California Law Review, and Yale Journal on Regulation, among other journals.
Before entering academia, Professor Kress was an attorney in the banking regulation and policy group at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he drafted rules to implement the Dodd-Frank Act and Basel III, and he advised the Board on the legal permissibility of bank mergers and acquisitions.
Professor Kress has testified before Congress and serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Education and Industry Forum on Financial Services Culture. He frequently comments on financial regulatory matters in the press. Professor Kress has been featured in media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg News, NPR's Marketplace, Politico, Yahoo Finance, and American Banker.
Professor Kress teaches Legal Issues in Finance & Banking at Michigan Ross, and he has taught Financial Regulation at Michigan Law School. He was named one of Poets & Quants’ “Top 50 Undergraduate Professors of 2020” and won Michigan Ross’ Neary Teaching Excellence Award in 2019.
Professor Kress graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Presidential Scholar. He holds a BBA from Michigan Ross.
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Paul H. Kupiec is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies systemic risk and the management and regulations of banks and financial markets. He also follows the work of financial regulators such as the Federal Reserve and examines the impact of financial regulations on the US economy.
Before joining AEI, Kupiec was an associate director of the Division of Insurance and Research within the Center for Financial Research at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), where he oversaw research on bank risk measurement and the development of regulatory policies such as Basel III. Kupiec was also director of the Center for Financial Research at the FDIC and chairman of the Research Task Force of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He has previously worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Freddie Mac, J.P. Morgan, and for the Division of Research and Statistics at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Kupiec has edited many professional journals, including the Journal of Financial Services Research, Journal of Risk, and Journal of Investment Management.
He has a bachelor of science degree in economics from George Washington University and a doctorate in economics — with a specialization in finance, theory, and econometrics — from the University of Pennsylvania.
Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics; Co-Director, Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Christina Parajon Skinner is an expert on financial regulation. Her research focuses on central banking, the debt markets, separation of powers, corporate governance, and law and macroeconomics. Professor Skinner’s work is international and comparative in scope, drawing on her experience as an academic and central bank lawyer in the United Kingdom. Her research has been published or is forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Georgetown Law Journal, among other leading academic journals. Professor Skinner has also contributed to financial regulatory policy working groups, including those convened by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Financial Stability Board, and the U.K. Banking Standards Board.
Prior to joining the faculty at Wharton, Professor Skinner served as legal counsel at the Bank of England, in the Financial Stability Division of the Bank’s Legal Directorate. Her work there focused principally on matters of bank resolution, financial market infrastructure, and macroprudential policy. Previously, Professor Skinner was an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law and a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, Law Department. From 2014-2016, she was a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School.
Professor Skinner received her J.D. from Yale Law School, and an A.B. from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, with a concentration in international economics. She received certificates of proficiency in European Politics and Society, and Spanish Language and Culture.
She is married with five children.
Director, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Graham Steele is the director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining Stanford GSB, Graham was a member of the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
From 2015 to 2017, Graham was the Minority Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs. From 2010 to 2015 he was a Legislative Assistant for United States Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), handling the Senator’s work as a member of the Senate Banking Committee. He also spent four years as the staff director of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions & Consumer Protection. Prior to joining Senator Brown’s staff, Graham was a policy counsel at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch in Washington, D.C.
Graham received his bachelors degree in political science from the University of Rochester and his law degree from The George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar. He is originally from Brookline, Massachusetts.
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.
Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; CEO, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Philip Hamburger is the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and Chief Executive Officer at the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Before coming to Columbia, he was the John P. Wilson Professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
He writes on constitutional law and its history—with particular emphasis on religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, judicial office, administrative power, and unconstitutional conditions.
His books are Separation of Church and State (Harvard 2002), Law and Judicial Duty (Harvard 2008), Is Administrative Law Unlawful? (Chicago 2014), The Administrative Threat (Encounter 2017), and Liberal Suppression: Section 501(c)(3) and the Taxation of Speech (Chicago 2018). A forthcoming book is Purchasing Submission: Conditions, Power, and Freedom (Harvard 2021).
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has served on the board of directors of the American Society for Legal History. He has twice received the Sutherland Prize for the most significant contribution to English legal history, and has been awarded the Henry Paolucci - Walter Bagehot Book Award, the Hayek Book Prize, and the Bradley Prize.
Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence; Co-Director of the Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic, New York University School of Law
Sally Katzen served in the Clinton administration as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as deputy assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council in the White House, and then as the deputy director for management at OMB. She served as the head of the Agency Review Group for the Obama/Biden transition with responsibility for the Executive Office of the President and all government-wide agencies. She has taught both undergraduates and at various law schools. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the National Academy of Public Administration, has served on multiple panels for the National Academy of Sciences, testified frequently before Congress, and is on the board of several non-profit organizations. Before joining the Clinton administration, Katzen was a partner in the Washington, DC, law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, specializing in regulatory and legislative matters, while serving in leadership roles in the American Bar Association (including chair of the Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and as DC delegate to the ABA’s House of Delegates), as president of the Federal Communications Bar Association and as president of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund. She graduated from Smith College and the University of Michigan Law School, where she was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Law Review. She clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and served in the Carter administration as the general counsel of the Council on Wage and Price Stability in the Executive Office of the President.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Rao was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in March 2019. She graduated from Yale College in 1995 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1999. Following graduation, she served as a law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and, in the 2001 October Term, as law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. Between her clerkships, Judge Rao served as counsel for nominations and constitutional law to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In 2002, she joined the international arbitration group of Clifford Chance LLP in London, England. From 2005-2006, she served as Special Assistant and Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush. From 2006 to 2017, Judge Rao was a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where she taught constitutional law, legislation and statutory interpretation, and the history and foundations of the administrative state. In 2014, she founded the Center for the Study of the Administrative State, a non-profit Center that promotes academic scholarship and public policy debates about administrative law. In July 2017, she was appointed to serve as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management Budget. She served in this position until her appointment to the D.C. Circuit.
Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation
Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.
Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.
Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.
Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.
Partner, Donahue & Goldberg LLP
Sean H. Donahue's practice is focused on appellate litigation, including environmental cases in federal and state appellate courts, legal counseling, and helping clients communicate effectively to courts, agencies, and other audiences. He is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the State of California.
A 1992 graduate of University of Chicago Law School, Sean served as law clerk to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice John Paul Stevens. He entered private practice at Jenner & Block's Washington office, where he worked on civil matters including in telecommunications and First Amendment law. He then spent four years at the Department of Justice, Environmental and Natural Resources Division, Appellate Section, briefing and arguing cases in the United States Courts of Appeals, and state supreme courts concerning federal environmental and natural resources law, federal property law, takings, and Indian law.
Sean has argued approximately 50 cases in federal and state appellate courts. Since first establishing his own practice in 2002, he has represented environmental and public health organization parties in numerous major environmental and clean energy cases in the Supreme Court and the courts of appeals. His current practice includes representation of public interest organizations, governmental bodies, and private entities in environmental, energy, natural resources, and other cases. Sean has taught courses in environmental law, civil procedure, constitutional law and other subjects at Washington & Lee University School of Law, Iowa College of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center, and currently teaches climate change law and policy as a lecturer at Stanford Law School. He has given presentations at law schools including Berkeley, Columbia, Fordham, Harvard, Duke, Georgetown, Maryland, NYU, Northwestern, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Florida, Vermont Law School, and Washington & Lee.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Chief Deputy Attorney General
Ryan Newman is currently Chief Deputy Attorney General for Florida Office of the Attorney General.
During the first Trump Administration, he served as Counselor to the United States Attorney General for national security and international affairs, Deputy General Counsel (Legal Counsel) for the Department of Defense, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. Prior to serving in the Executive Branch, Ryan was Chief Counsel to United States Senator Ted Cruz during the 114th Congress.
Ryan served as a law clerk to the Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the United States Supreme Court, the Honorable Richard J. Leon on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the Honorable J.L. Edmondson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Prior to law school, Ryan was an armor officer in the United States Army assigned to the 1st Squadron, 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (Buffalo Soldiers). He deployed to Iraq in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Ryan graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1998. He earned his law degree with high honors from The University of Texas School of Law in 2007.
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
JUSTIN SAVAGE is a global co-leader of the firm’s Environmental, Health, and Safety practice and co-leads the Automotive and Mobility sector team, where he is a leading strategist for companies navigating the intersection of complex regulation, high-stakes litigation, and transformative industry change. For nearly three decades, he has led clients through their most consequential environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) disputes and mobility-sector challenges, earning a reputation as both a trusted counselor and a forceful advocate in the courtroom and the boardroom. A core part of Justin’s practice also focuses on regulatory strategy and market entry, advising emerging technology companies, new market entrants, and established industry leaders on launching new products, technologies, and business models. He regularly counsel clients in emerging fields such as robotics and AI on engaging with regulators, anticipating enforcement and compliance risk, and building defensible regulatory strategies that support growth rather than slow it.
Clients praise Justin as “an excellent litigator… strategically clever and creative… attentive, thoughtful and willing to go above and beyond” (Chambers USA 2025). Chambers USA has ranked him for Band 1 for Environment in District of Columbia (2017–2025) and Band 3 for Transportation: Road (Automotive) in USA—Nationwide (2023–2025).
