NAFUSA life member Jeffrey A. Taylor has been hired by Fox Corp. as its chief litigation counsel and executive vice president. Fox announced on Friday, March 22, that Taylor would be in charge of overseeing labor and employment, litigation, content protection and compliance matters for all of Fox’s networks and assets.
At Fox, Taylor will oversee legal matters concerning Fox Network, Fox Sports, FSI, FS2, Fox Deportes, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Television Stations and other holdings, according to the company.
Taylor served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia (2006-2009). He also served as counselor to Attorney Generals John D. Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales. He most recently served as the deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer of General Motors. He previously served as vice president and general counsel for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. Before that he served as chief executive of Ernst & Young’s Fraud Invesigation and Dispute Practices in the Americas.
Taylor earned his juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School and his bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University.
NAFUSA member and former Attorney General of the United Staes Dick Thornburgh announced his retirement from K&L Gates. Thornburgh began his legal career as an associate with K&L Gates in 1959, going on to hold multiple key roles in the firm’s Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and Boston offices at various times in the following decades.
Thornburgh spent a decade with K&L Gates prior to his successful 25-year career in government, leaving the firm in 1969 to serve as a United States Attorney and later, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1978 and again in 1982, during which time he presided over the response to the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, one that is still studied today as a model of crisis management. Thornburgh went on to serve as United States Attorney General under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. As Attorney General, Thornburgh played a leading role in the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He subsequently served as Under Secretary General at the United Nations, and returned to K&L Gates in 1994, remaining with the firm until his retirement.
James Segerdahl, K&L Gates’ Global Managing Partner, commented: “It has been a great and humbling honor to be associated with Dick. Our firm, the Commonwealth, the Nation, and the world have all been beneficiaries of Dick’s high standards, unwavering integrity, and outstanding public service. When not serving in his many and esteemed public roles, we were privileged that Dick spent his time in private practice with only one firm, K&L Gates. Dick has made many outstanding contributions to our firm and clients; we thank him for those as well as his remarkable work as a public servant, and wish Dick all the best in his retirement.”
Thornburgh has received honorary degrees from 32 colleges and universities. For his dedication and contributions to the legal profession, Thornburgh received a “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2006 from The American Lawyer magazine. He was similarly honored in 2013 by The Legal Intelligencer as being among those who “represent the best the Pennsylvania legal community has to offer” and has been recognized by Washingtonian magazine as one of “ten legendary Washington lawyers who will forever leave their mark on the District’s legal landscape.”
On March 14, 2019, the United States Senate confirmed NAFUSA member Don Washington to be the director of the United States Marshals Service. Washington served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana (2001-2010). He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with a degree in mechanical engineering and served as an Army captain of the Air Defense Artillery and in the Army Reserve from 1983 to 1987. He has a law degree from South Texas College in Houston. He was sworn in late this week and, unfortunately, his new duties required him to tender his resignation as the treasurer of NAFUSA. The NAFUSA board will select his successor next week at the board’s Spring Board Meeting in Naples, Florida.
Jennifer Eberhardt, Professor, Department of Psychology at Stanford University, will join NAFUSA at the September conference in San Francisco to speak on unconscious bias in law enforcement. As described on Professor Eberhardt’s website, A social psychologist at Stanford University, she investigates the consequences of the psychological association between race and crime. Through interdisciplinary collaborations and a wide ranging array of methods—from laboratory studies to novel field experiments—Eberhardt has revealed the startling, and often dispiriting, extent to which racial imagery and judgments suffuse our culture and society, and in particular shape actions and outcomes within the domain of criminal justice.
Eberhardt’s research not only shows that police officers are more likely to identify African American faces than white faces as criminal, she further shows that the race-crime association leads people to attend more closely to crime related imagery. In one experimental study, for example, people who were exposed to black faces were then more quickly able to identify a blurry image as a gun than those who were exposed to white faces or no faces.
The race-crime association extends beyond the laboratory. Using an actual database of criminal defendants convicted of a capital crime, Eberhardt has shown that among defendants convicted of murdering a white victim, defendants whose appearance was more stereotypically black (e.g. darker skinned, with a broader nose and thicker lips) were more likely to be sentenced to death than if their features were less stereotypically black. This finding held even after the researchers controlled for the many non-racial factors (e.g. the severity of the crime, aggregators, mitigators, the defendant’s attractiveness, etc.) that might account for the results.
