The photos from the Atlanta conference are now available. Some examples follow:
Atlanta Planning Committee: Joe Whitley, Bob Barr, Kent Alexander and Rick Deane
Panel on Internal Investigations: Dan Webb, Kevin O’Connor, Brain Loughman, Jay Stephens, Lanny Breuer, Sharon Zealey and David Remnitz
Panel on immigration: Julie Myers Wood, Nina Perales, Ali Mayorkas, Luther Strange, Chief John King and Charlie Savage
NAFUSA Board and Officers
Rick Deane and his Atlanta based committee of Kent Alexander, Bob Barr and Joe Whitley succeeded in hosting one of the best NAFUSA conferences ever held. The opening day set the tone when over 40 golfers enjoyed the prestigious East Lake Golf Club, home two weeks earlier to the PGA tour. The rest of the conference attendees joined the golfers in the evening for the opening cocktail reception, hosted by Greenberg Traurig. The crowd was welcomed to Atlanta by Former Mayor Shirley Franklin.
On Friday morning, the CLE program began with welcomes from the Georgia Attorney General Olens and current Georgia U.S. Attorneys, Edward J. Tarver and Michael J. Moore. Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben gave a presentation on the Supreme Court Term, 2011-2012, describing many of the significant cases of the term which he had personally argued. The Friday program closed with a panel sponsored by Ernst & Young on Corporate Compliance- Investigations, Diligence and Analytics and moderated by Jay Stephens. The panelists were Assistant AG Lanny Breuer; NAFUSA members Dan Webb, Kevin O’Connor and Sharon Zealey; and Brian Loughman and David Remick from Ernst & Young.
The Friday luncheon was held at The Carter Center. Although Former President Jimmy Carter was unable to join us, he did send a personal letter in which he said:
I regret my schedule did not permit me to be in Atlanta this week to be with you in person and visit with some of my former associates. I commend you all for your service to our nation and hope that your meetings are productive.
AGAC chair Paul Fishman spoke at the Carter luncheon with his News from the Field and the AGAC.
On Friday evening, several class reunions were held: the Reagan-Bush I alumni, the Bush II group, the Clinton alumni and the Carter alums.
Saturday’s CLE began with Marshall Jarrett, Director of EOUSA, describing the State of the Department. The J. Michael Bradford Award was presented to Reid Schar, ND of Illinois, who gave a stimulating presentation on his handling of the Blagojevich case. Rory K. Little, Professor of Law at U.C. Hastings College of Law gave the Ethics Presentation. The program concluded with a panel discussion on Immigration Issues, moderated by Charlie Savage of The New York Times. The panel consisted of Alejandro N. Mayorkas, DHS, Nina Perales, MALDEF, Alabama AG Luther Strange, Chief John King, City of Doraville and former ICE director Julie Myers Wood.
The conference concluded with the Saturday banquet and business meeting. The election of Jay Stephens and the other officers and directors is described elsewhere as is the unforgettable keynote address by Mike Cody. Rick Deane was honored for his outstanding year as president of NAFUSA and his organization of the conference. Rick was surprised by a celebration of his birthday, including a cake and 60 purple balloons.
The conferences would not be possible without the support of the sponsors. This year sponors contributed $78,000 to the success of the Atlanta meeting. A full list of the sponors can be found on the right side of the home page of the NAFUSA website. By clicking on the sponsor logo you can visit their website.
Next year Washington, DC.
When health issues caused John Doar to withdraw as the keynote speaker for the Atlanta conference, long time NAFUSA member W.J. Michael (“Mike”) Cody agreed to stand in. Cody proceeded to give one of the most memorable speeches ever heard at the annual meetings. Cody was one of six lawyers representing Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis when Dr. King was assassinated while in the city to support the striking sanitation workers. Cody’s intense description of the last two days of Dr. King’s life effected everyone in the room.
Cody has written a law review article which formed the basis for his speech: King at the Mountain Top: The Representation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memphis, April 3-4 1968. Cody was present at the Mason Temple on April 3, 1968, the night before Dr. King was killed, when he made his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.
A young Mike Cody appears in the photo below in the lower right center on the day of the demonstration on behalf of the sanitation workers.
