NAFUSA lifetime member John Ratcliffe filed for the GOP primary this week, moments before the filing deadline. He seeks to represent the 4th Congressional District of Texas, which covers the northeast corner of the state. He will take on Rep. Ralph Hall, the 90 year old GOP incumbent, the oldest member of Congress.
Ratcliffe served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, 2007-2008. He had served as first assistant to NAFUSA President-Elect Matt Orwig, and succeeded Orwig when the latter returned to private practice.
Ratcliffe is currently a partner with the Ashcroft Law Firm in the Dallas office. He earned his Juris Doctor at the Southern Methodist University School of Law. He has served as adjunct professor of law at both SMU and Texas Wesleyan University. He also served as mayor of Heath, Texas for eight years.
“There’s a sort of collective sigh of relief that not another person’s going to show up here for a bit,” Jones says in his interview with NPR. “You know, they had five acting directors in the seven-year span since they made it subject to Senate confirmation, which is difficult for any organization to build momentum or have continuity.”
NAFUSA member Peter Vaira, (ED PA, 1978-1983), shown right, was appointed by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter on October 31, 2013 as Executive Director of the Independent Advisory Commission to probe the cause a building collapse on Market Street, Philadelphia on June 5, 2013 that killed six persons. The Commission which consists of 16 persons will be chaired by Glenn Corbett, associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, of the City University of New York. The Mayor signed an executive order directing the Commission to examine the role of the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections in licensing and inspecting the contractors who were demolishing the building when it collapsed, and to further examine the entire regulatory and licensing function of L& I. The Commission is to make a final report to the mayor on July 15, 2014.
The daughter of city Treasurer Nancy Winkler was one of the persons killed while she was visiting the Salvation Army gift shop which was adjacent to the building being demolished when the building collapsed on the gift shop. Two persons involved in the demolition have been indicted by the Philadelphia District Attorney.
The Department of Licenses & Inspections has long been the subject of allegations of shakedowns and bribes, political influence, and general inefficiency regarding licenses and inspections of commercial buildings and businesses in Philadelphia.
Steptoe & Johnson LLP announced today that NAFUSA member Paul Charlton, has joined the firm as a partner. He will be based in the Phoenix office and will practice in Steptoe’s Commercial Litigation and White-Collar Criminal Defense Groups.
Charlton concentrates his practice on high-profile and complex litigation, internal investigations and white-collar criminal defense. He has represented corporations and public officials, as well as provided special assistance to those who were subjects of a state or federal investigation. Over the course of his career, Charlton has also developed an outstanding track record in the representation of Native American governments and tribal leaders.
Charlton was nominated by President George W. Bush as U.S. Attorney for Arizona in 2001 after serving as an assistant US attorney for ten years. During his six years of service as the U.S. Attorney, he established the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council (ATAC), a program that improved communication and coordination between law enforcement agencies. He also established a national security division within the U.S. Attorney’s Office to actively work with law enforcement agencies on terrorism related criminal cases, and expanded the victim advocate staff in his office to better serve crime victims. In 2002, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Victim Witness Program was awarded the Federal Service Award. In 2007, USA Today published an article that ranked Charlton number one among the nation’s 93 US attorneys for prosecutions and convictions.
With Charlton’s arrival, Steptoe’s white-collar practice, which was named a Law360 “White Collar Group of the Year” in 2011 and 2012, includes nine former federal prosecutors (including Reid Weingarten, who spoke at NAFUSA’s recent conference in Washington) with extensive trial experience and a host of lawyers with substantial experience in other government positions.
“I am honored to be joining such a well-renowned firm with its talented roster of lawyers,” said Charlton. “I am truly looking forward to working with my new colleagues, as well as using the national platform that Steptoe offers to expand my practice beyond Arizona.”
