Former United States Attorney General
Griffin Boyette Bell was born in Americus, Georgia, on October 31, 1918. He attended Georgia Southwestern College, and received an LL.B. degree cum laude from Mercer University Law School in Macon, Georgia. In addition, he received the Order of the Coif from Vanderbilt Law School, and honorary degrees from a number of colleges and universities.
Mr. Bell served in the U. S. Army from 1941 to 1946, attaining the rank of major.
He was admitted to the Georgia bar in 1947, and practiced in Savannah and Rome, Georgia, before joining the Atlanta law firm of King & Spalding in 1953. From January 1959 to October 1961, Bell held the honorary position of chief of staff to Georgia Governor Ernest Vandiver.
In 1961 President Kennedy appointed him to serve on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In March 1976, he returned to King & Spalding as a senior partner. He resigned from the firm on December 31, 1976, after being nominated for the office of Attorney General by President Carter. Confirmed by the Senate on January 25, 1977, Bell was sworn in on January 26, receiving the oath of office from Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.
During his career, Bell served as Chairman of the Committee on Innovation and Development of the Federal Judicial Center, of the American Bar Association's Division of Judicial Administration and of the Pound Conference Follow-Up Task Force.
His memberships included the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association's Commission on Standards of Judicial Administration, the Board of Directors of the Federal Judicial Center, the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the Visiting Committee of Vanderbilt Law School. He was a trustee of Mercer University and an attorney with the law firm King & Spalding. Bell died January 5, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Columnist, The Wall Street Journal
Gordon Crovitz is the former "Information Age" columnist for the Wall Street Journal's Editorial Page. He is a media and information industry adviser and executive, including former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, executive vice president of Dow Jones and president of its Consumer Media Group. He has been active in digital media since the early 1990s, overseeing the growth of The Wall Street Journal Online to more than one million paying subscribers, making WSJ.com the largest paid news site on the Web. He launched the Factiva business-search service and led the acquisition for Dow Jones of the MarketWatch Web site, VentureOne database, Private Equity Analyst newsletter and online news services VentureWire (Silicon Valley), e-Financial News (London) and VWD (Frankfurt).
In 2009, he co-founded Press+, which was acquired by RR Donnelley in 2011.
He is a member of the board of directors of Blurb, Business Insider, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Marin Software, Minneapolis Star Tribune and ProQuest. He is an angel investor and is on the board of advisors of several early-stage companies, including Halogen Media, Quid, Skift, SkyGrid, SocialMedian (sold to XING) and WatchUp. He is an investor in Betaworks, a New York incubator for startups.
Earlier in his career, Gordon wrote the "Rule of Law" column for the Journal and won several awards including the Gerald Loeb Award for business commentary. He was editor and publisher of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong and editorial-page editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels.
He graduated from the University of Chicago and has law degrees from Wadham College, Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes scholar, and Yale Law School.
Former General Counsel, United States Senate Intelligence Committee
Between 2003 and 2011, Michael Davidson served first as Minority Counsel and then General Counsel at the Senate Intelligence Committee. In 1997 and 1998, he participated in representing Senators Byrd, Moynihan, and Levin in their challenge to the constitutionality of the Line Item Veto Act. After teaching clinical law at the State University of New York in Buffalo and then two years as chief staff counsel at the DC Circuit, he served as the first Senate Legal Counsel (1979-95), where his responsibilities included representing the Senate in separation of powers cases. After graduation from the University of Chicago Law School in 1964, Davidson served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, and then as an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Betts Professor Emeritus of Law, Columbia Law School
Peter L. Strauss is the Betts Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. He teaches courses in administrative law, legal methods, and legislation. He joined the faculty in 1971, and has twice served as vice dean.
He received his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1964 and his A.B. from Harvard College in 1961. Before joining the Law School, he clerked for David L. Bazelon and William J. Brennan in Washington, D.C.; spent two years lecturing on criminal law in the national university of Ethiopia; and three years as an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General, briefing and arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. During 1975 to 1977, Strauss was on leave from Columbia as the first general counsel of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In 1987, the American Bar Association's section of administrative law and regulatory practice presented Strauss with its third annual award for distinguished scholarship in administrative law. From 1992 to 1993, he served as chair of the section. He has been a reporter for rulemaking on its APA and European Union administrative law projects, and was a member of its E-Rulemaking task force. In 2008, the American Constitution Society awarded him the first Richard Cudahy prize for his essay “Overseer or 'The Decider'? The President in Administrative Law.”