Justin has won some of the most closely watched EH&S and transportation disputes of the past two decades and guided companies through crises where business continuity, brand reputation, and regulatory survival were on the line. His leadership has been repeatedly recognized: he is a three-time Law360 Environmental “MVP” (2018, 2024, 2025) and a Lawdragon “500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management” (2025-2026). He is the first call for companies facing bet-the-company challenges.
Justin’s clients concentrate in heavily regulated industries, including auto and mobility, aviation, chemicals, data centers, energy, mining, and refining. Justin litigates and counsels across the spectrum of U.S. environmental, transportation, and administrative laws, including the Clean Air Act (Title I, mobile sources, and fuels), incident response, RMP, NHTSA, Clean Water Act, TSCA, CSB investigations, APA claims, FOIA litigation, NEPA, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Prior to joining Sidley, Justin served for nearly a decade at the Environmental Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he led teams in several multi-billion dollar enforcement cases. In his career, Justin has regularly taught on a range of environmental and litigation topics. For several years, Justin served as an instructor at the Justice Department’s National Advocacy Center where he taught hundreds of Assistant U.S. Attorneys and other agency lawyers on topics that included trial advocacy and evidence. Since rejoining private practice, Justin has served eight times as a faculty member for the American Law Institute’s Environmental Litigation program. He also lectured on a range of litigation and trial topics for bar associations and organizations, including serving as an instructor for the FAA on trial advocacy.
Attorney, Allen Harris Law
Samantha Harris is a nationally recognized attorney advising students and faculty on issues of campus due process, Title IX, free speech, and academic freedom. Drawing on more than 15 years at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), where she served as Vice President for Policy Research, she guides students, faculty, administrators, and attorneys through complex disciplinary and constitutional issues involving free speech, fair hearings, and faculty-student rights.
A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School (Articles Editor, Journal of Constitutional Law), Samantha clerked for the Hon. Jay C. Waldman in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and began her legal career at Pepper Hamilton LLP. At FIRE, she led efforts to reform campus policies and defended individuals in high-profile Title IX and free speech disputes.
Now at Allen Harris PLLC, a firm focused on Title IX and campus defense, Samantha represents students and professors in investigations, hearings, appeals, and related litigation. Samantha’s practice emphasizes strategic advocacy in campus disciplinary systems and litigation-ready defense in federal court. Her blend of policy experience, legal skill, and media visibility positions her as a leading resource for issues at the intersection of education law and constitutional rights.
Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration and the Masters of Law: Life Sciences program, Suffolk University
Professor Renée Landers is a Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration and the Masters of Science in Law: Life Sciences program at Suffolk University Law School in Boston.
She was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance during her fall 2018 sabbatical leave. She was also the President of the Boston Bar Association in 2003-2004, and was the first woman of color and the first law professor to serve in that position. Professor Landers has worked in private practice and served as Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Justice during the Clinton Administration.
Professor Landers served as Chair of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association in 2016 – 2017 and chaired the Section’s Nominating Committee in 2018 - 2019. She is a Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital and New England Donor Services and is a former Trustee of the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary. In 2019, she rejoined the board of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and became President of the Board beginning in July 2020. Recently, she co-chaired the Boston Bar Association’s Task Force on Judicial Independence which issued a report in August 2019. She was a member of the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct and served as Vice Chair of the Commission from 2009 to 2010. She also served on the task force that drafted the revised Massachusetts Code of Judicial Conduct effective in 2016 and currently is a member of the Committee on Judicial Ethics which advises judges on compliance with the Code. Previously, she was a member of the Supreme Judicial Court’s committees studying gender bias and racial and ethnic bias in the courts.
An elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2008, she is Vice President of the NASI Board of Directors. Landers was a member of the Academy’s study panels on Strengthening Medicare’s Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Health Insurance Exchanges, and Examining Approaches to Expand Medicare Eligibility. She currently co-chairs a study panel on Economic Security. She is the author of articles on the potential for Massachusetts health care reform initiatives to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care and aspects of the Affordable Care Act. In addition to health care, Landers has written on diversity in the legal profession and privacy and is a regular commentator on legal developments in constitutional law, health law, and administrative law for media organizations.
In summer 2019, she was appointed to serve as an observer representing the ABA Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice on a Telehealth Study Committee. And, after March 2020, she was appointed to serve as an observer representing the ABA Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice on a Public Health Emergencies Study Committee.
