Robert J. Cindrich was appointed by President Bill Clinton and unanimously confirmed by the Senate to serve as District Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. In 2000, President Clinton nominated him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, but the Senate did not act on the nomination.

Before becoming a district judge, Cindrich served as an assistant public defender and assistant district attorney in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. From 1978 to 1981, he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, after which he entered private practice until his judicial appointment.

Cindrich earned his A.B. from Wittenberg University in 1965 and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1968, while serving in the Army Reserve. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1968 to 1969.

Cindrich has also held positions on various boards, including Mylan’s board of directors and the Heinz History Center. For his contributions to law and public service, Cindrich received the University of Pittsburgh Legacy Laureate Award.

Davis received his B.A. in American History from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D., with honors, from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he won Best Advocate in the Myerowitz Moot Court Competition, and chaired the Honor Board. The faculty awarded him the prestigious Roger Howell Award at graduation.

Upon graduation from law school, he completed one-year clerkships with Judge Frank A. Kaufman on the U.S. District Court in Baltimore and Judge Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Thereafter, he served as an appellate attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, where he handled both civil and criminal cases. He later was in private practice and, from 1984 until 1987, he was an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he continued to teach as an adjunct faculty member until 2014. He has served for many years as a member of the law school’s Board of Visitors and previously on its Alumni Association Board, including a term as president. Since 1994, he has been a member of the volunteer faculty of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, where he also served as a member of, and for a one-year term, chair of the faculty council. He is a frequent lecturer on aspects of civil and criminal practice for legal and judicial education and training entities.

Upon his appointment by the governor, Davis served as an Associate Judge on the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City from 1987 through 1990 and then as an Associate Judge on the Circuit Court for Baltimore City from 1990 until his appointment in August 1995 to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland by President Bill Clinton. He was nominated in March 2009 by President Obama to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Senate confirmed his nomination in November 2009. After assuming senior status in February 2014, he continued to carry a full load of cases on the Fourth Circuit while also sitting as a visiting circuit judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

He is a past president of the Executive Committee of the Maryland Judicial Conference and a former member of the board of directors of the Judicial Institute of Maryland. He was, for many years, a member of the Section Council on Correctional Reform of the Maryland State Bar Association. He has served as the Chair of the Conference of Federal Trial Judges (Judicial Division of the ABA) and for four years as a member of the Executive Committee of the ABA’s Conference of Appellate Judges.  He was for four years Chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Diversity in the Judiciary. He has served in numerous civic and professional leadership roles, including a two-year term as President of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Central Maryland and a two-year term as President of the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. For more than twenty years he has been a member of the advisory board of the Open Society Institute-Baltimore. He served for more than ten years as chair and member of the board of Community Law and Action, Inc., a law-related high school leadership development program, and as chair of the board of the Baltimore Urban Debate League, Inc.

During his 30-year judicial career through 2017, Davis was active in numerous national and international judicial and legal education and Rule of Law training programs through his membership on the Judicial Conference of the United States/Committee on International Judicial Relations; the Einstein Institute for Science, Health and the Courts; the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience; and the Federal Judicial Center.  He has participated and presented in many programs, trainings, and seminars, including, among others, workshops and seminars in Russia, Armenia, Poland, Ukraine, Kosovo, Swaziland, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Mali, and Egypt.  His keen interest in how advances in technology improve the work of courts prompted his six-year tenure on the Committee on Information Technology of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Davis has been the recipient of numerous awards and commendations, including the Benjamin Cardin Public Service Award and the Mary Ellen Barbera Judicial Excellence Award, each granted by the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, the 2017 John Marshall Award, presented by the American Bar Association, and the Joseph Curran Public Service Award, given by the Maryland Bar Foundation.

