Senior Counsel, Chair, Religious Institutions and Education Practice Groups, First Liberty Institute
Jeremy Dys, Esq., is Senior Counsel for First Liberty.
Dys earned his law degree from West Virginia University College of Law in 2005. After law school, Dys clerked for the Hon. Russell M. Clawges, Jr., chief judge of the Circuit Court of Monongalia County in Morgantown, West Virginia. For six years prior to joining First Liberty Institute, Dys led a public policy organization where he led research and advocacy efforts on matters of life, marriage, and religious freedom.
Dys graduated from Taylor University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, degree in Communication Studies, with minors in U.S. History and Philosophy. During his undergraduate career, Dys studied at the American Studies Program in Washington, D.C., where he interned with the late David Orgon Coolidge as part of the Marriage Law Project of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
In support of his clients, Dys has made numerous appearances in local, state, and national television, print, and radio outlets. His written commentaries have been featured at the Wall Street Journal, FoxNews.com, New York Daily News, TheHill.com, Des Moines Register, Dallas Morning News, DailySignal.com, Washington Examiner, Indianapolis Star, Charleston Gazette-Mail, Outcomes Magazine, TheFederalist.com, and others.
Partner, Clement & Murphy PLLC
Erin Murphy is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading Supreme Court and appellate advocates. She has argued dozens of cases in appellate and trial courts throughout the country, including the Supreme Court and nearly all of the federal courts of appeals. Erin is one of only seven women in the top two bands of Chambers & Partners rankings for Appellate Law–Nationwide, and the National Law Journal has named her one of the nation’s “Outstanding Women Lawyers.” Erin has litigated appeals involving myriad provisions of the Constitution, including several cases involving the Constitution’s structural protections of liberty. She has litigated a wide range of statutory issues as well, including cases involving the Affordable Care Act, the Bankruptcy Code, the False Claims Act, the Federal Arbitration Act, the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and more. The National Law Journal named Erin a “Litigation Trailblazer” for her work representing institutional clients, which includes successfully arguing before the Supreme Court on behalf of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Wisconsin State Legislature. Erin also has an active pro bono practice, through which she has successfully represented many religious organizations and adherents, criminal defendants, asylum applicants, adoptive parents, and more.
Erin is an adjunct professor at her alma mater the Georgetown University Law Center, a member and former officer of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a frequent speaker on topics relating to the Supreme Court and appellate advocacy. In her spare time, Erin serves on the boards of directors of Street Law and the Mother of Light Center.
Director, ENRD, Pacific Legal Foundation
Mark Miller is the Director of the Environment and Natural Resources practice group at Pacific Legal Foundation, where he leads the firm’s efforts to protect individuals and small businesses from government overreach in matters involving land and water, and its efforts to encourage America to better harness its abundant natural resources, including energy resources, minerals, timber, and grazing lands. Mark first joined PLF in 2014.
A seasoned appellate specialist, Mark has litigated several high-profile cases for PLF, including Weyerhaeuser v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., and United States v. Robertson, all of them unanimous Supreme Court of the United States wins for property owners fighting federal overreach via the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act.
In 2020, Mark left PLF to serve as General Counsel and later Chief of Staff for then-South-Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. As Noem’s longest-serving chief of staff, he worked behind the scenes to advance limited government, cut red tape, defend individual rights, and promote free-market principles. In 2023, he returned home to PLF.
A frequent commentator and public speaker, Mark regularly appears in print, on radio and TV, and before legislative committees across the country. His commentary and work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, The View, CBN, and Fox News. He is a regular guest each Thursday morning on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel, offering insight on Supreme Court cases and trends.
Mark earned both his undergraduate and law degrees with honors from the University of Florida. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr., and Florida state appellate Judge Emerson R. Thompson, Jr.—two mentors who deepened his commitment to the Bill of Rights, especially the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.
Mark serves on the Board of Trustees for the University of Florida College of Law, and he is a member of the boards of directors for both Americans United for Life, the nation’s oldest pro-life non-profit law firm, and Farm of the Child USA, a nonprofit that supports an orphanage and school for children in need in Honduras called La Finca del Niño.
Partner, Torridon Law
Pat Cipollone most recently served as Counsel to the President for President Donald J. Trump, where he managed and led legal strategy on matters throughout the Administration and provided counsel on issues of highest national importance in the federal government.
