Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Gerard V. Bradley is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law. At Notre Dame he directs (with John Finnis) the Natural Law Institute and co-edits The American Journal of Jurisprudence, an international forum for legal philosophy. Bradley has been a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. He served for many years as President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Bradley received his B.A and J.D. degrees from Cornell University, graduating Summa cum laude from the law school in 1980. After serving in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office he joined the law faculty at the University of Illinois. He moved to Notre Dame in 1992. Bradley has published over one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His most recent books are an edited collection of essays titled, Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century (published by Cambridge University Press in 2012), Essays on Law, Religion, and Morality and Unquiet Americans: U.S. Catholics and the Common Good (both to be published in 2014.) He is currently working on a book about regulating obscenity in the Internet Age.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
ILYA SOMIN is Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, revised and expanded edition, 2022), Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), coauthor of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Atlantic, USA Today, Boston Globe, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, and the Voice of America, among other media.
Somin’s writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. He is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a case challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. Somin has testified on the use of drones for targeted killing in the War on Terror before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. In 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine (previously affiliated with the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017). From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals.
Somin has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also been a visiting professor or scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Hamburg, Germany, the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uriel Reichman University in Israel, and Zhengzhou University in China. He is a University Affiliate of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and an affiliated faculty member of the George Mason University Institute for Immigration Research. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003. In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Associate Professor
Prof. DeBoer joined Faulkner Law School in 2011 as an associate professor of law. He has served as a law clerk to the Honorable Brent E. Dickson of the Indiana Supreme Court and the Honorable Theresa L. Springmann of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. He practiced at Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP (CO) in the health law, labor and employment, litigation, and religious institutions practice groups, and he taught at the law schools at Liberty University (VA) and Valparaiso University (IN). He is admitted to the practice of law in Indiana and Colorado and in various federal district and appellate courts.
Professor DeBoer graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude from Liberty University and with a M.A.R. summa cum laude from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. After earning an M.Div. from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (NC), he attended Valparaiso University School of Law where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Valparaiso University Law Review and graduated with a J.D. magna cum laude. Later he graduated from Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis with an LL.M. summa cum laude in health law, policy, and bioethics.
Professor DeBoer’s teaching and research interests include administrative law, contracts, criminal law/procedure, employment law, federal courts, health care law, jurisprudence, law and religion, state constitutional law, and torts. He and his wife, Jennifer, have four children.
President, Society for the Rule of Law
George T. Conway III has been a partner in the Litigation Department of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz since January 1994. He joined the firm in September 1988. His litigation experience has included a variety of high-profile matters spanning many areas of law in federal and state courts throughout the country. He has extensive experience in securities litigation, mergers and acquisitions litigation, contract litigation, antitrust litigation, and other litigation, both at the trial and appellate levels.
In the area of securities litigation, he recently briefed and argued the case for respondents in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 does not apply extraterritorially to claims of so-called "foreign-cubed" plaintiffs -- foreign investors who purchased securities of foreign issuers on foreign exchanges. He also recently argued and won a precedent-setting motion to dismiss so-called "foreign-squared" claims against European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. brought by American plaintiffs who purchased that foreign company's shares on foreign exchanges.
Mr. Conway also recently argued and won an important appeal under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 on behalf of the Swiss installation artist Christoph Büchel in the artist’s highly publicized dispute with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. He also successfully represented the Chief Judge of the State of New York and the New York Unified Court System in historic constitutional litigation over the State of New York’s extended failure to adjust judicial salaries. Mr. Conway also played a substantial role in the successful defense of Kenneth Langone’s Invemed Associates in a disciplinary proceeding before the NASD (now FINRA) that resulted in what the New York Times called a "withering," "high-profile defeat" for the regulators.
