John Bursch is senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy with Alliance Defending Freedom. Bursch has argued 12 U.S. Supreme Court cases and more than 30 state supreme court cases since 2011, and a recent study concluded that among all frequent Supreme Court advocates who did not work for the federal government, he had the 3rd highest success rate for persuading justices to adopt his legal position.

Bursch served as solicitor general for the state of Michigan from 2011-2013. He has argued multiple Michigan Supreme Court cases in eight of the last ten terms and has successfully litigated hundreds of matters nationwide, including six with at least $1 billion at stake. As part of his private firm, Bursch Law PLLC, he has represented Fortune 500 companies, foreign and domestic governments, top public officials, and industry associations in high-profile cases, primarily on appeal. He was inducted into the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and serves as a member of the American Law Institute. His work has resulted in repeated listings in Michigan Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers. He is also the principal author of the Michigan Supreme Court’s Guide for Counsel.

Before entering private practice, Bursch served as a law clerk to the Honorable James B. Loken on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. He received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1997 from the University of Minnesota Law School, where he served as Chief Note & Comment Editor for the Minnesota Law Review. Prior to that, he attended Western Michigan University, where he received degrees in mathematics and music performance summa cum laude. He graduated from the Lee Honors College in 1994.

Bursch is admitted to practice in numerous federal district and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Martin Gillespie serves as Director of Donor Relations and Senior Advisor to the President for Corporate Relations at The Heritage Foundation. Prior to joining Heritage in 2013, he served as Executive Director of American Majority Action, Campaign Manager for Rep. Chris Smith, Political Director for Sen. Sam Brownback, and Deputy Director of Coalitions at the Republican National Committee. From 2001 to 2003, he served as a political appointee at the US Department of Justice. 

He received a B.A. with highest honors from Rutgers University and has a Master’s Degree in Management/Fundraising from Avila University.  

Kimberly Hermann is General Counsel for Southeastern Legal Foundation, an Atlanta-based constitutional public interest law firm and policy center.

Kimberly is committed to promoting individual liberty, the rule of law, and accountability in government. She advances these principles through litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts in the areas of property rights, free speech, government overreach and abuse of power, and economic liberties.
In addition to representing clients, Kimberly has appeared for the Foundation in nearly 100 amicus briefs on issues ranging from government overreach, separation of powers, economic liberty, property rights, and free speech, among others.

Kimberly has testified before the Georgia legislature on a number of First Amendment issues including election law, political speech, and campus free speech.  She has also drafted several pieces of model legislation.
Her work and that of the Foundation has been covered by national media, including Fox News, CNN, Newsmax, Bloomberg News, and the Blaze.

Kimberly earned her B.S. in Analytical Finance and Masters in Accountancy from Wake Forest University, and is a licensed CPA. After working at an international accounting firm, she decided to follow her dream of becoming a constitutional lawyer and go to law school. Kimberly graduated magna cum laude from Georgia State University College of Law, where she was business editor of the law review, treasurer of Federalist Society, and president of the St. Thomas More Society. While in law school, she served as a law clerk at SLF. Following law school, Kimberly worked at a private law firm in Atlanta where she specialized in financial and business litigation before deciding to return to the freedom based law movement.

Scott Keller is a Founding Partner of Lehotsky Keller LLP. Previously, he worked at Baker Botts, where he was chair of the firm's Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Practice and briefed and argued numerous appeals nationwide. Scott has argued 11 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and has been counsel of record on over 80 U.S. Supreme Court briefs, including regulatory, free speech, immigration, election, criminal, environmental, antitrust, intellectual property, and interstate water disputes. The New York Times recently recognized that Scott has been “praised by opponents as a formidable advocate.”

Before joining Baker Botts, Scott served at the highest levels of government. As the former Solicitor General of Texas, Scott was responsible for briefing and arguing the most important and high-profile cases for Texas and its various governmental agencies, so he has significant experience litigating in the Texas Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before that, Scott served as U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, was a Bristow Fellow in the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Solicitor General, and clerked for Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Scott regularly speaks and writes on appellate advocacy, and he has made several media appearances. Scott is also a member of the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, appointed by U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to recommend nominees for federal judicial and U.S. Attorney positions in Texas.

Paul J. Larkin, Jr., is the John, Barbara, and Victoria Rumpel Senior Legal Research Fellow in the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Larkin works on criminal justice policy, drug policy, and regulatory policy.

Before joining Heritage in September 2011, Larkin held various positions with the federal government in Washington, D.C. At the U.S. Department of Justice from 1984 to 1993, Paul served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General and argued 27 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He also was an attorney in the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.

