Floyd Abrams

Floyd Abrams is Senior Counsel in Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP's litigation practice group. Floyd has a national trial and appellate practice and extensive experience in high-visibility matters, often involving First Amendment, securities litigation, intellectual property, public policy and regulatory issues. He has argued frequently in the Supreme Court in cases raising issues as diverse as the scope of the First Amendment, the interpretation of ERISA, the nature of broadcast regulation, the impact of copyright law and the continuing viability of the Miranda rule. Most recently, Floyd prevailed in his argument before the Supreme Court on behalf of Senator Mitch McConnell as amicus curiae, defending the rights of corporations and unions to speak publicly about politics and elections in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Floyd's clients have included The McGraw-Hill Companies in a large number of litigations around the country involving claims against its subsidiary, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC, The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case and others, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Time Magazine, BusinessWeek, The Nation, Reader's Digest, Hearst, AIG, and others in trials, appeals and investigations.
 
In November, 2011, Yale Law School announced the formation of The Floyd Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression, whose mission is to promote free speech, scholarship and law reform on emerging questions concerning traditional and new media. Developed in cooperation with Floyd, the Institute includes a clinic for Yale Law students to engage in litigation, draft model legislation, and advise lawmakers and policymakers on issues of media freedom and informational access.
 
He has appeared frequently on national television and has published articles and reviews in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Yale Law Journal, The Harvard Law Review, and elsewhere. For fifteen years, Floyd was the William J. Brennan, Jr. Visiting Professor of First Amendment Law at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He has, as well, been a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School and Columbia Law School and he is author of Friend of the Court: On the Front Lines with the First Amendment, published by Yale University Press (2013) and Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment, published by Viking Press (2005).
 

Johnathan Adler

Johnathan H. Adler is the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Business Law & Regulation at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches courses in environmental, administrative and constitutional law.
 
Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Business and the Roberts Court and Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform. His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Supreme Court Economic Review to The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court.
 
Professor Adler is a senior fellow at the Property & Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana and at the Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the George Mason University School of Law. He also serves on the academic advisory board of the Cato Supreme Court Review, the NFIB Small Business Legal Center Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, and the Environmental Law Institute's Environmental Law Reporter and ELI Press Advisory Board.
 
Prior to joining the faculty at Case Western Reserve, Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 1991 to 2000, Adler worked at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C., where he directed CEI's environmental studies program. He holds a BA magna cum laude from Yale University and a JD summa cum laude from the George Mason University School of Law.

Susan Dudley

Susan Dudley is director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center and distinguished professor of practice in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration.
 
She is vice president of the Society for Benefit Cost Analysis, a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, on the board and the National Federation of Independent Businesses Legal Center, and on the executive committee of the Federalist Society Administrative Law Group.
 
Professor Dudley served as the Presidentially-appointed Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, directed the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center, taught courses on regulation at the George Mason University School of Law, served as a staff economist at OIRA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and as a consultant to government and private clients at Economists Incorporated.
 
She holds a Master of Science degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and a Bachelor of Science degree (summa cum laude) in Resource Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her book, Regulation: A Primer, with Jerry Brito, is available on Amazon.com.

Tristan Duncan

Tristan Duncan is a Partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, where she focuses her practice in constitutional and energy law. In that capacity, Tristan prosecutes and defends challenges to state and federal legislation, leading the firm’s constitutional law efforts, and she leads the firm’s comprehensive national and international litigation involving the petroleum, natural gas and electric power industries.
 
Acting as lead counsel in energy-related litigation, Tristan defended companies in areas including product liability, environmental and toxic tort, antitrust, consumer fraud, and commercial disputes; she also leads federal and state governmental investigations and administrative proceedings.
 
Tristan advises international and national energy companies on climate change matters at the federal and state levels and is lead counsel in climate change litigation pending in federal and state courts.
 
With vast experience in class actions and multidistrict litigation, Tristan currently serves on a national MDL Joint Defense Steering Committee and routinely advises companies on effective risk management practices.
 
Tristan has spoken and published widely on these matters, and has been quoted in national publications, including the Wall Street Journal and ABA Journal. In 2013, the Association of Corporate Counsel recognized Tristan as a “Value Champion” for her “innovative, collaborative and savings-driven approach” to defending retailers and wholesalers in the nationwide “hot fuel” litigation. This defense work also garnered praise from The National Law Journal, which named her one of the nation’s top 50 Energy & Environmental Trailblazers in 2015, and Missouri Lawyers Media, which honored her as a 2013 Legal Champion.
 
