Partner, Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP
Mark Champoux helps clients resolve significant disputes arising in litigation, government enforcement, and regulatory actions in forums across the country. He rejoined Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP in July 2020 after serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, where he was a primary policy advisor to the Attorney General and coordinated major initiatives relating to regulations, emerging technologies, data privacy, national security, and law enforcement. Mr. Champoux also supervised DOJ’s work in supporting federal judicial nominations, personally preparing over 100 nominees for confirmation by the Senate and overseeing DOJ’s work to secure the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, an undertaking that earned him the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.
Mr. Champoux has an extensive record of experience in private practice. He has successfully defended both Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, obtaining complete defense judgments through dispositive motions and trial and leveraging favorable settlements by winning key motions and defeating class certification. In recognition of his litigation work, Benchmark Litigation named Mr. Champoux to the nationwide 40 & Under Hot List in 2016-2017. Mr. Champoux was also named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine in 2014-2017 and a “Future Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation in 2015.
Mr. Champoux’s practice includes disputes involving emerging technologies, data privacy, natural resources, oil and gas, environmental liabilities, government enforcement, and regulations. He also has substantial experience in a broad range of other litigation areas, including contracts, business torts, real estate, securities fraud, shareholder actions, civil RICO, products liability, and special districts.
Mr. Champoux has also handled numerous pro bono criminal matters, including a successful petition for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court with subsequent reversal of conviction for an indigent criminal defendant.
Mr. Champoux received his J.D. in 2007 from Harvard Law School, where he was deputy editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and his B.A. in 2004 from Brigham Young University, graduating magna cum laude and as valedictorian. Before first joining DGS in 2012, Mr. Champoux was a trial attorney at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, D.C. and clerked for then-Judge Neil M. Gorsuch on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP
Miles practices in the areas of appeals, business litigation, and First Amendment law. In addition to representing clients in complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals, Miles advises and represents public and private universities and serves as outside general counsel to several business and educational clients. He also represents and counsels private entities and government agencies and officials, including multiple current and former governors of South Carolina and members of Congress, on issues relating to the constitutional and statutory freedoms of speech, religion, and association. His First Amendment work has been cited by the United States Supreme Court.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Partner, Torridon Law PLLC
Mike Fragoso is an experienced legal and policy strategist who represents clients before all three branches of the federal government. Most recently he served as chief counsel to the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY). 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.”
Senator from South Carolina, United States Senate
Senator Lindsey Graham was elected to the United States Senate in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008 and 2014. He became the first person in South Carolina history to garner over one million votes in the 2008 general election.
Prior to serving in the Senate, Graham was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as the first Republican from the Third Congressional District of South Carolina since 1877.
Before being elected to Congress, Graham compiled a distinguished record in the United States Air Force as he logged six-and-a-half years of service on active duty as an Air Force lawyer. From 1984-1988, he was assigned overseas and served at Rhein-Main Air Force Base in Germany. Upon leaving active duty Air Force in 1989, Graham joined the South Carolina Air National Guard where he served until 1995. During the first Gulf War in the early 90's, Graham was called to active duty and served state-side at McEntire Air National Guard Base as Staff Judge Advocate where he prepared members for deployment to the Gulf region.
In 1995, Graham joined the U.S. Air Force Reserves. During American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Graham put his experience in military law to use pulling numerous short-term Reserve duties in both countries over congressional breaks and holidays.
Graham retired from the Air Force Reserves in June 2015 having served his country in uniform for 33 years. He retired at the rank of Colonel.
A native South Carolinian, Graham grew up in a blue collar family in the small town of Central where his parents ran a restaurant and pool hall. The first member of his family to go to college, Graham earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Carolina. He lives in Seneca and is a member of Corinth Baptist Church.
Partner/Member, Hinkle Law Firm
Brad Schlozman is a partner at Hinkle Law Firm in Wichita, KS, where his practice is primarily concentrated on Employee Benefits/ERISA law, as well as government investigations. In his employee benefits work, Brad represents plans, employers, third-party administrators, record-keepers, investment advisors, financial institutions, insurance brokers, and various fiduciaries, helping them to achieve and maintain compliance with the array of laws, regulations, and guidance governing qualified and welfare benefit issues. In his government investigations practice, Brad represents states, municipalities, and law enforcement organizations around the country that are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and state regulatory agencies on various civil rights issues. Representations typically cover voting rights issues, disability matters, as well as a range of policing and law enforcement issues.
Prior to joining the firm, Brad held a series of high-level posts in the Department of Justice, including United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, and Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General.
Brad graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received his juris doctor from the George Washington University Law School. After law school, Brad completed a two-year federal judicial clerkship with Chief U.S. District Judge G. Thomas VanBebber of the District of Kansas. He then clerked for an additional year for U.S. Circuit Judge Mary Beck Briscoe of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
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.