Professor Landers has served as the president of the Boards of Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, the Shady Hill School, the Harvard Board of Overseers, and has also served on the Board of WGBH and the Board of Overseers of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is a member of the American Law Institute and Phi Beta Kappa, and has received awards from Radcliffe College, Boston College Law School, Harvard College, the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Network. In November 2018 she was elected a Fellow of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.
Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law
Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus is an internationally recognized expert in civil and human rights, as well as a leader in the fight against anti-Semitism on and off university campuses. He is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the leading civil rights legal organization fighting against anti-Semitism. The New York Times has called him “The Man Who Helped Redefine Campus Anti-Semitism.” He been described, in that paper, as “the single most effective and respected force” to combat anti-Semitism.
During his public service career, Marcus served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights; Staff Director at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and General Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
In academia, he serves as Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University. He formerly held the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at the City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College, served as Visiting Research Professor of Political Science at Yeshiva University, and was a Board of Visitors member George Mason University and Distinguished Senior Fellow at that university’s law school. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism and previously served as Associate Editor of the Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
Marcus is also author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism (Oxford University Press) and Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge University Press). He has published widely in academic journals as well as in more popular venues such as The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, USA Today, and Politico. He is a graduate of Williams College and the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
Earlier in his career, he was a litigation partner in two major law firms, where he conducted complex commercial and constitutional litigation. He also serves as Chairman emeritus of the Executive Committee of the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Civil Rights Practice Group.
Director, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Graham Steele is the director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining Stanford GSB, Graham was a member of the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
From 2015 to 2017, Graham was the Minority Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs. From 2010 to 2015 he was a Legislative Assistant for United States Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), handling the Senator’s work as a member of the Senate Banking Committee. He also spent four years as the staff director of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions & Consumer Protection. Prior to joining Senator Brown’s staff, Graham was a policy counsel at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch in Washington, D.C.
Graham received his bachelors degree in political science from the University of Rochester and his law degree from The George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar. He is originally from Brookline, Massachusetts.
Senior Legal Fellow, Edwin Meese III Institute for the Rule of Law, Advancing American Freedom
Assistant Professor of Business Law, Michigan Ross School of Law
Jeremy Kress is an Assistant Professor of Business Law at Michigan Ross and Co-Faculty Director of the University of Michigan’s Center on Finance, Law & Policy. His research focuses on bank regulation, systemic risk, and financial stability. Professor Kress' written work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Southern California Law Review, and Yale Journal on Regulation, among other journals.
Before entering academia, Professor Kress was an attorney in the banking regulation and policy group at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he drafted rules to implement the Dodd-Frank Act and Basel III, and he advised the Board on the legal permissibility of bank mergers and acquisitions.
Professor Kress has testified before Congress and serves as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Education and Industry Forum on Financial Services Culture. He frequently comments on financial regulatory matters in the press. Professor Kress has been featured in media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg News, NPR's Marketplace, Politico, Yahoo Finance, and American Banker.
Professor Kress teaches Legal Issues in Finance & Banking at Michigan Ross, and he has taught Financial Regulation at Michigan Law School. He was named one of Poets & Quants’ “Top 50 Undergraduate Professors of 2020” and won Michigan Ross’ Neary Teaching Excellence Award in 2019.
Professor Kress graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Presidential Scholar. He holds a BBA from Michigan Ross.
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Paul H. Kupiec is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies systemic risk and the management and regulations of banks and financial markets. He also follows the work of financial regulators such as the Federal Reserve and examines the impact of financial regulations on the US economy.
Before joining AEI, Kupiec was an associate director of the Division of Insurance and Research within the Center for Financial Research at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), where he oversaw research on bank risk measurement and the development of regulatory policies such as Basel III. Kupiec was also director of the Center for Financial Research at the FDIC and chairman of the Research Task Force of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. He has previously worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Freddie Mac, J.P. Morgan, and for the Division of Research and Statistics at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Kupiec has edited many professional journals, including the Journal of Financial Services Research, Journal of Risk, and Journal of Investment Management.
He has a bachelor of science degree in economics from George Washington University and a doctorate in economics — with a specialization in finance, theory, and econometrics — from the University of Pennsylvania.
Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics; Co-Director, Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Christina Parajon Skinner is an expert on financial regulation. Her research focuses on central banking, the debt markets, separation of powers, corporate governance, and law and macroeconomics. Professor Skinner’s work is international and comparative in scope, drawing on her experience as an academic and central bank lawyer in the United Kingdom. Her research has been published or is forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Georgetown Law Journal, among other leading academic journals. Professor Skinner has also contributed to financial regulatory policy working groups, including those convened by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Financial Stability Board, and the U.K. Banking Standards Board.
