The Boeing Company, Corporate Secretary
John Demers serves as the corporate secretary for The Boeing Company, as well as vice president and assistant general counsel for Finance & Strategy and Environmental & Enterprise Operations. Demers’s responsibilities include oversight of legal matters related to corporate governance and securities filings, mergers and acquisitions, sustainability and environment, health and safety and cybersecurity. The group also supports Boeing’s information technology and information security organizations, as well as its real estate operations.
Demers returned to Boeing in 2021 after serving as assistant attorney general for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice under both Presidents Trump and Biden. In that capacity, he led the department’s efforts to combat national security related cyber-crime, terrorism and espionage; enforce export control and sanctions laws; use the authorities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and conduct national security review of foreign investments and telecommunications licensing applications.
Before that, Demers worked at Boeing in various senior positions, including roles with Boeing Defense, Space & Security and as general counsel and acting head of international government affairs for Boeing International.
Demers first joined Boeing from the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served on the first leadership team of the National Security Division, in the Office of Legal Counsel and in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. Previously, Demers worked in private practice in Boston and was a law clerk at both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Demers currently serves in an advisory capacity to several cybersecurity policy organizations. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of the Holy Cross and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. He has served as an adjunct professor of national security law at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Professor of Law and the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, University at Buffalo School of Law
Professor S. Todd Brown is a Professor of Law and the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs. Prior to joining the law school, Professor Brown was the managing partner of a small business, an attorney with WilmerHale in Washington, D.C., and Jones Day in Washington and Cleveland, and a Freedman Fellow at Temple University. He teaches bankruptcy, contracts, corporations, torts, mass torts, and related courses at the School of Law.
Brown is a frequent author and lecturer on bankruptcy trusts, chapter 11, complex litigation and mass torts. His scholarship has been cited in a variety of state and federal opinions, and he has testified concerning these issues before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, state legislatures, the ABA Task Force on Asbestos and the Bankruptcy Trusts, and the American Bankruptcy Institute's Commission to Reform Chapter 11. His current research focuses on legal rules concerning corruption, fraud and abuse.
Brown received his J.D. in 1999 from Columbia Law School, where he served as articles editor of the Columbia Business Law Review, and an LL.M. in 2009 from the Beasley School of Law at Temple University. Prior to law school, he received his B.A. in philosophy, summa cum laude, from Loyola University in New Orleans.
Carl L. Vacketta Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law
Considered one of the leading bankruptcy scholars of his generation, Professor Brubaker is the Carl L. Vacketta Professor of Law. He served as Interim Dean of the College of Law in 2008-09 after serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the previous two years. Professor Brubaker rejoined the Illinois faculty in 2004, returning to his alma mater after serving as a member of the faculty at the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia for 10 years, where he was also the faculty adviser to the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal.
After earning an undergraduate degree with Bronze Tablet distinction at Illinois, Professor Brubaker passed the CPA exam before pursuing a dual JD/MBA degree. Professor Brubaker received his JD summa cum laude from the College of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, a Harno Fellow, and recipient of Rickert Awards for Excellence in Academic Achievement and in Legal Writing. He also served as articles editor for the University of Illinois Law Review.
Following graduation, Professor Brubaker clerked for Judge James K. Logan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Later, he practiced in the bankruptcy and corporate reorganization group of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey (now Squire Patton Boggs) in Cleveland, Ohio, where he gained extensive experience in large- and medium-sized Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization proceedings, including prepackaged, leveraged buy-out, and mass-tort bankruptcies.
Professor Brubaker began teaching at the College of Law, later joining the Emory faculty in 1995. He is co-author of Bankruptcy Law: Principles, Policies, and Practice (with Charles J. Tabb) and has written dozens of journal articles and essays exploring all facets of federal bankruptcy law, particularly Chapter 11 corporate reorganizations and the complex jurisdictional and procedural aspects of federal bankruptcy proceedings. He was awarded the 2003 Editors’ Prize from The American Bankruptcy Law Journal for his article, “Of State Sovereign Immunity and Prospective Remedies: The Bankruptcy Discharge as Statutory Ex parte Young Relief,” 76 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 461 (2002).
Professor Brubaker is the editor-in-chief and a contributing author for West’s Bankruptcy Law Letter, and he has served on the editorial advisory boards of The American Bankruptcy Law Journal and the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, for which he currently serves as the Scholar-in-Residence. Professor Brubaker has been a member of the executive committee of the board of directors for the American Bankruptcy Institute, and he was a member of the advisory committee on 363 sales for the ABI’s 2014 Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11.
Partner, DLA Piper Global Law Firm
Dan Prieto focuses his practices on representing high-profile companies in successful chapter 11 reorganizations, including by assisting numerous companies in achieving permanent resolutions of mass asbestos tort liabilities through section 524(g) plans of reorganization. He also represents clients in out-of-court restructurings and distressed M&A transactions.