In September 2017, at the invitation of a newly elected mayor of his beloved hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, Davis retired fully from service as a judge to join Mayor Pugh’s administration as City Solicitor, Head of the Law Department, and one of five voting members of the City Spending Authority, the Board of Estimates. As Solicitor, Davis managed a department of approximately 110, including 70 lawyers who represent the City in all civil legal matters, including but not limited to affirmative and defensive litigation, tax matters, real estate, and contracts of all kinds.  In his role as counsel to the Baltimore City Police Department, he was at the forefront of the City’s implementation of the federal court consent decree jointly agreed to by the U.S. Department of Justice and Baltimore City following the widespread unrest and consequent Justice Department investigation of police practices in April 2015.

He retired as City Solicitor in February 2020. In retirement, he has continued his efforts to advance the cause equal justice and community uplift through service, among other commitments, as Vice Chair of the Attorney General’s Access to Justice Task Force, a Trustee of the Walters Art Museum, membership on the advisory board of the Center for Law, Behavior, and the Brain headquartered at Harvard Medical School, membership on the board of the Juvenile Law Center, headquartered in Philadelphia, and membership on the advisory board of Roca-Baltimore, a nationally renowned community violence prevention program. He keeps an office at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he has been named a Distinguished Jurist in Residence.

Jeremy Fogel is the first Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, a center at Berkeley Law School whose mission is to build bridges between judges and academics and to promote an  ethical, resilient and independent judiciary. Prior to his appointment at Berkeley, he served as  Director of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC (2011-2018), as a United States District  Judge for the Northern District of California (1998-2011), and as a judge of the Santa Clara  County Superior (1986-1998) and Municipal (1981-1986) Courts. He was the founding Directing  Attorney of the Mental Health Advocacy Project from 1978 to 1981 and was a national leader in  promoting access to justice for people with chronic mental health issues.

Judge Fogel has taught for the Federal Judicial Center since 2002 and was a lecturer at Stanford  Law School, where he taught a course on the psychology of litigation, from 2003 until his  relocation to Washington in 2011. He taught for the California Continuing Judicial Studies  Program (CJSP) and California Judicial College from 1987 to 2010 and served on CJSP’s  Curriculum Planning Committee for six years, including two as chair. He has served as a faculty  member for legal exchanges on ethics, case management and intellectual property in  approximately twenty foreign countries. During his tenure at the Federal Judicial Center, he  oversaw the development of the Center’s first comprehensive, integrated curriculum for judicial  branch education.

Judge Fogel was a member of the Committee on Financial Disclosure of the Judicial Conference  of the United States from 2004-2011; he chaired the subcommittee that developed the original  platform and procedures for electronic filing of annual financial disclosure reports and laid the groundwork for online public access. As a California state court judge, he chaired the Judicial  Ethics Committee and Judicial Discipline and Disability Committee of the California Judges  Association, and he organized and led a confidential counseling program for judges facing  disciplinary proceedings.

He received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1971 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in  1974. Judge Fogel has received numerous accolades, including the Samuel E. Gates Litigation  Award from the American College of Trial Lawyers for significant contributions to the litigation  process, the President’s Award for Outstanding Service to the California Judiciary from the  California Judges Association, and the Vanguard Award from the State Bar of California for  notable contributions to intellectual property law.

Royal Furgeson, Jr. retired as a United States District Judge in 2013 after 19 years on the bench. A graduate  of Texas Tech University in 1964 and the University of Texas School of Law in 1967, he was named the founding  Dean of the UNT Dallas College of Law in 2012 and assumed the position in June 2013. He retired from UNT in  June 2018, after achieving ABA provisional accreditation for the law school. He now practices law with his wife  Marcellene Malouf in the firm of FurgesonMalouf Law PLLC, and limits his work to mediations, arbitrations, and  special master appointments.

After law school, Judge Furgeson served with the U.S. Army for two years, attaining the rank of Captain.  Following a tour in Vietnam, he returned to Lubbock as law clerk to the Honorable Halbert O. Woodward.

Before taking the bench, Judge Furgeson practiced law for twenty-four years with the Kemp Smith law firm in El  Paso, Texas. During that time, he became a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an elected member  of the American Law Institute, president of the El Paso Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates,  president of the El Paso Bar Association and chair of the United Way of El Paso.

