Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications, Penn State University
Dr. Christopher Ali is the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and a full professor of telecommunications in the Bellisario College. He is also an affiliate faculty with the College of Information, Science and Technology (IST) at Penn State. He holds a Ph.D. in communication studies from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (2013). His research interests include media and telecommunications policy and regulation, broadband policy, critical political economy, critical geography, comparative media systems, qualitative research methods, media localism, and local news.
Ali uses critical, qualitative methods to research broadband policy, planning, deployment and digital equity in the United States. Presently, he has a series of projects dedicated to “broadband stories,” where he is researching how community-based stories can influence public policy. These projects form the basis of his forthcoming book, Where the wires end: Stories from the Digital Divide to be published in Spring 2027 with the University of Chicago Press. In 2026, Dr. Ali also completed a major grant funded research project for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania analyzing how the digital divide impacts rural first responders in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ali is the author or editor of four books: "Public Service Media’s Contribution to Society"(Nordicom, 2023, with Prof. Dr. Manuel Puppis), "Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity" (MIT Press, 2021), "Media Localism: The Policies of Place" (University of Illinois Press, 2017), "Echoes of Gabriel Tarde: What we know better or different 100 years later" (USC Annenberg Press, 2014, with Drs. Elihu Katz and Joohan Kim).
Based on his expertise, Ali was called to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee in 2021 on broadband funding and policy programs. He has also briefed members of the House Democrats Task Force on Rural Broadband, the New York State Blue Ribbon Commission on Re-Imagining New York, the Federal Communications Commission, and has presented before numerous state and county governments.
Dr. Ali has published over two dozen peer reviewed articles in high-ranking academic journals including, The Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, Media Culture & Society, and Telecommunications Policy. His writing has also been published in Tech Policy Press, The New York Times, The Hill, Realtor Magazine, Law & Political Economy, Digital Beat, GovTech, Zocalo Public Square, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Washington Monthly, Columbia Journalism Review, and The Conversation. He is a frequent press commentator on the subjects of broadband, media policy, and local news, with interviews in the Associated Press, Hollywood Reporter, Business Insider, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, NPR, CNET, CBC, Bloomberg, and other major national and international news outlets.
Ali presently serves as the Associate Editor of the journal Communication Law & Policy. He also sits on the advisory board of the Centre County Film Festival.
Previously, he served as the Chair of the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association (2021-2023) and was an advisor to the Virginia Joint Committee on Technology & Science. He has also served on the Federal Communication Commission’s Communication Equity and Diversity Council Working Group and was a board member of Charlottesville Tomorrow, a non-profit news organization in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Dr. Ali has held fellowships or grants from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania (2025), the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society (2019-2020), the Global Future Council of the World Economic Forum (2018), the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communications (CARGC) at the University of Pennsylvania (2017 & 2022), the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University (2016-2017 & 2019-2021), the University of Fribourg in Fribourg Switzerland (2015), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2011).
Ali is an award-winning scholar, having been honored with the 2024 Bellisario Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award, the 2025 Dean’s Excellence Award for Research & Creative Accomplishment, and the 2025 Broadband Hero Award.
Vice President and Deputy Chief Counsel, U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Jennifer B. Dickey is vice president and deputy chief counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, the litigation arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Dickey handles a variety of litigation matters for the Chamber.
Dickey joined the Chamber following her service as Acting Assistant Attorney General and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. She also previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General, providing strategic oversight of the Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, and Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, as well as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President. In the latter capacity, she provided legal advice on a wide array of executive actions and rulemakings, civil litigation, and judicial nominations.
Dickey also practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis LLP before her government service. She was a commercial and appellate litigator, representing businesses in federal and state courts.
Earlier in her career, Dickey served as a law clerk for the Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Honorable William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Dickey earned her law degree magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law, where she was an Executive Editor of the Duke Law Journal, and her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Dartmouth College.
Counsel, U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee
Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP
Dan leverages a deep understanding of telecommunications regulation and the broader legal landscape to help clients achieve their business goals. He provides practical and creative advice, develops persuasive policy advocacy, and represents clients in court appeals of agency matters. In an era in which courts play a larger role than ever in shaping regulation, Dan’s mix of legal depth, regulatory knowledge, and policymaking experience make him stand out.
His practice encompasses federal and state telecommunications regulation, emerging Internet issues, funding programs, online privacy frameworks, and consumer protection laws. He co-teaches a telecommunications law course at Georgetown Law School.
Prior to joining WBK, Dan spent eight years in leadership positions in the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau. There, Dan guided net neutrality and broadband infrastructure proceedings, implementation of caller ID authentication and the Robocall Mitigation Database, transaction reviews, and many other agency actions. He is especially proud of his contributions to establishing 988 as the three-digit code for the national suicide prevention hotline.
Today, courts make many of the most important decisions regarding agencies, and Dan regularly represents clients in court appeals concerning agency matters. He and the WBK team prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of industry associations in FCC v. Consumers’ Research, which affirmed the constitutionality of the Universal Service Fund.
Dan is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. Outside of work, Dan enjoys spending time with his kids, baking bread and cooking, playing card and board games, attempting to play sports, and science fiction/fantasy.
Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications, Penn State University
Dr. Christopher Ali is the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and a full professor of telecommunications in the Bellisario College. He is also an affiliate faculty with the College of Information, Science and Technology (IST) at Penn State. He holds a Ph.D. in communication studies from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (2013). His research interests include media and telecommunications policy and regulation, broadband policy, critical political economy, critical geography, comparative media systems, qualitative research methods, media localism, and local news.
Ali uses critical, qualitative methods to research broadband policy, planning, deployment and digital equity in the United States. Presently, he has a series of projects dedicated to “broadband stories,” where he is researching how community-based stories can influence public policy. These projects form the basis of his forthcoming book, Where the wires end: Stories from the Digital Divide to be published in Spring 2027 with the University of Chicago Press. In 2026, Dr. Ali also completed a major grant funded research project for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania analyzing how the digital divide impacts rural first responders in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ali is the author or editor of four books: "Public Service Media’s Contribution to Society"(Nordicom, 2023, with Prof. Dr. Manuel Puppis), "Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity" (MIT Press, 2021), "Media Localism: The Policies of Place" (University of Illinois Press, 2017), "Echoes of Gabriel Tarde: What we know better or different 100 years later" (USC Annenberg Press, 2014, with Drs. Elihu Katz and Joohan Kim).
Based on his expertise, Ali was called to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee in 2021 on broadband funding and policy programs. He has also briefed members of the House Democrats Task Force on Rural Broadband, the New York State Blue Ribbon Commission on Re-Imagining New York, the Federal Communications Commission, and has presented before numerous state and county governments.
Dr. Ali has published over two dozen peer reviewed articles in high-ranking academic journals including, The Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, Media Culture & Society, and Telecommunications Policy. His writing has also been published in Tech Policy Press, The New York Times, The Hill, Realtor Magazine, Law & Political Economy, Digital Beat, GovTech, Zocalo Public Square, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Washington Monthly, Columbia Journalism Review, and The Conversation. He is a frequent press commentator on the subjects of broadband, media policy, and local news, with interviews in the Associated Press, Hollywood Reporter, Business Insider, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, NPR, CNET, CBC, Bloomberg, and other major national and international news outlets.
Ali presently serves as the Associate Editor of the journal Communication Law & Policy. He also sits on the advisory board of the Centre County Film Festival.
Previously, he served as the Chair of the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association (2021-2023) and was an advisor to the Virginia Joint Committee on Technology & Science. He has also served on the Federal Communication Commission’s Communication Equity and Diversity Council Working Group and was a board member of Charlottesville Tomorrow, a non-profit news organization in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Dr. Ali has held fellowships or grants from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania (2025), the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society (2019-2020), the Global Future Council of the World Economic Forum (2018), the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communications (CARGC) at the University of Pennsylvania (2017 & 2022), the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University (2016-2017 & 2019-2021), the University of Fribourg in Fribourg Switzerland (2015), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2011).
Ali is an award-winning scholar, having been honored with the 2024 Bellisario Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award, the 2025 Dean’s Excellence Award for Research & Creative Accomplishment, and the 2025 Broadband Hero Award.
Vice President and Deputy Chief Counsel, U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Jennifer B. Dickey is vice president and deputy chief counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, the litigation arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Dickey handles a variety of litigation matters for the Chamber.
