Bill Leone

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has been awarded Investigations Team of the Year at the annual Transatlantic Legal Awards. The Awards, held on June 14, 1018, in London, were judged by a panel of senior editors and reporters from The American Lawyer and Legal Week and recognise firms for their excellence in advising on complex matters spanning the US and the UK. NAFUSA member Bill Leone lead the U.S. based criminal and civil securities defense effort for the Norton Rose Fulbright team.

The Investigations Team of the Year award recognises the firm’s successful defence of a senior banking executive in multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil proceedings arising out of the JP Morgan “London Whale” case, which included investigations and proceedings brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), and extradition proceedings in Spain.

Following over five years of investigations and proceedings in the United States and Europe, in August 2017 the DOJ and the SEC dismissed all criminal charges and civil claims against the firm’s client, Javier Martin-Artajo, a former senior executive at JP Morgan. The allegations related to events in 2012 in connection with what has been referred to in the press as the “London Whale” trading losses.

The U.S. government’s decision, which came following four years of civil proceedings involving the disclosure of millions of pages of documents, depositions of over 35 fact witnesses in the U.S. and Europe, and the government carefully analysing the evidence, completely vindicated Mr Martin-Artajo’s position and reflects the strength of his defence which he has consistently maintained from the outset of this matter in 2012.

Larry Laurenzi

NAFUSA’s newest member, Lawrence “Larry” J. Laurenzi, has joined Baker Donelson’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Group in the Memphis office.

Laurenzi, who joins as of counsel, brings more than 35 years of experience with the U.S. Department of Justice for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Tennessee, including an appointment as U.S. Attorney from 2008 to 2010. After beginning his career serving as a trial attorney, Laurenzi went on to serve as criminal chief, before becoming First Assistant U.S. Attorney. In addition to the three years he served as U.S. Attorney, Laurenzi was also named Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District on three separate occasions: 2000 – 2001, 2006 – 2007, and 2017.

As a senior trial attorney, Laurenzi was responsible for managing the litigation and regulatory affairs of the United States in Western Tennessee. He actively engaged in both civil and criminal litigation, concentrating on a variety of cases that include white collar fraud, tax fraud, public corruption, civil rights, affirmative civil enforcement, and defensive torts. He has tried more than 100 jury trials and has been recognized on numerous occasions by local law enforcement and the Department of Justice for his work.

Joe D. Whitley, chair of Baker Donelson’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Group, said “Larry brings extensive experience and a stellar reputation as a career federal prosecutor who has held multiple national leadership positions within the Department of Justice. We’re very pleased to welcome him to our growing team of attorneys focused on the defense of businesses and executives in domestic and international investigations and prosecutions.”

Baker Donelson’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Group defends businesses and executives in a wide range of domestic and international investigations and prosecutions. Led by Joe Whitley, former U.S. Attorney in the Middle and Northern Federal Districts of Georgia and former General Counsel of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the group includes more than 30 lawyers, including a former acting associate attorney general, former U.S. attorneys in multiple districts, a former FBI agent, appointed special attorneys general for several states and many former state and federal prosecutors.

Recognized by FORTUNE magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For,” Baker Donelson is among the 60 largest law firms in the country, with more than 750 attorneys and public policy advisors representing more than 30 practice areas to serve a wide range of legal needs across 22 offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C. 

John Horn

King & Spalding recently announced that former NAFUSA member John Horn (ND Georgia 2015-2017) has joined as a partner in the firm’s Atlanta office where he began his legal career. Horn is the sixth former federal prosecutor to join the firm’s Special Matters team, which is part of the Government Matters practice group, in the past year. He also becomes the fifth former U.S. Attorney currently practicing at King & Spalding, joining NAFUSA board member John Richter and NAFUSA members Sally Yates, Paul B. Murphy, and Zach Fardon.

“John is a superb lawyer and leader who is naturally collaborative,” said Wick Sollers, who heads the firm’s Government Matters practice group. “John’s prosecutorial experience and understanding of the process will provide our clients invaluable insights when enforcement agencies come calling.”

Horn first joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2002 from King & Spalding’s Atlanta office, where he had been a member of the Special Matters practice. Horn began as a line Assistant U.S. Attorney and rapidly moved up the ranks, becoming the Deputy Chief of the Narcotics & Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, Chief of the Appellate Division, and then the First Assistant U.S. Attorney under then-U.S. Attorney Sally Yates. After Yates was confirmed to serve as the Deputy Attorney General, Horn led the office for three years as U.S. Attorney. 