During his time on the bench, he was a panel judge on the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, president of  the Federal Judges Association, and chair of the Judicial Resources Committee of the Judicial Conference of the  United States.

His honors include the Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Texas Tech Alumni Association, the West Texas  Legal Legend Award by the Texas Tech University School of Law, the Leon Green Award by the Texas Law  Review, the Faculty Award by the University of Texas School of Law, Honorary Serjeant of the William “Mac”  Taylor, Jr. American Inn of Court, the Morris Harrell Professionalism Award by the Dallas Bar Association and the  Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism, and Jurist of the Year, Texas Chapter of ABOTA. In 2016, he  was named one of the fifty Lions of the Texas Bar by the Texas Lawbook.

Judge Furgeson’s wife Marcellene Malouf is a graduate of St. Mary’s University School of Law and is Managing  Trustee of the DII Asbestos Trust. Together, they have nine children and 14 grandchildren.

The Honorable Andrew J. Guilford, Retired, now serves as a mediator, arbitrator, and private judge. On July 7, 2006, he was sworn in as a United States District judge. On request, he has sat with appellate courts for the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. and the Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals.

Before becoming a district judge, Andrew Guilford was a business trial lawyer with Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton for over 30 years, handling cases involving a wide variety of issues, particularly relating to intellectual property, finance, and professional liability.

As a Regent Scholar at UCLA, Mr. Guilford received his AB degree in economics summa cum laude in 1972, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his JD degree from UCLA in 1975, and was an associate editor of the UCLA Law Review. 

In 1992, Guilford was elected as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was recognized five times by the Daily Journal as one of California’s Top 100 Attorneys, and honored by the following groups with different awards: the American Inns of Court with its Professionalism award; the University of California, Irvine as a “True Founder” of its law school; the Orange County Bar Association with its Franklin G. West Award; the Anti-Defamation League with its Jurisprudence Award; the J. Reuben Clark Society with its J. Reuben Clark Award; the Orange County Asian American Bar Association with its Judicial Excellence Award; the Hispanic Bar Association as Judge of the Year; the Orange County Federal Bar Association with its Alicemarie Stotler Award; the Orange County Intellectual Property Law Association with its Distinguished Judge Award; and the Markey Intellectual Property Inn of Court by naming its annual award after him.

Among Guilford’s professional activities include serving as the President of the State Bar of California and President of the Orange County Bar Association. At the request of the Chief Justice of the United States in 2011, he served on the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the U.S. Judicial Council.

With his strong commitment to community service, Guilford served as President of the Public Law Center, and on the State Bar Commission on Access to Justice and the Judicial Council’s Task Force on Self-Represented Litigants. He was awarded his firm’s Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award, the State Bar President’s Pro Bono Service Award, and the Poverty Law Center Outstanding Service Award.

Guilford has written many articles on various topics concerning the justice system. His most recent articles include Andrew J. Guilford & Joel Mallord, A Step Aside: Time to Drop the Infield Fly Rule and End a Common Law Anomaly, 164 U. Pa. L. Rev. 281 (2015). He served as an Adjunct Professor at the UC Irvine School of Law. He is a Contributing Editor of The Rutter Group’s Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial.

Andy welcomes conversation about politics, history, arts, and sports. For fun, Andy takes photos, travels, reads history, follows sports, plays with his grandkids, and plays at tennis and basketball. His hero is Winston Churchill, and he hopes someday to see Maury Wills elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

John Jones serves as the 30th President of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He retired as chief judge of the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the Senate. Before becoming a federal judge, Jones was a lawyer in private practice in his hometown of Pottsville, Pa.

