Partner and Co-Chair, Public Policy Group, Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP
Mark Behrens co-chairs Shook's Washington, DC-based Public Policy Practice Group and is a leading national expert on civil justice issues with over thirty years of experience. A substantial part of his practice is working to improve the civil litigation environment through state and federal legislation; in the courts through amicus curiae briefs; through legal scholarship and judicial education; and in the court of public opinion.
Mark is actively involved in civil justice reform efforts at the federal and state levels. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures on behalf of business and civil justice organizations. Mark also has an active amicus brief practice specializing in tort liability and civil justice issues. He has authored or co-authored over 150 amicus briefs in cases before the United States Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations. In addition, Mark routinely files comments on behalf of business, civil justice, and defense lawyer organizations regarding potential changes to federal and state court rules. He chairs the International Association of Defense Counsel’s (IADC) Civil Justice Response Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ).
Mark is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI). He received his J.D. in 1990 from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was a member of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He received his B.A. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1987.
Charles E. Rice Professor of Law, Concurrent Professor of Political Science, & Director, de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame Law School
Professor Carter Snead is one of the world’s leading experts on public bioethics – the governance of science, medicine, and biotechnology in the name of ethical goods. His research explores issues relating to neuroethics, enhancement, human embryo research, assisted reproduction, abortion, and end-of-life decision-making.
He is the author of What It Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics (Harvard University Press, October 2020), which was named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2020;” in his review for the same paper, Yuval Levin called it “among the most important works of moral philosophy produced so far in this century.” In May of 2022, it was listed in The New York Times as one of “Ten Books to Understand the Abortion Debate in the United States.” Snead and the book received the 2021 “Expanded Reason Award” (given by Francisco de Vitoria University (Madrid) and the Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation), and has been reviewed and discussed in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York Post, USA Today, Bloomberg Opinion, Il Foglio, Christian Post, The Review of Metaphysics, American Journal of Jurisprudence, America Magazine, First Things, The New Atlantis, Plough, The Boston Pilot, Public Discourse, Practical Ethics (Oxford University), Legal Ethics Forum, Church Life Journal, Law & Liberty, Angelus News, Mirror of Justice, Crux, Mars Hill Audio Journal, Mercator Net, BioEdge, Front Porch Republic, The National Catholic Register, The American Conservative, Fare Forward, Catholic World Report, The Gospel Coalition, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, The Human Life Review, Eikon, Salvo, The Catholic Thing, The Daily Signal, and National Review.
Additionally, he has written more than 70 journal articles, book chapters, and essays. His scholarly works appear in such publications as the New York University Law Review, the Harvard Law Review Forum, the Vanderbilt Law Review, Constitutional Commentary, Quaderni Costituzionali (Italy’s premier journal of constitutional law), the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and Political Science Quarterly. He is also the editor of two book series for the University of Notre Dame Press – “Catholic Ideas for a Secular World” and “Notre Dame Studies in Bioethics and Medical Ethics.” Snead teaches Law & Bioethics, Health Law, Torts, and Constitutional Criminal Procedure.
In addition to his scholarship and teaching, Snead has provided advice on the legal and public policy dimensions of bioethical questions to officials in all three branches of the U.S. government, and in several intergovernmental fora. Prior to joining the law faculty at Notre Dame, Snead served as general counsel to The President’s Council on Bioethics (Chaired by Dr. Leon R. Kass), where he was the primary drafter of the 2004 report, “Reproduction and Responsibility: The Regulation of New Biotechnologies.” He has testified in the U.S. House of Representatives on regulatory questions concerning RU-486 (the abortion pill). In 2013, he testified in the Texas state legislature on the constitutionality of a proposed fetal pain bill. Snead led the U.S. government delegation to UNESCO and served as its chief negotiator for the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, adopted in October 2005. He served as the U.S. government’s Permanent Observer to the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Bioethics, where he assisted in its efforts to elaborate international instruments and standards for the ethical governance of science and medicine. In conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he has lectured to state and federal judges on the uses of neuroimaging in the courtroom. He regularly serves as an expert witness on bioethical matters before federal courts.
In 2008, he was appointed by the director-general of UNESCO to a four-year term on the International Bioethics Committee, a 36-member body of independent experts that advises member states on bioethics, law, and public policy. The IBC is the only bioethics commission in the world with a global mandate. In 2016, he was appointed to the Pontifical Academy for Life, the principal bioethics advisory body to Pope Francis. He is also an elected fellow of The Hastings Center, the oldest independent bioethics research institute in the world.
