Gene & Katy Simonds Lectureship in Democracy

2025 Simonds Lecture

Presented by JUDGE RYAN T. HOLTE

Living Lincoln’s Vision From the Bench Twelve Years After SIU

Confirmed by the United States Senate in June 2019 and sworn in as a judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims in July 2019

Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at 5:30 p.m., Lesar Law Building

Reception at 4:30 p.m. prior to the lecture

Judge Ryan T. Holte was confirmed by the United States Senate in June 2019 and sworn in as a judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims in July 2019. Prior to confirmation, he served as the David L. Brennan Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law and Technology at The University of Akron School of Law (2017-2019) and an assistant professor of law at Southern Illinois University School of Law (2013-2017). He was the recipient of multiple research fellowships on patent law topics, including awards from the George Mason University School of Law and Case Western Reserve University School of Law. As an academic, Judge Holte taught a wide variety of courses, including all intellectual property subjects and property law. Judge Holte has written and presented widely on patent law subjects and empirical legal studies of Federal Circuit and district court patent law cases. His most recent articles were published in the Iowa Law Review (2019), George Mason Law Review (2018), and Washington Law Review (2017).

In practice, Judge Holte served for six years as general counsel and partner of an electrical engineering technology company and is co-inventor of two patents related to Systems and Methods for Countering Satellite-Navigated Munitions (originally held under U.S. Army Secrecy Order until June 2016). Prior to entering academia, Judge Holte practiced as a litigation attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, an associate in the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Jones Day, and a patent prosecutor at Finnegan. Prior to practice, he served as a law clerk to Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and as a law clerk to Judge Loren A. Smith on the United States Court of Federal Claims.

While in practice, Judge Holte represented numerous pro bono clients on IP matters and served as lead court-appointed habeas corpus counsel in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Holte also served in intellectual property bar leadership positions on the Atlanta IP Inn of Court (Executive Committee), and the State Bar of Georgia (IP Section Trademark Committee Chair).

Before law practice, Judge Holte owned a car dealership in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in biodiesel vehicles and worked as an engineer for Agilent Technologies/Hewlett Packard in Sonoma County, California.

Judge Holte received his JD from the University of California Davis School of Law where he served as a staff editor of the UC Davis Business Law Journal. He received his BS, magna cum laude, in engineering from the California Maritime Academy where he was a First Class graduate of the Corps of Cadets Third Engineering Division and sailed as a U.S. Merchant Marine oiler. Judge Holte is the recipient of the 2018 California Maritime Academy Distinguished Alumnus award.

Judge Holte is married and the proud father of two young children. He has been active for many years in various church and community organizations and his outside interests include classic car and truck restoration, motorcycle riding, and chasing after his kids.

2024 Simonds Lecture

A History of Presidential Power

presented by LOGAN BEIRNE

Faculty Fellow & Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 5 p.m. Lesar Law Building

Reception at 5:30 p.m. prior to the lecture in the Formal Lounge 

Logan Beirne (pronounced “Burn”), is a Faculty Fellow & Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. He founded Matterhorn Transactions, Inc., a legal information services company that provides deal term analytics to thousands of law firms across the US, UK, and Canada, and sold the company to DealPulse, Inc. in 2023. He was previously an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. He earned a B.S. in Finance at Fairfield University, was a Fulbright Scholar at Queen’s University, and received a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Logan published the bestselling book Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency, which was selected for the Colby Award and the Lincoln Medal. The book explores how the battlefield decisions of the Founders continue to shape the meaning of the U.S. Constitution. He is also a co-author of the textbook Iconic Cases in Corporate Law. Logan and his writings have been featured by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Reuters, National Review, and other media outlets.

Trade Über Alles: How Trade Law Dominates Everything
from Agriculture to the Environment

presented by JUDGE STEPHEN ALEXANDER VADEN

United States Court of International Trade

Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at 6 p.m. Lesar Law Building

Reception at 5:30 p.m. prior to the lecture in the Formal Lounge

Stephen Alexander Vaden, serves as a judge on the United States Court of International Trade following his confirmation by the United States Senate on November 18, 2020, and appointment by President Donald J. Trump on December 21, 2020.

Before joining the court, Judge Vaden served as General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture. Judge Vaden supervised more than 250 legal professionals in thirteen offices across the United States who handled all legal matters on behalf of the Department with more than 100,000 employees and an annual budget approaching $150 billion.

During his nearly four-year tenure as head of the Office of General Counsel, the Department won two cases before the United States Supreme Court, relocated and reorganized the agencies that comprise the Department to better serve rural America, engaged in substantial regulatory reform, developed new regulations to allow for the legal sale of hemp and the labeling of bioengineered products, and implemented the 2018 Farm Bill. The Department averaged more than 5,000 matters in litigation before federal legal and administrative tribunals at any one time.

Judge Vaden also served as a Member of the Board of the Commodity Credit Corporation, a government corporation devoted to helping American agricultural producers. During his tenure from 2017-2020, the Board developed programs to assist American producers affected by foreign trade barriers.

In the private sector, Judge Vaden worked for two law firms – Jones Day and Patton Boggs. At both, Judge Vaden served as an appellate litigator and as part of the firms’ political law practices. In this role, he counseled political candidates, donors, and others involved in the political process on compliance with the litany of federal and state laws that govern seeking and holding elective office.

The Intersection of Antitrust and IP Law: Stay in your lane!

presented by KRISTEN OSENGA

Austin E. Owen Research Scholar & Professor of Law, University of Richmond, School of Law

Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at 5 p.m.

