Category Archives: Annual Conferences

San Diego Conference was a Success!

Our Annual Conference was held at The Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego California, April 6-8, 2022.  A big thank you our sponsors who help made it possible. We had our largest turnout with a record 217 attendees.
The conference kicked off on Wednesday, April 6th, with a welcome reception at the hotel sponsored by Guidepost Solutions. Lifetime NAFUSA member Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, made opening remarks. Everyone was very happy to see each other after almost 3 years.
The CLE started with introductions with an exciting attendance of new members.  Lifetime member Chuck Rosenberg gave his ethics presentation:  “The Korematsu Story: The Duty of Candor to the Court.”  Followed by an interesting Crypto panel moderated by Ken Wainstein.
Thursday lunch honored Rich Rossman and his retirement after 11 years as NAFUSA Executive Director.  Speaking at the luncheon were:  Don Stern, former president; Ron Woods former executive director; Jack Selden, former president and membership director.
Friday CLE started with an exciting panel:  “Leadership and the Legal Legacy of Women at DOJ” moderated by NAFUSA President Karen Hewitt.
Caroline Heck Miller was the recipient of this year’s Bradford award
Friday evening Larry Thompson was the keynote speaker for our conference and fielded questions from Donna Bucella.

At the closing banquet on Friday, the election of new officers and directors was held. The results were as follows:

  • President: Chuck Stevens
  • President Elect: Ken Wainstein
  • Vice President: Donna Bucella
  • Secretary:  John Richter
  • Treasurer: Tim Purdon
  • Immediate Past President:  Karen Hewitt
The new board members for the class of 2025:
  • Catherine Hanaway-ED Missouri-8th Circuit
  • Jessie Liu-District of Columbia
  • Barb McQuade-ED Michigan-6th Circuit
  • Carmen Ortiz-District of Massachusetts-1st Circuit
  • Jay Town-ND Alabama-11th Circuit
  • John Walsh-District of Colorado-10th Circuit

The 2023 NAFUSA annual conference will be held at the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay, CA, March 29-April 1, 2023.

We are actively looking for sponsors for our 2023 conference.  Any questions or to sign up, please contact NAFUSA Deputy Director Lisa Rafferty, lisarafferty27@gmail.com.

Here is the link to click all photos from the conference:

https://billsandke.smugmug.com/NAFUSA-2022-At-the-Del

Caroline Heck Miller: 2022 Bradford Award Winner

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 a series of prosecutions which 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 J. Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Treasurer John Richter. Its members included Deb Gilg, Lee Bentley, Greg Brower, Paul Fishman, Rich Hartunian, Ed Stanton, Chuck Stevens and Johnny Sutton.

This year, the NAFUSA Board of Directors voted to give the award to former AUSA Caroline Heck Miller, who retired this year from of the District of Southern District of Florida, nominated by U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez.  Caroline served 42 years in an outstanding manner is a variety of capacities. DOJ hired her directly out of law school in 1979. She joined the SD of Florida in 1983. “During an era in which women did not advance in the workplace at anywhere near the rate they do today, Caroline was a trailblazer who quickly rose into significant leadership roles within our Office. During her career Caroline was appointed to our Office’s highest leadership positions, tasked with one of DOJ’s most important overseas postings”, Gonzalez said in his nomination.

In the 1980s Caroline served as Chief of the Fraud Section. She oversaw several of the most significant criminal cases in the nation arising out of the wave of of bank and S&L crashes.

In the 1990s Caroline continued to handle some of the Office’s most complex and important prosecutions, including criminal charges resulting from the catastrophic crash of discount carrier ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 which led to the death of 110 people. In 1996, a Cuban military fighter jet shot down two planes flown over international water by members of a Miami based anti-Castro organization. A five month trial led by Caroline led to the conviction of five defendants for acting at the direction of the Cuban Directorate of Intelligence as covert spies in the United Sates.

In the mid-2000s, Caroline returned to prosecuting bank fraud cases,. Several years later she successfully prosecuted the son of the former president of Liberia. Installed by his father as the head of Liberia’s Anti-Terrosim Unit, also known as the “Demon Forces,” Taylor carried out an utterly grisly and revolting three-year campaign of torture. After the Taylor trial, Caroline served as the DOJ Attache with the Criminal Division in the UK from 2014 through 2019, before returning to the SD of Florida.