J.D., with distinction, University of Iowa, 1989
Post Doctoral Scholar, Yale University, 1989
B.A., Duke University, 1984 (Political Science)

Bryan Garner

Bryan A. Garner is a noted speaker, writer, and consultant regarding legal writing and drafting.  Garner is editor in chief of Black’s Law Dictionary and the author of many leading works on legal style, including A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage,  The Elements of Legal Style, The Redbook: A Manual On Legal Style, The Winning Brief, and The Winning Oral Argument.  His latest books are Reading Law:  The Interpretation Of Legal Texts and Making Your Case:  The Art Of Persuading Judges, both co-written with Justice Antonin Scalia, and Garner On Language And Writing, an anthology published by the American Bar Association. His magnum opus is the 897-page Garner's Modern American Usage, published by Oxford University Press. It is widely considered the preeminent authority on questions of English usage.
Garner received an Honorary LL.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2000; a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, where he was an Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review; and a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980, with Special Honors in Plan II. He is President of LawProse, Inc., the foremost provider of CLE training in legal writing, editing, and drafting. His many professional activities include service on the Board of Directors of the Texas Law Review Association and on the Editorial Advisory Boards of The Copy Editor and The Green Bag, and as a consultant to the Oxford Dictionary Department in Oxford, England. Prof. Garner has received the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award in Plain Legal Language, the 2000 Scribes Book Award for Research and Writing (for BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY, 7th ed.), and the 1998 Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award, as well as many other honors and awards.

C. Boyden Gray

Ambassador C. Boyden Gray is the founding partner of Boyden Gray & Associates, a law and strategy firm in Washington, D.C., focused on constitutional and regulatory issues.
 
Mr. Gray worked in the White House for twelve years, first as counsel to the Vice President during the Reagan administration and then as White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush. In this capacity, he was counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, and was instrumental in the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and the Energy Policy Act of 1992, as well as the development of a cap-and-trade system for acid rain emissions. In 1993, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Under President George W. Bush, Mr. Gray was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and U.S. Special Envoy to Europe for Eurasian Energy.
 
Mr. Gray practiced law for 25 years at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and was chairman of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the American Bar Association from 2000 to 2002. He is an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law and a former adjunct professor at NYU Law School. Mr. Gray is on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council and the European Institute.
 
He earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard and his J.D. with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Mr. Gray served in the United States Marine Corps, and after law school, he clerked for Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Daniel Flores

Daniel M. Flores is the Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law.  A graduate of Yale Law School, Daniel has been involved since the 110th Congress in all major regulatory reform efforts on which the Committee has worked, such as reform of the Administrative Procedure Act and other major regulatory process statutes.  Daniel has oversight responsibility for most U.S. Department of Justice components involved in regulatory litigation and serves as the Legislative Branch liaison to the Administrative Conference of the United States.  He previously served in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel as, among other things, Acting Associate Deputy General Counsel, and as a Senior Trial Attorney in the Environmental Defense Section of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.  

Timothy Tymkovich

Timothy Tymkovich is a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, serving in that position since 2003.  Judge Tymkovich is a graduate of The Colorado College and the University of Colorado School of Law.  After graduation, he clerked for Chief Justice William Erickson of the Colorado Supreme Court, and practiced law in Denver until 1991, when he became Colorado's Solicitor General.   From 1996 until 2003 he practiced in his own firm, specializing in civil and constitutional matters, ranging from election law to water.  Judge Tymkovich currently sits on several federal judicial committees and is a board member of the Federal Judges Association.  In addition, Judge Tymkovich has recently been appointed Chair of the Federal Judiciary’s Committee on Judicial Resources.

Fred Yarger

Fred Yarger has served as Colorado’s Solicitor General since April 2015.  From 2012 through 2013, Yarger was Assistant Solicitor General for the Office of the Attorney General, working directly with former Solicitor General Daniel D. Domenico to oversee the office’s appellate and constitutional practice. Yarger was previously a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international litigation firm with particular expertise in appellate matters. Earlier in his career, he served as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Mark Filip of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and to the Honorable Timothy Tymkovich of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Yarger earned a Juris Doctorate with honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was elected to the order of the coif and won awards for legal writing and appellate advocacy. He received his B.A. magna cum laude and with honors from Dartmouth College. He lives in Denver with his wife and two sons.