Fluent in Spanish, Charlton has been deployed by the DOJ on numerous occasions to provide instruction to Latin American prosecutors and judges on the American criminal justice system. An adjunct professor at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Charlton was named “Prosecutor of the Year” by the Arizona State Bar a year after leaving the US Attorney’s Office. He has been recommended by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, and Southwest Super Lawyers, among other accolades.
Charlton received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Arizona.
Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm widely recognized for vigorous advocacy in complex litigation and arbitration, successful representation of clients before governmental agencies, and creative and practical advice in guiding business transactions. The firm has more than 500 lawyers and other professionals in offices in Beijing, Brussels, Century City, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com
NAFUSA board member Hal Hardin, won the latest battle on behalf of the former governor of Tennessee and the former deputy to the governor. On October 29, 2013, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee, dismissed for the second time an appeal in a civil case against the governor and his deputy for actions alleged to have occurred during a 77 day and night protest in 2005 inside the Tennessee Capitol over changes to the state health care program.
Contrary to State Capitol rules, plaintiff and other protestors entered the Capitol and were allowed to stay. The governor and the deputy took no action to evict the protestors, even though they could have lawfully done so. Plaintiff claimed the governor and the deputy retaliated against him for the exercise of his First Amendment rights during the protest. The Court of Appeals affirmed the grant of summary judgment against him and the lower court’s ruling that certain documents created by the governor’s legal counsel were protected from discovery by the attorney-client and deliberative process privileges.
The law firm Bryan Cave LLP announced on October 7, 2013, that NAFUSA member Mary Beth Buchanan has joined the firm as a partner practicing in both the New York and Washington, D.C., offices. She will practice within Bryan Cave’s White Collar Defense and Securities Litigation and Enforcement Client Service Group.
Buchanan served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania from September 2001 to November 2009, having been appointed by President George W. Bush. As the U.S. Attorney, Buchanan oversaw the prosecution of more than 5,000 cases, including corporate and securities fraud, bank fraud, foreign corrupt practices, false claims, money laundering, health care fraud, public corruption and a broad range of violent crimes. Prior to that time, Buchanan spent more than 13 years as an Assistant United States Attorney litigating criminal, civil and appellate cases.
At Bryan Cave, Buchanan will concentrate her practice on internal investigations, corporate compliance, white collar criminal defense, foreign corrupt practices violations, corporate and accounting fraud, antitrust litigation, health care fraud, SEC enforcement matters, Congressional investigations and complex civil litigation.
Buchanan joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1988. She spent her first five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division, and the next nine years in the Criminal Division. During her tenure as the U.S. Attorney, she also had assignments at the DOJ, including serving as the director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, acting director of the DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women and chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. Buchanan also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Organizational Guidelines Advisory Committee, which made recommendations to the Commission for amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines for Business Organizations.
Buchanan joins Bryan Cave from the United Nations, where she served as the ethics and reputational risk officer. Buchanan conducted the United Nations’ first ethics and reputational risk assessment for U.N. Peacekeeping and Special Political Operations. She received a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Bryan Cave LLP (www.bryancave.com) has a diversified international legal practice. The firm represents a wide variety of business, financial, institutional and individual clients, including publicly held multinational corporations, large and mid-sized privately held companies, partnerships and emerging companies. Subsidiary Bryan Cave International Consulting provides trade and customs consultancy. Aided by extensive investments in technology, Bryan Cave’s more than 1,100 lawyers and other professionals in over 30 offices across the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Asia efficiently serve clients’ needs in the world’s key business and financial markets.
On Wednesday, October 16, 2013, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, SDNY, appointed NAFUSA life member Michael Bromwich to monitor Apple’s antitrust policies and procedures for two years. Judge Cote found Apple guilty of colluding with five of the six largest publishers in the U.S. in an e-book price-fixing scheme.
Bromwich was selected by President Obama in June 2010 to reform the regulation and oversight of offshore drilling in the wake of the DeepwaterHorizon accident and oil spill. He first served as the Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management Regulation and Enforcement (June 2010-September 2011), and then as Director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (October-November 2011). Bromwich served as the chief public spokesman for the Obama Administration’s reform of offshore drilling.