Dickey joined the Chamber following her service as Acting Assistant Attorney General and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. She also previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General, providing strategic oversight of the Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, and Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, as well as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President. In the latter capacity, she provided legal advice on a wide array of executive actions and rulemakings, civil litigation, and judicial nominations.
Dickey also practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis LLP before her government service. She was a commercial and appellate litigator, representing businesses in federal and state courts.
Earlier in her career, Dickey served as a law clerk for the Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Honorable William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Dickey earned her law degree magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law, where she was an Executive Editor of the Duke Law Journal, and her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Dartmouth College.
Counsel, U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee
Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP
Dan leverages a deep understanding of telecommunications regulation and the broader legal landscape to help clients achieve their business goals. He provides practical and creative advice, develops persuasive policy advocacy, and represents clients in court appeals of agency matters. In an era in which courts play a larger role than ever in shaping regulation, Dan’s mix of legal depth, regulatory knowledge, and policymaking experience make him stand out.
His practice encompasses federal and state telecommunications regulation, emerging Internet issues, funding programs, online privacy frameworks, and consumer protection laws. He co-teaches a telecommunications law course at Georgetown Law School.
Prior to joining WBK, Dan spent eight years in leadership positions in the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau. There, Dan guided net neutrality and broadband infrastructure proceedings, implementation of caller ID authentication and the Robocall Mitigation Database, transaction reviews, and many other agency actions. He is especially proud of his contributions to establishing 988 as the three-digit code for the national suicide prevention hotline.
Today, courts make many of the most important decisions regarding agencies, and Dan regularly represents clients in court appeals concerning agency matters. He and the WBK team prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of industry associations in FCC v. Consumers’ Research, which affirmed the constitutionality of the Universal Service Fund.
Dan is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. Outside of work, Dan enjoys spending time with his kids, baking bread and cooking, playing card and board games, attempting to play sports, and science fiction/fantasy.
Director, Project on Criminal Justice, Cato Institute
Matthew Cavedon is the Director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. He focuses on reforming plea-driven mass adjudication, ensuring police accountability, and defending constitutional criminal originalism. Cavedon’s scholarship has been published (or is forthcoming in) publications including the Arizona State Law Journal, Cato Supreme Court Review, Seattle University Law Review, and Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. Formerly a Georgia public defender and fellow at the Institute for Justice, Cavedon has taught law school courses on criminal law and procedure, as well as the First Amendment. Cavedon clerked for a U.S. district court and the Supreme Court of Georgia. He came to Cato following a fellowship at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion.
Chief Counsel, Legal Policy, Koch Capabilities, LLC
Sarah Field is Chief Counsel, Legal Policy at Koch Capabilities, LLC, where she develops and scales Koch-wide strategic policy initiatives on a variety of legal, judicial, and regulatory topics.
Sarah specializes in leading initiatives that require rapid vision development, start-up, and scaling expertise. This has included leading criminal justice reform and constitutionally limited government initiatives for the Stand Together community, overseeing the comprehensive portfolio of the Stand Together community’s issue areas, driving Americans for Prosperity’s long-term vision and strategy for addressing the country’s political environment, and leading judicial engagement strategy at Americans for Prosperity.
Before that, Sarah served as Executive Director of the Center for Shared Services, which provided compliance, talent development, and operational support for the Stand Together community. Previously, Sarah held roles at the Charles Koch Foundation, the Federalist Society, and a variety of other nonprofit organizations.
Sarah serves on the board of Americans for Public Safety, an organization dedicated to public safety, justice, and the rule of law.
Sarah received her B.A. from Grove City College, her law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and is an alumna of the Koch Associate Program.
Director, Project on Criminal Justice, Cato Institute
Matthew Cavedon is the Director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. He focuses on reforming plea-driven mass adjudication, ensuring police accountability, and defending constitutional criminal originalism. Cavedon’s scholarship has been published (or is forthcoming in) publications including the Arizona State Law Journal, Cato Supreme Court Review, Seattle University Law Review, and Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. Formerly a Georgia public defender and fellow at the Institute for Justice, Cavedon has taught law school courses on criminal law and procedure, as well as the First Amendment. Cavedon clerked for a U.S. district court and the Supreme Court of Georgia. He came to Cato following a fellowship at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion.
Chief Counsel, Legal Policy, Koch Capabilities, LLC
Sarah Field is Chief Counsel, Legal Policy at Koch Capabilities, LLC, where she develops and scales Koch-wide strategic policy initiatives on a variety of legal, judicial, and regulatory topics.
