94th Annual Meeting
Council
Council Nominees

Nathan L. Hecht is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. He is active in the Court’s efforts to assure that Texans living below the poverty level, as well as others with limited means have access to basic civil legal services.  During his tenure on the Court, he has overseen revisions to the rules of administration, practice, and procedure in Texas courts and also served on the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Chief Justice Hecht was first elected a Justice of the Supreme Court in 1988. He previously served on the Texas Court of Appeals and the District Court in Dallas. Before taking the bench, he was a partner in the law firm of Locke Purnell Boren Laney & Neely in Dallas; a law clerk for Roger Robb, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit; and a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps.

Elected to ALI in 1988, Chief Justice Hecht has participated in the Members Consultative Groups for the Model Penal Code: Sentencing, Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm, and Torts: Apportionment of Liability.

Education: J.D. Southern Methodist University; B.A. Yale University 

Troy A. McKenzie is a professor at New York University School of Law, where he researches and teaches in the areas of bankruptcy, civil procedure, complex litigation, and the federal courts. From 2015 to 2017, he took a leave of absence from NYU to serve in the U.S. Department of Justice as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel.

Professor McKenzie has served as a faculty co-director of two NYU centers: the Institute of Judicial Administration and the Center on Civil Justice. In addition, he was a reporter to the Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2011 to 2015. Before joining NYU, he was an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton and a law clerk for John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court of the United States, and Pierre N. Leval, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Elected to ALI in 2015, Professor McKenzie participated in the Young Scholar Conference on the Future of Aggregate Litigation and the Young Scholar Conference on Law and Corporate Finance.

Education: J.D. New York University; B.S.E. Princeton University 

Stephanie E. Parker, a partner at Jones Day, co-leads the firm's business and tort litigation practice of more than 475 lawyers. She also leads the firm's product liability litigation group. Most of Ms. Parker’s work is focused on mass tort and product liability cases for clients in the tobacco, chemical, pharmaceutical, medical device, and automotive industries. One of her main clients is R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, for which she leads about three trials a year. Other recent notable work includes serving as lead trial counsel for Merck in achieving the $2.54 billion patent infringement verdict, the largest in U.S. history. Previously, she was a law clerk for Wilbur D. Owens, Jr., U.S. District Court, Middle District of Georgia.

Elected to ALI in 2004, Ms. Parker is a member of the Regional Advisory Group for Region 14 (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Puerto Rico) and has helped to organize member events and programs about the International Commercial Arbitration project in Atlanta and New York.

Education: J.D. Vanderbilt University; A.B. Wesleyan College

Jeffrey S. Sutton has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since 2003. Before that, he was the State Solicitor of Ohio and a partner at Jones Day in Columbus. He has argued twelve cases in the United States Supreme Court and numerous cases in the state supreme courts and federal courts of appeal. Judge Sutton served as a law clerk to Justices Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, as well as Judge Thomas J. Meskill of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Judge Sutton received his B.A. from Williams College and his J.D. from The Ohio State University College of Law.

Judge Sutton served as Chair of the Federal Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 2012 to 2016. He was appointed to that committee by Chief Justice Roberts. He has also served on the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules. He was appointed to that committee by Chief Justice Rehnquist in 2005, and Chief Justice Roberts appointed him to be Chair of that committee in 2009.

Since 1993, Judge Sutton has been an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University College of Law, where he teaches seminars on State Constitutional Law, the United States Supreme Court, and Appellate Advocacy. He also teaches a class on State Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School. Among other publications, he is the co-author of a casebook, State Constitutional Law: The Modern Experience, as well as The Law of Judicial Precedent.

Elected to ALI in 2006, Judge Sutton is a member of the Regional Advisory Group for Region 6 (Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio), an Adviser for the Principles of the Law, Election Administration, and a member of the Members Consultative Group for Model Penal Code: Sentencing.

Education:
J.D. Ohio State University; B.A. Williams College