Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Eric Kadel is engaged in a wide variety of corporate, transactional and regulatory matters. He is a member of the Firm’s Corporate and Finance, Financial Services, Investment Management, Alternative Investment Management, Cybersecurity, and Commodities, Futures and Derivatives Groups. With regard to financings, Mr. Kadel regularly represents participants in capital markets transactions, and dealers and end users in connection with structuring and documenting a wide variety of swaps and other derivatives, including equity, credit default and commodity swaps, options and forwards. Mr. Kadel’s work in the investment management area includes advising public and private investment companies and investment advisers on a wide variety of transactional, regulatory, compliance and other matters, including registration and regulation. Mr. Kadel also advises clients of the Firm regarding developments in the laws regulating the financial services industry and on cybersecurity issues. Mr. Kadel is currently an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School.
In addition, Mr. Kadel is one of the principal partners in the Firm’s International Trade and Investment practice. He counsels and represents clients on questions about U.S. economic sanctions, including those administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), United States antiboycott requirements under the Export Administration Regulations administered and enforced by the Commerce Department’s Office of Antiboycott Compliance within the Bureau of Industry and Security, Bank Secrecy Act/anti‐money laundering laws and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Mr. Kadel’s practice includes analysis of proposed transactions and business relationships; due diligence and design and review of compliance procedures and strategies; and internal investigations, voluntary disclosures and government enforcement actions. Mr. Kadel also regularly advises clients regarding questions arising under Exon-Florio and the transaction review process administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), and has represented clients before CFIUS on many national security reviews.
Partner & Chair, National Security Practice, Wiley Rein LLP
Of Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
A member of the Firm’s Financial Services Group, Adam Szubin focuses his practice on financial services and national security, with particular emphasis on economic sanctions, export controls, money laundering and counter terrorism.
Prior to joining Sullivan & Cromwell, Mr. Szubin served for two years as Acting Treasury Department Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. During his nearly 13 year tenure at the Treasury, Mr. Szubin served as the Director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for nine years and Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
As the Acting Under Secretary, he led the policy, enforcement, regulatory, and intelligence functions of the Treasury Department aimed at combating threatening states, international terrorist organizations, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics traffickers, and others posing a threat to U.S. national security or foreign policy. As the lead national security official at the Treasury Department, Mr. Szubin also advised the Treasury Secretary and National Security Council on a wide range of economic and security issues, including select matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Earlier in his career, Mr. Szubin served as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice where he also worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Division and was a member of the Terrorism Litigation Task Force.
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Eric Kadel is engaged in a wide variety of corporate, transactional and regulatory matters. He is a member of the Firm’s Corporate and Finance, Financial Services, Investment Management, Alternative Investment Management, Cybersecurity, and Commodities, Futures and Derivatives Groups. With regard to financings, Mr. Kadel regularly represents participants in capital markets transactions, and dealers and end users in connection with structuring and documenting a wide variety of swaps and other derivatives, including equity, credit default and commodity swaps, options and forwards. Mr. Kadel’s work in the investment management area includes advising public and private investment companies and investment advisers on a wide variety of transactional, regulatory, compliance and other matters, including registration and regulation. Mr. Kadel also advises clients of the Firm regarding developments in the laws regulating the financial services industry and on cybersecurity issues. Mr. Kadel is currently an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School.
In addition, Mr. Kadel is one of the principal partners in the Firm’s International Trade and Investment practice. He counsels and represents clients on questions about U.S. economic sanctions, including those administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), United States antiboycott requirements under the Export Administration Regulations administered and enforced by the Commerce Department’s Office of Antiboycott Compliance within the Bureau of Industry and Security, Bank Secrecy Act/anti‐money laundering laws and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Mr. Kadel’s practice includes analysis of proposed transactions and business relationships; due diligence and design and review of compliance procedures and strategies; and internal investigations, voluntary disclosures and government enforcement actions. Mr. Kadel also regularly advises clients regarding questions arising under Exon-Florio and the transaction review process administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), and has represented clients before CFIUS on many national security reviews.
Partner & Chair, National Security Practice, Wiley Rein LLP
Of Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
A member of the Firm’s Financial Services Group, Adam Szubin focuses his practice on financial services and national security, with particular emphasis on economic sanctions, export controls, money laundering and counter terrorism.