Pat has a distinguished record of service as counsel in a broad variety of complex legal matters. For most of his career, Pat was a senior partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. After Kirkland & Ellis, Pat became a member of the Management Committee and head of the litigation practice at Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato & Missner LLP, a leading litigation firm based in Washington, D.C.
Throughout his career, Pat has served as counsel in a broad variety of cases including complex litigation matters and class actions; significant investigations and regulatory disputes involving state and federal agencies; consumer fraud and insurance litigation and investigations; product liability cases; constitutional cases; complex contract and commercial disputes; business torts; campaign finance; corporate crisis matters; health care matters; and large construction disputes. Most recently, Pat served as lead counsel for the defense in the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history.
Pat graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was managing editor of the Chicago Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from Fordham University.
Senior Counsel for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs, Boeing
Adam Gustafson is a Senior Counsel for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs at Boeing.
Prior to joining Boeing, he served as Deputy General Counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to that, he was a partner at Boyden Gray & Associates, where he represented States, federal judges, environmental groups, biofuel producers, agricultural interests, and public policy organizations, on such issues as the constitutional separation of powers, the First Amendment, automotive regulations, environmental computer models, healthcare regulation, and judicial deference to federal agencies.
Mr. Gustafson received his J.D. in 2009 from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, a managing editor of the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, and an executive editor of the symposium issue of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
Mr. Gustafson served as a Vice President of the Yale Law School Federalist Society. He was a Coker Fellow, and his legal writing won the Joseph A. Chubb Competition Prize and the Edward D. Robbins Memorial Prize.
Mr. Gustafson graduated with high distinction in 2005 from the University of Virginia, where he was an Echols Scholar, a member of the Raven Society, a member of the rowing team, and a Lawn resident.
Before joining Boyden Gray & Associates, Mr. Gustafson was an associate at Cooper & Kirk, where he specialized in appellate litigation. Mr. Gustafson served as a law clerk to Judge Richard R. Clifton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and to Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Executive Counsel - Issues and Advocacy, Exxon Mobil Corporation Law Department
Robert Levy serves as Executive Counsel at ExxonMobil, where he leads the company’s legal strategy on advocacy and civil justice reform. His work includes representing ExxonMobil in state and national organizations dedicated to improving the legal system and the rule of law, coordinating amicus support on key policy and litigation matters, and advising on data privacy and information governance. He previously oversaw the company’s eDiscovery compliance and cybersecurity law initiatives.
Robert currently chairs the Board of the American Tort Reform Association and previously served as President of the Civil Justice Reform Group. He is Treasurer of Lawyers for Civil Justice (LCJ), chairs its Discovery Committee, and serves on its Amicus Committee. He is also actively involved with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform and Litigation Center and sits on the Executive Committee of the Texas Civil Justice League. Additionally, he is an active member of the Federalist Society and its In-House Counsel Network.
A long-standing member of the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee, Robert has served for over 14 years and currently chairs one of its subcommittees. He also sits on the Advisory Councils of the Atlantic Legal Foundation, the Center for Law & Public Policy, and the Mountain States Legal Foundation. In recognition of his leadership, LCJ awarded him with the Al Cortese Award for his contributions to civil justice reform. Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Texas Civil Justice League have honored Robert for his years of service to TCJL and Texas civil justice reform.
He has also been deeply engaged in community and bar activities, serving for over a decade on the board of Houston Volunteer Lawyers and on the board of the Houston Jewish Federation. He is a former Chair of the Board of Robert M. Beren Academy, where he was honored with the Dena and Baruch Brody Award for his leadership and service. Additionally, he served as President of United Orthodox Synagogues, reflecting his longstanding commitment to faith-based and civic leadership.
Robert is a frequent speaker at legal conferences and continuing legal education (CLE) programs. Early in his career, he served as a briefing attorney for the Honorable Judge Robert Parker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. He has practiced law for over 39 years and earned his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 1986.
Before joining ExxonMobil, Robert was a partner at Haynes and Boone, LLP for over 14 years, where he practiced in the Business Litigation Section. He also held positions at Johnson & Gibbs and Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
Robert and his wife Barbara reside in Houston, Texas, where they raised four children and now enjoy their role as proud grandparents to three grandchildren.
General Counsel, Saronic Technologies
Tobi Young is the General Counsel of Saronic Technologies. Her responsibilities include managing global legal affairs, regulatory compliance, litigation, risk management, and government security, and corporate governance.