At the close of the Atlanta conference, the NAFUSA membership elected Jay Stephens, to serve as its president for 2012-2013. Stephens is senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Raytheon Company. Raytheon, with 2011 sales of $25 billion and 71,000 employees worldwide, is a leader in defense, homeland security and other government markets worldwide. Stephens leads the company’s legal and regulatory affairs, ethics and compliance programs, and corporate governance activities.
Prior to joining Raytheon, he served as associate attorney general of the United States. Before becoming associate attorney general, Stephens was corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Honeywell International (formerly AlliedSignal). From 1993 to 1997, Stephens was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro, where his practice focused on complex litigation, regulatory matters and corporate governance issues. He also served as co-managing partner of the firm’s Washington office.
Stephens served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, 1988-1993. From 1986 to 1988, Stephens served in the White House as deputy counsel to President Reagan, where he was responsible for a wide range of legal policy and regulatory issues and for providing counsel and advice to the President and senior White House staff.
From 1973 to 1985, Stephens served in a variety of positions with the U.S. Department of Justice and in the private sector, including principal associate deputy attorney general, assistant U.S. attorney and assistant special Watergate prosecutor. He also worked as an assistant general counsel with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and as an associate with the Washington law firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering.
Stephens graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in government, attended Oxford University on a Knox Fellowship, and earned his Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the Harvard Law School. He currently serves on the board of directors of the New England Legal Foundation and the Atlantic Legal Foundation. Stephens also serves on the advisory boards of the American Enterprise Institute’s Legal Center for the Public Interest and the Georgetown Law School Corporate Counsel Institute, as well as on the General Counsel Committee of the National Center for State Courts, and as a trustee of the American Friends of New College, Oxford.
The following were also elected to serve for 2012-2013: President Elect Donald K. Stern, District of Massachusett; Vice President Matthew D. Orwig, ED of Texas; Secretary Gregory A. Vega, SD of California and Treasurer E. Bart Daniel, District of South Carolina.
Alice Howzwe Martin, ND of Alabama was elected to fill the vacancy on the board in the class of 2013 due to Bart Daniels moving to the chairs. The following were elected to the the board as the class of 2015: Kent B. Alexander, ND Georgia; William J. Leone, District of Colorado; Kenneth L. Wainstein, District of Columbia; Donald W. Washington, WD of Louisiana and Sharon J. Zealey, SD of Ohio. Click here for photos of officers and directors.
Finally, it was announced that the 2013 conference will be held in Washington, DC on September 26-28 and the 2014 conference in Boston on October 9-11.
Health issues have forced John Doar to withdraw from the NAFUSA Atlanta conference. Doar, 91, was hospitalized in New York in August with a blood clot in his lung. He is recovering and his health is improving, but he will be unable to travel to Atlanta in October.
Long time NAFUSA member W.J. Michael (“Mike”) Cody, shown right, has agreed to stand in for Doar as this year’s keynote speaker. John Doar served in the Justice Department during the critical years of the civil rights movement. Cody, as a young lawyer in Memphis during that era, was also a witness to some of the most significant events of the times. His keynote topic will be entitled King at the Mountain Top: The Representation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memphis, April 3-4, 1968. Cody was one of six lawyers providing legal representation to Dr. King on that momentous day in Memphis when King was assassinated while in town to support the striking sanitation workers. Young Mike Cody is shown below on the right at the injunction hearing where the City of Memphis attempted to prevent the march in support of the sanitation workers.
Cody served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee (1977-1981) and as the Attorney General of the State of Tennessee (1984-1988). He served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (1979-1980).
Except for his years in public service and one year at another firm in Nashville, he has been a partner at Burch Porter & Johnson PLLC in Memphis since 1961. He has been a professor at Rhodes College and Lemoyne Owen College, Memphis State University School of Law and Vanderbilt University School of Law. Cody is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is co-chair, Society of Attorneys General Emeritus. He was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve and earned his J.D. at the University of Virginia. Cody is a member of the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
If you haven’t registered for Atlanta, please click on the registration button to the right and do so today. The deadline for the group rate at the W Atlanta Downtown is September 11.
