About Us
Board of Advisors
NCLA’s Board of Advisors consists of legal, policy, academic and media luminaries from a broad spectrum of professional backgrounds. This 30-member bipartisan committee of retired federal judges, former public officials, attorneys, law professors, and communicators shares a deep commitment to advancing civil liberties for all people.
The Board of Advisors enhances the mission of NCLA by providing ongoing advice and counsel both collectively and individually to our staff and leadership regarding how best to protect constitutional freedoms from the Administrative State’s depredations.
Hon. Janice Rogers Brown
Hon. Janice Rogers Brown
Retired judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
and former Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (retired)
Judge Brown was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in June 2005. She earned her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and received a Master of Laws from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Brown served as a deputy in the Office of Legislative Counsel for the State of California, as a deputy attorney general in the California Attorney General’s Office, and as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for California’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. After a short stint in private practice as a senior associate at the Sacramento law firm of Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor, Judge Brown returned to government service in 1991 as the Legal Affairs Secretary to California Governor Pete Wilson. From 1994 to 1996, she served as an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, and from 1996 to 2005, as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court.
Brown retired from the D.C. Circuit in 2017.
Randy Barnett
Randy Barnett
Professor of Law
Peter Berkowitz
Peter Berkowitz
Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
Jennifer Braceras
Jennifer Braceras
Former Commissioner, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Hon. Susan G. Braden
Hon. Susan G. Braden
Retired judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims
Mike Carvin
Mike Carvin
Retired Partner
In his 35 years at the Justice Department and in private practice, Mike Carvin is one of the leading appellate and trial lawyers challenging state and federal regulations on constitutional and statutory grounds, with 10 Supreme Court arguments and numerous high-profile victories. In addition to his numerous cases in the United States Supreme Court, he has argued in virtually every federal appeals court. His major cases include the recent constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the decisions invalidating Sarbanes-Oxley’s accounting board, preventing the Justice Department from obtaining monetary relief against the tobacco industry under RICO, overturning the federal government’s plan to statistically adjust the census, limiting the Justice Department’s ability to create “majority-minority” districts, and upholding Proposition 209’s ban on racial preferences in California.
Chuck Cooper
Chuck Cooper
Partner
Robin Conrad
Robin Conrad
Law Office of Robin S. Conrad
Don Elliott
Don Elliott
Senior Of Counsel at Covington and Visiting Professor
Dan Gallagher
Dan Gallagher
Former Commissioner
Adam Gustafson
Adam Gustafson
Senior Counsel
Greg Jacob
Greg Jacob
Partner
Erika Jones
Erika Jones
Partner
Joshua Kleinfeld
Joshua Kleinfeld
Professor
Gary Lawson
Gary Lawson
Professor
Julia Mahoney
Julia Mahoney
Professor
Jonathan Mitchell
Jonathan Mitchell
Mitchell Law PLLC
Elizabeth Papez
Elizabeth Papez
Partner
Roger Pilon
Roger Pilon
B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies
Roger Pilon is a senior fellow in the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, which he founded in 1989 and directed until 2019; the inaugural holder emeritus of Cato’s B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies, Cato’s first endowed chair, established in 1998; and the publisher emeritus of the Cato Supreme Court Review, which he founded in 2001. He served also as Cato’s vice president for legal affairs, which he was named in 1999.
Prior to joining Cato, Pilon held five senior posts in the Reagan administration, including at the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice, and was a national fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. In 1989, the Bicentennial Commission presented him with its Benjamin Franklin Award for excellence in writing on the U.S. Constitution.
Joseph Postell
Joseph Postell
Associate Professor of Politics
Glenn Reynolds
Glenn Reynolds
Professor of Law
Brian Richman
Brian Richman
Associate
Richard Samp
Richard Samp
Retired Senior Litigation Counsel
Throughout his 40-year career in private law practice in Washington, D.C., Richard Samp has specialized in appellate litigation with a focus on constitutional law. He served as Chief Counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation for more than 30 years. He has participated directly in more than 200 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Samp is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School and clerked for a federal judge in Detroit.