Tobi brings over 20 years of experience with sophisticated legal, regulatory, and compliance issues through leadership roles in all three branches of the federal government and in Fortune 500 companies. Among other governmental positions, she has been an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice and in the Office of the White House Counsel; a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch; and a press secretary for Congressman J.C. Watts. Tobi also currently serves as the Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee on the Halliburton Board of Directors (NYSE: HAL).
Tobi grew up in Oklahoma and is a proud member of the Chickasaw Nation. She recently became the youngest inductee into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame. Tobi now lives in Austin with her husband Evan, a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court, and their daughter Romilly.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Justice
Harmeet K. Dhillon is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. She was nominated by President Donald Trump in December 2024. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 3, 2025, and sworn in as AAG by Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 7, 2025.
Prior to joining the Division, Ms. Dhillon founded both the Dhillon Law Group, Inc., a successful legal practice with offices in California, Florida, Virginia, and New Jersey; and the Center for American Liberty, a nonprofit organization dedicated to pursuing civil liberties legal claims. Her law practice focused on First Amendment / free speech, civil rights, and campaign and election law issues. Among her many notable cases, Ms. Dhillon brought legal challenges against the University of California, Berkeley over its free speech policy, against an Antifa organization for an assault on a conservative journalist, against several states for their restrictive responses to Covid-19, and against various large tech companies for a host of civil rights issues.
Assistant Attorney General Dhillon was born in Chandigarh, India, and lived in London before moving to The Bronx, New York. Her family ultimately settled in rural Smithfield, North Carolina. After graduating high school at age 16, Ms. Dhillon attended Dartmouth College where she became editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review. After earning her bachelor’s degree in Classical Studies, she attended the University of Virginia School of Law and served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review. She later clerked for the Honorable Paul V. Niemeyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Baltimore, Maryland.
Attorney General, Nebraska
Nebraskans elected Mike Hilgers to be their 33rd Attorney General in 2022. As Attorney General, Mike will work to keep Nebraskans and their families safe, protect their rights, ensure the integrity of our constitutional structure, help our law enforcement officials around the state, and protect our natural resources, including our water supplies.
Before taking office, Mike was an experienced private practice attorney, successful entrepreneur, and legislator.
Mike was in private practice for over fifteen years, handling complex litigation and discovery disputes in state and federal court. After practicing at a large law firm, Mike founded his own litigation law firm. Mike built that firm from nothing into one of the fastest growing practices in the country. Before leaving his practice to take office as Nebraska’s Attorney General, the firm had over 100 professionals and handled cases around the country. Mike started his private practice after clerking for Judge Edith Clement on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Mike graduated of the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the law review.
Before taking office as Attorney General, Mike spent six years serving the people of Northwest Lincoln and Lancaster County in the Legislature (District 21), serving his last two as the Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature. In the Legislature Mike introduced and passed a wide variety of legislation to help Nebraskans around the state, from legislation to protect constitutional rights, to protecting our water, to supporting law enforcement.
Mike and his wife, Heather, are raising their four children Alice, Elsie, Clara Jane, and Michael Jr. They are raising their family in Lincoln.
Chief Legal Officer & EVP Strategy and Corporate Affairs, Purdue Pharma L.P.
Marc Kesselman was appointed General Counsel of Purdue Pharma L.P. in July 2018, with responsibility for Purdue’s legal strategy, corporate governance, compliance, and government affairs. He has since been promoted to Chief Legal Officer and EVP Strategy & Corporate Affairs with added oversight of strategy, business development, human resources, security, and communications. Marc joined Purdue Pharma after the company came under intense scrutiny and is helping to engineer a corporate turnaround. Under Marc's leadership, Purdue has secured initial approval of its plan to emerge as a public-minded company dedicated to abating the opioid crisis, responsibly manufacturing and distributing opioid analgesics, and advancing a robust pipeline of non-opioid medicines with the promise of addressing serious medical conditions.
Prior to joining Purdue Pharma, Marc worked for YUM! Brands, Inc. where he served as Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary & Chief Public Policy Officer. In that role, he oversaw all aspects of legal, compliance, regulatory, government affairs, and sustainability agendas for one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, with more than 45,000 restaurants in 135 countries and territories. Marc joined Yum! from Dean Foods where he held a similar role. Previously, he was Senior Vice President & General Counsel at PepsiCo America’s Foods where he oversaw a wide variety of complex commercial, transactional, litigation, regulatory, and government affairs issues relating to PepsiCo's food businesses in North and South America.
