Lifetime NAFUSA member and former president Hal Hardin presented a flag flown over the Department of Justice to Judge Gilbert Merritt’s family at the Nashville Bar Memorial Service held on May 31, 2022.

Gilbert Stroud Merritt, Jr., the longest-serving member of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals died on Monday, January 17. He was 86. He sat of the bench for 44 years. He earlier served as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee from 1966-1969 under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and a bachelor of law from Vanderbilt University Law School. He is survived by three children and three grandchildren.

NAFUSA member Russell Coleman has announced his campaign for Attorney General for the state of Kentucky. Coleman served as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky from 2017-2021.

Coleman has always known from a young age that his calling was in law enforcement. He served as an FBI agent, where he worked to protect national security and volunteered for an assignment in Iraq to help in an effort to fight terrorism.  Additionally, Coleman served as Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Oldham County and Senior Advisor and Legal Counsel to U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell.

“Our current Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, has been an outstanding fighter for conservative values, for the rule of law and for Kentucky. I look forward to building on his many achievements. I’m also incredibly grateful to the well-respected leaders who are endorsing my campaign. I’m proud to have their vote, and I will work hard to earn the support of every Kentuckian,” Coleman said.

NAFUSA life member Ed Stanton will lead the third-party review of Tennessee Department of Corrections lethal injection testing oversight by request of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.  Stanton is a partner at Butler Snow and Commercial Litigation Practice Group Leader. The investigation and review resulted in a temporary reprieve for death row inmate Oscar Franklin.

As U.S. Attorney, Stanton served as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Western District of Tennessee from 2010 to 2017, managing an office of approximately 100 attorneys and support staff in two locations.

Prior to becoming U.S. Attorney, Stanton served as senior counsel with FedEx. There he served as lead trial and corporate counsel on complex business and litigation matters including governmental investigations, class action, labor and employment, trademark infringement, transportation law and environmental matters. Stanton also served as lead counsel in jury trials in federal and state courts throughout the country.

Currently, Stanton serves as the Court-Appointed Monitor in the case of ACLU v. City of Memphis stemming from the Memphis Police Department’s violations of a federal consent decree.

Stanton, a lifelong Memphian, received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Memphis and his Juris Doctor from the University of Memphis School of Law.

At the conference in San Diego, Chuck Stevens was elected President of NAFUSA. He will serve through the 2023 conference in Half Moon Bay. Chuck replaces Karen Hewitt who continues on the Board as Immediate Past President. Prior to being elected as an officer, Chuck served two tours on the Board of Directors so has been committed to NAFUSA for over ten years.

Chuck is a partner in Gibson Dunn’s San Francisco office and serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group. He served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California in the Clinton Administration and was a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. Previously he served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California and was a member of the Public Corruption and Government Contract Fraud Unit.

Chuck is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley School of Law where is served as Senior Note and Comment Editor of the California Law Review. He received his B.A. in English from Colgate University. He is an avid mountain and gravel bike racer, citing the rapidly decreasing number of racers in his age group as the key to his higher finishes.

Artwork by Amanda Hawthorne

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.

Inspired by this, a group of donors has made a $90,000 contribution to the Fiske Fellowship program. This was made possible by a group of current and former Davis Polk partners from the white collar practice group.

This donation was made in honor of Bob’s 90th birthday and to recognize his good work with the University of Michigan Law School in encouraging young lawyers to consider a path in the government.  Fiske commented:  “Those that go into private practice after working in government, as I did, are better lawyers for having had that public sector experience.”

President Biden nominated lifetime member Steve Dettelbach to be ATF Director.  An order was signed designating Gary M. Restaino, the U.S. Attorney for Arizona, to serve as Acting Director of the ATF who will continue to serve as U.S. Attorney while the Senate considers Mr. Dettlebach’s nomination.

Dettelbach served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio 2009-2016, and rejoined BakerHostetler in February, 2016, as a partner in the Litigation Group and co-leader of the firm’s national White Collar and Corporate Investigations team.

In his previous government service Dettelbach served for 12 years as a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section, U.S. Attorneys Offices in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and the Northern District of Ohio as a member of the Organized Crime and Corruption Strike Force, receiving numerous awards including Prosecutor of the Year by the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators, special achievement awards during his tenure at the Department of Justice, and personal commendations from the U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the FBI.

Dettelbach earned his J.D. in 1991 from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, where he served as Senior Notes Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review. He graduated summa cum laude with his A.B. in Government from Dartmouth College in 1988 and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Attorney General Merrick Garland today announced the appointment of 12 U.S. Attorneys to serve on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys (AGAC). Created in 1973, the AGAC advises the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure, and management impacting the Offices of U.S. Attorneys and elevates the voices of U.S. Attorneys in Department policies. The first meeting of the AGAC will take place later this spring.

Attorney General Garland appointed Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to serve as the chair of the AGAC, and Cindy K. Chung, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, to serve as the vice chair. Click here to view the full list and bios of members of the AGAC

On Thursday, April 7, 2022, the NAFUSA Annual Conference will feature a panel discussion entitled “Crypto: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly.” It will feature Steve Bunnell, Sean Joyce, Jan Massari and Eun Young Choi. The panel will be moderated by NAFUSA Vice President Ken Wainstein.

