NAFUSA board member Joe Whitley was named chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice (AdLaw) Section at the just concluded ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.  The section is home to nearly 13,000 lawyers from across the United States.  Whitley is a shareholder in the Atlanta and Washington offices of the international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

As chair of the AdLaw Section, Whitley follows in the footsteps of many notable past chairs, including Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Professor Cass Sunstein, former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Obama Administration.

Under Whitley’s leadership, the section will focus on growing its membership, and continuing the programs and publishing that are hallmarks of the section. Whitley also will focus on building regional strength for the AdLaw Section by creating regional sub-committees for up to five regions in the United States. Additionally, a special committee of corporate general counsels will be created to provide feedback and insights to the AdLaw Section Council on the continuing growth of the regulatory state.

The AdLaw Section is made up of lawyers, judges and others involved in all aspects of administrative law and regulatory issues.  As the home to lawyers who work for, interact with, or study governmental entities, the section seeks to enhance their professional development, and further the vital public interest in effective, efficient, and fair administration of laws and regulations at all levels of government. It serves these goals through education, dialogue, publications, and proposals for reform.

The mission of the AdLaw Section is to provide professional development opportunities for current and future administrative law practitioners;  lend its legal expertise to the resolution of important administrative law issues at the state, national and international levels; provide authoritative and practical analyses and products for the improvement of administrative law and practice; and to provide settings in which government, private, and academic lawyers, and the judiciary can exchange insights and information.

The AdLaw Section has more than 40 committees that monitor and review agency actions, new legislation and case law in areas such as rulemaking, adjudication and judicial review, as well as on more specific subjects such as homeland security, transportation, immigration, energy and environment, and freedom of information

Joe Whitley has had a wide-ranging career in the Department of Justice. In the George H.W. Bush administration, Whitley served as the Acting Associate Attorney General, the third-ranking position at Main Justice in the Department of Justice. He was appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush, respectively, to serve as the United States Attorney in the Middle (Macon) and Northern (Atlanta) Federal Districts of Georgia. Throughout his career, Whitley served under five Attorneys General in a number of key operational and policy positions. Earlier in his career, he served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit in Columbus, Georgia.

In 2003, Whitley was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the first General Counsel of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the highest ranking legal official at DHS. He held that position for two years working for SecretaryTom Ridge and Secretary Michael Chertoff, before his departure and return to private practice.

Corporate defense and representation of clients in complex civil and criminal enforcement matters brought by the Department of Justice, other federal agencies, State Attorneys General and local prosecutors is the focus of Whitley’s practice at Greenberg Traurig, where he is Chair of the White Collar Practice in Atlanta.  He has represented numerous individuals and corporations in major government investigations throughout the United States and internationally on a range of matters that include white collar criminal and regulatory enforcement, corporate internal investigations, U.S. export controls and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance, as well as general corporate compliance, health care fraud and FDA related enforcement matters.

Whitley has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America from 2001-2013.  He was selected by Super Lawyers magazine, andGeorgia Super Lawyers from 2010-2013 and listed as one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in Georgia” from 2011-2013. Whitley is also listed as one of “Georgia’s Legal Elite” in Georgia Trend magazine, 2008-2012. He was also selected by Super Lawyersmagazine for Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers in 2012.

NAFUSA member George J. Terwilliger III has been named the 2013 Republican Lawyer of the Year by the Board of Governors of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA). Terwilliger was selected in recognition of his outstanding professional accomplishments and years of service to the Republican Party and its ideals and was honored at a reception on June 25, 2013, at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C. He is shown above (left) with his son, Zachary Terwilliger, an AUSA, and Senator Cruz (right).

Terwilliger is a partner in Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP’s Litigation Practice and co-chair of the White Collar Litigation and Government Investigations Practice. Terwilliger provides counsel in litigation, internal investigations, and enforcement proceedings, especially those involving the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other primary enforcement agencies.

Terwilliger has served in many proceedings involving political affairs, most notably as a leader of the Bush-Cheney legal team in the 2000 Florida recount and as counsel to President George W. Bush in litigation over his right to have prayers said in the 2005 Inauguration. He served as counsel to the contests committee of the 1996 GOP convention, represented the RNC in litigation concerning demonstrators’ access to the 1996 convention and provided counsel in matters related to the 2008 election and 2012 campaign. He has also represented the RNC’s General Counsel in a campaign finance investigation and was special counsel for a Senate committee investigation of alleged vote fraud. Terwilliger is former president of the RNLA and is currently a member of the RNLA Board of Governors. He has also served as a speaker at both the RNLA’s National Policy Conference and National Election Law Seminar.

In public service, Mr. Terwilliger served as a U.S. presidential appointee in two administrations. He was appointed a U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont by President Ronald Reagan and served as Deputy Attorney General and as Acting Attorney General in the George H.W. Bush administration. Major cases in which Mr. Terwilliger was personally involved as a prosecutor include the BCCI international banking scandal, where he led negotiations for the government that resulted in a comprehensive criminal and civil resolution involving more than 25 parties in the United States and abroad. He has had leadership responsibility in several domestic and international crises, including managing the federal response to massive civil unrest in Los Angeles and working directly with the FBI in an operation to rescue federal officers held hostage in a prison takeover.

In the private sector, Terwilliger has represented American and international energy, financial, telecommunications, healthcare, and industrial companies; as well as individuals in government investigations and in civil and criminal litigation. He has tried over 50 cases in his career and routinely appears for clients in federal trial and appellate court proceedings. Terwilliger continues to contribute to the public discussion on public policy and related legal issues, most recently as a witness before the first hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee’s Over-Criminalization Task Force.

The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) is the national organization of Republican attorneys. Past winners of the Republican Lawyer of the Year Award include NAFUSA member Theodore B. Olson.