Presenters

The Honorable Joseph F. Bianco

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

St. Thomas More Lecturer

Judge Bianco was appointed as a United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit by President Donald J. Trump on May 13, 2019, and entered service on May 17, 2019. Prior to his appointment as a United States Circuit Judge, Judge Bianco served as a United States District Court Judge in the Eastern District of New York. Judge Bianco was appointed as a United States District Judge in the Eastern District of New York by President George W. Bush on January 3, 2006, and entered service on that same date.

Judge Bianco obtained his B.A., magna cum laude, at Georgetown University in 1988 and received his law degree in 1991 from Columbia Law School, where he was a Kent Scholar and a member of the Law Review. From 1992-1993, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Peter K. Leisure, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. For a period of time both before and after that clerkship, he worked as a litigation associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

From 1994-2003, Judge Bianco served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he became Deputy Chief and then Chief of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Unit. In 2003, Judge Bianco left the Department of Justice and became Counsel with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in its Litigation Department.

In 2004, Judge Bianco returned to the Department of Justice and was appointed as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division in Washington, D.C., where he supervised the Counterterrorism Section, the Fraud Section, the Appellate Section, and the Capital Case Unit. He occupied that position until his appointment to the bench.

Judge Bianco has taught courses at Fordham Law School, Hofstra Law School, and Touro Law Center. He currently teaches at St. John's University School of Law.

George M. Ahrend

Owner, Ahrend Law Firm PLLC

George is a trial and appellate lawyer practicing in Washington State. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Wheaton College and his law degree from Gonzaga Law School, where he was as editor-in-chief of the Gonzaga Law Review. He served as amicus counsel for the Washington trial lawyers association for seven years, consultant to the Washington Office of Public Defense for nine years, and an adjunct professor of law at Gonzaga for two years. He is the immediate past president and a current board member of the Catholic Bar Association.

In 2002, George left the practice of law to attend Princeton Theological Seminary in anticipation of entering full-time ministry in the Presbyterian Church. However, after becoming convinced that the Catholic Church embodied a fuller and truer expression of the Christian faith, he and his family were received into the Church on Easter 2005. Thereafter returning to the practice of law, George has been able to integrate some of his theological education with his practice, most notably the Arlene’s Flowers case, as well as a current challenge to a law requiring clergy to report child abuse, without any exception for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Thomas P. Brandt, J.D.

Partner, Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, LLP

Tom Brandt is part of the Government Entities and Civil Rights team with Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, LLP. Tom represents cities, counties, school districts, public officials and private sector clients in the areas of civil rights and employment law and has included significant cases at every level of the state and federal courts, including numerous cases before the appellate courts, the Texas Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

In addition to his active litigation practice, Tom has performed general counsel services for several local government entities and private businesses and has been chosen to conduct high-profile public integrity investigations. On two separate occasions, Tom was hired by a major city in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by that city’s police chief.

His legal career started as a Dallas prosecutor handling hundreds of cases. Quickly promoted to the federal litigation section of the Dallas City Attorney’s office, Tom handled numerous trials and appeals in federal court involving a wide variety of civil rights cases, including excessive force, false arrest, race discrimination, class actions and constitutional challenges to the City’s sexually-oriented business ordinance. He assisted in the preparation of briefs and the presentation of oral argument before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case of FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas, 493 U.S. 215 (1990).

Tom has been a leader in the legal profession for many years. He has served in every leadership post in the Dallas Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, including that of president from 1997-1998. Under his guidance, the Dallas Chapter received national recognition for its outstanding programs and activities. An active leader in the St. Thomas More Society, Tom has served as a board member since the late 1990s and as president from 1999-2001. A 1985 graduate with a joint degree (J.D./M.P.A.) from the University of Texas Law School and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Tom was awarded a prestigious Rotary Foundation Scholarship in 1988 to study international and comparative law in New Zealand.

Louis Brown

Executive Director, Christ Medicus Foundation

Louis Brown serves as the Executive Director of the Christ Medicus Foundation (CMF), 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. After law school, he worked as a private practice attorney practicing labor law and commercial litigation. He later served as associate director of social concerns for a state Catholic conference. Louis Brown went on to become a congressional staffer on Capitol Hill where he served as legislative counsel and liaison to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. In 2017, Mr. 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.

Louis Brown first joined CMF in 2014, then returned in 2019 after serving at OCR. He serves 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.

Teresa Stanton Collett

Professor of Law and Director of the Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas

Teresa Stanton Collett, J.D. is a leading prolife and pro-family lawyer and law professor. Since 2003 she has been Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, MN where she teaches bioethics, constitutional litigation, and property. She has directed the university’s Prolife Center since its inception in 2009.

