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United States courts of appeals

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Nov 10 2023
Friday 3:00 p.m. EDT    

Fair Elections in an Era of Partisanship

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
Michael G. Adams • Richard Briffault • Michael R. Dimino • Thomas M. Hardiman • Richard H. Pildes • Bradley A. Smith
Topics:
Election Law • Politics
Sponsors:
Free Speech Practice Group
  • In-Person Event
  • Live Stream
Nov 10 2023
Friday 3:00 p.m. EDT    

FISA Section 702 Revisited: Originalist Interpretations and Constitutional Constraints

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
Stewart A. Baker • Paul B. Matey • Gene C. Schaerr • Beth A. Williams • John C. Yoo
Topics:
International & National Security Law • Civil Rights • Fourth Amendment • Security & Privacy
Sponsors:
International & National Security Law Practice Group
  • In-Person Event
  • Live Stream
Nov 10 2023
Friday 12:00 p.m. EDT    

Originalism and the Communications Act of 1934

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
Jonathan Adelstein • Brendan Carr • Mignon Clyburn • Michael H. Park • Nathan Simington
Topics:
Administrative Law & Regulation • Constitution • Communications & Technology
Sponsors:
Communications & Technology Practice Group
  • In-Person Event
  • Live Stream
Nov 10 2023
Friday 12:00 p.m. EDT    

The Administrative State, Its Supporters and Its Discontents

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
Steven Gill Bradbury • Emily Bremer • Ronald M. Levin • Steven J. Menashi • Andrew Tutt
Topics:
Administrative Law & Regulation • Federalism • Separation of Powers
Sponsors:
Administrative Law & Regulation Practice Group
  • In-Person Event
  • Live Stream
Nov 10 2023
Friday 10:45 a.m. EDT    

Book Signings

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
Akhil Reed Amar • Hadley P. Arkes • David M. Schizer • Amul R. Thapar • John C. Yoo
  • In-Person Event
Nov 10 2023
Friday 9:00 a.m. EDT    

Showcase Panel II: Whither Precedent?

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
Tara Leigh Grove • Randy J. Kozel • Gary Lawson • John O. McGinnis • William H. Pryor
Topics:
Constitution • Supreme Court
  • In-Person Event
  • Live Stream
Nov 9 2023
Thursday 3:30 p.m. EDT    

After Dobbs and Samia: The Potential Implications of Applying a Dobbs Lens to the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Criminal Jurisprudence

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
John F. Bash • Michael Caruso • Meghan J. Ryan • John F. Stinneford • Amul R. Thapar
Topics:
Criminal Law & Procedure • Jurisprudence
Sponsors:
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group
  • In-Person Event
  • Live Stream
Nov 9 2023
Thursday 3:30 p.m. EDT    

The Judiciary's Federalist Revival

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
Carlos T. Bea • Rebecca Bradley • David N. Wecht • Evan A. Young
Topics:
Litigation • Federal Courts • Federalism
Sponsors:
Litigation Practice Group
  • In-Person Event
  • Live Stream
Nov 9 2023
Thursday 1:45 p.m. EDT    

Originalist Perspectives on Ethics and the Supreme Court

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
David Lat • Jay Mitchell • Carrie Campbell Severino • David R. Stras
Topics:
Professional Responsibility & Legal Education • Supreme Court
Sponsors:
Professional Responsibility & Legal Education Practice Group
  • In-Person Event
  • Live Stream
Nov 9 2023
Thursday 1:45 p.m. EDT    

A Creature of Statute: American Antitrust Law

2023 National Lawyers Convention

Washington, DC
Speakers:
Stephanos Bibas • Daniel A. Crane • Ashley Keller • Doha Mekki • Bilal Sayyed
Topics:
Corporations & Securities
Sponsors:
Corporations & Securities Practice Group
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Speaker Information
Michael G. Adams

Michael G. Adams

Secretary of State, Commonwealth of Kentucky

Biography
Michael G. Adams is Kentucky's 86th Secretary of State.
 
Michael attended Harvard Law School, and worked for Senator Mitch McConnell before serving as Counsel to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General in the second Bush Administration.
 
In 2007, Michael began private practice in election law, ultimately building a nationwide practice in the field. He has represented several national political committees, numerous national political figures, and statewide campaign efforts in all 50 states. He remains a partner of Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Kaufman LLC.
 
Sworn in just before the onset of coronavirus, he nevertheless pushed Kentucky’s first Photo ID to Vote requirement into law, and successfully defended it against three court challenges. His work in making it easy to vote and hard to cheat has earned praise throughout America and across party lines. In 2023, Michael sought reelection, and was the top vote getter of all candidates for constitutional office, carrying 118 of 120 counties.
 
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Richard Briffault

Richard Briffault

Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation, Columbia Law

Biography

Since joining the Columbia Law School faculty in 1983, Richard Briffault has combined public and government service with teaching, research, and scholarship. He is the Law School’s authority on state and local government; the news media often turns to him for his expert insight into and analysis of issues central to democracy and the political process such as campaign finance reform, government ethics, gerrymandering, election administration, and fair elections. He is also a leading thinker on “the new preemption,” a critique of states that are increasingly passing ideological laws that override local ordinances. Working with the Local Solutions Support Center, he educates city and county government officials on how to respond to state preemption.

Briffault is a pillar of the Columbia Law School community. He has served as a vice dean at three different times during his career. He sits on the advisory board of The Max Berger ’71 Public Interest/Public Service Fellows Program and on the board of directors of the Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems.

A prodigious scholar, Briffault has written or coauthored more than 90 law review and journal articles as well as books and monographs, including Dollars and Democracy: A Blueprint for Campaign Finance Reform; Cleaning Up Hazardous Waste: Is There a Better Way?; the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth editions of the casebook State and Local Government Law; and The New Preemption Reader.

Before becoming an academic, Briffault was a clerk to Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, an assistant counsel to New York Governor Hugh L. Carey, and an associate at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. During his tenure at Columbia Law, he has served as a member of, or consultant to, an array of New York state and city commissions, including the New York State Moreland Act Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. From 2014 to 2020, Briffault served as chair of the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board. He is the reporter for the American Law Institute’s Project on Principles of Government Ethics, vice-chair of the Citizens Union of the City of New York, and a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics.

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Michael R. Dimino

Michael R. Dimino

Professor of Law, Widener University Commonwealth Law School

Biography
Michael R. Dimino is a Professor of Law at Widener University Commonwealth Law School, where he teaches and writes in a wide variety of subjects, including constitutional law and election law. Professor Dimino graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Harvard Law School, and served as Articles Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. Professor Dimino served as Chief Clerk to Associate Judge Albert Rosenblatt of the New York State Court of Appeals, and then clerked for Senior Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Paul Friedman of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Professor Dimino is a two-time recipient of Widener’s Faculty Scholarship Award, a three-time recipient of Widener’s Outstanding Professor Award, an elected member of the American Law Institute, and a Fulbright scholar. He has authored or co-authored several articles and six books, including Voting Rights and Election Law (4th ed. forthcoming); Understanding Election Law and Voting Rights (2d ed. 2026); and Congressional Investigations and Oversight (2d ed. 2023). In his spare time, Professor Dimino referees hockey.
 
