Senior DIrector, Brennan Center for Justice
Lauren-Brooke Eisen is director of the Brennan Center’s Justice Program where she leads the organization’s work to end mass incarceration. Her team focuses on exposing the profound social and economic hardships that impact those who encounter the justice system while creating policies that ultimately shrink its size and scope.
Eisen has authored several nationally recognized reports and articles on how to reduce America’s reliance on incarceration. Her work has been featured in media outlets across the country, including the New York Times, USA Today, Time, U.S. News & World Report, the Daily News, and the Marshall Project and has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, National Public Radio, as well as many other television and radio news programs.
Eisen is the author of Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Columbia University Press, 2017) and a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting journalism grantee. She co-chaired Manhattan DA-elect Alvin Bragg’s transition team to ensure they have the tools to enact innovative reforms in the criminal legal system and has served on the Advisory Council of the New York City Bar’s Task Force on Mass Incarceration and the transition committee for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. In 2020, Eisen became a founding member of the Council on Criminal Justice, which works to advance understanding of the criminal justice policy choices facing the nation and build consensus for solutions that enhance safety and justice for all. Eisen taught an undergraduate seminar on mass incarceration at Yale University and served as an adjunct instructor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Before joining the Brennan Center, Eisen was a senior program associate at the Vera Institute of Justice, where she worked on the sentencing and corrections team to implement policies in multiple states to improve public safety while reducing prison populations. She also previously served as an assistant district attorney in New York City, where she worked in the Appeals Bureau, the Criminal Court Bureau, and the Sex Crimes Special Victims Bureau. Before entering law school, Eisen worked as a beat reporter for a daily newspaper in Laredo, Texas, covering criminal justice and immigration. Eisen holds an AB from Princeton University and a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Partner, King & Spalding LLP
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, a 34-county district with an area that stretches from the Oregon border to Bakersfield, Greg Scott is an experienced trial lawyer who represents major companies facing government investigations and litigation, with a focus in the healthcare, retail, and construction industries. He has extensive knowledge on matters involving consumer protection, construction disputes, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the False Claims Act (FCA).
Greg represents corporations under investigation by state district attorneys concerning potential violations of consumer protection laws, as well as corporations operating senior assisted livingfacilities under investigation by the state attorney general regarding potential violations of elder abuse laws. In addition, he represents construction companies under investigation by state district attorneys when employees are involved in serious accidents at worksites.
A retired Lieutenant Colonel after serving more than 20 years in the California Army National Guard & United States Army Reserve, Greg went on to become a deputy district attorney in Contra Costa County and twice-elected District Attorney of Shasta County. He also served as an Adjunct Professor of National Security Law at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law following his first term as U.S. Attorney for the E.D. of California. Between his two terms as U.S. Attorney for the E.D. of California, Greg was the vice chair of the white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice at an AmLaw 50 firm.
Senior Legal Fellow and Manager, National Security Law Program, The Heritage Foundation
Charles “Cully” Stimson is a widely recognized expert in national security, homeland security, crime control, drug policy and immigration. A senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation since 2007, Stimson became Manager of the National Security Law Program in Heritage’s Institute for Constitutional Government in April 2013 after serving as Heritage’s chief of staff for a year.
Stimson writes and lectures on policy issues such as the law of armed conflict, terrorist detainee policy and interrogations, the Geneva Conventions, military commissions, the Patriot Act and FISA, criminal law and the death penalty, immigration and the war on drugs. As chief of staff to then-Heritage President Edwin J. Feulner, he was a key adviser on public policy matters as well as manager of Feulner’s office staff and Heritage’s day-to-day operations.
Stimson’s many research papers, op-eds and articles include special reports such as “Adult Time for Adult Crime,” a comprehensive study on the constitutionality of life sentences for teen-age murderers, and Sexual Assault in the Military: Understanding the Problem and How to Fix It, a ground-breaking paper detailing the inner workings of the military justice system compared to its civilian counterpart. His work on criminal and immigration law has been cited in briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court.
He testifies before the U.S. Senate and House on national security issues, and recently testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Law of Armed Conflict, Law of War, and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.
Before joining the think tank in 2007, Stimson served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs. He advised then-Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates and coordinated the Pentagon’s global detention policy and operations, including at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was chairman of detainee-related panels such as the Defense Senior Leadership Oversight Committee, and the Special Detainee Follow Up Group. He represented the United States before the U.N. in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2006 where he led the DOD delegation in defense of the United States’ Second Period Report on the Convention Against Torture.
An accomplished trial lawyer, Stimson worked as a prosecutor at the local, state and federal levels, where he concentrated on violent crimes such as homicide, sexual assault and domestic violence. A third generation naval officer, Cully also served as a military prosecutor, defense counsel, and recently served as Deputy Chief Judge of the Navy-Marine Corps Trial Judiciary. He continues to serve, with the rank of Captain, as the Commanding Officer of the Preliminary Hearing Unit.
Stimson’s thousands of media interviews and appearances include Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, NPR and C-SPAN. He has been quoted by most major newspapers, including The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and London Times.
A businessman and educator by training, Stimson is Vice Chairman of his family’s commercial real estate company in Seattle. Before 9/11, he was a Vice President at a New York-based global financial services and insurance brokerage firm where ran the private equity mergers and acquisitions D.C. operation.
Stimson holds a law degree from the George Mason University School of Law, where he later taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law. He is a graduate of Kenyon College, where he was Captain of the men’s varsity soccer team and an All-Conference player. He also studied at Harvard and Exeter universities. An avid soccer player and triathlete, he serves as Chairman of the Board of the United States Soccer Foundation, the charitable giving arm of U.S. Soccer.
Partner, Paul Hastings
Chris Carr is a partner in the San Francisco office of Paul Hastings LLP and chairs the firm’s Environment and Energy Practice Group. He is widely regarded as one of the leading infrastructure development, environmental, and energy lawyers in the United States. Drawing on his experience with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of State, Mr. Carr represents businesses, landowners, public agencies, and nonprofits in all areas of environmental and natural resources law, including energy and infrastructure, water, forestry, agriculture, mining, and coastal and marine resources.