As NAFUSA President Rick Deane says:
Bob Barr, Joe Whitley, Kent Alexander and I all look forward to hosting everyone in Atlanta in October. The conference will continue in the vein of what has come to be expected of NAFUSA: strong program content with outstanding presenters along with interesting and fun social outings. The immigration panel in particular will be balanced and thought provoking and John Doar will cause us to reflect on the Department at its finest. Our committee looks forward to seeing y’all in Atlanta!
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Charlie Savage, of The New York Times will be with us for the third year in a row moderating the panel of immigration issues. Charlie says:
Immigration enforcement is one of the most complex and contentious areas today at the intersection of law, policy and politics. From recent court rulings about the crackdowns in Arizona and Alabama to the Obama administration’s policy of granting relief from deportation to people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, there will be much for the panel to dig into at this year’s NAFUSA conference.
NAFUSA President-Elect Jay Stephens will moderate the panel on corporate internal investigations and says:
In an environment of aggressive regulatory enforcement and enhanced business compliance initiatives, the ‘internal investigation’ has become a critical tool to assist in resolving complex disputes and shaping management’s response to compliance concerns. Our panel of highly accomplished players from government, industry, and private practice promises to generate some fascinating perspectives about the judgments, constraints, and relationships that shape the conduct and impact of an effective internal investigation.
Click on the link 2012 NAFUSA Conference for full details of the Atlanta program, including speaker bios and a list of sponsors.
Each year, NAFUSA recognizes an Assistant U.S. Attorney for outstanding performance through the J. Michael Bradford Memorial Award. The award is named after J. Michael Bradford, who served as a U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 1994 to 2001. Bradford, who died in 2003, had a distinguished career in public service, including successfully defending the government against lawsuits stemming from the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian’s compound in Waco, Texas. NAFUSA annually solicits nominations from current U.S. Attorneys for the Bradford Award. Typically, the recipient has handled a significant investigation and prosecution or series of prosecutions that has had a significant impact and merits special recognition.
Once again, a number of exceptional nominations were made by U.S. Attorneys around the country. The Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Vice President Don Stern. Its members included Ed Dowd, Bart Daniel, Jim Brady, Matt Orwig, Karen Hewitt, and Rich Rossman. This year, the Board voted to give the award to Reid Schar.
Schar was nominated by NAFUSA member Patrick J. Fitzgerald, at the time the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Schar was an assistant U.S. attorney from 1999 through 2012. (He recently left the U.S. Attorney’s office to join Jenner & Block in Chicago). Schar handled numerous significant cases in his years at the U.S. Attorney’s office, and has repeatedly demonstrated a superior level of performance during his career. The Bradford Award specially recognizes, however, Schar’s work in the investigation and prosecution of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and various other associates.
Since 2003, Schar and a team investigated allegations of illegal activity occurring in the State of Illinois government as part of the Blagojevich administration. Through outstanding, dedicated and zealous investigative work, trial preparation, and trial presentation, Schar led a team that obtained the indictment and conviction of numerous individuals involved in corruption at the highest levels of Illinois government, including former Gov. Blagojevich, two of his chiefs of staff, and a variety of insiders who profited from their relationship with corrupt officials. This series of prosecutions was more involved than the usual complicated public corruption case. The investigation included numerous wiretaps on multiple phones. Indeed, one of these wiretaps in late October, 2008 resulted in recording of the then-governor making incriminating statements. Based upon these statements and other evidence, Schar and a team immediately produced wire applications for Governor Blagojevich’s home phone, campaign phones, and the phones of additional members of Blagojevich’s inner circle. These wire taps were approved and the recordings on those phones began approximately October 28, 2008.
The wiretaps were maintained until December 9, 2008. During that timeframe, Schar worked 7 days a week to analyze the wiretaps and continue the investigation based on leads obtained in the on-going recorded conversations. Through Schar’s hard work, crimes were uncovered related to the attempted selling of the United States Senate seat, and the Blagojevich-led shakedown of a children’s hospital and two individual contributors. Ultimately, Blagojevich, then the sitting governor of the State of Illinois, was arrested on December 9, 2008, along with his chief of staff, John Harris.