From 2006 through 2008, Marc served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he advised the Secretary of Agriculture and directed all legal activity for the Department. For the previous three years, he served as Deputy General Counsel in the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he handled a variety of regulatory, budgetary and legal policy matters. Marc also worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as Senior Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and as a Trial Attorney in its Civil Division. His work there earned him the John Marshall Award, the Attorney General’s highest recognition for trial of litigation.
Marc currently serves on the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Litigation Center, and the Penn Law Alumni Board of Managers. He has previously served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, on the Board of the Dallas Symphony, on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and as Chair of the DC Bar Administrative Law Section. He has been named as one of the most influential General Counsel in America by Chambers & Partners, and twice named to the D CEO list of the most influential business leaders in Dallas. In 2023, Marc was named a "Legend in the Law" by the Burton Awards in association with the American Bar Association and the Library of Congress.
Marc holds a JD with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Government magna cum laude from Cornell University.
Partner, Cooper & Kirk PLLC
Adam Paul Laxalt is a partner at Cooper & Kirk which he joined in March 2019. Mr. Laxalt served as Nevada’s 33rd Attorney General from 2015-2019. Mr. Laxalt graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown University and also graduated from Georgetown University Law Center. He is a former Navy and Iraq War veteran. Mr. Laxalt also served as an Assistant Professor of Law at the U.S. Naval Academy.
As Nevada’s Attorney General and top law-enforcement officer, Mr. Laxalt supervised all criminal and civil matters for Nevada’s largest law office. He provided strategic direction and supervision of almost 400 employees, thousands of legal matters, and nearly 50 trials. Mr. Laxalt served as chief legal counsel for the state of Nevada, as well as to Constitutional Officers, state agencies, boards, and commissions. He managed approximately $1.2 billion in potential civil liabilities for the state.
As a former member of the military, Laxalt’s support of service members culminated in the creation of the Office of Military Legal Assistance, a first-of-its-kind program that provides Nevada’s military members with free legal representation. The program was recently named a “Best Practice Program” by the Department of Defense with a recommendation for duplication in states throughout the country, and to date, has helped military personnel and veterans handle over 210 pro bono matters.
Consistent with his commitment to defending our nation’s constitutional principles and protecting the important role of the States in our federalist system of government, Laxalt created Nevada’s first ever Federalism Unit within the Attorney General’s Office. To protect the interests of Nevadans, the Federalism Unit has challenged multiple occasions of unlawful federal overreach, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the United States Rule, the Bureau of Land Management’s Sage Grouse Plan, and other instances of unilateral federal executive orders. The Unit has also filed friend of the court briefs on many important issues including public roads, Environmental Protection Agency overreach, federal interference with Nevada’s criminal justice system and Second Amendment issues.
Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Brett A. Shumate was sworn in as the Civil Division’s 36th Assistant Attorney General on June 11, 2025. He previously served in the Civil Division from 2017 to 2019 as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Federal Programs Branch. Prior to rejoining the Department, Mr. Shumate was a partner at Jones Day in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Shumate clerked for Judge Edith H. Jones on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He graduated from Wake Forest University School of Law and Furman University.
Principal Deputy Solicitor General, Commonwealth of Virginia
Erika Maley was the Solicitor General of the Commonwealth of Virginia, representing the Commonwealth and its agencies in state and federal courts of appeals. Erika was previously a partner in the Supreme Court and Appellate group at Sidley Austin LLP, and a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She has handled cases before the United States Supreme Court, Virginia Supreme Court, courts of appeals and district courts, involving a wide range of constitutional, statutory and administrative law issues. Erika also served as a law clerk both for Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the United States Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She earned her law degree from Stanford Law School and her B.A. from Duke University.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
John B. Nalbandian serves as a United States Circuit Judge from Kentucky on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was nominated and confirmed to that position in 2018. Prior to that, Judge Nalbandian was a partner in the litigation practice group of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Cincinnati, where he served as the firm’s lead appellate lawyer and also practiced complex litigation in state and federal courts. Judge Nalbandian was board certified by the Ohio State Bar Association as a specialist in appellate law. Prior to joining Taft, Judge Nalbandian practiced for five years in the appellate section of Jones Day in Washington, DC. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Nalbandian clerked for the Honorable Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston. While in private practice, he also served as a board member of the State Justice Institute, a nonprofit organization established by the federal government to improve the administration of justice in state courts. He served as President of the Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. He has also been involved in his community as a board member of the Greater Cincinnati Minority Counsel Program, and as a board member of the Asian Pacific Bar Association of Southwest Ohio. Judge Nalbandian earned his B.S., magna cum laude, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and served as managing editor of the Virginia Law Review.