Extending the sentencing research to juveniles, Eberhardt found that bringing to mind a black juvenile offender leads people to view juveniles in general as more similar to adults and therefore deserving of more severe punishment. Further, in a study with actual registered voters, Eberhardt found that highlighting the high incarceration rate of African Americans makes people more, not less, supportive of the draconian policies that produce such disparities.
Eberhardt’s research suggests that these racialized judgments may have roots deeper than contemporary rates of crime or incarceration. In a series of studies, she has unearthed evidence that African Americans sometimes become objects of dehumanization. Specifically, Eberhardt has found that even people who profess to be racially unbiased may associate apes and African Americans, with images of one bringing to mind the other.
The dehumanization finding may help to explain the dynamics that occur within the criminal justice context, where high profile controversies feature African Americans who are shot by police or citizens who feel threatened, even though the African American is unarmed. According to Eberhardt’s research, the implicit association between African Americans and apes may lead to greater endorsement of police violence toward, or mistreatment of, an African American suspect than a white suspect.
As daunting as are the problems Eberhardt illuminates, she has recently begun to work with law enforcement agencies to design interventions to improve policing and to help agencies build and maintain trust with the communities they serve. The problems associated with race are ones we have created, she believes, and they are also ones we can solve. Spurred by the innovation that is the hallmark of Silicon Valley, she aims to combine social psychological insights with technology to improve outcomes in the criminal justice context and elsewhere.
Jennifer Eberhardt received a B.A. (1987) from the University of Cincinnati, an A.M. (1990) and Ph.D. (1993) from Harvard University. From 1995 to 1998 she taught at Yale University in the Departments of Psychology and African and African American Studies. She joined the Stanford faculty in 1998, and is currently a professor in the Department of Psychology and co-director of SPARQ, a university initiative to use social psychological research to address pressing social problems.
Professor Eberhardt’s first book “BIASED: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do” will go on sale on March 26.
NAFUSA member Wifredo A. “Willy” Ferrer has been named executive partner of Holland & Knight’s Miami office. Ferrer will oversee the day-to-day management of the office, while continuing his white collar defense, corporate compliance, and internal investigations practice. Holland & Knight’s Miami office is one of the firm’s largest, with 260 attorneys and staff.
Ferrer served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida for nearly seven years. His distinguished career also includes working as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counsel to former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. He joined Holland & Knight in 2017, and he leads the firm’s Global Compliance and Investigations Team.
Steven Sonberg, managing partner of Holland & Knight said, “While serving as the U.S. Attorney, Willy led a department of nearly 500 lawyers and staff. Since joining Holland & Knight, he has earned the respect and admiration of his colleagues and inspires the best in everyone. I’m confident he will accomplish great things for the office and the firm.”
“Holland & Knight is filled with superb lawyers and wonderful staff who work hard to provide excellent representation to our clients and many hours of dedicated service to our community,” said Ferrer. “My commitment is to continue to build on the great work that others have done over the years to ensure our office continues to be defined by excellence, collegiality, and teamwork.”
About Holland & Knight LLP: Holland & Knight is a global law firm with more than 1,300 lawyers and other professionals in 28 offices throughout the world. Its lawyers provide representation in litigation, business, real estate and governmental law. Interdisciplinary practice groups and industry-based teams provide clients with access to attorneys throughout the firm, regardless of location.
NAFUSA member and United States Senator Doug Jones has published a book on the September 15, 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four young girls were murdered and twenty-two others injured. Then US Attorney Doug Jones tried and convicted the final two suspects in 2001 and 2002.
The book “Bending Toward Justice” was published this month and is receiving significant praise.
“For 40 years, justice had gone undone in the brutal murder of four young girls in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Forty years of pain and hurt for the families of those young girls and their community. Forty years of the Klan laughing at justice, getting away with the act of a coward.
