Hon. William P. Barr, Partner, Torridon
William P. Barr has had a wide-ranging career at senior levels of the corporate and legal world and federal government. He is one of only two people in U.S. history to serve twice as U.S. Attorney General: the 77th Attorney General (1991-1993) under President George H. W. Bush; and the 85th Attorney General (2019-2020) under President Donald Trump.
Hon. Paul Clement, Partner, Clement & Murphy
Paul is a founding partner of Clement & Murphy, PLLC, and served as the 43rd Solicitor General of the United States from June 2005 until June 2008. Before his confirmation as Solicitor General, he served as Acting Solicitor General for nearly a year and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General for over three years. He has argued over 100 Supreme Court cases, including landmark precedents involving free speech and religious liberty. He currently represents plaintiffs suing UCLA for its discrimination against Jewish students.
Davida Brook, Partner, Susman Godfrey LLP
Named among the nation’s Top 200 Lawyers by Forbes, Davida Brook is an in-demand trial lawyer who is frequently tapped to help companies and individuals navigate their thorniest legal disputes. In 2023, Davida helped lead her team to the historic $787.5 million settlement to resolve Dominion Voting System’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News Network. More recently, Davida is serving as co-lead counsel to the New York Times in a landmark copyright infringement matter against Microsoft and OpenAI. And also serves as co-lead counsel representing the first ever certified class of child pornagraphy survivors in an against PornHub parent Aylo.
Alan Levine, Senior Counsel, Cooley
With 50 years experience as a trial lawyer specializing in complex civil and white-collar criminal cases, Alan has tried arbitrations and cases at the trial and appellate levels in federal and state courts throughout the country, including the United States Supreme Court. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1990. Throughout his career, Alan has been active in organizations dedicated to the delivery of civil legal services to the indigent, at the same time being active in Jewish educational and communal organizations. He currently serves as President of the Legal Aid Society in New York and as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
He was also one of the lead counsel in Sines v. Kessler commenced in 2017 against the white-supremacist organizers of the United the Right rally arising out of the racial and antisemitic violence they committed in Charlottesville, Virginia. The case was tried successfully to verdict in October 2021 and affirmed on appeal by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has been recognized by the New York Law Journal and Chambers USA for his prominence and experience in litigating cases involving complex financial transactions.
Thomas R. McCarthy, Partner, Consovoy McCarthy
Mr. McCarthy assists clients with a wide array of issues in federal district and appellate courts across the country. He represents clients in cases involving constitutional issues, interpretation and enforcement of federal statutes, administrative law, civil rights disputes, and a variety of other civil litigation issues. He also represents clients in matters before and involving various federal agencies. He also co-directs the Supreme Court and Administrative Law Clinics at Scalia Law School.
Jason Torchinsky, Partner, Holtzman Vogel
Jason Torchinsky is a partner at Holtzman Vogel, specializing in campaign finance, election law, lobbying disclosure and issue advocacy groups. In addition to his practice counseling clients on compliance with campaign finance, ethics laws, lobbying disclosure and election laws, Jason has served as lead counsel in litigation matters dealing with First Amendment freedoms, election law, and redistricting issues.
Erik S. Jaffe, Partner, Schaerr | Jaffe LLP
Erik Jaffe has been involved in appeals on a broad range of legal issues, including First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Commerce Clause, and Equal Protection Clause challenges, and a wide variety of cases involving state and federal constitutional and statutory matters. He has represented businesses and non-profit groups, Judges, Senators, former government officials, Nobel Prize winners, and a broad cross-section of private individuals. Mr. Jaffe has been involved in over 150 Supreme Court matters, including filing over 30 cert. petitions, representing half-a-dozen parties on the merits, and filing over 100 amicus briefs at both the cert. and merits stages.
Brad S. Karp, Chairman, Paul, Weiss
Brad Karp has been the Chairman of Paul, Weiss since 2008. One of the country’s leading litigators and corporate advisers, Brad has successfully guided numerous Fortune 100 companies, global financial institutions and individuals through “bet the company” litigations, regulatory matters, internal investigations, and corporate crises. Prior to being named chairman, Brad chaired the firm’s Litigation Department.
Rona Kaufman, Associate Professor of Law, Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University
Rona Kaufman is an associate professor at Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University, where she teaches constitutional law, employment discrimination, family law, and gender and the law. She has researched and written extensively on intersections of women and law. Her current research focuses on a gendered perspective of Jewish history, Israel, and antisemitism.
Jonathan D. Polkes, Partner, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
Jonathan D. Polkes is Co-Chair of Weil’s global Litigation Department and a member of the Firm’s Management Committee. Jonathan is a former federal prosecutor, a first-chair trial lawyer, a Chambers USA Band 1-ranked lawyer, and an American Lawyer “Litigator of the Year” winner. He litigates significant, “bet-the-company” securities, corporate, white collar, and other disputes, supervises government and regulatory investigations, and counsels boards, directors, and senior executives on sensitive internal investigations and corporate governance matters.
David Perla, Vice Chair, Burford Capital
David Perla is Vice Chair and a member of the Management Committee. In his role at Burford, Mr. Perla is responsible for marketing, public policy, industry affairs and public relations. An entrepreneur and legal industry leader with expertise in building high-growth legal and technology-driven businesses, he was named a Top 50 Innovator of the Last 50 Years by The American Lawyer. Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Perla served as President of Bloomberg BNA Legal Division/Bloomberg Law, where he oversaw Bloomberg BNA’s legal and related products, including its flagship Bloomberg Law enterprise legal news, information and tools platform. Previously, Mr. Perla co-founded and was co-Chief Executive Officer and a director of Pangea3, the top-ranked global legal process outsourcing provider. Pangea3 was acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2010 and grew to over 1,000 employees globally under Mr. Perla’s leadership. Before launching Pangea3, he was Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs for Monster.com. Mr. Perla began his career in the New York office of Katten Muchin.