Prior to joining Sullivan & Cromwell, Mr. Szubin served for two years as Acting Treasury Department Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. During his nearly 13 year tenure at the Treasury, Mr. Szubin served as the Director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for nine years and Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
As the Acting Under Secretary, he led the policy, enforcement, regulatory, and intelligence functions of the Treasury Department aimed at combating threatening states, international terrorist organizations, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics traffickers, and others posing a threat to U.S. national security or foreign policy. As the lead national security official at the Treasury Department, Mr. Szubin also advised the Treasury Secretary and National Security Council on a wide range of economic and security issues, including select matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Earlier in his career, Mr. Szubin served as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice where he also worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Division and was a member of the Terrorism Litigation Task Force.
John J. Flynn Endowed Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Christopher Peterson is the John J. Flynn Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law. He previously served as a Special Advisor in the Office of the Director at the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as a Special Advisor in the Office of Legal Policy for Personnel and Readiness in the United States Department of Defense, and as Senior Counsel for Enforcement Policy and Strategy in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Enforcement. Professor Peterson has written dozens of scholarly articles and published three books on consumer finance. He has frequently testified in Congressional hearings and has presented his research to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and at the White House in both Democratic and Republican administrations. He is a fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, the American Bar Association's Consumer Financial Services Committee, and serves on the community advisory board of the American Fintech Council. Professor Peterson is a recipient of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators’ Consumer Advocate of the Year award and the Pentagon’s Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence.
Partner, Alston & Bird
Nanci Weissgold is a co-leader of both Alston & Bird's Financial Services & Products Group and the firm’s Consumer Financial Services Team. As an acknowledged authority in her field, Nanci maintains a national practice on matters relating to consumer financial products and services and represent clients (including residential mortgage servicers, as well banks, non-bank consumer lenders, technology providers for the consumer financial services industry, AMC’s, and investors) in federal and state regulatory, supervisory, and enforcement matters. Nanci acts as regulatory counsel in connection with investments or acquisitions and perform compliance due diligence. Nanci is frequently called upon to provide litigation support and assist in the development of compliance management systems.
Nanci is a frequent speaker and presenter at legal and industry conferences and webinars, and has published numerous articles on mortgage banking, valuation, and consumer finance related topics. She served as articles editor of the Administrative Law Journal at American University. Nanci is a Fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers and serves on the nominating committee for the Board of Regents. She is peer rated in the Martindale-Hubbell® directory as AV Preeminent®, the highest level of professional excellence. Nanci is nationally ranked by Chambers USA in Financial Services Regulation: Consumer Finance (Compliance), and in 2018, she was honored by the Burton Awards as a recipient of a “Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award.”
George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
TODD J. ZYWICKI is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and Research Fellow of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. During the Fall 2023 semester he served as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the Bruce Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado-Boulder. From 2020-2021 he was Chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. In 2021 he was inducted to the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. He is also a Senior Fellow of the F.A. Hayek Program for the Advanced Study of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at George Mason University and a former Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute. From 2015-2017 he was Executive Director of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. He served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review from 2006-2017. From 2003-2004, Professor Zywicki served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. He has also taught at Vanderbilt University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Mississippi College School of Law, and China University of Political Science and Law.
Professor Zywicki clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and worked as an associate at Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia, where he practiced bankruptcy and commercial law. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Tax Review and John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics. Professor Zywicki also received an M.A. in Economics from Clemson University and an A.B. cum Laude with high honors in his major from Dartmouth College.
Professor Zywicki is also a Lone Mountain Fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center, a Fellow of the International Centre for Economic Research in Turin, Italy, and a former Senior Fellow of the Goldwater Institute. During the Fall 2008 Semester Professor Zywicki was the Searle Fellow of the George Mason University School of Law and was a 2008-09 W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the Arch W. Shaw National Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. He has lectured and consulted with government officials around the world, including Iceland, Italy, Japan, and Guatemala. In 2006 Professor Zywicki served as a Member of the United States Department of Justice Study Group on “Identifying Fraud, Abuse and Errors in the United States Bankruptcy System.”
Professor Zywicki is the author of more than 130 articles in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed economics journals. He is one of the Top 10 most-cited law professors in the field of Commercial Law and one of the Top 25 law professors on Twitter as measured by engagement levels. He is one of the Top 50 Most Downloaded Law Authors at the Social Science Research Network. He has testified multiple times before Congress on issues of consumer bankruptcy law and consumer credit and is a frequent commentator on legal issues in the print and broadcast media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Nightline, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Neil Cavuto Show, Fox & Friends, Smerconish, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg News, BBC, The Diane Rehm Show, Lou Dobbs Show, Jerry Doyle Show, and The Laura Ingraham Show.