Doug Jones said no more. Justice had to be done. Those young girls deserved it. Their families deserved it. The community needed it. It took courage, commitment, and persistence. And—maybe most of all—heart.” —former vice president Joe Biden
“This book describes the painful sacrifice that was required, and may be called for again, for us to move toward true democracy in America. Facing the truth of our dark past with honesty and humility is the only way this nation can heal these deep wounds. But knowing the truth Jones shares in this book can set this nation free to earnestly build a more perfect union.” —Rep. John Lewis
President Trump intends to nominate Jeffrey A. Rosen as Deputy Attorney General of the United States. Attorney General William P. Barr issued the following statement:
Jeffrey Rosen is a distinguished lawyer who has served at the highest levels of government and the private sector,” said Attorney General William P. Barr. “As an attorney, he has more than 35 years’ experience litigating complex matters in state and federal courts across the country, including as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. He supervised more than 400 attorneys while serving as General Counsel at the Department of Transportation and also served as General Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Management and Budget. He currently serves as Deputy Secretary of Transportation, where he leads 50,000 employees. His years of outstanding legal and management experience make him an excellent choice to succeed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who has served the Department of Justice over many years with dedication and distinction.
A Justice Department official said Monday that Rod Rosenstein planned to step down in mid-March.
The United States Senate today confirmed William P. Barr as attorney general by a vote of 54 to 45. NAFUSA member Senator Doug Jones was one of the three Democrats to support Barr. He was immediately sworn in as the 85th Attorney General during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House, where Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office. Barr joins John Crittenden (1841 and 1850-1853) as one of the only two people in U.S. history to serve twice as attorney general.
The Department of Justice advised in a release,
Mr. Barr is rejoining the Department of Justice where he previously served as the 77th Attorney General of the United States from 1991 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush. Mr. Barr also served as the Deputy Attorney General from 1990 to 1991 and as the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1989 to 1990. While serving at the Department, Mr. Barr helped create programs and strategies to reduce violent crime and was responsible for establishing new enforcement policies in a number of areas including financial institutions, civil rights, and antitrust merger guidelines. Mr. Barr also led the Department’s response to the Savings & Loan crisis; oversaw the investigation of the Pan Am 103 bombing; directed the successful response to the Talladega prison uprising and hostage taking; and coordinated counter-terrorism activities during the First Gulf War.
Most recently, Mr. Barr served as Of Counsel at Kirkland & Ellis. Before his work at Kirkland & Ellis, he served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for GTE Corporation from 1994 until 2000 and as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Verizon from 2000 to 2008.
Mr. Barr served as a law clerk under Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and from 1982 to 1983, served on the White House Domestic Policy Staff under President Ronald Reagan. He received his A.B. in government in 1971 and his M.A. in government and Chinese studies in 1973, both from Columbia University. From 1973 to 1977, Mr. Barr served in the Central Intelligence Agency before receiving his J.D. with highest honors from George Washington University Law School in 1977.
Barr is expected to recommend Jeffrey A. Rosen, a longtime colleague at Kinkland & Ellis, to be the deputy attorney general. Rosen is the current deputy secretary of transportation. He held senior positions at the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Transportation during President George W. Bush’s administration. Rod Rosenstein, the current deputy attorney general is expected to leave within a few days.
PROVIDENCE — Former U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha on Tuesday handily defeated his challenger to win the spot as Rhode Island’s top law enforcement officer, the state attorney general.
Neronha, 54, a Democrat, overwhelmed Alan Gordon, of the Compassion Party, to win his first seat in public office. With 99.8 percent of precincts reporting, Neronha had 79.8 percent of the vote.
“It feels good to have an opportunity to serve the public in Rhode Island again,” Neronha said.
Among his first goals will be building a strong team and increasing the office’s outreach in the community, he said.
Neronha led the U.S. Attorney’s office from 2009 through 2017. There, he oversaw a staff of 21 assistant U.S. Attorneys after being nominated to the post by President Barack Obama. He joined the office in 2002 after working six years as state prosecutor.
Throughout his tenure as U.S. Attorney, the office prosecuted a string of public corruption probes that took down former Democratic House Speaker Gordon Fox, three North Providence councilmen, former Central Falls Mayor Charles Moreau and onetime House Finance Committee Chairman Raymond E. Gallison Jr.
A native Rhode Islander, Neronha, of Jamestown, said he planned to continue focus on public corruption in the Ocean State.
He is married to Shelly Neronha, a doctor in southern Rhode Island. The couple has two sons.
PROVIDENCE — Former U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha on Tuesday handily defeated his challenger to win the spot as Rhode Island’s top law enforcement officer, the state attorney general.
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