THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS
Speakers
Jason Bergmann
Assistant Chief, Tax Division, United States Department of Justice
Jason Bergmann is the Assistant Chief in the Court of Federal Claims Section of the Tax Division at the Department of Justice. For almost nineteen years, he has defended the United States in tax cases in the Court of Federal Claims. During that time, he has briefed and argued dispositive motions in a variety of different tax cases.
Hon. Armando O. Bonilla
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Armando O. Bonilla was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on February 17, 2022. Prior to his appointment, from 2018 to 2022, Judge Bonilla served as Vice President, Ethics and Investigations, for a Fortune 100 company in the financial services industry.
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Judge Bonilla spent the majority of his career with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). He began his twenty-four-year career at DOJ in 1994 as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, where he represented the United States in trial and appellate court litigation before the Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Thereafter, from 2001 to 2010, Judge Bonilla served as a Trial Attorney in the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section and in the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section. In those roles, Judge Bonilla investigated and prosecuted fraud and public corruption matters, as well as domestic and international money laundering schemes.
Between 2010 and 2017, Judge Bonilla served as Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the U.S. Deputy Attorney General. He also served as Associate General Counsel for the U.S. Marshals Service from 2017 to 2018.
Judge Bonilla received a B.A. from West Virginia University in 1989, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1992. Upon graduating from law school, Judge Bonilla served as a law clerk to the Honorable Garrett E. Brown, Jr., U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, from 1992 to 1994.
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Judge Bonilla lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and their two children. Judge Bonilla serves on the Board of Directors of So Others Might Eat (SOME).
Julia Collison
Assistant Director, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Julia M. Collison is an Assistant Director with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where she supervises trial attorneys representing the interests of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in cases filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims pursuant to the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.
Julia received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Georgetown University, and a law degree from Fordham University School of Law. Prior to joining the Justice Department, Julia was a clerk in New Jersey Superior Court specializing in multicounty litigation, a fellow for the Legal Division at the D.C. Circuit, and a litigation associate at a law firm in Washington, D.C. Julia represents the Justice Department on the Vaccine Committee to the Court of Federal Claims Advisory Council, and is on the Board of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims Bar Association (serving as President in 2025).
Hon. Brian Corcoran
Chief Special Master, United States Court of Federal Claims
Brian H. Corcoran was appointed as a Special Master of the United States Court of Federal Claims on January 13, 2014. He graduated cum laude, with high honors in his major, from Dartmouth College in 1988. He received his J.D. in 1991 from the University of Virginia School of Law. He was designated Chief Special Master by the court to succeed Nora Beth Dorsey, effective October 1, 2019.
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Mr. Corcoran is a seasoned trial attorney with experience in a wide variety of legal matters, including intellectual property, general commercial disputes, tax matters, and pro bono civil rights and employment discrimination actions. Until 2008, he was employed in the private sector, rising to the level of partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP.
From 2008 to 2014, Mr. Corcoran worked for the Department of Justice, Tax Division, as a trial attorney, where he obtained numerous permanent injunctions against fraudulent tax preparers and the promoters of illegal tax schemes across the United States.
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Mr. Corcoran is admitted to the bars of New York and the District of Columbia, as well as numerous federal district courts.
Hon. Kathryn C. Davis
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Judge Kathryn C. Davis was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims in December 2020. Prior to her appointment, 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. Her work at the Federal Programs Branch focused primarily on defending federal agencies in suits raising complex issues of constitutional and administrative law.
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 Civil Division Special Commendation Awards for her work on the Guantanamo Bay detainee litigation and the border security litigation team.
Since 2018, she also has served as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School. From 2005 to 2008, Judge Davis was in private practice in Philadelphia.
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Judge Davis received her B.S. in Business Administration from Boston University in 2001, and her J.D., cum laude, from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2005.
Stephanie Fleming
Trial Attorney, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Prof. Sam Halabi
Director, Center for Transformational Health Law, Georgetown University
Sam Halabi, J.D., MPhil is the Bette Jacobs Endowed Chair of Health Management and Policy at Georgetown University Medical Center and the Director of the Center for Transformational Health Law at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. He served as the 2018 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, and he is a member of the World Health Organization’s Working Group on Regulatory Approaches to AI and Health where he leads its training workstream.