Snead received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, and his bachelor of arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He clerked for Judge Paul J. Kelly Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Director of the Program in Human Rights, Catholic University of America
William L. Saunders is Chair Emeritus of the Religious Liberties Practice Group of the Federalist Society. He is also a religious liberty and human rights scholar as well as director of the Center for Human rights at The Catholic University of America. He is Law Fellow with the Institute for Human Ecology, Professor and Director of the Program in Human Rights in the School of Arts & Sciences and Co-director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Columbus School of Law. Before joining The Catholic University of America, Mr. Saunders served as Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel with Americans United for Life for ten years. From 1999 to 2009, he was Senior Fellow in Bioethics and Human Rights Counsel at the Family Research Council.
Mr. Saunders attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Morehead scholarship. He obtained his degree in law from the Harvard Law School.
Mr. Saunders was featured in Harvard’s first Guide to Conservative Public Interest Law in 2003 and again in the 2008 edition. He served on Harvard’s Advisory Committee for its 2008 celebration of public interest law. A member of the Supreme Court bar, he has authored numerous legal briefs in state, federal, foreign, and international courts.
Mr. Saunders’ book, Unborn Human Life and Fundamental Rights: Leading Constitutional Cases Under Scrutiny, was published in 2019. His articles and book chapters have been published by the university presses of Harvard, Villanova, Brigham Young, Fordham, Georgetown, Houston, Scranton, and the Catholic University of America, as well as by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Freedom House, Greenhaven Press, Rowan & Littlefield, Praeger, St. Augustine’s, and Intervarsity press. He has given lectures and participated in debates at many colleges, universities, and law schools, including Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. He delivered the annual J. Michael Miller Lecture at the University of St. Thomas (on international law) in February 2007, the annual R. Wayne Kraft Memorial Lecture (on bioethics) at DeSales University in February 2004 and the annual James Moore Lecture (on human rights violations in Sudan) at Millikin University in 1999. He has also lectured, and/or has been published, in many foreign countries, including Italy, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Mexico, Qatar, Malaysia, Romania, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.
In addition to speaking and writing frequently on bioethics topics, Mr. Saunders has submitted testimony to the President’s Council on Bioethics, as well as to UNESCO’s Committee on Bioethics, and has briefed Congressional staff and state legislatures. He is a regular columnist for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly.
Mr. Saunders has appeared often in the media, including BBC World News, CNN, Fox News, Vatican Radio, and National Public Radio. His articles on issues have appeared in a variety of journals, such as First Things, Human Events, Human Life Review, The Legal Times, Communio, The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy, Ethics & Medics, and Touchstone.
Mr. Saunders served on the official United States delegation to the UN Special Session on Children in 2001/02. In 2011, he was a speaker at an official briefing at the UN, addressing the topic, why euthanasia is not a human right.
In 2004, he served on the NGO Working Committee in connection with the Doha Intergovernmental Conference for the Family.
Mr. Saunders is Senior Fellow with the Religious Freedom Institute, and Affiliated Scholar with the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Ethics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and a member of the boards of the International Association of Catholic Bioethicists, the International Right to Life Federation, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and the Society of Catholic Social Scientists.
In 1999, Mr. Saunders founded Sudan Relief and Rescue, Inc., to aid the persecuted church in Sudan. He has worked for and written on behalf of the persecuted church for many years.
Partner, Torridon Law PLLC
Mike Fragoso is a seasoned legal and policy strategist. Most recently he served as chief counsel to Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell. He has negotiated consequential legislation, managed successful congressional oversight, and prepared individuals for the most contentious Senate hearings.
As chief counsel to Leader McConnell Mike was the Leader’s primary legal advisor and managed the “last mile” of any legislation touching on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He ran the 2024 reauthorization of FISA Section 702 and was involved at the highest levels of the appropriations and budget-reconciliation processes. Mike also repeatedly represented Leader McConnell as counsel of record at the Supreme Court. Leader McConnell said of Mike that he’s “equally at home in the high-minded philosophical discourse of the legal community and the urgent pragmatism of Congressional dealmaking,” and that he “maintains a firm grasp on the realm of the possible” but “knows which screws to twist.” He observed that Mike “is so exceptionally competent that he often produces from his desk the work that would normally require, literally, teams of outside counsel.”
Mike previously was chief counsel for nominations and constitutional law for the Senate Judiciary Committee under Ranking Member Chuck Grassley and Chairman Lindsey Graham. During this time he advised the Senators on two presidential impeachments, ran multiple policy hearings, and managed the confirmation process for over 80 federal judges, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Chairman Graham described Mike as “a force of nature.”
During the first Trump administration Mike was deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy where he ran the Department’s efforts in support of judicial nominations and prepared over 100 nominees for Senate hearings.
Earlier in his career Mike was legislative director to former Senator Jeff Flake and chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. There he led the oversight and repeal of the FCC’s broadband-privacy rule and was Senator Flake’s top advisor on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
He frequently comments on public affairs and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
Mike also served as a law clerk to Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal Healthcare Industry Group
With prior service as Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Tenet Healthcare, he brings more than 20 years of experience in addressing challenging healthcare issues in government and private industry.