The Miami Herald in reporting on Caroline Miller’s retirement, stated, “Heck Miller came to be known as a trailblazer among prosecutors in the federal courthouse. She was also a ‘resident rabbi’ offering sage advice on the law, ethics and trials to young prosecutors, and a polished writer who did all of her own pleadings and appeals.”

NAFUSA is proud to name her our 2022 Outstanding Assistant United States Attorney.

Here are the other nominees for this year’s Bradford Award. Each of the nominees will receive recognition from NAFUSA for their exemplary service.

Ben Schrader Middle District of Tennessee

Joanne S. Osinoff Central District of California

Christopher C. Caffarone Eastern District of New York

Matthew Silverman Eastern District of New York

David W. Denton, Jr. Southern District of New York

Gill P. Beck Western District of North Carolina

Carol M. Skutnik Northern District of Ohio

Erin P. Warner Southern District of Texas

Stewart M. Young District of Utah

Stephen L. Nelson District of Utah

Daniel Hugo Fruchter Eastern District of Washington

 

“The Legacy of Women at DOJ”

On Friday, April 8, 2022, the NAFUSA Annual Conference in San Diego will feature a panel discussion entitled “The Legacy of Women at DOJ.” It will feature former United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick and former Deputy Attorney General and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. The panel will be moderated by NAFUSA President Karen Hewitt.

 

Loretta E. Lynch, the former United States Attorney General, is a partner in the Paul, Weiss Litigation Department. Ms. Lynch’s legal career has included both private law practice and public service, including three presidential appointments. Ms. Lynch served as the U.S. Attorney General from 2015-2017, where she was appointed by President Barack Obama.

In 1990, Ms. Lynch became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where she rose through the ranks, serving in the General Crimes Section as Deputy Chief (1992–93), in the Long Island Division as Chief (1994–98), and as the Chief Assistant to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (1998–99) before being named U.S. Attorney of that office in 1999 by President Bill Clinton.

Ms. Lynch returned to private practice in 2002, where she specialized in commercial litigation, white-collar criminal defense and corporate compliance issues. During this period, Ms. Lynch also served on the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and was Special Counsel to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

In 2010 Pres. Obama appointed Ms. Lynch once again as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Ms. Lynch received her J.D. and her B.A. in American Literature from Harvard University.

As one of Washington’s best-known litigators, Jamie Gorelick has represented institutions and individuals in a wide array of matters, particularly in the regulatory and enforcement arenas.  Routinely listed as one of the “Best Lawyers in America,” she was the 2018 American Lawyer  “Lifetime Achiever”, has been profiled as “A Legend in the Law” in the Washington Lawyer, and listed by the National Law Journal as one of the “Thirty Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years.”  She recently received the American Bar Foundation’s Outstanding Service Award.

Jamie has been in and out of government for most of her career.  She was one of the longest serving Deputy Attorneys General of the United States, the second highest position in the Department of Justice.She is currently a partner at WilmerHale is Washington, DC.

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is a partner in King & Spalding’s Special Matters & Government Investigations practice.  Her practice focuses on counseling clients in complex and sensitive matters, including government enforcement and regulatory matters, congressional investigations, compliance, corporate governance and crisis management. Drawing upon her nearly three decades at the Department of Justice, she specializes in internal and independent investigations for public and private organizations and boards. In addition to serving as the second-highest ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Sallly also served as the Acting Attorney General.

An accomplished trial lawyer and Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, Sally has tried numerous high-profile cases.

 

Karen Hewitt is a former United States Attorney and an experienced trial lawyer who has successfully litigated hundreds of cases in federal court for more than two decades. She currently represents companies nationwide in civil and criminal investigations and in complex business litigation. Karen’s practice focuses on defending matters involving possible violations of federal law, including the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Taft-Hartley Act, and the False Claims Act. She is Partner-in-Charge of Jones Day’s California Region, which encompasses five offices and nearly 300 lawyers. She has been recognized in Chambers as a “real powerhouse.” Karen is President of the National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys.

