Ohio House of Representatives, District 27
Representative Tom Brinkman is currently serving his second term as state representative, after serving as a member of the Ohio House for four 2-year terms from 2001 to 2008. He represents the 27th Ohio House District, which includes portions of eastern Hamilton County.
An experienced life insurance salesman and a life-long resident of Cincinnati, Representative Brinkman is a graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (1979), with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science.
Rep. Brinkman has received various awards as a legislator, being recognized as Mt. Lookout Civic Club Man of the Year in 2008 and also as Most Principled Legislator twice. He has also received the Watchdog of the Treasury Award three times.
He lives in Mt. Lookout with his wife, Cathy, and six children.
Justice, Ohio Supreme Court
On November 3, 2020 Judge Jennifer Brunner was elected Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. Previously she served as a judge of the Tenth District Court of Appeals for 6 years and the Franklin County Common Pleas Court for nearly 5 years. As a trial court judge Brunner founded the county’s adult felony drug court, known as the TIES (Treatment is Essential to Success) Program, now in its seventeenth year of operation. She was elected Ohio’s first woman Secretary of State on November 7, 2006 and held the office for four years. While in that office, she became the first Ohioan to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award from the bipartisan board of the JFK Library and Museum in Boston. Justice Brunner has 17 years of private law practice experience and has provided rule of law technical expertise to the government of the Republic of Serbia, election observation in the Arab Republic of Egypt, and rule of law instruction at the bar association of Sri Lanka through the U.S. state department (USAID), as well as provided remote rule of law and civic participation training through the American Bar Association to the Republic of Kazakhstan. She has gained a deep understanding of the importance of a strong and well-functioning judiciary to preserving peace and growing democracy through the rule of law. A native of Springfield, Ohio, Justice Brunner has been married to Rick Brunner since 1978. They have 3 adult children and 6 grandchildren, 2 dogs and 2 cats and spend time at their home in Columbus and at their farm in Columbiana County in Northeast Ohio.
Judge, Ohio Twelfth District Court of Appeals
Judge Matthew R. Byrne was elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Twelfth District in 2020, and his first term began on January 1, 2021. He is currently serving as the court's elected Administrative Judge. The Twelfth District Court of Appeals hears civil and criminal appeals from the trial courts in eight counties in southwest Ohio. Judge Byrne is active in the Ohio Judicial Conference and the Ohio Court of Appeals Judges Association. He also currently serves as a member and vice chair of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure (where he previously chaired the Appellate Rules Committee). He previously served as a member of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on Character and Fitness.
From January 2010 to December 2020, Judge Byrne practiced law at the national law firm of Jackson Lewis P.C. He was a member of the firm's General Employment Litigation Practice Group and the Wage and Hour Practice Group. From 2007 to 2010 he practiced at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. At both firms, Judge Byrne represented clients ranging from small businesses to international corporations in state and federal trial and appellate litigation, including multiple class and collective actions. He also represented clients in arbitration and before numerous administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
Judge Byrne earned his law degree, cum laude, from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. During law school he was symposium editor of the Ohio State Law Journal and the winner of the Donald S. Teller Memorial Award for student writing contributing most significantly to the Ohio State Law Journal. During law school he clerked for the Acting General Counsel of the United States Department of the Treasury. Judge Byrne earned his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Xavier University, where he majored in International Affairs (Business) and Political Science.
Prior to entering law school Judge Byrne served in President George W. Bush's Administration as a member of the White House staff in the Office of Presidential Personnel, the office responsible for selecting candidates to recommend to the President for appointment or nomination to high-level government positions, and for coordinating with the Offices of White House Counsel, Press Secretary, and Executive Clerk regarding candidate background clearances, press announcements, and the status of appointments/nominations.
Judge Byrne has been a member of the Federalist Society since law school and he served for five years as president of the Federalist Society's Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter. He is a member of a number of other community and civic organizations, including the Ohio State Bar Association and the bar associations of Butler, Clermont, and Warren Counties. Judge Byrne previously was a member of the Advisory Board of Pregnancy Center East and a board member and president of the St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Greater Cincinnati.
Judge Byrne is an active parishioner at his church, where he is a lector, a former member and president of the Education Commission, and a former member of the Finance and Administration Commission.
Judge Byrne resides in Deerfield Township, Warren County, Ohio with his wife Julie and their three children.
Garwood Visiting Professor and Visiting Fellow, James Madison Pr, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
David F. Forte is Professor of Law at Cleveland State University, where he was the inaugural holder of the Charles R. Emrick, Jr.- Calfee Halter & Griswold Endowed Chair. This fall, Professor Forte will be the Garwood Visiting Professor at Princeton University in the Department of Politics, and Visiting Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He holds degrees from Harvard College, Manchester University, England, the University of Toronto and Columbia University.
