NAFUSA Board Member Hal Hardin filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in Davidson County Chancery Court in Tennessee on behalf of John Jay Hooker, a lawyer, civil-rights activist and former political candidate. Hooker is facing terminal illness and is challenging Tennessee’s law that prohibits assisted suicide.
Photo: Larry McCormack, The Tennessean
Hardin, shown right, served as United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee (1977-1981).
NAFUSA member Joe Whitley is named Attorney of the Month and featured in the current issue of the Metro Atlanta Edition of Attorney at Law. The article highlights Joe’s distinguished career, which includes serving as U.S. Attorney in the Middle and the Northern District of Georgia, the Acting Associate Attorney General, and the first General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. The article also discusses his recent move to Baker Donelson.
Timothy J. Heaphy and Ann Tompkins, two Obama appointees who have recently left the U.S. Attorney positions to join law firms, are NAFUSA’s newest members.
Tim Heathy, left, is a partner at Hunton & Williams LLP, and is chair of the firm’s white collar defense and internal investigations practice. Prior to joining Hunton & Williams, Tim was the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. He served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), advising the Attorney General on emerging policy issues, served as Chairman of the AGAC’s Subcommittee on Enforcement Coordination, Victims Issues and Community Outreach, and was a member of the Subcommittees on Criminal Practice, Violent and Organized Crime and Civil Rights.
Before serving as the US Attorney, Tim was a partner at an international law firm where he represented individuals and business entities in white collar criminal defense matters. From 1994 to 2006, Tim served as Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia and the Western District of Virginia. Prior to law school, Tim served on the staff of then-Senator Joseph R. Biden. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.
Anne M. Tompkins, right, has joined Cadwalder, Wickersham & Taft as a partner in the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Group, resident in the Charlotte and Washington offices. Her practice focuses on representing companies and financial institutions, as well as their officers and directors in criminal, civil, and administrative investigations.
Anne was the United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina from April 2010 to March 2015. She led numerous high-profile, complex criminal and civil investigations during her tenure, including a public corruption case involving the former mayor of Charlotte, the national security case against former general and CIA Director David Petraeus. Anne served on the AGAC and was appointed Co-Chair of the Civil Rights Subcommittee and was an active member of the Health Care Fraud and White Collar Crime Subcommittees.
Anne also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of North Carolina, during which time she was detailed for eight months to the Regime Crimes Liaison Office in Baghdad, Iraq, where she assisted the Iraqi Special Tribunal investigation into international humanitarian crimes committed by members of the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Anne was an adjunct professor at the Charlotte School of Law, teaching Criminal Procedure and White Collar Crime. She received her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law.
The Department of Justice on May 13, 2015, announced the appointment of NAFUSA member Chuck Rosenberg to serve as Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“Throughout his distinguished career in law enforcement and public service, Chuck has earned the trust and the praise of his colleagues at every level,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. “He has proven himself as an exceptional leader, a skilled problem-solver, and a consummate public servant of unshakeable integrity. And he has demonstrated, time and again, his deep and unwavering commitment not only to the women and men who secure our nation, but to the fundamental values that animate their service. As Acting Administrator of the DEA, Chuck will play a vital role in the work of this Administration and this Department of Justice to pursue American priorities, protect American interests, and safeguard our way of life. I can think of no better individual to lead this storied agency, and I have no doubt that his tenure will be defined by the same commitment to honor and excellence that has guided him throughout his distinguished career. I congratulate him once again on this well-deserved appointment, and look forward to all that he will achieve in the days ahead.”
A veteran of the Justice Department, Rosenberg served as Chief of Staff to the Director of the FBI prior to his new appointment. In that role, he worked closely with Director James B. Comey and other senior FBI officials on counterterrorism, intelligence, cyber and criminal investigative issues, including with international, federal, state and local law enforcement partners. He also worked closely with Director Comey on management, policy and personnel issues.
“Chuck Rosenberg is one of the finest people and public servants I have ever known,” said Director Comey. “His judgment, intelligence, humility, and passion for the mission will be sorely missed at FBI. I congratulate our friends at the Drug Enforcement Administration. This is good for the entire Department of Justice and the country.”
Rosenberg was presidentially appointed and confirmed as the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Virginia, from 2006 through 2008, and appointed by the Attorney General to serve as the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Texas, from 2005 through 2006.
Rosenberg was hired out of law school through the Attorney General’s Honors Program and has served in numerous positions throughout the Department of Justice, including Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General from 2004 through 2005, Counselor to the Attorney General from 2003 through 2004, Counsel to the Director of the FBI from 2002 through 2003, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia from 1994 through 2000, and a Trial Attorney for the Tax Division’s Criminal Enforcement Section from 1990 through 1994.
Rosenberg has also spent time working in private practice as Counsel at Hunton and Williams, from 2000 through 2002, and as a partner at Hogan Lovells US LLP (2008-2013). Rosenberg received his B.A. from Tufts University, his M.P.P. from Harvard University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia. Rosenberg assumed the role of Acting Administrator on May 18, 2015. He replaced Administrator Michele Leonhart, who previously announced her retirement.
NAFUSA member Peter Vaira (ED Pennsylvania 1978-1983) has published an article in The Legal Intelligencer on May 19, 2015, Protecting Against Cyberattacks on Colleges and Universities. Vaira writes that colleges and universities are increasing targets for cybercrime operators.
