Anne Fleming Research Professor and Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; Faculty Director, Georgetown Center for the Constitution
Stephanie Barclay is a Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School, and the Faculty Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. Her research focuses on the role our different democratic institutions play in protecting minority rights, particularly at the intersection of free speech and religious exercise. Barclay‘s work is published or is forthcoming in leading journals such as the Harvard Law Review, the Chicago Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum. One of her articles was also selected for the 2020 Stanford/Harvard/Yale Junior Faculty Forum. Her work has been featured in many media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Bloomberg BNA, The Hill, and Law 360. And her work has also been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prior to joining Georgetown, Barclay was twice voted Professor of the Year. Barclay has also litigated constitutional cases at both the trial and appellate level, including before the U.S. Supreme Court. Barclay served as a law clerk to Judge N. Randy Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and to Justice Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Barclay is a Faculty Affiliate at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School; and she is a Nootbaar Fellow at the Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics at Pepperdine University. She currently serves as the Chair for the AALS Law and Religion Section and as a Member of the Executive Committee for the AALS Constitutional Law Section. She graduated summa cum laude from BYU Law School, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif. She is completing a Ph.D. in Law at Oxford University as a Clarendon Scholar and a Tang Scholar.
President, JCN
Carrie Campbell Severino is the president of the JCN, and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court. As a go-to expert on the confirmation process, Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted in the media. She regularly appears on television, including FOX, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and ABC’s This Week.
Severino writes and speaks on a wide range of judicial issues, including the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She has testified before Congress on constitutional questions and briefed Senators on judicial nominations, and regularly files briefs in high-profile Supreme Court cases. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.), Duke University (B.A., Biology), and Michigan State University (M.A., Linguistics).
Partner, Luther Strange & Associates
Annie Donaldson Talley is Partner at Luther Strange and Associates. She recently departed the White House after serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President. Over the past four years, she provided outside counsel to the Donald J. Trump for President campaign; helped stand up and manage the White House Counsel’s Office; interfaced with agencies across the federal government; and advised the President of the United States, White House Counsel, Chief of Staff and other senior staff across the Executive Office of the President on a broad range of issues from regulatory reform to executive nominations to the day-to-day issues facing the Administration.
Prior to her White House service, Annie Donaldson Talley counseled clients in the non-profit, for-profit, political, and government sectors, as well as high-profile individuals in private practice at Jones Day and Patton Boggs. She provided strategic counseling to clients structuring their affairs to ensure compliance with a web of state and federal laws and represented clients in complex, multi-faceted investigations, leading teams navigating issues of intense public scrutiny.
Annie Donaldson Talley is also a veteran of three presidential campaigns and served in state government. She holds a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Alabama and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served on the Harvard Law Review. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama with her husband, Brett.
Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Mark J. Perry is concurrently a senior fellow at AEI and a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Michigan. He is best known as the creator and editor of the popular economics blog Carpe Diem. At AEI, Perry writes about economic and financial issues for American.com and the AEIdeas blog.
Commissioner, United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Hester M. Peirce was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was sworn in on January 11, 2018.
Prior to joining the SEC, Commissioner Peirce conducted research on the regulation of financial markets at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. She was a Senior Counsel on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where she advised Ranking Member Richard Shelby and other members of the Committee on securities issues. Commissioner Peirce served as counsel to SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins. She also worked as a Staff Attorney in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management. Commissioner Peirce was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) and clerked for Judge Roger Andewelt on the Court of Federal Claims.
Commissioner Peirce earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Case Western Reserve University and her JD from Yale Law School.
Partner, Conner & Winters
Donn C. Meindertsma is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Conner & Winters.
Partner, Wiley Rein
Brandon defends companies and their executives in complex civil and criminal cases involving alleged healthcare fraud, the False Claims Act (FCA), whistleblower allegations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), antitrust, regulatory violations, and contract and procurement fraud. She has extensive experience shepherding life sciences companies, government contractors, not-for-profits, and technology companies through internal investigations and responding to subpoenas and civil investigative demands (CIDs). She also advises a broad range of companies on compliance programs, privacy, telecommunications, compliance, Team Telecom, and new media issues.
Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
Mark represents government contractors and telecommunications companies facing federal investigations, whistleblower complaints, and civil enforcement actions. He navigates responses to civil investigative demands from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as inquiries and subpoenas from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Inspectors General, and Congress. He also leads internal investigations for companies to assess potential misconduct by employees. Mark is a co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Communications Enforcement & Compliance Group.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Randy M. Mastro, a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, is Co-Chair of the Firm’s Litigation Practice Group, which The American Lawyer has named “Litigation Department of the Year” three out of its last five competitions and a finalist five times in a row – both unprecedented achievements. He also serves on the Firm’s Management and Executive Committees.