Dan Schweitzer is the Director and Chief Counsel of the National Association of Attorneys General’s Center for Supreme Court Advocacy. Since joining NAAG in February 1996, his principal responsibility has been to assist state appellate litigators who appear before the United States Supreme Court. Toward this end, Mr. Schweitzer organizes and participates in moot courts, edits about 20 state briefs filed each year in the Court, edits the biweekly Supreme Court Report, and provides strategic and technical assistance to state Attorney General offices. Prior to joining NAAG, Mr. Schweitzer was a litigator at a private law firm. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A. 1986) and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1989).
Among Mr. Schweitzer’s publications are How to Write a Successful Brief in Opposition: A Guide for State Lawyers (NAGTRI 2019); How to Write a Successful Cert Petition: A Guide for State Lawyers (NAGTRI 2019); U.S. Supreme Court Brief Writing Style Guide, 19 J. of App. Practice & Process 129 (2018); The Law of Preemption (NAGTRI 2011); Frustrated with Preemption: Why Courts Should Rarely Displace State Law Under the Doctrine of Frustration Preemption, 65 N.Y.U. Annual Survey of American Law 585 (2010) (with Kevin O. Leske); and Fundamentals of Preparing a United States Supreme Court Amicus Brief, 5 J. of App. Practice & Process 523 (2003).
Mr. Schweitzer is a Master in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court and on the Advisory Board of the Georgetown University Law Center’s Supreme Court Institute.
General Counsel, University of Kentucky & Former Solicitor General of Virginia, University of Kentucky
William E. Thro, the General Counsel of the University of Kentucky, is an accomplished university attorney, appellate advocate, and legal scholar.
As the Chief Legal Officer for the University of Kentucky, he provides proactive strategic advice on critical legal and policy issues confronting a public flagship land grant research university with an integrated academic medical center and a high profile athletics program. Before assuming his present position in 2012, he spent more than twenty years representing public universities including eight years as the first in-house counsel at Christopher Newport University.
As Solicitor General of Virginia for four years, he was responsible for the Virginia State Government’s U.S. Supreme Court litigation (except capital cases) as well as lower court appeals involving the constitutionality of statutes or politically sensitive issues. He argued two cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous cases in the lower appellate courts. He co-authored seven U.S. Court merits briefs, eleven U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs, and more than fifty briefs at the petition stage. He received two Best Brief Awards from the National Association of Attorneys General.
As a legal scholar, he focuses on constitutional law in educational contexts. He has more than sixty publications in law reviews or peer reviewed journals as well as numerous monographs, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries. In recognition of his scholarly work, he received Stetson University’s Kaplin Award for Excellence in Higher Education Law & Policy Scholarship (2014) and became a Fellow of both the National Education Finance Conference (2012) and the National Association of College and University Attorneys (2007).
He has served as President of the Education Law Association, Chair of the Virginia Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Section, Board Chair for a local Red Cross Chapter, on the Boards of both the National Association of College & University Attorneys and the National Education Finance Academy, and an Elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
A native of Kentucky, he received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Hanover College. In addition to receiving the Crowe Citation as the outstanding male in his class, he was the first Hanover student to become a Harry S. Truman Scholar. He earned a graduate degree with honours from the University of Melbourne while attending as a Rotary Foundation International Ambassadorial Scholar. His law degree is from the University of Virginia where he was a published member of the VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW and research assistant to constitutional law professor A.E. Dick Howard. He began his legal career as a judicial clerk to the late Judge Ronald E. Meredith of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky in Louisville.
He is married to the Rev. Dr. Julie Urback Thro and has two children in college (Sandra, Will) and one in high school (Noah).
Senior Fellow, Independent Women's Forum; Clinical Associate Professor, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine
Dr. Ahmed is a physician, non-fiction author and broadcast media commentator. Her work has been published in The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Spectator, Al Jazeera, The Independent, USA Today, The Daily Beast, the World Policy Journal, Fox News, CNN, and many others.
Dr. Ahmed is the first physician, and first Muslim woman, to be awarded the Templeton-Cambridge Fellowship in Journalism at the University of Cambridge, England.
