Council Nominees
Roberto J. Gonzalez is a partner at Paul Weiss, representing financial institutions and other companies in high-stakes litigation, investigations and advisory matters, spanning the areas of economic sanctions, anti-money laundering, export controls, antitrust, the False Claims Act, consumer financial protection and cybersecurity and data privacy.
Mr. Gonzalez served in several senior legal positions in the federal government prior to joining Paul, Weiss. As Deputy General Counsel of the Treasury Department, he managed major litigations and congressional investigations and supervised more than 100 lawyers—including at OFAC and FinCEN—in the areas of sanctions, anti-money laundering, cybersecurity and financial regulation. His tenure saw significant developments in the sanctions regimes involving Russia/Ukraine, Iran, Cuba and malicious cyber activity, as well as landmark sanctions and AML enforcement actions.
Previously, he was Principal Deputy General Counsel of the CFPB, where he oversaw the legal review of all enforcement actions, rulemakings and significant supervisory matters. Before that, he served as Associate White House Counsel and Special Assistant to President Obama, where he counseled on financial reform and homeland security issues and represented the White House in investigations by Congress and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
He served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court, and Judge Guido Calabresi, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
Education: Duke University, A.B.; Stanford Law School, J.D.
Eric A. Posner is Kirkland and Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago. His research interests include financial regulation, antitrust law, and constitutional law. He has written a dozen books and more than a hundred academic articles on law and legal theory. His most recent books are Radical Markets (Princeton) (with Glen Weyl), which was named a best book for 2018 by The Economist; Last Resort: The Financial Crisis and the Future of Bailouts (Chicago), which was named a best book for 2018 by The Financial Times; and The Twilight of Human Rights Law (Oxford). His latest book, How Antitrust Failed Workers, will be published by Oxford in 2021. He is of counsel at MoloLamken LLP, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Law Institute.
Education: Harvard Law School, J.D.; Yale University, B.A., M.A.
Virginia A. Seitz is a partner in Sidley Austin’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice. On behalf of a wide range of clients, she has handled cases in the United States Supreme Court, in virtually all federal courts of appeals, and in state appellate courts. Virginia was counsel of record on the amicus brief on behalf of retired military officers in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), and Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003), which the Supreme Court cited at oral argument and in its opinion and which the New York Times piece noted “may have been the most influential amicus brief in the history of the Supreme Court.” She has handled an array of district court litigation involving important constitutional and federal law issues, including the Appropriations and Supremacy Clauses of the Constitution, the First Amendment, Title IX, Title VII, the Anti-Deficiency Act, ERISA, and federal labor laws.
Virginia returned to Sidley in 2014 after serving in the Senate-confirmed position of Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. She was the first woman to be confirmed to that position. As the leader of that Office, Virginia was responsible for providing legal advice to the President and Executive Branch departments and agencies on issues of particular difficulty and importance. Virginia previously served as an appointee of the Chief Justice on the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. In January 2017, she was elected to The American Law Institute. Earlier in her career, Virginia was confirmed by the Senate to the first Board of Directors of the Congressional Office of Compliance and served from May 1995 to 2000. Virginia has been recognized for her Appellate Law practice by Chambers USA, in The Legal 500 US in Litigation: Supreme Court and Appellate, and in The Best Lawyers in America.
Virginia clerked at the Supreme Court for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and before that for Judge Harry T. Edwards of the D.C. Circuit. She is a graduate of University at Buffalo Law School, received her M.A. from Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and received her B.A. from Duke University, summa cum laude with distinction.
Education: University at Buffalo Law School, J.D.; Oxford University, M.A.; Duke University, B.A.
Laura Denvir Stith began serving as a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri in 2001, assuming senior judge status on March 8, 2021. She was elected by her fellow Supreme Court justices to serve a two-year term as Chief Justice, from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2009, becoming the second woman to serve as Missouri’s highest-ranking jurist.
Judge Stith served as a law clerk for Chief Justice Robert Seiler of the Missouri Supreme Court and then entered private practice in Kansas City, Missouri, where she was an associate and then partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. She served on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, from 1994 to 2000. On March 7, 2001, then-Governor Bob Holden appointed her to the Supreme Court of Missouri, and she was retained by a vote of the people at the November 2002 and 2014 elections. She is a founding director for Lawyers Encouraging Academic Performance (LEAP) in Kansas City.
Education: Tufts University, B.A.; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D.
Larry D. Thompson joined Finch McCranie in July 2015, and is the former U.S. Deputy Attorney General (2001- 2003). In a distinguished public and private sector career over more than three decades, Mr. Thompson also has prosecuted complex cases as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, directed internal investigations and defended individuals and businesses in special matters as a partner in a major law firm, and served as General Counsel and Senior Vice President of PepsiCo, Inc.
During his tenure as Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Thompson led the Department of Justice’s National Security Coordination Council, as well as the government-wide Corporate Fraud Task Force. In 2000, Congress selected Mr. Thompson to chair the bi-partisan Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control. In 2004, he served as a Senior Fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Prior to serving as U.S. Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Thompson was a partner with the Atlanta-based law firm of King & Spalding and was co-founder of the firm’s special matters and government investigations practice. He previously served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia from 1982 to 1986. From 1995 to 1998, he served as Independent Counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Investigation.
Most recently, Mr. Thompson served as Senior Vice President for Government Affairs and General Counsel for PepsiCo. He also served as the John A. Sibley Professor of Corporate and Business Law at the University of Georgia, a position he will continue while with Finch McCranie.
Education: Culver-Stockton College, B.A.; Michigan State University, M.A.; University of Michigan Law School, J.D.