His work on no-fault vaccine compensation worldwide is published in JAMA, Emory International Law Review, and the New England Journal of Medicine, and his research on the law of companies and corporations has been cited by both state and federal courts in the United States. Before earning his J.D. from Harvard Law School, Professor Halabi was awarded a British Marshall scholarship to study in the United Kingdom where he earned an M.Phil in International Relations from the University of Oxford (St. Antony’s College). During the 2003–04 academic year, he served as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar at the American University of Beirut.
Colleen Hartley
Assistant Director, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Colleen C. Hartley is an Assistant Director with U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Serving as an Assistant Director, Colleen supervises trial attorneys representing the interests of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in cases filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims pursuant to the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.
Colleen received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Auburn University. She went on to obtain her law degree from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. Prior to joining the Department, Colleen worked in private practice in Louisville, Kentucky. In addition, Colleen has served on the Board of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims Bar Association.
Brian Herman
Senior Trial Attorney, ENRD, United States Department of Justice
Brian Herman is a Senior Trial Attorney in the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, Natural Resources Section. He is responsible for a large docket of cases in both the Court of Federal Claims and district courts around the country. Brian’s work includes inverse condemnation claims, such as rail-trail and flooding claims, as well as challenges to agency action under the National Environmental Policy Act. He handles litigation on behalf of many federal agencies, including the Surface Transportation Board, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. Before joining the Department, Brian served as an assistant attorney general in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and as a law clerk to Judge Elaine D. Kaplan on the Court of Federal Claims.
Hon. Richard A. Hertling
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Judge Richard A. Hertling has served on the Court of Federal Claims since June 2019. Immediately before joining the court, he was of counsel in the public policy group of Covington & Burling. He joined Covington after a career in federal service during which he served as staff director and chief counsel of the House Judiciary Committee, assistant attorney general for legislative affairs and principal deputy assistant attorney general for policy at the Justice Department, staff director of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, and chief of staff, legislative director, or chief counsel to four U.S. senators.
He started his career through the honors program in the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division of the Justice Department after clerking for a judge on the Fifth Circuit. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Brown University.
Tracye Howard
Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
Hon. Elaine D. Kaplan
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Elaine D. Kaplan was appointed a Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims on November 1, 2013. On March 2, 2021, President Biden designated her as Chief Judge, a position in which she served until April 10, 2025.
Judge Kaplan joined the court after serving as the Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Prior to being designated Acting Director in April 2013, she had served as OPM’s General Counsel, a position to which she was appointed in 2009.
Judge Kaplan began her legal career in the Solicitor’s Office of the U.S. Department of Labor, first in the Employee Benefits Division and then in the Division of Special Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation. Between 1984 and 1998, she litigated and supervised the litigation of cases at all levels of the federal court system as an attorney at the National Treasury Employees Union, an organization to which she returned in 2004 as Senior Deputy General Counsel.​
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In 1998, Judge Kaplan was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate to serve a five-year term as the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency whose mission is to protect the merit-based civil service.
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From 2003 to 2004, Chief Judge Kaplan was “of counsel” to Bernabei and Katz, a nationally recognized plaintiff’s side employment law and civil rights firm.
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A native of Brooklyn, New York, Chief Judge Kaplan earned a J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University in 1979, and a bachelor’s degree in history from the State University of New York in Binghamton in 1976.
Meghan Largent
Rails to Trails Practice Group Leader, Lewis Rice LLC
Meghan S. Largent helps lead Lewis Rice’s Federal Takings & Rails to Trails Practice Group, where she represents landowners across the country whose property has been taken by the federal government. When the federal government converts an abandoned railroad corridor into a public park or trail, she works with affected individuals to establish that the government is liable for seizing their land and ensure they receive the compensation they deserve. Meghan has spent most of her career pioneering this area of the law and secured awards for landowners worth millions of dollars.
Meghan also manages appellate litigation and commercial disputes on behalf of her clients. She has experience litigating before the United States Tax Court and has handled claims related to direct condemnation, breach of contract, products liability and toxic tort.
Esther Liebfarth
Senior Managing Attorney, National Veterans Legal Services Program
Esther Leibfarth is a Senior Managing Attorney at the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP), where she has served since 2017. Through NVLSP’s Lawyers Serving Warriors® program, she co-counsels and mentors pro bono attorneys on medical retirement and military pay cases before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the Federal Circuit, U.S. District Courts, other federal courts of appeals, and the military’s Boards for Correction of Military Records.