In particular, his practice focuses on permitting and litigation under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and their California counterparts: the California ESA, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). He has deep expertise and broad experience in local, state, federal, and international laws, regulations, initiatives, and programs addressing climate change and driving the energy transition.
Mr. Carr frequently defends permits, approvals, and environmental review documents for energy and other infrastructure projects in federal and state courts, and defends against “citizen suits” brought under federal and state environmental statutes for all manner of land and resources development.
Mr. Carr was Chair of Morrison and Foerster’s Global Energy & Environment Practice and Co-chair of its Cleantech Practice Group from 2010 – 2017. He is a regular speaker at Berkeley Law and Stanford Law School. Mr. Carr received his J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
He has published widely in the area of environmental regulation, and is frequently interviewed by the broadcast and print media for his views, including:
United States Attorney, Eastern District of California
Mr. Grant was appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California beginning on August 11, 2025. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 546(d), he was further appointed by the district court effective December 9, 2025.
Mr. Grant is a veteran of the Department of Justice, having served twice in Washington, D.C.: from 1991 to 1993 as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel, and from 2017 to 2021 as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). During his tenure at ENRD, he supervised more than a hundred Department litigators advancing the interests of the United States and its agencies in both enforcement and defensive matters, both civil and criminal.
In addition to his service in the Department, Mr. Grant has decades of experience in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. That experience includes arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and numerous other federal and state courts.
Mr. Grant served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (retired) and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during the Supreme Court’s October 1994 Term. Earlier he served as a law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Grant grew up in Modesto, California and raised his family in Sacramento County. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, from which he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics (1986) and a law degree (1990).
Partner, Holland & Knight
Jennifer Hernandez has practiced land use and environmental law for more than 30 years, and leads Holland & Knight's West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group. Ms. Hernandez divides her time between the firm's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices.
Ms. Hernandez is the only California lawyer ranked by her clients and peers in Chambers USA in the top tier of both land use/zoning and environmental lawyers. In addition, she was recognized as the top environmental litigator of the year in the San Francisco Bay Area by Best Lawyers, and received a California Lawyer of the Year award from the State Bar of California for her work on California's largest and most innovative land use and conservation agreement between her private landowner client and five major environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council. She also has received numerous civil rights awards for her work on overcoming environmentalist opposition to housing and other projects needed and supported by minority communities.
During his tenure as mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown named October 9, 2002, as "Jennifer Hernandez Day" in San Francisco in honor of her work as a "warrior on the Brownfields" to restore and redevelop former industrial lands. Ms. Hernandez is the longest-serving minority board member (23 years) of the California League of Conservation voters, was appointed by President Clinton to serve as a trustee for the Presidio National Park in San Francisco, and serves on the board of directors for California Forward and Sustainable Conservation.
Ms. Hernandez works for private sector, public agency and nonprofit clients on a broad range of projects in Bay Area, Southern California and Central Valley communities, including infill and master-planned mixed-use housing and commercial projects, university and research facilities, transportation and infrastructure projects, renewable and other energy projects, and local agency plan and ordinance updates. She has written three books, and more than 50 articles, on environmental and land use topics, and regularly teaches land use, environmental and climate law in law and business schools, colleges and seminars. She also serves on the firm's Directors Committee and received the firm's highest honor – the Chesterfield Smith Award – for her community service.
Ms. Hernandez graduated with honors from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, and clerked for Region 20 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) before beginning her land use and environmental law career. Ms. Hernandez is the daughter and granddaughter of steelworkers and was raised in Pittsburg, California. She and her husband live in Berkeley and Los Angeles.
Founder & President, Arizona Strategies
Karrin Taylor Robson is a respected and long-time Arizona business leader and land-use expert. She is Founder and President of Arizona Strategies, a premier land use strategy firm headquartered in Phoenix. Throughout her extensive career, she has entitled more than 35,000 acres including more than 45,000 homes and over 25 million square feet of commercial uses.
Karrin has worked with national organizations representing major landowners and stakeholders across the country to advance balanced federal environmental law and policy on endangered species acts and wetlands issues. In addition, she has advanced multiple public-private partnerships, leveraging private sector capital to deliver public infrastructure and other public benefits.
Karrin has also served on the boards of numerous government, community and economic development organizations. In June 2017, she was appointed by Governor Doug Ducey to the Arizona Board of Regents which is responsible for the governance of the state’s public universities, Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona. She served as the Chair of the Joe Foss Institute, Vice Chair of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, trustee of Boys and Girls Club of Metro Phoenix Foundation, and a board member of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and invisionAZ. Karrin currently serves as a member of the Civic Leaders Group for the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, a member of the Arizona-Mexico Commission and a member of the board of American Council of Trustees and Alumni.
Prior to forming Arizona Strategies, Karrin served as Executive Vice President of DMB Associates, Inc., a Scottsdale based master-planned community developer where she was responsible for ongoing land use entitlement matters and other value-enhancing efforts for its communities and businesses.
Earlier in her career, Karrin was a principal with the law firm of Biskind, Hunt & Taylor, P.L.C., where she practiced in the areas of land use, development and zoning law representing large landowners on significant and complex land use cases.
Her deep Arizona history and professional experience have shaped her perspective on our culture today and helped define her personal priorities. She believes that being actively involved in the community is a prerequisite for being an American.
Through her numerous professional, community and philanthropic commitments, Karrin advocates daily for building and sustaining a dynamic and diverse economy, protecting property rights and creating value in real estate, developing a world-class education system with options for all types of learners, fostering civic engagement and supporting the men and women who serve in our military.
Karrin is the mother of four, a grandmother, and the wife of Ed Robson. In the most recent chapter of her career, Karrin was a candidate for Governor of Arizona.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Lawrence VanDyke serves as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to that appointment in January 2020, he served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice. Before that, he served consecutively as the Solicitor General of two western states – Nevada and Montana. At the beginning of his legal career, he worked as an attorney in the Appellate and Constitutional Issues practice group at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP.
