WilmerHale announced that NAFUSA member Robert S. Mueller III is rejoining the firm as a partner after serving as special counsel for the US Department of Justice.

Mr. Mueller’s practice will focus on high-profile investigations and crisis management, similar to his work at the firm before his service as special counsel.

“We couldn’t be happier to have Bob, our extraordinary friend and colleague, return to WilmerHale,” said Robert Novick, the firm’s co-managing partner. “Few lawyers have been entrusted with as many matters of national significance as Bob, in both his public service and in private practice. Bob embodies the highest values of our firm and profession. We’re privileged to work alongside him once again.”

“I’m glad to be at WilmerHale once again, a firm with a tradition of honoring public service,” Mr. Mueller said. “It was an honor to serve as special counsel. Now, I look forward to resuming my private practice alongside the talented lawyers at the firm.”

Mr. Mueller’s career in government service and law enforcement spans more than 37 years. He was a United States Marine Corps officer, an assistant US attorney in three different offices, US attorney for the Northern District of California, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division, and the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr. Mueller, the longest-serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover, assumed that role just one week before the September 11 attacks and served for 12 years under two presidents. In 2017, Mr. Mueller was appointed special counsel by the US deputy attorney general to oversee the investigation of Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and related matters.

From March 2014 until his appointment as special counsel in 2017, Mr. Mueller was a partner at WilmerHale. He was a partner at one of WilmerHale’s predecessor firms, Hale and Dorr in the years 1993–1995. Hale and Dorr merged with Wilmer Cutler Pickering LLP in 2004, creating the present firm.

Mr. Mueller earned his law degree in 1973 from the University of Virginia School of Law where he served on the law review. He received an MA in international relations from New York University in 1967 and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 1966.

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

• President: Paul Coggins
• President Elect: Karen Hewitt
• Vice President: Chuck Stevens
• Secretary:  Ken Wainstein
• Treasurer: Donna Bucella
• Immediate Past President:  Terry Flynn

Paul Coggins was elected President of the National Association of Former United States Attorneys (NAFUSA) during its Annual Meeting in San Francisco last month. Coggins, who served as the organization’s President-Elect for the past year and previously as Vice President, was U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas from 1993 to 2001. He is currently the Co-Chair of Locke Lord’s White Collar Criminal Defense and Internal Investigations Practice Group.

Coggins twice served on the U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Council and, in 1998, became its Vice Chair. As U.S. Attorney, he prosecuted the first federal “three strikes” case in Texas and some of the earliest cybercrime cases in the United States. He also prosecuted one of the most complex cases ever brought under the Economic Espionage Act, stamped out one of the nation’s largest immigrant smuggling rings and built one of the nation’s first health care fraud task forces.

Coggins focuses his practice on white collar criminal defense and has represented numerous Fortune 500 clients in high-stakes litigation before federal courts and the SEC. He also has conducted internal investigations involving alleged tax, fraud and securities violations. In addition, he develops compliance and ethics programs for corporations and other business entities.

Coggins is a graduate of Yale University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. In addition to his legal work, he has published two books: a novel (The Lady Is the Tiger) and a nonfiction work on sports (Out of Bounds), which he co-authored with former Congressman Tom McMillen. His second novel (Sting Like a Butterfly) will be released in March 2020.

Steptoe & Johnson LLP is pleased to announce that prominent white-collar lawyer, veteran prosecutor and corporate compliance monitor Michael R. Bromwich is joining the firm’s esteemed White-Collar Criminal Defense practice as a senior counsel. He will reside in the firm’s Washington office and also have a presence in the firm’s New York office.

Bromwich brings nearly 40 years of experience as a federal prosecutor, a special prosecutor, an inspector general, the country’s top offshore drilling regulator, the compliance monitor of major public companies and public agencies, and a criminal defense lawyer. Over the years, he has been called on countless times – by public corporations, private companies, federal, state, and local governments, cabinet secretaries, and the president of the United States – to deal with issues and problems of private and public significance.

In private practice, Bromwich has conducted internal investigations for private companies and other organizations, providing monitoring and oversight services, and represented institutions and individuals in white-collar criminal and regulatory matters and congressional matters. Most recently, his publicly disclosed representations have included Christine Blasey Ford and Andrew McCabe. He has also served as the independent monitor for two of the ten largest companies in the United States – Apple and Walmart.