Strauss has been a visitor at the European University Institute, Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public and International Law, and New York University, and has lectured widely on American administrative law abroad, including programs in Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, China, Colombia, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Turkey, and Venezuela. During 2008 to 2009, he was Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European Law Institute and Parsons Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School.
A life member of the American Law Institute, Strauss was elected in 2010 to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He has also long been a faculty member on the board of the Law School's Public Interest Law Foundation.
U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
Judge Williams practiced law in New York City (at the firm of Debevoise Plimpton and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney) and then taught law at the University of Colorado Law School from 1969 to 1986, with visiting years at UCLA, SMU, and the University of Chicago (where he was also a fellow in law and economics). He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1986. His most recent book is a biography of Vasily Maklakov, The Reformer: How One Liberal Fought to Preempt the Russian Revolution (Encounter Books, 2017).
Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP
Phil Goldberg is the office managing partner of Shook in Washington, D.C., and co-chair of the firm’s Public Policy Practice Group. He has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on high stakes and high profile liability-related public policy, public affairs and public relations issues. He counsels businesses and their trade associations on some of the most cutting-edge liability issues of the day.
As part of this work, Phil co-chairs the firm’s National Amicus Practice, which files more than three dozen amicus briefs every year. He has filed amicus briefs for many of the most influential trade and civil justice groups with courts at every level, from the U.S. Supreme Court to the U.S. Courts of Appeals and state appellate courts. He has testified before Congress and state legislatures, has authored leading legal scholarship and is a regular speaker at judicial education conferences. He also is a resource for journalists, podcasters and others who report on and discuss pressing liability issues.
Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP
Phil Goldberg is the office managing partner of Shook in Washington, D.C., and co-chair of the firm’s Public Policy Practice Group. He has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on high stakes and high profile liability-related public policy, public affairs and public relations issues. He counsels businesses and their trade associations on some of the most cutting-edge liability issues of the day.
As part of this work, Phil co-chairs the firm’s National Amicus Practice, which files more than three dozen amicus briefs every year. He has filed amicus briefs for many of the most influential trade and civil justice groups with courts at every level, from the U.S. Supreme Court to the U.S. Courts of Appeals and state appellate courts. He has testified before Congress and state legislatures, has authored leading legal scholarship and is a regular speaker at judicial education conferences. He also is a resource for journalists, podcasters and others who report on and discuss pressing liability issues.
Former Governor of Virginia and United States Senator
Charles Spittal Robb is an American politician from Virginia and former officer in the United States Marine Corps. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 64th Governor of Virginia from 1982 to 1986 and a United States Senator from 1989 until 2001. In 2004, he co-chaired the Iraq Intelligence Commission.
Former Archivist of the United States
Allen Weinstein (September 1, 1937 – June 18, 2015) was an American historian, educator, and federal official who served in several different offices. He was, under the Reagan administration, cofounder of the National Endowment for Democracy in 1983. He served as the Archivist of the United States from February 16, 2005, until his resignation on December 19, 2008. After his resignation, he returned to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems as a senior strategist and was a visiting faculty member at the University of Maryland.
Former Governor of Virginia and United States Senator
Charles Spittal Robb is an American politician from Virginia and former officer in the United States Marine Corps. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 64th Governor of Virginia from 1982 to 1986 and a United States Senator from 1989 until 2001. In 2004, he co-chaired the Iraq Intelligence Commission.
Former Archivist of the United States
Allen Weinstein (September 1, 1937 – June 18, 2015) was an American historian, educator, and federal official who served in several different offices. He was, under the Reagan administration, cofounder of the National Endowment for Democracy in 1983. He served as the Archivist of the United States from February 16, 2005, until his resignation on December 19, 2008. After his resignation, he returned to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems as a senior strategist and was a visiting faculty member at the University of Maryland.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Frank H. Easterbrook is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a Senior Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Chicago. He was Chief Judge from 2006–2013. Before joining the court in 1985, he was the Lee andBrena Freeman Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he taught and wrote in antitrust, securities, corporate law, jurisprudence, and criminal procedure. He has published The Economic Structure of Corporate Law (with Daniel R. Fischel) and about 100 scholarly articles. He served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1982 to 1991 and as a member of the Judicial Conference’s Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 1991 to 1997. Before joining the faculty of the Law School in 1979, Judge Easterbrook was Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College (B.A. with high honors, 1970) and the University of Chicago (J.D. cum laude, 1973), and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Law Institute, the Mont Pelerin Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Order of the Coif.