Mr. Mastro routinely ranks among the nation’s leading litigators and trial lawyers in surveys of corporate counsel and other practitioners. Last year, Mr. Mastro was named “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by Chambers USA, a “Litigation Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal, and a “Trial Lawyer MVP” by Law360. Indeed, in each of the last four years, he has been nominated “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by Chambers USA or Benchmark or both, receiving top honors twice. The National Law Journal named him among the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,” recognizing him as one of the “100 lawyers in the United States who have shaped the legal world through their work,” and noting that “his ease in the courtroom, delivery of arguments and command of the law have made Randy one of the most in-demand attorneys in the country by big-name clients.” The American Lawyer cited him among “the best known, most-respected litigators in the country.” In Chambers USA, he is described as “one of the top litigators” and “trial lawyers” “in the country,” praised for his “exceptional public reputation” as a “tough, smart,” “outstanding” trial lawyer who is “in a class by himself,” “masters the facts of a case quicker than anyone I’ve ever met,” “delivers fantastically well in court,” “can take on anyone,” is “so persuasive,” and “has a great mind.” In The Legal 500—US Edition, he has been featured among the “Leading Trial Lawyers” in the country, with corporate counsel saying he is “immensely impressive,” “simply excellent,” “flawless,” “captivating,” “in a league of his own” in the courtroom, and “deserves an Academy Award” for “bringing a sense of drama and theater to his courtroom appearances.” Benchmark has described him as a “brilliant and effective litigator” who is “perennially revered” and “always brings a fresh perspective and will fight you to the end,” with peers noting, “You do not want to meet Randy down a dark alley, but you REALLY don’t want to meet him in a lighted courtroom,” and “I’ve seen him at work and I can only imagine that going against him must be like wrestling an alligator.” Benchmark also honored his achievements in “National Impact Cases” in 2015, 2017 and 2018. The New York Times has called him “the go-to lawyer for companies” suing the government, a “household name,” and a “fierce and combative litigator;” and The New Yorker has described him as a “merciless litigator,” “even by the pugilistic standards of the New York bar,” who “springs to life” and “is transfixing” in “the courtroom.”
Among many high-profile matters, Mr. Mastro won a two-month RICO trial barring the enforcement of a $9 billion Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron that The American Lawyer called “The Case of the Century.” Moreover, he won a month-long trial against the SEC, obtaining the dismissal of all charges against high-profile entrepreneur, Lynn Tilton, and thereby defeating the largest individual enforcement action the SEC ever brought before its in-house tribunal, where it typically wins 90 percent of the time. Mr. Mastro also led the successful effort to defeat New York City’s controversial West Side Stadium project, and he represented the State of New Jersey in conducting a high-profile investigation into allegations concerning the “Bridgegate” controversy. He has tried dozens of cases in private practice and as a federal prosecutor, and he has also argued more than 100 appeals in federal and state appellate courts throughout the country.
Mr. Mastro has represented such clients as AIG, Chevron, Amazon, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, Estee Lauder, Madison Square Garden, Cablevision, Dow Jones, Verizon, Dart, DraftKings, Home Depot, Daimler, Wynn, JPMorgan, GE Capital, Park Place/Caesar’s, Quest Diagnostics, IAC, Bear Stearns, Bank of New York Mellon, Empire Merchants, Edison Schools, Lynn Tilton, Peter Kalikow, Vornado, LeFrak Organization, Saks, Ziff Davis, UBS Financial Services, Octagon, Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova, and Steffi Graf.
Before returning to Gibson Dunn in 1998, Mr. Mastro served as Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s Chief of Staff and then as New York City’s Deputy Mayor for Operations. In that capacity, he was responsible for overseeing all of the City’s operating agencies and budget, and served as the Mayor’s chief liaison with elected officials. In the Mayor’s absence, he was authorized to act on the Mayor’s behalf. While in the Giuliani administration from 1994 to 1998, Mr. Mastro spearheaded City initiatives to remove organized crime from the Fulton Fish Market, private carting industry, and San Gennaro Festival. For two consecutive years, NY1-TV named Mr. Mastro one of City government’s “Winners of the Year,” and Manhattan File magazine featured him among the “45 Most Powerful New Yorkers 45 and Under.”
