Robin Wilson

Robin Fretwell Wilson is the Class of 1958 Law Alumni Professor of Law at Washington andLee University School of Law, where her scholarship focuses on family law and children and violence.  She is the co-author or editor of six recent books, including Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008, with Douglas Laycock and Anthony Picarello); Reconceiving the Family:  Critical Reflections on the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution (Cambridge University Press, 2006); and Domestic Relations: Cases and Materials (Walter Wadlington, Raymond C. O’Brien, & Robin Fretwell Wilson, 7th ed., Foundation Press, 2013) (forthcoming).  Professor Wilson’s work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.  A member of the American Law Institute, Professor Wilson has worked extensively on behalf of state law reform efforts. In 2007, she received the Citizen’s Legislative Award for her work on changing Virginia’s consent law.  Professor Wilson is the past Chair of the Section on Family and Juvenile Law of the Association of American Law Schools.

Robin Fretwell Wilson is the co-author, along with Anthony Michael Kreis, of The Overlooked Benefit of Minimalism: Perry v. Brown and the Future of Marriage Equality.

Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky is Dean, Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.   Prior to accepting this position in 2008, Dean Chemerinsky was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University from 2004-2008.  Before that he was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School for 21 years, including as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science.   He is author of seven books and over 200 law review articles.  He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court.

Professor Chemerinsky is the author of Hollingsworth v. Perry: What Should the Court Do?.

Jennifer C. Pizer

Jennifer C. Pizer is Senior Counsel and Director, Project on Law & Policy at Lambda Legal.  During 2011 and 2012, she was Legal Director and Senior Scholar of Law at the Williams Institute, an academic research center on sexual orientation law and public policy at UCLA School of Law.  While at UCLA, Pizer authored model legislation concerning marriage for same-sex couples and amicus briefs and policy reports addressing family rights of LGBT people, the needs of LGBT students, and employment discrimination.  Before joining UCLA, Pizer was Marriage Project Director at Lambda Legal, where she was co-counsel in numerous cases challenging state restrictions on marriage, the federal “Defense of Marriage Act,” refusals of family health insurance, denials of parenting rights, and unequal access to medical care. Pizer also has co-authored numerous amicus briefs in Hollingsworth v. Perry, including most recently to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Pizer frequently advises policymakers about LGBT issues and has taught at USC Law School, Loyola Law School, and Whittier Law School in addition to UCLA.  She has received numerous community service and professional achievement awards, including being named seven times among the top women litigators in California.  She is a graduate of Harvard College and NYU School of Law, where she was a Hays Fellow, Senior Research Editor of the Review of Law and Social Change, and co-chair of Lesbian & Gay Law Students (which preceded OUTLaw).

Jennifer Pizer is the author of How Has Perry Affected Other Marriage-Rights Strategies? Reflections on a Silver Anniversary and the Golden Rule.

Paul M. Smith

Paul M. Smith is a partner in Jenner & Block’s Washington, DC office.  At Jenner, he is the Chair of the Appellate & Supreme Court Practice and Co-Chair of the Election Law, and First Amendment Practices.  Mr. Smith has argued fourteen Supreme Court cases, including most recently Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n, involving the First Amendment as applied to video games, and Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark gay rights case.   He also represents various clients in trial and appellate cases involving commercial issues, the First Amendment, intellectual property, civil rights, and election law.

Mr. Smith graduated from Amherst College and Yale Law School and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.  He is a member of the ABA House of Delegates.  He is also a member of, and the former Chair of, the Board of Directors of the American Constitution Society.  In 2010, the National Law Journal named him one of the 40 Most Influential Lawyers of the Past Decade.  That same year, he received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities for his work promoting civil rights and civil liberties .  In 2012 he received the D.C. Bar’s own Thurgood Marshall Award.

Paul Smith is the author of The Perry Litigation and the Changing Political Landscape for Marriage Equality.