David McIntosh is a leader for the principles of limited constitutional government and individual freedom. He is president of the Club for Growth, the leading advocate for economic liberty.
Former Congressman David McIntosh represented Indiana's 2nd Congressional District in the United States Congress from 1995-2001. As a Freshman, David chaired the Subcommittee on Regulatory Relief. He passed the Congressional Review Act and held extensive oversight and field hearings to build a record of public support for regulatory relief initiatives in energy, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, transportation and technology sectors. Another issue that he championed was the elimination of the marriage penalty in the Federal Tax Code.
David served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese III, and as special assistant to President Reagan for Domestic Affairs. During the first Bush administration, he served as executive director of the President's Council on Competitiveness and assistant to the Vice President. The Competitiveness Council coordinated the cost/benefit review of major regulations and promoted legal reform measures.
David is a co-founder of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy and serves on the Board of Directors. He remains active with several free market and conservative think tanks and grassroots organizations. David has also had stints at the Hudson Institute and as a Professor of Economics at Ball State School of Business.
Prior to the Club for Growth, David was a partner at Mayer Brown, LLP in Washington, DC.
David graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1983, and Yale University, BA, cum laude, in 1980. He and his wife, Ruthie, are the proud parents of Ellie age 17 and Davey age 13.
Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Theodore B. Olson is a Partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C. office; a founder of the Firm’s Crisis Management, Sports Law, and Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Groups.
Mr. Olson was Solicitor General of the United States during the period 2001-2004. From 1981-1984, he was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965.
Selected by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Mr. Olson is one of the nation’s premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates. He has argued 65 cases in the Supreme Court and has prevailed in over 75% of those cases. These include the two Bush v Gore cases arising out of the 2000 presidential election; Citizens United v Federal Election Commission; Hollingsworth v Perry, the case affirming the overturning of California’s Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriages; Murphy v NCAA, overturning a federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting; and U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security v Regents of the Univ. of Calif., challenging the Trump Administration’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”). Mr. Olson’s practice is concentrated on appellate and constitutional law, federal legislation, media and commercial disputes, and assisting clients with strategies for the containment, management and resolution of major legal crises. He has handled cases at all levels of state and federal court systems throughout the United States. Mr. Olson co-authored “Redeeming the Dream, the Case for Marriage Equality” with David Boies. Both were featured in HBO’s award-winning documentary, “The Case Against 8.”
Mr. Olson's Supreme Court arguments have included cases involving separation of powers; federalism; voting rights; the Tenth Amendment; the First Amendment; the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses; jury trial rights; punitive damages; takings of property; the Commerce Clause; administrative law; taxation; criminal law; sports wagering; copyright, patent and antitrust; securities; campaign finance; foreign sovereign immunities; telecommunications; the environment; the internet; the Supremacy Clause; and other federal constitutional and statutory questions. As Solicitor General, during the presidency of George W. Bush, Mr. Olson was the Government's principal advocate in the United States Supreme Court, responsible for supervising and coordinating all appellate litigation of the United States, and a legal adviser to the President and the Attorney General. As Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel during the Reagan Administration, Mr. Olson was the Executive Branch's principal legal adviser, rendering legal guidance to the President and to the heads of the Executive Branch departments on a wide range of constitutional and federal statutory questions, and assisting in formulating and articulating the Executive Branch's position on constitutional issues.
Mr. Olson has served as private counsel to two Presidents, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush, in addition to serving those two Presidents in high-level positions in the Department of Justice. He has twice been awarded the United States Department of Justice's Edmund J. Randolph Award, its highest award for public service and leadership, and also received the Department of Defense's Distinguished Public Service Award, its highest civilian award, for his advocacy in the courts of the United States, including the Supreme Court. He also received the American Bar Association Medal, its highest award for “exceptionally distinguished service by a lawyer or lawyers to the cause of American jurisprudence.” Mr. Olson is to receive the 2021 Jack Valenti Friend of the White House Fellows Award in the Fall of 2021 to be presented by the White House Fellows Foundation and Association.