Former federal appeals judge Timothy K. Lewis serves as a mediator, arbitrator, settlement counselor, and trial and appellate practitioner

Before entering private practice, Judge Lewis served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He was serving on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania when President George H. W. Bush elevated him to the Court of Appeals in 1992. At the time of both appointments, he was the youngest federal judge in the United States. Before being appointed to the federal bench, Judge Lewis served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania and as an Assistant District Attorney in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

As a federal judge, Judge Lewis tried, decided, and authored opinions in all types of matters that came before the federal courts, particularly in the areas of employment disputes, class actions, intellectual property, and commercial and corporate disputes. He has developed a national and international alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) practice working with many of the world’s leading corporations. Additionally, Judge Lewis provides strategic counseling and conducts moot courts for various federal appellate matters in circuit courts throughout the country. Judge Lewis also handles federal and state criminal cases and corporate investigations.

Judge Lewis is a prolific thought leader and is often asked to speak at events and comment on breaking news and industry trends. He’s been quoted by media outlets such as the Associated Press, The New York Times, Reuters, NPR, MSNBC, ABC News, CBS Pittsburgh, NBC Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Public Radio (WESA), Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Voice of America News, Dispute Resolution Magazine, Bloomberg Law, and Law360 among others. He has written articles for The Brookings Institute, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, Politico, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Huffington Post, The National Law Journal, The Pennsylvania Lawyer, Texas Lawyer, The Legal Intelligencer, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Morning Call, Constitution Daily, ThinkPorgress.org, For the Defense, and more.

Beverly B. Martin, born on August 7, 1955, in Macon, Georgia, has had a distinguished career in the American legal system, marked by her commitment to justice and public service. A fourth-generation lawyer, she began her legal journey after earning a Bachelor of Arts from Stetson University in 1976, followed by a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1981.

Martin’s early career included private practice at Martin, Snow, Grant & Napier LLP in Macon, Georgia, from 1981 to 1984. She then served as an assistant attorney general for the State of Georgia from 1984 to 1994, representing the state in various civil cases. Her prosecutorial experience expanded when she became an assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia in 1994, and she was later appointed as the U.S. attorney for the same district in 1997.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton nominated Martin to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, where she served until 2010. During her tenure, she handled a wide range of cases, including significant rulings on constitutional protections and civil rights. Her judicial philosophy emphasized fairness and adherence to the rule of law.

Elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit by President Barack Obama in 2010, Martin served until her retirement in 2021. Her appellate opinions covered diverse areas such as arbitration enforcement, fair debt collection practices, employment discrimination, and class action litigation. Notably, she authored opinions in cases like Gherardi v. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions, reflecting her nuanced understanding of complex legal issues.

After retiring from the federal bench, Martin became the executive director of the Center on Civil Justice at New York University School of Law, focusing on improving the civil justice system. In 2024, she joined JAMS as a mediator and arbitrator, bringing her extensive judicial experience to alternative dispute resolution. Her work at JAMS encompasses federal law, appellate matters, business and commercial disputes, employment law, bankruptcy, insurance, and product liability cases.

Throughout her career, Martin has been actively involved in various legal and civic organizations. She has served on the boards of the Campaign Legal Center and the Southern Center for Human Rights, among others. Her contributions to the legal field have been recognized with awards such as the Legal Legends Award from the American Constitution Society in 2021

The Honorable Liam O’Grady is recently retired from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Judge O’Grady’s judicial career spanned more than two decades across some of the most sensitive and high-profile cases in the federal system. Appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed in 2007, Judge O’Grady presided over civil and criminal matters from one of the nation’s most active federal courthouses until taking senior status in 2020 and fully retiring in 2023. He also served on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 2020-2023. Prior to his district court appointment, Judge O’Grady served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge (2003–2007), Assistant U.S. Attorney (1986–1992), and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Virginia (1982–1986). From 1992-2003 Judge O’Grady was a partner and trial lawyer for the Intellectual Property law firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett and Dunner. Judge O’Grady is passionate about the art of trial advocacy, and teaches it at the National College of Trial Advocacy at the University of Virginia and the George Washington University School of Law.

A native of Newark, New Jersey, Judge O’Grady earned his undergraduate degree from Franklin & Marshall College and his J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. For his public service, Judge O’Grady has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service and being the namesake of the Annual Mentorship Award for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Although retired from the bench, Judge O’Grady still is active in litigation strategy and trial consulting as well as mediation through his consulting firm, Liam O’Grady Consulting LLC.

