The Columbus School of Law Judicial Clerkship Opinion Writing Conference
February 19-21, 2026
Current Faculty (Subject to Additions and Changes)
Keynote Speaker
Noel Francisco, Esq., is a partner with Jones Day in its Washington, D.C. office. He served as the 47th Solicitor General of the United States, from 2017 to 2020. He represents clients in a broad array of civil and criminal litigation, challenges to federal and state laws and regulations, and government investigations and enforcement actions. The matters he handles often have significant public policy implications, including in the areas of global climate change, opioids, asbestos, tobacco, firearms, health care, administrative law, free speech, religious liberty, and separation of powers.
Mr. Francisco has argued some of the most important cases the Supreme Court has heard in recent years, including Trump v. Hawaii; Janus v. AFSCME, Kisor v. Wilkie, Apple Inc. v. Pepper; Knick v. Township of Scot; Seila Law LLC v. CFPB; McDonnell v. United States; NLRB v. Noel Canning; and Zubik v. Burwell.
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 Lisa Branch: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Prior to judicial service, Judge Branch had a private practice career in commercial litigation with Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta. From 2004 to 2008, she was a senior official in the Administration of President George W. Bush, and served first as the Associate General Counsel for Rules and Legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and as the Counselor to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the U. S. Office of Management and Budget.
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 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 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 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.
Judge David Tapp: United States Court of Federal Claims. Prior to judicial Service, Judge Tapp served 15 years as Judge of the 28th Circuit and District of the Kentucky Court of Justice and on the U.S. Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Judge Tapp previously served six years as Chairperson of Kentucky’s Circuit Judges Education Committee, and as Kentucky’s Co-Chairperson of the Judicial Child Fatality Task Forces.
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.
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.