Partner, McCarter & English LLP
Mr. Cote represents both small and large businesses and occasionally individuals in both federal and state courts throughout the country. His practice concentrates primarily on hospitality, employment, civil rights, contracts, unfair and deceptive conduct, class action, private property rights and appellate litigation.
During his time with McCarter, Mr. Cote has played an integral role in obtaining several significant victories for the firm's clients, including the dismissal of a challenge under the public trust doctrine to the private ownership of lawfully filled, tidelands that were developed pursuant to a legislative grant issued in 1832 and the successful defense of a large food service company in a case of first impression concerning the application and interpretation of the Massachusetts Tips Act. Mr. Cote was also instrumental in obtaining a sanctions award of $100,000 in connection with a construction accident case brought in bad faith against one of the firm's clients.
Prior to his admission to the bar, Mr. Cote served for over ten years as a paralegal and law clerk in Arizona, Massachusetts, Vermont and Washington, D.C. During this time, he served as the principal legal assistant to the Arizona Legislature's Ombudsman for Private Property Rights. He also clerked for the Honorable Roger J. Marzulla and Nancie G. Marzulla at Defenders of Property Rights, which, at the time, was the nation's only non-profit legal foundation dedicated exclusively to the protection of private property rights. He is a contributing author of that organization's 1999 publication "State Property Rights Legislation Report: Federalism in Action."
Mr. Cote presently serves as the vice-chair of the Boston Lawyers Division of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He is also a member of the executive committee for the Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group and the primary author of the Environmental Practice Group's 2001 terrorism briefing paper entitled: "National Security vs. Public Disclosure: The War on Terrorism's Implications Upon Federal Emergency Planning and Right to Know Laws."
George P. Shultz Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy and National Security Affairs, Emeritus, Hoover Institution
Abraham D. Sofaer was appointed the first George P. Shultz Distinguished Scholar and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution in 1994. Named in honor of former US secretary of state George P. Shultz, the appointment is awarded to a senior scholar whose broad vision, knowledge, and skill will be brought to bear on the problems presented by a radically transformed global environment.
Sofaer's work focuses on the power over war within the US government and on issues related to international law, terrorism, diplomacy, and national security. His most recent books are Taking on Iran: Strength, Diplomacy, and the Iranian Threat(Hoover Institution Press, 2013) and The Best Defense?: Legitimacy and Preventive Force (Hoover Institution Press, 2010).
From 1985 to 1990, he served as a legal adviser to the US Department of State, where he resolved several interstate matters, including the dispute between Egypt and Israel over Taba, the claim against Iraq for its attack on the USS Stark, and the claims against Chile for the assassination of Orlando Letelier. He received the Distinguished Service Award in 1989, the highest state department award given to a non–civil servant.
From 1979 to 1985, Sofaer served as a US district judge in the Southern District of New York. From 1969 to 1979, he was a professor of law at Columbia University School of Law and wrote War, Foreign Affairs, and Constitutional Power: The Origins.From 1967 to 1969, he was an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York, after clerking for Judge J. Skelly Wright on the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, and the Honorable William J. Brennan Jr. on the US Supreme Court. He practiced law at Hughes, Hubbard and Reed from 1990 to 1994.
A veteran of the US Air Force, Sofaer received an LLB degree from New York University School of Law in 1965, where he was editor in chief of the law review. He holds a BA in history from Yeshiva College (1962). Sofaer is a founding trustee of the National Museum of Jazz in Harlem and a member of the board of the Koret Foundation.
His research papers are available at the Hoover Institution Archives.
Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, Independence Institute
Professor Robert G. Natelson is a constitutional scholar and author.
Rob’s constitutional scholarship has been cited repeatedly by justices and parties at the U.S. Supreme Court—as well as by federal appeals courts, and at least 18 state supreme courts.
Rob’s research into the Constitution’s original meaning has carried him to libraries throughout the United States and in Britain, including four months at Oxford University. His books and articles span many different parts of the Constitution, including groundbreaking studies of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Indian Commerce Clause, federalism, Founding-Era interpretation, regulation of elections, and the amendment process of Article V. He created the first-ever online bibliography for 18th century materials used in constitutional research. He is a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (on Magna Carta). He contributed eight essays to the third edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution: five on the amendment procedure and one each on the Guarantee Clause, the Postal Clause, and the Recess Appointments Clause.
U.S. Supreme Court justices have relied explicitly on Rob’s research in 41 citations in 13 separate cases.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance
Throughout his 40-year career in private law practice in Washington, D.C., Richard Samp has specialized in appellate litigation with a focus on constitutional law. He served as Chief Counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation for more than 30 years. He has participated directly in more than 200 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Samp is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School and clerked for a federal judge in Detroit.
Founder, Edge AI
Adam Jackson joined the Army in 2007. He served as an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division. While there, he deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. He started the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) in 2011. Upon graduation, he was assigned to 5th Special Forces Group. As a member of 5th SFG he deployed to Jordan, Iraq, and Syria. While in Jordan he spearheaded an effort to equip a Jordanian Intelligence unit with secure internet. Upon returning from Jordan, he attended the Joint Terminal Attack Controller Course where he learned to integrate aircraft into ground operations, assess structures and material for blast and penetration tolerance, and prevent friendly fire incidents and collateral damage. In 2016, Adam deployed to Iraq and eventually moved from Iraq to Syria. His team was one of the first Special Forces Teams in Syria. Upon returning from his last deployment Adam started a computer vision company that specializes in Facial Recognition security systems and prepared to leave the military. He is a self-taught programmer, computer networking technician, system integration specialist, and security consultant.
Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Jason Delisle is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he works on higher education financing with an emphasis on student loan programs.
Mr. Delisle started his career on Capitol Hill, first in the office of Representative Thomas Petri, then as an analyst for the US Senate Committee on the Budget. His work has led him to study the history and mechanics of federal student loans and other financial aid policies and to recommend budget process reforms for rules covering financial risk in government programs — including working on fair-value accounting for loan programs.
Before joining AEI, Mr. Delisle served as director of the Federal Education Budget Project at New America, where he worked to improve the quality of public information on federal funding for education and the support of well-targeted federal education policies. He was also an informal adviser on higher education reform for Governor Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Mr. Delisle has written for a variety of publications, including Bloomberg View, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also appeared on numerous national television and radio programs, including Fox Business, National Public Radio, and the “PBS NewsHour.”
Mr. Delisle has a master’s of public policy in budget and public finance from the George Washington University and a bachelor of arts degree in government from Lawrence University.
Attorney, Law Office of Adam S. Minky
Adam S. Minsky is one of the nation’s leading experts on student debt and is a pioneer in his field. He established the first law firm in Massachusetts devoted entirely to assisting student loan borrowers, and has since expanded his practice to include New York. He remains one of the only attorneys in the country with a practice focused exclusively in this field of law. Attorney Minsky has published numerous books and articles on student debt, and he regularly speaks at colleges, nonprofit organizations, and professional associations about developments in student loan law and higher education financing. Major media outlets frequently seek his expert opinions on national news and policy stories.
Attorney Minsky founded this practice because he took out student loans to help finance his own education, but when he encountered a serious problem with one of his student loan servicers, he couldn’t find anyone to help him. He established this firm shortly thereafter to help other borrowers who feel alone and overwhelmed by a student debt issue, and he has since helped hundreds of clients work through major problems with their student loans.
Do you need help with your student loans? Do you want personalized, individual attention to your student loan issue? Contact Attorney Minsky.
Syndicated Columnist
New York political commentor Deroy Murdock is a Fox News Contributor, a Contributing Editor with National Review Online, an emeritus Media Fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University; and a Senior Fellow with the Atlas Network, which supports and connects some 500 free-market think tanks in the USA and some 95 countries world-wide. Mr. Murdock’s weekly column — “This Opinion Just In…” — appears in the New York Post, the Washington Times, the New Hampshire Union-Leader, and other newspapers across America. He has appeared on radio shows across America and presents commentaries on Fox News Radio’s podcast, The Rundown. He is a veteran of the 1980 and 1984 Reagan for President campaigns and Steve Forbes’ 2000 White House bid.
As a popular public speaker, he has lectured or debated at the Cato Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations; Harvard Medical School, the Heritage Foundation; the National Academy of Sciences; Dartmouth, Stanford, and Tulane universities; and various fora, from Bogotá to Buenos Aires to Budapest. He is a native of Los Angeles, a graduate of Georgetown University, and a resident of Manhattan, where he earned an MBA from New York University. His program included a semester of study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Deroy Murdock hopes that someday the free society will bring him — and every American — more leisure time to experience fine dining, motion pictures, skiing, live music, and the priceless joys of family, friends, and loved ones.
Founder, Edge AI
Adam Jackson joined the Army in 2007. He served as an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division. While there, he deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. He started the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC) in 2011. Upon graduation, he was assigned to 5th Special Forces Group. As a member of 5th SFG he deployed to Jordan, Iraq, and Syria. While in Jordan he spearheaded an effort to equip a Jordanian Intelligence unit with secure internet. Upon returning from Jordan, he attended the Joint Terminal Attack Controller Course where he learned to integrate aircraft into ground operations, assess structures and material for blast and penetration tolerance, and prevent friendly fire incidents and collateral damage. In 2016, Adam deployed to Iraq and eventually moved from Iraq to Syria. His team was one of the first Special Forces Teams in Syria. Upon returning from his last deployment Adam started a computer vision company that specializes in Facial Recognition security systems and prepared to leave the military. He is a self-taught programmer, computer networking technician, system integration specialist, and security consultant.
FDA Poised to Spoil a Food Fight, Naturally
Gregory D. Cote
Note from the Editor: This article argues that the FDA should define the term “natural”...
Freedom of Association: Should Americans Have the Right to Discriminate?
Las Vegas Lawyers Chapter
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Recent events are creating strange legal bedfellows. Following President Trump’s election, the administration took swift...
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Abraham D. Sofaer
When President Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801, he inherited a problem in the Mediterranean--pirates...
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Robert G. Natelson
Note from the Editor: This article argues that, in aggregating applications from states to call...
Jennings v. Rodriguez - Post-Decision SCOTUScast
Richard A. Samp
On February 27, 2018 the Supreme Court decided Jennings v. Rodriguez, a case involving a...
Tennessee Licensing Board Alarmed by Entrepreneur’s Facial Recognition Software
Adam Jackson
Adam Jackson became a highly trained U.S. soldier who provided cutting-edge security to military bases...
Deep Dive Episode 31 – Tennessee Licensing Board Alarmed by Entrepreneur’s Facial Recognition Software
Regulatory Transparency Project Teleforum
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Jason D. Delisle, Adam Minsky
Since 1958, the United States federal government has offered loans to help college students pay...
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Do Animals (or Humans Claiming to Represent Them) Have Constitutional Standing to File Federal Lawsuits? In the Ninth Circuit, the Answer Is Yes.
Do monkeys have the right to sue for copyright infringement? If the question strikes you...