Ryan joined the Liberty Justice Center as Senior Counsel in May 2025 to protect the right of free speech, defend workers’ rights, and stop government overreach.

Ryan began his career as a prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. He also worked as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Subsequently, Ryan accepted an appointment from President George W. Bush to be Special Counsel and Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the U.S. Air Force at the Pentagon. Then, at the end of the Bush administration, Ryan joined the U.S. Department of Defense General Counsel’s office to represent America’s interests in the Guantanamo Bay habeas corpus litigation. Later, Ryan clerked for the Honorable Eugene E. Siler, Jr. for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and then entered private practice at the Louisville, Kentucky office of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP. He was subsequently appointed by the Governor of Kentucky to serve in multiple roles in state government and then joined the Institute for Free Speech to defend First Amendment political speech rights across the country.

Ryan graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Kentucky College of Law, where he was a member of the Kentucky Law Journal and the president of the school’s Federalist Society. He earned a B.S. in finance from Western Kentucky University, graduating summa cum laude.

Ryan is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the District of Columbia. He is also admitted at the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Third, Sixth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Washington, D.C. Circuits, and the U.S. District Courts for both Kentucky districts, Colorado, Western Michigan, and Washington, D.C.