NAFUSA member Andrea Sheridan Ordin retired from her position as Los Angeles County County Counsel after two years as  the head of the 250 in-house  counsel office providing civil representation for the Board of Supervisors and the departments of Los Angeles County.

On July 1st she was re-appointed to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, and elected as its president.   Under the Charter the Board is the head of the LAPD, and the five civilians donate 20-30 hours per week on commission business, set policy and are assisted in improving service to the public by a paid professional staff, including an Inspector General’s office, headed by a former assistant U.S. attorney, who serves as  the eyes and ears of the Commission.

In addition in January, 2013, Ordin will be joining the adjunct faculty of Loyola Law School, teaching an advanced legal ethics course, called the Government Lawyer. Ordin, a former NAFUSA board member, served as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California (1977-1981).

Seagal V. Wheatley passed away Tuesday, September 25, 2012 of pancreatic cancer, he was 77. Wheatley served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas (1969-1971) and was a long time member of NAFUSA.

His 53 year legal career was spent specializing in complex business litigation and he was well recognized as one of the most effective trial attorneys in Texas.

Wheatley graduated from the University Of Texas School Of Law and began his first law practice with a law firm specializing in trial work. He was mentored by John H. Wood who later became a Federal District Judge, but whom Wheatley always gave credit to as his teacher.

In 1969, when at the age of 34, he was nominated by President Nixon and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the United States Attorney, he was one of the youngest U.S. Attorneys in the country. In 1970 Wheatley was selected the “Outstanding Young Man of San Antonio” by the Rotary Club.

In 1971, Wheatley became a partner in a newly formed firm with Jesse Oppenheimer, Stanley Rosenberg and Herb Kelleher where he led the litigation section for 25 years and represented many local and national corporations as well as the personal attorney for many prominent businessmen such as the former owner of the New Orleans Saints, the owner of the Houston Astros, owners of the Detroit Tigers, a former King Ranch heir and two former Mayors of San Antonio. Wheatley continued to practice until he was invited to join the law firm of Jackson Walker, LLP where he practiced complex business litigation until his death.

Wheatley is survived by his two daughters, Jill Wheatley of San Antonio and Julie Gosh of Austin. NAFUSA has arranged for an American flag to be flown over the U.S. Deaprtment of Justice in Wheatley’s honor and to be presented to his family as a lasting memorial from his former collegues.

NAFUSA member Herbert J. Stern has authored a new book Diary of a DA: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Took on the Mob, Fought Corruption, and Won (Skyhorse Publishing, September 2012).

The book, just out this week. is already earning a number of positive reviews. In a book review in The Star Ledger, the largest newspaper in New Jersey, Richard Aregood writes:

Herb Stern knows better than anybody. As U.S. attorney, he led a series of prosecutions in the late 1960s and early 1970s that ended in criminal convictions for the mayors of Jersey City, Newark and Atlantic City, along with a congressman and what seemed at the time to be half the politicians in the state, exposing some as being wholly owned subsidiaries of the mob. All of this was done despite the fierce opposition of powerful state officials, as well as the Nixon Justice Department’s preference for silly political prosecutions such as that of the “Camden 28.”

Jeffrey Toobin writes:

Herbert J. Stern- prosecutor, judge and advocate- is a legend in American law, and this extraordinary memoir tells the story of how he became one.

Judge Stern served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey 1971-1974. In 1962-1965, he served as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, participating in the investigation of the assassination of Malcolm X. He also served in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was appointed by President Nixon to serve on the U.S. District Court in the district of New Jersey, serving from 1974-1987. He has authored several books on trial advocacy and Judgment in Berlin, later made into a film.

Judge Stern is a partner and founding member of Stern & Kilcullen. He earned his J.D. from the Universtiy of Chicago Law School.

A group of NAFUSA board members held an “executive retreat ” when Hal Hardin and Dallas resident Susan Adzick hosted a Texas style weekend at Susan’s home over the Labor Day weekend. The prime event was the “Cowboy Classic”, the kickoff of the college football season at Cowboy Stadium.

Much to Rich Rossman’s dismay and despair, the defending national champion Alabama team lived up to its “Roll Tide” reputation, handing Michigan (soon to lose its preseason top ten ranking) its worse opening day loss ever.

In the photo above, Rich shows he is a good sport congratulating Bama fans Kathy Collier Selden and Jack Selden on the victory. Somehow Longhorn fan Ron Woods snuck into the game. Michigan fan Rick Deane texted his disappointed to Rich during the game. Doug Jones called Jack and urged the Tide to continue to roll.