Professor Zywicki is former Chairman and a current member of the Board of Directors of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Humane Studies, Bill of Rights Institute, the Executive Committee for the Federalist Society's Financial Institutions and E-Commerce Practice Group, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment. He formerly served on the Governing Board and the Advisory Council for the Financial Services Research Program at George Washington University School of Business. He is currently the Chair of the Academic Advisory Council for the following organizations: The Bill of Rights Institute, the film “We the People in IMAX,” and the McCormick-Tribune Foundation “Freedom Museum” in Chicago, Illinois. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Ralston College and was a member of the Board of Trustees of Yorktown University. From 2005-2009 he served as an elected Alumni Trustee of the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees.
Managing Director, Banking Supervision and Regulation Group, Patomak Global Partners
Brian Johnson is Managing Director in the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group at Patomak Global Partners.
In this role, Mr. Johnson spearheads projects related to the regulation of consumer financial products under Keith Noreika, Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group and former acting Comptroller of the Currency.
Prior to joining Patomak, Mr. Johnson was a partner in Alston & Bird LLP’s financial services and products group. There, he advised financial institutions on consumer finance regulatory issues relating to product compliance, examination, enforcement investigations, and compliance management systems, and on strategic engagement with independent federal regulatory agencies and with Congress.
Mr. Johnson previously served as Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where he oversaw the agency’s rulemaking, supervision, and enforcement activities. He conceived and led the creation of high-profile agency initiatives, including the Office of Innovation, Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law, policy symposia series, and Start Small, Save Up emergency savings program. He also served as the CFPB representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council Deputies’ Committee and advised on interagency matters involving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Mr. Johnson held various positions on Capitol Hill, including policy director and chief financial institutions counsel on the House Committee on Financial Services, where his portfolio covered consumer protection and credit, mortgage origination, credit reporting, banking, and data security. His efforts on the committee involved drafting legislation to provide regulatory relief to bank, credit union, and nondepository financial institutions, as well as conducting oversight of the activities of the CFPB, Financial Stability Oversight Council, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Financial Research, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve System, and National Credit Union Administration.
Mr. Johnson received his juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law and his bachelor’s in economics from the University of Virginia.
John J. Flynn Endowed Professor of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Christopher Peterson is the John J. Flynn Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law. He previously served as a Special Advisor in the Office of the Director at the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as a Special Advisor in the Office of Legal Policy for Personnel and Readiness in the United States Department of Defense, and as Senior Counsel for Enforcement Policy and Strategy in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Office of Enforcement. Professor Peterson has written dozens of scholarly articles and published three books on consumer finance. He has frequently testified in Congressional hearings and has presented his research to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and at the White House in both Democratic and Republican administrations. He is a fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers, the American Bar Association's Consumer Financial Services Committee, and serves on the community advisory board of the American Fintech Council. Professor Peterson is a recipient of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators’ Consumer Advocate of the Year award and the Pentagon’s Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence.
Partner, Alston & Bird
Nanci Weissgold is a co-leader of both Alston & Bird's Financial Services & Products Group and the firm’s Consumer Financial Services Team. As an acknowledged authority in her field, Nanci maintains a national practice on matters relating to consumer financial products and services and represent clients (including residential mortgage servicers, as well banks, non-bank consumer lenders, technology providers for the consumer financial services industry, AMC’s, and investors) in federal and state regulatory, supervisory, and enforcement matters. Nanci acts as regulatory counsel in connection with investments or acquisitions and perform compliance due diligence. Nanci is frequently called upon to provide litigation support and assist in the development of compliance management systems.
Nanci is a frequent speaker and presenter at legal and industry conferences and webinars, and has published numerous articles on mortgage banking, valuation, and consumer finance related topics. She served as articles editor of the Administrative Law Journal at American University. Nanci is a Fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers and serves on the nominating committee for the Board of Regents. She is peer rated in the Martindale-Hubbell® directory as AV Preeminent®, the highest level of professional excellence. Nanci is nationally ranked by Chambers USA in Financial Services Regulation: Consumer Finance (Compliance), and in 2018, she was honored by the Burton Awards as a recipient of a “Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award.”
