Our Team
FACULTY CHAIR
Professor Neal Katyal
Neal Katyal is the Faculty Chair of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection as well as the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University.
He has served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States, where he argued several major Supreme Court cases involving a variety of issues, such as his successful defense of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his victorious defense of former Attorney General John Ashcroft for alleged abuses in the war on terror, his unanimous victory against eight states who sued the nation’s leading power plants for contributing to global warming, and a variety of other matters.
As Acting Solicitor General, Katyal was responsible for representing the federal government of the United States in all appellate matters before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals throughout the nation. Katyal previously served as National Security Adviser in the U.S. Justice Department and was commissioned by President Clinton to write a report on the need for more legal pro bono work.
He also served as Vice President Al Gore’s co-counsel in the Supreme Court election dispute of 2000, and represented the deans of most major private law schools in the landmark University of Michigan affirmative-action case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). Katyal clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer as well as Judge Guido Calabresi of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He attended Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. His articles have appeared in virtually every major law review and newspaper in America.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Professor Mary B. McCord
Mary McCord is Executive Director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. At ICAP, McCord leads a team that brings constitutional impact litigation at all levels of the federal and state courts across a wide variety of areas including First Amendment rights, immigration, criminal justice reform, and combating the rise of private paramilitaries.
McCord was the Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2016 to 2017 and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security from 2014 to 2016.
Previously, McCord was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for nearly 20 years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Among other positions, she served as a Deputy Chief in the Appellate Division, overseeing and arguing hundreds of cases in the U.S. and District of Columbia Courts of Appeals, and Chief of the Criminal Division, where she oversaw all criminal prosecutions in federal district court.
McCord is a statutorily designated amicus curiae for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. McCord served as legal counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Task Force 1-6 Capitol Security Review appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. McCord also served on the Columbus Police After Action Review Team tasked with evaluating how the Columbus, Ohio, Police Department responded to the 2020 summer protests.
McCord has written about domestic terrorism, unlawful militia activity, public safety, and the rule of law for publications including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Lawfare, and Just Security. She has appeared on NPR, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and other media outlets.
McCord received the Oliver White Hill Courageous Advocate Award from the Virginia Trial Lawyers’ Association in 2018, based on her work with ICAP litigating against white supremacist and private militias that attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
McCord graduated from Georgetown University Law School and served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
SUPREME COURT DIRECTOR
Kelsi Brown Corkran
Kelsi Brown Corkran is Supreme Court Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and Senior Lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center. She oversees ICAP’s Supreme Court litigation, specializing in civil rights and criminal justice matters at both the certiorari and merits stages.
Corkran served as lead counsel in two of the most significant civil rights cases before the Supreme Court in the 2020 term: Torres v. Madrid, in which the Court reversed a lower court decision holding that the victim of a police shooting is deprived of protection under the Fourth Amendment if the police are not immediately successful in apprehending her, and Taylor v. Riojas, a challenge to inhumane prison conditions that marked the first time in 16 years that the Court denied qualified immunity to a government officer. In 2018, Corkran successfully argued before the Court on behalf of the plaintiff in City of Hays v. Vogt, a civil rights suit asserting violations of the Fifth Amendment’s Self-Incrimination Clause. She has also argued over 30 cases in the courts of appeals, including 11 of the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals and the en banc Ninth Circuit.
Immediately prior to joining ICAP, Corkran was the Head of the Supreme Court Practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. She previously served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court and Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Among other positions, she was as an attorney with the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice and in the Communications Office of the White House’s Executive Office of the President, where she assisted with judicial nominations, including the confirmation hearings of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Before law school, she was a social worker in Philadelphia’s foster care system.
Corkran is a member of the American Law Institute and serves on the Board of Directors for the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and on the Supreme Court Practitioners’ Committee for the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. and M.P.P. from the University of Chicago.
Managing Director
Alex Aronson
Alex Aronson is Managing Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center. He leads ICAP’s legal policy, development, and communications efforts, and helps oversee the operations of the Institute.