In the early 1990s, Mr. Mastro was a Gibson Dunn litigation partner. In 1990, he served as Associate Counsel on the Independent Counsel investigation of HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce. In 1991, he was appointed Special Master and Monitor of the assets of a Saudi tycoon implicated in the BCCI scandal.
From 1985 to 1989, Mr. Mastro served as Assistant United States Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Civil Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he specialized in organized crime cases and spearheaded the federal government’s landmark racketeering suit that put the International Brotherhood of Teamsters into court supervision. Seven Days magazine named him one of “the 25 prosecutors and defenders other lawyers most admire, fear and talk about.” From 1982 to 1985, Mr. Mastro was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he was part of the successful libel defense trial team in Westmoreland v. CBS. Before that, upon graduating cum laude from Yale College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was the school’s moot court champion, Mr. Mastro clerked for Justice Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
During his tenure as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Mastro received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement, and the Director’s Award for Superior Performance, among other honors. Since then, he has been honored many times, receiving, for example, the Simon Rifkind Award from the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Civic Leadership Award from the Citizens Union of the City of New York, and the Lumbard Bowl, awarded annually by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (in consultation with prior U.S. Attorneys) to distinguished alumni.
Mr. Mastro has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Fordham Law Schools. He authored articles in the Federal Communications Law Journal, Fordham Law Review, University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, and Seton Hall Law Review. His op-ed pieces have appeared in The New York Times, Daily News, and New York Post, and he also wrote for the Washington Post and Time. He co-authored the chapters, “White Collar Crime,” in Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, and, “Energy,” in Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts.
Mr. Mastro has been a member of the bars of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and many federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He chaired two New York City Charter Revision Commissions. In addition, Mr. Mastro serves as Chair of the Citizens Union of the City of New York, Co-Chair of the Hamptons International Film Festival, and Vice Chair of the Legal Aid Society of New York City, as well as on the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Partner, Wiley Rein
Brandon defends companies and their executives in complex civil and criminal cases involving alleged healthcare fraud, the False Claims Act (FCA), whistleblower allegations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), antitrust, regulatory violations, and contract and procurement fraud. She has extensive experience shepherding life sciences companies, government contractors, not-for-profits, and technology companies through internal investigations and responding to subpoenas and civil investigative demands (CIDs). She also advises a broad range of companies on compliance programs, privacy, telecommunications, compliance, Team Telecom, and new media issues.
General Counsel - International, Willis Towers Watson
Todd F. Braunstein is General Counsel - International as well as Head of Global Investigations at Willis Towers Watson, an insurance broking and consulting firm with $9 billion in revenues, 45,000 employees, and business in 140+ countries. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor, at two DC law firms, and in the White House.
A.B., Harvard College; J.D., Harvard Law School
Founder and CEO, Lexpat Global Services
Adam Pearlman is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lexpat Global Services. He is a National Security Law expert and a proven senior leader with experience across the U.S. Departments of Justice, Defense, and State, in the White House, and with the U.S. Federal Judiciary.
Before founding Lexpat, Mr. Pearlman served as the Senior Advisor for Legal Policy in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism. There, he counseled senior officials on matters covering the entire spectrum of programs and operations to counter terrorism and violent extremism. While participating in sensitive diplomatic engagements and helping to coordinate military operations, he also advised in the development of sanctions policy and initiatives to build legal and operational capacity in partner nations. Mr. Pearlman also managed the Bureau’s participation in federal litigation and led U.S. delegations in multilateral forums concerning criminal justice and rule of law. Separately, Mr. Pearlman supported the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) as the contracted Senior Justice and Rule of Law Advisor in Cabo Verde, Africa. There he was the chief implementer of a Foreign Assistance program that grew eight-fold during his tenure, building host nation capacity across the law enforcement, justice sector, rule of law, anti-money laundering, and corrections disciplines.
A former Associate Deputy General Counsel of the Department of Defense, Mr. Pearlman was agency counsel for complex civil and criminal national security matters in federal and military courts. He also led the Supreme Court and appellate unit of the team dedicated to litigating classified counterterrorism cases. His earlier service in the Department of Justice spanned four litigating divisions and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. His diverse experience included reviewing complex international transactions and mergers, and advising on immigration removal proceedings, human rights abuses, and terrorist financing investigations. Mr. Pearlman also served with distinction in Iraq as an early advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal’s prosecution of Saddam Hussein. He was a law clerk for The Honorable Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and during law school interned in the White House Counsel’s Office.