Prior to joining the faculty at Wharton, Professor Skinner served as legal counsel at the Bank of England, in the Financial Stability Division of the Bank’s Legal Directorate. Her work there focused principally on matters of bank resolution, financial market infrastructure, and macroprudential policy. Previously, Professor Skinner was an Academic Visitor at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law and a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, Law Department. From 2014-2016, she was a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School.
Professor Skinner received her J.D. from Yale Law School, and an A.B. from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, with a concentration in international economics. She received certificates of proficiency in European Politics and Society, and Spanish Language and Culture.
She is married with five children.
Director, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Graham Steele is the director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining Stanford GSB, Graham was a member of the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
From 2015 to 2017, Graham was the Minority Chief Counsel for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs. From 2010 to 2015 he was a Legislative Assistant for United States Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), handling the Senator’s work as a member of the Senate Banking Committee. He also spent four years as the staff director of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions & Consumer Protection. Prior to joining Senator Brown’s staff, Graham was a policy counsel at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch in Washington, D.C.
Graham received his bachelors degree in political science from the University of Rochester and his law degree from The George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar. He is originally from Brookline, Massachusetts.
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.
Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; CEO, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Philip Hamburger is the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and Chief Executive Officer at the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Before coming to Columbia, he was the John P. Wilson Professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
He writes on constitutional law and its history—with particular emphasis on religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, judicial office, administrative power, and unconstitutional conditions.
His books are Separation of Church and State (Harvard 2002), Law and Judicial Duty (Harvard 2008), Is Administrative Law Unlawful? (Chicago 2014), The Administrative Threat (Encounter 2017), and Liberal Suppression: Section 501(c)(3) and the Taxation of Speech (Chicago 2018). A forthcoming book is Purchasing Submission: Conditions, Power, and Freedom (Harvard 2021).
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has served on the board of directors of the American Society for Legal History. He has twice received the Sutherland Prize for the most significant contribution to English legal history, and has been awarded the Henry Paolucci - Walter Bagehot Book Award, the Hayek Book Prize, and the Bradley Prize.
Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence; Co-Director of the Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic, New York University School of Law
Sally Katzen served in the Clinton administration as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as deputy assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council in the White House, and then as the deputy director for management at OMB. She served as the head of the Agency Review Group for the Obama/Biden transition with responsibility for the Executive Office of the President and all government-wide agencies. She has taught both undergraduates and at various law schools. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the National Academy of Public Administration, has served on multiple panels for the National Academy of Sciences, testified frequently before Congress, and is on the board of several non-profit organizations. Before joining the Clinton administration, Katzen was a partner in the Washington, DC, law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, specializing in regulatory and legislative matters, while serving in leadership roles in the American Bar Association (including chair of the Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and as DC delegate to the ABA’s House of Delegates), as president of the Federal Communications Bar Association and as president of the Women’s Legal Defense Fund. She graduated from Smith College and the University of Michigan Law School, where she was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Law Review. She clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and served in the Carter administration as the general counsel of the Council on Wage and Price Stability in the Executive Office of the President.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Rao was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in March 2019. She graduated from Yale College in 1995 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1999. Following graduation, she served as a law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and, in the 2001 October Term, as law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court. Between her clerkships, Judge Rao served as counsel for nominations and constitutional law to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In 2002, she joined the international arbitration group of Clifford Chance LLP in London, England. From 2005-2006, she served as Special Assistant and Associate White House Counsel to President George W. Bush. From 2006 to 2017, Judge Rao was a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where she taught constitutional law, legislation and statutory interpretation, and the history and foundations of the administrative state. In 2014, she founded the Center for the Study of the Administrative State, a non-profit Center that promotes academic scholarship and public policy debates about administrative law. In July 2017, she was appointed to serve as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management Budget. She served in this position until her appointment to the D.C. Circuit.
Judge, U.S. Court of International Trade
M. Miller Baker was appointed as a Judge of the United States Court of International Trade on December 18, 2019, by President Donald J. Trump. Judge Baker entered on duty on December 20, 2019.
A native of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, Judge Baker grew up in Louisiana and Wyoming and attended Louisiana State University. Judge Baker thereafter earned his J.D. from Tulane University Law School and was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1984 at age 22. After graduating from Tulane, he served as a law clerk to Judge John Malcolm Duhé, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana and then for Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Following his judicial clerkships, from 1986 until the end of the Reagan Administration on January 20, 1989, Judge Baker served in the Justice Department under Attorneys General Edwin Meese III and Richard Thornburgh, first as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Policy, and later as a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Judge Baker then entered private practice in Washington, D.C., until 1991. From 1991 to 1993 he served as counsel to Senator Orrin G. Hatch on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Following his service on the Judiciary Committee staff, Judge Baker returned to private practice in Washington, D.C., focusing on complex civil litigation involving a wide range of subjects at the law firms of Carr Goodson Warner (1993–2000) and McDermott Will & Emery LLP (2000–2019). At McDermott, Judge Baker co-chaired the firm’s appellate practice group.