During the Reagan administration, Professor Forte served as chief counsel to the United States delegation to the United Nations and alternate delegate to the Security Council. He has authored a number of briefs before the United States Supreme Court, and has frequently testified before the United States Congress and consulted with the Department of State on human rights and international affairs issues. His advice was specifically sought on the approval of the Genocide Convention, on world-wide religious persecution, and Islamic extremism. He has appeared and spoken frequently on radio and television, both nationally and internationally. In 2002, the Department of State sponsored a speaking tour for Professor Forte in Amman, Jordan, and he was also a featured speaker to the Meeting of Peoples in Rimini, Italy, a meeting which gathers over 500,000 people from all over Europe. He has also been called to testify before the state legislatures of Ohio, Kansas, and Idaho as well as the New York City Council. He has assisted in drafting a number of pieces of legislation for the Ohio General Assembly dealing with abortion, international trade, and federalism. He has sat as acting judge on the municipal court of Lakewood Ohio and was chairman of Professional Ethics Committee of the Cleveland Bar Association. He has received a number of awards for his public service, including the Cleveland Bar Association’s President’s Award, the Cleveland State University Award for Distinguished Service, the Cleveland State University Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Alumni Award for Faculty Excellence. He served as Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family under Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. In 2003, Dr. Forte was a Distinguished Fulbright Chair at the University of Trento and returned there in 2004 as a Visiting Professor. For the academic year, 2008-2009, Professor Forte was Senior Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Religion and the Constitution in at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the Robert E. Henderson Constitution Day Lecturer at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, and he has given over 300 invited addresses and papers at more than 100 academic institutions. His work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Professor Forte was a Bradley Scholar at the Heritage Foundation, and Visiting Scholar at the Liberty Fund. He has been President of the Ohio Association of Scholars, was on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Society, and is also adjunct Scholar at the Ashbrook Center. He has been appointed to the Ohio State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He has also been a Civil War re-enactor and a Merit Badge Counselor for the Boy Scouts.
He writes and speaks nationally on topics such as constitutional law, religious liberty, Islamic law, the rights of families, and international affairs. He served as book review editor for the American Journal of Jurisprudence and has edited a volume entitled, Natural Law and Contemporary Public Policy, published by Georgetown University Press. His book, Islamic Law Studies: Classical and Contemporary Applications, has been published by Austin & Winfield. He is Senior Editor of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution (2006), 2d edition (2014), published by Regnery & Co, a clause by clause analysis of the Constitution of the United States.
His teaching competencies include Constitutional Law, the First Amendment, Islamic Law, Jurisprudence, Natural Law, International Law, International Human Rights, the Presidency, and Constitutional History.
Ohio State Senate, District 12
Senator Matt Huffman is currently serving his first term in the Ohio Senate, representing the 12th Senate district which includes all of Allen, Champaign, Mercer and Shelby counties, as well as portions of Auglaize, Darke and Logan counties. He previously served four terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, the last two in leadership positions, including being elected by his fellow legislators to serves as the second highest-ranking member, Speaker Pro Tempore.
Born and raised in Lima, Ohio, Senator Huffman has practiced law for the past 30 years in his family’s private practice law firm in downtown Lima. He has been admitted to practice in all of the state and federal courts in Ohio and is an “AV” rated attorney by the Martindale-Hubbell rating service, the highest rating an attorney can receive. He has represented dozens of small businesses in West Central Ohio.
Senator Huffman began his public service on Lima City Council in 1992, serving until 2006, including the final seven years as City Council President. In 2007, he began his service in the Ohio House of Representatives. During his time in the Ohio Legislature, Senator Huffman championed bills to reform the medical delivery system, protect life at all stages and repeal common core. He has always maintained a strong commitment to the preservation of gun rights.
Senator Huffman has been a tireless advocate of removing unnecessary government regulations and fees and lowering taxes for all Ohioans; he defeated an income tax increase while on Lima City Council and supported the reduction of state income taxes on small business owners and the elimination of the Ohio estate tax. While in the Ohio House, he was named a “Guardian of Small Business” and earned three “Watchdog of the Treasury” awards.
Senator Huffman is deeply concerned about our nation’s debt and was a primary sponsor of a resolution in the Ohio House to call for a convention of the states, as authorized by Article V of the U.S. Constitution, to propose a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. He believes the states must take back the power they have relinquished to the federal government in order for our nation’s debt crisis to be solved.
Senator Huffman is the fifth of nine children born to Lawrence and Shirley Huffman. He graduated from Lima Central Catholic High School in 1978. He then went on to earn his degree in Government from the University of Notre Dame in 1982 and his law degree from the University of Cincinnati School of Law in 1985.
Married for 30 years, Senator Huffman and his wife Sheryl (nee Simoneau) have made their home in Lima, where they have raised four children: Clare, Matthew, Ellen and Sam. In addition to being members of St. Charles Church, he and Sheryl belong to several community organizations including Heartbeat of Lima and the Knights of Columbus. In his free time, he enjoys watching his youngest son, Sam, play collegiate football and referees CYO basketball.
Partner, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP
Larry builds on a wide range of experiences – including as an accomplished attorney, a former President of the Ohio Senate, and a legal academic – to help solve his clients’ most challenging legal problems. Larry focuses on complex litigation, including high-stakes appeals.
Larry is a Partner in the firm’s Litigation practice. He focuses his practice on litigation at both the trial and appellate levels and has experience in a variety of matters involving antitrust, fiduciary duties, torts, contracts, securities, and employment law. These range from standard contract disputes to constitutional challenges against federal statutes to defending against complex class actions.
In addition to his litigation practice, Larry served as a member of the Ohio Senate for nearly a decade. His colleagues unanimously elected him to serve as Senate President, the presiding officer of the 33-member chamber, from 2017-2020. During his time in the Senate, Larry successfully sponsored legislation on a wide range of topics, including education, tax law, elections administration, criminal law, and corporate law. These included a comprehensive update to Ohio’s corporate code and limited liability company law, including the sections setting out fiduciary duties for officers and shareholders. Larry also sponsored significant updates to Ohio’s Control Share Acquisition Act (which governs corporate takeovers). In 2018, he received the Ohio State Bar Association’s Lawyer-Legislator Distinguished Service Award.