Mr. Olson is a member of the Commission on White House Fellowships; a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation; a member of the Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society; the Board of Directors of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University; and the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Foundation. He was a visiting scholar at the National Constitution Center in 2007. He served on the President's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2006 to 2008; and of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2010 to 2020. He was Co-Chair of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy from 2008-2009, and served two terms on the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts.
Mr. Olson is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He has been repeatedly listed in legal publications as one of the nation’s leading appellate lawyers. The late New York Times columnist William Safire described Mr. Olson as his generation's "most persuasive advocate" before the Supreme Court and "the most effective Solicitor General in decades.”
Mr. Olson received his law degree in 1965 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) where he was a member of the California Law Review and Order of the Coif. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of the Pacific, where he was recognized as the outstanding graduating student in both forensics and journalism. He has written and lectured extensively on appellate advocacy, oral communication in the courtroom, civil justice reform, and constitutional and administrative law.
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Steven Ross has extensive public- and private-sector experience in representing corporations, institutions, boards and individuals in all manner of investigations, including congressional, criminal and regulatory proceedings and related civil litigation. He concentrates on congressional investigations, internal investigations, governmental ethics, federal election law, white collar criminal defense and constitutional issues.
From 1983 to 1993, Steven served as the General Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives, advising and representing its members, leadership, committees and employees from both political parties. He has also counseled the leadership and relevant committees on numerous congressional investigations.
In private practice, Steven guides clients through complex congressional inquiries and related litigation. He represents clients in investigations conducted by various federal executive branch departments, commissions and agencies, including the U.S. departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, Defense and the Interior, as well as the Federal Election Commission and the Food and Drug Administration.
Steven has significant litigation experience, ranging from trials before U.S. district courts to arguments before the Supreme Court and numerous federal courts of appeals. He was actively involved in defending the constitutionality of multiple federal statutes, including the Independent Counsel Act, the Competition in Contracting Act and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act.
Over the course of his career, Steven has litigated seminal cases regarding the scope of Congress’ oversight and investigations power, both on behalf of Congress and as counsel to private parties implicated by such inquiries. He has taught constitutional law as an adjunct professor at George Mason University Law School and served as a guest lecturer on the topic of congressional investigations at a number of law schools, including NYU, Fordham and the Georgetown University Law Center.
Trustee Professor of Law, New York Law School
From 1972-79, Schoenbrod served as one of the leaders of the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he campaigned to reduce lead in gasoline, resurrect the then-decrepit New York City subway, and protect the environment of Puerto Rico. Previously, he was Director of Program Development at the community development project that Senator Robert Kennedy established in Bedford Stuyvesant. He has also been a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute.
His books include
D.C. Confidential: Inside the Five Tricks of Washington (Encounter Books, 2017) with forewords by Governor Howard Dean and Senator Mike Lee;
Breaking the Logjam: Environmental Protection That Will Work (Yale University Press, 2010)(with Richard B. Stewart and Katrina M. Wyman);
Saving Our Environment from Washington: How Congress Grabs Power, Shirks Responsibility, and Shortchanges the People (Yale University Press, 2005);
Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government (Yale University Press, 2003) (with Ross Sandler); and
Power Without Responsibility: How Congress Abuses the People Through Delegation (Yale University Press, 1993).
In addition to writing scholarly articles, he has frequently contributed opinion pieces to the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, the New York Times, and other publications.
He has an undergraduate degree from Yale College, a graduate degree in economics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar, and a law degree from Yale Law School.
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
Frank H. Easterbrook is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a Senior Lecturer at the Law School of the University of Chicago. He was Chief Judge from 2006–2013. Before joining the court in 1985, he was the Lee andBrena Freeman Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he taught and wrote in antitrust, securities, corporate law, jurisprudence, and criminal procedure. He has published The Economic Structure of Corporate Law (with Daniel R. Fischel) and about 100 scholarly articles. He served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1982 to 1991 and as a member of the Judicial Conference’s Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 1991 to 1997. Before joining the faculty of the Law School in 1979, Judge Easterbrook was Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He holds degrees from Swarthmore College (B.A. with high honors, 1970) and the University of Chicago (J.D. cum laude, 1973), and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Law Institute, the Mont Pelerin Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Order of the Coif.
David McIntosh is a leader for the principles of limited constitutional government and individual freedom. He is president of the Club for Growth, the leading advocate for economic liberty.
