FedSoc Events

As global crises abound, from pandemics to war, society cries out for myriad new technologies, from healthcare and high tech to manufacturing, energy, environment, and food. This panel will explore how the antitrust and patent systems can best foster competition and innovation in each of these vital areas. What are the key ideas to bear in mind when sculpting these specific legal systems? What are the agencies like the PTO and DoJ Antitrust Division best able to accomplish; and what legal rules help them do their best work? How do the courts fit in? What roles are best played by large business firms compared to small and medium enterprises? This panel will explore the lessons that can be drawn from big changes made over the past century to the patent-antitrust interface such as the 1952 Patent Act and the 2011 America Invents Act with an eye towards how best to use them to shape the legal systems for tomorrow.
Featuring:

Hon. Makan Delrahim, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP; Former Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice
Prof. Christine Haight Farley, Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, American University Washington College of Law
Hon. Andrei Iancu, Partner, Irell & Manella LLP; Former Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Hon. F. Scott Kieff, Fred C. Stevenson Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School; Former Commissioner, U.S. International Trade Commission
Moderator: Hon. Ryan T. Holte, U.S. Court of Federal Claims

Executive branch agencies such as the SEC, CFTC, FTC and others have recently used their regulatory powers to advance ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria) policies that some consider beyond their core missions and outside of their legal authority. For example, the SEC has proposed climate change disclosure rules that are prescriptive as to the actions expected of public companies. Likewise, the FTC has asked “non-traditional” questions (e.g., environmental, governance, unionization status) during merger probes, and its draft strategic plans propose using antitrust and consumer protection to advance “racial equity, and all forms of equity.”
Institutional investors are also pushing ESG and corporate America is responding. Many companies have embraced “stakeholder capitalism” and as a result are taking public stands on voting rights, gun control, and other social issues.
Some are concerned about the economic and societal impact of these activities, and pushback is occurring in the form of judicial challenges to regulatory rulemaking, new state laws against divestiture and defunding of energy production and gun sales, and state antitrust investigations of institutional investor groups seeking environmental and social change at public companies.
Panelists will discuss the current state of play of “woke capitalism”, and efforts to address agency actions and those of private sector entities.
Featuring:

Mr. Jonathan Berry, Partner, Boyden Gray & Associates; Former Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of Labor
Ms. Dalia O. Blass, Head of External Affairs, Blackrock; Former Director, Division of Investment Management, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Mr. Douglas Geho, Chief Counsel, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, U.S. House Judiciary Committee
Hon. Christine S. Wilson, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
Moderator: Hon. Andrew Oldham, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

The Roberts Court is recasting the administrative state according to its view of the separation of powers. It is giving the President more authority to fire his subordinates and creating a hierarchical executive where the President and his principal officers have more authority over appointments and decision making. It is forcing the legislature to speak clearly when it wants to vest agencies with major powers and expressing interest in reinvigorating limits on some delegations of legislative power. It is strengthening the judiciary’s interpretative role, declining to give as much deference to regulatory interpretations by agencies. Is its view coherent and sound? Should the Court square its vision with a modern government that was formed on different principles? If so, how?
Featuring:

Prof. Aditya Bamzai, Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Hon. Thomas B. Griffith, Special Counsel, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP; Former Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Hon. Sally Katzen, Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence; Co-Director of the Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic, New York University School of Law
Prof. Nicholas R. Parrillo, William K. Townsend Professor of Law and Professor of History, Yale Law School
Moderator: Hon. James C. Ho, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

Lawyers and judges play an important role in a democratic republic like the United States.
In Democracy in America, Tocqueville praised the character of America’s lawyers as indispensable to protecting the U.S. Constitution, because their taste for formality would help preserve it against popular passions. Similarly, in Federalist 78 Alexander Hamilton defends judicial review by arguing that judges will be bound down by “strict rules and precedents.”
Does the U.S. Constitution presuppose a legal profession of this sort? Have lawyers’ understanding of their job, and more broadly of their role in society, changed significantly? If lawyers’ interests have become different in the modern regulatory state than in the early republic, can the rule of law, and specifically judicial review, function in the long run as Tocqueville and Hamilton hoped?
Featuring:

Prof. Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Prof. Tara Grove, Vinson & Elkins Chair in Law, University of Texas at Austin School of Law
Mr. Ashley Keller, Partner, Keller Lenkner LLC
Prof. John McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law
Moderator: Hon. Patrick J. Bumatay, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

The 2022 National Lawyers Convention took place Thursday, November 10 through Saturday, November 12 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. Over three days, the Convention featured four Showcase Sessions discussing the Convention Theme of "The Current State of the Legal Profession." Hon. Judge William H. Pryor Jr. gave the opening address.
Featuring:

Hon. William H. Pryor Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

In the last decades, American businesses have faced growing challenges from within and without. For years, many “blue states” have adopted policies to encourage or even impose social and environmental requirements on companies. Those companies faced a choice: either adopt and manage multiple policies in different states, or adopt the most inclusive version in order to maintain internal consistency.
At the same time, some American corporations began explicit efforts to exert influence on political, social, and cultural issues unrelated to their core business. Companies, particularly financial institutions, started issuing proclamations on non-business matters and changing their business to match, declaring that they would no longer deal with XYZ industry, product, or type of energy production.
Faced with growing market threats to critical state industries and natural resources, “red states” began to respond, passing laws to counter corporate and state efforts they view as politicizing business. This new pushback is significant, but it complicates matters for in-house counsel trying to navigate the competing obligations from red and blue states. Join us for a panel of experts to discuss these issues and examine possible ways to move forward.
Featuring:

Mr. Chad Boudreaux, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Huntington Ingalls Industries
Ms. Elisebeth Collins, Former General Counsel, WWE; Former Deputy General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, Caterpillar Inc.; Former Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy, U.S. Department of Justice
Mr. Harold Kim, Chief Legal Officer and Executive Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Ms. Cheryl Stanton, Chief Legal and Government Affairs Officer, BrightStar Care
Moderator: Hon Theodore W. Ullyot, Partner, Torridon Group

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is a nonpartisan association founded in 1907 that facilitates interaction among the 56 state and territory attorneys general.” The organization’s website reflects that it, “provides a community for attorneys general and their staff to collaboratively address issues important to their work, as well as training and resources to support attorneys general in protecting the rule of law and the United States Constitution.” In 2021 NAAG received $15 million from the McKinsey opioid settlement and it currently holds more than $280 million in assets.
In recent years some have called into question NAAG’s leadership and programming and have publicly sought greater transparency prior to receiving, holding, and expending certain kinds of funds from state lawsuit litigation. Does NAAG need structural reform to assuage concerns? Are additional safeguards necessary to ensure the proper stewardship of litigation proceeds?
Featuring:

Mr. Oramel H. Skinner III, Executive Director, Alliance For Consumers
Mr. Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General, State of Tennessee
Mr. Chris Toth, Former Executive Director, National Association of Attorneys General
Moderator: Hon. Stephanos Bibas, U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

Alexa Gervasi, Executive Director, Georgetown Center for the Constitution
Jennifer Freel, Partner, Jackson Walker
Prerak Shah, Of Counsel, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and former Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas
Johnny Sutton, Partner, Ashcroft Law Firm
Moderator: Hon. Wes Hendrix, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Ryan Bangert, Senior Counsel and Vice President for Legal Strategy, Alliance Defending Freedom
Arif Panju, Managing Attorney, Institute for Justice
Becky Ricketts, Counsel, Becket Law
Keisha Russell, Counsel, First Liberty Institute
Chance Weldon, Senior Attorney and Director of Litigation for the Center for the American Future, Texas Public Policy Foundation
Moderator: Hon. Drew Tipton, United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas

Hon. William Barr, Former United States Attorney General and Author, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General
Moderator: Will Levi, Partner, Sidley and former Chief of Staff to Attorney General William Barr