Ms. Leibfarth frequently trains attorneys nationwide on medical retirement law and procedures, helping to ensure that pro bono counsel are fully equipped to advocate effectively for wounded, ill, and injured service members. She has also played a leading role in establishing legal clinics to educate service members about their rights and options under the medical retirement system.​
Previously, she served as a civilian attorney in the Army’s Office of Soldiers’ Counsel, assisting soldiers navigating Medical and Physical Evaluation Boards. She earned her J.D. from Emory University School of Law and an LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law from Georgetown University Law Center.
Nathan Mammen
Partner, Snell & Wilmer
Nathan Mammen is a Partner in Snell & Wilmer LLP’s D.C. office. He has broad experience in intellectual property trial and appellate litigation involving a variety of technologies, and he has extensive experience in appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Nathan is a veteran of the U.S. Army, and during his military service he served as appellate counsel in dozens of military criminal cases. In 2012–2013, Nathan volunteered for active duty in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and served as a military prosecutor in Kuwait. Nathan is passionate about giving back through pro bono service, and he has represented fellow veterans in numerous critical cases and bringing attention to systemic legal issues affecting veterans.
Trent McCotter
Partner, Boyden Gray PLLC
Trent McCotter is a partner at Boyden Gray PLLC in Washington, and he previously served as Deputy Associate Attorney General of the United States. In March 2025, he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in FCC v. Consumers’ Research
Hon. Robin M. Meriweather
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Judge Robin M. Meriweather was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims by President Biden on August 8, 2024.
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From January 2017 until her appointment to the Court of Federal Claims, Judge Meriweather served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. As a Magistrate Judge, Judge Meriweather presided over a variety of civil and criminal proceedings.
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Prior to becoming a Magistrate Judge, Judge Meriweather served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and was Deputy Chief of the Civil Division of that office from 2011 to 2017. Before that, Judge Meriweather worked in private practice as an associate at Jenner & Block LLP.
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Judge Meriweather was a law clerk for Judge Merrick B. Garland on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan.
Hon. Edward Meyers
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Judge Meyers was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims on October 20, 2020. Prior to his appointment, he was a partner with Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner LLP from 2012–2020. Before joining Stein Mitchell, he was an associate at the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP from 2006–2012. While in private practice, Judge Meyers focused on complex civil litigation and tried cases in state and federal courts across the country. From 2005–2006, Judge Meyers served as a law clerk to the Honorable Loren A. Smith, Senior Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims.
Judge Meyers was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He received his J.D., summa cum laude, from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. He received the John L. Garvey Faculty Award, which is awarded to the graduate with the highest academic average, and was an associate editor of the Catholic University Law Review. Judge Meyers received his B.A. from Vanderbilt University.
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Judge Meyers is married and has one son and two stepsons.
Doug Mickle
Assistant Director, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Doug Mickle is the Acting Deputy Director with the National Courts Section of the Commercial
Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, where he supervises the
National Courts Section’s Bid Protest practice and manages the Section’s Bid Protest Team.
Within the National Courts Section, in addition to bid protests, he has personally handled and
supervised a wide variety of contract-based litigation, personnel cases, and other commercial matters before the United States Court of Federal Claims, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and other federal district and appellate courts. Mr. Mickle has taught courses on litigating bid protests, contract disputes, and military personnel matters, and has been a featured panelist on these subjects at seminars sponsored by the Department of Defense, military services, and various federal agencies and bar associations.
Mr. Mickle is a Distinguished Military Graduate of St. Lawrence University and upon graduation was commissioned in the Regular Army. He served in various command and staff positions until he was selected for the Army’s Funded Legal Education Program. Mr. Mickle received his law degree from George Washington University Law School. As a Judge Advocate, Mr. Mickle had several diverse litigation assignments at various levels of command, culminating with his final assignment as the Chief of the General Litigation Branch at the Army’s Litigation Division. Mr. Mickle is a member of the Court of Federal Claims Advisory Council’s Bid Protest/Contracts and Military Pay/Civilian Pay committees.