Sarah specializes in leading initiatives that require rapid vision development, start-up, and scaling expertise. This has included leading criminal justice reform and constitutionally limited government initiatives for the Stand Together community, overseeing the comprehensive portfolio of the Stand Together community’s issue areas, driving Americans for Prosperity’s long-term vision and strategy for addressing the country’s political environment, and leading judicial engagement strategy at Americans for Prosperity.
Before that, Sarah served as Executive Director of the Center for Shared Services, which provided compliance, talent development, and operational support for the Stand Together community. Previously, Sarah held roles at the Charles Koch Foundation, the Federalist Society, and a variety of other nonprofit organizations.
Sarah serves on the board of Americans for Public Safety, an organization dedicated to public safety, justice, and the rule of law.
Sarah received her B.A. from Grove City College, her law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and is an alumna of the Koch Associate Program.
Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications, Penn State University
Dr. Christopher Ali is the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and a full professor of telecommunications in the Bellisario College. He is also an affiliate faculty with the College of Information, Science and Technology (IST) at Penn State. He holds a Ph.D. in communication studies from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (2013). His research interests include media and telecommunications policy and regulation, broadband policy, critical political economy, critical geography, comparative media systems, qualitative research methods, media localism, and local news.
Ali uses critical, qualitative methods to research broadband policy, planning, deployment and digital equity in the United States. Presently, he has a series of projects dedicated to “broadband stories,” where he is researching how community-based stories can influence public policy. These projects form the basis of his forthcoming book, Where the wires end: Stories from the Digital Divide to be published in Spring 2027 with the University of Chicago Press. In 2026, Dr. Ali also completed a major grant funded research project for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania analyzing how the digital divide impacts rural first responders in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ali is the author or editor of four books: "Public Service Media’s Contribution to Society"(Nordicom, 2023, with Prof. Dr. Manuel Puppis), "Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity" (MIT Press, 2021), "Media Localism: The Policies of Place" (University of Illinois Press, 2017), "Echoes of Gabriel Tarde: What we know better or different 100 years later" (USC Annenberg Press, 2014, with Drs. Elihu Katz and Joohan Kim).
Based on his expertise, Ali was called to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee in 2021 on broadband funding and policy programs. He has also briefed members of the House Democrats Task Force on Rural Broadband, the New York State Blue Ribbon Commission on Re-Imagining New York, the Federal Communications Commission, and has presented before numerous state and county governments.
Dr. Ali has published over two dozen peer reviewed articles in high-ranking academic journals including, The Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, Media Culture & Society, and Telecommunications Policy. His writing has also been published in Tech Policy Press, The New York Times, The Hill, Realtor Magazine, Law & Political Economy, Digital Beat, GovTech, Zocalo Public Square, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Washington Monthly, Columbia Journalism Review, and The Conversation. He is a frequent press commentator on the subjects of broadband, media policy, and local news, with interviews in the Associated Press, Hollywood Reporter, Business Insider, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, NPR, CNET, CBC, Bloomberg, and other major national and international news outlets.
Ali presently serves as the Associate Editor of the journal Communication Law & Policy. He also sits on the advisory board of the Centre County Film Festival.
Previously, he served as the Chair of the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association (2021-2023) and was an advisor to the Virginia Joint Committee on Technology & Science. He has also served on the Federal Communication Commission’s Communication Equity and Diversity Council Working Group and was a board member of Charlottesville Tomorrow, a non-profit news organization in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Dr. Ali has held fellowships or grants from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania (2025), the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society (2019-2020), the Global Future Council of the World Economic Forum (2018), the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communications (CARGC) at the University of Pennsylvania (2017 & 2022), the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University (2016-2017 & 2019-2021), the University of Fribourg in Fribourg Switzerland (2015), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2011).
Ali is an award-winning scholar, having been honored with the 2024 Bellisario Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award, the 2025 Dean’s Excellence Award for Research & Creative Accomplishment, and the 2025 Broadband Hero Award.
Vice President and Deputy Chief Counsel, U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Jennifer B. Dickey is vice president and deputy chief counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center, the litigation arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Dickey handles a variety of litigation matters for the Chamber.