Mr. Urbanowicz regularly advises boards of directors, senior management, investors and lenders of health care organizations facing significant regulatory, compliance, financial or operating challenges. His clients include healthcare providers, payors and suppliers.
Recent engagements include: serving as a federally-appointed hospital restructuring and safety monitor; compliance and operational improvements for publicly-traded and not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plans, Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDP) and Medicaid managed care companies; renegotiating of government debt for a major hospital system; restructuring advisory services to the Medicaid program of a large state; numerous internal and government investigations involving healthcare providers including: academic health systems, medical device companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, long term care hospital companies, hospice providers, dental services companies and disease management companies.
Mr. Urbanowicz also serves on the board of directors of Maxim Healthcare Services, one of the nation’s largest home health services companies, and chairs the company’s compliance committee.
As Deputy General Counsel of HHS, from 2001 to 2003, Mr. Urbanowicz served as the senior legal adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on significant federal healthcare policy issues including Medicare and Medicaid provider payment and fraud and abuse enforcement policy. He was part of the team that drafted the historic Medicare Prescription Drug Act of 2003.
During his tenure at Tenet, Mr. Urbanowicz was responsible for successfully resolving several major federal criminal investigations and civil lawsuits facing Tenet by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the HHS Office of Inspector General. Prior to his government service, he was a partner in the law firm of Locke, Liddell & Sapp.
Mr. Urbanowicz earned a bachelor of arts’ degree and a Juris Doctor degree from Tulane University. He is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Louisiana Supreme Court, and is a member of the American Law Institute.
Paula Stannard is a former deputy general counsel and acting general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she oversaw the Food and Drug, Civil Rights and Legislation divisions of the 450-attorney HHS Office of the General Counsel and provided legal advice and counsel to senior HHS officials, including the Secretary of the department, on the issues arising in their respective areas.
At Alston & Bird, Paula advises clients on regulatory questions that arise out of the on-going health care reform effort and focuses her practice on HIPAA and health information technology (including certified EHR and meaningful use issues), food and drug and other regulatory issues in the health care sector. Her HHS experience provides clients substantive knowledge of, and experience in, FDA, HIPAA, e-health and health IT, federal health insurance regulation, patient safety, and public health preparedness and emergency response issues.
Paula received her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1990, where she was an executive editor of the Stanford Law Review, and her B.A., magna cum laude, in political science and Latin from Amherst College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She clerked for the Honorable J.L. Edmondson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Stanford University
(J.D., 1990)
Amherst College
(B.A., 1987)
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Michael B. Brennan was confirmed and sworn in as a Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in May 2018.
He previously worked as a partner in the Milwaukee law firm of Gass Weber Mullins LLC, where he tried cases and handled appeals in federal and state courts, as a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit, where he presided over a variety of criminal and civil calendars, and as an assistant district attorney in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office.
Brennan’s undergraduate degree is from the University of Notre Dame, and his law degree from Northwestern University School of Law, where he was an editor on the law review and the moot court champion. He served as a law clerk on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School
Professor of Law Michael S. Greve joined the faculty of the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University in fall 2012 after having served as John G. Searle Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he specialized in constitutional law, courts, and business regulation and served as chairman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Prior to joining AEI, Greve was founder and co-director of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm specializing in constitutional litigation.
Greve has served previously as an adjunct professor at a number of universities, including Cornell and Johns Hopkins Universities, and has been a visiting professor at Boston College since 2004. He was awarded a PhD and an MA in government by Cornell University. Greve also earned a Diploma from the University of Hamburg in Germany.
A prolific writer, Greve is the author of nine books and a multitude of articles appearing in scholarly publications, as well as numerous editorials, short articles, and book reviews. He is a frequent speaker for professional and scholarly organizations and has made many appearances on radio and television.
In addition Greve has provided congressional and state legislative testimony, has lobbied and consulted in federal agency proceedings, and has provided litigation services and management in over 30 cases, including matters before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Judge, U.S. Court of International Trade
M. Miller Baker was appointed as a Judge of the United States Court of International Trade on December 18, 2019, by President Donald J. Trump. Judge Baker entered on duty on December 20, 2019.
A native of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, Judge Baker grew up in Louisiana and Wyoming and attended Louisiana State University. Judge Baker thereafter earned his J.D. from Tulane University Law School and was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1984 at age 22. After graduating from Tulane, he served as a law clerk to Judge John Malcolm Duhé, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana and then for Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Following his judicial clerkships, from 1986 until the end of the Reagan Administration on January 20, 1989, Judge Baker served in the Justice Department under Attorneys General Edwin Meese III and Richard Thornburgh, first as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Policy, and later as a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Judge Baker then entered private practice in Washington, D.C., until 1991. From 1991 to 1993 he served as counsel to Senator Orrin G. Hatch on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Following his service on the Judiciary Committee staff, Judge Baker returned to private practice in Washington, D.C., focusing on complex civil litigation involving a wide range of subjects at the law firms of Carr Goodson Warner (1993–2000) and McDermott Will & Emery LLP (2000–2019). At McDermott, Judge Baker co-chaired the firm’s appellate practice group.