Robert B. Neill
Chief, Bid Protests, U.S. Army Legal Services Agency
Robert Neill is the Chief, Bid Protests in the U.S. Army Legal Services Agency’s Contract Litigation & Intellectual Property Division (KLIP). He provides litigation direction to Division attorneys involved in bid protest litigation and reviews and assigns new protests. He represents the Army in bid protest litigation before the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and coordinates with U.S. Department of Justice attorneys in Army bid protest litigation before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He reviews Division bid protest filings, and he trains and mentors Division trial attorneys and paralegals in bid protest practice.
Mr. Neill has been primarily engaged in bid protest and contract dispute litigation since serving as an Army Contract Appeals Division trial attorney from 2002 to 2005. After serving as a federal agency contract attorney from 2005 to 2009, he rejoined the Army’s Contract & Fiscal Law Division in 2009 to litigate bid protests and contract disputes as a trial attorney and later as senior trial attorney until 2025. Mr. Neill served on active duty in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps from 1992 to 2005. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas (B.A. with distinction 1986, Phi Beta Kappa), the University of Kansas School of Law (J.D. 1992), and The Judge Advocate General’s School, U.S. Army (LL.M. in Military Law, 2002). He is a member of the Kansas bar.
Dave Owen
Professor, UC Law San Francisco
Dave Owen is the Albert Abramson ’54 Distinguished Professor and the Associate Dean for Research at UC Law San Francisco (formerly Hastings), where he teaches courses in environmental, water, energy, and administrative law. His research spans those same fields, with a primary focus on water resource management. He previously taught at the University of Maine School of Law, practiced water law, and, before law school, worked as an environmental consultant. He has won UC Law SF’s highest teaching award, and several of his articles have been selected by peers as top environmental-law articles of their respective years.
Melissa Patterson
Assistant Director, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Melissa N. Patterson is an Assistant Director at the Appellate Staff of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, which she joined in 2007 through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University Law Center, where she teaches the Appellate Practice Seminar. Ms. Patterson serves on the Advisory Council to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ms. Patterson received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.A. in English from the University of Southern California, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She clerked for Judge Raymond C. Fisher of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Will Rayel
Senior Trial Counsel, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice
Lisa Reyes
Clerk of Court, United States Court of Federal Claims
Lisa Reyes joined the staff of the United States Court of Federal Claims Clerk’s Office in 1995 and served as Assistant and Staff Attorney to the Clerk of Court until 2003 when she was selected as Chief Deputy Clerk for Operations. In 2014, Ms. Reyes became the Chief Deputy Clerk of the court and served in this capacity until May 2016 when the court designated her as the Acting Clerk of Court. In August 2017, the court designated her Clerk of Court. Before joining the court, she worked for the Allegheny County Bar Association in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the law firm Jones, Gregg, Creehan and Gerace, LLP; and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. Ms. Reyes is an honors graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where she majored in industrial management and received her J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Jaime A. Santos
Partner & Co-Chair, Appellant & Supreme Court Practice, Goodwin Procter
Anthony J. Sebok
Joseph and Sadie Danciger Chair in Law, Cardozo Law School
Professor Sebok is an expert on legal ethics, litigation finance, tort law, and insurance law. Before coming to Cardozo in 2007, he was the Centennial Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Research at Brooklyn Law School where he taught for 15 years. He was a Fellow in the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University from 2005–06, and in 1999, he was a Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Following law school, he clerked for Chief Judge Edward N. Cahn of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Professor Sebok’s casebook, Tort Law: Responsibilities and Redress, which he coauthored with John Goldberg and Benjamin Zipursky, is used at several leading law schools.
He is the author of Legal Positivism in American Jurisprudence, articles and essays on jurisprudence, and is the coeditor of The Philosophy of Law: A Collection of Essays. Professor Sebok has served as an expert witness concerning issues of litigation finance and is the Ethics Consultant to Burford Capital. He is a member of the American Law Institute and is an MPRE Subject Matter Expert for the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Prof. Sebok’s casebook on the law of third party funding of litigation was published in 2024 with Aspen Legal Publishing. Prof. Sebok is a graduate of Cornell University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School, and received a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.
