On July 1, 2019 NAFUSA board member Barry Grissom stepped down from the NAFUSA board and announced his campaign for the United States Senate from the State of Kansas.

In 2010, Barry was nominated to be the U.S. Attorney for Kansas and was unanimously confirmed by Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate.Barry is best known for helping lead the investigation and successful prosecution of the Wichita Airport and the Fort Riley bombers – two domestic terrorists who had plotted to kill hundreds if not thousands of Americans.

Working with local sheriffs and police, he helped take 23 members of the violent Norteños gang off the streets in Dodge City, and disarmed convicted felons throughout Western Kansas.

As U.S. Attorney, Barry worked with law enforcement and civil rights advocates to improve community relations, founded Kansas’s first Human Trafficking Working Group, helped clean up gang activity, oversaw Kansas’s Project Safe Childhood program targeting child sex offenders and led the charge among federal authorities to break up a dogfighting ring responsible for capturing and abusing over 400 pit bulls.

In 2020, Kansas will elect a new U.S. Senator due to the announced retirement of current Senator Pat Roberts. The state of Kansas has only had three “open” U.S. Senate races in the past 40 years.

Barry Grissom has dedicated his entire career to fighting for those most vulnerable in our society. Inspired by Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, Barry has never lost sight of the fact that his purpose as an attorney is to use the law to ensure justice for all.

The son of a Korean War veteran, Barry grew up the oldest of three and spent his childhood moving all across the American South and Midwest because of his father’s job with the International Harvester Corporation. After his family moved to Shawnee Mission, Barry attended Johnson County Community College before graduating from the University of Kansas. To help put himself through college and law school, Barry worked odd jobs including painting houses.

After graduating from the Oklahoma City University law school, Barry came back home to Kansas to begin his career as an attorney. He founded a solo law practice focused on helping those who faced injustice – including standing up against discrimination, fighting for workers to get fair wages, and protecting those who faced the wrenching decision to declare bankruptcy after they had emptied their savings to pay their medical bills.

“It was always difficult to watch someone who had worked their whole life come into your office and drop their head in shame because they’ve had to declare bankruptcy. Not because they were wasteful, but because they had the bad luck of getting sick and needed to protect what few assets they had left. You never forget that.” – Barry Grissom

“Protecting the American people from terrorism and violent crime was our primary mission in the U.S. Attorney’s office. It was vital that we disrupt attacks against our homeland and bring terrorists to justice. I’m proud that our office kept Kansans safe.” – Barry Grissom

Barry lives in Northeast Kansas with his wife Renee. They have two children and two grandchildren.

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Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced on July 12, 2019, that NAFUSA member Zachary W. Carter, the City’s Corporation Counsel, will be retiring from his post at the end of August of this year. When he retires, Carter will have served nearly six years as the City’s chief legal officer, one the City’s longest-serving in the history of the Law Department.

“On behalf of the entire City, I want to thank Zach for his almost six years of dedicated service,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Zach is one of our City’s finest public servants. During his tenure, he has stood for fairness and equity, as is evident by his work settling with the Central Park Five and victims of the unconstitutional and unjust Stop and Frisk era. He has moved our Law Department forward, and our City is better off for it.”

“It has been my privilege to lead the finest government law office in the country. The dedicated lawyers and support professionals of the Law Department are without peer in their knowledge of the specialized areas of law implicated in the extraordinarily varied operations of dozens of agencies that provide essential services spanning education,  housing, environmental protection, law enforcement and public health. I will be forever grateful to the Mayor for giving me the opportunity to provide legal support for this administration’s policies and to participate in a quest to make this a thriving, fair and equitable city,” said Carter.

During his tenure, Carter resolved longstanding litigation, ushering in a new era of equity and justice for the City. Memorable settlements range from the overuse of stop and frisk and the Central Park Five case to excessive uses of force at Rikers Island and the underrepresentation racial minorities in the ranks of FDNY, all on terms that reconciled the values of fairness and equity with the obligation to keep New Yorkers safe. 

Carter has also implemented numerous changes at the Law Department which have made the Department more effective in carrying out its mission. Last year, he launched a Strategic Litigation initiative to expand the City’s impact litigation efforts and expanded the Family Court Division to handle increased caseloads after the City lobbied for and the State passed Raise the Age Laws so 16 and 17 year olds can no longer be charged as adults.