When he was in private practice, Judge Baker argued before the Supreme Court, nine of the thirteen federal courts of appeals, and appellate courts in three states and the District of Columbia. In 2009, The American Lawyer named Judge Baker as “Litigator of the Week” for one of his Supreme Court wins. In addition to his appellate practice, Judge Baker litigated in state and federal trial courts in seventeen states and the District of Columbia.
From 1986 to 1995, Judge Baker served as a naval reserve intelligence officer and received an honorable discharge. His duties included serving with an anti-terrorist unit, on the battle staff of an admiral commanding a carrier battle group operating in the North Atlantic during a large NATO exercise in the Cold War, and as a watch officer in the Navy Command Center in the Pentagon during the Persian Gulf War.
In the aftermath of 9/11, Judge Baker testified before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on constitutional and policy issues associated with continuity of government. He also testified before the Continuity of Government Commission, a bipartisan study commission established by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution.
Judge Baker and his wife Margaret have five children, two of whom are active duty military officers.
Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice
Jeffrey Bossert Clark was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 17, 1967. He is a graduate of Harvard University (A.B. in economics and history, 1989), the University of Delaware (M.A. in urban affairs and public policy, 1993), and the Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 1995).
Mr. Clark began his career working for the State of Delaware’s Department of Finance, Division of Revenue as an economics analyst in the field of tax policy. During his tenure from 1989 to 1992, he authored several white papers analyzing Delaware revenue sources. Delaware also selected Mr. Clark to submit an economic report and affidavit to the United States Supreme Court in the original jurisdiction case of Delaware v. New York, 507 U.S. 490 (1993).
He entered Georgetown’s law school in 1992 where he earned honors as an articles editor of the Georgetown Law Journal, an Olin Law & Economics Fellow, and a member of the Order of the Coif. From 1995 to 1996, Mr. Clark clerked for Judge Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Clark then joined the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis as an associate from 1996-2001. He worked as an appellate litigator on numerous Supreme Court and other appellate cases and developed expertise in administrative law, statutory interpretation, as well as antitrust, labor, environmental, and telecommunications law.
Mr. Clark went on to serve in ENRD from 2001-2005 as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General selected by Attorney General Ashcroft and Assistant Attorney General Tom Sansonetti. In that capacity, he supervised ENRD’s Appellate and Indian Resources Sections. He reviewed, edited, and contributed to virtually every brief that ENRD filed in the Courts of Appeals, including several cases of exceptional significance that he personally briefed and argued. During his service in the early 2000s, Mr. Clark argued and won numerous cases in multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals and worked on all Supreme Court cases arising out of ENRD’s work.
In 2005, Mr. Clark returned to Kirkland & Ellis LLP as a partner, where he litigated until his return to ENRD in 2018. There he worked on numerous multi-billion-dollar matters and continued to argue many appellate cases. His practice operated at all levels — appellate litigation, trial court litigation, agency proceedings, and regulatory and litigation counseling. He has been named a Super Lawyer for multiple years running, highlighted in the Legal 500, named to the “Legal Who’s Who for Environmental Law” in Corporate Responsibility Magazine, rated A.V. preeminent by Martindale Hubbell, and named a member of the National Association of Distinguished Counsel’s Nation’s One Percent. He also was named one of America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators.
President Trump nominated Mr. Clark to be the Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) on June 7, 2017. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 11, 2018 and sworn into office on November 1, 2018, followed by an investiture ceremony on November 15, 2018.
2020 Civil Justice Update
Mark A. Behrens
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
Embryonic Stem Cell Research
O. Carter Snead
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Conscience Protection in Health and Human Services
William L. Saunders, Michael Fragoso
On August 21, 2008, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Mike Leavitt proposed regulations...
Constitutional Implications of an “Individual Mandate” in Health Care Reform
Dennis G. Smith, Peter Urbanowicz
The Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy initiatives. Any expressions...
The Obama Administration’s Budget Proposal for Health and Human Services
Paula M. Stannard
Brought to you by the Administrative Law & Regulation Practice GroupOn February 26, 2009, President Barack Obama...
Hot Topics: Judicial Activism
Michael B. Brennan, Michael S. Greve
When President George W. Bush announced his first nominations for the federal bench, he declared,...
Fools, Drunkards, & Presidential Succession
M. Miller Baker
by M. Miller Baker* The terrorist attack on America on September 11, 2001, represents an...
Case Notes
Jeffrey Bossert Clark
Three cases with significant implications for environmental and/or property-rights law are addressed below. Kumho Tire...