When he was in private practice, Judge Baker argued before the Supreme Court, nine of the thirteen federal courts of appeals, and appellate courts in three states and the District of Columbia. In 2009, The American Lawyer named Judge Baker as “Litigator of the Week” for one of his Supreme Court wins. In addition to his appellate practice, Judge Baker litigated in state and federal trial courts in seventeen states and the District of Columbia.
From 1986 to 1995, Judge Baker served as a naval reserve intelligence officer and received an honorable discharge. His duties included serving with an anti-terrorist unit, on the battle staff of an admiral commanding a carrier battle group operating in the North Atlantic during a large NATO exercise in the Cold War, and as a watch officer in the Navy Command Center in the Pentagon during the Persian Gulf War.
In the aftermath of 9/11, Judge Baker testified before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on constitutional and policy issues associated with continuity of government. He also testified before the Continuity of Government Commission, a bipartisan study commission established by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution.
Judge Baker and his wife Margaret have five children, two of whom are active duty military officers.
Adjunct Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific Security Program, Center for New American Security; Senior Advisor, Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy, Purdue University
Throughout her career in foreign policy, Ambassador Kelley E. Currie has specialized in human rights, political reform, development, and humanitarian issues, with a focus on the Indo-Pacific region. Ambassador Currie is currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington D.C. think tank, and a Senior Advisor to the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University. She is a member of the board of directors of the National Endowment for Democray; the board of governors of the East-West Center; and the advisory boards of Spirit of America and the Vandenberg Coalition.
Ambassador Currie was unanimously confirmed in December 2019 as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues and the U.S. Representative at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and served in that position until January 2021. Prior to that appointment, she served under Ambassador Nikki Haley as the U.S. Representative to the UN Economic and Social Council and Alternative Representative to the UN General Assembly (2017-2018). While awaiting confirmation between ambassadorial appointments, she was appointed interim senior official in the Department of State's Office of Global Criminal Justice. From 2009 until her appointment to the USUN leadership, she was a Senior Fellow with the Project 2049 Institute and the founding Director of the Institute's Burma Transition Initiative. Ambassador Currie also held senior policy positions with the U.S. Congress, international organizatons, and non-governmental organizations.
Ambassador Currie received a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center with a focus on International Human Rights Law, and an undergraduate degree cum laude in Political Science from the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs.
Partner, Zeughauser Group
Alex Dimitrief is a C-suite leader who has steered various global businesses through complex commercial, legal and organizational challenges. He is presently a Partner at Zeughauser Group, where he advises legal departments and law firms on a broad variety of strategic issue. He serves as a director of Eos Energy Enterprises (NASDAQ) and an Advisory Board member at Ethisphere and Cresset. He previously served as a director of Synchrony Financial (NYSE) and We Company. Alex teaches a new class at Harvard Law School on the “Corporation as a Citizen” and corporate law at New York Law School.
As President & CEO of General Electric’s Global Growth Organization, Alex was responsible for driving GE’s growth in 180+ countries. On Alex’s watch in 2018, GE landed $76 billion in international orders and secured billions in financing for many of GE’s emerging market customers. As GE’s General Counsel from 2015 - 2018, Alex served as the principal executive advisor to GE’s Board and led a global team of 5,000+ responsible for GE’s legal matters, compliance, SEC reporting, government affairs and environmental safety programs. In previous roles at GE, Alex was a leader of the transformation of GE Capital (including the IPO/split-off of Synchrony Financial) and spearheaded complex joint venture negotiations for GE Energy in China and Russia. In announcing Alex’s retirement from GE in January 2019, CEO Larry Culp described Alex as “one of the most respected leaders at GE” who “effectively represented GE before governments, regulators and customers throughout the world and is widely recognized as a compelling champion of integrity, transparency and the rule of law.”