In 1996-1997, Larkin served as Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and head of the Crime Unit for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), then the panel’s chairman. He worked in the Environmental Protection Agency from 1998 to 2004 as a special agent for criminal enforcement, eventually becoming Special Agent-in-Charge and serving as Acting Director of the EPA Criminal Investigation Division in 2004. His honors include the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service, which he received in 1994 for representing the military before the Supreme Court. In the private sector, he worked at two top law firms in Washington, D.C., and as assistant general counsel for Verizon Communications from 2004 to 2009.

Larkin received his law degree in 1980 from Stanford Law School, where he was a published member of the Stanford Law Review. He clerked for Judge Robert H. Bork of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 2010, he received a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from George Washington University. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., where he graduated summa cum laude with honors in philosophy.

Born and raised in New York, N.Y., Larkin is a life-long New York Yankees and New York Giants fan.

John Malcolm oversees The Heritage Foundation’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as director of the think tank’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Before joining Heritage in 2012, Malcolm was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America.

He served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations. Immediately prior to that, he was a partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP. From 1990 to 1997, Malcolm was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Malcolm began his law career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge as well as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan. Malcolm is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Columbia College

In 2016, Attorney General Jeff Landry appointed Liz Murrill as the first Solicitor General for Louisiana. She has more than 25 years of experience working in diverse state and federal government legal environments and has experience handling complex litigation, state and federal appeals, and complex government transactions. Liz most recently served as the Louisiana Department of Justice's Director of Administration and, before that, Director of the Civil Division. She previously served former Governor Bobby Jindal as Executive Counsel and was Executive Counsel to the Commissioner of Administration. Liz was counsel for the Office of the Governor in the BP Oil Spill litigation and has served as a member and counsel to several state boards and commissions. She was a United States Supreme Court Judicial Fellow in 2007-08 at the Federal Judicial Center and taught appellate advocacy and legal writing at the Louisiana State University Law Center for more than ten years. Liz earned her bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University, law degree from the Louisiana State University Law Center where she was Editor-In-Chief of the Law Review, and Master of Laws in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University School of Law. She clerked for U.S. District Judge Frank J. Polozola and Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Melvin Shortess. Liz has argued three cases at the United States Supreme Court (including June Medical v. Russo and Ramos v. Louisiana) and many others at the Louisiana Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the District of Columbia Circuit, and multiple state and federal courts. Additionally, she has filed briefs in courts across the country on a wide variety of constitutional issues.

Nicole Neily is the president & founder of Parents Defending Education. She is also the president of Speech First, a national campus free speech organization. She previously served as the president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, an investigative journalism nonprofit focused on highlighting abuses of power, cronyism, and government overreach in the states. Nicole has also worked in the private sector as a senior vice president at Dezenhall Resources, a DC-based communications firm; as executive director and senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum; as manager of external relations for the Cato Institute; and as director of research analysis for the Winston Group, a public opinion and message design firm. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois, and a master’s of public policy from Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, she now lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Clark and two children.

Sarah Parshall Perry is a Legal Fellow for the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, part of the Institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation, where her work centers on civil rights and the proper role of the judiciary. Prior to her tenure at Heritage, Sarah served as Senior Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education where she focused on policy reform, technical guidance, and the Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) annual report to Congress. While at OCR, she was appointed by the Acting Assistant Secretary to co-chair the Employment Engagement, Diversity, & Inclusion Council and, in coordination with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement oversee the hiring of dozens of attorneys for OCR’s 12 regional offices nationwide. Sarah began her practice at the litigation firm of Simms Showers, LLP where her work included Title VII employment discrimination, maritime/admiralty, and False Claims Act (“Qui Tam”) law. She later served as in-house counsel and development director for a Baltimore-based advertising agency, overseeing all business transactions from pitch to contract execution for the multi-million-dollar enterprise. Sarah also spent six years at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. where she was Senior Fellow for Education Reform, the regular substitute host for the “Washington Watch” radio show, and FRC’s Partnership Director, providing building and oversight of multiple cross-disciplinary conservative policy coalitions in the areas of free speech, education, and religious liberty. Sarah has a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was an editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law and a recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award. A frequent radio and television guest on issues of law and policy, Sarah’s commentary and analysis have appeared at the Washington Times, National Review, Human Events, The Federalist, First Things, and The Stream among many others. She is author of the author of three books on the trials and triumphs of parenting children on the autism spectrum, and a member of the Kirkpatrick Society at the American Enterprise Institute.  

