May 6, 2021 – Immigration Reform for the 21st Century with Gene Hamilton

Event: Immigration Reform for the 21st Century with Gene Hamilton
Date: Thursday, May 6, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: Online event

Gene Hamilton served as Counselor to the Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice from 2017–2021—providing legal advice, counsel, and strategic guidance to Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr as well as other officials throughout the Department of Justice.  Prior to his service at the Department of Justice, Gene served as Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security, John Kelly; as General Counsel to Senator Jeff Sessions on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest; as Assistant Chief Counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and as an Attorney Advisor in the Secretary’s Honors Program for Attorneys at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Gene graduated from the Washington and Lee School of Law magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, and has a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from the University of Georgia.

April 6, 2021 – Epstein on Energy: Understanding the Texas Power Breakdown

Event: Epstein on Energy: Understanding the Texas Power Breakdown with Professor Richard Epstein
Date: Thursday, April 6, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: Online event

Please join the Dallas and Austin Chapters of the Federalist Society for a presentation about the recent Texas Power outage.

Richard A. Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Law and Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.  Epstein started his legal career at the University of Southern California, where he taught from 1968 to 1972.  He served as Interim Dean of the Law School from February to June 2001.  He is also the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University, and the Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

March 10, 2021 – The First Amendment and Student Speech: From Tinker (1969) to the Court’s Forthcoming Mahanoy Case

Event: The First Amendment and Student Speech: From Tinker (1969) to the Court’s Forthcoming Mahanoy Case with Professor Eugene Volokh
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: Online event

Please join the Dallas, Austin, and Tyler Lawyers Chapters of the Federalist Society for a presentation about student speech.

Eugene Volokh teaches First Amendment law and a First Amendment amicus brief clinic at UCLA School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, tort law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy.  Before coming to UCLA, he clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  He is a member of The American Law Institute, a member of the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel, and the founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog.

February 25, 2021 – Reconsidering Qualified Immunity: A Historical Analysis with Former Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller

Event: Reconsidering Qualified Immunity: A Historical Analysis with Former Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: Online event

Please join the Dallas, Austin, and Ft Worth Lawyers Chapters of the Federalist Society for a presentation about qualified immunity.

Scott Keller is a partner at Baker Botts L.L.P., where he chairs the firm’s Supreme Court and Constitutional Law Practice.  Before joining Baker Botts, Scott served as Solicitor General of Texas, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as a Bristow Fellow in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Solicitor General.  Scott clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

January 13, 2020 – Litigating the COVID Lockdown

Event: Litigating the COVID Lockdown with Heather Gebelin Hacker, Robert Dunn, and Ryan Walsh
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: Online event

Please join the Dallas, Amarillo, Austin, Ft Worth, Houston, and Tyler Lawyers Chapters of the Federalist Society for a conversation about litigating COVID lockdowns.

Heather Gebelin Hacker is a partner at Hacker Stephens LLP. Before her time in the private sector, Heather served as an Assistant Solicitor General in the Texas Attorney General’s office, representing the State in its most critical appellate litigation and advising senior officials and state agencies on important legal issues.  She has extensive appellate experience, including before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appeals courts, and the Texas Supreme Court.  Her clients have included the Governor of Texas, the Attorney General of Texas, the University of Texas System, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Texas Legislature, among others.

Robert Dunn is Of Counsel at Eimer Stahl.  He focuses his practice on appellate and complex litigation and has represented clients before the Supreme Court of the United States, various state and appellate courts, and various federal district courts.  Before beginning his legal practice, Rob served as a law clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court for the Honorable Clarence Thomas, and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for the Honorable Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain.

Ryan Walsh is a partner at Eimer Stahl LLP.  He focuses his practice on corporate counseling and appellate and complex commercial litigation.  Ryan previously served as Wisconsin’s Chief Deputy Solicitor General, law clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court for the Honorable Antonin Scalia, and law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for the Honorable Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain.  In 2017, Ryan was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30: Law and Policy” list.

December 3, 2020 – The Politics and History of Court Packing

Event: The Politics and History of Court Packing: A Debate Between Dan McLaughlin and Joshua Braver
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2020
Time: 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: Online event

Please join the Dallas and Austin Lawyers Chapters of the Federalist Society for a debate regarding whether a future administration should increase the number of Justices on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Dan McLaughlin is a Senior Writer for National Review and previously practiced securities and commercial litigation at a major global law firm for 23 years.

Joshua Braver is a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin and the author of the 2019 paper “Court Packing: An American Tradition?”

October 7, 2020 – The Mueller Report and Its Aftermath with Andrew McCarthy

Event: The Mueller Report and Its Aftermath with Andrew McCarthy
Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Time: 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: Online event

Andrew C. McCarthy, a former top federal prosecutor, is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, a contributing editor at National Review, a Fox News contributor, and a well-known commentator on legal, national security, and political affairs.

McCarthy is a former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York, best known for leading the prosecution against the Blind Sheik (Omar Abdel Rahman) and eleven other jihadists for waging a terrorist war against the United States—including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks.  After the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the U.S. attorney’s command post near Ground Zero.  He later served as an advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Willful Blindness: A Memoir of Jihad (2008) and The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America (2010), as well as Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (2013) and Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment (2014).  His latest book, Ball of Collusion, was released on August 13, 2019. 

February 12, 2020 – Impeachment with Hon. Kenneth W. Starr

Event: Impeachment with Hon. Kenneth W. Starr
Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, Texas 75201 (map)
CLE Credit: One hour of CLE credit available

Kenneth Starr is a former United States Federal Court of Appeals Judge, U.S. Solicitor General, and Independent Counsel. He is the former President and Chancellor of Baylor University where he held the Louise L. Morrison Chair of Constitutional Law at Baylor University Law School.

​CLE credit will be available.

January 21, 2020 – Regulatory Policy in the Trump Administration with Jeffrey Harris

Event: Regulatory Policy in the Trump Administration with Jeffrey Harris
Date: Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Time: Noon-1:00pm
Location: Belo Mansion, 2101 Ross Ave., Dallas, Texas 75201 (map)
CLE Credit: One hour of CLE credit available

Jeffrey Harris is an experienced litigator who focuses on constitutional, appellate, and regulatory matters. He is currently a partner at Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC. In 2015, he was named to the Legal Times list of “D.C.’s Rising Stars,” which identified “some of the most accomplished young attorneys in the D.C. area.” Mr. Harris previously served as Associate Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). In that role, he was second in charge of the 50-person office within the Executive Office of the President that reviews all significant federal regulatory actions and coordinates regulatory policy across the federal government.

Before his government service, Mr. Harris was a partner at Bancroft PLLC and Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where his practice focused on Supreme Court, appellate, and complex litigation. Mr. Harris has extensive experience litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been the lead drafter of more than 100 merits briefs, amicus briefs, and certiorari-stage briefs, and he has contributed to 10 wins in cases before the Court.

Mr. Harris has also litigated numerous high-profile cases in the federal courts of appeals, federal and state trial courts, administrative agencies, and arbitral tribunals. He has successfully argued before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits, achieving wins on behalf of airlines, telecommunications providers, and pro bono clients. He has also argued numerous dispositive motions in federal district court and has participated in the trial of a significant voting rights case.

Mr. Harris served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., of the U.S. Supreme Court, and Judges David Sentelle and Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and his A.B. magna cum laude from Georgetown University. He is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia bars.

​CLE credit will be available.