Judge VanDyke received his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor on the Harvard Law Review. He has engineering and theology undergraduate degrees and a masters degree in engineering management. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Janice Rogers Brown of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Judge VanDyke and his wife Cheryl live in Reno, Nevada, and they have three children.
Associate Professor of Law, Ave Maria School of Law
Before arriving at Ave Maria School of Law, Professor Jennifer (Barrow) Jenkins was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard University School of Law. Professor Barrow was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and grew up in Tampa, Florida. Professor Barrow received a B.S. in the American Legal System from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She served as an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan and Iraq, receiving the Bronze Star in 2010. Professor Barrow is a graduate of Harvard Law School and was an editor for the International Law Journal, Journal of Law and Public Policy, Journal on Legislation, and the National Security Journal. After law school, Professor Barrow clerked for Judge Ralph K. Winter on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She then served as a Supreme Court Fellow, placed at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she helped revise a draft amendment to the career offender provision of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Her primary teaching interests include criminal law and procedure, torts, and military law. Her scholarship focuses on criminal law and military law, with an emphasis on sentencing. Her research scrutinizes the increased power of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches at the expense of the jury and suggests reforms.
State Representative, Ohio House of Representatives, District 56
State Representative Adam Mathews is serving his second term in the Ohio House of Representatives. He represents the 56th Ohio House District, which encompasses southwest and central Warren County including Lebanon, South Lebanon, and Mason.
Rep. Mathews worked as a civilian engineer for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program before returning to Notre Dame to become an intellectual property attorney. He continues to practice and represents inventors, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. He formerly served as the Vice Mayor of Lebanon. The representative is also an intellectual property and corporate attorney, and that he is licensed and has appeared before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States
Mathews is also very involved in his community. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Elizabeth’s New Life Center, a network of pro-life women’s centers throughout Southwest Ohio. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Cincinnati Federalist Society, St. Thomas More Society of Cincinnati, the Warren County Republican Party, and Kiwanis of Lebanon.
Mathews was formerly Chairman of the Intellectual Property Section of the Ohio State Bar Association, President of the Notre Dame Club of Dayton, and a member of the St. Francis de Sales Parish Council and Knights of Columbus. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce.
He married his wife Amanda in 2011, and they live with their five children in Lebanon.
Partner, Taft Stettinius & Hollister
Robert McBride is the partner-in-charge of the Kentucky office of Taft Stettinius & Hollister. As a seasoned trial attorney, he is experienced in investigating and prosecuting a wide variety of criminal matters. As lead attorney, Bob prosecuted cases involving complex financial frauds, money laundering, federal tax violations, healthcare fraud, national security matters, violations of the Export Control Act, immigration, and human trafficking crimes, and public corruption. He also prosecuted narcotics trafficking organizations, firearms violations and crimes against children. As a prosecutor, Bob successfully tried many federal cases to jury verdict. Bob is also experienced in litigating forfeiture claims, habeas actions and appeals before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bob has a long record serving the United States as an attorney before entering private practice. He was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Kentucky for over 15 years. As an AUSA, Bob first chaired criminal jury trials in U.S. District Court and handled appeals before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Additionally, he was the District’s National Security Prosecutor and the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council Coordinator. Bob also held several leadership positions. In 2006, he was assigned as the manager of the London Branch Office. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Criminal Chief and served in that position until January 2010. As Criminal Chief, Bob supervised the Criminal Division’s personnel and exercised oversight of all prosecutions in the District. More recently, he was the supervisor of the Ft. Mitchell Branch Office, where he handled a number of high profile investigations and prosecutions.
Bob also served in the United States Navy, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, for 10 years. His major assignments included senior prosecutor on the Island of Guam, Officer-in-Charge of a Detachment in New Orleans focusing on criminal defense, and Staff Judge Advocate, Recruit Training Command. Bob attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He was also an enlisted Combat Engineer in the Army National Guard.
Partner, Patrick Doerr
Mr. Rando has represented clients in matters involving computer hardware and software, silicon chip manufacturing, biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemical compounds, food additives, alternative energy, AI, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, consumer electronics, communications, internet, and e-commerce. He has appeared in courts across the country, including the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals.
As appellate counsel, Mr. Rando has served as counsel of record or co-counsel in more than 30 amicus briefs filed before the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Circuit on issues of patent law, statutory interpretation, separation of powers, and constitutional law. Noteworthy filings include eBay Inc. v. MercExchange (2006), Oil States v. Greene’s Energy (2017), American Axle v. Neapco (2021), Amgen v. Sanofi (2023), and Cellect v. Vidal (2024).
Mr. Rando is a Fellow of the Academy of Court-Appointed Masters, having served by judicial appointment as Special Master in numerous complex patent cases, including multi-day Markman hearings and post-discovery proceedings. He also serves as a court-appointed Mediator and Neutral in both patent and commercial disputes.
He has played an active role in judicial and legislative engagement. Mr. Rando co-developed and conducted lecture series for the SDNY and EDNY Patent Pilot Program Judges and Clerks, covering the America Invents Act and Section 101 eligibility post-Alice and Mayo. He represented both the Federal Bar Association (FBA) and New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA) at the Tillis/Coons Section 101 Patent Reform Roundtable, and submitted written testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019.
Mr. Rando is a former president of the NYIPLA (2023–2024) and has held nearly every leadership position in the organization. He also served as Chair of the FBA’s Intellectual Property Law Section and was a founding member and president of the FBA’s EDNY Chapter. He is a founding member of the Association of Amicus Counsel, and an active contributor to the Federalist Society IP Practice Group Executive Committee.
He frequently lectures at CLE programs, universities, and legal associations on IP, constitutional law, and appellate advocacy. He has been quoted extensively in publications such as Law360, Bloomberg Law, WIPR, and National Law Journal. His scholarly publications include articles in The Federal Lawyer, Touro Law Review, and IPWatchdog.
