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 Matt Orwig. Its members included Ed Dowd, Hal Hardin, Karen Hewitt, Paul Coggins, Joe  Whitley and Rich Rossman. This year, the Board voted to give the award to Michael Bosworth.

Bosworth, shown above, is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and was nominated by his U.S. Attorney, Preet Bharara. Bosworth currently is the co-chief of the Complex Frauds Unit in the SDNY.  In that role, he oversees the Office’s criminal prosecutions of financial fraud, cybercrime, tax fraud, health care fraud, intellectual property crimes, and FCPA violations, among other white collar crimes.  Prior to his current assignment, he served as deputy chief of the Public Corruption Unit, where he successfully prosecuted former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, former New York State Senator Carl Kruger, and financial advisor Kenneth Starr.  Mr. Bosworth clerked for the Honorable Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Honorable Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff of the Southern District of New York. He graduated Princeton University summa cum laude in 2000 and graduated Yale Law School in 2003.

Our Friday afternoon, September 27, 2013, the NAFUSA conference will feature Michael Isikoff as the luncheon speaker at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC.

Isikoff is the national investigative correspondent for NBC News,  specializing in in national security and law enforcement issues. He has been a lead reporter for the network on the Boston Marathon bombing, the Newtown shooting massacre, the Penn State sex abuse scandal, and other major national stories. He has appeared frequently on NBC Nightly News, the Today show, Morning Joe, the Rachel Maddow Show, and many other MSNBC shows.

Isikoff is the author of two New York Times best-selling books: “Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War,” co-written with David Corn, and “Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story,” which chronicled his own reporting of the Monica Lewinsky story. A one hour MSNBC documentary  based on Hubris aired in Feb. 2012 and was the highest rated documentary on the network in a decade.

Prior to joining NBC News, Isikoff was  a national investigative correspondent for Newsweek magazine where his work earned multiple awards, including two National Magazine Awards. In  2009, Isikoff was named on a list of the 50 “Best and Most Influential Journalists” in the nation’s capital by Washingtonian magazine.

Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. Isikoff graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in 1974 and received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1976.

This year’s NAFUSA conference will be held at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC, September 26-28, 2013. Click on the “Conferences” link above for more information and for a list of speakers and their bios and a list of this year’s sponsors.

NAFUSA had a block of rooms available at the JW Marriott at a special conference rate or $264 a night. The conference rate, however, was only available until September 9, 2013. You can, however, call the hotel to check on availability.

NAFUSA members from the Reagan and Bush I administrations attending this year’s NAFUSA conference in Washington will gather on Friday evening, September 27, for a reunion dinner at the United States Supreme Court. This very special event was put together by Past President Bill Lutz, who made the arrangements through the office of Justice Alito, shown right, who has promised to try to attend at least a portion of the dinner. Justice Alito is a member of this reunion class, having served as the Reagan appointed United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey 1987-1990

Lutz has sent out an invitation to members of the Reagan-Bush I class. If you are a member and did not receive an invitation, contact Lutz at 575-526-2448 or wlutz@questoffice.net. The Friday night reunion dinners have become a NAFUSA tradition and it is expected that other classes will also be announcing plans soon.

Pete Williams has joined Ted Olson on the NAFUSA panel on the Supreme Court to be held on Saturday morning, September 27, 2013. Williams is an NBC News correspondent based in Washington. He has been covering the Justice Department and the U.S. Supreme Court since March 1993.

Prior to joining NBC, Williams served as a press official on Capitol Hill for many years. In 1986 he joined the Washington staff of then Congressman Dick Cheney as press secretary and a legislative assistant. In 1989, when Cheney was named assistant secretary of defense, Williams was appointed assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. While in that position, Williams was named Government Communicator of the Year in 1991 by the National Association of Government Communicators.

A native of Casper, Wyoming and a graduate of Stanford University, Williams was a reporter and news director at KTWO-TV and Radio in Casper from 1974 to 1985. Working with the Radio-Television News Directors Association, for which he served as a member of its board of directors, he successfully lobbied the Wyoming Supreme Court to permit broadcast coverage of its proceedings and twice sued Wyoming judges over pre-trial exclusion of reporters from the courtroom. For these efforts, he received a First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, shown left, is reportedly resigning to become the president of the University of California university system.

Napolitano has led DHS from the beginning of the Obama administration. She has also served as the United States Attorney for the District of Arizona and the governor of the state. She was the keynote speaker at NAFUSA’s Santa Fe conference in 2011.

The NAFUSA DC Planning Committee, chaired by President Jay Stephens, has announced the early plans for this year’s NAFUSA conference to be held at the J.W. Marriott in Washington, DC, September 26-28, 2013.