Philip M. Pro retired in January 2015, after nearly 35 years service with the federal judiciary. He was appointed United States District Judge for the District of Nevada by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the United States Senate on July 23, 1987. He served as Chief Judge for the District of Nevada from 2002 to 2007. On January 1, 2012, Judge Pro commenced service as a Senior United States District Judge. Prior to his appointment as District Judge, Judge Pro served as United States Magistrate Judge from 1980 to 1987.

Since his retirement from the federal bench, Judge Pro has provided arbitration, mediation, and other alternative dispute resolution services through JAMS, the largest provider of ADR services in the United States. Additionally, in November 2015, Governor Brian Sandoval appointed Judge Pro as a Member of the Nevada Gaming Commission on which he served throught April 2019.

Judge Pro received his J.D. degree from Golden Gate University School of Law in 1972. He received an LL.M. in Judicial Studies at Duke University School of Law in 2014.

Judge Pro has dedicated his legal career to public service. He commenced service in Nevada in 1972 as a law clerk for the Honorable William P. Compton, Eighth Judicial District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada. From 1973 to 1975 he served as a Deputy Public Defender for Clark County, Nevada; as an Assistant United States Attorney both in Las Vegas from 1975 to 1977 and in Reno from January – September 1980; as a partner in the law firm of Semenza, Murphy and Pro in Reno from 1977 to 1979; and as Deputy Attorney General for the State of Nevada assigned to the Gaming Division from 1979 to 1980.

In October 1993, Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Judge Pro as Chair of the Committee on the Administration of the Magistrate Judges System of the Judicial Conference of the United States, a position he held through October 1998. Chief Justice Roberts appointed Judge Pro to a four year term on the Board of the Federal Judicial Center in July 2007.

Judge Pro served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Judges Association from 1992 to 2001, and served as vice president from 1997 to 2001. He also served as a member of the Ninth Circuit Wellness Committee from 2001 to 2010, and as Chair of the Committee from 2005-2010. He was a member of the Ninth Circuit Jury Instructions Committee from 1987 to 2002. He is a founding member of the Howard D. McKibben Nevada American Inn of Court, serving as its President from 1988 to 1990.

Judge Pro served on the Advisory Board for the founding of the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Boyd teaching Trial Advocacy. Pro also serves also as a member of the Board of the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at the Boyd School of Law.

In March 2004, the William S. Boyd School of Law established the Philip Pro Lectureship in Legal History with the inaugural lecture presented by Pulitzer prize-winning historian Gordon Wood. Subsequent lecturers have included Geoffrey Stone, Jack Rakove, Sara Barringer Gordon, and Larry Kramer.

Since 1998, Judge Pro has participated in a variety of international “Rule of Law” programs with judiciaries from over 20 countries including Hungary, Georgia, Bosnia, Netherlands, Spain, Malawi, Kyrgyzstan, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Norway, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Armenia, Columbia, Latvia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and China. In March 2003, he was a co-moderator for the U.S. Department of Justice Colloquium for Iraqi Jurists in Washington, D.C.

Judge Pro is active locally and nationally in the We, the People…the Citizen and the Constitution program sponsored by the Center for Civic Education. Additionally, he currently serves as Chair of the State Bar of Nevada Law Related Education Consortium, and has participated in a wide variety of continuing legal education programs sponsored by local, state and national bar associations, including the Department of Justice Attorney General Advocacy Institute, and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy.

Judge Pro has authored a variety of articles in local and state bar publications. He is co-author of Measured Progress, the Evolution and Administration of the Federal Magistrate Judges System, The American University Law Review, Vol. 44, 1995, No. 5, and author of Mis(understanding) Judging, Nevada Law Journal, Vol. 7, 2007, No. 2, and United States Magistrate Judges: Present But Unaccounted For, Nevada Law Journal, Vol. 16, 2016.