Larry has also taught courses on Civil Procedure and Legislation as an adjunct law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He has published legal scholarship on a range of issues including constitutional law, education, law and economics, and securities. He has been cited in roughly 75 law journals throughout the country and by a member of the United States Supreme Court.
Larry began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He has worked at some of the nation’s largest law firms and began his private practice by spending more than five years with Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
From 2018-2020, Larry was a Rodel Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a program designed to bring greater civility to public discourse. He is active in the Federalist Society and is a former board member of the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation (now known as the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation), the statewide umbrella organization for legal aid.
Ohio House of Representatives, District 27
Representative Tom Brinkman is currently serving his second term as state representative, after serving as a member of the Ohio House for four 2-year terms from 2001 to 2008. He represents the 27th Ohio House District, which includes portions of eastern Hamilton County.
An experienced life insurance salesman and a life-long resident of Cincinnati, Representative Brinkman is a graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (1979), with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science.
Rep. Brinkman has received various awards as a legislator, being recognized as Mt. Lookout Civic Club Man of the Year in 2008 and also as Most Principled Legislator twice. He has also received the Watchdog of the Treasury Award three times.
He lives in Mt. Lookout with his wife, Cathy, and six children.
Justice, Ohio Supreme Court
On November 3, 2020 Judge Jennifer Brunner was elected Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. Previously she served as a judge of the Tenth District Court of Appeals for 6 years and the Franklin County Common Pleas Court for nearly 5 years. As a trial court judge Brunner founded the county’s adult felony drug court, known as the TIES (Treatment is Essential to Success) Program, now in its seventeenth year of operation. She was elected Ohio’s first woman Secretary of State on November 7, 2006 and held the office for four years. While in that office, she became the first Ohioan to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award from the bipartisan board of the JFK Library and Museum in Boston. Justice Brunner has 17 years of private law practice experience and has provided rule of law technical expertise to the government of the Republic of Serbia, election observation in the Arab Republic of Egypt, and rule of law instruction at the bar association of Sri Lanka through the U.S. state department (USAID), as well as provided remote rule of law and civic participation training through the American Bar Association to the Republic of Kazakhstan. She has gained a deep understanding of the importance of a strong and well-functioning judiciary to preserving peace and growing democracy through the rule of law. A native of Springfield, Ohio, Justice Brunner has been married to Rick Brunner since 1978. They have 3 adult children and 6 grandchildren, 2 dogs and 2 cats and spend time at their home in Columbus and at their farm in Columbiana County in Northeast Ohio.
Judge, Ohio Twelfth District Court of Appeals
Judge Matthew R. Byrne was elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Twelfth District in 2020, and his first term began on January 1, 2021. He is currently serving as the court's elected Administrative Judge. The Twelfth District Court of Appeals hears civil and criminal appeals from the trial courts in eight counties in southwest Ohio. Judge Byrne is active in the Ohio Judicial Conference and the Ohio Court of Appeals Judges Association. He also currently serves as a member and vice chair of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure (where he previously chaired the Appellate Rules Committee). He previously served as a member of the Ohio Supreme Court's Commission on Character and Fitness.
From January 2010 to December 2020, Judge Byrne practiced law at the national law firm of Jackson Lewis P.C. He was a member of the firm's General Employment Litigation Practice Group and the Wage and Hour Practice Group. From 2007 to 2010 he practiced at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. At both firms, Judge Byrne represented clients ranging from small businesses to international corporations in state and federal trial and appellate litigation, including multiple class and collective actions. He also represented clients in arbitration and before numerous administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
Judge Byrne earned his law degree, cum laude, from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. During law school he was symposium editor of the Ohio State Law Journal and the winner of the Donald S. Teller Memorial Award for student writing contributing most significantly to the Ohio State Law Journal. During law school he clerked for the Acting General Counsel of the United States Department of the Treasury. Judge Byrne earned his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Xavier University, where he majored in International Affairs (Business) and Political Science.
Prior to entering law school Judge Byrne served in President George W. Bush's Administration as a member of the White House staff in the Office of Presidential Personnel, the office responsible for selecting candidates to recommend to the President for appointment or nomination to high-level government positions, and for coordinating with the Offices of White House Counsel, Press Secretary, and Executive Clerk regarding candidate background clearances, press announcements, and the status of appointments/nominations.
Judge Byrne has been a member of the Federalist Society since law school and he served for five years as president of the Federalist Society's Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter. He is a member of a number of other community and civic organizations, including the Ohio State Bar Association and the bar associations of Butler, Clermont, and Warren Counties. Judge Byrne previously was a member of the Advisory Board of Pregnancy Center East and a board member and president of the St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild of Greater Cincinnati.
Judge Byrne is an active parishioner at his church, where he is a lector, a former member and president of the Education Commission, and a former member of the Finance and Administration Commission.
Judge Byrne resides in Deerfield Township, Warren County, Ohio with his wife Julie and their three children.
Garwood Visiting Professor and Visiting Fellow, James Madison Pr, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
David F. Forte is Professor of Law at Cleveland State University, where he was the inaugural holder of the Charles R. Emrick, Jr.- Calfee Halter & Griswold Endowed Chair. This fall, Professor Forte will be the Garwood Visiting Professor at Princeton University in the Department of Politics, and Visiting Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He holds degrees from Harvard College, Manchester University, England, the University of Toronto and Columbia University.