We are not talking about hackers who want access to prove their skills; the propriety information in certain university departments is valuable on the black market for big money. There is an immense amount of personal information about applicants and students that are supplied every year. Social Security numbers and personal addresses are valuable to people seeking to establish bogus credit cards for purchases of valuable property or for cash advances. There are thousands of research grants at universities that produce new products, drugs and medical devices. The research material from these projects can readily be sold on foreign markets. Many research projects do receive increased protection within the school’s system, although often not enough.
Vaira’s article examines prevention measures to be considered by the universities, colleges and their law firms.
On April 15, 2015, The National Law Journal presented its list of “75 of the most accomplished female attorneys working in the legal profession today.” The Journal said, “These women, selected from hundreds of nominations, represent excellence in private practice, corporate counsel work, public interest representation, legal education and the judiciary.”
Among the 75 is NAFUSA member Debra Wong Yang, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles. She is Co-Chair of the firm’s Crisis Management Practice Group, the White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group and the Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Consumer Protection Practice Group. She is a member of the Media and Entertainment and Intellectual Property Practice Groups.
Yang’s practice specializes in corporate crime and compliance. She served as a DOJ-appointed Monitor over an orthopedic manufacturing company with health care compliance and regulatory issues. She has also represented companies and boards in internal investigations, compliance matters, and criminal investigations. In addition, Yang has provided advice on matters relating to FCPA, trade secrets, and cyber/data intrusions. She has overseen teams of attorneys conducting internal investigations and has reviewed compliance programs in a variety of industries. She has also managed matters in the crisis arena relating to recalled products, health care and insurance.
Yang served as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, 2003-2007. Prior to being appointed United States Attorney, Yang was a California state judge. She was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1997, serving for a time as a Supervising Judge, and became a member of the Los Angeles Superior Court bench in 2000.
Yang has been an adjunct professor at the USC School of Law and has instructed at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and at California’s Judicial College.
Yang has remained active in the local and legal communities for an extensive time. The Daily Journal named her to the 2014 list of California’s Top 100 lawyers highlighting her role in defending USC in the media followed suit involving an off-campus shooting. And the April 2015 Global Investigations Review selected her as one of the top 100 women leading investigations around the world. In 2010 she was named by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Federalist Society as Lawyer of the Year. In 2009, she was selected to serve as a Los Angeles Police Commissioner, part of the civilian oversight committee of the Los Angeles Police Department. She has been recognized as a champion of civil rights by both the Los Angeles City Council in 2002 and the Inglewood Superior Court. She was selected by the National Law Journal as one of the Top 100 Influential Minority Attorneys and by the Los Angeles Business Journal for their Who’s Who in Law.
Yang received her Juris Doctorate in 1985 from Boston College Law School and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ronald S.W. Lew in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The Fiske Fellowship was established in 2001 at the University of Michigan Law School by NAFUSA member Robert Fiske, ’55, a senior counsel at Davis Polk & Wardwell and a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Three-year fellowships are awarded annually to up to four Michigan Law graduates who serve as government lawyers. Fellows receive a $5,000 first-year cash stipend and debt repayment assistance to cover required annual payments for all educational loans, a combination that provides much-needed financial breathing room.
In establishing the fellowship, Fiske hoped to encourage more Michigan Law students and recent graduates to consider government service, despite the lure of larger paychecks in the private sector.
Bob Fiske is shown below in a photo from the Spring 2015 edition of Law Quadrangle, Notes from Michigan Law, with the 2014 Fellows (left to right): Samuel Hall, ’13, Elizabeth Grossman, ’12, Meridith Garry, ’13, and Austin Hakes, ’12.
NAFUSA Foundation President Mike McKay (WD of Washington 1989-1993), shown left, and William Hyslop (ED of Washington 1991-1993, and president-elect of the Washington State Bar Association), shown right, have joined the effort in Washington to try to convince the state senate to reconsider its announced budget cuts for the state courts.
In an OpEd in The Seattle Times on April 28, 2015, entitled Budget cuts threaten justice, McKay says,
Though Washington ranks dead last among the 50 states in the percentage of state funding for the courts — our judicial branch receives just two-fifths of 1 percent of the state budget — the state Senate is now proposing even deeper cuts in the funding of our court system.
Hyslop’s OpEd was published in The Spokesman-Review on April 26,2105. In Further court cuts jeopardize system, Hyslop argues,
Lawmakers must balance the budget and provide for many, many services to Washingtonians. As part of that balance, a fair and functioning judicial system is not a luxury. It is a basic tenet of American governance, a right of the people. It protects us from the abuses of all kinds of power and helps the rest of government and society to function.
Continuing to cut court budgets in this manner harms everyone.
In a follow up interview, McKay stated:
These cuts are grossly disproportionate to those made for the rest of state government. The state supreme court recently ordered the legislature to increase its appropriations to public schools, ruling that the decades-long practice of allocating fewer and fewer dollars for public schools has violated our state constitution. It has been speculated by some that these draconian cuts are calculated to punish the state supreme court for enforcing the constitution.
NAFUSA board member and life member Bill Leone (Colorado 2004-2006) has been named Head of Disputes for the New York office of Norton Rose Fulbright. In addition, he is now the Chairman at the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission. Bill served as US Attorney in Colorado and led several high profile, complex white collar investigations including the prosecution of Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio. He is shown above moderating the ethics panel at the NAFUSA Boston conference in 2014.
Norton Rose Fulbright is the 3rd largest law firm in the world following the combination of Norton Rose LLP and Fulbright & Jaworski, with 55 offices around the globe, including North and South America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia. Bill continues to spend time in Denver where he maintains his practice and has led the litigation group for the past four years. Bill’s practice includes investigations in the energy, medical device, health care and technology sectors, as well as a portfolio of white collar cases and civil and criminal trials.
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