Alex came to GE after 20 years as a trial lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he represented a broad variety of clients in securities, restructuring, intellectual property, product liability, environmental, governance and commercial disputes. Alex earned his B.A. from Yale College and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He was selected out of law school as the youngest-ever White house Fellow and began his career in the Reagan Administration’s Office of Political and Intergovernmental Affairs
Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Global Economy and Development, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institute
David Dollar is a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution and host of the Brookings trade podcast, Dollar&Sense. He is a leading expert on China's economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013, Dollar was the U.S. Treasury’s economic and financial emissary to China, based in Beijing, facilitating the macroeconomic and financial policy dialogue between the United States and China. Prior to joining Treasury, Dollar worked 20 years for the World Bank, serving as country director for China and Mongolia, based in Beijing (2004-2009). His other World Bank assignments focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. Dollar also worked in the World Bank’s research department. His publications focus on economic reform in China, globalization, and economic growth. He also taught economics at University of California Los Angeles, during which time he spent a semester in Beijing at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1986. He has a doctorate in economics from New York University and a bachelor's in Chinese history and language from Dartmouth College.
Senior Associate, Freeman Chair in China Studies, Center for Strategic & International Studies
From March 2018 to July 2021, Ivan Kanapathy served on the White House’s National Security Council staff as director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia and deputy senior director for Asian affairs. In this capacity, he staffed and advised the president and national security advisor and led U.S. government interagency policy development and implementation on relations and engagement with China and Taiwan—including shepherding the most comprehensive and significant U.S. policy shift toward the People’s Republic of China in four decades. From 2014 to 2017, Ivan worked at the American Institute in Taiwan, representing U.S. interests and advising on military and security issues in Taipei. Earlier in his career, Ivan spent a year studying in Beijing and traveling throughout China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia as a U.S. Marine Corps foreign area study fellow; he later led the development and implementation of the service’s global security cooperation strategy and policies at the Pentagon. As a naval flight officer, Ivan accumulated 2,500 flight hours, served three years as a F/A-18 weapons officer and tactics instructor at the U.S Navy Fighter Weapons School (better known as TOPGUN), and deployed to the Middle East and Western Pacific five times, earning several combat awards and decorations. He holds a MA (with distinction) in East Asia security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, a BS in physics and economics from Carnegie Mellon University, and an AA and diploma (with highest honors) in Chinese – Mandarin from the Defense Language Institute.
Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation
Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.
Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.
Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.
Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.
Partner, Donahue & Goldberg LLP
Sean H. Donahue's practice is focused on appellate litigation, including environmental cases in federal and state appellate courts, legal counseling, and helping clients communicate effectively to courts, agencies, and other audiences. He is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the State of California.
A 1992 graduate of University of Chicago Law School, Sean served as law clerk to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice John Paul Stevens. He entered private practice at Jenner & Block's Washington office, where he worked on civil matters including in telecommunications and First Amendment law. He then spent four years at the Department of Justice, Environmental and Natural Resources Division, Appellate Section, briefing and arguing cases in the United States Courts of Appeals, and state supreme courts concerning federal environmental and natural resources law, federal property law, takings, and Indian law.
Sean has argued approximately 50 cases in federal and state appellate courts. Since first establishing his own practice in 2002, he has represented environmental and public health organization parties in numerous major environmental and clean energy cases in the Supreme Court and the courts of appeals. His current practice includes representation of public interest organizations, governmental bodies, and private entities in environmental, energy, natural resources, and other cases. Sean has taught courses in environmental law, civil procedure, constitutional law and other subjects at Washington & Lee University School of Law, Iowa College of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center, and currently teaches climate change law and policy as a lecturer at Stanford Law School. He has given presentations at law schools including Berkeley, Columbia, Fordham, Harvard, Duke, Georgetown, Maryland, NYU, Northwestern, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Florida, Vermont Law School, and Washington & Lee.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in December 2017. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor on the Harvard Law Review. Between 1989 and 1992, he served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Becker on the Third Circuit, to then-Judge Clarence Thomas on the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court. Between 1992 and 2001, he was an associate and then partner in the Washington office of Jones Day, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. Between 2001 and 2009, he served in many senior positions in the Department of Justice, including as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and as Acting Associate Attorney General. In 2009, he returned to Jones Day. From January to December 2017, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President.
Before joining the bench, Judge Katsas argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the Supreme Court, 13 cases in the D.C. Circuit, and cases in every other federal court of appeals. By appointment of the Chief Justice, he served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2013 to 2017. In 2016, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Chief Deputy Attorney General
Ryan Newman is currently Chief Deputy Attorney General for Florida Office of the Attorney General.
During the first Trump Administration, he served as Counselor to the United States Attorney General for national security and international affairs, Deputy General Counsel (Legal Counsel) for the Department of Defense, and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. Prior to serving in the Executive Branch, Ryan was Chief Counsel to United States Senator Ted Cruz during the 114th Congress.
Ryan served as a law clerk to the Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the United States Supreme Court, the Honorable Richard J. Leon on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the Honorable J.L. Edmondson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Prior to law school, Ryan was an armor officer in the United States Army assigned to the 1st Squadron, 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (Buffalo Soldiers). He deployed to Iraq in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Ryan graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1998. He earned his law degree with high honors from The University of Texas School of Law in 2007.
