Legal scholar and former Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal joined The Common Good to discuss all the new legal challenges facing the 2020 election. Moderated by business legend and co-founder of Springboard Enterprises Kay Koplovitz, the two led a fascinating conversation, headlined by pressing issues such as mail-in ballot and combating the spreading of misinformation.
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General Neal Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States, where he argued several major Supreme Court cases involving a variety of issues, such as his successful defense of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his victorious defense of former Attorney General John Ashcroft for alleged abuses in the war on terror, his unanimous victory against eight states who sued the nation's leading power plants for contributing to global warming, and a variety of other matters. As Acting Solicitor General, Neal was responsible for representing the federal government of the United States in all appellate matters before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals throughout the nation. He served as Counsel of Record hundreds of times in the U.S. Supreme Court. He was also the only head of the Solicitor General's office to argue a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, on the important question of whether certain aspects of the human genome were patentable.
Neal has also served as a law professor for over two decades at Georgetown University Law Center, where he was one of the youngest professors to have received tenure and a chaired professorship in the university's history. He has also served as a visiting professor at both Harvard and Yale law schools.
Ms. Kay Koplovitz is the founder and former Chairman & CEO of USA Networks, the SyFy Channel (formerly Sci-Fi Channel), and USA Networks International, today a multi-billion-dollar cable television network. Ms. Koplovitz ran the network for 21 years before stepping down in 1998. As founder of USA Networks, Kay is the visionary who created the business model for cable networks by introducing the concept of two revenue streams: licensing and advertising.
Since 2000, Kay has served as Chairman of Springboard Enterprises, where under her leadership, the venture-catalyst accelerator has been bringing women founders leading transformational businesses to full parity in raising capital. The value of Springboard Enterprises has been validated by a strong 19-year track record of success with over $10 billion capital raised, 190+ exits, and 20 IPOs. Companies in the portfolio include technology and life sciences, and in 2014, Ms. Koplovitz co-founded the New York Fashion Tech Lab bringing promising technology companies in collaboration with the fashion and retail industry.
Springboard Enterprises was born after Ms. Koplovitz’ was appointed as Chairman of the bipartisan National Women’s Business Council (1998 NWBC) by President Clinton. During that time, Kay discovered that there were few venture capital and funding options for women entrepreneurs.