Bromwich’s celebrated career also includes serving as the Inspector General at the Department of Justice (DOJ), where he was responsible for investigating public corruption and systemic issues relating to waste, fraud, and abuse within the DOJ and its law enforcement agencies including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). His work included investigations of the FBI Laboratory, the FBI’s role in the Aldrich Ames affair, and the DEA’s involvement in the CIA-crack cocaine controversy. During his five years as Inspector General, Bromwich took a new and virtually anonymous agency within the DOJ and shaped it into an internal investigations powerhouse.

Bromwich previously served as an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, and as associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel for Iran-Contra.

Bromwich’s most recent public sector service took place in 2010-2011 when he was selected by President Obama to reform the regulation and oversight of offshore drilling and to serve as the country’s top offshore drilling regulator in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill. During his tenure at the Department of the Interior, Bromwich implemented a series of far-reaching regulatory and organizational reforms that revamped the nation’s regulation of offshore energy exploration, development, and production.

NAFUSA Life Member Kent Alexander (ND Georgia 1994-1997) and journalist Kevin Salwen have coauthored a new book: The Suspect- The FBI, The Media, and Richard Jewell, The Man Caught in the Middle.

Kent Alexander was the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia on July 27, 1996, when the Centennial Olympic Park bombing occurred. Kevin Salwen was a Wall Street Journal reporter and editor, who ran the paper’s southeastern section during the Olympic Games. “The Suspect” tells the story of Richard Jewell, the security guard who spotted a suspicious bag in Centennial Park minutes before the bomb detonated amid a crowd of fifty thousand people. Jewell became the FBI’s main suspect but later was cleared of any wrong doing. Warner Brothers has purchased the rights to the book and hired Alexander and Salwen as consultants on its upcoming movie on Richard Jewell.

“Meticulously reported, bracingly written, full of memorable and bizarre characters, the book casts a wary eye on the worlds of law enforcement and journalism, and their multiple failures in this tale. It’s a story with no winners – except for readers of this terrific book.”​ — Jeffrey Toobin

Harry Litman is a Washington Post contributing columnist, a former United States Attorney (Western District of Pennsylvania 1998-2001), and a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Now he has joined NAFUSA as our newest member. Harry will also join us in San Francisco.

He teaches constitutional law and national security lawat the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and the University of California at San Diego Department of Political Science. Litman also practices law with Constantine Cannon in San Francisco, specializing in the False Claims Act. He is a regular commentator on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. He is the creator and executive producer of the “Talking Feds” podcast (@talkingfedspod), which has featured many NAFUSA members. Litman served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Anthony Kennedy. Prior to law school, Litman worked on the Associated Press baseball desk and as a feature film production assistant in New York City. Litman and his wife, Julie Roskies Litman, have three children.

NAFUSA Life Member Chuck Rosenberg will present the ethics lecture at the San Francisco conference in September: “The Korematsu Story-Duty of Candor to the Court”. Chuck also moderated the panel on opioids at the Washington conference in 2017. Chuck is currently a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC. His popular podcast, The Oath, features interviews with several former Justice officials, including NASUSA members Pat Fitzgerald and Barbara McQuade as well as Jim Comey, Sally Yates and others. Click on the photo below or visit msnbc.com/theoath.

NAFUSA member Peter Vaira posted an article on July 15, 2019, in the Legal Intelligencer on: Federal Effort Against Organized Crime: How It Began and Where It Is Today. Peter served as the United States Attorney for the ED of Pennsylvania (1978-1983) and earlier as the Organized Crime Strike Force Chief in the ND of Illinois. He is currently a member of Greenblatt Pierce Funt and Flores.

With Barry Grissom’s resignation from the NAFUSA board of directors to run for the United States Senate, the NAFUSA ByLaws authorized the board to select a member to fill Barry’s vacancy in the class of 2021. The board has selected Richard (Rick) Hartunian to fill the remainder of Barry’s term.

Rick is a partner in the New York City office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, having joined the firm’s Investigations and White Collar practice in August, 2017 after a 20-year career with the Department of Justice. Rick served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York from 2010 – 2017, and during his tenure was appointed Vice Chair and Chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.

“I am truly honored to be appointed to the Board of this tremendous organization, whose purpose is to  promote and defend the integrity and independence of our United States Attorneys’ Offices.  It is a privilege to be associated with so many outstanding former DOJ colleagues, each of whom deeply understands the critical importance of that mission,” Rick said upon being notified of his appointment.