Dickey joined the Chamber following her service as Acting Assistant Attorney General and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. She also previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General, providing strategic oversight of the Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, and Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, as well as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President. In the latter capacity, she provided legal advice on a wide array of executive actions and rulemakings, civil litigation, and judicial nominations.
Dickey also practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis LLP before her government service. She was a commercial and appellate litigator, representing businesses in federal and state courts.
Earlier in her career, Dickey served as a law clerk for the Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Honorable William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Dickey earned her law degree magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law, where she was an Executive Editor of the Duke Law Journal, and her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Dartmouth College.
Counsel, U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee
Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP
Dan leverages a deep understanding of telecommunications regulation and the broader legal landscape to help clients achieve their business goals. He provides practical and creative advice, develops persuasive policy advocacy, and represents clients in court appeals of agency matters. In an era in which courts play a larger role than ever in shaping regulation, Dan’s mix of legal depth, regulatory knowledge, and policymaking experience make him stand out.
His practice encompasses federal and state telecommunications regulation, emerging Internet issues, funding programs, online privacy frameworks, and consumer protection laws. He co-teaches a telecommunications law course at Georgetown Law School.
Prior to joining WBK, Dan spent eight years in leadership positions in the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau. There, Dan guided net neutrality and broadband infrastructure proceedings, implementation of caller ID authentication and the Robocall Mitigation Database, transaction reviews, and many other agency actions. He is especially proud of his contributions to establishing 988 as the three-digit code for the national suicide prevention hotline.
Today, courts make many of the most important decisions regarding agencies, and Dan regularly represents clients in court appeals concerning agency matters. He and the WBK team prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of industry associations in FCC v. Consumers’ Research, which affirmed the constitutionality of the Universal Service Fund.
Dan is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. Outside of work, Dan enjoys spending time with his kids, baking bread and cooking, playing card and board games, attempting to play sports, and science fiction/fantasy.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit
Leonard Steven Grasz is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the University of Nebraska College of Law, Grasz spent eleven years as the state of Nebraska's Chief Deputy Attorney General. He was a senior partner at the law firm of Husch Blackwell prior to his appointment to the federal judiciary.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
David Stras became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on January 31, 2018. Before serving on the Eighth Circuit, Judge Stras was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, a position he occupied from July 1, 2010 until his appointment to the Eighth Circuit.
Prior to becoming a judge, Stras was a member of the faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School from 2004 through 2010. He taught and wrote in the areas of federal courts and jurisdiction, constitutional law, criminal law, and law and politics.
Judge Stras received his Bachelor of Arts degree, with highest distinction, in 1995 and his Master of Business Administration in 1999, both from the University of Kansas. He also received his law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1999, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Criminal Procedure Edition of the Kansas Law Review.
Following law school, Stras clerked for The Honorable Melvin Brunetti of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then for The Honorable J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
From 2001 to 2002, he practiced white-collar criminal and appellate litigation with the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. Following his year in practice, he clerked for The Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Director, Project on Criminal Justice, Cato Institute
Matthew Cavedon is the Director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. He focuses on reforming plea-driven mass adjudication, ensuring police accountability, and defending constitutional criminal originalism. Cavedon’s scholarship has been published (or is forthcoming in) publications including the Arizona State Law Journal, Cato Supreme Court Review, Seattle University Law Review, and Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy. Formerly a Georgia public defender and fellow at the Institute for Justice, Cavedon has taught law school courses on criminal law and procedure, as well as the First Amendment. Cavedon clerked for a U.S. district court and the Supreme Court of Georgia. He came to Cato following a fellowship at the Emory University Center for the Study of Law and Religion.
Chief Counsel, Legal Policy, Koch Capabilities, LLC
Sarah Field is Chief Counsel, Legal Policy at Koch Capabilities, LLC, where she develops and scales Koch-wide strategic policy initiatives on a variety of legal, judicial, and regulatory topics.
Sarah specializes in leading initiatives that require rapid vision development, start-up, and scaling expertise. This has included leading criminal justice reform and constitutionally limited government initiatives for the Stand Together community, overseeing the comprehensive portfolio of the Stand Together community’s issue areas, driving Americans for Prosperity’s long-term vision and strategy for addressing the country’s political environment, and leading judicial engagement strategy at Americans for Prosperity.