Former Congressman David McIntosh represented Indiana's 2nd Congressional District in the United States Congress from 1995-2001. As a Freshman, David chaired the Subcommittee on Regulatory Relief. He passed the Congressional Review Act and held extensive oversight and field hearings to build a record of public support for regulatory relief initiatives in energy, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, transportation and technology sectors. Another issue that he championed was the elimination of the marriage penalty in the Federal Tax Code.
David served during the Reagan administration as special assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese III, and as special assistant to President Reagan for Domestic Affairs. During the first Bush administration, he served as executive director of the President's Council on Competitiveness and assistant to the Vice President. The Competitiveness Council coordinated the cost/benefit review of major regulations and promoted legal reform measures.
David is a co-founder of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy and serves on the Board of Directors. He remains active with several free market and conservative think tanks and grassroots organizations. David has also had stints at the Hudson Institute and as a Professor of Economics at Ball State School of Business.
Prior to the Club for Growth, David was a partner at Mayer Brown, LLP in Washington, DC.
David graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1983, and Yale University, BA, cum laude, in 1980. He and his wife, Ruthie, are the proud parents of Ellie age 17 and Davey age 13.
Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Theodore B. Olson is a Partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C. office; a founder of the Firm’s Crisis Management, Sports Law, and Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Groups.
Mr. Olson was Solicitor General of the United States during the period 2001-2004. From 1981-1984, he was Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965.
Selected by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Mr. Olson is one of the nation’s premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates. He has argued 65 cases in the Supreme Court and has prevailed in over 75% of those cases. These include the two Bush v Gore cases arising out of the 2000 presidential election; Citizens United v Federal Election Commission; Hollingsworth v Perry, the case affirming the overturning of California’s Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriages; Murphy v NCAA, overturning a federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting; and U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security v Regents of the Univ. of Calif., challenging the Trump Administration’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”). Mr. Olson’s practice is concentrated on appellate and constitutional law, federal legislation, media and commercial disputes, and assisting clients with strategies for the containment, management and resolution of major legal crises. He has handled cases at all levels of state and federal court systems throughout the United States. Mr. Olson co-authored “Redeeming the Dream, the Case for Marriage Equality” with David Boies. Both were featured in HBO’s award-winning documentary, “The Case Against 8.”
Mr. Olson's Supreme Court arguments have included cases involving separation of powers; federalism; voting rights; the Tenth Amendment; the First Amendment; the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses; jury trial rights; punitive damages; takings of property; the Commerce Clause; administrative law; taxation; criminal law; sports wagering; copyright, patent and antitrust; securities; campaign finance; foreign sovereign immunities; telecommunications; the environment; the internet; the Supremacy Clause; and other federal constitutional and statutory questions. As Solicitor General, during the presidency of George W. Bush, Mr. Olson was the Government's principal advocate in the United States Supreme Court, responsible for supervising and coordinating all appellate litigation of the United States, and a legal adviser to the President and the Attorney General. As Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel during the Reagan Administration, Mr. Olson was the Executive Branch's principal legal adviser, rendering legal guidance to the President and to the heads of the Executive Branch departments on a wide range of constitutional and federal statutory questions, and assisting in formulating and articulating the Executive Branch's position on constitutional issues.
Mr. Olson has served as private counsel to two Presidents, Ronald W. Reagan and George W. Bush, in addition to serving those two Presidents in high-level positions in the Department of Justice. He has twice been awarded the United States Department of Justice's Edmund J. Randolph Award, its highest award for public service and leadership, and also received the Department of Defense's Distinguished Public Service Award, its highest civilian award, for his advocacy in the courts of the United States, including the Supreme Court. He also received the American Bar Association Medal, its highest award for “exceptionally distinguished service by a lawyer or lawyers to the cause of American jurisprudence.” Mr. Olson is to receive the 2021 Jack Valenti Friend of the White House Fellows Award in the Fall of 2021 to be presented by the White House Fellows Foundation and Association.
Mr. Olson is a member of the Commission on White House Fellowships; a member of the Board of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation; a member of the Board of Visitors of the Federalist Society; the Board of Directors of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University; and the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Foundation. He was a visiting scholar at the National Constitution Center in 2007. He served on the President's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board from 2006 to 2008; and of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2010 to 2020. He was Co-Chair of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy from 2008-2009, and served two terms on the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts.