George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
TODD J. ZYWICKI is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and Research Fellow of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. During the Fall 2023 semester he served as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the Bruce Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado-Boulder. From 2020-2021 he was Chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law. In 2021 he was inducted to the American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers. He is also a Senior Fellow of the F.A. Hayek Program for the Advanced Study of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at George Mason University and a former Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute. From 2015-2017 he was Executive Director of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. He served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review from 2006-2017. From 2003-2004, Professor Zywicki served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. He has also taught at Vanderbilt University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, Boston College Law School, Mississippi College School of Law, and China University of Political Science and Law.
Professor Zywicki clerked for Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and worked as an associate at Alston & Bird in Atlanta, Georgia, where he practiced bankruptcy and commercial law. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he was executive editor of the Virginia Tax Review and John M. Olin Scholar in Law and Economics. Professor Zywicki also received an M.A. in Economics from Clemson University and an A.B. cum Laude with high honors in his major from Dartmouth College.
Professor Zywicki is also a Lone Mountain Fellow of the Property and Environment Research Center, a Fellow of the International Centre for Economic Research in Turin, Italy, and a former Senior Fellow of the Goldwater Institute. During the Fall 2008 Semester Professor Zywicki was the Searle Fellow of the George Mason University School of Law and was a 2008-09 W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the Arch W. Shaw National Fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. He has lectured and consulted with government officials around the world, including Iceland, Italy, Japan, and Guatemala. In 2006 Professor Zywicki served as a Member of the United States Department of Justice Study Group on “Identifying Fraud, Abuse and Errors in the United States Bankruptcy System.”
Professor Zywicki is the author of more than 130 articles in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed economics journals. He is one of the Top 10 most-cited law professors in the field of Commercial Law and one of the Top 25 law professors on Twitter as measured by engagement levels. He is one of the Top 50 Most Downloaded Law Authors at the Social Science Research Network. He has testified multiple times before Congress on issues of consumer bankruptcy law and consumer credit and is a frequent commentator on legal issues in the print and broadcast media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Nightline, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Neil Cavuto Show, Fox & Friends, Smerconish, Fox News @ Night with Shannon Bream, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg News, BBC, The Diane Rehm Show, Lou Dobbs Show, Jerry Doyle Show, and The Laura Ingraham Show.
Professor Zywicki is former Chairman and a current member of the Board of Directors of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Humane Studies, Bill of Rights Institute, the Executive Committee for the Federalist Society's Financial Institutions and E-Commerce Practice Group, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment. He formerly served on the Governing Board and the Advisory Council for the Financial Services Research Program at George Washington University School of Business. He is currently the Chair of the Academic Advisory Council for the following organizations: The Bill of Rights Institute, the film “We the People in IMAX,” and the McCormick-Tribune Foundation “Freedom Museum” in Chicago, Illinois. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Ralston College and was a member of the Board of Trustees of Yorktown University. From 2005-2009 he served as an elected Alumni Trustee of the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees.
Managing Director, Banking Supervision and Regulation Group, Patomak Global Partners
Brian Johnson is Managing Director in the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group at Patomak Global Partners.
In this role, Mr. Johnson spearheads projects related to the regulation of consumer financial products under Keith Noreika, Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Banking Supervision and Regulation Group and former acting Comptroller of the Currency.
Prior to joining Patomak, Mr. Johnson was a partner in Alston & Bird LLP’s financial services and products group. There, he advised financial institutions on consumer finance regulatory issues relating to product compliance, examination, enforcement investigations, and compliance management systems, and on strategic engagement with independent federal regulatory agencies and with Congress.
Mr. Johnson previously served as Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where he oversaw the agency’s rulemaking, supervision, and enforcement activities. He conceived and led the creation of high-profile agency initiatives, including the Office of Innovation, Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law, policy symposia series, and Start Small, Save Up emergency savings program. He also served as the CFPB representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council Deputies’ Committee and advised on interagency matters involving the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Mr. Johnson held various positions on Capitol Hill, including policy director and chief financial institutions counsel on the House Committee on Financial Services, where his portfolio covered consumer protection and credit, mortgage origination, credit reporting, banking, and data security. His efforts on the committee involved drafting legislation to provide regulatory relief to bank, credit union, and nondepository financial institutions, as well as conducting oversight of the activities of the CFPB, Financial Stability Oversight Council, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Financial Research, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve System, and National Credit Union Administration.
Mr. Johnson received his juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law and his bachelor’s in economics from the University of Virginia.
Partner, BakerHostetler, Adjunct Fellow, The Manhattan Institute
Andrew Grossman leads BakerHostetler’s Appellate and Major Motion team. He has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, nearly all the federal courts of appeals, as well as some state appellate courts, litigating high-profile and complex commercial, administrative and constitutional issues.