Mr. Conway’s work in mergers and acquisitions litigation includes the representation of Rohm and Haas Co. and ADVO, Inc., in, respectively, Rohm and Haas v. Dow Chemical Co., and Valassis Communications v. ADVO, two Delaware Chancery Court cases involving claims to enforce merger agreements, as well as two historic cases in the development of Delaware corporate law governing mergers and acquisitions, QVC v. Paramount Communications and Paramount Communications v. Time Inc. and Warner Communications, in addition to many other cases involving contests for corporate control in the Delaware courts and elsewhere over the past two decades.
In addition, Mr. Conway played a substantial role in prosecuting one of the most prominent defamation cases in recent memory (Philip Morris v. American Broadcasting Cos.). He has extensive experience in merger-related private antitrust litigation and government antitrust investigations, including the defense of Cardinal Health in the preliminary injunction proceedings before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in FTC v. Cardinal Health. He also represented the National Football League in trademark and antitrust litigation against the Dallas Cowboys in NFL Properties v. Dallas Cowboys Football Club. His pro bono work includes his successful representation in the Second Circuit of crime victims and public-interest groups as amici curiae in opposing claims that federal law requires the State of New York to allow felons to vote while still incarcerated.
Mr. Conway is a graduate of Harvard College, where in 1984 he received an A.B. magna cum laude in biochemical sciences. He received his J.D. in 1987 from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. In 1987 and 1988, he served as a law clerk to Circuit Judge Ralph K. Winter, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Danny Julián Boggs is a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was appointed to a newly created seat on that court on January 29, 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 3, and received his commission on March 25. He served as the Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit from 2003 to 2009.
Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School
Doug Melamed practiced law for 43 years before spending the 2014-15 academic year at the Law School as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law. He was appointed Professor of the Practice of Law in 2015.
From 2009 until 2014, Professor Melamed was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Intel Corporation and was responsible for overseeing Intel’s legal, government affairs and corporate affairs departments. Prior to joining Intel in 2009, he was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of WilmerHale, a global law firm in which he served as a chair of the Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. His practice included appellate and trial court litigation, counseling, and representing clients in matters before government law enforcement and regulatory agencies. He joined WilmerHale’s predecessor in 1971. From 1996 to 2001, Professor Melamed served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division and, before that, as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
Professor Melamed has received numerous professional awards and honors. He has been the Distinguished Visitor from Practice and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and he has authored numerous articles on antitrust and on law and economics. He is a member of the boards of directors of the Nasdaq exchanges and the American Law Institute and a Contributing Editor of the Antitrust Law Journal. He was for many years a member of the Yale University Council and a member of the board of trustees of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Charles M. Merrill of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
The son of an economics professor, Michael Meurer knew by the time he was 13 that he, too, wanted to teach at the university level. An S.B., J.D. and Ph.D. later, he became an economics professor at Duke University and later a law professor at the University of Buffalo. He came to Boston University School of Law in 1999, where he has taught courses in patents, intellectual property and public policy toward the high-tech industry. "It's a special privilege to be able to speak three times a week to an attentive and thoughtful audience," he says.
Professor Meurer has received several grants and fellowships, including two grants from the Pew Charitable Trust, a Ford Foundation grant, an Olin Faculty Fellowship at Yale Law School and a postdoctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Labs. He has served as an expert witness for the Federal Trade Commission on a merger case presenting issues related to patent licensing. He also has consulted with government officials from developing countries about antitrust law, and taught short courses in American intellectual property law at the law faculties of the University of Victoria and the National University of Singapore. "I'm excited by the prospect of having a positive influence on American technology law and policy," Professor Meurer says. Outside of work, he enjoys playing and watching basketball.
Partner and Lecturer
Adam Mortara graduated from the University of Chicago in 1996 with a B.Sc. in chemistry. He then attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received a masters degree in astrophysics on a British Marshall Scholarship.
Mr. Mortara graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with highest honors in 2001. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then for Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. After his clerkships, he was a Temple Bar Scholar of the American Inns of Court.