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Thomas M. Hardiman

Thomas M. Hardiman

Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

Biography

Judge Hardiman was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on January 9, 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate (95-0) on March 15, 2007. Prior to becoming an appellate judge, Judge Hardiman served as a trial judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as of November 1, 2003. In 2008, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Hardiman was appointed Chairman of the IT Committee in 2013 and served in that capacity until September 2021. In 2021 he was appointed by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to serve as Chair of the Judiciary IT Security Task Force, which completed its work in fall 2023. Chief Justice Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Board of the Federal Judicial Center to serve from March 2020 until March 2024. As part of his work with the Center, Judge Hardiman now serves as Editor in Chief for the Manual for Complex Civil Litigation, Fifth.

Before entering judicial service, Judge Hardiman handled a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts as a partner at Reed Smith LLP (1999-2003), a partner at Titus & McConomy LLP (1996-1999), and as an associate with its predecessor firm, Cindrich & Titus (1992-1996). Judge Hardiman began his legal career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (1990-1992).

A 1987 honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Judge Hardiman received his law degree in 1990 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a Notes and Comments Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. In 2012, Judge Hardiman was elected as a member of the American Law Institute and was elected to its Council in 2019 and its Executive Committee in 2025. Judge Hardiman regularly teaches a seminar on Advanced Constitutional Law at Duquesne University School of Law and a one-week course entitled “Constitutional Law: the First and Second Amendments” at Georgetown University Law Center.

A native of Waltham, Massachusetts, Judge Hardiman has chambers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Lori married in 1992 and have three children.

 

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Richard H. Pildes

Richard H. Pildes

Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law

Biography

Richard H. Pildes is one of the nation’s leading scholars of constitutional law and a specialist in legal issues affecting democracy. He is a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute, and has received recognition as a Guggenheim Fellow and a Carnegie Scholar. His acclaimed casebook, The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process (now in its fourth edition), helped create an entirely new field of study in the law schools. The Law of Democracy systematically explores legal and policy issues concerning the structure of democratic elections and institutions, such as the role of money in politics, the design of election districts, the regulation of political parties, the design of voting systems, the representation of minority interests in democratic institutions, and similar issues. He has written extensively on the rise of political polarization in the United States, the Voting Rights Act, the dysfunction of America’s political processes, the role of the Supreme Court in overseeing American democracy, the powers of the American President and Congress, and he has criticized excessively “romantic” understandings of democracy. In addition to his scholarship on these issues, he has written on national-security law, the design of the regulatory state, and American constitutional history and theory.

Respect for his expertise in these areas is reflected in frequent citations of his work in U.S. Supreme Court opinions, the translation of his work into many languages, and his frequent public lectures and appearances around the world, including his nomination with the NBC News Team for an Emmy Award for coverage of the 2000 Presidential election litigation.

His work has been translated and published in Chinese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. In addition to his scholarship, Professor Pildes plays an active role litigating in these areas. He has won two cases before the United States Supreme Court, including a 2015 victory in Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama, a case involving race and redistricting. He served as counsel to a group of former chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission in litigation defending the constitutionality of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; as counsel in election litigation to the Puerto Rico Electoral Commission; as counsel to the government of Puerto Rico; as a federal court-appointed independent expert on voting rights litigation; and as counsel in successful Supreme Court litigation that challenged the way the United States Tax Court operated. He was also a senior legal advisor to the 2008 and 2012 campaigns of President Obama.

Pildes received his A.B. in physical chemistry summa cum laude from Princeton, and his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard, where he served as Supreme Court Note Editor on the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. After practicing law in Boston, he began his academic career at the University of Michigan Law School, before joining the NYU School of Law in 2001.

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Bradley A. Smith

Bradley A. Smith

Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech; Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Designated Professor of Law, Capital University Law School

Biography
Bradley Smith is one of the nation’s foremost experts on campaign finance and election law, having served as a Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission from 2000 to 2005, including as Vice Chairman of the Commission in 2003 and Chairman in 2004. While serving as FEC Commissioner, the Wall Street Journal dubbed him, “the only honorable man in this bordello.”

His articles on election law have appeared in the Yale Law Journal,  the Georgetown Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and other top journals, and he contributes regularly to popular publications such as The Wall Street Journal and National Review.

In her book on the history of campaign finance reform, "Big Money Unleashed" (Univ. Of Chicago Press 2024), legal historian Ann Southworth writes, "Smith has done more than any other scholar since the 1970s to advance the legal theories that ultimately prevailed in the Roberts Court."

Smith has been the Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Professor of Law at Capital University Law School, and has also held appointments at West Virginia University and Princeton University. He is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and Kalamazoo College.
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Stewart A. Baker

Stewart A. Baker

Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP

Biography

Stewart Baker is a partner in the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C. From 2005 to 2009, he was the first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security. His law practice covers cybersecurity, data protection, homeland security, and travel and foreign investment regulation; he has been awarded one patent.

Mr. Baker has been General Counsel of the National Security Agency and General Counsel of the commission that investigated WMD intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war. He is the author of Skating on Stilts, a book on terrorism, cybersecurity, and other technology issues; he also hosts the weekly Cyberlaw Podcast.

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Paul B. Matey

Paul B. Matey

Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

Biography

Judge Paul Matey was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2019 by President Trump.

Before his judicial service, Judge Matey was a partner at Lowenstein Sandler in New Jersey where he practiced complex commercial litigation and criminal defense. Earlier, Judge Matey was the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for University Hospital Newark, an academic medical center and teaching hospital.

He also served as the Deputy Chief Counsel to Governor Chris Christie, and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of New Jersey, where he was awarded the Justice Department’s Director’s Award for Superior Performance. He also practiced at the Washington D.C. firm of Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, and served as a law clerk to judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Scranton, a Jesuit University, in 1993, and his juris doctorate, summa cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law in 2001, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Seton Hall Law Review.

In 2019, Judge Matey was elected to membership in the American Law Institute and, since 2020, has lectured on administrative law and the American legal history at Seton Hall.

 

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Gene C. Schaerr

Gene C. Schaerr

Partner, Schaerr Jaffe LLP

Biography

Gene Schaerr specializes in handling—and usually winning—civil appeals, writ proceedings and similar matters, both in appellate courts and in the law-focused proceedings at the trial-court or agency level that often determine success or failure on appeal. He has argued and won dozens of cases in a variety of forums—including the U.S. Supreme Court (where he has argued six cases), every federal circuit, and numerous federal district courts and state appellate courts. His win rate in the dozens of federal appeals he has argued in the past six years is over 75 percent.

He was a coordinator of Sidley Austin's appellate practice from 1993 until 2005, and from 2005 until 2014 was the chair of the nationwide appellate practice at Winston & Strawn—a practice he led to numerous recognitions in such publications as the Appellate Hot List. His personal practice successes have won him repeated recognition in such publications as Best Lawyers in Washington, D.C., Legal 500, D.C. Superlawyers, and Best Lawyers in America. In January 2014, Mr. Schaerr formed his own boutique litigation firm so that he could serve his clients without the conflicts and inefficiencies inherent in big-firm law practice.