During the Reagan administration, Professor Forte served as chief counsel to the United States delegation to the United Nations and alternate delegate to the Security Council. He has authored a number of briefs before the United States Supreme Court, and has frequently testified before the United States Congress and consulted with the Department of State on human rights and international affairs issues. His advice was specifically sought on the approval of the Genocide Convention, on world-wide religious persecution, and Islamic extremism. He has appeared and spoken frequently on radio and television, both nationally and internationally. In 2002, the Department of State sponsored a speaking tour for Professor Forte in Amman, Jordan, and he was also a featured speaker to the Meeting of Peoples in Rimini, Italy, a meeting which gathers over 500,000 people from all over Europe. He has also been called to testify before the state legislatures of Ohio, Kansas, and Idaho as well as the New York City Council. He has assisted in drafting a number of pieces of legislation for the Ohio General Assembly dealing with abortion, international trade, and federalism. He has sat as acting judge on the municipal court of Lakewood Ohio and was chairman of Professional Ethics Committee of the Cleveland Bar Association. He has received a number of awards for his public service, including the Cleveland Bar Association’s President’s Award, the Cleveland State University Award for Distinguished Service, the Cleveland State University Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Alumni Award for Faculty Excellence. He served as Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family under Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. In 2003, Dr. Forte was a Distinguished Fulbright Chair at the University of Trento and returned there in 2004 as a Visiting Professor. For the academic year, 2008-2009, Professor Forte was Senior Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Religion and the Constitution in at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the Robert E. Henderson Constitution Day Lecturer at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, and he has given over 300 invited addresses and papers at more than 100 academic institutions. His work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Professor Forte was a Bradley Scholar at the Heritage Foundation, and Visiting Scholar at the Liberty Fund. He has been President of the Ohio Association of Scholars, was on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Society, and is also adjunct Scholar at the Ashbrook Center. He has been appointed to the Ohio State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He has also been a Civil War re-enactor and a Merit Badge Counselor for the Boy Scouts.
He writes and speaks nationally on topics such as constitutional law, religious liberty, Islamic law, the rights of families, and international affairs. He served as book review editor for the American Journal of Jurisprudence and has edited a volume entitled, Natural Law and Contemporary Public Policy, published by Georgetown University Press. His book, Islamic Law Studies: Classical and Contemporary Applications, has been published by Austin & Winfield. He is Senior Editor of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution (2006), 2d edition (2014), published by Regnery & Co, a clause by clause analysis of the Constitution of the United States.
His teaching competencies include Constitutional Law, the First Amendment, Islamic Law, Jurisprudence, Natural Law, International Law, International Human Rights, the Presidency, and Constitutional History.
Ohio State Senate, District 12
Senator Matt Huffman is currently serving his first term in the Ohio Senate, representing the 12th Senate district which includes all of Allen, Champaign, Mercer and Shelby counties, as well as portions of Auglaize, Darke and Logan counties. He previously served four terms in the Ohio House of Representatives, the last two in leadership positions, including being elected by his fellow legislators to serves as the second highest-ranking member, Speaker Pro Tempore.
Born and raised in Lima, Ohio, Senator Huffman has practiced law for the past 30 years in his family’s private practice law firm in downtown Lima. He has been admitted to practice in all of the state and federal courts in Ohio and is an “AV” rated attorney by the Martindale-Hubbell rating service, the highest rating an attorney can receive. He has represented dozens of small businesses in West Central Ohio.
Senator Huffman began his public service on Lima City Council in 1992, serving until 2006, including the final seven years as City Council President. In 2007, he began his service in the Ohio House of Representatives. During his time in the Ohio Legislature, Senator Huffman championed bills to reform the medical delivery system, protect life at all stages and repeal common core. He has always maintained a strong commitment to the preservation of gun rights.
Senator Huffman has been a tireless advocate of removing unnecessary government regulations and fees and lowering taxes for all Ohioans; he defeated an income tax increase while on Lima City Council and supported the reduction of state income taxes on small business owners and the elimination of the Ohio estate tax. While in the Ohio House, he was named a “Guardian of Small Business” and earned three “Watchdog of the Treasury” awards.
Senator Huffman is deeply concerned about our nation’s debt and was a primary sponsor of a resolution in the Ohio House to call for a convention of the states, as authorized by Article V of the U.S. Constitution, to propose a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. He believes the states must take back the power they have relinquished to the federal government in order for our nation’s debt crisis to be solved.
Senator Huffman is the fifth of nine children born to Lawrence and Shirley Huffman. He graduated from Lima Central Catholic High School in 1978. He then went on to earn his degree in Government from the University of Notre Dame in 1982 and his law degree from the University of Cincinnati School of Law in 1985.
Married for 30 years, Senator Huffman and his wife Sheryl (nee Simoneau) have made their home in Lima, where they have raised four children: Clare, Matthew, Ellen and Sam. In addition to being members of St. Charles Church, he and Sheryl belong to several community organizations including Heartbeat of Lima and the Knights of Columbus. In his free time, he enjoys watching his youngest son, Sam, play collegiate football and referees CYO basketball.
Partner, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP
Larry builds on a wide range of experiences – including as an accomplished attorney, a former President of the Ohio Senate, and a legal academic – to help solve his clients’ most challenging legal problems. Larry focuses on complex litigation, including high-stakes appeals.