From 2003 to 2020, Mr. Mortara was with Bartlit Beck LLP where he tried high stakes intellectual property cases and, more notably, Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard. He retired from Bartlit Beck and founded Lawfair LLC, a civil and voting rights firm. He has been a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School since 2007, where he teaches Federal Habeas Corpus, Federal Jurisdiction, Criminal Procedure, and Writing for the Judiciary.
Vice President - Chief IP Counsel, Intellectual Ventures
Phyllis T. Turner-Brim is Vice President, Chief IP Counsel of Intellectual Ventures headquartered in Bellevue, WA.
In this role, Phyllis is responsible for managing and coordinating legal services supporting patent asset acquisitions and divestitures, licensing, prosecution and related transactions. Phyllis’ current team consists of over fifty-five attorneys, para-professionals, assistants and clerks. Immediately prior to this post, Phyllis was Licensing Attorney Director – Program Development at IV.
Prior to joining IV, Phyllis had dual legal and business roles as IP Counsel and Director of RFID Strategy and Licensing at Intermec Technologies Corporation. In her legal role as IP Counsel, Phyllis had responsibility for managing and providing a full spectrum of intellectual property services and related legal counseling including, managing the IP Legal budget, selecting and managing outside prosecution counsel, managing and developing licensing programs, docketing and litigation support. In her business role as Director of RFID Strategy and Licensing, Phyllis had the general management responsibility for Intermec’s RFID BU. In this regard, Phyllis was responsible for driving RFID revenue, developing and implementing product strategy and roadmaps, managing internal and external partner relationships, developing and managing budget, and managing all business unit functions and personnel.
From 2000 to 2004, Phyllis was Associate General Counsel – Intellectual Property at Cabot Microelectronics Corporation. In this position, Ms. Turner-Brim established a full service intellectual property department as part of a corporate “spin-off,” and had responsibility for the corporate intellectual property function worldwide. In addition, Phyllis was responsible for providing legal counseling in the areas of Labor and Employment, Product Stewardship, Environmental Law, and Immigration.
Prior to her post at Intermec, Phyllis served briefly as Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in Bentonville, Arkansas. She has also served as Intellectual Property Attorney for Amoco Corporation (now BP), and as an associate attorney at the IP boutique firm of McAndrews, Held and Malloy, Ltd.
Phyllis is a 1993 graduate of the University of Cincinnati Law School, and a 1986 honors graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology (B.S. Chemical Engineering). She has served as a lecturer/presenter on several topics including, developing business focused licensing programs, diversity in the law, recruitment and retention of minorities and women in technical professions, chemical patent drafting, IP strategy development, career development and personal risk taking. Phyllis accepted an invitation to join the Board of Trustees for the AIPLEF in 2013. She has also been a member of the Board of Trustees for the Snohomish County YMCA since 2012 and in 2011, she was elected to Board of Trustees for Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, WA. Prior to pursuing a career in the law, Ms. Turner-Brim held technical management positions with General Electric Co. and Procter and Gamble Co.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Danny Julián Boggs is a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was appointed to a newly created seat on that court on January 29, 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 3, and received his commission on March 25. He served as the Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit from 2003 to 2009.
Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School
Doug Melamed practiced law for 43 years before spending the 2014-15 academic year at the Law School as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law. He was appointed Professor of the Practice of Law in 2015.
