Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Chief Policy Advisor and Senior Legal Counsel, Office of Governor Kim Reynolds
Shareholder, Brick Gentry PC
Tom Levis is a shareholder of Brick Gentry P.C. and a member of the Firm’s executive committee. His practice emphasizes general civil litigation including personal injury law, as well as construction and real estate litigation, matrimonial and family law, and general business and business associations law. Tom has excellent mediation skills and provides mediation services through the district court mediation program.
Community service has been a central part of Tom’s career. In addition to serving on numerous boards within the legal industry, he has also volunteered his time to serve on the Polk County Conservation Board, the Mentor Iowa Board of Directors and the Foster Care Review Board. He has coached the Valley High School mock trial teams and frequently volunteers to serve as a judge for college mock trial competitions.
Counsel, White & Case
Antonio Garza served as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from 2002 through 2009 and is now Counsel to White & Case in Mexico City. Garza is currently a Director to both Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU), where he is member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the company's subsidiary, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, and MoneyGram (NYSE:MGI) where he serves as Chairman of the company's Committee on Compliance and Ethics. Additionally, Garza is a Trustee at Southern Methodist University (J.D.,1983) and acts as Chairman of the university's Committee on Legal and Governmental Affairs and is a past-Chairman and President of the TexasExes, the alumni association of the University of Texas at Austin (B.B.A.,1980). Mr. Garza served as Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission from 1998-2002, and prior to that as Texas 99th Secretary of State and Cameron County Judge , 1988-1994.
Principal, Navigators Global
Andy Keiser served 14 years on Capitol Hill for former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers - as Senior Advisor to the Committee, Chief of Staff, and Legislative Director handling all national security policy issues.
As Deputy National Security Senior Advisor to the pre-election phase of the Trump for America transition team, Mr. Keiser prepared and advised the transition's policy, personnel and agency action teams on all aspects of the national security portfolio. This included work in the Departments of Defense, State, Justice, Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, and the National Security Council.
He was also the head writer for a nationally-syndicated radio program and assisted in the production of the CNN series “Declassified.”
Mr. Keiser has written extensively on intelligence, space and cyber policy, missile defense, Afghanistan, China, Iran, ISIS, North Korea, and Russia. He also helped shepherd six Intelligence Authorization Acts into law and managed Chairman Rogers’ cyber threat sharing legislation, which passed the House twice and the core of which was later signed into law by President Obama.
He has a Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University and a Master of Arts from the United States Naval War College. He is active on various national security-focused policy projects at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where he serves as a Senior Advisor, and at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, where he serves as a Fellow. He also is a member of the OSS Society and serves on the Meridian International Center’s Global Leadership Council.
Mr. Keiser is currently a Principal at Navigators Global, where he focuses on cybersecurity and other national security priorities. Dubbed a “national security expert” by the Washington Post, Andy is a regular media commentator on national security issues.
Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School
Professor Emeritus of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jeremy A. Rabkin is a Professor Emeritus of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. Before joining the faculty in June 2007, he was for over two decades a professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Professor Rabkin serves on the board of directors of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously he was a board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the board of academic advisors of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Rabkin’s books include Law Without Nations? (Princeton University Press, 2005). He authored “If You Need a Friend, Don’t Call a Cosmopolitan,” a chapter in Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship (Sigal R. Ben-Porath & Rogers M. Smith eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in major law reviews and political science journals and his journalistic contributions in a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Executive Director, Justice and Society Program, The Aspen Institute
Meryl Justin Chertoff is Executive Director of The Aspen Institute’s Justice and Society Program. She directs its summer seminar in Aspen, its speaker series in New York, Washington and Aspen, and the Inclusive America Project, on religious pluralism in America. She is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law, where she teaches about state government. She is an opinion contributor for The Hill, and also writes for the Huffington Post and the Aspen Idea.
From 2006-2009, Ms. Chertoff was Director of the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at Georgetown Law, studying and educating the public about federal and state courts. At Georgetown Law, she developed educational programs for visiting judges and other government officials from overseas.
She served in the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), participating in the agency’s transition into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. Ms. Chertoff has been a legislative relations professional, Director of New Jersey’s Washington, D.C. Office under two governors, and legislative counsel to the Chair of the New Jersey State Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Her undergraduate and law degrees are from Harvard. She and her husband have two adult children.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
United States District Judge, Eastern District of Kentucky
Chad served as solicitor general from 2019 to 2021, overseeing all civil and criminal appellate litigation involving the commonwealth, and leading a team of nearly 30 appellate lawyers.