Substantively, Mr. Schaerr's experience includes not only virtually every area of federal law, defamation, higher education law, immigration, insurance coverage, labor and employment, patent and trademark, privacy, product liability and warranty, statutory interpretation and tax.He has represented clients in virtually every sector, including automotive, communications, energy, financial services, health care, higher education, insurance, maritime, pharmaceuticals, technology and state and local government. He also teaches courses in Supreme Court litigation, religious freedom litigation and advanced litigation skills as an adjunct professor of law at the Brigham Young University law school.

Mr. Schaerr began law practice in 1987 following clerkships on the U.S. Supreme Court (for Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Antonin Scalia) and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (for then- Judge Kenneth Starr). He graduated in 1985 from the Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Journal on Regulation and Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal. From 1991 to 1993, he served in the White House as Associate Counsel to the President, where he had responsibility for a wide range of constitutional and administrative-law issues, including those involving economic regulation, higher education, separation of powers, federalism and religious freedom. He serves as Chairman of the Constitutional Sources Project, a digital resource providing free public access to historical materials relevant to the U.S. Constitution. 

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Beth A. Williams

Beth A. Williams

Board Member, U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

Biography

Beth A. Williams is a Board Member of the United States Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an agency whose mission is to ensure that the federal government's efforts to prevent terrorism are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties.

Prior to her Board service, Ms. Williams was the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy at the United States Department of Justice from August 2017 to December 2020. In that role, she served as the primary policy advisor to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General, and as the Chief Regulatory Officer for the Department. Ms. Williams also led the judicial nomination process for the Department, assisting in the selection and confirmation of more than 230 Article III judges to the bench.

Prior to becoming Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Williams was a litigation and appellate partner at a national law firm, where her practice focused on complex commercial, securities, appellate, and First Amendment litigation. From 2005-2006, Ms. Williams served as Special Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where she assisted with the confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to the United States Supreme Court.

Ms. Williams clerked for the Hon. Richard C. Wesley on the United State Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude, with a degree in History and Literature, and she earned her law degree from Harvard Law School, where she served as Executive Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.

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John C. Yoo

John C. Yoo

Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Senior Research Fellow, School of Civic Leadership, Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Biography

John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law. He is also Distinguished Visiting Scholar, School of Civic Leadership and Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin.  He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.    

His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023.  Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War, Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare, and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.  

Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court.  He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.

Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government.  He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks.  He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.  He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman.  He has been a visiting professor at Seoul National University in South Korea, the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, Keio University in Japan, Trento University in Italy, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.

Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center.  He also serves on the boards of the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and been the Edwin Meese III Originalism Lecturer at the Heritage Foundation.

Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College. 

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Jonathan Adelstein

Jonathan Adelstein

Managing Director & Head of Global Policy and Public Investment, DigitalBridge Investment Management

Biography

Jonathan S. Adelstein is a Managing Director and Head of Global Policy and Public Investment at DigitalBridge Investment Management. In this role, Mr. Adelstein works with all DigitalBridge portfolio companies on public policy and strategic regulatory matters and reviews policy impacts on potential investments.

Prior to joining DigitalBridge, Mr. Adelstein was President and CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), where he represented over 200 businesses that build, own, and operate wireless infrastructure, including infrastructure owners, developers, carriers, and professional service firms.

Prior to WIA, Mr. Adelstein was nominated to positions by both President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously for each by the U.S. Senate. Under President Obama, Mr. Adelstein headed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service as Administrator. There, he led the investment of nearly $7 billion under the Recovery Act in rural broadband and water infrastructure and oversaw a $60 billion loan portfolio in rural electric, telecommunications, and water infrastructure. Under President Obama, Mr. Adelstein was appointed to the White House National Science and Technology Council, which coordinates science and technology policy across the Federal government, and the White House Business Council, leading Council meetings with business leaders across America.

Mr. Adelstein was nominated by President Bush and served as Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2002 to 2009. At the FCC, he worked to achieve bipartisan progress on issues including spectrum auctions, broadband expansion, widening access to the Internet and media diversity.

Before the FCC, Mr. Adelstein served at the U.S. Senate, in a number of legislative staff positions, culminating as a senior policy advisor to the Senate Majority Leader.

Mr. Adelstein received an M.A. in History and a B.A., with Distinction, in Political Science from Stanford University. He instructed undergraduates in history as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and a Teaching Assistant at Stanford University. He is a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover.

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Brendan Carr

Brendan Carr

Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

Biography

Brendan Carr is the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He previously served as the senior Republican Commissioner and as the FCC’s General Counsel. Nominated by both President Trump and President Biden, Carr has been confirmed unanimously by the Senate three times.

Described by Axios as “the FCC’s 5G crusader,” Carr has led the FCC’s work to modernize its infrastructure rules and accelerate the buildout of high-speed networks. His reforms cut billions of dollars in red tape, enabled the private sector to construct high-speed networks in communities across the country, and extended America’s global leadership in 5G.

Chairman Carr is also focused on expanding America’s skilled workforce—the tower climbers and construction crews needed to build next-gen networks. His jobs initiative promotes community colleges and apprenticeships as a pipeline for good-paying 5G jobs. He is recognizing America’s talented tower crews through a series of “5G Ready” Hard Hat presentations.

Chairman Carr leads a groundbreaking telehealth initiative at the FCC. The Connected Care Pilot Program supports the delivery of high-quality care to low-income Americans and veterans.

Chairman Carr’s time outside of Washington helps inform his approach to the job. He regularly hits the road to hear directly from community members and learn how changes in federal policies could help improve their lives.

Chairman Carr brings nearly 20 years of private and public sector experience in communications and tech policy to his position. Before joining the FCC as a staffer back in 2012, he worked as an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP in the firm’s appellate, litigation, and telecom practices. Previously, Chairman Carr clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for Judge Dennis Shedd. After attending Georgetown University for his undergrad, Chairman Carr earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where he served as an editor of the Catholic University Law Review.

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Mignon Clyburn

Mignon Clyburn

Principal, MLC Strategies

Biography

Mignon Clyburn spent nearly nine years at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) affirming her commitment to closing persistent digital and opportunity divides that challenge rural, Native and low wealth communities.

She pushed for the modernization of the FCC’s Lifeline Program, which assists low income consumers in defraying the cost of voice and broadband service; championed diversity in media ownership; initiated Inmate Telephone Calling Services reforms; brokered a technical solution that eliminated long-standing bottlenecks that prevented small, rural telecommunications carriers from expanding their network services nationwide; emphasized diversity and inclusion in the STEM fields; and fought to preserve a free and open internet (Net Neutrality).

Her government service began with an election to the South Carolina Public Service Commission (SCPSC) in 1998. Prior to serving 11 years on the SCPSC, Clyburn's interest in the fields of media and (tele)communications gained traction during a 14 year journey as the publisher and general manager of The Coastal Times, a family-founded, Charleston-based weekly newspaper focusing on issues affecting the African American community.