Prieto represented Bondex, Kaiser Aluminum and USG Corporation in their respective section 524(g) chapter 11 reorganizations that fully resolved their asbestos liabilities, and RadioShack in its successful chapter 11 reorganization, including in connection with a going concern sale of a substantial portion of RadioShack's business. Recently, he represented the owners of the Vogtle nuclear plant in connection with Westinghouse's chapter 11 case and a guarantee provided by Toshiba. He is also represented Hanson Permanente Cement and Kaiser Gypsum in chapter 11 cases they filed to resolve their asbestos and environmental liabilities. Other significant engagements include representing Turnbridge Capital Partners in its separate acquisitions of substantially all the assets of Diverse Energy and Abutec Industries and representing Highbrook Investment Management as the largest creditor in the chapter 11 cases of certain single asset real estate subsidiaries of American Spectrum Realty, Inc.
Board Member, U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
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.
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
Jesse, the former third-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice, helps clients with their most difficult litigation and regulatory issues─whether that means defending against an enforcement action, pursuing high-stakes litigation and appeals, navigating regulatory thickets at federal and state agencies, or crafting a comprehensive strategy to manage a crisis. He approaches these problems with the knowledge gained both from his broad private-practice experience and from having served at the highest levels of federal and state government.
Jesse has experience across a range of substantive and regulatory areas. He has sued the federal government and has also been one of its top law-enforcement officials; he has represented states and has also navigated their regulatory agencies on behalf of clients; and he has represented companies in business disputes, both as defendants and plaintiffs.
Before joining the firm, Jesse was the Acting Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice. In that role, he oversaw the civil and criminal work of the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions. During Jesse’s tenure, the Associate’s office closely managed the Department’s most significant litigation, including matters involving large financial institutions, healthcare companies, automakers, energy companies, and state and local governments. In addition, Jesse served as Chair of DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force and Vice Chair of DOJ’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. Jesse regularly provided legal and strategic advice to the highest-level decision makers in the federal government, including the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, general counsels across the spectrum of federal agencies, and White House officials.
Jesse served for three years as the secretary of Florida’s labor, economic-development, and land-use agency, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. Before that, he served as Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott’s general counsel.
Jesse maintains offices in both Washington D.C. and Florida. From Washington, he focuses on federal litigation and crisis management. In Florida, in addition to federal litigation, Jesse employs his knowledge of state government and regulation to help clients in courts across the state, from trial through the Florida Supreme Court.
Jesse currently serves on the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, the body that provides the governor with nominees for appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Jesse is also a fellow at the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he writes and speaks about administrative law.
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
Jesse, the former third-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice, helps clients with their most difficult litigation and regulatory issues─whether that means defending against an enforcement action, pursuing high-stakes litigation and appeals, navigating regulatory thickets at federal and state agencies, or crafting a comprehensive strategy to manage a crisis. He approaches these problems with the knowledge gained both from his broad private-practice experience and from having served at the highest levels of federal and state government.
Jesse has experience across a range of substantive and regulatory areas. He has sued the federal government and has also been one of its top law-enforcement officials; he has represented states and has also navigated their regulatory agencies on behalf of clients; and he has represented companies in business disputes, both as defendants and plaintiffs.
Before joining the firm, Jesse was the Acting Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice. In that role, he oversaw the civil and criminal work of the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions. During Jesse’s tenure, the Associate’s office closely managed the Department’s most significant litigation, including matters involving large financial institutions, healthcare companies, automakers, energy companies, and state and local governments. In addition, Jesse served as Chair of DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force and Vice Chair of DOJ’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. Jesse regularly provided legal and strategic advice to the highest-level decision makers in the federal government, including the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, general counsels across the spectrum of federal agencies, and White House officials.
Jesse served for three years as the secretary of Florida’s labor, economic-development, and land-use agency, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. Before that, he served as Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott’s general counsel.
Jesse maintains offices in both Washington D.C. and Florida. From Washington, he focuses on federal litigation and crisis management. In Florida, in addition to federal litigation, Jesse employs his knowledge of state government and regulation to help clients in courts across the state, from trial through the Florida Supreme Court.
Jesse currently serves on the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, the body that provides the governor with nominees for appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Jesse is also a fellow at the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he writes and speaks about administrative law.
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
Jesse, the former third-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice, helps clients with their most difficult litigation and regulatory issues─whether that means defending against an enforcement action, pursuing high-stakes litigation and appeals, navigating regulatory thickets at federal and state agencies, or crafting a comprehensive strategy to manage a crisis. He approaches these problems with the knowledge gained both from his broad private-practice experience and from having served at the highest levels of federal and state government.