Prior to joining ICAP, Alex served as chief counsel to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and as staff director for the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Federal Rights, and Agency Action. In that capacity, he led the Senator’s executive and judicial branch oversight work, steered legislative efforts to improve judicial ethics and access to justice, and maintained an active amicus curiae practice in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also served as the Senator’s lead counsel on two Supreme Court confirmations and advised on two presidential impeachment trials. Alex previously served as an attorney in the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP, and a law clerk to Judge Albert Diaz on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Before law school, Alex led a nonprofit focused on improving voting access for underrepresented communities in Oregon.
A greater Boston native, Alex is a 2012 graduate of Stanford Law School, where he was Senior Editor of the Stanford Law Review and took part in Stanford’s Community Law and Supreme Court Litigation Clinics. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.
Special Litigation Counsel
Rupa Bhattacharyya
Rupa Bhattacharyya is Special Litigation Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Immediately before joining the Institute, Rupa served as the Special Master for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF), which is administered by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and compensates those who suffered personal injuries or died as a result of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the rescue and recovery efforts undertaken in their aftermath. In 2019, Rupa was awarded DOJ’s Civil Division’s Michael F. Hertz Memorial Award for Exceptional Professionalism & Outstanding Performance, and in 2020 she was awarded the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service. She is a 2022 Finalist for the Paul A. Volcker Career Achievement Service to America Medal awarded annually by the Partnership for Public Service.
Rupa joined DOJ’s Civil Division in 1996 through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, where she defended federal government agencies and employees in claims arising under the U.S. Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act, and other federal statutes. In August 2008, Rupa accepted a Senior Executive Service position as the Deputy Assistant General Counsel for International Affairs at the Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, Rupa supervised a team of attorneys handling legal activities relating to a broad range of international economic, financial, and regulatory matters, and in 2012, received an Exceptional Service Award from the Secretary of the Treasury.
In April 2012, Rupa returned to DOJ as a Director in the Torts Branch, with oversight over the Office of Constitutional and Specialized Tort Litigation. In that capacity, she managed the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Program, as well as litigators on the Constitutional Torts staff. She was appointed by the Attorney General to serve as the VCF’s Special Master in July 2016.
Prior to federal service, Rupa served as a law clerk for the Honorable Julia Smith Gibbons, then of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee and now of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Rupa graduated from Harvard Law School and has a Master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her undergraduate degree is from Tulane University in her hometown of New Orleans.
Senior Fellow
Amy Marshak
Amy Marshak is Senior Fellow at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and Senior Lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center. She previously served as Managing Director and as a Senior Counsel at ICAP. Immediately prior to joining the Institute, Marshak was an attorney with the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she engaged in policy and appellate work and served as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security. She previously served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York. She also worked as an attorney and intelligence analyst in the Intelligence Division of the New York Police Department. Marshak was named a 2019 immigration law trailblazer by the National Law Journal for her work at ICAP.
Marshak graduated summa cum laude from New York University School of Law, where she was a senior executive editor of the NYU Law Review and was awarded the University Graduation Prize. She received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University.
SENIOR COUNSEL
Elizabeth Cruikshank
Elizabeth Cruikshank is Senior Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Immediately before joining the Institute, she was a Managing Associate in the Supreme Court and Appellate practice group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where she was one of the lawyers on Taylor v. Riojas, a challenge to inhumane prison conditions that marked the first time in 16 years that the Supreme Court denied qualified immunity to a government officer, and authored amicus briefs in cases in California and North Carolina challenging the prosecutorial practice of barring jurors based on their support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Elizabeth previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Kim McLane Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Jesse M. Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She started her legal career as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.
Elizabeth received her law degree from Columbia Law School, where she won the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Prize for highest honors and was an Articles Editor for the Columbia Law Review. She received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University.
Elizabeth is on the board of Rights Behind Bars, a nonprofit that represents incarcerated people in civil rights lawsuits challenging their cruel and inhumane conditions of confinement.
Joseph Mead
Joseph Mead is Senior Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.
Before joining the Institute, he was a tenured professor with a dual appointment in a law school and public administration program. He taught courses such as civil procedure, legislation and regulation, administrative law, nonprofit law, public interest lawyering, and public policy. He received the 2020 Junior Faculty Member of the year award from the Society of American Law Teachers for a “commitment to justice, equality, and academic excellence” combining teaching, scholarship, and advocacy.