The desire to close persistent economic divides continued with the award of a Leadership in Government Fellowship from the Open Society Foundations (OSF) in the summer of 2018. That support allowed Clyburn to continue making the business case for the elimination of the predatory telephone calling rates that burden families and legal counsel that make calls to and from American detention, jail and prison facilities.

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Michael H. Park

Michael H. Park

Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Biography

Michael H. Park was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in May 2019. He earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Princeton University and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Upon graduation from law school in 2001, Judge Park served as a law clerk to then-Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the Third Circuit, for whom he also clerked on the Supreme Court during the 2008 Term. Judge Park was an associate in the New York office of the Wilmer Hale law firm from 2002 to 2006, and he served as an Attorney-Adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel from 2006 to 2008. Judge Park worked in the New York office of the Dechert law firm, first as counsel (2009-2011) and then as a partner (2012-2015). In 2015, Judge Park joined the law firm Consovoy McCarthy Park as a name partner, where he specialized in appellate and complex civil litigation. During that time, he also served as an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.

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Nathan Simington

Nathan Simington

Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission

Biography

Nathan Simington was nominated to serve as a Commissioner of the FCC by President Donald J. Trump. He was confirmed by the United States Senate in 2020.

Commissioner Simington brings both private and public-sector experience to the Commission. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA.) In this role, he worked on many aspects of telecommunications policy, including spectrum allocation and planning, broadband access, and the US Government’s role in the Internet. Prior to joining the Commission, he was senior counsel to Brightstar Corp., an international mobile device services company. In this capacity, he led and negotiated telecommunications equipment and services transactions with leading providers in over twenty countries. Prior to joining Brightstar, he worked as an attorney in private practice.

Commissioner Simington is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He also holds degrees from the University of Rochester and Lawrence University.

Commissioner Simington grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada. He became a United States citizen and now lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife and three children.

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Steven Gill Bradbury

Steven Gill Bradbury

Deputy Secretary of Transportation, US Department of Transportation

Biography

Steven G. Bradbury was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of Transportation on March 13, 2025, following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 11, 2025. In this role, he oversees the Department’s operating administrations and spearheads initiatives to ensure a safe, efficient, and modern transportation system that strengthens economic productivity and global competitiveness. Deputy Secretary Bradbury also assists Secretary Duffy in managing the Department’s activities, including its workforce of over 58,000 employees and an annual budget exceeding $109 billion.

Bradbury previously served as the 23rd General Counsel of the Department of Transportation from 2017 to 2021, as the Acting Deputy Secretary from 2019, and as Acting Secretary of Transportation in 2021. As General Counsel, he was the chief legal officer, advising on all legal matters and ensuring the integrity and compliance of the Department’s policies and programs.

Before rejoining DOT, Bradbury was a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation from December 2022 to March 2025. He has extensive experience in the public and private sector, having served as Principal Deputy and Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Dechert LLP. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge James L. Buckley.

Bradbury holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in English from Stanford University.  

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Emily Bremer

Emily Bremer

Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School

Biography

Emily Bremer teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, regulatory process, and civil procedure. Her scholarship focuses primarily on matters of procedural design, with a recent focus on the history and interpretation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). She is a recipient of the AALS’s award for the year’s best administrative law scholarship by a junior scholar and the AALL’s Joseph L. Andrew’s Legal Literature Award for her contribution to the Bremer-Kovacs Collection of Historical Documents Related to the APA (HeinOnline). Bremer’s articles include a defense forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review of the constitutionality of the APA’s regime for ensuring the competence and impartiality of Administrative Law Judges; a plea in the Yale Journal on Regulation for administrative law to take greater account of the on-the-ground reality of administration; twin articles uncovering the intellectual foundation and meaning of the APA’s adjudication and rulemaking provisions; and three separate studies that served as the basis of recommendations of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) on the subjects of agency declaratory orders, incorporation by reference, and statutory limitations on the jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims. Bremer serves as a Senior Fellow of ACUS, a co-editor of the administrative law section of Jotwell, and a regular contributor to the Yale Journal on Regulation’s Notice & Comment blog.

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Ronald M. Levin

Ronald M. Levin

William R. Orthwein Distinguished Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law

Biography

Professor Ronald M. Levin is a nationally known scholar who specializes in administrative law and related public law issues. He is the co-author of a casebook on state and federal administrative law, now in its third edition, as well as a nutshell on administrative law and process, now in its fifth edition. Formerly the law school's associate dean, he has published numerous articles and book chapters on administrative law topics, including judicial review, rulemaking, and legislative reform of the regulatory process. He also has written about the law of legislation, lobbying, and legislative ethics. Among his professional affiliations, Professor Levin has chaired the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and served as the ABA's advisor to the drafting committee to revise the Model State Administrative Procedure Act. He also has chaired the Section on Administrative Law and the Section on Legislation of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Currently a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), he previously served as a consultant to ACUS and to the Supreme Court of Indonesia. Before joining the law faculty, Professor Levin clerked for the Hon. John C. Godbold, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and practiced for three years in Washington, D.C., with the firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan.



  • B.A., 1972, Yale University
  • J.D., 1975, University of Chicago
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Steven J. Menashi

Steven J. Menashi

Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit

Biography

Judge Menashi was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on November 14, 2019. Previously, he served as special assistant and associate counsel to the President in the White House and as acting general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education. He was assistant professor of law at Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where he taught administrative law and civil procedure, and a research fellow at New York University School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center. He was also a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York, where he practiced appellate and commercial litigation, and served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court of the United States and to Judge Douglas Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He graduated from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as senior articles editor of the Stanford Law Review, and from Dartmouth College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

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Andrew Tutt

Andrew Tutt

Biography

Andrew Tutt focuses on Supreme Court, appellate, and complex litigation. He has won cases in federal courts across a broad cross-section of subjects, with particular experience in administrative law, intellectual property law, and civil rights law. He has argued and won three cases in the United States Supreme Court, led appeals in the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits and led the strategy, briefing, and argument in complex cases in federal district courts nationwide.

Recently, Andrew argued and won a significant victory in the United States Supreme Court establishing an important structural constitutional principle and safeguarding the reemployment rights of thousands of veterans and servicemembers. The Court took the rare step of granting certiorari to a state intermediate court of appeals, without a circuit conflict, over the Solicitor Generals recommendation that the Court deny the case.

In another recent matter before the United States Supreme Court, Andrew identified a meritorious pro se petition for certiorari. Representing the petitioner pro bono, Andrew and a team of Arnold & Porter attorneys persuaded the United States Supreme Court to grant the petition, securing reversal and his clients release from federal custody.

In a recent case, Andrew persuaded the Fourth Circuit to recognize that livestreaming police officers in the discharge of their duties is First Amendment protected activity.

In another recent case, Andrew convinced the Tenth Circuit to join six other federal courts of appeals in recognizing that individuals have a clearly established First Amendment right to record police officers in the discharge of their duties in public subject only to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions.