On Saturday morning, September 28, NAFUSA member Ted Olson, shown left, will anchor a panel on the Supreme Court. Olson served as the solicitor general of the United States, 2001-2004. He also served as the assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, 1981-1984. He is currently a partner in the Washington office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Earlier this year, Olson was named one of “The Most Influential Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal.

In March, he argued the historic case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, challenging California Proposition 8, which overturned a State Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage. Yesterday  the United States Supreme Court held the the case was not properly before the court. California officials had declined to appeal the trial court’s decision and proponents of Proposition 8 were determined by the Supreme Court to lack standing to step into the state’s shoes. The ruling left in place the trial court victory for two same-sex couples who had sought to marry, and is considered a major victory for Olson and David Boies, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs.

On Friday afternoon, following the morning CLE, the conference will hold a luncheon at the J.W. Marriott, and Charlie Savage, shown left, will once again join us, for the fourth year in a row. Savage will moderate a panel on drones.  Savage is a Washington correspondent for The New York Times. Savage covered national legal affairs for the Boston Globe from 2003 to 2008. He received a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2007. His book about the growth of executive power, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy, was named one of the best books of 2007 by both Slate and Esquire.

When the conference officially opens on Friday morning, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., shown right, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, will welcome conference attendees to Washington. Machen was nominated  by President Barack Obama on December 24, 2009 and confirmed by the United States Senate on February 11, 2010. He also serves as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.

Before Machen’s  appointment as U.S. Attorney, he was a partner at the law firm of Wilmer,  Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr and practiced in the firm’s Investigations and  Criminal Litigation group.  Before practicing at WilmerHale, Mr. Machen  served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the  District of Columbia from 1997 to 2001.
Machen joined the  U.S. Attorney’s Office in 1997 after having served as a law clerk to the  Honorable Damon J. Keith, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge for the Sixth Circuit.  Mr. Machen graduated from Harvard Law School in  1994.

During his career, Machen has been repeatedly recognized for his professional accomplishments. In  2012, he received a “Visionary Award” from the Legal Times for helping  to advance the practice of law during his time as U.S. Attorney.  In 2008,  the National Law Journal named him one of the “50 Most Influential  Minority Lawyers in America.” In 2007, The American Lawyer identified  him as one of the “50 Most Promising Litigators in America Under the Age of  45,” and in 2006, the Washingtonian magazine named him one of D.C.’s  “Top 40 Lawyers Under 40.”

On Friday afternoon, NAFUSA members will be invited for a “Day at Justice” in the Great Hall at Main Justice, where we will meet with senior DOJ officials. The planning committee is also working on two additional panels; one of government enforcement hot topics and one of criminal litigation ethics. Details will be announced soon.

Conference social events will include a Thursday cocktail reception on the Jones Day rooftop overlooking the Capitol, Friday evening class reunion dinners, a Saturday Potomac River cruise, and a concluding Saturday evening banquet.

Professor Rory K. Little, U.C. Hastings College of Law, spoke on ethics at the Atlanta NAFUSA conference in 2012. Prof. Little publishes Supreme Court Case Summaries: Professor Rory Little’s Perspective, a service from the ABA Criminal Justice Section. They are published soon after the Supreme Court’s opinions are released. Click here for his summaries for the term which ended in June 2012.

Prof. Little is also now on the “masthead” for SCOTUSBlog, for criminal cases. Here is a recent item he posted. Other SCOTUSBlog post from Prof Little can be viewed by clicking on his “bio” at the top of the posting.

The NAFUSA officers and board of directors held their annual spring meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, May 4, 2013. On the evening before the meeting, NAFUSA Treasurer Bart Daniel and his wife, Cindy, hosted a reception at their lovely historic Charleston home, a half block from the Battery. Daniel arranged  horse and buggy transportation to the restaurant for dinner.

The meeting was held on Saturday morning and chaired by President Jay Stephens, who informed the group of the developing plans for the September conference to be held at the J.W. Marriott in Washington, DC, September 26-28, 2013. The fall conference will open with a cocktail reception on the Jones Day roof top, which overlooks the Capitol. Friday and Saturday mornings will include the usual CLE programs, and the planning committee is working on three panels: government regulation hot topics, criminal litigation ethics and the United States Supreme Court. The committee is also planning a cruise on the Potomac and the conference will conclude with a banquet and business meeting on Saturday evening. More details are expected soon.

There were additional reports on finances, membership, nominations, the Bradford Award, the DOJ liaison committee and the NAFUSA Foundation. Presdient Elect Don Stern announced the 2014 conference will be held on October 9-11, at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. The 2015 conference will be held in Phoenix or Scotsdale, and the 2016 conference in San Diego.

As is the NAFUSA custom, board members and officers were responsible for their own travel and lodging expenses. Click here to view more photos from the Charleston meeting.