43;)6
100 Widely considered a stepping-stone to the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is considered the second most-powerful in the land. And for good reason as its geographical location o#en gives it jurisdiction to decide cases of national importance. Current U.S. Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Chief Justice John Roberts were all elevated from the appeals bench. Recently, President Obama succeeded in naming four new judges to ďŹ ll the remaining open seats on the 11-member court. All were conďŹ rmed despite Republican protests that the new members tip the balance in the Democrats’ favor. Here, a snapshot of the court’s newest judges: SRI SRINIVASAN - appointed May 2013 Srinivasan earned bachelor’s, law and business degrees from Stanford before going on to clerk for former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. After joining the law firm O’Melveny & Meyers in 1998, he served as an assistant to the U.S. solicitor general from 2002 to 2007 and returned to the law firm as a partner in 2007 to head its appellate and Supreme Court practice. Most recently, he was principal deputy solicitor general for the United States and taught at Harvard Law. PATRICIA MILLETT - appointed December 2013 Millett graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1985 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1988. Since then she has become a sought-after legal voice as the head of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Supreme Court practice in Washington, D.C. where she argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the secondhighest by a woman lawyer. She is married to Robert King, a Navy veteran who served for 22 years. CORNELIA PILLARD - appointed December 2013 Pillard graduated magna cum laude from Yale and Harvard Law School before embarking on an illustrious legal career that includes holding the Marvin M. Karpatkin fellowship at the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the United States Solicitor General’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice where she served as deputy assistant attorney general. Before her appointment, she taught civil procedure and constitutional law at Georgetown University Law School. ROBERT L WILKINS - appointed January 2014 Wilkins earned his bachelor’s in chemical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1986 and his juris doctor from Harvard in 1989. Judge Wilkins’ legal career includes many highlights, most notably as the lead plaintiff under the public defender’s office in the landmark Wilkins, et. al. v. State of Maryland that led to nationwide reform in stop-and-search practices and as a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was instrumental in establishing the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, slated to open in 2015.
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President and CEO, Consumer Electronics Association As one of the original tech-talking groups in Washington, Shapiro’s Consumer Electronics Association has a respected brand allowing him to continue to push for immigration reform, even as the possibility narrows that anything will be done on that issue before the 2014 midterms. He is also using his clout to talk patent trolls — a big concern within the tech community — as overzealous lawsuits stymie innovation. Shapiro has strong allies on both sides of the aisle as evidenced by the partnership of Rep. Darrell Issa (RCalif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the two lawmakers who helped him and others kill SOPA and PIPA legislation in 2012. And of course, all eyeballs are focused on the CEA every January when the organization dazzles the world with all the coolest new gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
MARC SHORT STEVE LOMBARDO
to Mitt Romney when the former Massachusetts governor ran for president in 2012.
KNOX SINGLETON CEO, Inova Health System As the story goes, when Singleton found out that Inova Fairfax Hospital was ranked Number One in the Washington, D.C., area by U.S. News & World Report, he picked up the phone and ordered 14,100 floral bouquets for his staff. He came to lead the organization in 1984, when it was called the Fairfax Hospital Association, and has grown it mightily since. Inova’s model is not-for-profit and thus the health system provides top care to those in Northern Virginia and beyond, regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Singleton has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Governor’s Award in 2004, presented by then-Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, and was inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame in 2009.
ROBIN SPROUL
President, Freedom Partners; Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, Koch Companies Public Sector LLC As the Koch Brothers top operative in D.C., Short is possibly the most important person in Koch world driving tactical decisions on what races the billionaire brothers’ money will flow into. Short’s in charge of Freedom Partners, a group that wasn’t well known publicly until September 2013. He pulled his organization, which raised and spent $250 million in 2012, out of the shadows. The group has about 200 donors, who pay at least $100,000 in annual dues, which will have huge impacts on elections going forward. Additionally, should Mike Pence run for president, the Indiana governor would probably hire Short, who served as his chief of staff for the House Republican conference. Short worked with former Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, too, and was formerly the executive director of the Reagan Ranch. Lombardo was the Koch’s first-ever PR hire and came on board in February of this year to manage incoming fire for Koch political activities. A former tobacco industry talker with experience in Republican politics, the young up-and-comer worked on the 1992 presidential campaign of former President George H.W. Bush and served as a senior research and communications advisor
Washington Bureau Chief, ABC News When former ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson was asked about Robin Sproul’s leadership style, he classified her as a negotiator. “She doesn’t yell, she doesn’t scream, she doesn’t demand, she uses the velvet hammer,� Gibson said in a recent tribute video made for Sproul when she took home this year’s First Amendment Service Award from the Radio Television Digital News Association. Sproul has been at the helm of ABC’s Washington bureau for 21 years, holding the job longer than any network rival. In that time, she’s covered five presidential cycles and won an Emmy for ABC’s coverage of President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. In 2013, she was promoted to the executive in charge of ABC’s “This Week.� When she started in journalism, Sproul took an unpaid job at her local ABC News radio affiliate. Now, she’s among the handful of professionals meeting regularly with Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss the Justice Department’s policies for seeking records related to newsgathering.
NEERA TANDEN President, Center for American Progress How tight are Neera Tanden and Hillary Clinton? When Tanden’s Center for American Progress turned 10 in October, Clinton gladly showed up at the gala, joking that she “was
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GARY SHAPIRO
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