In 2012, she testified to Congress on Radical Islam in the United States. She subsequently has provided Congressional Briefings at the invitation of Congressional Staff on the issues of Palestinian child radicalization in the Disputed Territories. In 2016, she was nominated to Life Membership at the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States in recognition of her journalistic work focusing on Islamism.
A graduate of the University of Nottingham, Dr. Ahmed has practiced subspecialty medicine in the United Kingdom, the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Currently, a triple board-certified pulmonologist and sleep disorders specialist, Dr. Ahmed is currently appointed Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, an Honorary Professor at the School of Health and Life Sciences at Glasgow Caledonian University and an Honorary Fellow at the Technion-Israel Institute of Science and Technology. She is a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
In December 2015 Dr. Ahmed was naturalized as an American citizen. Today, she maintains dual British and U.S. citizenship and lives in New York where she continues to write and practice medicine.
Founder, Libertas-West Project
Karen Lugo is a constitutional law consultant and national security analyst. She was Director of the Center for Tenth Amendment at Texas Public Policy Foundation from 2013 to 2015. When living in California, she was Co-Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence Center. From 2005 – 2012, she was a clinical visiting and adjunct professor at Chapman University School of Law where she co-taught the advanced Constitutional Law Clinic. Karen has co-authored and written circuit-level and Supreme Court amicus briefs on such issues as FISA Surveillance, Healthcare Reform, Arizona’s Border Security, Gay Marriage, The Ten Commandments, Eminent Domain, Christian Clubs on University Campuses, and Material Support for Terrorists.
Karen is the founder of the Libertas-West Project, a center for study Islamic integration and radicalization issues. In this capacity, she consulted with the Center for Security Policy to write a book on local over-watch of mosque construction and community engagement called: Mosques in America: A Guide to Accountable Permit Hearings and Continuing Citizen Oversight.
Karen writes and speaks for European and American groups on the importance of basing assimilation efforts on principles of Western exceptionalism. She presented a policy brief to the French Conseil d’Etat analyzing the legal implications of banning the burqa. Ms. Lugo has written one of the most comprehensive overviews of sharia law in American courts, American Family Law and Sharia-Compliant Marriages, for the Federalist Society law journal, Engage. She has written several white papers on the American Law for American Courts legislation and sharia tribunals in America.
Ms. Lugo was an appointee to the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She also taught a Human Rights law course on the contrast between French and English Enlightenment theories in Strasbourg, France.
Until moving from California, Ms. Lugo was a member of the David Horowitz Freedom Center Board of Directors. She was also a regular guest on the Orange County PBS local issues debate program, Inside OC, and she is a contributor to Pajamas Media, National Review Online, City Journal, American Spectator, American Greatness, Townhall.com, American Thinker, Daily Caller, and Family Security Matters. She has been interviewed by dozens of radio hosts and has spoken for civic groups on constitutional and cultural concerns.
Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford), as well as the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. He recently retired from teaching at UCLA, after 30 years there, and is now focusing on research.
Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (8th ed. 2023), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 academic law journal articles, mostly on First Amendment law. He is a member of The American Law Institute; the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Free Speech Law; and the creator and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog founded in 2002 (hosted at the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017 and now at Reason Magazine).
Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Prior to coming to First Liberty, Nate was the Founder and Chief Counsel of the Center for Religious Expression.
For over 3 decades, Nate has defended religious liberty in courtrooms all over the country. He has handled more than 500 litigated cases and 50 appeals before various federal appellate courts regarding, winning numerous landmark decisions, including Brindley v. City of Memphis, Johnson v. Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, Boardley v. Dept. of Interior and Brown v. Polk County.
Nate is also a sought after speaker and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including Huckabee, Hannity, Fox and Friends, and the Hugh Hewitt show. He has been frequently quoted in major print media, like Time magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and USA Today. He has also written op-eds and articles for various media outlets, including Townhall, American Thinker, One News Now, and was a regular contributor for the Christian Post.
Nate earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi, graduating with honors in 1988. He is admitted to state bars in Tennessee and Mississippi, as well as numerous federal appellate courts.