In another case, Andrew persuaded the Fourth Circuit that a federal district court fundamentally misapprehended the evidence and arguments in a high-stakes bench trial, winning, on clear error review, a reversal and remand with instructions to enter judgment in favor of his client.

In another case in the Fourth Circuit, Andrew won a preliminary injunction and summary judgment for the City of Baltimore against changes to grant criteria used to award nearly US$300 million annually. On appeal, the Fourth Circuit granted initial hearing en banc, split with the en banc Ninth Circuit, and affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment on four independent grounds.

In the Ninth Circuit, Andrew successfully represented three federal grantees in a high-profile challenge to the criteria used to award US$100 million in annual federal grants. Andrew persuaded the court of appeals to reverse the district court's dismissal for lack of jurisdiction and exercise its discretion to reach the merits and strike down the unlawful award criteria in light of the case's "national impact."

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Akhil Reed Amar

Akhil Reed Amar

Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School

Biography

Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale College, summa cum laude, in 1980 and from Yale Law School in 1984, and clerking for Judge (later Justice) Stephen Breyer, Amar joined the Yale faculty in 1985 at the age of 26. He is Yale’s only living professor to have won the University’s unofficial triple crown — the Sterling Chair for scholarship, the DeVane Medal for teaching, and the Lamar Award for alumni service.

Amar’s work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society, and he has been cited by Supreme Court justices across the spectrum in more than 50 cases — tops among scholars under age 70. According to both Fred Shapiro’s landmark 2021 study of lifetime scholarly citations and Heinonline’s most recent tabulation of lifetime law-review citations, Amar is America’s second most-cited legal scholar still under age 70. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has written widely for popular publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and The Atlantic. He was an informal consultant to the popular TV show The West Wing and his scholarship has been showcased on many broadcasts, including The Colbert Report, Morning Joe, AC360, Velshi, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fareed Zakaria GPS, Erin Burnett Outfront, and Constitution USA with Peter Sagal.

He is the author of more than a hundred law review articles and several books, including The Bill of Rights (1998 — winner of the Yale University Press Governors’ Award), America’s Constitution (2005 — winner of the ABA’s Silver Gavel Award), America’s Unwritten Constitution (2012 — named one of the year’s 100 best nonfiction books by The Washington Post), and The Constitution Today (2016 — named one of the year’s top ten nonfiction books by Time magazine). The first volume of his ambitious trilogy on American constitutional history from the Founding to the present, The Words That Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840, came out in May 2021. The second volume, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920, will be published in September 2025 and is already available for pre-order. All together, his nonfiction books have won two starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and three starred reviews from Kirkus—tops, it is believed, among legal scholars under age 70. Together with Vikram David Amar (YLS ’88), he has a bi-weekly column on the Supreme Court on the distinguished website SCOTUSblog. Along with Andy Lipka, he co-hosts a popular and free weekly podcast, Amarica’s Constitution, whose listeners are eligible for CLE credit in most American jurisdictions. A wide assortment of his articles and op-eds and video links to many of his public lectures and free online courses may be found at akhilamar.com.

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Hadley P. Arkes

Hadley P. Arkes

Founder and Director, James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights & the American Founding

Biography

Hadley Arkes joined the faculty of Amherst College in 1966. He became the Edward Ney Professor of Jurisprudence in 1987, and held that chair until he retired officially in July 2015. But he has not retired from writing and speaking. He has carried that teaching into a new phase; he has become the Founder and Director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding in Washington, D.C. He has written eight books, mostly with Princeton and Cambridge University Presss. Among the books at Princeton have been: The Philosopher in the City (1981), First Things (1986), Beyond the Constitution (1990), and The Return of George Sutherland (1994). With Cambridge Press he has done Natural Rights and the Right to Choose (2002), and Constitutional Illusions & Anchoring Truths: The Touchstone of the Natural Law (2010). His most recent book, with Regnery Press is Mere Natural Law (2023) His articles have appeared in professional journals, but apart from his writing in more scholarly formats, he has become known to a wider audience through his writings in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Civitas and First Things, a journal that took its name from his book of that title.

He was the main advocate, and architect, of the bill that became known as the Born-Alive Infants’ Protection Act. The account of his experience, in moving the bill through Congress, is contained as an epilogue or memoir in his book, Natural Rights & the Right to Choose. Arkes first prepared his proposal as part of the debating kit assembled for the first George Bush in 1988. The purpose of that proposal was to offer the “most modest first step” of all in legislating on abortion, and opening a conversation even with people who called themselves “pro-choice.” Professor Arkes proposed to begin simply by preserving the life of a child who survived an abortion–contrary to the holding of one federal judge, that such a child was not protected by the laws. Professor Arkes led the testimony on the bill before the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House in July 2000, then again in July 2001. The legislative calendar was upended in the aftermath of September 11th, but in March 2002, the bill was brought to the floor of the House, where it passed unanimously. To the surprise of Professor Arkes, the bill was brought to the floor of the Senate on July 18 by the Deputy Majority Leader, Harry Reid, and passed in the same way. On August 5, President Bush signed the bill into law with Professor Arkes in attendance.

Professor Arkes was the founder, at Amherst, of the Committee for the American Founding, a group of alumni and students seeking to preserve, at Amherst, the doctrines of “natural rights” taught by the American Founders and Lincoln. That interest has been carried over now to the founding of a new center for the jurisprudence of natural law, in Washington, D.C.: the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding, named for one of the premier minds among the American Founders. Professor Arkes has drawn to this project a cluster of accomplished federal judges who have wanted to get a firmer hold on the natural law, and brought them together with some gifted teachers of philosophy and law. The new institute will be sponsoring lectures and seminars in Washington and other parts of the country. The purpose of this new James Wilson Institute is to teach anew, to lawyers, judges, and students those principles of law that furnished the guide to the American Founders as they set about framing a Constitution. And the hope is to restore, to a new generation, the furnishings of mind of the men who formed this regime.

 

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David M. Schizer

David M. Schizer

Dean Emeritus and Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law & Economics, Columbia Law School

Biography

David Schizer served as Dean of Columbia Law School from 2004 to 2014, and as CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a global Jewish humanitarian organization, from 2017 to 2019. A co-chair of Columbia University's new task force on antisemitism, he also is a co-founder and co-chair of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies at Columbia Law School; co-founder and co-chair of the Richman Center for Law, Business, and Public Policy; and a Charter Trustee of Ramaz. He served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Amul R. Thapar

Amul R. Thapar

Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

Biography

Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history.  In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.

Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.  While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee.  He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.

Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.  

Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.  After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  

Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review.  He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.

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John C. Yoo

John C. Yoo

Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Senior Research Fellow, School of Civic Leadership, Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin; Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute

Biography

John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law. He is also Distinguished Visiting Scholar, School of Civic Leadership and Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin.  He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.    

His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023.  Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War, Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare, and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.  

Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court.  He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.

Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government.  He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks.  He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.  He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman.  He has been a visiting professor at Seoul National University in South Korea, the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, Keio University in Japan, Trento University in Italy, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.

Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center.  He also serves on the boards of the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and been the Edwin Meese III Originalism Lecturer at the Heritage Foundation.

Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College. 

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Tara Leigh Grove

Tara Leigh Grove

Vinson & Elkins Chair in Law, University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Biography

Tara Leigh Grove is the Vinson & Elkins Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law. Grove graduated summa cum laude from Duke University and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she served as the Supreme Court Chair of the Harvard Law Review. Grove clerked for Judge Emilio Garza on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and then spent four years as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, where she argued fifteen cases in the courts of appeals.

Grove’s research focuses on the federal judiciary, interpretive theory, and the constitutional separation of powers. She has published with such prestigious law journals as the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the New York University Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Texas Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, and the Vanderbilt Law Review. Grove has received awards for both her research and her teaching.

In 2021, Grove served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, a bipartisan commission created by President Biden and charged with examining proposals for Supreme Court reform. Since 2022, Grove has worked on the Princeton Initiative on Reclaiming the Constitutional Powers of Congress, which brings together former members of Congress, political scientists, and law professors. Grove serves as the Co-Chair of the section on the Appointments Process for the Princeton Initiative. Grove is a co-author of Low & Jeffries' Federal Courts and the Law of Federal-State Relations, a leading federal courts casebook, and she has served as the Chair of the Federal Courts Section of the Association of American Law Schools. Grove has been a visiting professor at both Harvard Law School and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

 
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Randy J. Kozel

Randy J. Kozel

Associate Dean for Faculty Development; Diane and M.O. Miller II Research Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School

Biography

Randy Kozel joined the Law School faculty in 2011. He was named the Distinguished Teacher of the Year by the Class of 2014. He also directs the Notre Dame Program on Constitutional Structure. 

Kozel teaches and researches in fields including constitutional law, federal courts, information privacy, and contract law, with a particular focus on the role of precedent in legal decision making. His recent scholarship exploring the connection between precedent and interpretive philosophy has been published or is forthcoming in journals including the Northwestern University Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the California Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Texas Law Review. His book, entitled Settled Versus Right: A Theory of Precedent, makes the case for using precedent to bridge interpretive disagreements. 

Kozel received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was the Articles Committee Chair of the Harvard Law Review. He served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and for Judge Alex Kozinski at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He has also practiced as a litigator with a large law firm and as Special Counsel to the General Counsel at General Electric Company.

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Gary Lawson

Gary Lawson

Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law

Biography

Professor Gary Lawson joined the University of Florida Levin College of Law faculty on July 1, 2024, after twenty-four years at Boston University School of Law and eleven years at Northwestern University School of Law. While at Boston University, he was named a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in 2022 – the highest faculty honor within the university. He has authored or co-authored nine editions of a textbook on administrative law, a textbook on constitutional law, five university press books, one popular press book, and more than one hundred scholarly articles on topics ranging from aspects of constitutional theory and history to the proof of legal propositions. His works have been cited in more than twenty opinions of United States Supreme Court justices. He is a founding member, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution.

 

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John O. McGinnis

John O. McGinnis

George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Biography

John O. McGinnis is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He also has an MA degree from Balliol College, Oxford, in philosophy and theology. Professor McGinnis clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. From 1987 to 1991, he was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. He is the author of Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Government Through Technology (Princeton 2013) and Originalism and the Good Constitution (Harvard 2013) (with M. Rappaport). He is a past winner of the Paul Bator award given by the Federalist Society to an outstanding academic under 40. He has been listed by the United States on the roster of panelists who may be called upon to decide World Trade Organization Disputes.

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William H. Pryor

William H. Pryor

Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

Biography

William H. Pryor Jr. serves as Chief Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

In 2013–18, he served on the United States Sentencing Commission and, in 2017–18, served as Acting Chair.

He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and previously taught as an adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University. 

He served as the 45th Attorney General of Alabama from 1997 to 2004.  When he took office, he was the youngest attorney general in the nation. In his reelection, he received the highest percentage of votes of any statewide candidate.

He graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School where he finished first in the common-law curriculum and was editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review. He then served as a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

He is a member of The American Law Institute and an Adviser for the RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW THIRD, CONFLICT OF LAWS. He is a coauthor with Bryan Garner, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and several other judges of a treatise, THE LAW OF JUDICIAL PRECEDENT. He has published in the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Yale Law & Policy Review, George Mason Law Review, Florida Law Review, Alabama Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, and Tulane Law Review. He has published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Review, and USA Today. He has debated at National Lawyers’ Conventions of the Federalist Society (including on National Public Radio) and at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom. And he is listed among several “widely admired judicial writers” in Bryan Garner’s The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style.

He is a member of the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame and has received the Defender of the Constitution Award from the Heritage Foundation, the Jurist of the Year Award from the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and the St. Thomas More Award from the St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta. Judge Pryor is also a proud member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.

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John F. Bash

John F. Bash

Partner, Quinn Emanuel

Biography

John F. Bash is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas from 2017 to 2020.  After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Bash clerked for Judge Kavanaugh during his first year on the bench and went on to clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia.  He then served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he argued ten cases in the United States Supreme Court.  He also served briefly as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President before his appointment as United States Attorney.

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Michael Caruso

Michael Caruso

Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Florida

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Meghan J. Ryan

Meghan J. Ryan

Co-Director, Tsai Center for Law, Science and Innovation, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law

Biography

Meghan J. Ryan is an award-winning teacher and scholar working at the intersection of criminal law & procedure, torts, and law & science. Her current research focuses on the impact of evolving science, technology, and cultural values on criminal convictions and punishments, as well as on civil liability and remedies. This includes research on forensic science, wrongful convictions, sentencing, cruel & unusual punishments, and toxic torts.

Professor Ryan received her A.B., magna cum laude, in Chemistry from Harvard University. She earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and received the American Law Institute-American Bar Association Scholarship and Leadership Award. She was also a member of both the Minnesota Law Review and the Minnesota Journal of Global Trade.

After graduation, Professor Ryan clerked for the Honorable Roger L. Wollman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She also practiced law in the trial group at the Minneapolis-based law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP, where she focused her practice on commercial and intellectual property litigation, as well as on white collar defense and compliance. Additionally, Professor Ryan has conducted research in the areas of bioinorganic chemistry, molecular biology, and experimental therapeutics at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining the SMU faculty, Professor Ryan was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, where she taught Criminal Law, Criminal Process, and Sales.

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John F. Stinneford

John F. Stinneford

Professor of Law and Assistant Director, Criminal Justice Center, University of Florida Levin College of Law

Biography

Professor Stinneford teaches and writes about legal ethics, criminal law, criminal procedure, and constitutional law. His work has been cited by the United States Supreme Court, several state supreme courts and federal courts of appeal, and numerous scholars. It has published in numerous scholarly journals including the Georgetown Law Journal, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the Notre Dame Law Review, and the William & Mary Law Review. The Stanford-Yale Junior faculty forum selected one of his articles as the best paper in the category of Constitutional History, and the AALS Criminal Justice Section named another article as the best paper in its Junior Scholars Paper Competition. In the fall of 2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Georgetown Law Center, Center for the Constitution.