Vice President, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society
Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Kansas School of Law
Stephen Ware is the author of five books, over 60 law review articles and many other publications. His writings have been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States and in at least 37 other cases. Ware teaches and writes on:
each with an international or comparative dimension. An experienced teacher of lawyering skills exercises in which student groups negotiate, mediate, and draft legal documents, Professor Ware takes this approach in his Transnational Dispute Resolution course, which he has customized for universities from Beijing to Istanbul to Kansas.
Ware has testified before both houses of the U.S. Congress, several state legislatures and, as an expert witness, in court. He is a frequent guest lecturer and speaker at academic and professional conferences—having given such presentations throughout the U.S. and in several other countries. He has appeared on numerous television and radio stations and been quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Financial Times, National Law Journal and many other news outlets. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and has served, at various times in his career, on the editorial board of the Journal of Legal Education and as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.
Ware was named as the Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law in 2019.
Policy Advisor, Heartland Institute
Jeff Stier is a policy advisor to the Heartland Institute.
He is widely quoted in the media and has written health policy op-eds for The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The New York Post, The Washington Examiner, and Foxnews.com. The New York Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR and other major outlets have interviewed and quoted Stier on a wide range of topics.
Stier has testified at state and local legislatures throughout the U.S., at FDA scientific hearings and at the Office of Management and Budget. He has also been a voice for freedom at hearings at the United Nations and in Israel’s Knesset. During more than two decades of advancing public health and defending liberty, Stier has been a speaker at CPAC, policy retreats for elected officials and medical and legal conferences.
Stier advises leading investment firms on regulatory and legal risk.
Earlier, Mr. Stier crafted health and environmental policy in the Office of the Mayor during the Giuliani administration in New York City.
Mr. Stier serves on the boards of the non-profit Jewish International Connections and Park City Jewish Collective. While earning his law degree at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Mr. Stier served two terms as Editor-In-Chief of the Cardozo Law Forum. Jeff and his canine, BB, served as a Certified Crisis Response Strike Team with NATIONAL Crisis Response Canines, supporting survivors and first-responders.
Partner, Arnold & Porter
Debbie Feinstein heads the firm's Global Antitrust group, and brings a wealth of experience to her practice in advising clients on a range of antitrust challenges before US antitrust authorities. She recently re-joined the firm from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where she was Director of the Bureau of Competition. In that capacity, she was responsible for supervising the investigation and enforcement of the US antitrust laws against anticompetitive mergers and conduct. During her tenure from 2013 to 2017, the FTC had substantial litigation success and a number of major merger wins, including challenges to Sysco Corp.'s acquisition of rival US Foods Inc., and Staples Inc.'s merger with Office Depot Inc. She had previously served at the FTC from 1989 to 1991 as Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Competition and Attorney Advisor.
Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy, George Washington University Law School
Before joining the law school in 1999, William E. Kovacic was the George Mason University Foundation Professor at the George Mason University School of Law. From January 2006 to October 2011, he was a member of the Federal Trade Commission and chaired the agency from March 2008 to March 2009. He was the FTC’s General Counsel from June 2001 to December 2004. In 2011 he received the FTC’s Miles W. Kirkpatrick Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Since August 2013, Professor Kovacic has served as a Non-Executive Director with the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority. From January 2009 to September 2011, he was Vice-Chair for Outreach for the International Competition Network. He has advised many countries and international organizations on antitrust, consumer protection, government contracts, and the design of regulatory institutions.
At GW, Professor Kovacic has taught antitrust, contracts, and government contracts. He is co-editor (with Ariel Ezrachi) of the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement. His publications since returning to GW in 2011 include “Good Agency Practice and the Implementation of Competition Law” in European Yearbook of International Economic Law (Christoph Hermann ed. 2013); “Antitrust in High-Tech Industries: Improving the Federal Antitrust Joint Venture” in George Mason Law Review (2012); “Behavioral Economics: Implications for Regulatory Agency Behavior” in Journal of Regulatory Economics (2012) (with James Cooper); “Competition Agency Design: What’s on the Menu?” in European Competition Journal (2012) (with David Hyman); “Plus Factors and Agreement in Antitrust Law” in Michigan Law Review (2011) (with Robert Marshall, Leslie Marx & Halbert White); “Ensuring Integrity and Competition and Public Procurement Markets: A Dual Challenge for Good Governance” in The WTO Regime on Government Procurement: Challenge and Reform (Sue Arrowsmith & Robert Anderson, eds. 2011) (with Robert Anderson & Anna Caroline Mueller); “The International Competition Network: Its Past, Current, and Future Role” inMinnesota Journal of International Law (2011) (with Hugh Hollman); “The William Humphrey and Abram Myers Years: The FTC from 1925 to 1929” in Antitrust Law Journal (2011) (with Marc Winerman); Professor Kovacic also is co-author (with Andrew Gavil & Jonathan Baker) of Antitrust Law in Perspective: Cases, Concepts and Problems in Competition Policy (2d ed. 2008) and Antitrust Law & Economics in a Nutshell (5th ed. 2004) (with Ernest Gellhorn & Stephen Calkins).
Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
Professor Pierce is author of over twenty books and 130 articles on administrative law, government regulation, and the effects of various forms of government intervention on the performance of markets. His books and articles have been cited in hundreds of judicial opinions, including over a dozen opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Counsel, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Senior Competition Counsel, TechFreedom
Bilal Sayyed represents clients before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) in significant merger, civil and criminal antitrust matters. A significant portion of his practice involves representing investment funds on antitrust and Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act compliance matters; he has also provided expert witness services related to HSR compliance. Bilal also counsels clients before the FTC in consumer protection and privacy investigations. He maintains an active amicus and appellate brief writing practice in antitrust litigation and antitrust merger matters.
Prior to joining Cadwalader, Bilal was the Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning (OPP) (2018-2021). In that role, he provided legal and policy advice to the Chairman and Commissioners on antitrust and consumer protection matters and worked closely with the senior and career leadership of the FTC’s Bureaus of Competition, Consumer Protection, and Economics. Bilal previously served as an Attorney Advisor to FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris from 2001 to 2004. In that role, Bilal advised the Chairman on matters involving a wide spectrum of industries, including chemical and mining, petroleum and natural gas, health care and pharmaceutical, defense and transportation, gaming, various consumer products and retail operations, and professional associations and standard-setting organizations.
