As reported in The Greenville News on January 25, 2012, long time NAFUSA member Johnnie “Mac” Walters was honored in January, when he was among 150 World War II veterans who received a Legion of Honor award from the nation of France. Walters, 92, flew as a navigator on crews that made 53 combat missions in the European theatre of the war. The award was created by Napoleon in 1802 “to acknowledge services rendered to France by persons of great merit.”

Walters served as Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division in the Nixon Administration (1969-1971) and as Commissioner of Internal Revenue (1971-1973). As reported in the September 2011 NAFUSA newsletter, Walters recently published his memoirs, Our Journey, describing his distinguished career. Walters is retired and lives in Greenville, South Carolina, with Donna, his wife of 63 years.

Thomas O’Brien, a NAFUSA member who served as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, has been retained to represent a chemistry professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who faces three felony charges of criminal negligence following a student’s death in a lab accident. The student was transferring t-butyl lithium in the UCLA chemistry lab when a plastic syringe broke, causing the chemical to burst into flames and leading to the student’s death.

“This is a terrible tragedy, and we greatly dispute the allegations that the conduct…amounts to a crime,” O’Brien told The National Law Journal.

O’Brien is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Paul Hastings.

The recent news of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi granting pardons or early release to more than 200 inmates led to a guest column in the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal. On January 14, 2012, in Guest column: Power of the pardon remains explosive, Keel Hunt writes of an effort 33 years ago by then governor Ray Blanton of Tennessee to issue 52 executive clemencies, including a pardon for the son of a political friend. Less than 48 hours later Blanton was out of office, stripped of his power in what amounted to a bipartisan “coup”, led by then U.S. Attorney Hal Hardin, shown above, long time NAFUSA member.

NAFUSA member Peter Vaira, left,  published a thoughtful review of the new book Federal Criminal Discovery by Robert M. Crary, Craig D. Singer and Simon A. Latcovich, all partners at Williams & Connolly. Vaira’s review, A New Resource For Criminal Discovery [MS Word file], was published in The Legal Intelligencer, January 10, 2012.

NAFUSA member Robert N. Miller served as United States Attorney for the District of Colorado from 1981-1988, after having served as District Attorney in Greeley, Colorado for ten years. Miller is now a partner in the Denver office of Perkins Coie, where he practices complex commercial litigation and white collar criminal law.

This summer Miller published an article in the ABA magazine Litigation entitled “Balancing the Duty to Prosecute and the Obligation to Do Justice”.  He draws upon several of the cases in which he was involved as U.S. Attorney.

Long time NAFUSA member, Peter Vaira, has recently published an article for The Legal Intelligencer, dealing with a recent case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in which one of the U.S. District Court judges discussed e-discovery techniques he found acceptable. The court upheld court costs of $510,137 for pre-trial discovery. Click here to read the Vaira article, previously published in ‘The Legal Intelligencer’, November 8, 2011.

Vaira served ten years in the Department of Justice Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, most of which as Chief, Chicago Strike Force. He served as the United States Attorney, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1978-1983. He is currently a member of the law firm of Vaira & Riley in Philadelphia. He is the author of Eastern District Federal Practice Rules, published annually by Gann Law Books.

Larry Finder and Ron Woods with U.S. District Judge Sim Lake

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals honored NAFUSA members Ron Woods and Larry Finder at the Federal Bar Association Annual Judiciary Dinner in Houston on November 10, 2011 by presenting each a plaque with the inscription:

United States Courts Judicial Council Of The Fifth Circuit Presents To Ronald G. Woods/Lawrence D. Finder With Gratitude for Exceptional Assistance to Preserve the Integrity of the Judiciary. Presented in Houston November 10, 2011

The presenter was U.S. District Judge Sim Lake of Houston, who was appointed by the Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit to serve on a Special Committee with Chief Judge Edith Jones and Fortunato “Pete” Benevides of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the evidence against U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous of New Orleans.

Pursuant to Title 28, U.S.C., Section 353, the Special Committee sat as judges in trial in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Courtroom in New Orleans wherein Ron Woods and Larry Finder presented the evidence they had gathered against Judge Porteous, who represented himself. After a two day trial in a closed courtroom, the evidence was then summarized and presented to the full 19 member Judicial Council of the Fifth Circuit by Woods and Finder. Judge Porteous again represented himself before the Judicial Council.

As a result, the Judicial Council removed Judge Porteous from hearing any cases involving the federal government and forwarded the entire record to the Chief Justice of the United States, as presiding officer of the Judicial Conference of the United States, with the statement that Judge Porteous has engaged in conduct that might constitute one or more grounds for impeachment under Article II of the Constitution. The Judicial Conference reviewed the evidence and forwarded it to the U.S. House of Representatives with the statement that Judge Porteous has engaged in conduct that might constitute grounds for impeachment under Article II of the Constitution. The U.S. House of Representatives reviewed the evidence and impeached Judge Porteous. A trial was conducted in the United States Senate and Judge Porteous, now represented by Jonathan Turley, was convicted and removed from office on December 8, 2010. This was only the eighth time in history that the Senate has convicted and removed an impeached judge and only the third time in history that the Senate has issued an order disqualifying a judge fromever holding a federal office again.

NAFUSA member Ira Raphaelson, who served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1989-1990, was named Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Las Vegas Sands, Corp., beginning November 1, 2011, where he will be responsible for the company’s legal affairs worldwide. Raphaelson previously served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Directors of Scientific Games Corportation, a leader in the lottery industry.

In addition to serving as U.S. Attorney, Raphaelson was appointed by President George H.W. Bush as Special Counsel for Financial Institutions. He also served as Counsel to the Attorney General (1991-1993). He earned his J.D. from Northwestern University. He is married with three children and two grandchildren.