From 2009 until 2014, Professor Melamed was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Intel Corporation and was responsible for overseeing Intel’s legal, government affairs and corporate affairs departments. Prior to joining Intel in 2009, he was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of WilmerHale, a global law firm in which he served as a chair of the Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. His practice included appellate and trial court litigation, counseling, and representing clients in matters before government law enforcement and regulatory agencies. He joined WilmerHale’s predecessor in 1971. From 1996 to 2001, Professor Melamed served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division and, before that, as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
Professor Melamed has received numerous professional awards and honors. He has been the Distinguished Visitor from Practice and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and he has authored numerous articles on antitrust and on law and economics. He is a member of the boards of directors of the Nasdaq exchanges and the American Law Institute and a Contributing Editor of the Antitrust Law Journal. He was for many years a member of the Yale University Council and a member of the board of trustees of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Charles M. Merrill of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
The son of an economics professor, Michael Meurer knew by the time he was 13 that he, too, wanted to teach at the university level. An S.B., J.D. and Ph.D. later, he became an economics professor at Duke University and later a law professor at the University of Buffalo. He came to Boston University School of Law in 1999, where he has taught courses in patents, intellectual property and public policy toward the high-tech industry. "It's a special privilege to be able to speak three times a week to an attentive and thoughtful audience," he says.
Professor Meurer has received several grants and fellowships, including two grants from the Pew Charitable Trust, a Ford Foundation grant, an Olin Faculty Fellowship at Yale Law School and a postdoctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Labs. He has served as an expert witness for the Federal Trade Commission on a merger case presenting issues related to patent licensing. He also has consulted with government officials from developing countries about antitrust law, and taught short courses in American intellectual property law at the law faculties of the University of Victoria and the National University of Singapore. "I'm excited by the prospect of having a positive influence on American technology law and policy," Professor Meurer says. Outside of work, he enjoys playing and watching basketball.
Partner and Lecturer
Adam Mortara graduated from the University of Chicago in 1996 with a B.Sc. in chemistry. He then attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received a masters degree in astrophysics on a British Marshall Scholarship.
Mr. Mortara graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with highest honors in 2001. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then for Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. After his clerkships, he was a Temple Bar Scholar of the American Inns of Court.
From 2003 to 2020, Mr. Mortara was with Bartlit Beck LLP where he tried high stakes intellectual property cases and, more notably, Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard. He retired from Bartlit Beck and founded Lawfair LLC, a civil and voting rights firm. He has been a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School since 2007, where he teaches Federal Habeas Corpus, Federal Jurisdiction, Criminal Procedure, and Writing for the Judiciary.
Vice President - Chief IP Counsel, Intellectual Ventures
Phyllis T. Turner-Brim is Vice President, Chief IP Counsel of Intellectual Ventures headquartered in Bellevue, WA.
In this role, Phyllis is responsible for managing and coordinating legal services supporting patent asset acquisitions and divestitures, licensing, prosecution and related transactions. Phyllis’ current team consists of over fifty-five attorneys, para-professionals, assistants and clerks. Immediately prior to this post, Phyllis was Licensing Attorney Director – Program Development at IV.
Prior to joining IV, Phyllis had dual legal and business roles as IP Counsel and Director of RFID Strategy and Licensing at Intermec Technologies Corporation. In her legal role as IP Counsel, Phyllis had responsibility for managing and providing a full spectrum of intellectual property services and related legal counseling including, managing the IP Legal budget, selecting and managing outside prosecution counsel, managing and developing licensing programs, docketing and litigation support. In her business role as Director of RFID Strategy and Licensing, Phyllis had the general management responsibility for Intermec’s RFID BU. In this regard, Phyllis was responsible for driving RFID revenue, developing and implementing product strategy and roadmaps, managing internal and external partner relationships, developing and managing budget, and managing all business unit functions and personnel.
From 2000 to 2004, Phyllis was Associate General Counsel – Intellectual Property at Cabot Microelectronics Corporation. In this position, Ms. Turner-Brim established a full service intellectual property department as part of a corporate “spin-off,” and had responsibility for the corporate intellectual property function worldwide. In addition, Phyllis was responsible for providing legal counseling in the areas of Labor and Employment, Product Stewardship, Environmental Law, and Immigration.
Prior to her post at Intermec, Phyllis served briefly as Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in Bentonville, Arkansas. She has also served as Intellectual Property Attorney for Amoco Corporation (now BP), and as an associate attorney at the IP boutique firm of McAndrews, Held and Malloy, Ltd.