Before joining the Florida faculty in 2009, Stinneford clerked for the Hon. James Moran of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, served as an Assistant United States Attorney, and practiced law with Winston & Strawn in Chicago. Stinneford teaches first-year courses in Criminal Law and Constitutional Law, and upper-level courses in Professional Responsibility, Criminal Procedure, Federal Criminal Law, Law & Literature, and White Collar Crime.

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Amul R. Thapar

Amul R. Thapar

Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

Biography

Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history.  In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.

Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.  While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee.  He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.

Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.  

Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.  After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  

Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review.  He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.

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Carlos T. Bea

Carlos T. Bea

Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Biography

Judge Carlos Bea serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Stanford University in 1956 and his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1958. Judge Bea was born in San Sebastian, Spain, and immigrated with his family to Cuba in 1939. In 1952, he represented Cuba on the Cuban National basketball team in the Helsinki Olympics. Judge Bea became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1958. He engaged in private practice in San Francisco, principally in the area of civil trials (jury and non-jury), from 1959-75 at Dunne, Phelps & Mills and from 1975-90 at Carlos Bea, A Law Corporation. He taught courses in civil litigation advocacy at Hastings College of Law and Stanford Law School. From 1990 to 2003, Judge Bea served as a judge of the San Francisco Superior Court. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was confirmed in 2003.

Judge Bea and his wife Louise reside in San Francisco, where they raised their four sons, Sebastian, Alexander, Nicholas, and Dominic.



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Rebecca Bradley

Rebecca Bradley

Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court

Biography

Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley, a Milwaukee native, was elected to the Supreme Court in 2016 after being appointed by Gov. Scott Walker in 2015. She is the first Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice to have served as an intermediate appellate court judge as well as a circuit court judge. Before joining the Supreme Court, Justice Bradley served as a District I Court of Appeals judge (appointed 2015), a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge (appointed 2012, elected 2013) and worked as an attorney in private practice (1996-2012), including serving as vice president of legal operations for a global software company.

Justice Bradley graduated from Marquette University in 1993 with an honors B.S. in Business Administration and Business Economics and received her juris doctor from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1996.

Justice Bradley is a member of the Supreme Court Finance Committee and chairs the Supreme Court Legislative Committee as the Chief Justice's designee. She is a member of the Board of Advisors and past president of the Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society; serves on the Wisconsin State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and is a member of the Bench and Bar Committee of the Wisconsin State Bar. She previously served on the Board of Governors of the St. Thomas More Lawyers Society; the Wisconsin Juvenile Jury Instructions Committee; the Wisconsin Juvenile Benchbook Committee; and as a member of the Milwaukee Trial Judges Association and the Wisconsin Trial Judges Association. While in private practice, Justice Bradley served as an American Arbitration Association Arbitrator and Chairman of the State Bar Business Law Section.

Justice Bradley's current term expires July 31, 2026.

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David N. Wecht

David N. Wecht

Justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Biography

David N. Wecht is a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice. Wecht is one of three Democrats elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in November 2015. He was sworn in to office on January 7, 2016, for a term that expires on January 4, 2026.

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Evan A. Young

Evan A. Young

Justice, Texas Supreme Court

Biography

Evan Young is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. Governor Greg Abbott, who appointed Young to fill an unexpired term, swore him into office on November 10, 2021. Justice Young was elected to a full term in November 2022.

Young graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 1999, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He was a British Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, where he completed his studies in 2001 and earned a First Class Honours degree in Modern History, focusing on British constitutional history. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 2004.

Young then worked as a lawyer in the judicial and executive branches of the federal government. He first served as a law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and then to Justice Antonin Scalia at the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2006, after his clerkship with Justice Scalia ended, Justice Young became Counsel to the Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, serving in the Office of the Attorney General under Attorneys General Alberto R. Gonzales and Michael B. Mukasey. While on the Attorney General’s staff, he accepted a detail to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, where he was the Deputy Rule of Law Coordinator. In that position he worked to assist the Iraqi government in its efforts to strengthen its legal regime, including, for example, its courts and prison system.

Young returned to Texas and joined the Austin office of Baker Botts L.L.P. in 2009. His practice focused on trial and appellate litigation. He argued cases before both the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Texas, as well as many federal and state appellate courts. He represented clients across the country before every level of the state and federal judiciary.

Before joining the Texas Supreme Court, Young was appointed in 2017 by Governor Abbott and confirmed by the Texas Senate to serve as a member of the Texas Judicial Council, which is the policy-making body for the Texas Judiciary. In 2015, the Texas Supreme Court appointed him to the Supreme Court Advisory Committee, which assists the Court in drafting the rules that govern litigation in Texas courts. He served on both until his elevation to the bench.

Justice Young is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a member of the Texas Philosophical Society. He has been an adjunct law professor for many years at the University of Texas School of Law, where he has frequently taught the Federal Courts and Religious Liberty courses. He also has been an adjunct professor at the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he has taught multiple courses involving U.S. Supreme Court history. He served as Chair of the State Bar of Texas Business Law Section, Chair of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Texas Regional Office, and Trustee of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society.

Justice Young and his wife, Tobi, live in Austin with their daughter.

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David Lat

David Lat

Founder, Original Jurisdiction

Biography

David Lat is a lawyer turned writer. He publishes Original Jurisdiction, a newsletter on Substack about law and legal affairs, and he writes for newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Prior to launching Original Jurisdiction, David founded Above the Law, one of the nation's most widely read legal news websites, and Underneath Their Robes, a popular blog about federal judges that he wrote under a pseudonym. He is also the author of a novel set in the world of the federal courts, Supreme Ambitions. Before entering the media world, David worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, in New York; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. David graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

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Jay Mitchell

Jay Mitchell

Associate Justice, Alabama Supreme Court

Biography

James L. “Jay” Mitchell was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2018.

Prior to serving on the Supreme Court, Justice Mitchell was an accomplished litigation attorney with Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C. During his time in private practice, he tried a number of complex cases to verdict, successfully handled appeals, and obtained favorable settlements for clients. He was rated as one of the top litigators in the United States and Alabama, and received the highest possible rating for professional ethics. He also served on Maynard, Cooper & Gale’s executive committee, helping to lead strategic and growth initiatives for the firm.

Justice Mitchell was born in Mobile and grew up in South Alabama and in Homewood. He is a graduate of Homewood High School and received his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Birmingham-Southern College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, served as president of the student body, and played forward on the school’s 1995 national championship basketball team. He holds a Master of Arts from University College in Dublin, Ireland, and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Justice Mitchell has long been active in organizations that benefit the community and enhance the legal profession. In addition to his service with other organizations, he is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and serves on the board of directors at Cornerstone School, an inner city Christian school. He is also a member of the Federalist Society.

Justice Mitchell and his wife, Elizabeth, have been married for 20 years and have four children. They reside in Homewood and are longtime members of Church of the Highlands.

 

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Carrie Campbell Severino

Carrie Campbell Severino

President, JCN

Biography

Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the JCN, and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court. As a go-to expert on the confirmation process, Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted in the media. She regularly appears on television, including FOX, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and ABC’s This Week.