In August 10, 2010, the jury convicted Blagojevich of making a false statement to the FBI, but was hung on all other charges. The second trial began in April 2011 and lasted until June of 2011. Blagojevich testified in the second trial, and Schar cross-examined Blagojevich. Blagojevich was found guilty of multiple counts of wire fraud, extortion, and bribery related to his efforts to sell the United States Senate seat for financial gain, shaking down a children’s hospital, and shaking down a contributor in relation to then-pending legislation that would have benefitted the contributor. On December 6, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
The Board considered many other outstanding nominations made by U.S. Attorneys. In recognition for the exceptional work performed by these other assistant U.S. attorneys, NAFUSA will award a plaque to each AUSA, which will be presented by the U.S. Attorney in their respective office, along with in some cases a member of NAFUSA from that district.
The other nominations were:
NAFUSA member Sharon J. Zealey has joined the Ernst & Young sponsored panel Corporate Compliance- Investigations, Diligence & Analytics which will be held at the Atlanta conference on Friday morning, October 12, 2012. Zealey is the chief ethics & complaince officer at The Coca-Cola Company, a position she has held since October 2008. Zealey first joined Coca-Cola in 2006 working in litigation and international arbitration.
Zealey served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio from 1997-2001. She also served as deputy attorney general in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office from 1991-1995. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
NAFUSA member Kevin O’Connor, shown above, has joined the Ernst & Young sponsored panel Corporate Compliance- Investigations, Diligence & Analytics which will be held at the Atlanta conference on Friday morning, October 12, 2012. O’Connor joined United Technologies Corporation on March 19, 2012, as vice president, global compliance. He leads the global business practices function for UTC, charged with ensuring full implementation and compliance with the company’s code of ethics throughout the many countries in which UTC operates.
O’Connor served as the associate attorney general of the United States, chief of staff to the attorney general, associate deputy attorney general, and chair of DOJ’s Intellectual Property Task Force. He also served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut and senior counsel with the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. O’Connor is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. He joined UTC from the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, where he was a partner and chair of the white collar practice group.
Two senior executives at Ernst & Young have also joined the panel. Brian P. Loughman, shown left, is the Americas leader for Ernst & Young’s Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services (FIDS) practice, which helps companies deal with the complex issues related to fraud, regulatory compliance and business disputes. The practice works with some of the world’s largest companies and law firms, helping them conduct internal investigations, identify corruption and whitecollar crime, calculate damages, assess fraud risk and corporatecompliance and provide expert witness testimony.
Loughman has extensive experience in the investigation and remediation of FCPA and accounting fraud issues, corporate internal investigations, money laundering investigations and litigation consulting services. He frequently presents investigative findings to regulators including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.
Loughman’s clients have included major public corporations and law firms. He has managed numerous complex global and overseas investigation and remediation efforts for audit committees, management and outside counsel. Investigative topics have included accounting fraud and restatement issues; bribery and corruption; and occupational fraud and money laundering. His experience also includes leading cross-cultural teams investigating potential FCPA violations in Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe.
Loughman is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ireland and the Association of Chartered Accountants, United States. Brian has spoken extensively on topics including investigative issues, anti-corruption, FCPA and other related issues.
David Remnitz, shown left, is the global and Americas leader of Ernst & Young’s Forensic Technology and Discovery Services business and manages all domestic and international aspects of the e-discovery and forensic data analytics service lines.
He is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of electronic discovery and disclosure, information security, investigations based on electronically stored information, and defending corporations under inquiry by U.S. and International Regulators, law enforcement and other third parties.
Remnitz also has significant experience creating and building practice areas in the e-discovery and forensic data analytics industry. He is viewed as a luminary in the industry and frequently speaks about evolving trends in the market and how they may impact clients. He has served as a founding member of the Electronic Crimes Task Force for the US Secret Service as well as the Sedona Conference. He is a frequent media commentator and has been featured on CNN, Lou Dobbs, Fox News, and in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the International Herald Tribune.
Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Remnitz led FTI’s 500 person global technology (e-discovery) business. He has 25 years of combined experience in e-discovery, information security, and investigations involving computer based and electronic information.
Remnitz holds BS in computer engineering from Lehigh University and has attended several executive education programs at MIT/Sloan.
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