Below we see the remainder of the NAFUSA block at the game: hostess Susan Aldzick, host Hal Hardin (both Vanderbilt fans), Patty Woods (LSU fan) and Patty Rossman (party fan and Michigan booster). When Alabama rolled up a 31-0 lead in the first half, this group spent the remainder of the game in the bar.

On Friday evening, Matt and Melissa Orwig joined the “retreat” at a cocktail reception at Susan’s home, catered by Chef Richard Chamberlain, shown below, one of America’s leading chefs and particulary admired by the ladies.

In an article published by The National Law Journal on August 15, 2012, NAFUSA member Kendall Coffey urges recent law graduates to consider the tens of millions of Americans who need attorneys. In Underserved middle class could sustain underemployed law graduates, Coffey argues that a pratice representing the middle class could result in a decent living for young lawyers.

The reality is that with prudent office economics, recent law graduates could earn decent compensation and launch successful practices, with the opportunity to continue to earn more. Rather than work for a law firm at high rates, of which two thirds goes to the employer, new lawyers could charge much lower rates and keep the earnings for themselves. Rates of between $50 and $125 per hour would make new lawyers affordable to the middle class while providing the lawyers with enough income to succeed.

Coffey adds that law schools would have to revise their curricula and more clinics are needed to provide supervision and legal experience.

Coffey is a founding member of Coffey Burlington, PL, concentrating on complex litigation, He serves as the chair of the Southern District Conference, Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission. He served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern Distict of Florida from 1993-1996. He has authored two books and over three dozen articles. He is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law and the Florida International University School of Law.

NAFUSA member John C. Richter, formerly vice president and deputy general counsel at WellCare Health Plans, Inc., is rejoining King & Spalding as a partner in its special matters and government investigations practice in Washington, D.C., effective September 4, 2012. Richter will focus primarily on health care investigations and qui tam cases.

Richter’s return to King & Spalding follows his two-year stint at WellCare supervising litigation, internal investigations and business contracting at the $6 billion provider of managed care services targeted to government-sponsored health care programs. At WellCare, he led the successful resolution of enterprise-threatening criminal and civil matters the company had been facing.

Richter 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. In 2009, he received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General’s Award for Combating Medicare and Medicaid Fraud.

Richter also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Georgia and Oklahoma, where he investigated and prosecuted white collar and public corruption cases. He also served as an assistant district attorney in Georgia. While at King & Spalding’s Atlanta office from 1994 to 1998, Richter represented individual and institutional clients in securities and other commercial litigation matters. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.

King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with 800 lawyers in 17 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents.

As reported today in The Huffington Post, NAFUSA member Chris Christie,  governor of New Jersey, has been selected to be the keynote speaker for the Republican national convention to be held in Tampa later this month.

Christie, shown above speaking at the 2010 NAFUSA conference in New York, served as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, 2001-2008, and as governor of New Jersey since 2010.

Huff Post Politics writes:

The keynote speech is the highest profile spot for someone not accepting the party’s presidential or vice presidential nominations. The slot has launched many political figures, most notably a little-known state senator from Illinois named Barack Obama in 2004. Four years later, he won the White House.

After a Miami doctor was unsuccessfully prosecuted in a drug case, his petition for legal fees under the Hyde Amendment was granted by the district court. The Eleventh Circuit, however, reversed and held that the prosecution was “objectively reasonable.” The doctor has applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari.

On August 9, 2012, a coalititon of more than 50 former federal judges, federal proscutors and members of Congress filed an amicus brief on behalf of the doctor attacking the the appellate decision which held that monetary fees are only available under the the Hyde Amendment in situations in which a prosecution itself is deemed unreasonable.

Read a full report in The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times, which includes a link to the amicus brief with a full list of the amici, including many members of NAFUSA.

NAFUSA member Dick Thornburgh testified before the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate on July 12, 2012, in favor of the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “as an important component of the worldwide effort to end discrimination and to promote the rights of as many as one billion men, women and children with disabilities around the world who seek vindication of their pre-eminent human rights in an ever-challenging world.”

Thornburgh served as attorney general of the United States under two presidents. He also served as the governor of Pennsylvania, 1979-1987, assistant attorney general for the criminal division, 1975-1977, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 1969-1975, and under-secretary general of the United Nations, 1992-1993. He is currently counsel to K&L Gates in Washington.