“King & Spalding’s Government Matters practice is replete with accomplished senior members of enforcement agencies from not just DOJ, but the SEC, FDA, and numerous other offices, which provides a natural platform for me to support clients in need of this expertise,” said Horn. “Also, King & Spalding has emerged as a national leader in data privacy and cybersecurity matters, which allows me to combine a leading government investigations practice with a cutting-edge cyber incident response and counseling practice.  I’m thrilled and honored to be rejoining the firm.” 

Horn received his undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. After law school, he served two years as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Harold L. Murphy in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, and one year as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Stanley F. Birch, Jr. in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

As U.S. Attorney, Horn chaired the Attorney General Advisory Committee’s Working Group on Elder Justice, and also served on the AGAC’s committees on financial fraud, cybercrime, violent crime and drug enforcement. Horn created the Northern District of Georgia’s first Cybercrime Unit, which prosecuted leading international cases involving sophisticated hackers of financial institutions, the creators of preeminent malware/botnot programs, and state actors conducting corporate espionage. Horn also created the district’s first Civil Rights Enforcement Unit and spearheaded the country’s largest implementation of the innovative Drug Market Intervention model to dismantle a 30-year heroin and crack marketplace operating in Atlanta’s historic English Avenue community. Through his extensive experience in long-term wiretap investigations, Horn served on DOJ’s national Title III/electronic evidence working group and lectured at training events regarding the collection and use at trial of electronic evidence.  

He was the lead prosecutor in the takedown of a significant component of Mexico’s Beltran-Leyva cartel, including kingpin Edgar Valdez-Villarreal, aka “La Barbie.” He also served as a member of the prosecution team in the case of Centennial Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph.

King & Spalding’s Special Matters practice is comprised of over 100 lawyers in 14 offices throughout the world, and is dedicated to representing clients in government investigations, white collar criminal defense and related civil fraud litigation, making it one of the largest and most respected such practices in the world. The team has been nationally acclaimed as White Collar Practice Group of the Year in 2017 by Law360, among other recognitions. The team has handled investigations before more than 70 of the 93 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in the United States and every litigating division of the Justice Department. It also has appeared before the Securities and Exchange Commission and all 12 of its Regional Offices, and handled multinational investigations involving approximately 80 countries.  

Margaret Currin

Diligence, LLC announces that lifetime NAFUSA member and former NAFUSA President Margaret Person Currin has become a founding member of its team.  

Diligence, LLC (www.DiligenceDone.net) is a national independent investigatory company specifically dedicated to assist public and private organizations in crisis to meet their obligations to their many constituents through transparent, thorough, timely, and professionally-conducted fact-finding investigations and reviews to restore public confidence in their operations in a prompt and discrete manner.   

Margaret served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina from 1988-1993.  Since that time, she has been active in her service to NAFUSA including having served several terms on its Board of Directors and all offices in the leadership chain, culminating with President in 2003-2004.

For 31 years, she was a legal educator and law school administrator at Campbell University School of Law.  Over the years, in addition to her teaching responsibilities, she served as Assistant Dean for External Relations; Associate Dean for Academic, Student, and Administrative Affairs; and founding Director of Campbell’s nationally-recognized Externship Program.  

Margaret has been a member of the North Carolina Rules Review Commission since 2011 and has served as chairman and first vice-chairman.  The Rules Review Commission is the executive agency created by the General Assembly that is charged with reviewing and approving rules adopted by state agencies. She serves on the North Carolina Bar Association’s BarCARES Board of Directors and on several North Carolina Bar Association councils. She was elected to the Wake County Bar Association/Tenth Judicial District Board of Directors in 2015.  Further, she has served on and chaired the Wake County Board of Elections, and served on the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Committee with the North Carolina State Board of Elections. She also gained significant experience as a Senatorial legislative director and counsel on Capitol Hill. 

In recognition of her exemplary service to the State of North Carolina and her community, in 2015 Margaret was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the most prestigious award conferred by the Governor of North Carolina. 

Margaret graduated with honors from Campbell University School of Law where she was a member of the Law Review Editorial Board.  She also engaged in graduate legal studies at the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.  She received her undergraduate education at Meredith College, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Johnny Sutton

The University of Texas has retained NAFUSA member Johnny Sutton (WD Texas 2001 to 2009) to investigate “administrative and management issues” related to an alleged fraud and “provide recommendations for enhancement of systems, processes, and best practices, and corrective actions.”