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
JUSTIN SAVAGE is a global co-leader of the firm’s Environmental, Health, and Safety practice and co-leads the Automotive and Mobility sector team, where he is a leading strategist for companies navigating the intersection of complex regulation, high-stakes litigation, and transformative industry change. For nearly three decades, he has led clients through their most consequential environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) disputes and mobility-sector challenges, earning a reputation as both a trusted counselor and a forceful advocate in the courtroom and the boardroom. A core part of Justin’s practice also focuses on regulatory strategy and market entry, advising emerging technology companies, new market entrants, and established industry leaders on launching new products, technologies, and business models. He regularly counsel clients in emerging fields such as robotics and AI on engaging with regulators, anticipating enforcement and compliance risk, and building defensible regulatory strategies that support growth rather than slow it.
Clients praise Justin as “an excellent litigator… strategically clever and creative… attentive, thoughtful and willing to go above and beyond” (Chambers USA 2025). Chambers USA has ranked him for Band 1 for Environment in District of Columbia (2017–2025) and Band 3 for Transportation: Road (Automotive) in USA—Nationwide (2023–2025).
Justin has won some of the most closely watched EH&S and transportation disputes of the past two decades and guided companies through crises where business continuity, brand reputation, and regulatory survival were on the line. His leadership has been repeatedly recognized: he is a three-time Law360 Environmental “MVP” (2018, 2024, 2025) and a Lawdragon “500 Global Leaders in Crisis Management” (2025-2026). He is the first call for companies facing bet-the-company challenges.
Justin’s clients concentrate in heavily regulated industries, including auto and mobility, aviation, chemicals, data centers, energy, mining, and refining. Justin litigates and counsels across the spectrum of U.S. environmental, transportation, and administrative laws, including the Clean Air Act (Title I, mobile sources, and fuels), incident response, RMP, NHTSA, Clean Water Act, TSCA, CSB investigations, APA claims, FOIA litigation, NEPA, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Prior to joining Sidley, Justin served for nearly a decade at the Environmental Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he led teams in several multi-billion dollar enforcement cases. In his career, Justin has regularly taught on a range of environmental and litigation topics. For several years, Justin served as an instructor at the Justice Department’s National Advocacy Center where he taught hundreds of Assistant U.S. Attorneys and other agency lawyers on topics that included trial advocacy and evidence. Since rejoining private practice, Justin has served eight times as a faculty member for the American Law Institute’s Environmental Litigation program. He also lectured on a range of litigation and trial topics for bar associations and organizations, including serving as an instructor for the FAA on trial advocacy.
Ten Years On: The America Invents Act and the role of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in resolving patent disputes
Joseph Matal, Paul Brian Taylor, Bob Goodlatte
On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the American Invents Act (AIA) into law. The...
Breakout Panel: Selective Enforcement of Civil Rights Law by the Administrative Agencies
Samantha Harris, Renée M. Landers, Kenneth L. Marcus, Graham Steele, Hans A. Von Spakovsky
There have been numerous pieces of civil rights legislation that have been passed by Congress...
Breakout Panel: Selective Enforcement of Civil Rights Law by the Administrative Agencies
Tenth Annual Executive Branch Review
Washington, DCBreakout Panel: Climate Risk a New Regulatory Risk? Implications for Financial Regulatory Control of the Financial System
Jeremy Kress, Paul H. Kupiec, Christina P. Skinner, Graham Steele, Jeffrey H. Wood
Deploying a “whole-of-government approach” to climate change, the Biden Administration has sought to disincentivize the...
Breakout Panel: Climate Risk a New Regulatory Risk? Implications for Financial Regulatory Control of the Financial System
Tenth Annual Executive Branch Review
Washington, DCLuncheon Address & Panel: Administrative State on the Brink?
Philip A. Hamburger, Sally Katzen, Neomi Rao
Over the past 85 years the administrative state has been a dominant feature in the...
Luncheon Address & Panel: Administrative State on the Brink?
Tenth Annual Executive Branch Review
Washington, D.C., DCBreakout Panel: American Investment in China
Tenth Annual Executive Branch Review
Washington, DCBreakout Panel: The Executive Branch's Duty to Enforce
Steven Gill Bradbury, Sean H. Donahue, Gregory G. Katsas, Ryan Dean Newman, Justin Savage
The debate over the Executive branch's duty to defend laws passed by Congress against constitutional...
Breakout Panel: The Executive Branch's Duty to Enforce
Tenth Annual Executive Branch Review
Washington, DC