Larry is a Partner in the firm’s Litigation practice. He focuses his practice on litigation at both the trial and appellate levels and has experience in a variety of matters involving antitrust, fiduciary duties, torts, contracts, securities, and employment law. These range from standard contract disputes to constitutional challenges against federal statutes to defending against complex class actions.
In addition to his litigation practice, Larry served as a member of the Ohio Senate for nearly a decade. His colleagues unanimously elected him to serve as Senate President, the presiding officer of the 33-member chamber, from 2017-2020. During his time in the Senate, Larry successfully sponsored legislation on a wide range of topics, including education, tax law, elections administration, criminal law, and corporate law. These included a comprehensive update to Ohio’s corporate code and limited liability company law, including the sections setting out fiduciary duties for officers and shareholders. Larry also sponsored significant updates to Ohio’s Control Share Acquisition Act (which governs corporate takeovers). In 2018, he received the Ohio State Bar Association’s Lawyer-Legislator Distinguished Service Award.
Larry has also taught courses on Civil Procedure and Legislation as an adjunct law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He has published legal scholarship on a range of issues including constitutional law, education, law and economics, and securities. He has been cited in roughly 75 law journals throughout the country and by a member of the United States Supreme Court.
Larry began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He has worked at some of the nation’s largest law firms and began his private practice by spending more than five years with Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
From 2018-2020, Larry was a Rodel Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a program designed to bring greater civility to public discourse. He is active in the Federalist Society and is a former board member of the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation (now known as the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation), the statewide umbrella organization for legal aid.
Senior Counsel, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
Senior Counsel Hannah Smith joined Becket in 2007 following two clerkships at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito, Jr.
Ms. Smith was a member of the Becket legal team that secured victories in key U.S. Supreme Court religious liberty cases, including Holt v. Hobbs, 574 U.S. ___ (Jan. 20, 2015), where a unanimous Court held in an opinion authored by Justice Alito that the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act requires prison officials to accommodate peaceful expressions of religious devotion; Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, 134 S. Ct. 2751 (June 30, 2014), where the Court held in a 5-4 opinion authored by Justice Alito that family-owned businesses enjoy religious liberty rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and that the HHS mandate violated the Act; and Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, 132 S. Ct. 694 (2012), where a unanimous Court held in an opinion authored by Chief Justice Roberts that the “ministerial exception” under the First Amendment protects a church’s right to choose its own ministers.
Ms. Smith contributed to Becket's Supreme Court filings in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell (2015); Houston Baptist University v. Burwell (2015); Stormans v. Wiesman (2015); Michigan Catholic Conference v. Burwell (2015); Obergefell v. Hodges (2015); University of Notre Dame v. Burwell (2014); Wheaton College v. Burwell, 134 S. Ct. 2806 (2014); Little Sisters of the Poor v. Sebelius, 134 S. Ct. 1022 (2014); Bronx Household of Faith v. New York City Board of Education (2014), Elmbrook School District v. Doe (2014), Big Sky Colony v. Montana Department of Labor and Industry (2013), Sossamon v. Texas (2011), Arizona Christian School Tuition Association v. Winn (2011), Bronx Household of Faith v. New York City Board of Education (2011), Utah Highway Patrol Association v. American Atheists (2011), Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010), and Salazar v. Buono (2010).
Ms. Smith has been featured on CNN, Fox News, The O'Reilly Factor, The Sean Hannity Show, C-Span, EWTN, Al Jazeera America, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, U.S. News and World Report, the Associated Press, National Review Online, Bloomberg News, NPR, BBC, the Laura Ingraham Show, the Rush Limbaugh Show, the Hugh Hewitt Show, BYU Radio, and many other publications and radio shows. She has been invited to speak on religious liberty at Harvard Law School, Princeton University, Stanford Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Southern Methodist University Law School, Brigham Young University Law School, American University Washington College of the Law, and Central European University. And she has given briefings on religious liberty issues at the U.S. Capitol, the State Department, the Heritage Foundation, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the American Bar Association, and the National Constitution Center.
Ms. Smith received her B.A. from Princeton University, concentrating in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She graduated with honors from Brigham Young University Law School and was elected to the Order of the Coif. She served as Executive Editor of the BYU Law Review, as a research assistant for the BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies, and as president of the BYU Federalist Society. BYU awarded her its Alumni Achievement Award for her work in the defense of religious freedom. Ms. Smith also received the J. Reuben Clark Law Society's Women-in-Law Leadership Award for her national leadership in defending religious liberty and advancing the contributions of Mormon women to the law.
Following law school and in between clerkships, she was an associate in private practice at Williams & Connolly and Sidley Austin in Washington D.C., representing clients before state and federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in civil, criminal, and constitutional cases. Her private practice religious liberty work included the U.S. Supreme Court petition for certiorari in Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City (2003), as well as matters on behalf of Brigham Young University, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington D.C.
Ms. Smith served as a full-time volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France and Switzerland. She currently serves as a member of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society International Board and as a member of the Deseret News Editorial Advisory Board. She writes on religious liberty issues in the Deseret News. Hannah and her husband John are happily married with 4 wonderful children.
Senior Advisor, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
Mr. Clark is a Senior Advisor at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP. He has extensive experience in energy and utility policy at the federal and state level. He provides clients with analysis and strategic advice on a variety regulatory and public policy matters affecting their businesses. He specializes in working with clients in the energy and telecommunications industries and at the nexus of state and federal jurisdictional issues.