DAG Lisa Monaco: Keynote Speaker in San Diego

NAFUSA is pleased to announce that Deputy Attorney General  Lisa O. Monaco will be the keynote speaker at the San Diego Annual Conference on April 8, 2022.

She is the 39th Deputy Attorney General of the United States.  As the Deputy Attorney General, she is the Department’s second-ranking official and is responsible for the overall supervision of the Department.  The Deputy Attorney General serves as the Chief Operating Officer, and the Department’s litigating and policy components, law enforcement agencies, and 93 U.S. Attorneys report to the Deputy.  The Deputy Attorney General advises and assists the Attorney General in formulating and implementing the Department’s policies and programs.

A 15-year veteran of the Department of Justice, Deputy Attorney General Monaco served as a career federal prosecutor and in several leadership positions across the Department.  She began her Justice Department career as Counsel to Attorney General Janet Reno and went on to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for the District of Columbia, where she was a member of the Enron Task Force and received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Department’s highest award.  She thereafter served in several leadership roles:  Chief of Staff at the Federal Bureau of Investigation to then Director Robert S. Mueller, III; Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General; and Assistant Attorney General for National Security, the first woman to hold that position.

From 2013-2017, Deputy Attorney General Monaco was the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to the President.  In that role, she coordinated the Executive Branch’s policy and response to a wide range of security issues – including the response to international and domestic terrorist incidents, cyber threats, and natural disasters – and advised the President on all aspects of counterterrorism policy and strategy.

Deputy Attorney General Monaco has served in private practice and taught national security law.  She was born and raised in Massachusetts and is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Law School.

Kathleen Sullivan: Supreme Court Update at San Diego Conference

Kathleen M. Sullivan will give the United States Supreme Court Update at the San Diego NAFUSA Conference in April. She is partner and founding chair of the national appellate practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.  She has argued over 200 appeals including eleven in the U.S. Supreme Court.  Before joining the firm, Kathleen was a professor of law at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools and served as the eleventh Dean of Stanford Law School.  She holds a J.D. from Harvard, a B.A. from Cornell and an M.A. from Oxford (which she attended as a Marshall Scholar), and was a law clerk to Judge James L. Oakes on the Second Circuit.

San Diego Conference Registration is Open

Registration for the 2022 National Association of Former United States Attorneys (NAFUSA) Annual Conference is open.

Our Annual Conference will be held at The Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego California, April 6-8, 2022.

The conference will open on Wednesday, April 6th, with a welcome reception from 6-9 pm at the hotel sponsored by Guidepost Solutions. Lifetime NAFUSA member Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, will make opening comments. Golf will be available at 8am on Wednesday morning at the Torrey Pines North Golf Course. Bus will leave the hotel at 6:30 am.

Thursday and Friday sessions will include a panel discussion on “Leadership and the Legacy of Women at DOJ” with Loretta Lynch, Jamie Gorelick and Sally Yates, moderated by Karen Hewitt; a presentation of the Bradford Award to the top AUSA of the year; a Supreme Court Update by Kathleen Sullivan; a panel on “Crypto: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly” with Steve Bunnell, Sean Joyce, Jai Massari, and Eun Young Choi, moderated by Ken Wainstein; an update on EOUSA with Monty Wilkinson; and an ethics presentation by Chuck Rosenberg entitled “The Korematsu Story: The Duty of Candor to the Court.” On each day of the meetings, luncheons will be held for all participants. The Thursday lunch will honor retiring NAFUSA Executive Director Rich Rossman.

Thursday evening is reserved for class reunions at various off-site locations, organized by a representative of each class. The closing dinner and general membership meeting will be held on Friday with a presentation from our keynote speaker, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

Here is a link to the program: NAFUSA Program San Diego 2022 PDF.pdf

You may register by clicking on the link below. Our reserved block of rooms is already full but see the registration form for alternatives.

Attendees should be fully vaccinated and, if possible, have a booster shot, or be prepared to show proof of a negative covid test.

