Mark E. Chopko, Esq., is a Partner and Chair of the Nonprofit & Religious Institutions practice group of Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young, LLP, in its Washington, D.C. office. He advises religious and nonprofit institutions, as well as business clients, across the United States, and from Europe and the Pacific Rim on structural, risk management and risk avoidance issues and defends them in complex litigation. Mr. Chopko is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University where he co-teaches a seminar on Church-State Law. In addition he teaches a course on religion as a constitutional and human right at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. Mr. Chopko graduated with a B.S. (summa cum laude and with Honors in Chemistry), from the University of Scranton; and a J.D. (cum laude), from the Cornell Law School. Between 1987 and 2007, he was General Counsel, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. The National Law Journal named him “corporate counsel of the week” for his work on the Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, and in Supreme Court victories upholding school vouchers and limiting the imposition of the death penalty. National Journal magazine profiled him as one of ten people “whose ideas will help shape the debates over [Church/State] issues.” His homiletic on lawyering, “Private Lives and Public Virtue,” is featured in CAN A GOOD CHRISTIAN BE A GOOD LAWYER? (Baker & Floyd eds.). Mr. Chopko has lectured widely in the United States and in Europe on such diverse topics as liability trends, risk management strategies, understanding and preventing misconduct, and church-state relations. He critiqued the Hosanna-Tabor decision in the First Amendment Law Review (UNC- Chapel Hill) and examined trends in scrutiny of charities entitled “Regulating Religious Charity” in the Rutgers Law Journal. He co-authored Exposed: A Legal Field Guide for Nonprofit Executives, with Melanie Herman, now in a second edition. He has served as an Advisor to a project of the American Law Institute restating the law of nonprofit institutions. He is married to Jane Kirby Chopko and is the father of four children.