The Columbus School of Law Judicial Clerkship Opinion Writing Conference
February 20-22, 2025
Current Faculty (Subject to Additions and Changes)
Keynote Speaker
Chris Michel, Esq., Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP is Co-Chair of the firm’s National Appellate Practice. His practice focuses on complex legal issues at all stages of litigation, with a particular emphasis on appellate and Supreme Court matters along with high-stakes trial briefing and argument. He has handled significant matters in the areas of securities, antitrust, intellectual property and technology, civil RICO and white-collar fraud, healthcare, employment, administrative law, the First Amendment, corporate governance, criminal law, and foreign affairs—among others. He practices frequently in the U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state courts of appeals, and trial courts. He has been named an Appellate MVP by Law360 and one of America’s 500 Leading Litigators by Lawdragon. He is also nationally ranked in Appellate Law by Chambers USA and recently received a Litigator of the Week “shout out” from Law.com for his role in obtaining reversal of a $25 million jury verdict in a trade-secret case.
Chris joined the firm from the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice. During his time there, he argued 10 cases before the Supreme Court, briefed roughly 200 more. In addition to his experience in the Solicitor General’s Office, he served as a counselor to the Attorney General on civil litigation matters and as a special adviser in the White House Counsel’s Office. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., at the Supreme Court, and to Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who was then sitting on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Before attending law school, Chris worked at the White House under President George W. Bush, whom he served as Director of Speechwriting, drafting more than 500 presidential speeches including five State of the Union addresses. He also collaborated on President Bush’s memoir, Decision Points.
A native of California and a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, Chris has taught constitutional law and separation of powers at Georgetown University Law Center, and he is an appointed member of the D.C. Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Procedures.
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.
U.S. District Court and Court of Federal Claims
Judge Katherine A. Crytzer: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Prior to judicial service, Judge Crytzer served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy. Before joining the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., Judge Crytzer served as an Assistant United States Attorney and a litigator at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. She began her legal career as a law clerk to The Honorable Raymond W. Gruender on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
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 Diane Kiesel, New York Supreme Court: Diane Kiesel recently retired after nearly 25 years as a judge on the New York Supreme Court. Judge Kiesel began her professional career as a journalist in Washington, D.C., covering Congress and the Supreme Court for several California newspapers. After attending law school at Catholic University, she spent two years clerking on the federal court in Baltimore, MD, and after a brief stint as a civil litigator on Wall Street, she worked for a decade as an assistant district attorney in the office of New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. While on the bench, she continued writing; she is the author of two editions of a textbook on Domestic Violence law (Domestic Violence: Law Policy and Practice) and an award-winning biography (Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, Civil Rights Pioneer, Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press, 2015). Her next book, When Charlie Met Joan: The Tragedy of the Chaplin Trials and the Failings of American Law, will be published in February 2025 by the University of Michigan Press. She has been an adjunct professor of law at New York Law School since 1992.
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 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.
Judge Lee Rudofsky: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of 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.
Associate Dean 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
Susanna 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.
William Kamin is an Assistant Professor of Law at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, and a Fellow of the Law School’s Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Professor Kamin joined the Catholic Law faculty in 2023 after serving as a law clerk to Judge Richard J. Sullivan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He teaches civil procedure, criminal law, and federal courts.
Kevin C. Walsh is a professor at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, and co-director of the Law School’s Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. Professor Walsh teaches federal courts, constitutional law, torts, agency and partnership, and a seminar on law in the Catholic intellectual tradition. Professor Walsh’s scholarship focuses on doctrines that define the scope of federal judicial power, and has appeared in the Georgetown Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, New York University Law Review, and the Notre Dame Law Review, among other venues. Prior to joining Catholic Law, Professor Walsh taught at the University of Richmond School of Law for thirteen years. He previously practiced law at Hunton & Williams LLP. Professor Walsh clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States and for Judge Paul V. Niemeyer on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the University of Notre Dame, and Dartmouth College.