Jesse has experience across a range of substantive and regulatory areas. He has sued the federal government and has also been one of its top law-enforcement officials; he has represented states and has also navigated their regulatory agencies on behalf of clients; and he has represented companies in business disputes, both as defendants and plaintiffs.
Before joining the firm, Jesse was the Acting Associate Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice. In that role, he oversaw the civil and criminal work of the Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax Divisions. During Jesse’s tenure, the Associate’s office closely managed the Department’s most significant litigation, including matters involving large financial institutions, healthcare companies, automakers, energy companies, and state and local governments. In addition, Jesse served as Chair of DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force and Vice Chair of DOJ’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. Jesse regularly provided legal and strategic advice to the highest-level decision makers in the federal government, including the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, general counsels across the spectrum of federal agencies, and White House officials.
Jesse served for three years as the secretary of Florida’s labor, economic-development, and land-use agency, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. Before that, he served as Governor (now Senator) Rick Scott’s general counsel.
Jesse maintains offices in both Washington D.C. and Florida. From Washington, he focuses on federal litigation and crisis management. In Florida, in addition to federal litigation, Jesse employs his knowledge of state government and regulation to help clients in courts across the state, from trial through the Florida Supreme Court.
Jesse currently serves on the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, the body that provides the governor with nominees for appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Jesse is also a fellow at the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he writes and speaks about administrative law.
Professor of Law and the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, University at Buffalo School of Law
Professor S. Todd Brown is a Professor of Law and the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs. Prior to joining the law school, Professor Brown was the managing partner of a small business, an attorney with WilmerHale in Washington, D.C., and Jones Day in Washington and Cleveland, and a Freedman Fellow at Temple University. He teaches bankruptcy, contracts, corporations, torts, mass torts, and related courses at the School of Law.
Brown is a frequent author and lecturer on bankruptcy trusts, chapter 11, complex litigation and mass torts. His scholarship has been cited in a variety of state and federal opinions, and he has testified concerning these issues before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, state legislatures, the ABA Task Force on Asbestos and the Bankruptcy Trusts, and the American Bankruptcy Institute's Commission to Reform Chapter 11. His current research focuses on legal rules concerning corruption, fraud and abuse.
Brown received his J.D. in 1999 from Columbia Law School, where he served as articles editor of the Columbia Business Law Review, and an LL.M. in 2009 from the Beasley School of Law at Temple University. Prior to law school, he received his B.A. in philosophy, summa cum laude, from Loyola University in New Orleans.
Carl L. Vacketta Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law
Considered one of the leading bankruptcy scholars of his generation, Professor Brubaker is the Carl L. Vacketta Professor of Law. He served as Interim Dean of the College of Law in 2008-09 after serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the previous two years. Professor Brubaker rejoined the Illinois faculty in 2004, returning to his alma mater after serving as a member of the faculty at the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia for 10 years, where he was also the faculty adviser to the Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal.
After earning an undergraduate degree with Bronze Tablet distinction at Illinois, Professor Brubaker passed the CPA exam before pursuing a dual JD/MBA degree. Professor Brubaker received his JD summa cum laude from the College of Law, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, a Harno Fellow, and recipient of Rickert Awards for Excellence in Academic Achievement and in Legal Writing. He also served as articles editor for the University of Illinois Law Review.
Following graduation, Professor Brubaker clerked for Judge James K. Logan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Later, he practiced in the bankruptcy and corporate reorganization group of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey (now Squire Patton Boggs) in Cleveland, Ohio, where he gained extensive experience in large- and medium-sized Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization proceedings, including prepackaged, leveraged buy-out, and mass-tort bankruptcies.
Professor Brubaker began teaching at the College of Law, later joining the Emory faculty in 1995. He is co-author of Bankruptcy Law: Principles, Policies, and Practice (with Charles J. Tabb) and has written dozens of journal articles and essays exploring all facets of federal bankruptcy law, particularly Chapter 11 corporate reorganizations and the complex jurisdictional and procedural aspects of federal bankruptcy proceedings. He was awarded the 2003 Editors’ Prize from The American Bankruptcy Law Journal for his article, “Of State Sovereign Immunity and Prospective Remedies: The Bankruptcy Discharge as Statutory Ex parte Young Relief,” 76 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 461 (2002).
Professor Brubaker is the editor-in-chief and a contributing author for West’s Bankruptcy Law Letter, and he has served on the editorial advisory boards of The American Bankruptcy Law Journal and the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, for which he currently serves as the Scholar-in-Residence. Professor Brubaker has been a member of the executive committee of the board of directors for the American Bankruptcy Institute, and he was a member of the advisory committee on 363 sales for the ABI’s 2014 Commission to Study the Reform of Chapter 11.