Bilal has taught antitrust and competition law at the George Mason University School of Law since 2011.
Bilal received his B.A. from Case Western Reserve University, and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the State of New York, as well as before the U.S. District Courts for the District of Colorado and the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bilal is the host of Rethinking Antitrust, a podcast published by TechFreedom that examines the economics, institutions, law, legislation, and policy goals of antitrust enforcement.
Founding Partner, Lodestar Law and Economics PLLC
Josh is the founder of Lodestar Law and Economics, PLLC. On January 1, 2013, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Wright as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He is a leading scholar in antitrust law, economics, intellectual property, regulation, and consumer protection, and has published more than 100 articles and book chapters, co-authored a leading antitrust casebook, and edited several book volumes focusing on these issues. Commentators have recognized Wright as “widely considered his generation’s greatest mind on antitrust law,” and his academic work ranks him as one of the most cited antitrust academics in the world. Wright was also awarded the Paul M. Bator Award by the Federalist Society in 2014 to “an academic who demonstrated excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact.” Wright also served as the Executive Director of the Global Antitrust Institute, the world’s premiere academic institute focused upon antitrust education for judges and regulators and has taught hundreds of judges and thousands of regulators from dozens of countries.
Wright’s practice focuses upon helping clients solve complex competition, consumer protection, and regulatory problems by providing legal and economic analysis, strategic advice and counseling, and economic expert testimony.
Managing Principal, Broadmoor Consulting, LLC
Todd H. Baker is a former banking executive and law firm partner whose career trajectory led him from corporate law to C-suite strategic leadership roles at several of the largest domestic and international banks and roles as an academic, consultant, writer, speaker and commentator on banking, financial technology, consumer financial access and regulation issues. His deep knowledge of strategy, corporate governance, regulatory & public policy and competitive dynamics is combined with an extensive network of industry and government contacts built over long and varied career.
Mr. Baker is a Senior Fellow at the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy at Columbia Business School and Columbia Law School, where he works on innovation and the digital transformation of financial services, with a special interest in emerging business models for both traditional banks and non-bank "FinTech" financial services providers. He also teaches an advanced financial technology seminar for law and business students at Columbia and Stanford Law Schools. During 2016-2018, Mr. Baker was a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. His research interests and published papers at Harvard include work on the role of FinTech and employers in providing alternatives to payday loans and other types of short-term, small-dollar credit for low-income working Americans in the digital age.
Mr. Baker is a member of the board of directors and chair of the board credit committee at Accion Opportunity Fund, the nation's leading nonprofit small business lender, a member of the Academic Research Council at the Urban Institute and a Limited Partner Advisor at Nyca Partners, a leading fintech-focused venture capital firm. Mr. Baker has written for publications including the Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and the American Banker, speaks frequently at industry conferences and is widely quoted in the financial and technology press as an industry expert.
Mr. Baker is best known in business circles for driving strategic change in large financial services organizations and a long history of leading high-profile M&A and capital markets transactions. He has also built and managed effective and diverse teams in the areas of strategic planning, competitive intelligence, performance management, investor relations and venture capital. Mr. Baker served as the Managing Director and Head of Americas Corporate Development for MUFG Americas Holdings, the Americas banking operations of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). In this role, Mr. Baker managed MUFG Americas’ acquisition and divestiture activities in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Before taking that position, Mr. Baker was Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Development for Union Bank NA, the U.S. commercial and retail banking operation of MUFG, where he led the company’s strategic planning, corporate development and performance management activities. Prior to joining Union Bank, Mr. Baker served as Executive Director of Corporate Development for TD Bank, N.A., where he was a member of the Managing Committee and had responsibility for leading Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group’s acquisition activities in the U.S. market, and Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Development at Washington Mutual, Inc. where, at various times, he served on the Executive Committee and had responsibility for acquisitions & divestitures, strategic planning, investor relations, venture capital investing and competitive intelligence.
Prior to his executive roles, Baker was a partner with the international law firms Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he represented financial services, technology, corporate and investment banking clients in corporate and board governance matters, mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities offerings, securitizations and compliance issues and was recognized as the leading financial services M&A and securities attorney on the West Coast. His law clients included, among others, BankAmerica Corp., Transamerica Corp., Intel, Montgomery Securities, Hewlett-Packard, First Nationwide Financial, Washington Mutual Inc., Global Center, Nomura Securities, Lehman Brothers, Visa International, CIBC and Security Pacific Corp.
Partner, King & Spalding
A partner in the firm’s Government Advocacy and Public Policy group, J.C. helps companies and trade associations navigate legal, political and regulatory issues commonly associated with doing business in Europe and the United States. He is recognized by clients for his strong, bipartisan relationships with Members of Congress, State Attorneys General, congressional staff and senior government officials across key regulatory and executive branch agencies. He is trusted for his ability to rapidly synthesize complex information and communicate its strategic implications to policymakers and senior institutional stakeholders as well as his candid evaluation of options and potential for success.
As former counsel to the Senate Banking Committee, J.C has developed a deep expertise in financial services, fintech, and emerging technology policy. He has a proven track record of influencing federal legislation, regulatory frameworks, and agency rulemaking impacting digital assets, banking, payments, and technology platforms. J.C. regularly interfaces with financial regulators on a wide array of policy and institution-specific issues, and as co-chair of the firm’s State Attorneys General practice, delivers results on high-impact legal work at the intersection of law, policy and regulation.
J.C. is skilled in developing and executing comprehensive advocacy strategies, shaping legislative language, and positioning clients to successfully navigate complex and evolving policy environments at the federal, state and international levels. As President of the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum, he has briefed policymakers throughout Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Indo-Pacific. JC also advises international clients seeking to invest, expand, or operate in the United States.
