Event: Debate: Should Courts Issue Nationwide Injunctions? with Gregg Costa and Benjamin D. Wilson
Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Time: 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Location: Arts District Mansion
CLE Credit: CLE credit is pending
Gregg Costa is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s Houston office and co-chair of the firm’s Trials Practice Group. Before joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Costa served for more than ten years as a federal trial and appellate judge. He served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 2014 to 2022. After his nomination by President Obama, the Senate confirmed him by a vote of 97-0. No federal appellate judge nominated since has received more votes. Mr. Costa first served as a district judge for the Southern District of Texas from 2012 to 2014. When appointed to the bench, he was the youngest-sitting federal judge at age 39. Mr. Costa presided over thirty federal trials in four different venues (he continued handling district court matters while serving on the court of appeals). Before taking the bench, Mr. Costa was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Houston from 2005 to 2012.
Mr. Costa graduated from Dartmouth College and with highest honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Law Review. After law school, he clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and for Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the D.C. Circuit. Between clerkships, he served as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of Solicitor General. He has taught Federal Jurisdiction at the University of Houston Law Center, which named him an Honorary Alumnus in 2021.
Benjamin D. Wilson is Of Counsel in the Dallas office of Gibson Dunn, where he is a member of the firm’s Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group.
Ben has presented oral argument in the Texas Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Second, and Seventh Circuits, and the Texas appellate courts. He has also often represented clients before the United States Supreme Court and other state and federal courts of appeals. In addition, Ben often handles critical or dispositive motions in both state and federal trial courts.
Prior to rejoining Gibson Dunn, Ben worked as lead counsel for commercial appellate matters for the world’s largest retailer. Ben also has a distinguished record of public service in state and federal government. As Deputy Solicitor General in the Office of the Texas Solicitor General, he successfully briefed and argued many of the state’s most important appeals and advised on many of the state’s most important trial court matters. As Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, Ben lead for the Department’s efforts to confirm federal judicial nominees, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett and over eighty lower court judges. Earlier in his career, Ben served as Counsel to Senator Ted Cruz on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as Special Counsel to Senator Cruz for the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Ben clerked for Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and later for Judge James C. Ho of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Ben received his law degree with honors from the University of Chicago Law School and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington and Lee University magna cum laude with honors in history.
Ben is a member of the Texas Bar. He is admitted to practice before the Second, Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits and before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Western Districts of Texas.
Aaron Nielson is a professor on leave from BYU Law to serve as Solicitor General of Texas. He writes in the areas of administrative law and federal courts. Before joining the legal academy, he was an appellate and antitrust partner at Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he clerked for the Fifth Circuit, the D.C. Circuit, and for Justice Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court. Since joining the academy, he served for six years as a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, where he continues to serve as a senior fellow. As Solicitor General of Texas, he leads of a team of appellate lawyers who litigate many of the State’s most important constitutional and statutory cases.