Andrew works with practice groups across BakerHostetler to identify and tackle complex issues, advise on administrative law and strategy, tee up issues for appeal and tackle appeals. He has developed and implemented litigation and administrative strategies for clients in several fields and industries.
In addition to his practice, Andrew advises members of Congress on matters of constitutional and administrative law, having testified more than a dozen times before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. He has been a frequent legal commentator on radio and television, having appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR and its affiliates, CBN and elsewhere. His legal commentary has also appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times and many others.
Andrew is a Senior Legal Fellow at the Buckeye Institute, an Adjunct Fellow the Manhattan Institute and a member of the leadership of the Federalist Society. He previously served as an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. He clerked for Judge Edith H. Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Associate, Baker Hostetler
Sean Sandoloski is a member of BakerHostetler’s Appellate and Major Motions Team. Sean has represented clients at every level of the federal judiciary, as well as in multiple federal agencies and state courts. He has extensive experience in constitutional, administrative, and antitrust law and litigation.
Sean has developed and implemented litigation, administrative, legislative, and communications strategies for clients—presenting holistic solutions for complex problems. He regularly works across groups and offices to tackle high-stakes, fast-moving issues, and advise clients on strategic and regulatory matters. Throughout his career, Sean has worked to cultivate and foster relationships at all levels from the highest offices in government to corporate executives to benefit his clients.
Prior to joining BakerHostetler, Sean served as Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to the President in the Office of White House Counsel, where his primary responsibilities included the selection and confirmation of judicial nominees. There, Sean worked closely with the Department of Justice, a number of federal agencies, and various congressional committees. He also previously served in the Appellate Section of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, representing the United States in the courts of appeals and advising Division leadership on complex issues of federal law. Additionally, he clerked for Judge Steven M. Colloton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History at Northwestern University School of Law
Stephen Presser is a leading American legal historian and expert on shareholder liability for corporate debts. He is frequently an invited witness before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on issues of constitutional law. He holds a joint appointment with the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and also teaches in Northwestern's history department.
Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Paul Avelar is the Managing Attorney of the Institute for Justice Arizona Office. He joined the Institute in March 2010 and litigates free speech, property rights, economic liberty, school choice and other constitutional cases in federal and state courts.
As the head of IJ’s national Braiding Freedom Initiative, Paul represents natural hair braiders across the country to protect their right to earn an honest living. The Initiative uses lawsuits, activism and research to remove laws that require potential braiders to undergo hundreds of costly training hours just to braid hair. Since IJ launched the Braiding Freedom Initiative in 2014, 12 additional states have freed braiders from unnecessary licensing burdens. Paul drafted the model Natural Hair Braiding Protection Act, which has been adopted in Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Texas and South Dakota. He is currently representing braiders in Missouri, where state laws infringe upon their right to earn an honest living.
In his free speech work, Paul has challenged numerous laws that trample First Amendment rights. In Arizona Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett, he represented candidates and independent groups in a successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the “matching funds” provision of Arizona’s publicly financed elections system. He represented grassroots groups and individuals in Arizona, Mississippi and Washington, where state laws burdened their political speech by requiring them to register with the government, to navigate complex regulations and to face fines and possible criminal penalties merely because they talked about political issues. In Washington, Paul protected a lawyer’s right to defend, pro-bono, the First Amendment rights of political speakers. Through litigation and legislation, Paul leads the fight against abusive civil forfeiture laws in Arizona and elsewhere.
Paul also co-authored the most comprehensive published study of economic liberty protections in the Arizona Constitution. The Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court appointed Paul to the Task Force on the Review of the Role and Governance Structure of the State Bar of Arizona, where he dissented from the majority report and called on leaders to substantially reform the Bar and state regulation of the practice of law. He often speaks at law schools across the country about constitutional issues and his work at IJ.
Prior to joining IJ-AZ, Paul worked as an attorney in Philadelphia. He clerked for Judge Roger Miner on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Justice Andrew Hurwitz on the Arizona Supreme Court, and Judge Daniel Barker on the Arizona Court of Appeals.
Paul graduated manga cum laude from the Arizona State University College of Law in 2004 and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 2000.
Managing Partner, Statecraft
Kory Langhofer is the Managing Attorney at Statecraft PLLC, a law firm focusing on government and political law. His practice is concentrated in campaign finance, constitutional litigation, and political matters. He has previously worked as a federal prosecutor, as litigation counsel to the presidential campaigns for Mitt Romney and Donald Trump, and as general counsel for the 2016-2017 presidential transition team.