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
TOBIAS LOSS-EATON is an appellate and regulatory litigator who helps clients navigate complex, novel, or high-stakes legal issues, from the earliest strategy discussions to the U.S. Supreme Court. Chambers USA, which has ranked him for Transport: Rail (for Railroads) in USA—Nationwide (2023–2025), notes his “impressive experience,” with clients reporting that he is “a fantastic lawyer” and “an excellent civil litigation advocate” who “provides great client service.” One client tells Chambers: “Tobias is my first call when there is no playbook for complex issues. He approaches issues with calm, reasoned discernment. His judgment, intellect and writing abilities are top-rate.”
As a member of Sidley’s Supreme Court & Appellate and Regulatory Litigation practices, Tobias has extensive experience challenging and defending state and federal agency actions and regulations, including in the environmental, trade, securities, and healthcare sectors. That experience includes addressing the key threshold questions of when, where, and how to press an issue in the proper judicial forum—including issues of personal jurisdiction, sovereign immunity, federal removal jurisdiction, and abstention. It also includes substantial experience with federal preemption and Takings Clause issues. Tobias also has significant experience in complex contractual and commercial disputes, including cases involving the Federal Arbitration Act and insurance and reinsurance issues.
Tobias is also part of Sidley’s top-ranked Transportation group. Chambers USA highlights his strong experience advising and litigating on behalf of the nation’s largest freight railroads (2023–2025). He has represented the railroads in many cases involving federal preemption or preclusion, contractual disputes, challenges to regulatory action, and the proper interpretation of the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). He also advises and litigates on behalf of airline-industry clients on preemption, regulatory, and commercial issues. So far in 2025, Tobias and the Transportation team have won three precedent-setting appeals, in the Fourth and Seventh Circuits and the Virginia Supreme Court.
Tobias prides himself on clearly explaining complex legal issues to busy generalist judges. One prominent legal writing expert has praised Tobias’s briefs as better than the typical work product of “elite” Supreme Court advocates. Tobias has written or coauthored over 185 briefs in state and federal appellate courts, including over 90 briefs in the Supreme Court. He has presented oral argument in the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits and in state appellate and supreme courts, producing successful results for his clients in 70% of the appeals he has argued.
Tobias is a co-director of the Carter G. Phillips/Sidley Austin LLP Supreme Court Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he teaches Supreme Court advocacy, moots advocates preparing for merits arguments, and supervises students working with Sidley lawyers on cases at the Court.
Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Prior to coming to First Liberty, Nate was the Founder and Chief Counsel of the Center for Religious Expression.
For over 3 decades, Nate has defended religious liberty in courtrooms all over the country. He has handled more than 500 litigated cases and 50 appeals before various federal appellate courts regarding, winning numerous landmark decisions, including Brindley v. City of Memphis, Johnson v. Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, Boardley v. Dept. of Interior and Brown v. Polk County.
Nate is also a sought after speaker and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including Huckabee, Hannity, Fox and Friends, and the Hugh Hewitt show. He has been frequently quoted in major print media, like Time magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and USA Today. He has also written op-eds and articles for various media outlets, including Townhall, American Thinker, One News Now, and was a regular contributor for the Christian Post.
Nate earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi, graduating with honors in 1988. He is admitted to state bars in Tennessee and Mississippi, as well as numerous federal appellate courts.
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
TOBIAS LOSS-EATON is an appellate and regulatory litigator who helps clients navigate complex, novel, or high-stakes legal issues, from the earliest strategy discussions to the U.S. Supreme Court. Chambers USA, which has ranked him for Transport: Rail (for Railroads) in USA—Nationwide (2023–2025), notes his “impressive experience,” with clients reporting that he is “a fantastic lawyer” and “an excellent civil litigation advocate” who “provides great client service.” One client tells Chambers: “Tobias is my first call when there is no playbook for complex issues. He approaches issues with calm, reasoned discernment. His judgment, intellect and writing abilities are top-rate.”
As a member of Sidley’s Supreme Court & Appellate and Regulatory Litigation practices, Tobias has extensive experience challenging and defending state and federal agency actions and regulations, including in the environmental, trade, securities, and healthcare sectors. That experience includes addressing the key threshold questions of when, where, and how to press an issue in the proper judicial forum—including issues of personal jurisdiction, sovereign immunity, federal removal jurisdiction, and abstention. It also includes substantial experience with federal preemption and Takings Clause issues. Tobias also has significant experience in complex contractual and commercial disputes, including cases involving the Federal Arbitration Act and insurance and reinsurance issues.
