The day after the NAFUSA Liaison Committee met with the Attorney General, he opened the U.S. Attorney’s Conference at Main Justice. He outlined his priorities, which include violent crime, the drug problem, the immigration crisis on the Southern Border, national security, and cyber threat.
Click here to read the entire remarks.
Since 2010, NAFUSA has sent a committee at least once a year to meet at Main Justice with the Attorney General and the Attorney General’s Advisory Council (AGAC). On June 25, 2019, NAFUSA President Terry Flynn led this year’s Liaison Committee, composed of Paul Coggins, Karen Hewitt, Bob Balfe, Donna Bucella, Catherine Hanaway and Rich Rossman.
Here is how Terry described the day:
This year’s visit to Washington, DC was action packed! We met with Attorney General Barr, AGAC Chairwoman Jessie Liu, and all the members of the AGAC. It was a great opportunity for us to discuss the ongoing activities and goals of NAFUSA while hearing from Department leaders on the work and issues facing the Department of Justice. As an added bonus to our visit to Main Justice, the full USA community was in town for their annual conference. So we were even able to meet with some other former colleagues/Department leaders like US Attorney Gretchen Shappert, who is now the US Attorney for the Virgin Islands, and previously served as the US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
We then took a walk and met with our former colleagues/NAFUSA members at the Capitol. Congressman John Ratcliffe gave us a grand tour of the Capitol which included a visit to the Speaker’s Balcony. John, a lifetime NAFUSA member, is currently serving on the House’s Justice, Intelligence, Homeland Security and Ethics Committees. After spending time with John, we then joined our other NAFUSA colleague and former officer, Senator Doug Jones, for lunch in the Senate Dining Room. Doug is serving on the Senate’s Banking/Housing/Urban Affairs, Health/Education/Labor/Pensions, Armed Services, and Aging Committees. With such important committee assignments, both John and Doug were able to describe for us the many issues currently being faced by them in Congress. We were even able to meet the night before with another of our esteemed colleagues, Congresswoman Susan Brooks. Susan currently serves on the Energy/Commerce, Ethics (past Chairwoman), Bipartisan Caucus on Women’s Issues. As an added bonus to the visit we had a chance meeting with Congressman John Lewis and Senator John Cornyn! Everywhere we went people were kind enough to thank us for our members’ public service as US Attorneys.
It was truly humbling for us to see so many of our colleagues serving in such leadership capacities. Such yearly visits provide us with a great opportunity to highlight NAFUSA’s growing membership while discussing the activities and goals of NAFUSA!
FBI director Christopher Wray has selected another former King & Spalding colleague to serve as his chief of staff
NAFUSA member Paul B. Murphy, a King & Spalding partner in Atlanta and former associate deputy attorney general in Washington, D.C., has been tapped to replace Zack Harmon, spokeswomen at the FBI and the law firm confirmed. Harmon, former King & Spalding partner himself, has served as Wray’s chief of staff since January 2018.
Murphy is slated to assume the chief of staff’s duties June 24. Wray said Murphy brings “a wealth of experience” to the FBI.
Murphy is a partner in King & Spalding’s special matters and government investigations practice. Wray, also a former King & Spalding partner, chaired that practice until he was appointed by President Donald Trump to replace former FBI director James Comey. Wray also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta early in his legal career.
Murphy said he is excited to work with Wray again, adding he has “great affection” for the Justice Department and “tremendous respect for the mission and work of the FBI.”
“While it was a difficult decision to leave King & Spalding and the many friends with whom I’ve worked for the past 15 years, the special matters team has a deep bench of amazingly talented people, and I know that the group will continue to thrive and accomplish great things.”
Murphy—the son of U.S. District Senior Judge Harold Murphy of the Northern District of Georgia—joined King & Spalding in 1988 after earning a law degree at the University of Georgia. Like Harmon and other veterans of King & Spalding’s special matters and government investigations practice, Murphy has extensive experience working for the U.S. Department of Justice. The practice was founded and initially chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell, who served under President Jimmy Carter. The practice focuses on white-collar criminal defense; civil and regulatory investigations; and internal corporate and congressional investigations.
In 1997, Murphy left King & Spalding for a four-year stint as an assistant U.S. attorney in Georgia’s Southern District. Murphy was then tapped to be chief of staff for then-U.S. Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, another former King & Spalding government investigations practice veteran. Murphy also served as an associate deputy attorney general overseeing the DOJ’s criminal and civil health care fraud enforcement program, and was the principal policy liaison to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In January 2004, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft picked Murphy to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
This year’s NAFUSA annual conference will be held in San Francisco September 25-27 at The Westin St. Francis. The deadline to obtain the group rate is September 3. There is no guaranty rooms will be available after that date. If you any difficulties reserving a room, contact Lisa Rafferty.
The conference will open on Wednesday, September 25, with a welcome reception at the hotel sponsored by Guidepost Solutions. In honor of NAFUSA’s 40th anniversary, the opening reception will recognize and honor the founding members, past presidents and executive directors. Golf will be available on Wednesday morning at Presidio Golf Course.