A nationally prominent speaker and scholar, she is active in attempts to rebuild the Culture of Life. Professor Collett has served as special attorney general for the states of Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as assisting other state attorneys general in defending prolife laws. A member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court, was counsel of record for 240 women scholars and professionals in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, an amicus brief Justice Alito referenced in the Dobbs majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. She has testified before committees of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittees on the Constitution, as well as numerous legislative committees in the states.

Because of her work for prolife causes, Pope Benedict appointed her to a five-year term as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family in 2009, where she was reappointed by Pope Francis to serve from 2014 to 2016 until the Council was dissolved. She currently serves on the Academic Advisory Committee to the Catholic Bar Association.

Edward D. Greim

Partner, Graves Garrett Greim

Edward “Eddie” Greim focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, free speech and election law, and internal investigations and whistleblower claims. He has been recognized for his successful representation of businesses and individuals in commercial litigation while also being named a “go-to” lawyer on policy and constitutional issues.

Eddie was named a Constitutional and Election Law Trailblazer by the National Law Journal in 2020. His free speech and election law practice has included numerous constitutional challenges to election and campaign finance laws; representation of clients in state and federal ethics and campaign finance enforcement actions and investigations; initiative petition drafting and litigation; litigation and advice regarding First Amendment protections for petition circulation; representation of not-for-profit clients before state regulators; litigation of state and federal redistricting issues; and advice on campaign and election law compliance. Eddie complements his trial work in complex, high-profile commercial and constitutional cases with oral advocacy and briefing in important appeals. Recognized as a Missouri Lawyers Media POWER 30 Appellate Attorney in 2021, he has argued before the Missouri and Kansas supreme courts multiple times, other state appellate courts across the country, and before the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth U.S. Courts of Appeals.

Eddie received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 2002, where he taught on the Board of Student Advisers, received the Dean’s Award for Leadership, and served as President of the Harvard Catholic Law Students Association. He received two bachelor’s degrees, summa cum laude, in economics and political science from the University of Missouri.

A native of Excelsior Springs, Missouri, Eddie lives in Kansas City with his family. He enjoys Missouri and military history. On many weekends, he can be found with his wife and daughters exploring sites of local interest. He enjoys reading and debating and has given presentations or organized discussions at numerous gatherings, formal and informal, of professional and personal interest.

Daniel Kelly

Headmaster, Chesterton Academy of St. Philip Neri

Dan has been involved in Catholic education for nearly his entire life. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Aerospace Engineering (yes, he is a rocket scientist), Dan joined the first cohort of teaching fellows in Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (“ACE”) program, serving as a teacher for two years in Lake Charles, Louisiana and obtaining a Master of Arts in Teaching. Dan subsequently taught at Trinity School at River Ridge in Minnesota for three years before attending Ave Maria School of Law. Dan served as counsel to Chesterton Academy of the Twin Cities at the time of its founding and later served on its board as well as the board for The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Dan presently serves on the boards for Our Lady’s Montessori School in Kansas City and Adeodatus.

Dan lives in the Kansas City south metro with his wife and four children and enjoys disc golf and woodworking in his spare time.

Eric Kniffin

Ethics and Public Policy Center, Fellow

Eric Kniffin is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he works on a range of initiatives to protect and strengthen religious liberty as part of EPPC’s HHS Accountability Project.

Kniffin has been an attorney focusing on religious liberty for almost 20 years. As an attorney in Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice during the George W. Bush Administration, he helped enforce the Fair Housing Act, the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons (CRIPA), and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). As legal counsel at the Becket Fund, he contributed to landmark religious liberty decisions including Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.

In private practice, Kniffin has protected hundreds of religious employers from the HHS contraception and abortifacient mandate and the HHS gender transition mandate. He has represented the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Knights of Columbus, and the Assemblies of God, among others, in amicus briefs before the Supreme Court. His work helping religious organizations understand, maximize, and defend their religious liberties has made him a nationally recognized expert in the field.

Kniffin is a sought-after commentator on religious liberty issues and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Huffington Post, National Catholic Register, Inside Higher Ed, and Washington Times, and has spoken regularly for The Federalist Society and The Heritage Foundation. Kniffin holds a B.A. in philosophy from Wheaton College and received a M.A. in theology from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary before earning his J.D. at Notre Dame Law School. He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Bonnie, and their seven children.

Joshua M. McCaig

Shareholder, Polsinelli

Joshua M. McCaig is an experienced commercial litigator with specialization in health care and intellectual property law, as well as consulting for faith based organizations. A significant portion of Joshua’s practice is devoted to defending against high-stakes catastrophic injury cases, including complex spinal cord injury and brain trauma.

