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As a long-time veteran of the National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC), the U.S. Chamber’s public policy law firm, Robin S. Conrad has spent close to a quarter century shaping the law on some of the most important public policy issues of the day. Conrad, senior vice president for the past 10 years and now executive vice president, has played a key role in building NCLC into a litigation powerhouse—setting new records every year for entering and winning cases on behalf of American business. In 2007, Conrad was selected by The National Law Journal as one of The 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America. NCLC's Supreme Court practice was prominently featured in the Sunday, March 16, 2008, cover story of The New York Times Magazine.

Under Conrad’s leadership, the Litigation Center has become the go-to place for advocating the business point of view in the courts on issues of national concern to the business community. Chief among her many accomplishments are developing NCLC’s nonlabor docket (which now constitutes more than 75% of its caseload), stepping up its Supreme Court practice, and taking a more strategic approach to shaping the law in areas such as punitive damages, class actions, federal preemption of inconsistent state laws, and securities litigation.

Conrad has played a critical role as a litigation strategist in developing the law of punitive damages in the Supreme Court and in lower courts throughout the country. She has filed amicus briefs on behalf of the business community in all of the leading punitive damages cases in the Supreme Court including Philip Morris USA v. Williams (2007), State Farm v. Campbell (2003), BMW v. Gore (1996), Pacific Mutual v. Haslip (1991), and Browning Ferris v. Kelco Disposal (1989). Her class action cases include Castano v. American Tobacco Co. (1996), Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor (1997), Price, et al. v. Philip Morris, Inc. (2005), In Re: Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation (2006), and Wal-Mart v. Dukes, et al. (2007).

Conrad represented the Chamber as the lead petitioner in a Supreme Court challenge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) national ambient air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter. She currently represents the Chamber as lead petitioner in the Supreme Court, challenging a California law prohibiting corporate speech about union organizing.

Recognizing that the law can be shaped in many ways, Conrad plays a strategic behind-the-scenes role in hosting moot courts for counsel arguing landmark cases. This is part of an influential moot court program she created at the Chamber in 1985, which is held in high regard by some of the country’s most sought-after Supreme Court practitioners. She also helps shape the law through interaction with the media and is frequently quoted in the press on important business cases.

Conrad graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College and received her law degree from the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America, where she was a member of The Law Review. Prior to joining the Litigation Center, she was an attorney/advisor at EPA, which awarded her the agency’s Gold Medal for Exceptional Service. She is co-author of 100 Ways to Cut Legal Fees & Manage Your Lawyer and author of several articles published by The National Law Journal in its annual Supreme Court Review and by the Legal Times in its column on Commentary and Analysis.

Conrad is a member of the Committee on the Status and Future of Federal e-Rulemaking, a blue ribbon committee under the auspices of the Administrative Law Section of the American Bar Association. She is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, D.C., and Federal Circuits; the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Conrad is an avid equestrienne. She lives with her husband, Robert Kelly, and their son, Braeden, on a small horse farm in Brookeville, Maryland, and rides with the Howard County-Iron Bridge Hounds.