The Columbus School of Law Judicial Clerkship Opinion Writing Conference
February 24-26, 2022
Current Faculty (Subject to Additions and Changes)
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Robert E. Bacharach: United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Prior to judicial service on the Court of Appeals, Judge Bacharach served for fourteen years as a United States Magistrate Judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. He was nominated for his current position by President Barack Obama and confirmed in 2013.
Judge Kyle Duncan: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Prior to judicial service, Judge Duncan was partner at the Washington, D.C., firm of Schaerr Duncan LLP. He was previously Assistant Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General in the Texas Attorney General's Office and taught at The University of Mississippi School of Law and Columbia University School of Law.
Judge Paul B. Matey: United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Prior to judicial. service, Judge Matey was a partner at the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler LLP. He previously served as General Counsel at University Hospital Newark, Deputy Chief Counsel to Governor Chris Christie, and an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of New Jersey.
Judge Chad A. Readler: United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to judicial service, Judge Readler was Principal Deputy United States Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Civil Division and served as Acting United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. Before joining the Department of Justice, Judge Readler was a partner in the Issues & Appeals practice of the Columbus office of Jones Day.
Judge Lawrence VanDyke: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to judicial service, Judge VanDyke served as Solicitor General of Montana, as Solicitor General of Nevada, and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division.
U.S. District Court and Court of Federal Claims
Judge Kathryn Davis, United States Court of Federal Claims: Prior to judicial service, Judge Davis served in the Federal Programs Branch in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, joining in 2008 as a Trial Attorney and rising to the position of Senior Trial Counsel. During her tenure at the Justice Department, Judge Davis received the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award for her work on district court litigation related to the 2013 Federal Government shutdown and a Civil Division Special Commendation Award for her work on the Guantanamo Bay detainee litigation.
Judge Joseph F. Leeson, Jr.: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Prior to judicial service, Judge Leeson was a founding partner in an eastern Pennsylvania based law firm, where his practice was focused primarily on civil trial and appellate litigation.
Judge Edward H. Meyers: United States Court of Federal Claims. Prior to Judicial service, Judge Meyers clerked for Judge Loren A. Smith of the United States Court of Federal Claims. He was a partner at Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner in Washington, D.C. and also practiced at Kirkland & Ellis.
Judge Lee Rudofsky, U.S. District Court for the E.D. Arkansas. Prior to judicial service, Judge Rudofsky was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis, Solicitor General of Arkansas, and a Senior Director for global anti-corruption compliance at Walmart.
Judge Eleni M. Roumel: United States Court of Federal Claims. Prior to judicial service, Judge Roumel served in the White House as Deputy Counsel to Vice President Mike Pence and as Assistant General Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives in its Office of General Counsel. She was a partner with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, in Charleston, South Carolina, and practiced at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP and at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, LLP in New York City. She also was an adjunct professor at the Charleston School of Law, where she taught intellectual property law.
Stephen S. Schwartz: United States Court of Federal Claims. Prior to judicial service, Judge Schwartz was a litigation associate at a D.C. law firm, focusing his practice on appellate and administrative law matters. He then joined a non-profit where he litigated cases related to federal government transparency and administrative agency discretion. In 2016 he joined a D.C. litigation boutique where he represented state and local governments in complex trial court and appellate proceedings, becoming a partner in 2017.
Keynote Speaker
Lesley Fair: Senior Attorney, Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection. Ms. Fair has represented the FTC in numerous investigations of false advertising and fraud. For her decades in public service, she received the FTC’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The author of numerous publications, Ms. Fair has represented clients before the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. and Fourth Circuits, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She has been on the faculty of Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America since 1984, holding the title of Distinguished Lecturer. Ms. Fair graduated from the University of Notre Dame and received a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law. She clerked for United States District Judge Fred Shannon in the Western District of Texas and served as staff counsel to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Practitioners: Former and Current Judicial Clerks
Jacob M. Coate, Shearman & Sterling LLP. Jacob Coate specializes in high-stakes antitrust and appellate litigation. Prior to joining Shearman, Jacob was a Constitutional Law Fellow at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Jacob served as a law clerk to Judge Raymond Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and Judge James Gwin of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. He attended the University of Michigan Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude.
William J. Haun: Counsel, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Will Haun litigates free exercise cases in federal and state courts nationwide, focusing on appellate and Supreme Court litigation. Prior to joining Becket, he practiced appellate and antitrust litigation at Shearman & Sterling LLP and Hunton & Williams LLP. He clerked for Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Judge Claude M. Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
Anika Smith: Anika Smith is a graduate of The Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America. She clerked with Judge Paul B. Matey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit last year and is currently clerking for Judge Kyle Duncan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Faculty Director of Bench and Bar Programs
A.G. Harmon, Ph.D.: A.G. Harmon is the author of A House All Stilled, the winner of The Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel in 2001. His short story collection, Some Bore Gifts, was published by Word Galaxy Press in 2018. Other fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in such publications as Triquarterly, The Antioch Review, Shenandoah, Image, The Bellingham Review, Logos, The Arkansas Review, Dappled Things, and Commonweal. His work on Shakespeare and the law, Eternal Bonds, was published by SUNY Press in 2004. He received his J.D. from the University of Tennessee and his Ph.D. in English The Catholic University of America. He has taught a range of courses at CSL, including Remedies, Jurisprudence, Professional Responsibility, Legal Drafting, and courses in scholarly writing. He is the Co-Director of CSL’s Seigenthaler Sutherland-Cup First Amendment Moot Court Competition.
CSL Faculty Participants
J. Joel Alicea: Joel Alicea joined the Catholic Law faculty in 2020 after having practiced law for several years at the law firm of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, where he specialized in constitutional litigation. He previously served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., on the United States Supreme Court and for Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is a Fellow at the Columbus School of Law's Center for Religious Liberty.
Susanna Frederick Fischer: Susanna Fischer joined the faculty of Columbus School of Law in 1999, where she teaches or has taught a variety of courses in the fields of creativity, constitutional law, and comparative law, including art law, music law, entertainment law, copyright law, comparative law, comparative constitutional law, and constitutional law. She obtained her legal education at Merton College, University of Oxford, where she received a B.A. in jurisprudence, and the University of Virginia School of Law, from which she was awarded the L.L.M. She is the Director of CSL’s International Human Rights Summer Law School Program in Rome, Italy and the Co-Director of CSL’s Seigenthaler Sutherland-Cup First Amendment Moot Court Competition.