Keynote Speaker

Justin Pearson is a Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice, where he directs IJ’s national food truck work and is also the Managing Attorney for IJ’s Florida office in Miami.

Justin has devoted his career to vindicating the constitutional rights of small-business owners. He has argued on their behalf as lead counsel hundreds of times in courts across the nation, and many of Justin’s victories have involved novel constitutional arguments. Additionally, Justin has testified at state legislatures dozens of times, and the successful bills signed into law that Justin actively supported (and often helped to draft) have included occupational licensing reform, food truck reform, cottage food reform, fresh start reform, home-based business reform, repeals of certificate-of-need (CON) requirements, and civil forfeiture reform.

Justin’s work has been covered by almost every major media outlet in the United States, and Justin has given over one hundred talks to attorney organizations and law schools. The law schools that have hosted Justin’s talks include Harvard, Yale, the University of Chicago, UVA, Duke, NYU, the University of Michigan, and Cornell, among many others. Justin received his law degree with honors from the University of Miami and his bachelor’s degree in business management from North Carolina State University.

Previous Master of Ceremonies

Mark Edge is a Lifetime Member of the NHLA, Mover #162 for the Free State Project, a founding Host of Free Talk Live, a recipient of Talkers' Freedom of Speech Award, and was named as one of the Top 25 Most Important Talk Show Hosts in America.