 

Chuck Rosenberg: Ethics Presentation at San Diego Conference

NAFUSA Board Member Chuck Rosenberg will give the ethics presentation at the San Diego NAFUSA Conference in April. It will be entitled “The Korematsu Story: The Duty of Candor to the Court.”

Chuck has held numerous senior positions in the United States Department of Justice – as the United States Attorney in both the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Texas, as the senior counselor for national security to one Director of the FBI, and as the Chief of Staff to another FBI Director, as counselor to the Attorney General of the United States, as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, and as the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration – a position from which he resigned in 2017. 

Chuck joined the Department of Justice directly out of law school, through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, and quickly found the job he enjoyed most – as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, in Norfolk and Alexandria. There, he tried dozens of criminal cases before juries and briefed and argued many of those cases to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Chuck prosecuted complex financial fraud crimes, public corruption, violent crimes, and national security cases. 

Chuck currently works as a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC, as a senior counsel for a Washington, D.C. law firm, and as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, where he teaches National Security Law and Policy.  He is a graduate of Tufts University (BA), Harvard University (MPP), and the University of Virginia (JD).  Chuck also hosted the acclaimed podcast, The Oath, which finished a four-season run with more than ten million downloads (available at msnbc.com/theoath).

FBI Director Chris Wray to Open the San Diego NAFUSA Conference

NAFUSA life time member Chris Wray was the keynote speaker at the last NAFUSA conference, held in San Francisco in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has prevented holding conferences in 2020 and 2021. Our next conference is scheduled for April 6-8, 2022, at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. Director Wray will return and open the conference with remarks at the Welcome Reception on the evening of April 6, 2022.

Christopher Wray became the eighth Director of the FBI on August 2, 2017.

Mr. Wray was born in New York City. He graduated from Yale University in 1989 and earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1992. He then clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In 1993, he began working in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mr. Wray began his Department of Justice career in 1997 as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, where he prosecuted cases ranging from public corruption to gun trafficking and financial fraud. In 2001, he joined the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, where he served as associate deputy attorney general and then principal associate deputy attorney general, with oversight responsibilities spanning the full Department.

In 2003, Mr. Wray was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division. In addition to overseeing criminal matters, Mr. Wray played a key role in the evolving national security mission of the Department as it responded to the attacks on 9/11. He also served on the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force and supervised the Enron Task Force and other major national and international fraud investigations. At the conclusion of his tenure, Mr. Wray was awarded the Edmund J. Randolph Award, the Department of Justice’s highest award for leadership and public service.

After leaving the Department of Justice in 2005, Mr. Wray returned to private practice at the law firm King & Spalding, where he chaired the Special Matters and Government Investigations Practice Group.

The Welcome Reception will be sponsored by our friends at Guidepost Solutions. Golf will be available on Wednesday morning, and CLE meeting will take place on Thursday and Friday mornings. The Planning Committee is putting together a very exciting program, details of which will appear on our website and in the monthly newsletter. The conference will conclude on Friday, April 8, with a dinner and a keynote speaker to be announced.

Registration will begin mid-January. Members will receive email invitations. The registration form will include an option for booking a room at the Del Coronado. It is suggested that you register early in order to assure a room.

 

2022 NAFUSA conference will be held in San Diego April 6-8, 2022

2016 NAFUSA Conference at the Del Coronado

The 2022 NAFUSA conference is confirmed at the Hotel del Coronado. Due to the pandemic, it will be NAFUSA’s first conference since 2019 in San Francisco. Golf for those interested will be held at Torrey Pines north course the morning of Wednesday April 6, 2022. The conference will kick off Wednesday evening with an event from 6:30-9:30 pm at the hotel on the beach.  CLE programs will be on Thursday and Friday from 8:00 am to approximately noon.  An off site event will be planned for either Thursday or Friday afternoon for all to attend.  As usual, Thursday evening will be the class dinners.  We are looking for a “captain” from each administration to coordinate the class dinners.  Please reach out to Lisa Rafferty if you would like to take on that role. The conference will conclude Friday evening with a dinner and key note speaker.  The conference committee is working hard to put together an amazing program.  Details will be released once speakers are confirmed.  Keep an eye on our monthly newsletters for updates on the conference.  Registration will open in January 2022.