President George W. Bush appointed J.C. to a six-year term as U.S. representative to the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Mayor Muriel Bowser also appointed J.C. to the District of Columbia; Board of Elections, in which capacity he also served on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Standards Board. He is currently chairman of the Board of Visitors of The Catholic University Columbus School of Law and President of the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum, where he is a regular speaker on cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.
Earlier in his career, J.C. established the Boggs Scholarship for Public Service at the University of Delaware in honor of his grandfather and namesake, former U.S. Congressman, Senator and Governor of Delaware, J. Caleb Boggs. He has also served on numerous corporate and non-profit boards, including Jobs for Delaware Graduates (Chairman); The Reserve Trust Company (Vice Chairman), Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network (Secretary), Republican National Lawyers Association (President), Kimball Union Academy (Chairman of the Committee on Trustees), and AAA Mid-Atlantic.
J.C. enjoys open-water swimming and is member of U.S. Masters Swimming and the historic Serpentine Swimming Club situated in London's Hyde Park. He has competed in swimming events across all 50 states, ten Canadian provinces and around the world.
Retired, Winston & Strawn LLP
Jerry Loeser is of counsel in the Chicago office of Winston & Strawn, and his practice focuses on banking regulation. He has extensive experience in counseling financial services clients on, among other things, bank acquisitions, privacy, financial modernization, the USA PATRIOT Act, Basel II and III, lending limits, capital, trust, affiliate transactions, and Federal Reserve, OCC, FDIC, and CFPB regulations.
Prior to working at large corporate law firms, Jerry was chief regulatory and compliance counsel for Comerica Bank, where he also served as senior vice president and deputy general counsel and as general counsel of its retail bank division. Before that, he served as chief regulatory in-house counsel at Wells Fargo & Co. Jerry began his legal career advising the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.
Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Steven Lofchie advises financial institutions on regulatory issues and financial instruments.
In his regulatory practice, Steven counsels clients on securities laws, the CEA, and related bankruptcy issues. His transactional practice focuses on securities credit and derivative transactions.
Steven is the founder and manager of an acclaimed legal website (now renamed Fried Frank Regulatory Intelligence) that has been endorsed by former chairpersons of both the SEC and CFTC. Subscribers to the website include government regulators and major buy- and sell-side firms.
Chambers USA has ranked Steven in Band 1 for eight years running, for both financial services regulation and derivatives. He is the only lawyer in the country to be top-ranked in both of those categories. Steven was also part of the team that was named 2020 Regulatory Team of the Year by IFLR Americas. The Best Lawyers in America recognized Steven as “Lawyer of the Year” for Administrative/Regulatory Law in New York in 2017, and U.S. News and World Report ranked him as the best regulatory lawyer in New York for 2014. In 2012, a derivatives transaction developed by Steven was cited as the best international structured product of the year by International Financial Law Review.
U.S. Senate, Wyoming
Cynthia Lummis was sworn into the United States Senate on January 3, 2021, becoming the first woman to serve as United States Senator from the great State of Wyoming.
Born on a cattle ranch in Laramie County, Senator Lummis has spent her entire career fighting for Wyoming families, communities, businesses and values. From the halls of the Wyoming House to the halls of the U.S. House, her time in public service has always been focused on advocating for Wyoming’s future.
First elected to the U.S. House in 2008, Senator Lummis quickly earned her reputation as a no-nonsense conservative and principled policymaker. She was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, a group consisting of the most unflinching conservative Members of the House of Representatives. She fought throughout her tenure in Congress to rein in spending and reduce the federal deficit, working with the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and ultimately co-sponsoring several bipartisan budget proposals.
In the House of Representatives, Senator Lummis effectively elevated western issues, pushing through the first Interior and Environment (EPA) Appropriations bill to pass the House in seven years under her chairmanship. This marked a significant milestone for the Western Caucus and the rural communities across the West they represent. She also worked to keep public lands open to the public and available for multiple use. She successfully passed the National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act in 2016, a bipartisan effort led by Cynthia to maintain over 157,000 miles of trails within our national forests.
Senator Lummis is a dedicated champion of Wyoming’s mineral and energy resources. In Washington, she fought off attacks from the environmental left while advocating for market opportunities both at home and abroad. She is the proud godmother of the ANSAC Wyoming, a commercial shipping vessel transporting trona from the U.S. to Southeast Asia and is the recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the Washington Coal Club.
Prior to serving in the House of Representatives, Senator Lummis spent eight years as Wyoming State Treasurer and 14 years as a member of the Wyoming State House and Senate. She also worked as general counsel to Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer and Director of the Office of State Lands and Investments, as well as a law clerk at the Wyoming Supreme Court.
After departing U.S. House of Representatives in 2016, Senator Lummis operated her family’s cattle ranches, and the Sweetgrass development in Laramie County, with her brother and sister. She is a three-time graduate of the University of Wyoming in animal science, biology and law. She and her late-husband, Al Wiederspahn, have one daughter, Annaliese, son-in-law Will Cole and grandsons Gus and Al.
Senior Fellow, Mises Institute
Alex J. Pollock is a Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute, providing thought and policy leadership on financial issues and the study of financial systems. His work includes cycles of booms and busts, financial crises with their political responses, housing finance, government-sponsored enterprises, risk and uncertainty, central banking, banking and financial regulation, corporate governance, retirement finance, student loans, and the politics of finance.
He previously served as the Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Financial Research in the U.S. Treasury Department 2019-2021. He was a Distinguished Senior Fellow with the R Street Institute 2015-2019 and 2021, and a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, 2004-2015. Among the many aspects of his AEI work, he developed the One Page Mortgage Form to give borrowers in clear form the key information they need in order to know what they are committing themselves to. He was President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago from 1991 to 2004. There he invented the Mortgage Partnership Finance program, which successfully created front-end mortgage credit risk sharing beginning in 1997. His decades of banking experience include being a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 1991.
Pollock was a director of the CME Group 2004-2019 and of Ascendium Education Group 1989-2019. He is a director and past-chairman of the Great Books Foundation and a past president of the International Union for Housing Finance.
