The Constitution Project, a Washington based non-profit think tank that builds bipartisan consensus on significant constitutional and legal questions, in 2010 convened an 11-member panel to conduct a nonpartisan, independent review of interrogation and detention programs in the years following 9/11. Today the panel, co-chaired by NAFUSA member Asa Hutchinson, shown above, and James R. Jones, released its 577-page report which concludes that “it is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture” and that responsibility ultimately lies with the nation’s highest officials.

In this morning’s New York Times, Scott Shane writes:

“Mr. Hutchinson, who served in the Bush administration as chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration and under secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said that he ‘took convincing’ on the torture issue. But after the panel’s nearly two years of research, he said he had no doubts about what the United States did. ‘This has not been an easy inquiry for me, because I know many of the players,’ Mr. Hutchinson said in an interview. He said he thought everyone involved in the decisions, from Mr. Bush down had acted in good faith, in a desperate effort to try to prevent more attacks.

‘But I just think we learn from history,’ Mr. Hutchinson said. ‘It’s incredibly important to have an accurate account not just of what happened but of how decisions were made.’

He added, ‘The United States has a historic and unique character, and part of that character is that we do not torture.'”

Hutchinson served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas 1982-1985 and in the U.S. House of Representatives. Panel Co-Chair James J. Jones also served in Congress. Another member of the Task Force on Detainee Treatment is NAFUSA member William S. Sessions, a former director of the FBI, who has also served as a federal judge and as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas 1971-1974.

Click here: Constitution Project’s Report on Detainee Treatment

The Senate today confirmed NAFUSA member Mary Jo White as chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. White served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York 1993-2002. She was approved by the Senate through a unanimous consent motion after facing little opposition through the confirmation process. White, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, was named on March 25, 2013, one of “The Most Influential Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal.

The April issue of The Federal Lawyer profiled William T. Moore Jr., U.S.District Judge, Southern District of Georgia. Judge Moore, is known as “Willie” to former United States Attorneys who served with him in the Carter Administration. Judge Moore served as U.S. Attorney for the SD of Georgia 1977-1981. He was appointed to the district court by President Clinton in 1994. He served as chief judge from 2004 to 2010, and remains as an active judge. Judge Moore also had an impressive athletic career, inlcluding the distinction of having played varsity baseball for the University of Georgia while attending his first year of law school. Click here to view the profile: Hon.William T. Moore, Jr.article.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Thursday, that NAFUSA member Robert “Bob” Barr is seeking to succeed Rep. Phil Gingrey who is vacating his seat to run for the Senate. Barr served four terms in the U.S. House and served as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia 1986-1990. He has returned to the Republican party after being the Libertarian Party nominee for president in 2008.

As the United States Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday on the historic question of whether gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry, NAFUSA member Theodore Olson was front and center. Olson argued for revising the law’s definition of marriage to accomodate gay and lesbian couples.

Olson and David Boies filed the case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, in 2009, challenging California Proposition 8, which overturned a State Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage. Despite his strong conservative reputation, Olson surprised many by teaming up with Boies, whom he had opposed in Bush v. Gore in 2000.

Olson served as the solicitor general of the United States, 2001-2004. He also served as the assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, 1981-1984. He is currently a partner in the Washington office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. On Monday, Olson was named one of “The Most Influential Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal.

The National Law Journal today published its list of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America”, which included five members of NAFUSA: Patrick Fitzgerald, Theodore Olson, Anton Valukas, Dan Webb and Mary Jo White.

In announcing its selections, the NLJ said:

The National Law Journal has selected 100 lawyers who shape the legal world through their work in the courtroom, at the negotiating table, in the classroom or in government. They have taken on major legal battles and orchestrated the biggest corporate deals. They’ve tackled unpopular causes and helped run giant corporations.

The lawyers here were chosen by the NLJ’s editors, aided by nominations from the legal community and research by our reporting staff. We asked several key questions to help judge the influence of lawyers profiled: How deep were their political connections?; what kind of results did they achieve for clients?; how far and how effective was their media reach?; have they been business leaders?; are they thought leaders on important legal issues? (Icons indicate the qualities we feel the lawyers best embody.)

We limited selections in a few ways, focusing on accomplishments since 2006, the last time we published the 100 Most Influential Lawyers list. Judges weren’t eligible, nor were members of Congress or the president. This list is for practicing attorneys, members of the legal academy and officials in law-centric government positions (elected or otherwise). Our goal, in the end, was to identify members of law’s power elite.

Click here to see the full list of names.

The National Law Journal reported yesterday that Patrick Fitzgerald, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, has been named the inaugural Feirson Distinguished Lecturer at University of Chicago Law School. Fitzgerald will teach one course per year, beginning with a national security law program this spring.

Fitzgerald joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom as a partner in October following a decade as the U.S. Attorney in Chicago.

NAFUSA Immediate Past President Rick Deane has been chosen by the State Bar of Georgia’s Bench and Bar Committee as the attorney recipient of the 12th Annual Chief Justice Thomas O. Marshall Professionalism Award. The awards honoring “one lawyer and one judge who have demonstrated the highest professional conduct and paramount reputation for professionalism” will be presented at the Bar’s annual meeting in June.

Deane, a partner in the Atlanta office of Jones Day, heads the litigation group for the Atlanta Office and is co-chair of the Firm’s Corporate Criminal Investigations Practice. A member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Deane served as a Magistrate Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia, from 1994 to 1998, when he was appointed United States Attorney.

NAFUSA member John C. Richter will be co-chairing a conference exploring strategies for complex parallel fraud actions at the 15th Annual Sedona Conference on Complex Litigation. Richter is inviting NAFUSA members to join him at the invitation only conference on May 2-3, 2013 in Del Mar, California.

Enforcement against corporate fraud commonly involves parallel proceedings – simultaneous or successive criminal, civil, and administrative proceedings arising out of a common set of facts and commenced by multiple government agencies and private litigants.

Richter says:

We have a distinguished faculty including Judge Rakoff, Mark Filip (former DAG and judge), Rob Khuzami (former head of SEC Enforcement, Carol Lam (DGC Qualcomm & former USA), Jamie Gorelick (former DAG), current U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride, Civil Division DAAG Joyce Branda, and GE Head of Litigation Brad Berenson.

Click here for further conference details, faculty bios, and to apply for an invitation. The Sedona Conference is a leading non-partisan, non-profit law and policy think tank.

Richter is a partner at King & Spalding in its special matters and government investigations practice in Washington. He served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, 2005-2009, and the acting assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice.