The Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies presents:

A Panel: Josh Divine, Mark Chenoweth, and Prerak Shah

"Careers in Public Service"

Taco Bar provided.

Mark Chenoweth: Before joining the Washington Legal Foundation, Mark was Chief of Staff for Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Mark graduated from Yale University, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Free Press, and from the University of Chicago Law School, where he founded the IJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship. After a clerkship with Judge Danny Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Mark began his legal career in DC as an associate at the Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering law firm. Next, Mark served as an Attorney Advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Policy (OLP), helping to vet and get confirmed dozens of President Bush’s judicial nominees. Mark left Washington to join a Fortune 20-sized company as in-house counsel, managing successful legal reform projects around the country. During that time he was on the board of the American Tort Reform Association and active in other groups including the Civil Justice Reform Group, Lawyers for Civil Justice, and the Civil Justice Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council. After several years in house, Mark returned to DC and served as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In that role he gained an up close and personal understanding of the inner workings of a federal regulatory agency. 

Prerak Shah: Senator Ted Cruz named Prerak Shah as his Chief of Staff in December 2017. He had been serving as Chief Counsel to Senator Cruz since February 2017. Prior to working in Senator Cruz's office, Shah was Senior Counsel to the Texas Attorney General, where he served on the agency’s executive leadership team and advised the Attorney General on high-profile litigation and policy. He also managed litigation teams and represented the State of Texas in critical cases, including the defense of Texas’ Voter ID and campus carry laws, and the right of Texas school boards to open meetings in student-led prayer. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Solicitor General of Texas, a constitutional litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Dallas and a law clerk to Judge Jerry Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He has argued before the Fifth Circuit, and represented clients in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas Supreme Court and other federal and state appellate courts. Shah received a bachelor’s degree from Drexel University and law degree from the University of Chicago, where he graduated with honors.

Josh Divine is a graduate of Yale Law School ('16) and Deputy Solicitor General of Missouri. He received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Northern Colorado. His research and writing interests include criminal law, legislation, and fiction. After law school, Josh clerked for Judge William Pryor on the Eleventh Circuit. In his role as Deputy Solicitor General of Missouri, Josh worked on an Eigth Amendment case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. He currently serves as Deputy Counsel for Senator Josh Hawley.