Staff

Doug is a litigator, author, activist, and non-profit entrepreneur. He is CAC’s founder and President. Doug previously founded Community Rights Counsel (CRC), CAC’s predecessor organization, and directed CRC for more than a decade before CAC’s launch. In 2011, the National Law Journal recognized Doug as a “legal visionary” for CAC’s success in “reclaiming the Constitution for the legal left.”

Doug has represented clients in state and federal appellate courts around the country and has co-authored more than two dozen briefs filed before the U.S. Supreme Court, representing clients including the National Governors Association, the National League of Cities, the League of Women Voters, the American Judicature Society, and many of the nation’s preeminent constitutional scholars.

Doug is regularly called on to speak as an expert on a wide range of legal topics. He has been quoted in more than 500 national news stories, appeared on television dozens of times, and been an on-air guest on NPR more than a dozen times. His commentary has run in The New Republic, Slate, and dozens of major papers, including The Washington Post, USA Today, and The Los Angeles Times. Doug contributes regularly to Huffington Post, where his commentary on legal developments is regularly featured on the site’s homepage. Doug is the co-author of three books, and the lead author of numerous book chapters, reports, and studies. His academic writings have appeared in scholarly journals, including the Virginia Law Review.Doug received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia.

To view a list of Doug's writings, speeches and publications, click here.

Judith E. Schaeffer

Judith is Vice President of Constitutional Accountability Center. Prior to joining CAC, Judith served as the Legal Director of People For the American Way, where she focused on constitutional and civil rights issues, federal and state legislative activity, and judicial nominations. Judith has a particular expertise in First Amendment issues and has litigated numerous cases involving religious liberty and the separation of church and state. Previously, Judith was a partner at Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin and a law clerk for Chief Judge Joseph S. Lord, III of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Judith has served as a member of the District of Columbia Bar’s Task Force on Sexual Orientation and the Legal Workplace, and as a mediator in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She has also served on the boards of directors of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Women's Legal Defense Fund (now the National Partnership for Women and Families). Judith is a recipient of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Attorney Appreciation Award, the Whitman-Walker Clinic Gene Frey Memorial Award for Community Service, and the Women's Legal Defense Fund Volunteer Attorney Award. Judith has appeared on television and radio programs nationwide and been quoted frequently in the print media. She has blogged for Huffington Post and other sites and her writings have been published in USA Today, Congress Monthly, the National Council of Jewish Women Journal and various other publications. Judith received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and she was a Winston Churchill Scholar at Cambridge University.

Elizabeth B. Wydra

Elizabeth is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Chief Counsel. Elizabeth frequently participates in Supreme Court litigation and has argued several important cases in the federal courts of appeals. She joined CAC from private practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges in San Francisco, where she was an attorney working with former Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan in the firm’s Supreme Court/appellate practice. Previously, Elizabeth was a supervising attorney and teaching fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center appellate litigation clinic, a law clerk for Judge James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and a lawyer at Shaw Pittman, a law firm in Washington DC. Elizabeth has appeared on television as a legal expert for NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox News, and Fox Business Channel, and Current TV, and has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and nationally-syndicated radio programs. She has been quoted extensively in the print media and is a regular contributor to the American Bar Association’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases. Her writings have appeared in Slate and on numerous political and legal blogs, such as Huffington Post, Grist, and ACSblog. She has also published in the Syracuse Law Review and the Yale Journal of International Law. Elizabeth is a graduate of Yale Law School.

David H. Gans

David joined CAC after serving as Program Director of Cardozo Law School's Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, and as an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where he worked with Bert Neuborne on appellate briefs in constitutional cases involving the First Amendment and voting rights. Previously, David was an Acting Assistant Professor at NYU School of Law and practiced law at Emery Cuti Brinckerhoff & Abady, PC, where he litigated a wide range of constitutional and civil rights cases. David has also served as an attorney fellow for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy and as a law clerk for the Hon. Rosemary Barkett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he served as an editor on the Yale Law Review. His academic writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Boston University Law Review, the Emory Law Journal, the George Washington Law Review. Before receiving his law degree, David worked as a paralegal for the American Civil Liberties Union, where he helped Kathryn Kolbert prepare the briefs and argument in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In 1993, David and Ms. Kolbert co-authored an article in the Temple Law Review titled "Responding to Planned Parenthood v. Casey: Establishing Neutrality Principles in State Constitutional Law." David received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University.

Doug Pennington

Doug is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Press Secretary. Prior to joining CAC, Doug served as Assistant Director of Communications for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, as well as Media Relations Director for American Rights at Work. Doug’s writing has appeared in several outlets including the Cincinnati Enquirer, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Doug’s work includes having helped manage the gun control movement’s response to the massacre at Virginia Tech – which sustained the most fatalities by a single shooter in American history – as well as the media strategy around the landmark Second Amendment cases District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. Doug is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in linguistics (high honors).

Ryan Woo

Ryan is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Research and Administrative Associate. Ryan graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University in 2011. Prior to joining CAC, he worked as a research assistant for the Cornell University Department of Government and as an intern for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legislative Affairs.

Simon Lazarus

Before joining Constitutional Accountability Center, Si was Public Policy Counsel to the National Senior Citizen Law Center. Si served as Associate Director of President Jimmy Carter’s White House Domestic Policy Staff (1977-81), as a partner in Powell, Goldstein, Frazer, and Murphy LLP (1981-2002), and as Senior Counsel to Sidley Austin LLP (2002-2006). He is a Trustee of the Center for Law and Social Policy and a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.

Rochelle Bobroff

Rochelle is Director of the Access to Courts Program, which includes the Rights & Remedies listserv for public interest advocates. Previously, she was Directing Attorney of the Federal Rights Project at the National Senior Citizens Law Center and Senior Attorney at AARP Foundation Litigation. Rochelle has authored Supreme Court and appellate briefs addressing a wide range of access to justice issues in civil rights and safety net cases, including preemption, Section 1983, Ex parte Young, Due Process notice requirements, third party beneficiary claims, and standing. She has written numerous scholarly articles on court access issues, published in the Yale Law Journal Online, the Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law, the University of Toledo Law Review, the North Carolina Central Law Journal, and the poverty law journal Clearinghouse Review. She has provided national trainings for public interest advocates on court access issues, including webinars attended by hundreds of practitioners. Earlier, she litigated Title VII and Clean Water Act cases at Terris, Pravlik & Millian, and she began her law practice at the Legal Aid Bureau of Southern Maryland. Rochelle received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Tom Donnelly

Tom is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Message Director and Counsel. Prior to joining CAC, Tom served as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School. Previously, Tom served as a law clerk for the Hon. Thomas Ambro on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Tom is a graduate of Yale Law School, where he was a Projects Editor for the Yale Law Journal, a Coker Fellow for Dean Robert Post, and Student Director of the Community Development Financial Institutions Clinic. While at Yale, Tom also received the Judge William E. Miller Prize for best paper on the Bill of Rights. Tom’s academic writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal and the Wisconsin Law Review, among other law journals, and he has written popular pieces for the Washington Post and the Hill. Before receiving his law degree, Tom worked as an analyst at the Mellman Group, a polling firm. Tom received his B.A., summa cum laude, in Government and Philosophy from Georgetown University.

Kanessa Pryor

Kanessa is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Office Manager. Kanessa has more than 18 years of experience in the administrative field and utilizes her vast experience to handle the day to day operations of our office. Prior to joining CAC, Kanessa worked as the Senior Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Policy & Development for Amtrak.

Emily Phelps

Emily is Constitutional Accountability Center’s blogger and staff writer. Previously, Emily served as Communications Director for Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN) and as shared staff to the House Committee on Science and Technology during the 111^th Congress. She has also served on seven campaigns around the country at the statewide, congressional and municipal levels, in press staff and strategic consulting roles. Emily received her B.A. in Government and Film with major honors from Claremont McKenna College.

Kelly Landis

Kelly is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Opinion Shop Director. Before joining CAC, Kelly held a variety of communications and research positions in Washington, D. C. She began her career at The Brookings Institution, and then moved to the Alliance for Justice where, as Press Secretary, she worked on a number of high profile legal advocacy issues including judicial nominations, political speech, and habeas corpus protections. After leaving AFJ, Kelly worked to increase voter engagement among unmarried women and other underrepresented members of the electorate, and then served as Communications Director for iCivics, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s civic learning initiative, where she found herself writing speeches for and traveling the country with the Justice to promote civic knowledge. Kelly has also served as a communications consultant, providing expert speechwriting, writing, and editing for a number of nonprofit clients. Her words on behalf of others and herself have appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Huffington Post, the American Bar Association’s Judges’ Journal, and even a TED Talk, among other outlets. Kelly has a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from Carleton College.

Brianne Gorod

Brianne is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Appellate Counsel. Brianne joined CAC from private practice at O'Melveny & Myers (OMM), where she was Counsel in the firm’s Supreme Court and appellate practice. From 2009-11, prior to joining OMM, Brianne was an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. She also served as a law clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court, a law clerk for Judge Robert A. Katzmann on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and a law clerk for Judge Jed S. Rakoff on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Brianne’s academic writings have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Duke Law Journal, the Northwestern University Law Review, the American University Law Review, and the Yale Law & Policy Review. Brianne received her J.D. from Yale Law School and her M.A./B.S. from Emory University. Her master's thesis in political science examined judicial behavior on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mei-Wah Lee

Mei-Wah is Constitutional Accountability Center’s Research and Administrative Associate. Mei-Wah received her B.A. in Political Science from Yale University. Prior to joining CAC, Mei-Wah was the Paralegal Supervisor for the Federal Defenders of New York, where she assisted in the defense of indigent individuals charged with federal crimes. She previously interned for the Human Services Coalition of Dade County and with the Open Democracy Advice Centre in Cape Town, South Africa.