Having been appointed by President Obama, and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Mr. Clark served from 2012 to 2016 as a Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. While at the FERC, Mr. Clark worked on matters that are at the forefront of energy policy, such as: electricity reliability, electricity-natural gas industry coordination, oversight of the nation’s Regional Transmission Organizations, electricity grid cyber and physical security regulations, major enforcement actions, energy infrastructure permitting, the integration of renewables and energy storage, FERC Order 1000 implementation, and wholesale electricity market reforms. From 2001 to 2012 he was a Commissioner of the North Dakota Public Service Commission, including over 5 years as its Chairman. During his tenure at the North Dakota Commission, Mr. Clark oversaw numerous proceedings related to the state’s historic emergence as a leader in American energy production. In 2010, he was selected by his regulatory peers across the nation to serve a term as President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. He also served a three-year term as Chairman of the NARUC Telecommunications Committee. Through his various regulatory positions, he has testified multiple times before Committees of both the US House and US Senate on matters related to energy and telecommunications.
From 1999 to 2000, Mr. Clark was Labor Commissioner of the State of North Dakota and a member of the Cabinet of Gov. Ed Schafer. In 1994 he was one of the youngest people ever elected to the North Dakota legislature, representing a portion of the City of Fargo for two terms in the State House of Representatives. He is a graduate, with honor, from North Dakota State University and holds a master’s degree from the University of North Dakota. In addition to his work at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, Mr. Clark serves as a non-employee independent director on the Board of Directors of NorthWestern Energy Corporation. Having attained the rank of Eagle Scout in his youth, Mr. Clark has been a long-time volunteer with and supporter of the Boy Scouts of America.
Chief, Federal Regulatory Policy for PSEG
Larry Gasteiger was named chief, federal regulatory policy, Public Service Enterperise Group Incorpoated (PSEG) in October 2016.
Mr. Gasteiger served as Chief of Staff at FERC culminating a noteworthy 19-year tenure at FERC in which he held a variety of leadership roles. He previously served as the Acting Director of the Office of Enforcement from August 2014 to April 2015 after having served as the Deputy Director from 2009 to 2014. Before he joined the Office of Enforcement, Mr. Gasteiger was the Director of the Division of Tariffs and Market Development - East in the Office of Energy Market Regulation. Prior to that, he held several other positions at the Commission, including Deputy Associate General Counsel, Legal Advisor to Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher, and attorney in the FERC’s Solicitor's Office.
Before joining FERC in 1997, Mr. Gasteiger was an attorney in the General Counsel's Office at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and from 1989 to 1991 he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Edwin M. Kosik in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gasteiger is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Dickinson School of Law. He is a former Board Member of the Northeast Chapter of the Energy Bar Association and former Board Member and Secretary of the Saint Ambrose School.
Denver Managing Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
Raymond L. Gifford counsels communications, electric and gas utilities, and information technology companies on state and federal aspects of regulation, administrative law, and competition policy. He is an expert in public utilities law, and the law and economics of regulation of network industries. Mr. Gifford’s law and policy work focuses on the convergence of broadband communications and energy, as well as environmental policy as it applies to the electric industry. He represents clients in state and federal courts and agencies, and serves as an expert witness on utility regulation and its history. He is also a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship, and Co-Directs the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics at University of Colorado Law School.
Mr. Gifford served as Chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission from 1999-2003. Following that, he served as President of The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington DC-based think-tank that studied the digital revolution as it relates to regulation of network industries. He entered the regulatory law world as First Assistant Attorney General in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. He clerked for the Honorable Richard P. Matsch of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Mr. Gifford has authored a number of articles on communications law, public utility regulation and competition policy in network industries. He is a graduate of University of Chicago Law School and St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute
Research Director, Harvard Electricity Policy Group, Raymond Pla, Harvard University
William W. Hogan, Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy, is research director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group (HEPG), which is examining alternative strategies for a more competitive electricity market, and a member of the Appointments Committee. Prof. Hogan has been a member of the faculty of Stanford University where he founded the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF), and he is a past president of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). Current research focuses on major energy industry restructuring, network pricing and access issues, market design, and energy policy in nations worldwide. Prof. Hogan received his undergraduate degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and his PhD from UCLA. Selected papers are available on his Web site, www.whogan.com.
Acting FERC Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Acting Chairman Cheryl A. LaFleur was first nominated by President Barack Obama to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2010 and was confirmed for a second term by the Senate in 2014. On January 23, 2017 she was appointed Acting Chairman by President Donald Trump. She was previously appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as Acting Chairman of the Commission from November 2013 to July 2014 and as Chairman from July 2014 until April 2015.
Acting Chairman LaFleur is honored to be a member of the Commission at a time when the nation is making substantial changes in its energy supply and infrastructure to meet environmental challenges and improve reliability and security. Since she joined the Commission, her priorities have included reliability and grid security, promoting regional transmission planning, and supporting a clean and diverse power supply. She is a member of the NARUC Committees on Electricity and Critical Infrastructure and was co-chair of the FERC/NARUC Forum on Reliability and the Environment. She is a frequent speaker on energy issues.
Prior to joining the Commission in 2010, Acting Chairman LaFleur had more than 20 years’ experience as a leader in the electric and natural gas industry. She served as executive vice president and acting CEO of National Grid USA, responsible for the delivery of electricity to 3.4 million customers in the Northeast. Her previous positions at National Grid USA and its predecessor New England Electric System included chief operating officer, president of the New England distribution companies and general counsel. She led major efforts to improve reliability and employee safety. Earlier in her career, she was responsible for leading award-winning conservation and demand response programs for customers.