Vivek Ramaswamy is an entrepreneur and the author of the forthcoming book Woke Inc. At age 35, he has founded multibillion-dollar enterprises, taken several companies public, trained as a scientist at Harvard and a lawyer at Yale, and grew up as the child of immigrants in a small town in Ohio. In 2014, he founded Roivant Sciences, a biotech company focused on developing transformative medicines faster. In 2020, he emerged as a prominent national commentator on stakeholder capitalism and the spread of woke culture, publishing regularly in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and Newsweek. He is a frequent guest on Fox & Friends, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and other programs. Mr. Ramaswamy serves on the boards of the Philanthropy Roundtable and Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.

Mr. Vecchione is a Senior Litigation Counsel for the non-profit New Civil Liberties Alliance representing clients against the Administrative State.  He was previously President and CEO of the non-profit Cause of Action Institute, also advancing the constitutional order.  He practiced at a number of D.C. area firms,  including the eponymous John J. Vecchione Law, PLLC.  Mr. Vecchione focuses his practice on strategic litigation in the federal district and appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He is an experienced trial and appellate advocate having tried cases and argued appeals across the country. He is a member of the bars of the State of New York, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States and many federal courts. His cases are reported in scores of published opinions. He has also published pieces advancing the freedom agenda and constitutional order in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times and many other forums.  He lives in Virginia with his wife Rebecca, sons Tommy and Joe.

Hans A. von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow and Manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal & Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He is an authority on a wide range of issues, including civil rights, elections, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform.
He is a former member of President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. From 2006 to 2007, von Spakovsky was a member of the Federal Election Commission. He served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2002 to 2005. Prior to entering public service, Hans von Spakovsky worked for 17 years as a government affairs consultant, in a corporate legal department, and in private practice.

He is a 1984 graduate of the Vanderbilt University School of Law and received a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981, which he attended on a National Merit Scholarship. He is a member of the boards of the American Civil Rights Union and the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

He is the 2016 winner of the Drs. W. Glenn and Rita Ricardo Campbell Award from the Heritage Foundation and received Meritorious Service Awards from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

von Spakovsky is the coauthor of “Who’s Counting? How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk” (Encounter 2012) and “Obama’s Enforcer: Eric Holder’s Justice Department” (HarperCollins/Broadside 2014). His 2011 series “Every Single One” at PJ Media was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and his articles have appeared in Fox News, National Review Online, and the Wall Street Journal.

Walter is president of the Capital Research Center. He served in the George W. Bush administration as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and was vice president for publications and research at the Philanthropy Roundtable. There he edited Philanthropy magazine and also produced donor guidebooks on public policy research, school choice, and assistance to the poor.  Walter writes regularly for PhilanthropyDaily.com and previously served as a senior fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and as senior editor of the American Enterprise Institute’s flagship publication. A native of Knoxville, Tenn., he is a graduate of Georgetown University.

Carsten Walter is the senior director of Development at The Heritage Foundation. Walter has worked in Heritage's development office since 1988, previously serving as manager of membership programs. Today he oversees Heritage's communications with hundreds of thousands of members and supporters as well as efforts to expand the think tank’s reach into new donor markets. This includes the membership and grant development programs as well as donor research and database management functions. Before joining Heritage, Walter worked on the Dole for President Campaign. Walter earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Rochester in 1986 and an MBA in marketing from George Washington University in 1995. Walter lives in Gaithersburg, Md., with his wife, Abigail, and their two sons.

Don Willett serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Before joining the federal judiciary, Judge Willett served a dozen years on the Supreme Court of Texas. He has devoted his professional life to public service, and prior to becoming a judge, he served as legal counsel to a Texas Attorney General, a Texas Governor, a U.S. Attorney General, and the President of the United States.

Raised by a widowed mom in a doublewide trailer in a town of 32 people, Judge Willett is his family’s first college graduate. He earned a triple-major BBA from Baylor University and then three degrees from Duke University: JD with honors, MA in political science, and LLM in judicial studies.

After law school, he clerked for Judge Jerre S. Williams on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and then practiced law at Haynes and Boone, LLP before entering public service.

Judge Willett publishes widely and speaks frequently throughout the country. He is a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University School of Law and will soon be the Jurist in Residence at J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. He is the former editor in chief of Judicature—The Scholarly Journal For Judges, and has been honored four years in a row for “exemplary legal writing” by The Green Bag. He is a member of the American Law Institute, and a Life Fellow of the American, Texas, and Austin Bar Foundations.

A native Texan, Judge Willett is a former rodeo bull rider and professional drummer, and in 2015 he was named the Tweeter Laureate of Texas. He and his radiant wife, Tiffany, are the exhausted cofounders of three wee Willetts.