Presenters

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Judge Thomas M. Hardiman

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Judge Hardiman was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on January 9, 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate (95-0) on March 15, 2007. Prior to becoming an appellate judge, Judge Hardiman served as a trial judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania as of November 1, 2003. In 2008, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Judge Hardiman to the Information Technology Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Judge Hardiman was appointed Chairman of the IT Committee in 2013 and served in that capacity until September 2021. He currently serves as Chair of the newly created IT Security Task Force.

Before entering judicial service, Judge Hardiman handled a wide variety of litigation matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts as a partner at Reed Smith LLP (1999-2003), a partner at Titus & McConomy LLP (1996-1999), and as an associate with its predecessor firm, Cindrich & Titus (1992-1996). Judge Hardiman began his legal career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (1990-1992).

A 1987 honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Judge Hardiman received his law degree in 1990 from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as a Notes and Comments Editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. In 2012, Judge Hardiman was elected as a member of the American Law Institute and was elected to its Council in 2019. Judge Hardiman regularly teaches a seminar on Advanced Constitutional Law at Duquesne University School of Law and a one-week course entitled “Constitutional Law: the First and Second Amendments” at Georgetown University Law Center.

A native of Waltham, Massachusetts, Judge Hardiman has chambers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife Lori have lived for 30 years and raised three children.

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann

Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas

The Most Reverend Joseph F. Naumann was installed as the 4^th Archbishop and the 11^th Bishop of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas on January 15, 2005.

His chosen episcopal motto is, “Vitae Victoria Erit” (Life will be Victorious).  Archbishop Naumann has championed the cause for the right to life throughout his ministry. He seeks to lead his flock in upholding and promoting the immense dignity of every human person from conception to natural death.

Through education and evangelization, Archbishop Naumann seeks to facilitate opportunities for encounters with the person of Jesus Christ, winning disciples that will live the Joy of the Gospel and lead others to Christ by the fruit of their lives.

Archbishop Naumann was born on June 4, 1949, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 24, 1975, and Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis/Titular Bishop of Caput Cilla on September 3, 1997. He was appointed as Coadjutor Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas on January 7, 2004, and assumed responsibilities as Archbishop on January 15, 2005.

Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Ph.D.

Archeparchy of Philadelphia
Ukrainian Catholic Church

Borys Gudziak was born in 1960 in Syracuse, New York, the son of immigrants from Ukraine. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and biology from Syracuse University in 1980 and then studied in Rome, in the circle of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj. He received a STB degree in theology from the Pontifical Urban University in 1983 and then returned to America to pursue a doctorate in Slavic and Byzantine Cultural History at Harvard University, which he successfully defended in 1992. In 1995 he earned a licentiate in Eastern Christian studies from the Pontifical Oriental Institute.

Borys Gudziak was ordained as a priest  on November 26, 1998. In 2012 he was appointed Bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Switzerland. 

The official enthronement ceremony of Metropolitan Archbishop of Philadelphia of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Borys Gudziak, took place on June 4, 2019 in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia. Bishop Boris became the seventh Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia of the UGCC.

He speaks English, Ukrainian, Italian, Polish, French, Russian, and German. Archbishop Gudziak is the author of a number of scholarly works, has received numerous awards and distinctions, and travels globally with lectures and talks on theology, history, spirituality, education, society, and current challenges in Ukraine.

Archbishop Borys Gudziak is an honorary citizen of Lviv.

Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk

U.S. District Court
Eastern District of Missouri

Judge Pitlyk received her law degree from Yale Law School, after graduating summa cum laude from Boston College and earning master’s degrees from Georgetown University and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar.  Immediately before taking the bench, Judge Pitlyk served as Special Counsel for the Thomas More Society, a national public interest law firm, after earlier tenures at Clark & Sauer, LLC, in St. Louis, MO, and Covington & Burling in Washington, DC.  From 2010 to 2011, she clerked for the Honorable Brett M. Kavanaugh, then a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  Judge Pitlyk was sworn in as a District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri on December 6, 2019.

President Jonathan J. Sanford, Ph.D.

University of Dallas

Jonathan J. Sanford, Ph.D., is the 10th president of the University of Dallas. President Sanford, who previously served as provost and dean of UD’s Constantin College of Liberal Arts and holds a doctorate in philosophy, is a noted scholar in virtue ethics. Sanford has published widely on philosophical figures and topics, especially in foundational questions in moral philosophy, as evidenced in “Before Virtue: Assessing Contemporary Virtue Ethics” (The Catholic University of America Press 2015) and "The Philosophical Legacy of Jorge J. E. Gracia" (Rowman & Littlefield 2022). As provost, Sanford oversaw the development of a university-wide strategic plan, and as president, he is focused on leading its implementation by building on the university’s reputation for academic rigor, its commitment to classical Western tradition, and its faithful Catholic identity.

Prof. Teresa Collett

University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis)

Teresa Collett, J.D., is professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where she serves as director of the school's Prolife Center. Collett received her law degree at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. As a well-known advocate for the protection of human life and the family, Collett specializes in the subjects of religion, bioethics, and human sexuality in her research. She regularly teaches Property, Constitutional Litigation, and a course in Catholic Social Thought and the United Nations.  

