stephen Gardbaum
Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law, UCLA School of Law

Stephen Gardbaum holds the Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law at UCLA School of Law. Previously, he held the rotating MacArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights. An internationally recognized constitutional scholar, he was a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2012-13 Straus Fellow at New York University. Gardbaum received a B.A. with First Class Honors from Oxford University, an M.Sc. from London University, a Ph.D. (with distinction) in Political Theory from Columbia, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He is a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and teaches constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, European Union law, international human rights, and comparative law. In 2025, he received UCLA’s university-wide Distinguished Teaching Award. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, he taught at Northwestern University School of Law and has been a visiting professor at Melbourne Law School, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Panthéon-Assas University (Paris II), Aix-Marseille University, and the Radzyner Law School of the IDC Herzliya. He has served as Faculty Director of The Promise Institute for Human Rights and as an elected member of the Council of the International Society of Public Law.  Gardbaum’s scholarship, which focuses on comparative constitutional law and constitutional theory, has been cited by the U.S., Canadian, and Indian Supreme Courts, and widely translated. 

Mark Graber
Regents Professor, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

christian Ketter
Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Illinois Chicago School of Law

Ji Li
John & Marilyn Long Professor of US-China Business and Law, UC Irvine School of Law

Sheldon Nahmod
Emeritus Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law

Professor Mark Graber is a Distinguished Professor at the University System of Maryland, University of Maryland, Baltimore. In 2016, he was named Regents Professor, one of only seven Regents Professors in the history of the University System of Maryland and the only Regents Professor on the UMB campus. Professor Graber received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 2023. In 2025, the Guggenheim Foundation awarded him a Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation Fellowship in Constitutional Studies. Professor Graber is recognized as one of the leading scholars in the country on constitutional law and politics. He is the author of A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism (Oxford 2013), co-editor of American Constitutionalism: Structures and Powers and American Constitutionalism: Rights and Powers, and co-editor of Constitutional Democracy in Crisis (Oxford 2018). His most recent book is Punish Treason, Reward Loyalty: The Forgotten Goals of Constitutional Reform After the Civil War (Kansas, 2023). Professor Graber is also the author of over 100 articles, including "Naked Land Transfers and American Constitutional Development," published in the Vanderbilt Law Review and "Resolving Political Questions into Judicial Questions: Tocqueville’s Aphorism Revisited," published by Constitutional Commentary. 

Christian Ketter is an award-winning legal writer, ranked in Thompson Reuters list of “2025 Rising Stars” by SuperLawyers. His legal practice at Ottosen DiNolfo Hasenbalg and Castaldo Ltd. is primarily focused on federal civil rights defense litigation, municipal law, and appellate matters. His legal scholarship focuses primarily on constitutional theory, American legal history, criminal procedure, Chief Justice John Marshall, and the Roberts Court and has been published in journals and law reviews nationwide.

Ketter is an adjunct professor of law at both The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Law and Northern Illinois University College of Law and is a certified mediator and hearing officer. Ketter previously served as a prosecutor at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and interned for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judge William J. Bauer. He currently serves as the General Counsel to the DuPage County Bar Association and as the Federal Practice Chair for the Illinois State Bar Association.

Ji Li is the John S. and Marilyn Long Professor of U.S.-China Business and Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. Professor Li's scholarship focuses on the intersection of U.S.-China relations and law, particularly the adaptation of Chinese multinational companies to U.S. legal and regulatory systems, the impact of the U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry on transnational legal actors, and the interactions between China and the international legal order. He is the author of two books on these topics: Clash of Capitalisms (CUP, 2018) and Negotiating Legality: Chinese Companies in the U.S. Legal System (CUP, 2024).

Sheldon H. Nahmod is a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Professor of Law Emeritus at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Professor Nahmod is a well-known expert on constitutional law, the First Amendment, civil rights and liberties and the law of Section 1983. He is the author of the three-volume Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Litigation: The Law of Section 1983 (2025)(West/Westlaw); A Section 1983 Civil Rights Anthology (1993); a casebook, Constitutional Torts (6th ed. 2025, with Wells, Smith and Smith-Drelich); and numerous law review articles. He has written many certiorari petitions and amicus briefs in the Supreme Court. He has also successfully argued civil rights cases in the Supreme Court and the First, Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Circuits, and consults nationally with attorneys on civil rights, civil liberties and constitutional law issues.  In addition, he has lectured on civil rights and civil liberties matters to federal judges and attorneys throughout the country, including founding, organizing and speaking at Chicago-Kent's own annual Conference on Section 1983 for over four decades. He lectures to lay groups on constitutional law and the First Amendment, most recently on the Religion Clauses. 

Lee Epstein
Ethan A.H. Shepley Distinguished University Professor, Washington University School of Law

Lee Epstein is the Ethan A.H. Shepley Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Epstein teaches courses on constitutional law, judicial behavior, free speech, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Her research focuses on law and legal institutions, especially the behavior of judges. In addition to her position at WashU, she holds Distinguished Visiting Professorships at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the University of Southern California, where she previously was the University Professor of Law & Political Science and the Hilliard Distinguished Professor of Law. She also is Principal Investigator of the U.S. Supreme Court Database. 

 The recipient of 12 grants from the National Science Foundation, Professor Epstein has authored or edited 20 books and more than 160 articles and book chapters, many in collaboration with other scholars. She recently co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Judicial Behaviour and is working on a new book, Free Speech: A Campus Toolkit.  