Mr. Olson is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He has been repeatedly listed in legal publications as one of the nation’s leading appellate lawyers. The late New York Times columnist William Safire described Mr. Olson as his generation's "most persuasive advocate" before the Supreme Court and "the most effective Solicitor General in decades.”
Mr. Olson received his law degree in 1965 from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) where he was a member of the California Law Review and Order of the Coif. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of the Pacific, where he was recognized as the outstanding graduating student in both forensics and journalism. He has written and lectured extensively on appellate advocacy, oral communication in the courtroom, civil justice reform, and constitutional and administrative law.
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Steven Ross has extensive public- and private-sector experience in representing corporations, institutions, boards and individuals in all manner of investigations, including congressional, criminal and regulatory proceedings and related civil litigation. He concentrates on congressional investigations, internal investigations, governmental ethics, federal election law, white collar criminal defense and constitutional issues.
From 1983 to 1993, Steven served as the General Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives, advising and representing its members, leadership, committees and employees from both political parties. He has also counseled the leadership and relevant committees on numerous congressional investigations.
In private practice, Steven guides clients through complex congressional inquiries and related litigation. He represents clients in investigations conducted by various federal executive branch departments, commissions and agencies, including the U.S. departments of Justice, Education, Health and Human Services, Defense and the Interior, as well as the Federal Election Commission and the Food and Drug Administration.
Steven has significant litigation experience, ranging from trials before U.S. district courts to arguments before the Supreme Court and numerous federal courts of appeals. He was actively involved in defending the constitutionality of multiple federal statutes, including the Independent Counsel Act, the Competition in Contracting Act and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction Act.
Over the course of his career, Steven has litigated seminal cases regarding the scope of Congress’ oversight and investigations power, both on behalf of Congress and as counsel to private parties implicated by such inquiries. He has taught constitutional law as an adjunct professor at George Mason University Law School and served as a guest lecturer on the topic of congressional investigations at a number of law schools, including NYU, Fordham and the Georgetown University Law Center.
Trustee Professor of Law, New York Law School
From 1972-79, Schoenbrod served as one of the leaders of the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he campaigned to reduce lead in gasoline, resurrect the then-decrepit New York City subway, and protect the environment of Puerto Rico. Previously, he was Director of Program Development at the community development project that Senator Robert Kennedy established in Bedford Stuyvesant. He has also been a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute.
His books include
D.C. Confidential: Inside the Five Tricks of Washington (Encounter Books, 2017) with forewords by Governor Howard Dean and Senator Mike Lee;
Breaking the Logjam: Environmental Protection That Will Work (Yale University Press, 2010)(with Richard B. Stewart and Katrina M. Wyman);
Saving Our Environment from Washington: How Congress Grabs Power, Shirks Responsibility, and Shortchanges the People (Yale University Press, 2005);
Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government (Yale University Press, 2003) (with Ross Sandler); and
Power Without Responsibility: How Congress Abuses the People Through Delegation (Yale University Press, 1993).
In addition to writing scholarly articles, he has frequently contributed opinion pieces to the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, the New York Times, and other publications.
He has an undergraduate degree from Yale College, a graduate degree in economics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar, and a law degree from Yale Law School.
Of Counsel, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Amanda H. Neely is of counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and is a member of the Public Policy, Congressional Investigations, White Collar, and National Security practice groups.
Ms. Neely has extensive experience working on Capitol Hill. She leverages that expertise to advise clients regarding their interactions with Congress and the executive branch. Over the course of ten years, Ms. Neely held several senior staff positions in Congress. She served as Director of Governmental Affairs for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and General Counsel to Senator Rob Portman. Under Senator Portman’s chairmanship, she also served as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In those roles, she managed Senator Portman’s regulatory reform agenda and led oversight of federal government agencies and investigations into private entities. She previously served in several other Capitol Hill offices including as Oversight Counsel for the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means.
Congressional Investigations: At Gibson Dunn, Ms. Neely has represented clients undergoing investigations by numerous congressional committees, including the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; Senate Finance Committee; Senate Judiciary Committee; Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee; House Committee on Oversight and Accountability; House Judiciary Committee; and the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In the course of those representations, Ms. Neely assists clients in all stages of investigations, including responding to letter requests and subpoenas to preparing witnesses for interviews, depositions, and congressional hearings. She also has assisted clients appearing before independent commissions such as the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and the Commission on Wartime Contracting.