Acting Chairman LaFleur has been a nonprofit board member and leader, including as a trustee of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, United Way of Central Massachusetts, and several other organizations. She is also active in a number of women’s energy organizations.
Acting Chairman LaFleur was named Woman of the Year by the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment in 2015. In 2014, the Northeast Energy and Commerce Association presented her with its Vanguard Award for her long-time leadership in the development of competitive power markets. She received a Bipartisan Congressional Award in 2013 for her work on grid reliability. She has also been honored by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the YWCA of Central Massachusetts, among others.
Acting Chairman LaFleur began her career as an attorney at Ropes and Gray in Boston. She has a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and an A.B. from Princeton University. A native of Massachusetts, she is married to William Kuncik, a retired attorney, and they are the parents of two grown children.
Senior Vice President for Government and Regulatory Affairs, Calpine Corp.
Mr. Steven Schleimer has been Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Calpine Corp. since January 1, 2014. Mr. Schleimer served as a Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Calpine’s North Region since 2010. From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Schleimer served as Vice President at Barclays Capital in New York and was responsible for market design and regulatory issues. Prior to that, he had served as Calpine’s Vice President of Market and Regulatory Affairs in the West Region from 2000 to 2006. Mr. Schleimer spent the first 12 years of his career at Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He earned a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree, with highest honors, in Economics from the University of California at Santa.
Senior Advisor, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
Mr. Clark is a Senior Advisor at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP. He has extensive experience in energy and utility policy at the federal and state level. He provides clients with analysis and strategic advice on a variety regulatory and public policy matters affecting their businesses. He specializes in working with clients in the energy and telecommunications industries and at the nexus of state and federal jurisdictional issues.
Having been appointed by President Obama, and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Mr. Clark served from 2012 to 2016 as a Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. While at the FERC, Mr. Clark worked on matters that are at the forefront of energy policy, such as: electricity reliability, electricity-natural gas industry coordination, oversight of the nation’s Regional Transmission Organizations, electricity grid cyber and physical security regulations, major enforcement actions, energy infrastructure permitting, the integration of renewables and energy storage, FERC Order 1000 implementation, and wholesale electricity market reforms. From 2001 to 2012 he was a Commissioner of the North Dakota Public Service Commission, including over 5 years as its Chairman. During his tenure at the North Dakota Commission, Mr. Clark oversaw numerous proceedings related to the state’s historic emergence as a leader in American energy production. In 2010, he was selected by his regulatory peers across the nation to serve a term as President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. He also served a three-year term as Chairman of the NARUC Telecommunications Committee. Through his various regulatory positions, he has testified multiple times before Committees of both the US House and US Senate on matters related to energy and telecommunications.
From 1999 to 2000, Mr. Clark was Labor Commissioner of the State of North Dakota and a member of the Cabinet of Gov. Ed Schafer. In 1994 he was one of the youngest people ever elected to the North Dakota legislature, representing a portion of the City of Fargo for two terms in the State House of Representatives. He is a graduate, with honor, from North Dakota State University and holds a master’s degree from the University of North Dakota. In addition to his work at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, Mr. Clark serves as a non-employee independent director on the Board of Directors of NorthWestern Energy Corporation. Having attained the rank of Eagle Scout in his youth, Mr. Clark has been a long-time volunteer with and supporter of the Boy Scouts of America.
Chief, Federal Regulatory Policy for PSEG
Larry Gasteiger was named chief, federal regulatory policy, Public Service Enterperise Group Incorpoated (PSEG) in October 2016.
Mr. Gasteiger served as Chief of Staff at FERC culminating a noteworthy 19-year tenure at FERC in which he held a variety of leadership roles. He previously served as the Acting Director of the Office of Enforcement from August 2014 to April 2015 after having served as the Deputy Director from 2009 to 2014. Before he joined the Office of Enforcement, Mr. Gasteiger was the Director of the Division of Tariffs and Market Development - East in the Office of Energy Market Regulation. Prior to that, he held several other positions at the Commission, including Deputy Associate General Counsel, Legal Advisor to Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher, and attorney in the FERC’s Solicitor's Office.
Before joining FERC in 1997, Mr. Gasteiger was an attorney in the General Counsel's Office at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and from 1989 to 1991 he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Edwin M. Kosik in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gasteiger is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Dickinson School of Law. He is a former Board Member of the Northeast Chapter of the Energy Bar Association and former Board Member and Secretary of the Saint Ambrose School.
Denver Managing Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
Raymond L. Gifford counsels communications, electric and gas utilities, and information technology companies on state and federal aspects of regulation, administrative law, and competition policy. He is an expert in public utilities law, and the law and economics of regulation of network industries. Mr. Gifford’s law and policy work focuses on the convergence of broadband communications and energy, as well as environmental policy as it applies to the electric industry. He represents clients in state and federal courts and agencies, and serves as an expert witness on utility regulation and its history. He is also a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship, and Co-Directs the Institute for Regulatory Law & Economics at University of Colorado Law School.