Prof. Kate Shaw
Penn Carey Law, University of Pennsylvania
Kate Shaw is a Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she teaches constitutional and administrative law, and writes about the presidency, the law of democracy, the Supreme Court, and reproductive rights and justice. Her scholarly writing has appeared, among other places, in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the Northwestern University Law Review, and her popular writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic. She co-hosts the Supreme Court podcast Strict Scrutiny and is a Contributing Opinion Writer with the New York Times.
Hon. Molly R. Silfen
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Molly R. Silfen was appointed to the United States Court of Federal Claims by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on June 13, 2023.
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Before her appointment, from 2013 to 2023, Judge Silfen served as an Associate Solicitor in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. During her government service, she spent two years detailed to serve as a counsel on the Intellectual Property Subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Judge Silfen also completed a one-year detail as an appellate attorney in the Appellate Section of the Civil Division at the United States Department of Justice.
Before that, Judge Silfen practiced intellectual property law as an associate at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett, and Dunner LLP. She also served for two years as a law clerk to Judge Alan D. Lourie on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
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Judge Silfen spent twelve years as an adjunct professor at George Mason Law School, teaching classes on appellate practice before the Federal Circuit.
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Judge Silfen received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.S. in mechanical engineering from Yale University.
Colleen Roh Sinzdak
Partner, Milbank LLP
Colleen Sinzdak is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Milbank and a member of the firm’s Litigation & Arbitration Group. She specializes in appellate and complex litigation. She served almost six years in the Solicitor General’s Office, where she represented the United States before the Supreme Court. She has argued before the Supreme Court 11 times, including in Amgen v. Sanofi, where she successfully defended the Federal Circuit’s decision in a major patent case regarding antibody medications. She has also briefed and argued many cases before the courts of appeals, and is currently representing the private plaintiffs in the tariffs challenge that is pending before the Federal Circuit. Colleen clerked for Judge Merrick Garland on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Chief Justice John Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. She received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Harvard Law School, her M.A. and a secondary B.A. from Cambridge University, and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Columbia University.
Hon. Matthew H. Solomson
Chief Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Matthew H. Solomson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in January 2020, and entered on duty at the court on February 4, 2020. On April 10, 2025, President Trump designated him as Chief Judge. The son of a retired U.S. Army colonel, Judge Solomson lived in eight states before starting high school in Maryland, where he currently resides with his family. He completed a B.A. in Economics, cum laude, from Brandeis University. In 2002, Judge Solomson graduated, with honors and Order of the Coif, from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, and earned an M.B.A. (with a concentration in accounting) from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business. Judge Solomson is the author of Court of Federal Claims: Jurisdiction, Practice, and Procedure, a legal treatise first published by Bloomberg BNA in 2016.
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Prior to joining the court, Judge Solomson served as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer for an $11B federal contracting business unit of a Fortune 50 healthcare company. In that role, Judge Solomson managed a team of attorneys, compliance professionals, and internal auditors. He also previously led the government contracts practice group within the in-house law department of Booz Allen Hamilton, while serving as the principal government contracts counsel to the company’s intelligence business unit.
Judge Solomson’s private practice experience includes having served as Counsel in the government contracts and litigation practice groups of Sidley Austin LLP, and as an Associate with Arnold & Porter LLP, both in Washington, D.C.
In addition to his private sector experience, Judge Solomson was a Trial Attorney with the Commercial Litigation Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented a variety of military and civilian agencies as counsel of record in dozens of cases before the National Courts, which include the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
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Following law school, Judge Solomson served as a law clerk to Judge Francis M. Allegra of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Since 2008, Judge Solomson has served as Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he teaches government contracts law. He is a member of the Maryland and D.C. bars, and previously was an officer of the Court of Federal Claims Bar Association. Judge Solomson enjoys studying Talmud, playing tennis, and spending time at the beach with his family.
Hon. Zachary N. Somers
Judge, United States Court of Federal Claims
Judge Zachary N. Somers was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims on December 22, 2020, by President Donald J. Trump.
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Prior to his appointment, Judge Somers served as Chief Investigative Counsel to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary under Chairman Lindsey Graham. Before moving to the Senate, he served for over a decade on the House Committee on the Judiciary under Chairmen Lamar Smith and Bob Goodlatte, in multiple positions, including as the Committee’s General Counsel & Parliamentarian and as Deputy Chief Counsel for the Subcommittee on the Constitution.