Kory received his A.B. in political science, summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an Editor of The Yale Law Journal.
Osborn Maledon
Andrew G. Pappas is an Assistant Solicitor General in the Office of the Attorney General of Arizona. Mr. Pappas is a member of the California Bar, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. District Courts for the Central District of California, Southern District of California, and Northern District of Illinois. Before joining the Attorney General's Office, Mr. Pappas was an associate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Los Angeles. He graduated from Occidental College in 2004, and from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 2009.
Solicitor General of Oklahoma
Mithun Mansinghani serves as Solicitor General for the State of Oklahoma. He was appointed by Attorney General Mike Hunter in 2017 after serving for the prior two years as Deputy Solicitor General. As Solicitor General, Mr. Mansinghani leads litigation on behalf of the State in appeals, constitutional matters, and relations with the federal government and other states. This includes representing the State in cases before the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prior to joining the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office, Mr. Mansinghani was a lawyer for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., specializing in appeals and administrative law cases. Mr. Mansinghani also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jerry E. Smith on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He received his bachelor's degree magna cum laude in both political science and policy studies from Rice University and his law degree with honors from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Eric Kadel is engaged in a wide variety of corporate, transactional and regulatory matters. He is a member of the Firm’s Corporate and Finance, Financial Services, Investment Management, Alternative Investment Management, Cybersecurity, and Commodities, Futures and Derivatives Groups. With regard to financings, Mr. Kadel regularly represents participants in capital markets transactions, and dealers and end users in connection with structuring and documenting a wide variety of swaps and other derivatives, including equity, credit default and commodity swaps, options and forwards. Mr. Kadel’s work in the investment management area includes advising public and private investment companies and investment advisers on a wide variety of transactional, regulatory, compliance and other matters, including registration and regulation. Mr. Kadel also advises clients of the Firm regarding developments in the laws regulating the financial services industry and on cybersecurity issues. Mr. Kadel is currently an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School.
In addition, Mr. Kadel is one of the principal partners in the Firm’s International Trade and Investment practice. He counsels and represents clients on questions about U.S. economic sanctions, including those administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), United States antiboycott requirements under the Export Administration Regulations administered and enforced by the Commerce Department’s Office of Antiboycott Compliance within the Bureau of Industry and Security, Bank Secrecy Act/anti‐money laundering laws and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). Mr. Kadel’s practice includes analysis of proposed transactions and business relationships; due diligence and design and review of compliance procedures and strategies; and internal investigations, voluntary disclosures and government enforcement actions. Mr. Kadel also regularly advises clients regarding questions arising under Exon-Florio and the transaction review process administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”), and has represented clients before CFIUS on many national security reviews.
Partner & Chair, National Security Practice, Wiley Rein LLP
Of Counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
A member of the Firm’s Financial Services Group, Adam Szubin focuses his practice on financial services and national security, with particular emphasis on economic sanctions, export controls, money laundering and counter terrorism.
Prior to joining Sullivan & Cromwell, Mr. Szubin served for two years as Acting Treasury Department Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. During his nearly 13 year tenure at the Treasury, Mr. Szubin served as the Director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for nine years and Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
As the Acting Under Secretary, he led the policy, enforcement, regulatory, and intelligence functions of the Treasury Department aimed at combating threatening states, international terrorist organizations, proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, narcotics traffickers, and others posing a threat to U.S. national security or foreign policy. As the lead national security official at the Treasury Department, Mr. Szubin also advised the Treasury Secretary and National Security Council on a wide range of economic and security issues, including select matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Earlier in his career, Mr. Szubin served as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice where he also worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Division and was a member of the Terrorism Litigation Task Force.
United States Attorney, Eastern District of Kentucky
Robert M. Duncan, Jr. is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on August 3, 2017, and confirmed by the United States Senate on November 9, 2017.
Prior to his appointment, Duncan had served for more than a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Beginning in 2011 and continuing until his appointment as United States Attorney, Duncan focused on the prosecution of Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force cases, working with federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel to disrupt and dismantle complex drug trafficking and money laundering organizations operating in the District and elsewhere. From 2007 to 2013, Duncan served as coordinator of the office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods Program, a Department of Justice initiative to reduce gun and gang crime through education, community outreach, and prosecution.
Attorney, Sheehey Furlong & Behm P.C.