Mr. Gifford served as Chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission from 1999-2003. Following that, he served as President of The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington DC-based think-tank that studied the digital revolution as it relates to regulation of network industries. He entered the regulatory law world as First Assistant Attorney General in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. He clerked for the Honorable Richard P. Matsch of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Mr. Gifford has authored a number of articles on communications law, public utility regulation and competition policy in network industries. He is a graduate of University of Chicago Law School and St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute
Research Director, Harvard Electricity Policy Group, Raymond Pla, Harvard University
William W. Hogan, Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy, is research director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group (HEPG), which is examining alternative strategies for a more competitive electricity market, and a member of the Appointments Committee. Prof. Hogan has been a member of the faculty of Stanford University where he founded the Energy Modeling Forum (EMF), and he is a past president of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). Current research focuses on major energy industry restructuring, network pricing and access issues, market design, and energy policy in nations worldwide. Prof. Hogan received his undergraduate degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and his PhD from UCLA. Selected papers are available on his Web site, www.whogan.com.
Acting FERC Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Acting Chairman Cheryl A. LaFleur was first nominated by President Barack Obama to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2010 and was confirmed for a second term by the Senate in 2014. On January 23, 2017 she was appointed Acting Chairman by President Donald Trump. She was previously appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as Acting Chairman of the Commission from November 2013 to July 2014 and as Chairman from July 2014 until April 2015.
Acting Chairman LaFleur is honored to be a member of the Commission at a time when the nation is making substantial changes in its energy supply and infrastructure to meet environmental challenges and improve reliability and security. Since she joined the Commission, her priorities have included reliability and grid security, promoting regional transmission planning, and supporting a clean and diverse power supply. She is a member of the NARUC Committees on Electricity and Critical Infrastructure and was co-chair of the FERC/NARUC Forum on Reliability and the Environment. She is a frequent speaker on energy issues.
Prior to joining the Commission in 2010, Acting Chairman LaFleur had more than 20 years’ experience as a leader in the electric and natural gas industry. She served as executive vice president and acting CEO of National Grid USA, responsible for the delivery of electricity to 3.4 million customers in the Northeast. Her previous positions at National Grid USA and its predecessor New England Electric System included chief operating officer, president of the New England distribution companies and general counsel. She led major efforts to improve reliability and employee safety. Earlier in her career, she was responsible for leading award-winning conservation and demand response programs for customers.
Acting Chairman LaFleur has been a nonprofit board member and leader, including as a trustee of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, United Way of Central Massachusetts, and several other organizations. She is also active in a number of women’s energy organizations.
Acting Chairman LaFleur was named Woman of the Year by the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment in 2015. In 2014, the Northeast Energy and Commerce Association presented her with its Vanguard Award for her long-time leadership in the development of competitive power markets. She received a Bipartisan Congressional Award in 2013 for her work on grid reliability. She has also been honored by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the YWCA of Central Massachusetts, among others.
Acting Chairman LaFleur began her career as an attorney at Ropes and Gray in Boston. She has a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and an A.B. from Princeton University. A native of Massachusetts, she is married to William Kuncik, a retired attorney, and they are the parents of two grown children.
Senior Vice President for Government and Regulatory Affairs, Calpine Corp.
Mr. Steven Schleimer has been Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Calpine Corp. since January 1, 2014. Mr. Schleimer served as a Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Calpine’s North Region since 2010. From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Schleimer served as Vice President at Barclays Capital in New York and was responsible for market design and regulatory issues. Prior to that, he had served as Calpine’s Vice President of Market and Regulatory Affairs in the West Region from 2000 to 2006. Mr. Schleimer spent the first 12 years of his career at Pacific Gas and Electric Company. He earned a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree, with highest honors, in Economics from the University of California at Santa.
Differing Levels of Scrutiny for Economic Regulations: "Anything Goes" Rational Basis v. Rational Basis "With Bite"
Recently, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued a decision striking down a state law that...
Convention of the States
Thomas Brinkman, Jennifer Brunner, Matthew R. Byrne, David F. Forte, Matt Huffman, Larry J. Obhof
Article V of the United States Constitution permits state legislatures to call a constitutional convention...
Convention of the States
Thomas Brinkman, Jennifer Brunner, Matthew R. Byrne, David F. Forte, Matt Huffman, Larry J. Obhof
Article V of the United States Constitution permits state legislatures to call a constitutional convention...
When a Pastor’s House Is a Church Home: Why the Parsonage Allowance Is Desirable Under the Establishment Clause
Daniel Benson, Hannah C. Smith
Note from the Editor: This article discusses the parsonage allowance, whereby the value of a...
Topics
Rubber playground material, state constitutions, and choices in education
My Goldwater Institute colleague Jonathan Butcher writes over at See Thru Edu about how SCOTUS's...
State ‘Around Market’ Action and FERC: The End of Competitive Wholesale Electric Markets?
Anthony T. Clark, Larry Gasteiger, Raymond L. Gifford, William W. Hogan, Cheryl A. LaFleur, Steven Schleimer
For the past two decades, the U.S. has experimented with “market”-based competitive wholesale electric markets. ...
State ‘Around Market’ Action and FERC: The End of Competitive Wholesale Electric Markets?
Anthony T. Clark, Larry Gasteiger, Raymond L. Gifford, William W. Hogan, Cheryl A. LaFleur, Steven Schleimer
For the past two decades, the U.S. has experimented with “market”-based competitive wholesale electric markets. ...
[ARTICLE]: Warning to Corporate Counsel: If State AGs Can Do This to ExxonMobil, How Safe Is Your Company?
Professor John Baker writes for the Georgetown Law Journal: Nation-states have long fought wars for...
Reception with U.S. Congressman Dave Brat
Washington, VATopics
5G Boasts $3.5 Trillion in Benefits, If the Government Doesn't Get in the Way
David Teece writes for Morning Consult: The central goal of the Trump administration is to...