At the end of 2011, Bromwich left government and in 2012 joined Goodwin Proctor as a partner in its DC and New York offices, specializing in internal investigations and white-collar defense. He served as inspector general of the Department of Justice, 1994-1999. He also served as associate counsel in the Iran-Contra Office of Independent Counsel and as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
NAFUSA members Robert Morgenthau and Robert Fiske have been chosen by the New York Law Journal to be among the 16 outstanding lawyers to receive its Lifetime Achievment Award to be awarded on November 4, 2013. The 16 men and women chosen were deemed to represent those “who over the course of their varied careers have made a profound impact on the law and New York’s legal community.”
Morgenthau, shown left, who was honored by NAFUSA in 2010 upon his retirement as the Manhattan district attorney from 1975 to 2009, served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, 1961-1970. He is the only active member of NAFUSA from the Kennedy Administration. In a letter to Morgenthau dated September 24, 2013, Robert C. Post, Dean of the Yale Law School, said:
…To say that you have had a profound impact on the law and on the legal community on New York is to understate the case. You have been the spine of law enforcement in the nation’s greatest city. You have pursued justice and the rule of law without regard to the affluence or power of your targets, whether they were mafia dons, state senators, or local slumlords. You have continuously transformed the processes of law enforcement to meet modern challenges establishing sex-crime and consumer-affairs units, tackling internal police corruption, and adding bilingual staff so that more New Yorkers could have access to justice. You have been a mentor to generations of lawyers, many of whom have themselves become judges. Throughout you have been a model of probity, honor, and effectiveness. You have exemplified the law at its best, and for this we all deeply in your debt….
Robert B. Fiske Jr., shown left, served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1976-1980, and served as the chair of the AGAC. He was also the first Whitewater Independent Counsel, appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno. Fiske has been recognized as a leading lawyer in several legal industry publications. He was named “New York Bet-the Company Litigator of the Year for both 2009 and 2010)” by Best Lawyers. He is presently a senior counsel at Davis, Polk & Wardwell.
On August 12, 2013, Bone McAllester Norton PLLC, announced that Ed Yarbrough, shown left, has joined the firm, creating a new division of Criminal Defense and Government Investigations.
“Our new division has been created to serve individuals and corporate clients facing criminal charges, investigations by federal and state authorities, regulatory enforcement actions, internal investigations and compliance audits,” said Charles W. Bone, founder and chairman of Bone McAllester Norton.
Yarbrough is a former United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee appointed by President George W. Bush. He has more than 40 years of experience. He practices criminal defense and government investigations, personal injury law and litigation and dispute resolution.
Yarbrough has tried more than 150 jury cases to verdict, including more than 40 homicide cases. He has served as both prosecuting attorney and defense attorney in matters involving white collar crime, wrongful death, personal injury, public corruption and a variety of criminal charges at the state and federal levels.
A former infantry lieutenant in the United Sates Army, Yarbrough’s desire to be on the front lines has served him well in his civil and criminal law practice. He has been recognized on numerous listings among the nation’s top lawyers, like SuperLawyers and Best Lawyers in America. He has been elected a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and received the first Criminal Justice Section Service Award from the Tennessee Bar Association in 2011.
Bone McAllester Norton PLLC is a full-service law firm with 35 attorneys and offices in Nashville and Sumner County, Tennessee. Its attorneys focus on 16 distinct practice areas, providing the wide range of legal services ordinarily required by established and growing businesses and entrepreneurs. Among their practices, they represent clients in business and capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, securities matters, commercial lending and creditors’ rights, commercial real estate and development, governmental regulatory matters, commercial litigation and dispute resolution, intellectual property strategy and enforcement, entertainment and environmental matters. For more information, visit www.bonelaw.com.
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