As a Magistrate Judge, Judge Pro presided over pre-trial proceedings in the MGM Grand Hotel Fire Litigation. He has presided over countless civil and criminal cases during his more than 34 years on the federal bench, and has conducted hundreds of trials including the assault claims brought by Navy Lt. Paula Coughlin against the Tailhook Association and Las Vegas Hilton, Coughlin v. Tailhook Assoc.; the injury and environmental claims brought by workers at the Area 51 location near Groom Lake, Nevada, Frost v. Perry and Kaza v. Browner; the radiation exposure injury claims brought by workers at the Nevada Test Site, Prescott v. United States; the Trademark Infringement suit brought by the family and heirs of Bob Marley, Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Ltd v. A.V.E.L.A.; and the patent infringement claims brought in Symbol Technologies v. Lemelson.

Judge David Tatel served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1994 to earlier this year. After graduating from the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago Law School (1966), he served as the founding director of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and then director of the National Lawyers Committee. He headed the Office for Civil Rights of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare during the Carter administration (1977-1979) and then founded and led the education practice at Hogan Lovells(1979-1994), where he is now Senior Counsel. Judge Tatel is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the past, he co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Science, Technology and Law, and chaired the boards of The Spencer Foundation and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Judge Tatel and his wife, Edie, live in Virginia and Washington, D.C. They have four children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Judge Tatel’s memoir, Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice, was published on June 11, 2024 by Little Brown. Its available in Hardcover, Audiobook and Kindle on Amazon. 

Judge Ursula Ungaro retired from the federal bench of the Southern District of Florida in 2021.  Judge Ungaro was appointed to serve as a federal judge in 1992 after being nominated by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In her time on the federal bench, she presided over and ruled in numerous major civil and criminal cases. These matters required the application of constitutional, federal and state law and the resolution of complex legal issues in virtually every area of the law.  

During her long tenure on the federal bench, Ms. Ungaro served on national, regional, and local committees responsible for court administration.  Most notably, she served for eight years as a member of the Judicial Resources Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which committee is responsible for making compensation and other human resource-related recommendations to the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  She also served as Chair of the Southern District of Florida’s Clerks Committee and the Magistrate Judges Committee from time to time at the pleasure of the Chief Judge.

Following her graduation with honors from the University of Florida School of Law in 1975 (one of just 17 women in a class of about 250), Ms. Ungaro practiced law in Miami, Florida where in 1981 she became a partner in Tew, Critchlow, Sonberg, Traum & Friedbauer, P.A. (later merged into Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley, Myerson & Casey, a national law firm). She subsequently joined Sparber, Shevin, Shapo & Heilbronner, a prestigious local law firm, as a partner. She practiced law mainly in the area of complex commercial litigation, including in the areas of securities, corporate and tax law. From 1987 to 1992, Ms. Ungaro served as a trial judge on the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida. She has authored published articles in the areas of administrative law, legal ethics, and civil procedure. She is the recipient of many awards and has been recognized on several occasions for her achievements in the law and service to the community.

Ms. Ungaro serves on the board of directors of Longeveron, Inc., a publicly traded company registered on the NASDAQ and on the board of directors of Bradford Holdings, Inc. a privately held holding company.  She also has had numerous community involvements. Among others, she served on the Florida Supreme Court Race and Bias Commission, she currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Family Learning Partnership, a not-for-profit that supports needy families with educational and related resources, and participates on a voluntary basis (having formerly participated in her judicial capacity) in CARE Court, a court-assisted reentry program for moderate and high risk offenders recently released from prison. 

Paul Watford is a litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of King & Spalding. He joined the firm in February 2025 after serving for 11 years as a Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Paul received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989 and his law degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1994. From 1994-1995, Paul served as a law clerk to Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and from 1995-1996 he served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1997 to 2000, Paul served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, and from 2001 until his appointment to the bench, Paul was in private practice at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP in Los Angeles, where his practice focused primarily on appellate litigation.