Public Policy: Ms. Neely also works with clients to advance their legislative interests on Capitol Hill by gathering intelligence, formulating strategic plans, and executing lobbying campaigns. In those matters, she has represented a wide range of clients from the fields of technology, healthcare, finance, and energy.
Regulatory Counseling: Ms. Neely regularly advises clients regarding their interests before regulatory agencies. Her expertise in the CHIPS and Science Act allows her to help clients comply with the Department of Commerce’s regulations and assist them in commenting on agency rules and applying for funding. She also works with clients to engage in the rulemaking process at agencies ranging from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ms. Neely also has participated in a variety of litigation matters before state and federal trial and appellate courts, including several class action defense and False Claims Act cases.
Ms. Neely clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle, then-Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She earned her law degree cum laude from Duke University School of Law, where she served as the Articles Editor for both the Alaska Law Review and the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy. She was a member of the Duke Law Moot Court Board and served on the executive board of the Duke Law Federalist Society.
Ms. Neely graduated cum laude from Princeton University, where she majored in English and earned a certificate in Medieval Studies. She served for two years on United States Senator Elizabeth Dole’s staff as a legislative correspondent, focusing on banking, housing, budget, and tax issues. Ms. Neely is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and before the United States Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Christopher J. Walker is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Michigan law faculty in 2022, he spent a decade teaching at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He previously clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation. Professor Walker’s research focuses on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. Outside the law school, he chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2020-21 and served as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2016-2022, and he continues to serve in both organizations in various capacities. He also works of counsel at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, LLP
Phil Goldberg is the office managing partner of Shook in Washington, D.C., and co-chair of the firm’s Public Policy Practice Group. He has more than 25 years of experience advising clients on high stakes and high profile liability-related public policy, public affairs and public relations issues. He counsels businesses and their trade associations on some of the most cutting-edge liability issues of the day.
As part of this work, Phil co-chairs the firm’s National Amicus Practice, which files more than three dozen amicus briefs every year. He has filed amicus briefs for many of the most influential trade and civil justice groups with courts at every level, from the U.S. Supreme Court to the U.S. Courts of Appeals and state appellate courts. He has testified before Congress and state legislatures, has authored leading legal scholarship and is a regular speaker at judicial education conferences. He also is a resource for journalists, podcasters and others who report on and discuss pressing liability issues.
Panel III: Congressional Control of the Administration of Government: Hearings, Investigations, Oversight, and Legislative History [Archive Collection]
Griffin Bell, L. Gordon Crovitz, Michael Davidson, Peter L. Strauss, Stephen F. Williams
On January 19-20, 1990, The Federalist Society hosted a conference at the Mayflower Hotel in...
BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Phil Goldberg
On January 19, 2021, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in BP P.L.C. v. Mayor...
Congress and the Administrative State
Columbia Student Chapter
New York, NYCourthouse Steps Oral Argument Teleforum: BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
Phil Goldberg
Nearly two dozen lawsuits against energy manufacturers seeking state tort damages over climate change have...
Opening Address by Senator Charles Robb [Archive Collection]
Charles S. Robb, Allen Weinstein
On January 19-20, 1990, The Federalist Society hosted a conference at the Mayflower Hotel in...
Opening Address by Senator Charles Robb [Archive Collection]
Charles S. Robb, Allen Weinstein
On January 19-20, 1990, The Federalist Society hosted a conference at the Mayflower Hotel in...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument Teleforum: BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
TeleforumPanel II: Presidential Lawmaking Powers: Vetoes, Line Item Vetoes, Signing Statements, Executive Orders, and Delegations of Rulemaking Authority [Archive Collection]
Frank H. Easterbrook, David M. McIntosh, Theodore B. Olson, Steven R. Ross, David S. Schoenbrod
On January 19-20, 1990, The Federalist Society hosted a conference at the Mayflower Hotel in...
Panel II: Presidential Lawmaking Powers: Vetoes, Line Item Vetoes, Signing Statements, Executive Orders, and Delegations of Rulemaking Authority [Archive Collection]
Frank H. Easterbrook, David M. McIntosh, Theodore B. Olson, Steven R. Ross, David S. Schoenbrod
On January 19-20, 1990, The Federalist Society hosted a conference at the Mayflower Hotel in...
DC Makes it Easier for Electric Scooter and E-bike Riders to Sue Drivers
The Federalist Society’s 2020 Civil Justice Update, published on December 1, 2020, included a discussion...