The Intelligencer, the daily legal newspaper in Philadelphia, will present the awards at a public dinner at a later date, announced that,
Our focus in selecting this group of individuals was to represent the figures who have helped to shape the law in Pennsylvania, whether through their work on the bench, assisting those in need of legal services, building a firm or any other means. We sought to honor attorneys who have had a distinct impact on the legal profession in the state.
Vaira served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 1978-1983, and is currently a partner at Greenblatt Pierce Engle Funt Flores in Philadelphia.
The relentless partisan warfare over Supreme Court appointments, including the latest manifestation involving Judge Merrick Garland, is disheartening, damaging to the court and corrosive to civil discourse. The Supreme Court renders 70 to 80 decisions every year, 20% to 30% of them highly controversial. Public acceptance of contentious outcomes, even from those who strongly disagree, is important to the stability of our Republic. And the public’s willingness to accept decisions depends on the court’s moral authority, independence, reputation and integrity.
But Olson states that a truce cannot be one-sided, arguing that the Rubicon seems to have been crossed in 1987 with the Senate rejection of Robert Bork. He urges that the Republicans could make Judge Garland’s nomination a turning point, but “Democrats must make a credible commitment to keep their part of the bargain.”
If, however, a pact could be reached among responsible Republican and Democratic leaders to give well-qualified Supreme Court nominees of either party a hearing and a vote within 120-180 days of a nomination, we could start down a path toward restoring an atmosphere of respect and civility to this process—and to prospective Supreme Court justices.
Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general, spoke on Supreme Court issues at the 2013 NAFUSA conference in Washington. He is a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
NAFUSA member Jack Selden and his firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP won a significant victory this week both for their client AseraCare and for the False Claims Act (“FCA”) defense bar generally. A federal judge struck down a $200 million FCA case against the hospice provider, holding that the government’s second guessing of physicians’ medical judgment alone cannot prove false claims.
In United States ex rel. Paradies v. AseraCare, Inc., No. 2:12-cv-245, Doc. 497 (N.D. Ala. March 31, 2016), Judge Karon Bowdre granted summary judgment for the defendant after an eight week trial, much of which consisted of conflicting expert testimony about the hospice eligibility of 123 patients. After considering the evidence presented, Judge Bowdre found that the government had failed to prove its case, as “[a] mere difference of opinion between physicians, without more, is not enough to show falsity.” Id. at 2. AseraCare Memorandum Opinion and AseraCare FINAL ORDER.
NAFUSA sponsor Orrick has announced that Melinda Haag, who served as United States Attorney for the Northern District of California for the past five years, rejoined the firm as a partner on March 1. Melinda will serve as Orrick’s Global Litigation Business Unit Leader and will reside in the firm’s San Francisco office. She is also NAFUSA’s newest member.
After being nominated by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, Melinda served as U.S. Attorney from August 2010 through September 2015. She led a team of more than 130 criminal and civil Assistant U.S. Attorneys in handling a high volume of matters that involved export enforcement, computer intrusions, intellectual property theft, international corruption, digital currency issues, securities fraud, economic crimes, national security, organized crime, public integrity and civil rights violations, among other things. Melinda served as Co-Chair of the White Collar Crime Subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and was a member of the Cybersecurity and Health Care Fraud Subcommittees.
Melinda is a deeply experienced and accomplished trial lawyer and has served as lead or co-lead counsel in more than 19 jury and bench trials. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been included on many lists of top lawyers. Melinda has consistently been named by Chambers USA as one of America’s Leading Lawyers in White Collar Crime and Government Investigations, was identified by Lawdragon as one of 500 Leading Lawyers in America, was selected twice by the Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California and five years in a row as one of the Top Women Litigators in California, and was chosen by San Francisco Business Times as one of the Most Influential Bay Area Women.
“I am thrilled to return home to Orrick,” said Melinda. “It was an extraordinary honor to serve as United States Attorney, but I was able to leave after five years knowing that the public’s interests are in the hands of an extraordinary team of lawyers who are handling some of the most important and cutting-edge cases on the DOJ’s docket. At the same time, I am excited by the growth and client results achieved by Orrick’s litigation team over the past five years. They have clearly kicked it up another notch, and I’m honored by the opportunity to lead this top-tier team.”
Armstrong Teasdale, a law firm with offices across the United States and in China, announced that the NAFUSA’s newest life member, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Stephen R. Wigginton, joined the firm in January 2016. Wigginton, who has nearly 30 years of experience, joined the firm’s St. Louis office where he will focus on large commercial class action suits, complex litigation involving corporate malfeasance, and qui tam cases. He also has experience representing municipalities and other governmental entities as well as colleges and universities in a wide range of litigation matters.
The Washington Legal Foundation is a national, non-profit, public interest law firm and policy center. NAFUSA life member Jay Stephens serves as chair to the WLF, and is counsel to the board of NAFUSA and a past president. The WLF publishes a series of “Conversations With” where Jay develops a series of questions for a written interview format.
In the Winter 2016 issue of Conversations With, Jay has a conversation with another NAFUSA member, Larry Thompson, the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States:
On March 1, 2016, Berger Singerman, announced that Pamela Cothran Marsh, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, has joined the firm as partner on the Dispute Resolution and Government & Regulatory Teams. Marsh will serve clients across the state, and she will work principally out of Berger Singerman’s Tallahassee and Miami offices. Marsh is also NAFUSA’s newest member.
As U.S. Attorney, Marsh earned a distinguished reputation for investigating and prosecuting cases relating to banking, securities, healthcare fraud, public corruption, cybersecurity, international and domestic terrorism, and human trafficking. She was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
NAFUSA life member John C. Richter won a unanimous federal jury verdict of not guilty on behalf of client Vascular Solutions, Inc. (VSI) and CEO Howard Root regarding allegations of “off-label” promotion of Vari-Lase Short Kit. With Friday’s verdict, Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth—sitting by designation in the Western District of Texas—dismissed the case, which cannot be appealed.
The verdict vindicates the company and Root, who fought the allegations in and outside court at great cost for almost five years. The allegations advanced by prosecutors at trial concerned whether VSI and Root engaged in a promotional campaign to encourage members of the company’s sales force to speak to physicians about the use of the Short Kit to treat varicose perforator veins in the leg and whether that use was outside the Short Kit’s FDA-cleared labeled indications for use and therefore an “off-label” use. The government’s case lasted three weeks. The defense rested without calling a witness. After a day-and-a-half of deliberations, the jury unanimously rejected all of the prosecutors’ allegations.
Richter, a King & Spalding partner and former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma and Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, was joined by Michael Pauzé and Robert Hur in trying the case. Pauzé and Hur are both former Assistant U.S. Attorneys. NAFUSA member Johnny Sutton, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, served as local counsel for VSI on the case.
“We are gratified that after five years of investigation and three weeks of trial, the jury completely exonerated our client, Vascular Solutions, and its CEO Howard Root,” said Richter. “The verdict vindicates the First Amendment right of life sciences companies to provide truthful information about their products.”
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