Carter oversees a staff of nearly 1000 lawyers and approximately 700 support professionals who defend the City, its agencies and employees in litigation, initiate lawsuits to advance the City’s interest, provide legal support for critical functions of all city agencies and ensure that the policies advanced by the City’s administration are grounded in sound principles of law.

Carter was appointed in 2014, having previously served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and as both a Criminal Court and United States Magistrate Judge. When Carter steps down in August, Georgia Pestana, the agency’s First Assistant Corporation Counsel, will serve as Acting Corporation Counsel.  The City is launching a national search for Carter’s replacement.

NAFUSA Immediate Past President Hal Hardin was recently honored at the Tennessee Bar Association Convention with this year’s prestigious William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award, presented by the TBA’s Young Lawyers Division Fellows. The Leech Award is presented each year to a Tennessee lawyer who has given outstanding service to the legal profession, the legal system and the local community.

Hardin also participated at the convention on a panel with Congressman Bob Clement and Judge Ken Starr in the Bench/Bar CLE discussion of historical events.

Continuing his involvement in bar activities, on June 26, 2019, Hardin interviewed the Hon. Gilbert Merritt Jr., Senior Judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Sixth Circuit, as part of the oral history project of the Nashville Bar Association. Judge Gilbert served as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee earlier in his career.

FBI director Christopher Wray has selected another former King & Spalding colleague to serve as his chief of staff

NAFUSA member Paul B. Murphy, a King & Spalding partner in Atlanta and former associate deputy attorney general in Washington, D.C., has been tapped to replace Zack Harmon, spokeswomen at the FBI and the law firm confirmed. Harmon, former King & Spalding partner himself, has served as Wray’s chief of staff since January 2018.

Murphy is slated to assume the chief of staff’s duties June 24. Wray said Murphy brings “a wealth of experience” to the FBI.

Murphy is a partner in King & Spalding’s special matters and government investigations practice. Wray, also a former King & Spalding partner, chaired that practice until he was appointed by President Donald Trump to replace former FBI director James Comey. Wray also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta early in his legal career.

Murphy said he is excited to work with Wray again, adding he has “great affection” for the Justice Department and “tremendous respect for the mission and work of the FBI.”

“While it was a difficult decision to leave King & Spalding and the many friends with whom I’ve worked for the past 15 years, the special matters team has a deep bench of amazingly talented people, and I know that the group will continue to thrive and accomplish great things.”

Murphy—the son of U.S. District Senior Judge Harold Murphy of the Northern District of Georgia—joined King & Spalding in 1988 after earning a law degree at the University of Georgia. Like Harmon and other veterans of King & Spalding’s special matters and government investigations practice, Murphy has extensive experience working for the U.S. Department of Justice. The practice was founded and initially chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell, who served under President Jimmy Carter. The practice focuses on white-collar criminal defense; civil and regulatory investigations; and internal corporate and congressional investigations.

In 1997, Murphy left King & Spalding for a four-year stint as an assistant U.S. attorney in Georgia’s Southern District. Murphy was then tapped to be chief of staff for then-U.S. Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, another former King & Spalding government investigations practice veteran. Murphy also served as an associate deputy attorney general overseeing the DOJ’s criminal and civil health care fraud enforcement program, and was the principal policy liaison to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In January 2004, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft picked Murphy to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

On May 29, 2019, President Trump announced his intention to nominate NAFUSA member David Barlow to serve as Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.

Barlow joined Dorsey & Whitney in its Utah office in October 2018, following a career in private practice and as United States Attorney for the District of Utah. Immediately prior to joining Dorsey, David was a Vice President for Walmart’s $40-billion Health and Wellness businesses, including more than 8,000 pharmacies, vision centers and medical clinics throughout the United States. Before joining Walmart, he was a partner in Sidley Austin LLP for more than a decade, where he handled government and internal investigations across the United States, Europe and Asia, represented clients in both civil and criminal matters in state and federal courts and litigated a wide range of cases.