Phyllis is a 1993 graduate of the University of Cincinnati Law School, and a 1986 honors graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology (B.S. Chemical Engineering). She has served as a lecturer/presenter on several topics including, developing business focused licensing programs, diversity in the law, recruitment and retention of minorities and women in technical professions, chemical patent drafting, IP strategy development, career development and personal risk taking. Phyllis accepted an invitation to join the Board of Trustees for the AIPLEF in 2013. She has also been a member of the Board of Trustees for the Snohomish County YMCA since 2012 and in 2011, she was elected to Board of Trustees for Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, WA. Prior to pursuing a career in the law, Ms. Turner-Brim held technical management positions with General Electric Co. and Procter and Gamble Co.
Retired, Winston & Strawn LLP
Jerry Loeser is of counsel in the Chicago office of Winston & Strawn, and his practice focuses on banking regulation. He has extensive experience in counseling financial services clients on, among other things, bank acquisitions, privacy, financial modernization, the USA PATRIOT Act, Basel II and III, lending limits, capital, trust, affiliate transactions, and Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, and CFPB regulations.
Prior to working at large corporate law firms, Jerry was chief regulatory and compliance counsel for Comerica Bank, where he also served as senior vice president and deputy general counsel and as general counsel of its retail bank division. Before that, he served as chief regulatory in-house counsel at Wells Fargo & Co. Jerry began his legal career advising the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.
Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Gerard V. Bradley is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches Legal Ethics and Constitutional Law. At Notre Dame he directs (with John Finnis) the Natural Law Institute and co-edits The American Journal of Jurisprudence, an international forum for legal philosophy. Bradley has been a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. He served for many years as President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Bradley received his B.A and J.D. degrees from Cornell University, graduating Summa cum laude from the law school in 1980. After serving in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office he joined the law faculty at the University of Illinois. He moved to Notre Dame in 1992. Bradley has published over one hundred scholarly articles and reviews. His most recent books are an edited collection of essays titled, Challenges to Religious Liberty in the Twenty-First Century (published by Cambridge University Press in 2012), Essays on Law, Religion, and Morality and Unquiet Americans: U.S. Catholics and the Common Good (both to be published in 2014.) He is currently working on a book about regulating obscenity in the Internet Age.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
ILYA SOMIN is Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, revised and expanded edition, 2022), Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), coauthor of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Atlantic, USA Today, Boston Globe, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, and the Voice of America, among other media.
Somin’s writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. He is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a case challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. Somin has testified on the use of drones for targeted killing in the War on Terror before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. In 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine (previously affiliated with the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017). From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals.
Somin has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also been a visiting professor or scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Hamburg, Germany, the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uriel Reichman University in Israel, and Zhengzhou University in China. He is a University Affiliate of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and an affiliated faculty member of the George Mason University Institute for Immigration Research. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003. In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Distinguished Professor of Law, Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government, University of Mississippi School of Law
Professor Ronald J. Rychlak is the Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi. He is a legal advisor to the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations and chair of the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He serves as the university’s Faculty Athletic Representative and is on the executive committee of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In 2019 he received the university’s highest research and publication recognition, the “Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award” based upon his reputation for scholarly activity and leadership roles in professional societies. In 2023, he received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, the University’s highest award in honor of service, for “placing service to others and the community before oneself, while embodying the qualities of honesty, morality, ethics, integrity, responsibility, determination, courage, and compassion.” In 2024, he was voted “Outstanding Law Professor” by the law school student body.
Ron is the author, co-author, or editor of twelve books and over 100 articles. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican called his book, Hitler, the War, and the Pope “definitive” in its response to charges made against the leader of the Catholic Church during World War II. He has been published in Notre Dame Law Review, UCLA Law Review, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other periodicals and journals. Media appearances include CNN, ABC, Fox News, The National Geographic TV Network, The Military Channel, C-SPAN, and more.