Lee Yeakel returned to private practice in May 2023, after retiring as a United States District Judge for almost 20 years.  Before taking the federal bench, he served five and a half years on the Third Court of Appeals of Texas (A Texas intermediate appellate court) first as Chief Justice, then as a Justice.

Before his judicial tenure, he handled both trial and appellate matters. He was named “Outstanding Jurist” by the Texas Bar Foundation as well as the University of Texas Law School Journal of Litigation. The Texas Bar Foundation also named him an “Outstanding 50-Year Lawyer” and the Austin Bar Foundation named him a “Distinguished  Lawyer”. He is a recipient of the Austin Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates Judicial Courage Award. He is a former President of the Robert W. Calvert American Inn of Court and the Honorable Lee Yeakel Intellectual Property American Inn of Court, which is named in his honor. He is a life member of the Uniform Law Commission. He was a member of the United States Delegation to the Hague Convention on Private International Law, Treaty on the Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters and was a signatory of that treaty on behalf of the United States.

He has been active in civic matters. A former United States Marine, he and his wife have two children and two grandchildren.

Michael Gans is a 1977 graduate of Washington University School of Law and worked more than  forty years in Missouri and federal appellate courts, as a law clerk and administrative assistant to  the chief judges of the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri and as chief deputy clerk and Clerk of Court for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. At the  time of his retirement as Eighth Circuit Clerk in April 2024, Gans had served nearly thirty-three years  in that position and was, at the time, the longest-serving federal appellate clerk. In his time at the  Eighth Circuit he served on numerous national judiciary committees, including serving as the chair  of the appellate clerk’s committee and as clerk liaison to the Federal Appellate Rules Committee.  Gans also served as an editor of the 8th Circuit Appellate Practice Manual through its first ten  editions. Following his retirement from the Eighth Circuit, Gans joined the St. Louis law firm of  Dowd Bennett, where he serves of counsel.

In 2001, Gans received the Director’s Award for Outstanding Leadership, which recognizes a court  employee who best exemplifies the Federal Judiciary’s commitment to exemplary performance,  innovation, and dedication to public service. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Eighth  Circuit Bar Association, the Executive Committee of the Eighth Circuit Historical Society, and the  Board of the Thomas F. Eagleton Judicial Learning Center.

Robb Jones is mostly retired after decades of experience in private legal practice, education, and government service.  From 1991-1997 he served as Administrative Assistant to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and as Director of Judicial Education at the Federal Judicial Center.  He followed that service with almost a half-century as General Counsel at a risk management and insurance risk retention group owned by 1600 schools, colleges,and universities.  Jones was elected to the American Law Institute in 2017 and is a  Life Member of the National Association of College and University Attorneys.  He currently serves as a volunteer civic educator and historical tour guide at the George C. Marshall International Center.

David A. Sellers served as the Public Affairs Officer at the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) in Washington, D.C.  He oversaw communications strategy, media relations, community outreach, video broadcasting, and web communications programs for the AO and provided advice to federal courts in these areas. He also served as the principal media spokesperson for the federal judiciary and the Judicial Conference of the United States. Mr. Sellers joined the AO in1987, when he started the public affairs office as the agency’s first Public Information Officer, and retired in September 2023. 

He has served on the faculty of the National Judicial College and the Federal Judicial Center and trained judges and court staff in Croatia, Jordan, Romania, Bulgaria, Algeria, Morocco and throughout the United States in court/public affairs issues. Mr. Sellers is a past President of the Conference of Court Public Information Officers and has served on the National Advisory Council for the Reynolds National Center for Courts and the Media and the National Advisory Council of the American Judicature Society.

Mr. Sellers previously worked as a reporter for Washington Times, a daily newspaper in the nation’s capital, where he covered federal, state, and local courts. He served as editor of Bar Report, the official newspaper of the D.C. Bar; a public information officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Justice; a syndicated columnist for Copley News Service; and a reporter for the Main Line Times in suburban Philadelphia. Mr. Sellers graduated from Dickinson College in 1978.