Prior to his work on Capitol Hill, Judge Somers worked at a boutique law firm that specializes in litigation before the Court of Federal Claims. He served as a law clerk to Judge Victor Wolski on the Court of Federal Claims. A native of Washington, D.C., Judge Somers earned his A.B. from Georgetown University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Hon. Kara F. Stoll
Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Kara Farnandez Stoll was appointed by President Barack H. Obama in July 2015. Prior to her appointment, Judge Stoll practiced law for seventeen years with the firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett and Dunner, LLP, where she specialized in patent litigation. Judge Stoll served as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University Law School in 2019, at George Mason University School of Law from 2008 to 2015, and at Howard University School of Law from 2004 to 2008.
From 1997 to 1998, she clerked for the Honorable Alvin A. Schall of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Stoll worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office from 1991 to 1997 as a patent examiner, at the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, and in the Solicitor’s Office. She received a J.D. from Georgetown University School of Law in 1997 and a B.S.E.E. from Michigan State University in 1991.​
Hon. Richard G. Taranto
Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Richard G. Taranto was appointed by President Barack H. Obama in 2013. Judge Taranto practiced law with the firm of Farr & Taranto from 1989 to 2013, where he specialized in appellate litigation. From 1986 to 1989, he served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, representing the United States in the Supreme Court. He was in private practice from 1984 to 1986 with the firm of Onek, Klein & Farr.
Judge Taranto served as a law clerk at all three levels of the federal court system. He clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1983 to 1984; for Judge Robert Bork of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1982 to 1983; and for Judge Abraham Sofaer of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1981 to 1982. Judge Taranto received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1981 and a B.A. from Pomona College in 1977.
Prof. Christopher J. Walker
University of Michigan Law School
Christopher J. Walker is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan. He previously clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court, worked on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and served on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff for the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation. Professor Walker’s research focuses on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. Outside the law school, he chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2020–21 and served as one of forty Public Members of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 2016–2022, and he continues to serve in both organizations in various capacities. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
Prof. Michael Allan Wolf
Levin College of Law, University of Florida
Michael Allan Wolf is the first occupant of the Richard E. Nelson Eminent Scholar Chair in Local Government at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Professor Wolf has been teaching and writing for more than forty years in the areas of property, land-use planning, local government, constitutional, environmental, and urban revitalization law; and legal and constitutional history.
He earned his B.A. degree from Emory University, his J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, and his A.M. (history) and Ph.D. (American studies) degrees from Harvard University. Professor Wolf is the author of Powell on Real Property® (17 volumes), the most prominent treatise in the field that is regularly cited by state and federal courts and by scholars, and the co-author of the Sixth Edition of Land Use Planning (with Daniel R. Mandelker). His other books include The Supreme Court and the Environment: The Reluctant Protector (2012), Land Use Planning and the Environment: A Casebook (with Charles M. Haar, 2010), Powell on Real Property: Michael Allan Wolf Desk Edition (a one-volume abridgement of the treatise, 2009), The Zoning of America: Euclid v. Ambler (2008), and Strategies for Environmental Success in an Uncertain Judicial Climate (editor and contributor, 2005).
His writings are featured in a wide variety of law and law-related journals (including, among others, the Harvard Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review and Washington University Law Review) and in books, on topics such as land-use regulation, property rights, environmental law, eminent domain, regulatory takings, and constitutional history. His commentaries have been featured in national newspapers, podcasts, and National Public Radio.
Prof. Danaya C. Wright
Levin College of Law, University of Florida
Danaya Wright is the T. Terrell Sessums & Gerald Sohn Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and the Director of the Center for Governmental Responsibility. Professor Wright is also an affiliate professor in the Departments of History and Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research.
One of Professor Wright’s principal areas of research is on the Just Compensation Clause and regulatory takings, on which she has published numerous articles. She has also taught Property and Trusts and Estates for nearly three decades and has written three casebooks in the area. She is the editor of the Matthew Bender treatise A Practical Guide to the Law of Disputes Between Adjoining Landowners: Easements and has written two chapters for Powell on Real Property, on Rail-Trail legal issues and on Transfer on Death Deeds.
She holds an A.B. in English from Cornell University, an M.A. in English from the University of Arizona, an M.A. in Liberal Education from St. John’s College, a J.D. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University. She joined the faculty of the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 1998.