He was nominated by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah in September 2011. Immediately prior to his service as U.S. Attorney, he served as Senator Mike Lee’s Chief Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In his role as U.S. Attorney from 2011 to 2014, Barlow led an office of approximately 85 personnel, including 40 Assistant U.S. Attorneys who represented the United States in criminal prosecutions and civil litigation. During his tenure, the office conducted thousands of investigations and prosecutions together with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. He also served on the DOJ’s national White Collar Crime Subcommittee and Healthcare Fraud Working Group and chaired the Local Government Coordination Working Group. Barlow also served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.

Barlow completed his three year term on the NAFUSA Board of Directors last October.

On May 13, 2019, President Trump nominated NAFUSA life member William D. Hyslop to be the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 27, 2019.

Hyslop is a Principal in the Spokane, Washington, office of Lukins & Annis PS, where his practice focuses on complex commercial and business litigation in the State and Federal courts. Hyslop previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington from 1991 to 1993. Hyslop served as president of the Washington State Bar Association and Federal Bar Association for the Eastern District of Washington. He received his B.A. from Washington State University, his M.P.A. from the University of Washington, and his J.D. from the Gonzaga University School of Law.

Hyslop has received the Washington State Bar Association’s President’s Award, the Spokane County Bar Association’s Professionalism Award, and the Washington State Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award.

Hyslop said, “I’m looking forward to continuing to support our justice system and working with the fine people at the U.S. Department of Justice.”

NAFUSA member Peter Vaira has published an article in The Legal Intelligencer entitled: What Are the Duties of the General Counsel to the Pa. Supreme Court? Pennsylvania recently created a position of counsel to the court and Vaira examined similar practice in several states, including Texas, Missouri, Michigan and Rhode Island. His result is an interesting study of a practice not well known to the average practicing lawyer.

Click here to read the full article.

Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, announced on April 8, 2019, that NAFUSA board member Paul Charlton had joined its Phoenix office as a partner in its Litigation and White Collar practices.

Charlton is known as a seasoned trial lawyer who successfully defended corporations and high-net -worth individuals who were the subject of state and federal investigations. A former career prosecutor, he ended his nearly 20 years of public service as Arizona’s United States Attorney. Charlton also works in Native American Law and successfully advocated for Native American tribes and tribal leaders on nationally reported leaders. He is sought-after and often-quoted media commentator on litigation in the news, and, with his wife, owns and operates a cattle ranch. Charlton earned his JD from the University of Arizona, where he was the note and comment editor for the Arizona Law Review, and his BA from there, as well.

Dentons’ Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice is comprised of more than 200 lawyers in the United States, focusing on complex disputes in federal and state courts across the country, as well as before regulatory agencies, administrative bodies and arbitration tribunals. Dentons’ Litigation group has consistently received top rankings in leading trade publications, including The Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500 and Chambers USA. Law360 has named Dentons one of its “Top 50 Litigation Powerhouse Firms.” The Daily Report awarded Dentons “Insurance Litigation Department of the Year” in 2017. BTI Consulting named Dentons’ Litigation team to its “Fearsome Foursome” in 2017 and its “Fearsome Five” in 2018, crediting the litigators’ intense approach and fierce strategy on behalf of clients in the competitive legal market. BTI also named Dentons a “Powerhouse” in all eight litigation categories it measured.

Dentons is the world’s largest law firm, delivering quality and value to clients around the globe. Dentons is a leader on the Acritas Global Elite Brand Index, a BTI Client Service 30 Award winner and recognized by prominent business and legal publications for its innovations in client service, including founding Nextlaw Labs and the Nextlaw Global Referral Network. Dentons’ polycentric approach and world-class talent challenge the status quo to advance client interests in the communities in which we live and work. www.dentons.com

NAFUSA life member Jeffrey A. Taylor has been hired by Fox Corp. as its chief litigation counsel and executive vice president. Fox announced on Friday, March 22, that Taylor would be in charge of overseeing labor and employment, litigation, content protection and compliance matters for all of Fox’s networks and assets.

At Fox, Taylor will oversee legal matters concerning Fox Network, Fox Sports, FSI, FS2, Fox Deportes, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Television Stations and other holdings, according to the company.

Taylor served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (2006-2009). He also served as counselor to Attorney Generals John D. Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales.  He most recently served as the deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer of General Motors. He previously served as vice president and general counsel for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. Before that he served as chief executive of Ernst & Young’s Fraud Invesigation and Dispute Practices in the Americas.

Taylor earned his juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School and his bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University.