Lesar Law Building

Reception prior to the lecture 4:30 p.m. in the Formal Lounge

Kristen Jakobsen Osenga,teaches and writes in the areas of intellectual property, patent law, law and language, and legislation and regulation. Some of her recent scholarship focuses on patent eligible subject matter, patent licensing firms, standard setting organizations, patent law reform, and claim construction. She has written numerous law review articles on these and other topics, as well as book chapters and op eds on various aspects of patent law. Additionally, she has spoken on patent-related issues at many academic conferences and bar events. Professor Osenga is an active member of the Federal Circuit Bar Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.  

Professor Osenga received a B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa, an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude. After law school, she practiced at the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett, & Dunner LLP, where she did patent prosecution and litigation. She then clerked for the Judge Richard Linn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. After clerking, she entered academia, teaching first at Chicago-Kent College of Law and then at the University of Richmond, where she has been since 2006. She has also been a Visiting Professor at Emory University School of Law and at William & Mary School of Law.

Property Rights and Property Wrongs: A Comparative Perspective

presented by SHRUTI RAJAGOPALAN

Assistant Professor of Economics at State University of New York, Purchase College, a Fellow at the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU School of Law

Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 5 p.m.

Lesar Law Building

Reception following the lecture in the Formal Lounge

See the invitation here

SHRUTI RAJAGOPALAN, is an Assistant Professor of Economics at State University of New York, Purchase College, and a Fellow at the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU School of Law. She earned her Ph.D. in economics in 2013 from George Mason University.

She holds a B.A. (honors) Economics and an LL.B. from University of Delhi; and an LL.M. from the European Masters in Law and Economics Program at University of Hamburg, Ghent University, and University of Bologna.

Ms. Rajagopalan’s broad area of interest is the economic analysis of comparative legal and political systems. Her research interests specifically include law and economics, public choice theory, and constitutional economics. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, law reviews, and books.

She also enjoys writing in the popular press and has a fortnightly column entitled “The Impartial Spectator” in Mint. She has also published opinion editorials on Indian political economy in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Hindu: Business Line, and The Indian Express.

2019 SIMONDS LECTURE

ILLINOIS' FISCAL BREAKING POINTS: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF A STATE IN DISTRESS

presented by Eileen Norcross

Director for the State and Local Policy Project and Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. 

Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 5 p.m.

Lesar Law Building

Reception following the lecture in the Formal Lounge

EILEEN NORCROSS is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. As director for the Mercatus Center’s State and Local Policy Project, she focuses on questions of public finance and how economic institutions support or hamper economic resiliency and civil society. She specializes in fiscal federalism and institutions, state and local government finance, public sector pensions, public administration, and economic development. She is the lead author of Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition.

Her work has been cited in various media outlets, and her op-eds have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Christian Science Monitor, US News & World Report, and Forbes. She blogs on state and local policy at Neighborhood Effects.

Norcross has testified before Congress on the Community Development Block Grant program, state and local pension underfunding, municipal bankruptcy, and the use of technology to monitor stimulus funding. She has also testified on fiscal and budgetary policies in Pennsylvania, Florida, California, New Hampshire, and Montana. Her academic publications include articles in the Maryland Journal and a book chapter in The Political Economy of Hurricane Katrina and Community Rebound, edited by Emily Chamlee-Wright and Virgil Henry Storr.

Previously, Norcross was a Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC; a consultant at KPMG’s transfer-pricing division; and a research analyst with Thompson Financial Securities Data. She received both her MA in economics and her BA in economics and American history from Rutgers University. 

"RECENT AND CURRENT REFORM EFFORTS TO THE UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE"

presented by Victor Hansen

Thursday, April 6, 2016 at 5 p.m.

Lesar Law Building Auditorium

PROFESSOR VICTOR HANSEN teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, national security law and prosecutorial ethics at New England Law | Boston. Before joining the New England faculty in 2005, he served 20 years in the Army, with most of that time as a Judge Advocate General’s Corps officer. In his last military assignment, he served as a regional defense counsel for the Army Trial Defense Service. His previous assignments included work as a military prosecutor and supervising prosecutor. He has been involved in military capital litigation as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney. He also served as an associate professor of law at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Professor Hansen authored several articles on criminal and military law, evidence and national security issues, including an article published in the Gonzaga Law Review titled “Lessons from Abu Ghraib: Time for the U.S. to Adopt a Standard of Command Responsibility Towards its Own,” and co- authored an article in Roger Williams Law Review titled “The Case Against Secret Evidence.” Hansen also co-authored the treatises “Military Crimes and Defenses” and “Military Rules of Evidence,” both published by Lexis-Nexis. He has published op-eds in the Washington Post and other publications on military and national security topics, and he is a frequent media commentator on military legal topics. He has also testified before congressionally appointed commissions and other government agencies regarding military justice reform.

Reclaiming the Heroes and Lessons of the Black Tradition of Arms

presented by Nichols J. Johnson

Thursday, March 31, 2015 at 5 p.m.

Lesar Law Building

Reception following the lecture in the Formal Lounge

NICHOLS J. JOHNSON, NICHOLAS J. JOHNSON, is a professor of law at Fordham University School of Law and teaches in the areas of contracts, environmental law, and gun control/gun rights.

He was a professor of legal studies in business at Franklin and Marshall College (1988-93), of counsel at Kirkpatrick and Lockhard (1990-93), vice president and co-owner of Westar Environmental Corp. (1988-90), and an associate at Morgan, Lewis and Bockius (1985-88).

He is a 1984 graduate of Harvard Law School. He is the author of two books, “Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms” and “Firearms Law and the Second Amendment: Regulation, Rights and Policy” (with David B. Kopel, George A. Mocsary and Michael P. O’Shea), and numerous articles. He frequently contributes to the media, including National Review Library of Law and Liberty, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC News, The Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, ABC News and MSNBC.

Johnson’s work on firearms law has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United Sates, and he has testified before Congress on firearms law.