Mead also has more than a decade of litigating structural constitutional cases for both plaintiff and defendant. For several years he served as Associate General Counsel and cooperating attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, bringing strategic constitutional challenges to federal, state, and local laws that restrict constitutional rights. Before that, Mead served as a Trial Attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Federal Program Branch, where he defended the constitutionality of federal statutes and major agency policies in courts throughout the country.
Mead has also published two dozen peer-reviewed and law review articles on nonprofit and constitutional law, litigation, and the criminalization of poverty, which have been cited in federal and state appellate courts and influenced public policy. He has also written and spoken about his research in national and local outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many others. He also serves as a Contributing Editor to the Nonprofit Law Professor Blog.
Mead’s legal career started with clerkships for Judge Cornelia Kennedy of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge David Lawson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He received his juris doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was named to the Order of the Coif and served on the Michigan Law Review.
Seth Wayne
Seth Wayne is Senior Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Before joining the Institute, he was a trial attorney in the Special Litigation Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where he investigated and litigated cases involving law enforcement agencies engaged in a pattern or practice of civil rights violations. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, he was a Liman Public Interest Fellow and staff attorney at the Orleans Public Defenders, where he represented indigent people charged with crimes in the New Orleans Criminal District Court, with a focus on people with lived experience of mental illness.
Seth received his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was student director of the Criminal Defense Project and a director of the Rebellious Lawyering Conference. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto in Canada.
COUNSEL
Shelby Calambokidis
Shelby Calambokidis is Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Before joining the Institute, she served as a law clerk to Judge Henry F. Floyd on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and to Judge Amit P. Mehta on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She also served as a law fellow at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). While in law school, she interned at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she worked on a federal class action challenging the provision of constitutionally inadequate medical and mental health care in Alabama’s prison system.
After receiving her B.A. summa cum laude from The University of Alabama, Shelby spent a year working as an AmeriCorps State Member before attending law school. In 2017, she graduated summa cum laude from The University of Alabama School of Law, where she earned a Certificate in Public Interest Law and served as an Executive Editor for the Alabama Law Review and as Vice President of the Public Interest Student Board. Her scholarship has been published in the Alabama Law Review as well as Cornell Law Review Online.
Ben Gifford
Ben Gifford is Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Before joining the Institute, he served as a law clerk to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. of the United States Supreme Court, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York. He started his legal career as a litigation associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
Ben graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an Articles Editor for the Harvard Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, where he graduated first in his class. His scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, and American Journal of Criminal Law.
Jennifer Safstrom
Jennifer Safstrom is Counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Prior to joining the Institute, she served as the Dunn Legal Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia, where she worked on litigation and legislation related to numerous civil rights issues. She received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in May 2018, where she served as Editor in Chief of the Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives, Employer Outreach Chair for the Latin American Law Student Association, and member of the Appellate Litigation Clinic. She earned her B.A. in International Studies from the University of Miami in 2011. Her legal scholarship has been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, Harvard Latinx Law Review, Barry Law Review, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, and Loyola University Chicago’s Annals of Health Law & Life Sciences, among others. She has also been quoted by the Washington Post, Above the Law, City Lab, and Breitbart, as well as other local and national publications.
Litigation and Operations Clerk
Jonathan de Jong
Jonathan de Jong is the Litigation and Operations Clerk at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Immediately prior to joining ICAP, he worked in the Office of Enrollment at the Georgetown School of Continuing Studies.
He previously worked as a litigation paralegal at Covington & Burling LLP and as an English teacher in Vietnam with Princeton in Asia.
Jonathan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and is currently a J.D. candidate in Georgetown University Law Center’s evening program.
Litigation and Administrative Assistant
Sara J. Adeli
Sara Adeli is the Litigation and Administrative Assistant at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. Immediately prior to joining the Institute, she worked as a Faculty Assistant at the Georgetown Law Center.
Sara graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy of Law. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a Legal Assistant at Burtch Law PLLC and served as Co-Founder and President of the Pre-Law Society at VCU. She aspires to attend law school in the near future.