Tobias is also part of Sidley’s top-ranked Transportation group. Chambers USA highlights his strong experience advising and litigating on behalf of the nation’s largest freight railroads (2023–2025). He has represented the railroads in many cases involving federal preemption or preclusion, contractual disputes, challenges to regulatory action, and the proper interpretation of the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). He also advises and litigates on behalf of airline-industry clients on preemption, regulatory, and commercial issues. So far in 2025, Tobias and the Transportation team have won three precedent-setting appeals, in the Fourth and Seventh Circuits and the Virginia Supreme Court.
Tobias prides himself on clearly explaining complex legal issues to busy generalist judges. One prominent legal writing expert has praised Tobias’s briefs as better than the typical work product of “elite” Supreme Court advocates. Tobias has written or coauthored over 185 briefs in state and federal appellate courts, including over 90 briefs in the Supreme Court. He has presented oral argument in the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits and in state appellate and supreme courts, producing successful results for his clients in 70% of the appeals he has argued.
Tobias is a co-director of the Carter G. Phillips/Sidley Austin LLP Supreme Court Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he teaches Supreme Court advocacy, moots advocates preparing for merits arguments, and supervises students working with Sidley lawyers on cases at the Court.
Senior Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Prior to coming to First Liberty, Nate was the Founder and Chief Counsel of the Center for Religious Expression.
For over 3 decades, Nate has defended religious liberty in courtrooms all over the country. He has handled more than 500 litigated cases and 50 appeals before various federal appellate courts regarding, winning numerous landmark decisions, including Brindley v. City of Memphis, Johnson v. Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, Boardley v. Dept. of Interior and Brown v. Polk County.
Nate is also a sought after speaker and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including Huckabee, Hannity, Fox and Friends, and the Hugh Hewitt show. He has been frequently quoted in major print media, like Time magazine, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and USA Today. He has also written op-eds and articles for various media outlets, including Townhall, American Thinker, One News Now, and was a regular contributor for the Christian Post.
Nate earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi, graduating with honors in 1988. He is admitted to state bars in Tennessee and Mississippi, as well as numerous federal appellate courts.
Partner, Sidley Austin LLP
TOBIAS LOSS-EATON is an appellate and regulatory litigator who helps clients navigate complex, novel, or high-stakes legal issues, from the earliest strategy discussions to the U.S. Supreme Court. Chambers USA, which has ranked him for Transport: Rail (for Railroads) in USA—Nationwide (2023–2025), notes his “impressive experience,” with clients reporting that he is “a fantastic lawyer” and “an excellent civil litigation advocate” who “provides great client service.” One client tells Chambers: “Tobias is my first call when there is no playbook for complex issues. He approaches issues with calm, reasoned discernment. His judgment, intellect and writing abilities are top-rate.”
As a member of Sidley’s Supreme Court & Appellate and Regulatory Litigation practices, Tobias has extensive experience challenging and defending state and federal agency actions and regulations, including in the environmental, trade, securities, and healthcare sectors. That experience includes addressing the key threshold questions of when, where, and how to press an issue in the proper judicial forum—including issues of personal jurisdiction, sovereign immunity, federal removal jurisdiction, and abstention. It also includes substantial experience with federal preemption and Takings Clause issues. Tobias also has significant experience in complex contractual and commercial disputes, including cases involving the Federal Arbitration Act and insurance and reinsurance issues.
Tobias is also part of Sidley’s top-ranked Transportation group. Chambers USA highlights his strong experience advising and litigating on behalf of the nation’s largest freight railroads (2023–2025). He has represented the railroads in many cases involving federal preemption or preclusion, contractual disputes, challenges to regulatory action, and the proper interpretation of the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). He also advises and litigates on behalf of airline-industry clients on preemption, regulatory, and commercial issues. So far in 2025, Tobias and the Transportation team have won three precedent-setting appeals, in the Fourth and Seventh Circuits and the Virginia Supreme Court.
Tobias prides himself on clearly explaining complex legal issues to busy generalist judges. One prominent legal writing expert has praised Tobias’s briefs as better than the typical work product of “elite” Supreme Court advocates. Tobias has written or coauthored over 185 briefs in state and federal appellate courts, including over 90 briefs in the Supreme Court. He has presented oral argument in the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits and in state appellate and supreme courts, producing successful results for his clients in 70% of the appeals he has argued.
Tobias is a co-director of the Carter G. Phillips/Sidley Austin LLP Supreme Court Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, where he teaches Supreme Court advocacy, moots advocates preparing for merits arguments, and supervises students working with Sidley lawyers on cases at the Court.
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