Steve Bunnell is the Chief Legal Officer of the Diem Association, a non-profit membership association established to develop a new global blockchain-based payment system that would provide faster, better, and less expensive payments, and promote financial inclusion.   Bunnell was the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017, and has also served as the Chief of the Criminal Division and Chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.   He is also the former Managing Partner of O’Melveny & Myers’ Washington office and a former Co-Chair of the firm’s Data Security and Privacy Practic

Bunnell is a Distinguished Fellow of Homeland Security at the Syracuse University College of Law, and a Member of the Council of Foreign Relations.  He received his law degree from Stanford Law School and his B.A. from Yale University.

Sean Joyce is a Principal in PwC’s Consulting Segment, where he is the Global & US Cybersecurity, Risk and Regulatory practice leader and a member of the U.S. Advisory Leadership Team. Sean has worked with clients in various sectors providing strategic guidance, regulatory response, investigative support, incident breach response and cybersecurity advice. Most notably, Sean has consulted in some of the most prolific cyber breaches, providing guidance and expertise to top executives.

Prior to rejoining PwC, Sean was the Chief Trust Officer at Airbnb where he led Design Specialists, Product Managers, Engineers and Data Scientists to help grow and defend the platform. Also, he had responsibility for Privacy and Community Policy. Sean was a member of the Airbnb Executive Committee.

Previously, Sean served as the Deputy Director with the FBI, and had daily oversight of the approximately 36,000 men and women of the FBI and its $8 billion annual budget. With more than 26 years of service in the FBI, Sean brought a wide range of operational and leadership experience. He was an integral part of transforming the FBI into an intelligence-driven organization.  Sean served in many positions during his tenure at the FBI including; the Executive Assistant Director at the FBI’s National Security Branch and lead intelligence official of the FBI, Assistant Director of International Operations, Section Chief of the Counterterrorism Division’s International Terrorism Operations Section, Joint Terrorism Task Force Supervisor, SWAT Team Leader, and Hostage Rescue Team Operator.

A Brockton, MA native, he holds degrees from Boston College and Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business.

Jai Masari is a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where she is a member of  Financial Institutions and Fintech practices. Major global banks, asset managers and corporations look to Jai for advice on the requirements, impact and implementation of financial regulation. In the area of digital assets and cryptocurrency, she advises financial institutions, fintech firms, tech companies and startups on a wide range of legal and regulatory considerations.

Jai’s work in financial regulation and fintech has been recognized by Chambers, Law360, Euromoney, Global Banking Regulation Review and IFLR1000. A source quoted by Chambers says she “has a unique ability to decompose complex problems and develop elegant solutions” amid varying regulatory frameworks.

Jai serves on the Global Advisory Board of the Women in Law Empowerment Forum and has been a visiting lecturer at Berkeley Law School since 2017.

Ken Wainstein is a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he focuses his practice on corporate internal investigations and civil and criminal enforcement proceedings.

Ken spent over 20 years in a variety of law enforcement and national security positions in the government.  Between 1989 and 2001, Ken served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in both the Southern District of New York and the District of Columbia, where he handled criminal prosecutions ranging from public corruption to gang prosecution cases and held a variety of supervisory positions, including Acting United States Attorney.  In 2001, he was appointed Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, where he provided oversight and support to the 94 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices.  Between 2002 and 2004, Ken served as General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and then as Chief of Staff to Director Robert S. Mueller III.

In 2004, Ken was appointed and then confirmed as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he lead the largest United States Attorney’s Office in the country.  In 2006, the U.S. Senate confirmed Ken as the first Assistant Attorney General for National Security.  In that position, Ken established and led the new National Security Division, which consolidated DOJ’s law enforcement and intelligence activities on counterterrorism and counterintelligence matters.

In 2008, after 19 years at the Justice Department, Ken was named Homeland Security Advisor by President George W. Bush.  In this capacity, he coordinated the nation’s counterterrorism, homeland security, infrastructure protection, and disaster response and recovery efforts.  He advised the President, convened and chaired meetings of the Cabinet Officers on the Homeland Security Council, and oversaw the inter-agency coordination process for homeland security and counterterrorism programs.

Eun Young Choi currently serves as the inaugural Director of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team at the Department of Justice, where she leads a team of subject matter experts drawn from across the Department, to identify, investigate, support and pursue the department’s cases involving the criminal use of digital assets; set strategic priorities regarding digital assets technologies; and lead the department’s efforts to coordinate with domestic and international law enforcement partners, regulatory agencies and private industry to combat the criminal use of digital assets. She previously served as Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General, where she was responsible for coordinating and advising on cyber and cryptocurrency-related issues across the Department of Justice, and representing the Department in the development of interagency policy and strategy.

Eun Young began her career at the Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where she was the Office’s Cybercrime Coordinator and investigated and prosecuted cyber, fraud, and money laundering crimes, with a particular focus on network intrusions, digital currency, the dark web, and national security investigations.

Prior to her time at the Department, Eun Young was an associate at Williams & Connolly LLP, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the Honorable Reena Raggi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  She is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

NAFUSA Executive Director Rich Rossman has announced that he is stepping down as the executive director of NAFUSA, effective as of the close of the San Diego conference. Rich joined NAFUSA in 1981 and served as president in 2009-2010. He became the 5th NAFUSA executive director in 2011, a post he has held for 11 years.

Rich served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan (1980-1981).  He previously served as the Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney (1977-1980) and as the Chief Deputy Federal Defender (1972-1975) in Detroit. In 1998-1999, he returned to the Department of Justice, serving as the Chief of Staff in the Criminal Division at Main Justice.  He received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1964.

Rich and Patty are retired and live in Northern Michigan in a little resort town named Leland. There isn’t a traffic light in their whole county. Nevertheless, they both intend to continue to be active in the NAFUSA community which includes many of their very best friends.