Mr. Pearlman is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, a member of the American Bar Association’s Advisory Committee on Law and National Security, and the Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. Intelligence Community Law Sourcebook. Previously, he has been a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, National Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, member of the ABA’s Africa Law Initiative Council and of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS) Project on Nuclear Issues, vice chairman of the ABA Section of International Law’s committees on national security, and aerospace and defense, and a liaison to the Board of Directors of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative. He has published articles in the Harvard National Security Journal, Stanford Law & Policy Review, Intelligence & National Security, The Foreign Service Journal, Lawfare, and many other outlets.
Mr. Pearlman earned his B.A., with honors, from UCLA, and his J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School, where he was a member of the International Law Review. He also earned a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence degree from the National Intelligence University, where he was the inaugural recipient of the Kornblum Award for national security law and ethics. Mr. Pearlman is a Certified Financial Crime Specialist and holds certificates in international human rights law from the University of Oxford and in anti-corruption law from American University’s Washington College of Law. He is admitted to the State Bars of California and Virginia, as well as to the Bar of the United States Supreme Court. He speaks and reads Portuguese at the intermediate level.
Partner, McGuireWoods LLP
Mr. Rowan's practice focuses on criminal and civil enforcement proceedings and internal investigations. He has substantial experience in federal law enforcement, as well as international and national security matters. He also advises corporate clients on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the ITAR, the EAR and OFAC regulations.
Mr. Rowan spent 18 years in the Department of Justice (DOJ). He most recently served as Assistant Attorney General for National Security. In that Senate-confirmed position, Mr. Rowan led the National Security Division (NSD), which was formally created by statute in 2006 to bring together all of DOJ's national security operations under a single authority. As part of his duties, he supervised the government's practice before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; the oversight of intelligence-collection activities; the coordinated nationwide counterterrorism enforcement program; the administration of the Foreign Agents Registration Act; and the oversight of all espionage investigations.
He also oversaw DOJ's review of foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies through the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He previously served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the NSD, where he managed DOJ's national security investigations and prosecutions. In both positions, Mr. Rowan was responsible for supervising all of DOJ's prosecutions of export violations.
As a result of his DOJ service, he has particular experience in the application of the material support statutes, the Arms Export Control Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and statutes relating to economic espionage or disclosure of classified information. As the Principal Deputy, he directed the launch and implementation of a nationwide export enforcement initiative, an interagency effort to target the illegal export of sensitive technology and weapons components. Mr. Rowan continued to lead this initiative as Assistant Attorney General.
Mr. Rowan gained extensive courtroom experience while serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for more than 10 years in Washington, D.C. During his tenure, he handled more than 60 jury trials and a number of arguments before the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Adjunct Faculty, Johns Hopkins University
Mark S. Zaid, Esq. is a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who specializes in innovatively handling simple and complex administrative and litigation matters relating to national security, intelligence, international law, foreign sovereign and diplomatic immunity, defamation (plaintiff) and the Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts (FOI/PA). He teaches the D.C. Bar Continuing Legal Education classes on “The Basics of Filing and Litigating Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Requests” (since 2003), “Defending Security Clearances” (since 2006), and “Handling Whistleblower Cases: More than the Basics" (since 2016). Mr. Zaid was named as a Washington, D.C. Super Lawyer in 2009 (profiled), 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, as well as a “Best Lawyer” by Washingtonian Magazine in 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015 for his national security work. As the National Law Journal once wrote, “if Agent Mulder ever needed a lawyer, Zaid would be his man.”
Mr. Zaid is also the Executive Director and founder of the James Madison Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization, with the primary purpose of educating the public on issues relating to intelligence gathering and operations, secrecy policies, national security and government wrongdoing. “Curiously for this town,” wrote the American Bar Association Journal, “Zaid is an equal opportunity thorn out to pierce the sides of suit jackets bearing both elephants and donkeys on the lapels.”
A 1992 graduate of Albany Law School of Union University in New York, where he served as an Associate Editor of the Albany Law Review and now sits as a member of its Board of Trustees, he completed his undergraduate education (cum laude) in 1989 at the University of Rochester, New York with honors in Political Science and high honors in History. Mr. Zaid is a member of the Bars of New York State, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maryland and numerous federal courts.
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Explainer Episode 47 - The Procedure of Title VI & IX Complaints
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National Security Leaks
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Leaks of classified or politically sensitive information have become part of the daily news cycle....