He is the co-author of Surprised Again! - The COVID Crisis and the New Market Bubble (2022), and the author of Finance and Philosophy—Why We’re Always Surprised (2018) and Boom and Bust: Financial Cycles and Human Prosperity (2011), as well as numerous articles and Congressional testimony.
Pollock is a graduate of Williams College, the University of Chicago, and Princeton University.
His work is available on alexjpollock.com.
Founder, TGH Litigation LLC
Before forming TGH Litigation, Andy Hirth served as Deputy General Counsel in the Missouri Attorney General's Office, where he represented the people of Missouri in many of the state's highest-profile cases. During his six and a half years with the AGO, Andy defended numerous Missouri statutes from constitutional challenge, including the Macks Creek Law and the Inter-District School Transfer Law; represented Missouri in a $1.14 billion contract dispute between 46 states and more than 30 major tobacco companies; got Missouri's natural resources damage suit over the Bridgeton Landfill fire remanded to state court; and challenged regulations imposed on Missouri farms and businesses by the federal government and the state of California.
Andy graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law in 2005, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. Andy founded and served as president of the University of Missouri-Columbia Student Chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. He received a Burton Award for Legal Achievement and the Judge Shepard Barclay Prize for the graduating law student "who has attained the highest standing in scholarship and moral leadership."
After law school, Andy clerked for the Hon. Nanette K. Laughrey, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri and spent three years in private practice at Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago, Illinois. As an associate in the firm's Commercial Litigation and Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Groups, Andy represented a national over-the-road trucking company in an EEOC enforcement action alleging a pattern and practice of sexual harassment; defended a national media company from defamation and tortious interference claims by a former radio personality; and challenged the death sentence of an inmate in Florida. In 2010, Andy returned to Missouri to work for Attorney General Chris Koster.
Andy has taught Constitutional Law as an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. He holds a Juris Doctor and a Master's degree in English from the University of Missouri - Columbia.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, United States Department of Justice
Jesus A. Osete previously served as General Counsel to the Hon. John R. Ashcroft, Secretary of State of Missouri. Mr. Osete previously served as Deputy Solicitor General of Missouri and Deputy Attorney General for Special Litigation. He has presented oral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court. Before joining the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Osete worked at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP in the Appellate and Supreme Court Group. He also clerked for the Hon. Bobby E. Shepherd of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the Hon. Chief Justice Zel M. Fischer of the Supreme Court of Missouri. Mr. Osete received his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, where he served as Senior Executive Editor of the Washington University Law Review. Before law school, Mr. Osete worked for the late Senator John McCain in the United States Senate, and received an A.B. in political science and pre-law from the University of Arizona.
Mr. Osete serves as Trustee for the Supreme Court of Missouri Historical Society and served as Vice-Chair of the Missouri Bar Appellate Practice Committee. In 2018, he was one of approximately forty individuals in the United States selected to attend the Originalism Summer Seminar at the Georgetown University Law Center. In 2019, he was one of twelve young lawyers in Missouri selected to participate in the MissouriBar’s Leadership Academy.
Partner and Co-Chair, Appellate and Supreme Court Group, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
Barbara is a co-chair of the Appellate and Supreme Court Group at BCLP. She is an experienced trial and appellate litigator who counsels clients through their most sensitive and challenging litigation issues, and she routinely handles politically sensitive matters and aggressively advocates for early and complete victory. Her diverse client base—she has represented politicians, fortune 500 companies, foreign sovereigns, and boards of directors—share one thing in common: They need a strong advocate, and they want to win.
Barbara practices—and wins—at all levels of the federal and state courts. Before the United States Supreme Court, Barbara has represented clients filing petitions for certiorari, opposing certiorari, and she has filed merits briefs. She has also represented amici at the certiorari and merits stages.
At the trial court level, she routinely briefs and argues complex dispositive motions in anticipation of defending those victories on appeal. She also has first chair trial experience. On complex trial teams, she has acted as appellate preservation counsel. An experienced appellate advocate, Barbara has notched victories in state and federal appellate courts, including at the United States Supreme Court.
Because some of her clients prefer confidential ADR to public civil litigation, Barbara also has alternative dispute resolution experience, including winning a major arbitration victory for a petitioner-client and successfully mediating a case that (before her involvement) had previously been pending in the court system for more than a decade.
As an example of Barbara’s value-add, she recently crafted a novel standing argument that she briefed and won on a motion to dismiss a putative class action challenging a $198 million transaction in federal court. By winning on a motion to dismiss, she saved her client the time and cost of discovery. Barbara then successfully defended the victory on appeal—after briefing, the petitioner agreed to voluntarily dismiss the appeal and the case ended.
Among other issues, she has litigated questions of constitutional law, statutory construction, administrative law, securities law, labor and employment, white collar crime, ERISA, bankruptcy, and sovereign debt.
Before joining BCLP, Barbara served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the United States Supreme Court and Judge Thomas B. Griffith on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She also previously practiced at a Supreme Court litigation boutique, where she represented clients before the United States Supreme Court and various federal courts of appeal.
In her free time, Barbara teaches a class on the United States Supreme Court as an adjunct law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. She also serves on the Steering Committee for the St. Louis Chapter of the Federalist Society.
Barbara earned her J.D. from Stanford Law School, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Journal of Law, Business, and Finance, the President of the Federalist Society, and a member of the law school’s student government. While in law school, Barbara was a moot court semi-finalist and a teaching assistant at Stanford Law School and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Prior to attending law school, Barbara spent two years in the White House Counsel’s Office working for President George W. Bush. She graduated magna cum laude and with honors, from Wake Forest University, with a B.A. in economics and political science.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
Judge William Duane Benton is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. He joined the court in 2004 after being nominated by former President George W. Bush. Prior to his appointment, Judge Benton served as the chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court. During his service on the court he received his masters of laws from the University of Virginia, completed the senior executives program at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government, and completed a post-graduate appellate judges course at New York University’s Institute of Judicial Administration.