Before that, Sarah served as Executive Director of the Center for Shared Services, which provided compliance, talent development, and operational support for the Stand Together community. Previously, Sarah held roles at the Charles Koch Foundation, the Federalist Society, and a variety of other nonprofit organizations.
Sarah serves on the board of Americans for Public Safety, an organization dedicated to public safety, justice, and the rule of law.
Sarah received her B.A. from Grove City College, her law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and is an alumna of the Koch Associate Program.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
David Stras became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on January 31, 2018. Before serving on the Eighth Circuit, Judge Stras was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, a position he occupied from July 1, 2010 until his appointment to the Eighth Circuit.
Prior to becoming a judge, Stras was a member of the faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School from 2004 through 2010. He taught and wrote in the areas of federal courts and jurisdiction, constitutional law, criminal law, and law and politics.
Judge Stras received his Bachelor of Arts degree, with highest distinction, in 1995 and his Master of Business Administration in 1999, both from the University of Kansas. He also received his law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1999, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Criminal Procedure Edition of the Kansas Law Review.
Following law school, Stras clerked for The Honorable Melvin Brunetti of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then for The Honorable J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
From 2001 to 2002, he practiced white-collar criminal and appellate litigation with the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. Following his year in practice, he clerked for The Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of Florida
On April 4, 2019, Judge Altman was confirmed to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. At 36, he became the youngest federal district court judge in the country—and the youngest federal judge ever appointed in the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Altman received a BA from Columbia University, where he played quarterback on the football team and pitched for the baseball team—earning All-Ivy honors. Judge Altman received his JD from the Yale Law School, where he was projects editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, the Judge clerked on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Stanley Marcus.
Judge Altman then became a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, where he twice received the Director of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys’ Award for Superior Performance by a federal prosecutor. In 2013, Judge Altman was named “Federal Prosecutor of the Year” by the Miami-Dade Chiefs of Police and the Law Enforcement Officers’ Charitable Foundation.
In 2014, Judge Altman became a partner at the Miami law firm of Podhurst Orseck, where he represented the victims of airplane crashes and bank fraud conspiracies.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
On March 20, 2018, Judge Elizabeth L. Branch (Lisa) was sworn in as a United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
Judge Branch attended and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina (B.A., cum laude, 1990), and Emory University School of Law (J.D., with distinction, 1994).
After graduating from law school, Judge Branch served as a federal law clerk to The Honorable J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia from 1994 to 1996. Following her clerkship, Judge Branch joined the litigation department of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta as an associate and then a partner.
From 2004 to 2008, Judge Branch was a senior official in the Administration of President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. She served first as the Associate General Counsel for Rules and Legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and then as the Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U. S. Office of Management and Budget.
She returned to Smith Gambrell in 2008 as a litigation partner. Judge Branch then was appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia by Governor Nathan Deal, taking office on September 4, 2012, where she served until March 19, 2018.
Judge Branch is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Judge, United States District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas
Lee Philip Rudofsky is a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Prior to his 2019 appointment by President Trump, Judge Rudofsky served as the Solicitor General of Arkansas, an Assistant General Counsel at Walmart, a Senior Litigation Associate at Kirkland & Ellis, and counsel to several Republican political campaigns. Today, in addition to his judicial service, Judge Rudofsky teaches law school classes on founding-era constitutional history and, separately, speaks to students across the country about the October 7th Massacre and the subsequent Israeli response. In 2024, Judge Rudofsky helped establish an annual judicial education mission to Israel that offers American judges the opportunity to learn first-hand about the Israeli legal system, Israeli society, and legal issues related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Assistant to the President and White House Staff Secretary, The White House
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
David Stras became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on January 31, 2018. Before serving on the Eighth Circuit, Judge Stras was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, a position he occupied from July 1, 2010 until his appointment to the Eighth Circuit.
Prior to becoming a judge, Stras was a member of the faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School from 2004 through 2010. He taught and wrote in the areas of federal courts and jurisdiction, constitutional law, criminal law, and law and politics.
Judge Stras received his Bachelor of Arts degree, with highest distinction, in 1995 and his Master of Business Administration in 1999, both from the University of Kansas. He also received his law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1999, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Criminal Procedure Edition of the Kansas Law Review.
Following law school, Stras clerked for The Honorable Melvin Brunetti of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then for The Honorable J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
From 2001 to 2002, he practiced white-collar criminal and appellate litigation with the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. Following his year in practice, he clerked for The Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
On March 20, 2018, Judge Elizabeth L. Branch (Lisa) was sworn in as a United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit.