Christina E. Nolan, the former United States Attorney for Vermont, is a principal in the firm. She focuses on complex civil litigation, defense of government enforcement actions, false claims act defense and enforcement, white collar and serious felony criminal defense, and internal investigations. Having previously served as a state and federal prosecutor, Christina has tried more than a dozen cases to juries, regularly handled evidentiary hearings before federal and state trial courts, and appeared several times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Christina, a native Vermonter, was employed from 2010 to 2021 at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Vermont (USAO), serving first as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division for nearly 8 years, and then leading the office as U.S. Attorney from November 2017 until March 2021. Following the bipartisan recommendation of Senator Patrick Leahy and Governor Phil Scott, Christina was nominated for the chief law enforcement officer post by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Attorney, Christina supervised all federal criminal and civil investigations and prosecutions in Vermont, served as chief spokesperson for federal law enforcement and the USAO, and partnered with community leaders and government officials to promote criminal justice policies and launch community-based and law enforcement initiatives.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr selected Christina as one of a dozen U.S. Attorneys to sit on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which advises the Attorney General on all aspects of criminal and civil policy. Christina chaired the Advisory Committee’s Controlled Substances Subcommittee (CSS), and was a member of its Health Care Fraud and Domestic Violence Working Groups. Christina also cochaired the Justice Department’s initiative to combat sexual harassment in housing during the pandemic and helped lead the Attorney General’s effort to implement police reform pursuant to the 2020 Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities. In her capacity as leader of the CSS, Christina testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee concerning fentanyl enforcement policy and proposed fentanyl legislation. In Vermont, Christina sat on Governor Scott’s Opioid Coordination, Substance Misuse, and Emergency Preparedness Councils and cochaired the Vermont Human Trafficking Task Force.
As U.S. Attorney, Christina actively supervised a range of criminal and civil cases involving drug trafficking; firearms and violence; human trafficking; organized crime; child exploitation; wire, health care, bank, and securities fraud; embezzlement and money laundering; government contracting fraud; medical malpractice; and federal False Claims Act enforcement. Under Christina’s leadership, the USAO resolved criminal felony antikickback charges and civil False Claims Act claims against Purdue Pharma L.P. as part of the largest criminal resolution ever reached against a pharmaceutical company; charged the largest fraud case in Vermont history relating to the EB-5/Jay Peak financial scandal in the Northeast Kingdom and obtained a guilty plea from the lead defendant; and secured unprecedented False Claims Act civil and criminal settlements against healthcare companies that garnered national attention.
As a federal prosecutor, Christina investigated and prosecuted financial, narcotics, violent, child exploitation, and other crimes. She tried six federal cases to juries, each trial resulting in conviction. Among her most notable cases was the prosecution and conviction of Richard Monroe for the drug-related murder of University of Vermont student, Kevin DeOliveira, in Burlington. Monroe is serving a 25-year sentence. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, Christina was also tasked with oversight of all opioid trafficking prosecutions and investigations in Eastern Vermont and served as the USAO’s Violent Crime Coordinator.
Before joining the USAO, Christina served as an Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, where she tried numerous cases to juries and prosecuted a variety of state crimes, including DUI, drug trafficking, firearms, and domestic violence matters. From 2005 to 2009, Nolan worked as a litigation associate at Goodwin Procter, LLP, a large Boston law firm. In that role, she represented white collar defendants, conducted internal investigation, supervised complex civil litigation, and played a managerial role in the representation of a corporate executive in a high-profile federal securities fraud prosecution. The securities fraud case ended in dismissal of charges against the client.
After law school, Christina clerked for The Honorable F. Dennis Saylor, IV of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Christina graduated magna cum laude from Boston College Law School in 2004, where she served a Senior Editor on the Boston College Law Review. She earned her Bachelor’s degrees in political science and history from the University of Vermont, where she graduated summa cum laude.
Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy, The University of Chicago
Tomas J. Philipson is the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and directs the Becker Friedman Institute’s Program on Foundational Research in Health Care Markets and Policies within the Health Economics Initiative. He is also an associate member of the Department of Economics and a former senior lecturer at the Law School. His research focuses on health economics, and he teaches master's and PhD courses in microeconomics and health economics at the University.
Philipson is a US citizen but was born and raised in Sweden where he obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Uppsala University. He received his MA and PhD in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting faculty member at Yale University and a visiting senior fellow at the World Bank.