Collett has published numerous legal articles and is the co-author of a law casebook on professional responsibility and co-editor of a collection of essays exploring “catholic” and “Catholic” perspectives on American law. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as before legislative committees in several states. 

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Collett to a five-year term on the Pontifical Council for the Family. Her appointment was renewed by His Holiness Pope Francis until 2016 when the responsibilities of the Council were assumed by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life. In 2013, she served as a delegate to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) for the Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations. 

Collett is often asked to represent the interests of government officials before federal appellate courts. She has served as special attorney general for the states of Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as assisting other state attorneys general in defending laws protecting human life and marriage.  

Most recently she represented the Governor of South Dakota and 239 women professionals and academics seeking to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the false notion that abortion advances the interests of women. She has represented Congressman Ron Paul and various medical groups in the defense of the U.S. federal ban of partial-birth abortion, as well as the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota defending states requirement of parental involvement prior to performance of an abortion on a minor. She is currently representing victims of intimate partner violence and their viable unborn children in challenging certain provisions of the New York Reproductive Health Act.

Prof. Gerard Wegemer, Ph.D.

Center for Thomas More Studies, University of Dallas

Dr. Gerard Wegemer has served since 2000 as the founding director of the Center for Thomas More Studies. He co-edited The Essential Works of Thomas More published in 2020 by Yale University Press, and he organizes a yearly international conference on Thomas More at the University of Dallas.  Among his publications are Young Thomas More and the Arts of Liberty, Thomas More’s Trial by Jury, A Thomas More Source Book, Thomas More on Statesmanship, and Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage. He has graduate degrees in literature and political philosophy from Boston College, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. He has given many CLE presentations and has taught for thirty-five years at the University of Dallas.

Charles LiMandri

Attorney for Constitutional Rights and

First Amendment Advocacy

Chuck LiMandri is a leading partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, which is committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and ethics.  He is also Special Counsel with the Thomas More Society.

His trial experience encompasses many areas of civil litigation. Since 1983 Mr. LiMandri has tried numerous civil trials to verdict in state and federal courts, and he is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. LiMandri is a San Diego native. He is a frequent author and lecturer who has appeared and been published locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Mr. LiMandri is a member of the Congress of Fellows of the Center for International Legal Studies based in Salzburg, Austria and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Dallas.

Louis Brown

Christ Medicus Foundation

Louis Brown serves as the Executive Director of the Christ Medicus Foundation, a Catholic health care nonprofit whose mission is to share the healing love of Jesus Christ in health care.

Louis received a Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. After law school, he worked as a private practice attorney for a firm where he practiced labor law and commercial litigation. He later served as associate director of social concerns for a state Catholic conference where his work included advocating for life-affirming health care policy, co-leading a coalition in favor of housing non-discrimination legislation, and advocating for in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. Brown went on to become a congressional staffer on Capitol Hill where he served as a U.S. Congressman’s legislative counsel and his liaison to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary.

Brown joined the Christ Medicus Foundation (CMF) in 2014. In 2017, Brown began serving at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) where he helped defend the civil rights of patients and human service recipients across the country. Brown returned to CMF in 2019. He is blessed to serve on the board of directors of two Catholic health care entities, on the board of directors of the University of Dallas, and on the advisory board of the Religious Liberty Initiative at Notre Dame Law School. In 2021, he began serving as a lecturer at Catholic University Columbus School of Law.

Mike Schutt

Director, Law School Fellows
Christian Legal Society

Mike Schutt is the executive director of Worldview Academy, a ministry that equips Christians to think and live according to a biblical worldview. Worldview Academy leadership camps train students in servant leadership, evangelism, and apologetics through engaging lectures, challenging practicums, and supportive small groups. Mike has served on the Worldview faculty since 2002.

Mike was formerly the director of Christian Legal Society’s Law Student Ministries and the Institute for Christian Legal Studies, a cooperative ministry of Trinity Law School and the Christian Legal Society. He is Clinical Associate Professor at Trinity Law School.

Mike is the author of Redeeming Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession (IVP 2007). He taught on the faculty of Regent Law School for more than two decades. Before entering academia, he practiced law in Fort Worth, Texas. He is an honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and Stephen F. Austin State University.

He lives in Mount Pleasant, Texas with his wife Lisa. They have been married 37 years and have three grown children and four grandchildren. Mike sees his calling as equipping the saints to think well about the world around them and to engage the world through both their work and their play.

C'Zar Bernstein, B.Phil. (Oxon.), J.D.

Attorney and Author

C’Zar Bernstein is an attorney and author. C'Zar earned his J.D. with high honors from The George Washington University Law School. He then served as a law clerk to Judge Gregory Maggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and then to Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Prior to law school, C'Zar graduated with a Bachelor of Philosophy (master's) in Philosophy from the University of Oxford, where he converted to Catholicism. C'Zar specializes in metaphysics, the philosophy of religion, and applied/medical ethics, and he has published peer-reviewed articles in those areas. C'Zar's most recent scholarship concerns the law and legal history of abortion.