Too often when a law reaches the courthouse, it is already too late.

That is why the James Wilson Institute (JWI) has launched a new, one-of-a kind program to address a deficit among staffers who draft legislation. Nearly all legislation presently lacks a firm connection to First Principles. JWI’s newest program is an intimate seminar that gathers lawyers on Capitol Hill with Hill-adjacent lawyers to provide the tools to draft legislation in accordance with the principles that the Founders employed in their creation of America’s earliest laws and intended their successors to follow.

We are proud to be joined in this endeavor by the premier organization in the conservative movement dedicated to educating staffers in conservative principles, the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI). CPI’s mission is to recommend key staffers to important roles in the conservative ecosystem, while also training existing staffers on how to effectively navigate—and manage—the political world in Washington, DC.

JWI and CPI began in Fall 2025 a successful “pilot program”: a course comprised of four luncheon seminars featuring an exclusive class of congressional lawyers and other lawyers adjacent to the Hill. CPI played host for the seminars at its conveniently located offices on Capitol Hill. At the end of this program, our cohort gained valuable tools to draft legislation in accordance with the principles that the Founders enshrined in America’s earliest laws and expected their successors to follow.

For the first seminar, Professor Hadley Arkes taught an audience that ranged from lawyers from various Senate committees to attorneys at the Department of Justice and within the Executive Branch. Professor Arkes outlined exactly what the Natural Law is and how legislation can plant Natural Law premises in the law that have implications for all other actors across our constitutional life. At the end of the seminar, JWI Deputy Director Garrett Snedeker exhorted the participants of the seminar to put their positions as legal counselors to good use to ensure that the Natural Law is recognized and considered at the highest levels of government.

John Ehrett, Chief of Staff and Attorney-Advisor to FTC Commissioner Mark Meador and a James Wilson Fellowship Alumnus from the class of 2021, led the second seminar. With his additional background as a former Senate Judiciary Committee lawyer himself, John brought a valuable perspective to the seminar series as a leader among his peers. The focus of the seminar was on what virtues staffers could cultivate to tackle issues concerning the regulation of the economy via the administrative state. John outlined applications of the Natural Law across a wide variety of subjects including antitrust.

In the penultimate seminar of the series, Judge Paul Matey, a longtime friend of JWI and judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, gave a presentation on the need for the judiciary to remember it depends on the other branches to effectuate its rulings. As one of the preeminent jurists incorporating the Natural Law into his opinions, Judge Matey offered a unique judicial perspective into the work of staffers who often shape the laws that judges are then called to interpret.

The final seminar of the series featured Paul Ray, Of Counsel at Covington and former head of the influential Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The seminar provided a fitting finish to the series with a focus on the Natural Law foundations of the separation of powers and how congressional lawyers should not take for granted “business as usual” from the administrative state.

Based on the success of this “pilot program,” JWI and CPI will continue in 2026 with an all new class of Capitol Hill lawyers seeking a formation in First Principles.