Judge Branch attended and graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina (B.A., cum laude, 1990), and Emory University School of Law (J.D., with distinction, 1994).
After graduating from law school, Judge Branch served as a federal law clerk to The Honorable J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia from 1994 to 1996. Following her clerkship, Judge Branch joined the litigation department of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta as an associate and then a partner.
From 2004 to 2008, Judge Branch was a senior official in the Administration of President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C. She served first as the Associate General Counsel for Rules and Legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and then as the Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U. S. Office of Management and Budget.
She returned to Smith Gambrell in 2008 as a litigation partner. Judge Branch then was appointed to the Court of Appeals of Georgia by Governor Nathan Deal, taking office on September 4, 2012, where she served until March 19, 2018.
Judge Branch is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Atlanta Lawyers Chapter for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Patrick J. Bumatay was confirmed as a U.S. Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in December 2019. He is based in San Diego, California.
Prior to his appointment, Judge Bumatay served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, where he was a member of the Appellate and Narcotics Sections. He also served as a Counselor to the Attorney General on criminal law issues, including on national opioid strategy and combating transnational organized crime. Judge Bumatay has also worked in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, the Office of the Associate Attorney General, and the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice. Judge Bumatay has twice received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.
Judge Bumatay previously worked as an associate at Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, and Bohrer in New York, New York. Judge Bumatay clerked for the Honorable Timothy M. Tymkovich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the Honorable Sandra L. Townes of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Bumatay earned his B.A., cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
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.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Judge Readler earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Michigan. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to Judge Alan Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler then began practicing law in the Columbus office of the international law firm Jones Day, eventually spending ten years as a partner in the firm’s Issues and Appeals Practice Group. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler appeared in state and federal trial and appellate courts around the country, most frequently the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler also successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in McQuiggin v. Perkins on behalf of an inmate claiming actual innocence. His other pro bono representations include representing capital defendants before the Tenth Circuit and the Supreme Court of Ohio, as well as representing defendants sentenced to life in prison before the Sixth Circuit. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler traveled to Nairobi with Lawyers Without Borders to train Kenyan lawyers in prosecuting domestic violence cases, and he was also a recipient of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship awarded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Following his career in private practice, Judge Readler served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2017 to 2019. In that role, Judge Readler led and supervised over 1,000 lawyers in the Department’s largest litigating division, briefing and arguing several cases on behalf of the United States in federal courts across the country, including high-profile cases significant to the Administration and the Department. In March 2019, Judge Readler was confirmed to serve as a Circuit Judge on the Sixth Circuit. He resides in Columbus.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
David Stras became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on January 31, 2018. Before serving on the Eighth Circuit, Judge Stras was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, a position he occupied from July 1, 2010 until his appointment to the Eighth Circuit.
Prior to becoming a judge, Stras was a member of the faculty of the University of Minnesota Law School from 2004 through 2010. He taught and wrote in the areas of federal courts and jurisdiction, constitutional law, criminal law, and law and politics.
Judge Stras received his Bachelor of Arts degree, with highest distinction, in 1995 and his Master of Business Administration in 1999, both from the University of Kansas. He also received his law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1999, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Criminal Procedure Edition of the Kansas Law Review.
Following law school, Stras clerked for The Honorable Melvin Brunetti of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then for The Honorable J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
From 2001 to 2002, he practiced white-collar criminal and appellate litigation with the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. Following his year in practice, he clerked for The Honorable Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.
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Christopher Ali, Jennifer B. Dickey, Matthew Furlow, Daniel H. Kahn
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently vacated the Federal Communications Commission’s...
Litigation Update: Minnesota Telecom Alliance v. FCC
Christopher Ali, Jennifer B. Dickey, Matthew Furlow, Daniel H. Kahn
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently vacated the Federal Communications Commission’s...
Litigation Update: Minnesota Telecom Alliance v. FCC
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Ellingburg v. United States concerned whether forced restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996...
Courthouse Steps Decision: Ellingburg v. United States
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Ellingburg v. United States concerned whether forced restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996...
Courthouse Steps Decision: Ellingburg v. United States
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2025 National Lawyers Convention
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Washington, DC