On Thursday and Friday mornings, the CLE programs will feature:
On Thursday afternoon, there will be a luncheon and harbor cruise on SanFrancisco Bay. Thursday evening is reserved for class reunions at various off-site locations. On Friday afternoon following the CLE, there will be a luncheon at the hotel, followed by a tour of the Historic Browning Courthouse courtesy of Hon. Michael Hawkins, U.S. Circuit Judge (9th Circuit). The conference will close on Friday evening with dinner and a general membership meeting. Our keynote speaker on Friday night will be Hon. Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI.
Click here to view the San Francisco program.
Click here to read the biographies of our 2019 conference speakers.
On May 29, 2019, President Trump announced his intention to nominate NAFUSA member David Barlow to serve as Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.
Barlow joined Dorsey & Whitney in its Utah office in October 2018, following a career in private practice and as United States Attorney for the District of Utah. Immediately prior to joining Dorsey, David was a Vice President for Walmart’s $40-billion Health and Wellness businesses, including more than 8,000 pharmacies, vision centers and medical clinics throughout the United States. Before joining Walmart, he was a partner in Sidley Austin LLP for more than a decade, where he handled government and internal investigations across the United States, Europe and Asia, represented clients in both civil and criminal matters in state and federal courts and litigated a wide range of cases.
He was nominated by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah in September 2011. Immediately prior to his service as U.S. Attorney, he served as Senator Mike Lee’s Chief Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In his role as U.S. Attorney from 2011 to 2014, Barlow led an office of approximately 85 personnel, including 40 Assistant U.S. Attorneys who represented the United States in criminal prosecutions and civil litigation. During his tenure, the office conducted thousands of investigations and prosecutions together with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. He also served on the DOJ’s national White Collar Crime Subcommittee and Healthcare Fraud Working Group and chaired the Local Government Coordination Working Group. Barlow also served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.
Barlow completed his three year term on the NAFUSA Board of Directors last October.
Erwin Chemerinsky will give the Supreme Court Update at the NAFUSA 2019 Annual Conference in San Francisco. This will be his second time doing so, as he gave the Supreme Court Update in 2016 at our San Diego Conference.
Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law.
Prior to assuming this position, from 2008-2017, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at University of California, Irvine School of Law. Before that he was a professor at Duke University from 2004-2008, and from 1983-2004 was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School.
He is the author of eleven books, including leading casebooks and treatises about constitutional law, criminal procedure, and federal jurisdiction. His most recent books are, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century (Picador Macmillan) published in November 2018, and two books published by Yale University Press in 2017, Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and Free Speech on Campus (with Howard Gillman). He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court.
In 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In January 2017, National Jurist magazine again named Dean Chemerinsky as the most influential person in legal education in the United States.
On May 13, 2019, President Trump nominated NAFUSA life member William D. Hyslop to be the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 27, 2019.
Hyslop is a Principal in the Spokane, Washington, office of Lukins & Annis PS, where his practice focuses on complex commercial and business litigation in the State and Federal courts. Hyslop previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington from 1991 to 1993. Hyslop served as president of the Washington State Bar Association and Federal Bar Association for the Eastern District of Washington. He received his B.A. from Washington State University, his M.P.A. from the University of Washington, and his J.D. from the Gonzaga University School of Law.
Hyslop has received the Washington State Bar Association’s President’s Award, the Spokane County Bar Association’s Professionalism Award, and the Washington State Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award.
Hyslop said, “I’m looking forward to continuing to support our justice system and working with the fine people at the U.S. Department of Justice.”
NAFUSA member Peter Vaira has published an article in The Legal Intelligencer entitled: What Are the Duties of the General Counsel to the Pa. Supreme Court? Pennsylvania recently created a position of counsel to the court and Vaira examined similar practice in several states, including Texas, Missouri, Michigan and Rhode Island. His result is an interesting study of a practice not well known to the average practicing lawyer.
Click here to read the full article.
At the May 3, 2019, meeting of the Board of Directors of the NAFUSA Foundation, Ed Dowd was elected to serve as the president. Ed served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri (1993-1999) and the Deputy Special Counsel for the Waco Investigation with Senator John C. Danforth (1999-2000). He is also a past president of NAFUSA. He is currently a partner at Dowd Bennett in St. Louis.
The following were elected as officers and directors for 2019-2020: Ed Dowd, President, Ken Wainstein, Vice President, William Lutz, Secretary, Rich Rossman, Treasurer.
The following were elected as Directors for the 2019-2020: Mike McKay, Ed Dowd, Ken Wainstein, Hal Hardin, Terry Flynn, Paul Coggins, Donna Bucella, and Catherine Hanaway.
The Board thanked and commended Mike McKay, who is stepping down after several years as the President of the NAFUSA Foundation and especially commended him for his leadership in establishing and growing the Wales Fund. Mike has raised $523,000 in pledges towards a reward fund in addition to the $1,000,000 offered by the Department of Justice for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of AUSA Thomas Crane Wales.
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