Partner, Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP
Mark Champoux helps clients resolve significant disputes arising in litigation, government enforcement, and regulatory actions in forums across the country. He rejoined Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP in July 2020 after serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, where he was a primary policy advisor to the Attorney General and coordinated major initiatives relating to regulations, emerging technologies, data privacy, national security, and law enforcement. Mr. Champoux also supervised DOJ’s work in supporting federal judicial nominations, personally preparing over 100 nominees for confirmation by the Senate and overseeing DOJ’s work to secure the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, an undertaking that earned him the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.
Mr. Champoux has an extensive record of experience in private practice. He has successfully defended both Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, obtaining complete defense judgments through dispositive motions and trial and leveraging favorable settlements by winning key motions and defeating class certification. In recognition of his litigation work, Benchmark Litigation named Mr. Champoux to the nationwide 40 & Under Hot List in 2016-2017. Mr. Champoux was also named a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine in 2014-2017 and a “Future Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation in 2015.
Mr. Champoux’s practice includes disputes involving emerging technologies, data privacy, natural resources, oil and gas, environmental liabilities, government enforcement, and regulations. He also has substantial experience in a broad range of other litigation areas, including contracts, business torts, real estate, securities fraud, shareholder actions, civil RICO, products liability, and special districts.
Mr. Champoux has also handled numerous pro bono criminal matters, including a successful petition for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court with subsequent reversal of conviction for an indigent criminal defendant.
Mr. Champoux received his J.D. in 2007 from Harvard Law School, where he was deputy editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and his B.A. in 2004 from Brigham Young University, graduating magna cum laude and as valedictorian. Before first joining DGS in 2012, Mr. Champoux was a trial attorney at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, D.C. and clerked for then-Judge Neil M. Gorsuch on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP
Miles practices in the areas of appeals, business litigation, and First Amendment law. In addition to representing clients in complex civil and criminal litigation and appeals, Miles advises and represents public and private universities and serves as outside general counsel to several business and educational clients. He also represents and counsels private entities and government agencies and officials, including multiple current and former governors of South Carolina and members of Congress, on issues relating to the constitutional and statutory freedoms of speech, religion, and association. His First Amendment work has been cited by the United States Supreme Court.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Partner, Torridon Law PLLC
Mike Fragoso is an experienced legal and policy strategist who represents clients before all three branches of the federal government. Most recently he served as chief counsel to the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY). 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.”
Senator from South Carolina, United States Senate
Senator Lindsey Graham was elected to the United States Senate in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008 and 2014. He became the first person in South Carolina history to garner over one million votes in the 2008 general election.
Prior to serving in the Senate, Graham was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as the first Republican from the Third Congressional District of South Carolina since 1877.
Before being elected to Congress, Graham compiled a distinguished record in the United States Air Force as he logged six-and-a-half years of service on active duty as an Air Force lawyer. From 1984-1988, he was assigned overseas and served at Rhein-Main Air Force Base in Germany. Upon leaving active duty Air Force in 1989, Graham joined the South Carolina Air National Guard where he served until 1995. During the first Gulf War in the early 90's, Graham was called to active duty and served state-side at McEntire Air National Guard Base as Staff Judge Advocate where he prepared members for deployment to the Gulf region.
In 1995, Graham joined the U.S. Air Force Reserves. During American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Graham put his experience in military law to use pulling numerous short-term Reserve duties in both countries over congressional breaks and holidays.
Graham retired from the Air Force Reserves in June 2015 having served his country in uniform for 33 years. He retired at the rank of Colonel.
A native South Carolinian, Graham grew up in a blue collar family in the small town of Central where his parents ran a restaurant and pool hall. The first member of his family to go to college, Graham earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Carolina. He lives in Seneca and is a member of Corinth Baptist Church.
Advice and Consent: The Mechanics, History, and Contemporary Developments in Federal Judicial Selection and Confirmation
Mark Champoux, Miles Coleman, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Michael Fragoso, Lindsey Graham
On September 4, 2020, the South Carolina lawyers chapters hosted an event on: "Advice and...
State Court Docket Watch: Kelly v. Legislative Coordinating Council
Brad Schlozman
Since the November 2018 election of Democrat Laura Kelly as governor of Kansas, the state’s...
Advice and Consent: The Mechanics, History, and Contemporary Developments in Federal Judicial Selection and Confirmation
South Carolina Lawyers Chapters - Online Event
Criminal Law Update: A Survey of State Law Changes in 2019
Robert Alt
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
Topics
One Way to Help Fix Congress? Get Rid of C-Span
The Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress has a number of good suggestions to...
Topics
A Second Amendment Grade for President Trump So Far
In his most recent State of the Union address, President Donald Trump promised the American...
Topics
Big Tech and The Whole First Amendment
That's Debatable is a new blog initiative bringing together legal and policy experts with differing perspectives...
Topics
Changing Congress as America Changes
Working in Congress both as a Senate staffer and Member from Indiana solidified my long-held...
Topics
Modernizing the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress
The House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress (SCOMC) is one of the bright...
Modernizing Congress for the Present and Future
The best performing committees of the House are often those where Members’ interests fall outside...