For over 20 years, Joshua has worked within the health care industry and his entire legal career has been devoted to defending hospitals, multi-disciplinary health systems and all specializations of health care providers against various claims of liability, including claims involving corporate negligence, professional negligence, medical staff litigation, cyber-attacks, privacy breaches, medical device defects, state and federal investigations, and state medical board complaints and hearings.

In line with his love of science and technology, Joshua is also a registered patent attorney who enjoys working with clients to advise them on intellectual property needs. He has litigated patent, trademark and copyright cases nationally, and has successfully resolved complex intellectual property matters through trial and skilled negotiations.

In addition to his litigation practice, Joshua regularly is asked to serve as a consultant for non-profits and faith based organizations. Joshua’s consistent success at leading new initiatives has led to a national and international reputation that makes his insights on start-up process, branding and marketing, legal organization, fundraising, staffing and hiring, and regulatory issues highly sought after.

Joshua has received various awards for his personal and professional achievements, including being honored as the recipient of the Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award by Ave Maria School of Law, the Franciscan University of Steubenville Alumni Citizenship Award and the St. Thomas More Award by the Catholic Lawyers Guild of Kansas City. Joshua is also a recipient of the prestigious Up and Coming Lawyer Award by Missouri Lawyers Weekly.

Stephen D. Minnis

President, Benedictine College

A native of St. Joseph, MO, Minnis graduated from Benedictine College in 1982. He obtained his Juris Doctorate degree from Washburn University in 1985 and Master of Business Administration degree in 1993 from Baker University. He served as an Assistant District Attorney and as General Attorney, Director, regulatory policy at Sprint Corporation before becoming President of Benedictine College in 2004.

Since 2004, Benedictine College has seen unprecedented growth. The enrollment has increased from 1,000 students to over 2,000. Benedictine has built 11 new residence hall buildings; six academic buildings; has built new or renovated every dorm room, classroom and athletic facility on campus; a Marian Grotto; opened a campus in Florence, Italy; began a nursing program, an engineering program, and an architecture program making it one of few liberal arts schools and Catholic Schools in America with engineering and architecture.

During his presidency, Benedictine has for the first time been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s Best Colleges and recognized by the Cardinal Newman Society as one of the top 20 Catholic universities in America. Under his leadership, the college has launched the Thompson Center for Integrity in Finance and Economics, the John Paul II Fellows, the Center for Integral Ecology, and the Center for Beauty and Culture. Recently, Benedictine College announced a new vision to Transform Culture in America.

Minnis was a contributing author to Inside the Mind: Achieving Success as a CEO (©2008 Thomson Reuters/Aspatore) and has given numerous talks on spirituality in the workplace and academic freedom to groups across America, including the Heritage Foundation, Legatus, and Catholic Charities. He was one of only five college presidents to be included on the Committee on Catholic Education Ex Corde Ecclesia Working Group in Baltimore in 2012 and he was invited by the Vatican to participate in the 2012 Pontificia Comisión Para América in Rome. In November of 2021, Caritas in Veritate (CiV) honored him as a distinguished leader in the international community and in the Church with the organization’s Papal Award.

Minnis is married to Amy (Kohake), a 1984 graduate of Benedictine College. The couple has three grown children and four grandchildren.

Tim Moore

Legal Director, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois

Tim Moore is the Director of Legal Services for Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois. In that role, Tim assists people residing within the 28 Counties of the Diocese of Springfield Illinois obtain pro bono legal assistance from area attorneys while also providing compassion, empathy, and a listening ear to all who come seeking help.

Tim is also a Senior Sales Executive with Thomson-Reuters-West: the oldest legal publisher in the U.S, In that role, Tim works with Government, Academic and Non-profit organizations in Indiana and Illinois. Tim graduated from Northern Illinois University (NIU) College of Law in 1991 and is licensed to practice law in Illinois.

Tim uses his legal research skills to help lawyers find the law in an efficient manner. To that end, Tim has been on multiple pilot programs to explore artificial intelligence and its interface with legal research and legal tasks.

Tim lives in Abraham Lincoln’s hometown – Springfield Illinois, with his wife Donna. They have seven children and 6 grandchildren.

Will Nulton

President, St. Michael the Archangel Catholic High School

Will Nulton is the President of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic High School in Lee’s Summit. A lifetime resident of Kansas City, Will practiced real estate law for 7 years after graduation from law school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City before leaving the practice of law to become President of St. Michael. A parishioner of St. Peter’s Parish in Kansas City, Will and his wife Jordan have five young children.

Will became president of St. Michael just prior to the beginning of the school’s eighth year. With about 480 students, St. Michael seeks to provide a fully integrated Catholic education to its students, orienting all subjects and activities to Christ. The goal is the flourishing, and ultimately, the salvation, of every student.