Honorable Bobbie Dumanis (ret.)
California Superior Court

Sarah Ochs
Associate Professor of Law, Elon University School of Law

Honorable Mimi Tsankov (ret.)
Adjunct Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

Bonnie Dumanis is a nationally recognized leader in the justice system with nearly four decades of experience as a prosecutor, judge, and elected district attorney. She rose through the ranks as a Deputy District Attorney, Municipal Court Judge, and Superior Court Judge before serving as San Diego County District Attorney from 2003 to 2017, becoming the first woman elected to that office. 

Known as both tough and fair, Dumanis is widely respected for principled leadership grounded in accountability and equal justice under law. She played a pioneering role in creating and expanding problem-solving courts, including Drug Court, Veterans Court, Behavioral Health Court, and Homeless Court. She held numerous state and national leadership roles and served on the Superior Court Governing Board, the Governor’s Judicial Selection Advisory Committee, and the California State Bar’s Judicial Nomination Evaluation Commission.  

Sara L. Ochs is an Associate Professor of Law at Elon University School of Law in North Carolina. Her scholarly expertise lies in the fields of international criminal law and transitional justice with a focus on the international prosecution of mass atrocities before international and hybrid courts and the use of transitional justice mechanisms in post-conflict and settler colonial societies. She has published over a dozen scholarly works in these areas and has presented at conferences throughout the United States and Europe. Her scholarship can be found in the International Criminal Law Review, the Michigan Journal of International Law, and the Stanford Journal of International Law.

Sara previously served as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and visiting researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden where she researched transitional justice issues facing the indigenous Sami Peoples. Prior to joining academia, she worked as a judicial clerk and a practicing attorney in New Orleans. Sara is also a published thriller author. Her novels include THE RESORT, and THIS STAYS BETWEEN US.

Ms. Tsankov is a New York City–based certified mediator and arbitrator and a retired federal administrative judge with nearly two decades on the bench. She now serves on multiple national and state mediation and arbitration panels. Her prior public service includes roles with the U.S. Department of Justice as Assistant District Counsel and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, as well as an Attorney Advisor with the Peace Corps, along with more than ten years in private practice.

Widely recognized for her judicial service and leadership in the legal community, she has held numerous elected and appointed positions in major bar and judicial organizations and has received multiple professional honors and appointments. She has testified before congressional committees, published extensively, and frequently speaks on dispute resolution, labor, and rule-of-law issues. She is an Adjunct Law Faculty at Fordham Law School in New York teaching International Law and Justice, Colorado Law School and the Sturm College of Law in Denver, Colorado. Ms. Tsankov holds a J.D. and M.A. in International Relations from the University of Virginia.

Wayne Sandholtz
Emeritus Professor of International Relations and Law, University of Southern California

Wayne Sandholtz is Professor Emeritus of International Relations and Law at the University of Southern California. His research has focused primarily on international law and courts, human rights, the rule of law, and the linked challenges of authoritarianism and populism. In recent years he has been a visiting scholar at the Berlin-Potsdam Research Group on the International Rule of Law, the Graduate Institute (Geneva), and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg). His most recent books are The Law and Politics of International Human Rights Courts (Oxford University Press, 2024, co-authored with Alec Stone Sweet) and The Rule of Law under Pressure (Cambridge University Press, 2025, co-edited with Gregory Shaffer). 

Miguel Ángel lara Otaola
International Advisory Board Member, Electoral Integrity Project

Lauren Prather
Associate Professor of International Relations, University of California San Diego

Rebecca Olson
Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Matthew Seligman
Principal, Grayhawk Law, and Fellow, Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School

Dr. Lara Otaola has extensive experience in the field of democracy support. He has worked for the United Nations, the Carter Center, International IDEA, and the Electoral Integrity Project at the Universities of Sydney and Harvard. He was Head of Mission for Mexico and Central America for International IDEA and is currently an International Advisory Board Member for the Electoral Integrity Project.

He holds a PhD in Politics (Sussex), an MSc in Comparative Politics (London School of Economics) and an MPA (Tec de Monterrey). Dr. Lara Otaola has participated in over 30 technical assistance and election observation missions in 17 countries worldwide. He has delivered over 120 conferences, is a frequent radio and TV commentator and has over 70 publications in outlets such as Newsweek, Foreign Affairs and The Washington Post.

Lauren Prather is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego and co-director of the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections. Her research examines election integrity, foreign influences on elections, and public trust in democratic institutions. Professor Prather also works closely with election officials and policy organizations to translate research into practical strategies for strengthening trust in elections. She is the co-author of Monitors and Meddlers: How Foreign Actors Influence Local Trust in Elections, an APSA Best Book Award winner. Her research has appeared in journals including the American Political Science Review, International Organization, and International Studies Quarterly.

Rebecca represents clients on compliance matters relating to election, campaign, and lobbying laws. She also defends clients in enforcement proceedings before the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), local ethics commissions, and the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Additionally, Rebecca advises government officials on ethics issues such as conflicts of interest, gifts, and financial disclosure requirements, and helps clients obtain advisory opinions from the FPPC and FEC. Her practice further includes forming and operating nonprofit organizations, ensuring compliance with tax codes and regulatory requirements. 

Matthew Seligman’s scholarship focuses on election law and constitutional law. His book, How to Steal a Presidential Election (co-authored with Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig), was published in 2024 by the Yale University Press. Matthew’s work has also been published in the Stanford Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the Vanderbilt Law Review.  

Matthew was previously a fellow at the Center for Private Law at the Yale Law School, a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Matthew now serves as a fellow at the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School.  

In addition to his scholarship, Matthew maintains an active practice as both a litigator and expert witness. In 2024, he argued before Judge Aileen Cannon in United States vs. Trump to defend the constitutionality of the Special Counsel under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. Matthew has served as an expert witness on constitutional law on numerous occasions, including in 2023 and 2024 before the U.S. House of Representatives on the First Amendment and the dangers of election misinformation on social media.