Chad has also served as the chief deputy general counsel (2015-2019) to the governor of Kentucky. In that role, he represented the governor in litigation and advised the governor and other executive branch officials on a wide variety of legal and policy issues.
After graduating law school, he clerked for Judge John M. Rogers on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and also for Judge Amul R. Thapar on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Partner, Ransdell Roach & Royse PLLC
John Roach is a former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice who also served as General Counsel to Governor Ernie Fletcher. Recently, John served as General Counsel in the Transition of Governor Matt Bevin. In addition to a vigorous trial practice, John has successfully argued cases before the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Kentucky Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Since returning to private practice, John has represented a diverse group of individuals and businesses including Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Harrison Memorial Hospital, Bayer Properties (developers of The Summit at Fritz Farm), Dominion Enterprises, and Greer Companies (major franchisee of Cheddar’s Casual Café). John is an avid horseracing fan with a genuine passion for the sport and the Commonwealth’s role as the epicenter of the thoroughbred world. He has represented a number of domestic and foreign clients in all aspects of thoroughbred breeding and racing. John is currently the Vice Chairman of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Among the many equine transactions and litigation matters in which Mr. Roach has participated, he is proud to have served as lead counsel in the stallion syndication of PIONEEROF THE NILE, sire of Triple Crown Winner and Breeders’ Cup Champion AMERICAN PHAROAH. He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America® for numerous years and is AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®. His practice primarily focuses on commercial litigation, appellate advocacy, labor and employment law and litigation, equine law, and corporate transactions for businesses and entrepreneurs.
Former Director, State Courts, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Peter Bisbee served as Director of State Courts for the Federalist Society. In this capacity, he lead a comprehensive effort to promote the discussion on the role of courts in states across the country. Peter also executed the Society’s government and coalition outreach efforts at the national level as Deputy Director of External Relations, working as a liaison to Congress and other public policy organizations. He previously served as Director of Membership at the Society, where he managed relations with the Society’s network of over 70,000 individuals, created outreach campaigns to increase engagement, and developed the organization's recordkeeping and communication systems. Peter holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in History and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
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.
Counsel, White & Case
Antonio Garza served as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from 2002 through 2009 and is now Counsel to White & Case in Mexico City. Garza is currently a Director to both Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU), where he is member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the company's subsidiary, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, and MoneyGram (NYSE:MGI) where he serves as Chairman of the company's Committee on Compliance and Ethics. Additionally, Garza is a Trustee at Southern Methodist University (J.D.,1983) and acts as Chairman of the university's Committee on Legal and Governmental Affairs and is a past-Chairman and President of the TexasExes, the alumni association of the University of Texas at Austin (B.B.A.,1980). Mr. Garza served as Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission from 1998-2002, and prior to that as Texas 99th Secretary of State and Cameron County Judge , 1988-1994.
Principal, Navigators Global
Andy Keiser served 14 years on Capitol Hill for former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers - as Senior Advisor to the Committee, Chief of Staff, and Legislative Director handling all national security policy issues.
As Deputy National Security Senior Advisor to the pre-election phase of the Trump for America transition team, Mr. Keiser prepared and advised the transition's policy, personnel and agency action teams on all aspects of the national security portfolio. This included work in the Departments of Defense, State, Justice, Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, and the National Security Council.
He was also the head writer for a nationally-syndicated radio program and assisted in the production of the CNN series “Declassified.”
Mr. Keiser has written extensively on intelligence, space and cyber policy, missile defense, Afghanistan, China, Iran, ISIS, North Korea, and Russia. He also helped shepherd six Intelligence Authorization Acts into law and managed Chairman Rogers’ cyber threat sharing legislation, which passed the House twice and the core of which was later signed into law by President Obama.
He has a Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University and a Master of Arts from the United States Naval War College. He is active on various national security-focused policy projects at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where he serves as a Senior Advisor, and at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, where he serves as a Fellow. He also is a member of the OSS Society and serves on the Meridian International Center’s Global Leadership Council.
Mr. Keiser is currently a Principal at Navigators Global, where he focuses on cybersecurity and other national security priorities. Dubbed a “national security expert” by the Washington Post, Andy is a regular media commentator on national security issues.
Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School
Professor Emeritus of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jeremy A. Rabkin is a Professor Emeritus of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. Before joining the faculty in June 2007, he was for over two decades a professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Professor Rabkin serves on the board of directors of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously he was a board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the board of academic advisors of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Rabkin’s books include Law Without Nations? (Princeton University Press, 2005). He authored “If You Need a Friend, Don’t Call a Cosmopolitan,” a chapter in Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship (Sigal R. Ben-Porath & Rogers M. Smith eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in major law reviews and political science journals and his journalistic contributions in a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Executive Director, Justice and Society Program, The Aspen Institute
Meryl Justin Chertoff is Executive Director of The Aspen Institute’s Justice and Society Program. She directs its summer seminar in Aspen, its speaker series in New York, Washington and Aspen, and the Inclusive America Project, on religious pluralism in America. She is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law, where she teaches about state government. She is an opinion contributor for The Hill, and also writes for the Huffington Post and the Aspen Idea.
From 2006-2009, Ms. Chertoff was Director of the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at Georgetown Law, studying and educating the public about federal and state courts. At Georgetown Law, she developed educational programs for visiting judges and other government officials from overseas.
She served in the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), participating in the agency’s transition into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. Ms. Chertoff has been a legislative relations professional, Director of New Jersey’s Washington, D.C. Office under two governors, and legislative counsel to the Chair of the New Jersey State Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Her undergraduate and law degrees are from Harvard. She and her husband have two adult children.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
United States District Judge, Eastern District of Kentucky
Chad served as solicitor general from 2019 to 2021, overseeing all civil and criminal appellate litigation involving the commonwealth, and leading a team of nearly 30 appellate lawyers.
Chad has also served as the chief deputy general counsel (2015-2019) to the governor of Kentucky. In that role, he represented the governor in litigation and advised the governor and other executive branch officials on a wide variety of legal and policy issues.
After graduating law school, he clerked for Judge John M. Rogers on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and also for Judge Amul R. Thapar on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Partner, Ransdell Roach & Royse PLLC
John Roach is a former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice who also served as General Counsel to Governor Ernie Fletcher. Recently, John served as General Counsel in the Transition of Governor Matt Bevin. In addition to a vigorous trial practice, John has successfully argued cases before the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Kentucky Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Since returning to private practice, John has represented a diverse group of individuals and businesses including Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Harrison Memorial Hospital, Bayer Properties (developers of The Summit at Fritz Farm), Dominion Enterprises, and Greer Companies (major franchisee of Cheddar’s Casual Café). John is an avid horseracing fan with a genuine passion for the sport and the Commonwealth’s role as the epicenter of the thoroughbred world. He has represented a number of domestic and foreign clients in all aspects of thoroughbred breeding and racing. John is currently the Vice Chairman of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Among the many equine transactions and litigation matters in which Mr. Roach has participated, he is proud to have served as lead counsel in the stallion syndication of PIONEEROF THE NILE, sire of Triple Crown Winner and Breeders’ Cup Champion AMERICAN PHAROAH. He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America® for numerous years and is AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®. His practice primarily focuses on commercial litigation, appellate advocacy, labor and employment law and litigation, equine law, and corporate transactions for businesses and entrepreneurs.
Executive Director, Justice and Society Program, The Aspen Institute
Meryl Justin Chertoff is Executive Director of The Aspen Institute’s Justice and Society Program. She directs its summer seminar in Aspen, its speaker series in New York, Washington and Aspen, and the Inclusive America Project, on religious pluralism in America. She is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law, where she teaches about state government. She is an opinion contributor for The Hill, and also writes for the Huffington Post and the Aspen Idea.
From 2006-2009, Ms. Chertoff was Director of the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at Georgetown Law, studying and educating the public about federal and state courts. At Georgetown Law, she developed educational programs for visiting judges and other government officials from overseas.
She served in the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), participating in the agency’s transition into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. Ms. Chertoff has been a legislative relations professional, Director of New Jersey’s Washington, D.C. Office under two governors, and legislative counsel to the Chair of the New Jersey State Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Her undergraduate and law degrees are from Harvard. She and her husband have two adult children.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
United States District Judge, Eastern District of Kentucky
Chad served as solicitor general from 2019 to 2021, overseeing all civil and criminal appellate litigation involving the commonwealth, and leading a team of nearly 30 appellate lawyers.