Ron and his wife Claire are proud of their six children, two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law, and three granddaughters. They live in Oxford, Mississippi.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Raymond M. Kethledge is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, to which he was appointed on July 8, 2008. He received his BA in history from the University of Michigan in 1989, and his JD from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993. He clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court and Judge Ralph B. Guy, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He also worked in the United States Senate and later, with two partners, founded a boutique litigation firm, now known as Bush Seyferth PLLC, in Troy, Michigan. His practice there included a broad mix of trial-court, appellate, and class-action litigation.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Danny Julián Boggs is a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was appointed to a newly created seat on that court on January 29, 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 3, and received his commission on March 25. He served as the Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit from 2003 to 2009.
Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School
Doug Melamed practiced law for 43 years before spending the 2014-15 academic year at the Law School as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law. He was appointed Professor of the Practice of Law in 2015.
From 2009 until 2014, Professor Melamed was Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Intel Corporation and was responsible for overseeing Intel’s legal, government affairs and corporate affairs departments. Prior to joining Intel in 2009, he was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of WilmerHale, a global law firm in which he served as a chair of the Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. His practice included appellate and trial court litigation, counseling, and representing clients in matters before government law enforcement and regulatory agencies. He joined WilmerHale’s predecessor in 1971. From 1996 to 2001, Professor Melamed served in the U.S. Department of Justice as Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division and, before that, as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
Professor Melamed has received numerous professional awards and honors. He has been the Distinguished Visitor from Practice and an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and he has authored numerous articles on antitrust and on law and economics. He is a member of the boards of directors of the Nasdaq exchanges and the American Law Institute and a Contributing Editor of the Antitrust Law Journal. He was for many years a member of the Yale University Council and a member of the board of trustees of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Charles M. Merrill of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
The son of an economics professor, Michael Meurer knew by the time he was 13 that he, too, wanted to teach at the university level. An S.B., J.D. and Ph.D. later, he became an economics professor at Duke University and later a law professor at the University of Buffalo. He came to Boston University School of Law in 1999, where he has taught courses in patents, intellectual property and public policy toward the high-tech industry. "It's a special privilege to be able to speak three times a week to an attentive and thoughtful audience," he says.
Professor Meurer has received several grants and fellowships, including two grants from the Pew Charitable Trust, a Ford Foundation grant, an Olin Faculty Fellowship at Yale Law School and a postdoctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Labs. He has served as an expert witness for the Federal Trade Commission on a merger case presenting issues related to patent licensing. He also has consulted with government officials from developing countries about antitrust law, and taught short courses in American intellectual property law at the law faculties of the University of Victoria and the National University of Singapore. "I'm excited by the prospect of having a positive influence on American technology law and policy," Professor Meurer says. Outside of work, he enjoys playing and watching basketball.
Partner and Lecturer
Adam Mortara graduated from the University of Chicago in 1996 with a B.Sc. in chemistry. He then attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received a masters degree in astrophysics on a British Marshall Scholarship.
Mr. Mortara graduated from the University of Chicago Law School with highest honors in 2001. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then for Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. After his clerkships, he was a Temple Bar Scholar of the American Inns of Court.
From 2003 to 2020, Mr. Mortara was with Bartlit Beck LLP where he tried high stakes intellectual property cases and, more notably, Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard. He retired from Bartlit Beck and founded Lawfair LLC, a civil and voting rights firm. He has been a Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School since 2007, where he teaches Federal Habeas Corpus, Federal Jurisdiction, Criminal Procedure, and Writing for the Judiciary.
Vice President - Chief IP Counsel, Intellectual Ventures
Phyllis T. Turner-Brim is Vice President, Chief IP Counsel of Intellectual Ventures headquartered in Bellevue, WA.