Prior to serving on the Supreme Court of Missouri, Judge Benton was appointed by then-Governor John Ashcroft as director of the state’s department of revenue. Judge Benton also worked as a judge advocate general for the United States Navy, during which time he received his master’s degree in business administration and accountancy from the University of Memphis.
Judge Benton earned his law degree from Yale Law School and was the managing editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Senior Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., is a Senior U. S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. He formerly served as prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County, as Circuit Judge for the 32nd Judicial Circuit, and as a judge and chief justice on the Supreme Court of Missouri. He was appointed to the federal bench in 2008 by President George W. Bush, and has since served as the resident district judge in the Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Sr. United States Courthouse in Cape Girardeau, named after his grandfather. Judge Limbaugh's father, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Sr., is a retired U. S. District Judge, and his son, Christopher K. Limbaugh, is a judge on the Circuit Court of Cole County.
Judge, United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri.
Matthew T. Schelp serves as a United States District Judge for Eastern District of Missouri. Schelp began his tenure In August 2020 when he replaced District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr.
Before being sworn in, Schelp served in a variety of roles in both the public and private sector. Most recently, he was a partner at the firm of Husch Blackwell, where he chaired the firm’s government compliance, investigations and litigation practice group. Prior to his time at Husch Blackwell, Schelp served as an Assistant United States Attorney, and as a Judge Advocate in the United States Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps. Schelp received both his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Missouri.
Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri
Judge Cristian M. Stevens was appointed by Governor Mike Parson to the Missouri Court of Appeals-Eastern District in October 2021. Before taking the bench, Judge Stevens was the First Assistant Attorney General to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. He is a sixth-generation Missourian, raised in St. Charles County, and a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Missouri Law Review. Upon graduation, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Pasco M. Bowman II, Chief Judge of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in Kansas City, Missouri. He has practiced law at several large law firms in St. Louis. He was a federal prosecutor for 15 years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, where he led the investigation of the August 9, 2014, officer-involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. Judge Stevens is married with three children, a parishioner of the Catholic Church, and a member of the Federalist Society.
Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District of Missouri
John P. Torbitzky is a judge on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District. Torbitzky served as a law clerk to the Honorable Zel M. Fischer on the Supreme Court of Missouri before entering private practice. He was appointed to the court in 2021 by Governor Michael L. Parson.
Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor James W. Coleman is a scholar of energy law. He specializes in North American energy infrastructure, transport, and trade. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focused on energy policy.
Professor Coleman has testified before Congress on steps to speed up energy infrastructure permits. He also worked with a team of experts as part of Alberta's Royalty Review to revise the Canadian province's management of its vast oil and gas resources.
Before joining Minnesota, Professor Coleman taught at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, the University of Calgary’s law and business schools, and Harvard Law School. Earlier, he practiced environmental and appellate law at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Honorable Steven M. Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Professor Coleman received two degrees from Harvard University—a J.D. (cum laude) and B.A. in biology (magna cum laude with highest honors in the field). As a result of his undergraduate thesis on butterfly genetics, which required fieldwork in Central Asia, a species of lycaenid butterfly was named after him—Agrodiaetus ripartii colemani.
Independent Consultant
Mark E. Ellis is a former utility executive now working as an independent consultant and testifying expert in finance and economics in utility regulatory proceedings. Before establishing his own consultancy, Mark led the strategy function at Sempra Energy (parent of San Diego Gas &Electric and Southern California Gas) for fifteen years. Previously, he worked as a consultant in McKinsey’s energy practice, in international project development for ExxonMobil, and in industrial demand-side management for Southern California Edison. He has an MS from MIT’s Technology and Policy Program, where he focused on utility policy and conducted research in the MIT Energy Lab, and a BS in mechanical engineering from Harvard.
Panel 3: Progressive Prosecutors: Decarceration, “Harm of Policing” and Bail Reform
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, McGregor W. Scott, Charles "Cully" Stimson
George Soros has contended that “there is no connection between the election of reform-minded prosecutors...
Panel 1: The Not So Wild West? How Regulations Have Affected Land Use in the Western States
Chris Carr, Eric Grant, Jennifer L. Hernandez, Karrin Taylor Robson, Lawrence VanDyke
The rising cost of housing and the regulatory state are some of the major issues...
A Seat at the Sitting - March 2023
Jennifer Jenkins, Adam Mathews, Robert K. McBride, Robert J. Rando, Elizabeth Slattery, Stephen J. Ware
Each month, a panel of constitutional experts convenes to discuss the Court’s upcoming docket sitting...
Explainer Episode 52 - What Came Next: FDA's Response to the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s December Reports on FDA's Tobacco and Human Foods Program
Jeff Stier
In late February 2023, the FDA released its responses to the December 2022 Reagan-Udall Foundation...
A Roundtable on Recent Developments at the FTC
Debbie Feinstein, William Kovacic, Richard J. Pierce, Bilal Sayyed, Joshua D. Wright
Recent months have seen a flurry of notable developments at the Federal Trade Commission, including...
Cryptocurrency Regulation in the Aftermath of FTX
Todd H. Baker, J.C. Boggs, Julius L. Loeser, Steven Lofchie, Cynthia Lummis, Alex J. Pollock
The collapse of FTX has intensified the debate about how cryptocurrencies should be regulated, including...
Panel 3: Post-Dobbs Abortion Legislation in Missouri
J. Andrew Hirth, Jesus A. Osete, Barbara Smith Tyson
The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs returned the abortion question–whether and how to regulate abortion...
Panel 2: The Role of a Judge - A Conversation with Federal and State Appellate Judges and Federal District Court Judges
Duane Benton, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Matthew T. Schelp, Cristian M. Stevens, John Torbitzky
Our distinguished panel of judges discussed the unique roles of both appellate judges and trial...
Explainer Episode 49 - Utility Rate Modeling
James W. Coleman, Mark Ellis
Energy consumers continue to see rising rates, but how do regulators decide the rate that consumers...
Barwatch Bulletin -- February 14, 2009
Bioethics and the LawSaturday morning featured a roundtable discussion entitled "Hot Topics in Bioethics and...