The American Law Institute Elects Four Council Members
PHILADELPHIA – At this week's 94th Annual Meeting, The American Law Institute’s membership elected four new members to its Council, which determines projects and activities to be undertaken by the ALI and approves the work as representing the position of the Institute.
The new Council members are Nathan L. Hecht of the Supreme Court of Texas, Troy McKenzie of New York University School of Law, Stephanie E. Parker of Jones Day, and Jeffrey S. Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“I am so pleased to welcome this accomplished group to ALI’s Council,” said ALI President David F. Levi. “With each Council election, we add individuals who will bring their experience and wisdom to our Restatements, Principles, and Model Code projects. I am excited about the opportunity to work with these new Council members as ALI looks to the future of clarification of the law in its next 100 years.”
Brief biographies of ALI’s new Council members can be found below.
Nathan L. Hecht is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. He is active in the Court’s efforts to assure that Texans living below the poverty level, as well as others with limited means have access to basic civil legal services. During his tenure on the Court, he has overseen revisions to the rules of administration, practice, and procedure in Texas courts and also served on the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Chief Justice Hecht was first elected a Justice of the Supreme Court in 1988. He previously served on the Texas Court of Appeals and the District Court in Dallas. Before taking the bench, he was a partner in the law firm of Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely in Dallas; a law clerk for Roger Robb, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit; and a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps.
Elected to ALI in 1988, Chief Justice Hecht has participated in the Members Consultative Groups for the Model Penal Code: Sentencing, Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm, and Torts: Apportionment of Liability.
Troy McKenzie is a professor at New York University School of Law, where he researches and teaches in the areas of bankruptcy, civil procedure, complex litigation, and the federal courts. From 2015 to 2017, he took a leave of absence from NYU to serve in the U.S. Department of Justice as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel.
Professor McKenzie has served as a faculty co-director of two NYU centers: the Institute of Judicial Administration and the Center on Civil Justice. In addition, he was a reporter to the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2011 to 2015. Before joining NYU, he was an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton and a law clerk for John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court of the United States, and Pierre N. Leval, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Elected to ALI in 2015, Professor McKenzie participated in the Young Scholar Conference on the Future of Aggregate Litigation and the Young Scholar Conference on Law and Corporate Finance.
Stephanie E. Parker, a partner at Jones Day, co-leads the firm's business and tort litigation practice of more than 475 lawyers. She also leads the firm's product liability litigation group. Most of Ms. Parker’s work is focused on mass tort and product liability cases for clients in the tobacco, chemical, pharmaceutical, medical device, and automotive industries. One of her main clients is R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, for which she leads about three trials a year. Other recent notable work includes serving as lead trial counsel for Merck in achieving the $2.54 billion patent infringement verdict, the largest in U.S. history. Previously, she was a law clerk for Wilbur D. Owens, Jr., U.S. District Court, Middle District of Georgia.
Elected to ALI in 2004, Ms. Parker is a member of the Regional Advisory Group for Region 14 (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Puerto Rico) and has helped to organize member events and programs about the International Commercial Arbitration project in Atlanta and New York.
Jeffrey S. Sutton has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since 2003. Before that, he was the State Solicitor of Ohio and a partner at Jones Day in Columbus. He has argued twelve cases in the United States Supreme Court and numerous cases in the state supreme courts and federal courts of appeal. Judge Sutton served as a law clerk to Justices Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, as well as Judge Thomas J. Meskill of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Judge Sutton served as Chair of the Federal Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 2012 to 2016. He was appointed to that committee by Chief Justice Roberts. He has also served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules. He was appointed to that committee by Chief Justice Rehnquist in 2005, and Chief Justice Roberts appointed him to be Chair of that committee in 2009.
Since 1993, Judge Sutton has been an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University College of Law, where he teaches seminars on State Constitutional Law, the United States Supreme Court, and Appellate Advocacy. He also teaches a class on State Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. Among other publications, he is the co-author of a casebook, State Constitutional Law: The Modern Experience, as well as The Law of Judicial Precedent.
Elected to ALI in 2006, Judge Sutton is a member of the Regional Advisory Group for Region 6 (Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio), an Adviser for Principles of the Law, Election Administration, and a member of the Members Consultative Group for Model Penal Code: Sentencing.
Additionally, at the Annual Meeting Kenneth S. Abraham of the University of Virginia School of Law; D. Brock Hornby of the U.S. District Court, District of Maine; and Harvey S. Perlman of the University of Nebraska College of Law took emeritus status. Emeritus Council members often continue to participate in Council meetings.
About The American Law Institute
The American Law Institute is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law. The ALI drafts, discusses, revises, and publishes Restatements of the Law, Model Codes, and Principles of Law that are enormously influential in the courts and legislatures, as well as in legal scholarship and education.
By participating in the Institute’s work, its distinguished members have the opportunity to influence the development of the law in both existing and emerging areas, to work with other eminent lawyers, judges, and academics, to give back to a profession to which they are deeply dedicated, and to contribute to the public good.