According to The Texas Tribune,

Sutton’s hiring comes almost three weeks after Jason Shoumaker, a former director at the university’s law school, was arrested on six charges of tampering with government records — his university time sheets. But sources close to the matter say Shoumaker is at the center of an ongoing probe that could involve millions of dollars of questionable expenses.

“Sutton and his firm have the experience and skills in employee and management investigation to help identify systems and processes that need to be addressed,” said Gary Susswein, a university spokesperson, in a statement. “This review is vital to our effort to be good stewards of public dollars and improve internal controls.”

Sutton frequently prosecuted drug- and immigration-related cases while the U.S. attorney for Texas’ Western District, a more than 90,000 square mile swath with more than 650 miles of U.S.-Mexico border. He also oversaw the corruption case that brought down former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales, who pleaded guilty to mail and tax fraud in 2003.

Sutton’s work will take him back to the campus where he earned bachelor’s and law degrees — not to mention a starring role as a left fielder on the university’s baseball team during the 1983 College World Series, which UT-Austin won. His teammates there included future major leaguers Roger Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi.

Sutton is tasked with conducting a review of the internal processes that let the alleged fraud of Shoumaker, the former UT employee, go unchecked for at least a year. An affidavit filed in a Travis County court earlier this month alleges Shoumaker was clocking in for work at the law school while he was in fact on jaunts in Cozumel, the U.S. Virgin Islands and other tourist destinations where he had no work duties.

Sutton heads up the Austin office of the Ashcroft Law Firm.

Lee Bentley

Lee Bentley recently joined the law firm of Bradley Arant Boult & Cummings, LLP (“Bradley”), as a partner in the firm’s Tampa, Florida office.  Lee will be working with NAFUSA’s current membership chair and past president, Jack Selden, in Bradley’s Government Enforcement and Investigations practice group.

Lee served as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida for approximately four years.  His service as Interim, and then Acting, United States Attorney began in June 2013.  Subsequently, in June 2014, he was nominated for the position by President Obama, upon the recommendation of both Florida’s Democratic and Republican Senator.  Lee’s nomination was confirmed by a unanimous United States Senate on December 16, 2014.  He resigned as United States Attorney on March 10, 2017.

As United States Attorney, Lee oversaw approximately 125 attorneys, with offices in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Ft. Myers, and Ocala.  The Middle District of Florida is the second-most populous judicial district in the country, and covers 35 of Florida’s 67 counties.

Throughout Lee’s tenure, the Middle District of Florida consistently ranked in the top three in the nation in the number of criminal trials.  Among other things, Lee oversaw the successful prosecution of a publicly-traded Fortune 500 managed care company and five of its top executives for their role in reporting inflated expenditures in order to increase Medicaid reimbursements.  Moreover, Lee supervised the successful investigation and indictment of a sitting Congresswoman, as well as the investigation immediately following the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

One of Lee’s priorities as United States Attorney was to increase recoveries under the False Claims Act.  The Middle District of Florida often led the nation in the number of qui tam or whistleblower lawsuits filed, and during the last fiscal year of Lee’s tenure, the office collected over $800 million in False Claims Act settlements.  Among other things, the office reached what was then the largest settlement ever under the federal Stark Law and also reached a $350 million settlement with a durable medical equipment company.

Prior to becoming United States Attorney, Lee served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Florida for approximately 13 years, which included stints as both the Criminal Chief and the First Assistant United States Attorney.  As an Assistant United States Attorney, Lee tried approximately 40 federal criminal trials to verdict.

Lee also previously served as an Attorney-Advisor in the Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Florida (Miami).

In addition to federal service, Lee was a partner at the law firm of Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells), where he practiced in the firm’s Washington, DC office for over 10 years.  At that firm, Lee secured a summary judgment in a major contractual dispute with potential exposure to the client of over $250 million.  He also successful tried several civil cases, including a patent infringement case in which he secured a judgment of approximately $20 million.

Lee was a judicial clerk for Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., at the United States Supreme Court, and for Judge Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr., on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  Prior to that, Lee graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a notes editor on the Law review and Order of the Coif.  

At Bradley, Lee will be focused primarily on white collar criminal defense, the defense of False Claims Act cases, and internal investigations.