J. Michelle Childs was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in July 2022. She holds her undergraduate degree in Management from the University of South Florida Honors College, a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law, a Masters in Personnel and Employment Relations from the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business, a Masters of Judicial Studies from Duke University School of Law, and an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Public Service from the University of South Carolina.

From 1992 to 2000, Judge Childs worked at Nexsen Pruet, ultimately serving as partner. From 2000 to 2002, Judge Childs was appointed to serve as the Deputy Director for the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation’s Division of Labor. From 2002 to 2006, Judge Childs received another appointment to serve as a commissioner on the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. In 2006, the South Carolina General Assembly elected her as a state circuit court judge. During that time, Judge Childs served as chief administrative judge for the General Sessions, which is South Carolina’s criminal court, and as chief administrative judge for the state’s business court. In 2010, she was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina until her appointment to the D.C. Circuit.

Judge Childs is active with various local, state, and national bar organizations, as well as community organizations. She is the President-elect of the Federal Judges Association, a former Chair of the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division, and a former Secretary of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section. She serves as a fellow with the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section and its Committee on the American Judicial System. Judge Childs is also a member of The American Law Institute, having served as an Advisor to the Restatement (Third) of Employment Law. Judge Childs is also a Council Member for the American Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section. She joins the class of 2022 Rodel Judicial Fellows. Additionally, Judge Childs will serve on the 2023 Bolch Judicial Institute (BJI) Advisory Board.

Education: University of South Florida, B.S.; University of South Carolina School of Law, J.D.

Peter D. Keisler, former Acting Attorney General in the Department of Justice, is Senior Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin. A former co-chair of Sidley’s Supreme Court and Appellate Practice who also served as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, Peter has argued before the United States Supreme Court, the federal Courts of Appeals and District Courts, and in state court on behalf of both private-sector clients and the United States Government.

He served as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division in the Department of Justice in the George W. Bush Administration and as Associate Counsel to the President in the Reagan Administration, and as a member of the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure and of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules.

Peter also served as a law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court and Judge Robert Bork of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  He is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.

Education: Yale University, B.A.; Yale Law School, J.D.

Robert Klonoff is the Jordan D. Schnitzer Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School. He served as Dean of the Law School from 2007-2014. He is a co-author of the Wright & Miller treatise, Federal Practice and Procedure (with sole responsibility for the three class action volumes), and is the author of numerous textbooks and articles on class actions and federal multidistrict litigation.

Professor Klonoff served as an Associate Reporter for the ALI’s project, Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and an elected member of the International Association of Procedural Law. From 2011-2017, he served as the academic member of the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Professor Klonoff clerked for the Chief Judge John R. Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He then served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in D.C. and as an Assistant to the Solicitor General. He was also a partner at Jones Day for more than a decade and served as firmwide chair of the pro bono program. He has taught at Georgetown University Law Center, the University of San Diego Law School, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. In addition, he has lectured on class actions and other topics at dozens of universities throughout the world.

Professor Klonoff has extensive litigation experience. He has argued eight cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has argued many cases in other federal and state appellate courts throughout the country. He has served as counsel in more than 100 class action cases. In addition, he has served as a class action and attorneys’ fees expert in numerous high-profile cases, including the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill litigation, the National Football League Concussion litigation, the Parkland Shooting Federal Tort Claims Act litigation, and the Equifax Data Breach litigation. His pro bono cases have included death penalty, civil rights, and veterans’ rights cases.

Education: University of California, Berkeley, A.B.; Yale Law School, J.D.

Leondra R. Kruger is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California.  She took office in January 2015 and was retained by voters in November 2018.  Before joining the court, Kruger worked in the United States Department Justice as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and as an Acting Deputy Solicitor General.  During her time in the Department of Justice, Kruger twice received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service and argued twelve cases on behalf of the United States in the United States Supreme Court.  Kruger had previously worked in private practice, where she specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation, and taught as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

Kruger received an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was an Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal. Following graduation, she served as a law clerk to Judge David S. Tatel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court.

Kruger was elected to The American Law Institute in 2016. She is a member of the Appellate Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council of California, the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and the Board of Directors of the John Paul Stevens Foundation.

Education: Harvard College, A.B.; Yale Law School, J.D.