Chad has also served as the chief deputy general counsel (2015-2019) to the governor of Kentucky. In that role, he represented the governor in litigation and advised the governor and other executive branch officials on a wide variety of legal and policy issues.
After graduating law school, he clerked for Judge John M. Rogers on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and also for Judge Amul R. Thapar on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Partner, Ransdell Roach & Royse PLLC
John Roach is a former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice who also served as General Counsel to Governor Ernie Fletcher. Recently, John served as General Counsel in the Transition of Governor Matt Bevin. In addition to a vigorous trial practice, John has successfully argued cases before the Kentucky Court of Appeals, Kentucky Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Since returning to private practice, John has represented a diverse group of individuals and businesses including Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, Harrison Memorial Hospital, Bayer Properties (developers of The Summit at Fritz Farm), Dominion Enterprises, and Greer Companies (major franchisee of Cheddar’s Casual Café). John is an avid horseracing fan with a genuine passion for the sport and the Commonwealth’s role as the epicenter of the thoroughbred world. He has represented a number of domestic and foreign clients in all aspects of thoroughbred breeding and racing. John is currently the Vice Chairman of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Among the many equine transactions and litigation matters in which Mr. Roach has participated, he is proud to have served as lead counsel in the stallion syndication of PIONEEROF THE NILE, sire of Triple Crown Winner and Breeders’ Cup Champion AMERICAN PHAROAH. He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America® for numerous years and is AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®. His practice primarily focuses on commercial litigation, appellate advocacy, labor and employment law and litigation, equine law, and corporate transactions for businesses and entrepreneurs.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise, Vanderbilt University Law School
Brian Fitzpatrick is the Milton R. Underwood Chair in Free Enterprise and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection, and constitutional law. He is best known for his empirical studies of class action settlements as well as his book The Conservative Case for Class Actions (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Professor Fitzpatrick joined Vanderbilt's law faculty in 2007 after serving as the John M. Olin Fellow at New York University School of Law. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School and went on to clerk for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, Professor Fitzpatrick practiced commercial and appellate litigation for several years at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and served as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations to U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Before earning his law degree, Fitzpatrick graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He has received the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award, which recognizes excellence in classroom teaching, for his Civil Procedure and Federal Courts courses.
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.
Former Director, State Courts, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Peter Bisbee served as Director of State Courts for the Federalist Society. In this capacity, he lead a comprehensive effort to promote the discussion on the role of courts in states across the country. Peter also executed the Society’s government and coalition outreach efforts at the national level as Deputy Director of External Relations, working as a liaison to Congress and other public policy organizations. He previously served as Director of Membership at the Society, where he managed relations with the Society’s network of over 70,000 individuals, created outreach campaigns to increase engagement, and developed the organization's recordkeeping and communication systems. Peter holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan in History and lives in Virginia with his wife and daughter.
The Role of the Bar in Selecting Iowa's Judges
Iowa Lawyers Chapter
Des Moines, IANew NAFTA or Else ... What?
Antonio Garza, Andy Keiser, Timothy Meyer, Jeremy A. Rabkin
Last month, the Trump administration announced completion of a U.S.-Canada-Mexico-Agreement, intended to supersede the 1993...
New NAFTA or Else ... What?
TeleforumJudicial Selection in Kentucky
Meryl J. Chertoff, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, S. Chad Meredith, John C. Roach
On October 29, 2018, the Federalist Society's Kentucky lawyers chapters hosted the second annual Kentucky...
Judicial Selection in Kentucky
Meryl J. Chertoff, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, S. Chad Meredith, John C. Roach
On October 29, 2018, the Federalist Society's Kentucky lawyers chapters hosted the second annual Kentucky...
Courthouse Steps: Frank v. Gaos Oral Arguments
Brian T. Fitzpatrick
The case of Frank v. Gaos presents the question of whether and in what circumstances courts...
Courthouse Steps: Frank v. Gaos Oral Arguments
TeleforumJudicial Selection in Kentucky
2018 Kentucky Chapters Conference
Frankfort, KYThe Case for Political Appointment of Judges
Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Stephen J. Ware, Peter Bisbee
Join us in a discussion with our experts, Professor Brian Fitzpatrick and Professor Stephen Ware,...
The Case for Political Appointment of Judges
State Courts Project Teleforum
Teleforum