Partner, DLA Piper Global Law Firm
Dan Prieto focuses his practices on representing high-profile companies in successful chapter 11 reorganizations, including by assisting numerous companies in achieving permanent resolutions of mass asbestos tort liabilities through section 524(g) plans of reorganization. He also represents clients in out-of-court restructurings and distressed M&A transactions.
Prieto represented Bondex, Kaiser Aluminum and USG Corporation in their respective section 524(g) chapter 11 reorganizations that fully resolved their asbestos liabilities, and RadioShack in its successful chapter 11 reorganization, including in connection with a going concern sale of a substantial portion of RadioShack's business. Recently, he represented the owners of the Vogtle nuclear plant in connection with Westinghouse's chapter 11 case and a guarantee provided by Toshiba. He is also represented Hanson Permanente Cement and Kaiser Gypsum in chapter 11 cases they filed to resolve their asbestos and environmental liabilities. Other significant engagements include representing Turnbridge Capital Partners in its separate acquisitions of substantially all the assets of Diverse Energy and Abutec Industries and representing Highbrook Investment Management as the largest creditor in the chapter 11 cases of certain single asset real estate subsidiaries of American Spectrum Realty, Inc.
President and CEO, The Buckeye Institute
Robert Alt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Buckeye Institute where he has catalyzed exponential growth since he took the organization’s helm in 2012. He has since founded Buckeye’s renowned Economic Research Center and established its impactful Legal Center.
Alt is a distinguished scholar and attorney with particular expertise in legal policy, criminal justice, national security, and constitutional law. He previously worked for former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, regularly provides commentary on television and radio programs, and his writings have appeared in countless outlets.
In 2004, Alt spent five months in Iraq as an embedded war correspondent.
Alt has testified before Congress multiple times—including at the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan—the Federal Election Commission regarding matters of constitutional and administrative law, and numerous state legislatures.
Alt serves as an officer on the boards of The Philadelphia Society and the Federalist Society’s Columbus Lawyers Chapter. He taught national security law, criminal law, and legislation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, as well as constitutional law and political parties and interest groups at Ashland University.
Alt earned his Doctor of Law degree from The University of Chicago Law School, where he was Symposium Editor and the winner of the Mulroy Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy as well as research assistant to Professor Richard Epstein. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Alice Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Alt graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and political science magna cum laude from Azusa Pacific University where he also won the Outstanding Senior Award in Political Science.
Alt is an accomplished high-altitude alpinist and endurance athlete who has successfully climbed 6.75 of the famed Seven Summits of the World including Mount Everest. He is the creator of PROFOUND CLIMBING™ and a frequent speaker across the country and around the world on legal and public policy topics as well as effective leadership, management, decision-making, and teamwork in contexts ranging from extraordinary life/death situations to ordinary professional/business settings.
President and CEO, The Buckeye Institute
Robert Alt is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Buckeye Institute where he has catalyzed exponential growth since he took the organization’s helm in 2012. He has since founded Buckeye’s renowned Economic Research Center and established its impactful Legal Center.
Alt is a distinguished scholar and attorney with particular expertise in legal policy, criminal justice, national security, and constitutional law. He previously worked for former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III, regularly provides commentary on television and radio programs, and his writings have appeared in countless outlets.
In 2004, Alt spent five months in Iraq as an embedded war correspondent.
Alt has testified before Congress multiple times—including at the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan—the Federal Election Commission regarding matters of constitutional and administrative law, and numerous state legislatures.
Alt serves as an officer on the boards of The Philadelphia Society and the Federalist Society’s Columbus Lawyers Chapter. He taught national security law, criminal law, and legislation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, as well as constitutional law and political parties and interest groups at Ashland University.
Alt earned his Doctor of Law degree from The University of Chicago Law School, where he was Symposium Editor and the winner of the Mulroy Prize for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy as well as research assistant to Professor Richard Epstein. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Alice Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Alt graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and political science magna cum laude from Azusa Pacific University where he also won the Outstanding Senior Award in Political Science.
Alt is an accomplished high-altitude alpinist and endurance athlete who has successfully climbed 6.75 of the famed Seven Summits of the World including Mount Everest. He is the creator of PROFOUND CLIMBING™ and a frequent speaker across the country and around the world on legal and public policy topics as well as effective leadership, management, decision-making, and teamwork in contexts ranging from extraordinary life/death situations to ordinary professional/business settings.
Lunch with Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers
Portland, ORMass Tort Bankruptcy Cases
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Teleforum2019 Harvard Alumni Reception
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The DOJ and Other Federal Agencies Oppose the FTC in FTC v. Qualcomm
On May 21, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued...
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State legislatures across the country made significant strides in reforming their criminal justice regimes throughout...
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