In this role, Phyllis is responsible for managing and coordinating legal services supporting patent asset acquisitions and divestitures, licensing, prosecution and related transactions. Phyllis’ current team consists of over fifty-five attorneys, para-professionals, assistants and clerks. Immediately prior to this post, Phyllis was Licensing Attorney Director – Program Development at IV.
Prior to joining IV, Phyllis had dual legal and business roles as IP Counsel and Director of RFID Strategy and Licensing at Intermec Technologies Corporation. In her legal role as IP Counsel, Phyllis had responsibility for managing and providing a full spectrum of intellectual property services and related legal counseling including, managing the IP Legal budget, selecting and managing outside prosecution counsel, managing and developing licensing programs, docketing and litigation support. In her business role as Director of RFID Strategy and Licensing, Phyllis had the general management responsibility for Intermec’s RFID BU. In this regard, Phyllis was responsible for driving RFID revenue, developing and implementing product strategy and roadmaps, managing internal and external partner relationships, developing and managing budget, and managing all business unit functions and personnel.
From 2000 to 2004, Phyllis was Associate General Counsel – Intellectual Property at Cabot Microelectronics Corporation. In this position, Ms. Turner-Brim established a full service intellectual property department as part of a corporate “spin-off,” and had responsibility for the corporate intellectual property function worldwide. In addition, Phyllis was responsible for providing legal counseling in the areas of Labor and Employment, Product Stewardship, Environmental Law, and Immigration.
Prior to her post at Intermec, Phyllis served briefly as Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. in Bentonville, Arkansas. She has also served as Intellectual Property Attorney for Amoco Corporation (now BP), and as an associate attorney at the IP boutique firm of McAndrews, Held and Malloy, Ltd.
Phyllis is a 1993 graduate of the University of Cincinnati Law School, and a 1986 honors graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology (B.S. Chemical Engineering). She has served as a lecturer/presenter on several topics including, developing business focused licensing programs, diversity in the law, recruitment and retention of minorities and women in technical professions, chemical patent drafting, IP strategy development, career development and personal risk taking. Phyllis accepted an invitation to join the Board of Trustees for the AIPLEF in 2013. She has also been a member of the Board of Trustees for the Snohomish County YMCA since 2012 and in 2011, she was elected to Board of Trustees for Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, WA. Prior to pursuing a career in the law, Ms. Turner-Brim held technical management positions with General Electric Co. and Procter and Gamble Co.
The Gay Marriage Cases: A Preview of the Supreme Court Oral Argument - Podcast
Gerard V. Bradley, Ilya Somin
On January 16, 2015, the Supreme Court granted cert in four same-sex marriage cases from...
The Gay Marriage Cases: A Preview of the Supreme Court Oral Argument
TeleforumM&G Polymers USA v. Tackett - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Michael DeBoer
On January 26, 2015, the Supreme Court issued its decision in M&G Polymers USA, LLC...
Omnicare v. Laborers District Council Construction Industry Pension Fund - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
George T. Conway, George ConwayI
On March 24, 2015, the Supreme Court decided Omnicare v. Laborers District Council Construction Industry...
Panel II: Current Issues in Patent Law
Danny J. Boggs, A. Douglas Melamed, Michael J. Meurer, Adam K. Mortara, Phyllis Turner-Brim
Our patent system has historically been thought to be an engine of innovation, but it...
Panel II: Current Issues in Patent Law
Danny J. Boggs, A. Douglas Melamed, Michael J. Meurer, Adam K. Mortara, Phyllis Turner-Brim
Our patent system has historically been thought to be an engine of innovation, but it...
Developments at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: January 29, 2015 – March 10, 2015
Julius L. Loeser
Developments at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: January 29, 2015 – March 10, 2015 Julius...
Soviet Disinformation
Montgomery, AlabamaCases Are Better Decided on Reality Than on Fiction
New York, New YorkPanel II: Current Issues in Patent Law
2015 National Student Symposium
Chicago, IL