Severino writes and speaks on a wide range of judicial issues, including the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She has testified before Congress on constitutional questions and briefed Senators on judicial nominations, and regularly files briefs in high-profile Supreme Court cases. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.), Duke University (B.A., Biology), and Michigan State University (M.A., Linguistics).

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David R. Stras

David R. Stras

Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit

Biography

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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Stephanos Bibas

Stephanos Bibas

Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

Biography

Stephanos Bibas is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Bibas was previously a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As director of the Penn Law Supreme Court Clinic, he argued six cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and filed briefs in dozens of others. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1989 with a B.A. in political theory and from Oxford University in 1991 with a B.A. in jurisprudence. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1994.

After graduating from Yale Law, Judge Bibas clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court and was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, Judge Bibas served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he successfully prosecuted the world’s leading expert in Tiffany stained glass for hiring a grave robber to steal priceless Tiffany windows from cemeteries. Before his tenure at Penn Law, Judge Bibas taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Iowa College of Law and was a research fellow at Yale Law School. He has published two books and seventy scholarly articles.

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Daniel A. Crane

Daniel A. Crane

Richard W. Pogue Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Biography

Professor Daniel Crane is the Richard W. Pogue Professor of Law. He served as the associate dean for faculty and research from 2013 to 2016. He teaches Contracts, Antitrust, Antitrust and Intellectual Property, and Legislation and Regulation.

Crane previously was a professor of law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a visiting professor at New York University School of Law and the University of Chicago Law School. In spring 2009, he taught antitrust law on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon.

Crane's work has appeared in the University of Chicago Law Review, the California Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the Cornell Law Review, among other journals. He is the author of several books on antitrust law, including Antitrust (Aspen, 2014), The Making of Competition Policy: Legal and Economic Sources (Oxford University Press, 2013), and The Institutional Structure of Antitrust Enforcement (Oxford University Press, 2011).

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Ashley Keller

Ashley Keller

Partner, Keller Postman

Biography

Ashley Keller is one of the founding Partners of Keller Postman LLC. An experienced trial and appellate lawyer, Ashley helps set strategic direction across virtually all of the firm’s cases. He represents clients in a wide variety of practice areas and types of claims, including product-liability, antitrust, class action, and arbitration matters.

Ashley is one of the leaders of Keller Postman’s national product-liability practice. He leverages his ability to detangle complex concepts and develop novel legal theories to support individual client matters and as counsel on numerous product-liability multidistrict litigation matters. He chairs the plaintiffs’ Law & Briefing Committee in the Zantac (Ranitidine) Product Liability MDL in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Ashley also litigates complex antitrust and class action matters. Among his notable cases, Ashley represents numerous States in antitrust litigation against Google for monopolizing products and services used by advertisers and publishers in online-display advertising.

Ashley also has played a central role in developing the firm’s pioneering arbitration practice, which includes pursuing individual arbitrations for clients whose claims are subject to arbitration clauses with class-action waivers. In part through managing the complexity of pursuing these individual claims simultaneously, the firm has secured millions in settlements for more than 500,000 employees and consumers.

Before launching Keller Postman, Ashley co-founded the litigation finance firm Gerchen Keller Capital, which grew to more than $1.3 billion in assets under management and was the world’s largest private investment manager focused on legal and regulatory risk prior to being acquired by Burford Capital in 2016.

Previously, Ashley was a partner at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, The American Lawyer’s litigation boutique of the year. While there, he handled various trial and appellate matters involving multi-billion-dollar securities and patent cases, contract disputes, mass torts, and class actions.

Ashley also worked as an analyst at Alyeska Investment Group, a Chicago-based market-neutral hedge fund, where he focused on investments in companies facing litigation and other complicated regulatory matters.

Ashley was named a 2021 Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazer by the National Law Journal. He is also listed on Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers, Lawdragon’s Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers, National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100, and Illinois Super Lawyers.

Ashley was a law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy at the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Richard Posner at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, received his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated first in his class.

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Doha Mekki

Doha Mekki

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice

Biography

On January 14, 2022, Doha Mekki was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. As Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Mekki supervises more than 350 attorneys who investigate and prosecute civil and criminal violations of federal antitrust and other competition laws. She is responsible for overseeing the Division’s civil enforcement, criminal enforcement, litigation, domestic and international policy, advocacy, and economic analysis programs, as well as the Division’s operations.

Ms. Mekki joined the Antitrust Division in 2015 as a Trial Attorney. In that capacity, she led investigations and litigated merger challenges in the rail, commercial vehicle, aviation, and healthcare industries, among others. She later served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. In that role, she focused on civil antitrust enforcement in healthcare, sports, and digital markets, as well as criminal enforcement in labor markets. From 2020 until 2021, she served as an Assistant Chief in the Antitrust Division’s Defense, Industrials, and Aerospace Section, where she provided legal and policy guidance to attorneys and paralegals working on the section’s merger and anticompetitive conduct investigations and enforcement. Beginning in 2021, she served concurrently as the Antitrust Division’s Special Counsel for Labor. In that capacity, she helped advance the Division’s civil and criminal enforcement in labor markets. She is a two-time recipient of the Assistant Attorney General’s Award of Distinction and she has testified before Congress about competition in labor markets.

She was previously an associate in the antitrust and financial services groups of an international law firm in New York, NY, where her antitrust practice focused on federal antitrust litigation, government investigations, and counseling.

Ms. Mekki holds a B.A. from Duke University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and an M.B.E. in Bioethics from the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

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Bilal Sayyed

Bilal Sayyed

Counsel, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Senior Competition Counsel, TechFreedom

Biography

Bilal Sayyed represents clients before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) in significant merger, civil and criminal antitrust matters. A significant portion of his practice involves representing investment funds on antitrust and Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act compliance matters; he has also provided expert witness services related to HSR compliance. Bilal also counsels clients before the FTC in consumer protection and privacy investigations. He maintains an active amicus and appellate brief writing practice in antitrust litigation and antitrust merger matters.

Prior to joining Cadwalader, Bilal was the Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning (OPP) (2018-2021). In that role, he provided legal and policy advice to the Chairman and Commissioners on antitrust and consumer protection matters and worked closely with the senior and career leadership of the FTC’s Bureaus of Competition, Consumer Protection, and Economics. Bilal previously served as an Attorney Advisor to FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris from 2001 to 2004. In that role, Bilal advised the Chairman on matters involving a wide spectrum of industries, including chemical and mining, petroleum and natural gas, health care and pharmaceutical, defense and transportation, gaming, various consumer products and retail operations, and professional associations and standard-setting organizations.

Bilal has taught antitrust and competition law at the George Mason University School of Law since 2011. 

Bilal received his B.A. from Case Western Reserve University, and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the State of New York, as well as before the U.S. District Courts for the District of Colorado and the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bilal is the host of Rethinking Antitrust, a podcast published by TechFreedom that examines the economics, institutions, law, legislation, and policy goals of antitrust enforcement.

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