Philipson has served in several public sector positions. He served in the second Bush Administration as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Food and Drug Administration and subsequently as the senior economic advisor to the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He served as a health care advisor to Senator John McCain during his campaign for President of the United States. He was appointed by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to the Key Indicator Commission created by the Affordable Care Act. He has served as a scientific advisor to Congress on the 21st Century Cures legislation and on the steering committee of Vice President Biden's Cancer Moon Shot Initiative.
Philipson is the recipient of numerous international and national research awards. He has twice been the recipient of the highest honor of his field: the Kenneth Arrow Award of the International Health Economics Association (for best paper in the field of health economics). In addition, he was awarded the Garfield Award by Research America, The Prêmio Haralambos Simeonidisand from the Brazilian Economic Association, and the Distinguished Economic Research Award from the Milken Institute. Philipson has been awarded numerous grants and awards from both public and private agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Philipson is a founding editor of the journal Forums for Health Economics & Policy of Berkeley Electronic Press and has been on the editorial board of the journal Health Economics and The European Journal of Health Economics. His research has been published widely in all leading academic journals of economics such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Health Economics, Health Affairs, and Econometrica.
Philipson is a fellow, board member, or associate of a number of other organizations outside the University of Chicago, including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute (where he was chairman of Project FDA), the Heartland Institute, the Milken Institute, the RAND Corporation, and the USC Shaeffer Center for Health Economics and Policy. At the University of Chicago, he is affiliated with the John M. Olin Program of Law & Economics, the George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State, the Population Research Center, and NORC. He has served on the University-wide Council on Research and on the Advisory Committee to the University's Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer.
Philipson has done executive consulting for both private corporations, including many US Fortune 100 companies, as well as government organizations domestically and internationally. This has included work for the President's Council on Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences, and the UK National Health Service. It has also included work for multi-lateral organizations such as the World Bank, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the OECD. In 2007 he co-founded Precision Heath Economics LLC, which was sold in 2015 to Precision for Medicine Group LLC.
Philipson’s research is frequently disseminated through the popular press. He is a monthly op-ed contributor for Forbes magazine and frequently appears in numerous popular media outlets such as CNN, CBS, FOX News, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, The Economist, Washington Post, Investor's Business Daily, and USA Today. He is a frequent keynote speaker at many domestic and international health care events and conferences.
Senior Fellow, Cato Institute
Jeffrey A. Singer is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and works in the Department of Health Policy Studies. He is principal and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics Ltd., the largest and oldest group private surgical practice in Arizona, and has been in private practice as a general surgeon for more than 35 years.
He is also a visiting fellow at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Singer is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health. From 1994 to 2016, he was a regular contributor to Arizona Medicine, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University from 2014 to 2018 and is an adjunct instructor in the Program on Political History and Leadership at ASU. He writes and speaks extensively on regional and national public policy, with a specific focus on the areas of health care policy and the harmful effects of drug prohibition.
He received his BA from Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and his MD from New York Medical College. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Foreign Policy in the Biden Administration
Eric J. Kadel, Nazak Nikakhtar, Adam J. Szubin
This virtual event examined current national security issues, including relations with China, as well as...
Foreign Policy in the Biden Administration
Eric J. Kadel, Nazak Nikakhtar, Adam J. Szubin
This virtual event examined current national security issues, including relations with China, as well as...
Calhoun at Yale: Ground Rules of Cancel Culture
Phoenix Lawyers Chapter
Phoenix, AZPanel 2: What Does the CFPB's Future Hold?
Christopher L. Peterson, Nanci L. Weissgold, Todd J. Zywicki, Brian C. Johnson
On July 19, 2021, the Federalist Society's Financial Services and E-Commerce Practice Group sponsored an...
Panel 2: What Does the CFPB's Future Hold?
Christopher L. Peterson, Nanci L. Weissgold, Todd J. Zywicki, Brian C. Johnson
On July 19, 2021, the Federalist Society's Financial Services and E-Commerce Practice Group sponsored an...
9th Annual Supreme Court Round Up
Tulsa Lawyers Chapter Event
Tulsa, OKForeign Policy in the Biden Administration
International & National Security Law Practice Group Teleforum
TeleforumThe End of Independent Agencies? Restoring Presidential Control of the Executive Branch
Andrew Grossman, Sean Sandoloski
On the day that President Joe Biden took office, among his first official acts was...
Should the “Hollow Core” of Constitutional Theory Be Filled with the Framers’ Intentions?
Stephen B. Presser
A Review of The Hollow Core of Constitutional Theory: Why We Need the Framers, by...
Opioids in 2021: Enforcement Strategies and Policy Prescriptions
Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group Teleforum
Teleforum