Tim Heaphy Appointed UVA University Counsel

 

Tim Heaphy

The University of Virginia announced on August 23 that NAFUSA board member Tim Heaphy has been appointed University Counsel by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. According to the Release from the University of Virginia:

Heaphy, a UVA alumnus and currently a partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth and a former United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, will take office Sept. 1. As University counsel, Heaphy will lead UVA’s Office of University Counsel, which is responsible for representing the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia in all legal and regulatory matters. The office provides legal counsel to the Board of Visitors, President Ryan, executive officers and other administrators, faculty and staff in their official capacities. As a member of the University’s senior leadership team, Heaphy will provide strategic advice to the Board of Visitors and Ryan on a number of important issues.

 

“With his deep roots in Virginia, in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia, Tim is well-positioned to help President Ryan and the Board of Visitors implement their vision, and to help the University continue to grow and thrive,” Herring said. “His experience in the private and public sectors, especially his years of service as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, give him a depth and breadth of experience that will serve the University well.”

 

“Tim is an outstanding attorney with a sharp mind and a long history of public service,” Ryan said. “He understands the important role the University plays in the community and nation, and his legal expertise will undoubtedly benefit both the commonwealth and UVA. I am delighted that Attorney General Herring has appointed Tim and grateful that Tim has agreed to serve in this important leadership position at his alma mater.”

Attorneys in the Office of University Counsel are appointed by the attorney general of Virginia and represent the University on legal matters affecting University operations and interests.

 

“I am honored to have been appointed University counsel for the University of Virginia,” Heaphy said. “UVA and Charlottesville are very special places for me and my family, and I can’t think of a better way to continue my career as a public servant in the law than to represent what I believe to be the best public university in the nation. I am grateful to Attorney General Herring for entrusting me with this responsibility, and I look forward to serving the UVA Board of Visitors, President Ryan and the University’s distinguished faculty and staff.”

 

Appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia in 2009, Heaphy was the chief law enforcement officer responsible for prosecuting federal crime and defending the United States in civil litigation for six years. Prior to that role, he was a partner with the law firm McGuireWoods. He served as assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia and the Western District of Virginia from 1994 to 2006.

 

In 2017, Heaphy led a team of lawyers at Hunton & Williams who conducted an independent review of the protest events in Charlottesville last year. The report and its findings led to the development of new policies and procedures regarding how to better manage public protests while also ensuring First Amendment protections and public safety.

 

Heaphy is founder and board chair of The Fountain Fund, a nonprofit organization in Charlottesville that provides low-interest loans to formerly incarcerated people in Central Virginia. As a law student at UVA, he helped start a loan forgiveness program for students who entered public service work after graduation.

 

In 2015, former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe appointed him to the Commission on Parole Review. He clerked for Judge John A. Terry of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and prior to law school served on the staff of U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware.

Heaphy earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the UVA School of Law.

Visit to Northern Michigan

Jay and Julie Stephens are vacationing in Northern Michigan and stopped in Leland (the unofficial home of NAFUSA) to have dinner with Rich and Patty Rossman. They also toured the Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore and enjoyed a day on the Rossman pontoon. Jay is the counsel to the NAFUSA board of directors, and a past president. Rich is the executive director of NAFUSA.

P.J. Meitl Named 2018 Bradford Award Winner

P.J.Meitl

Each year, NAFUSA recognizes an Assistant U.S. Attorney for outstanding performance through the J. Michael Bradford Memorial Award. The award is named after J. Michael Bradford, who served as a U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 1994 to 2001. Bradford, who died in 2003, had a distinguished career in public service, including successfully defending the government against lawsuits stemming from the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian’s compound in Waco, Texas. NAFUSA annually solicits nominations from current U.S. Attorneys for the Bradford Award. Typically, the recipient has handled a significant investigation and prosecution or a series of prosecutions which has had a significant impact and merits special recognition.

Once again, a number of exceptional nominations were made by U.S. Attorneys around the country. The J. Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Vice President Paul Coggins. Its members included Donna Bucella, Paul Charlton, Barry Grissom, and Karen Hewitt. This year, the Board voted to give the award to AUSA P.J. Meitl of the Northern District of Texas, nominated by U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox, who wrote:

In 2017, AUSA Meitl completed the case of United States v. Jacques Roy, et al, 3:12-CR-0054-L, the largest criminal investigation and prosecution of a single physician for health care fraud in the history of the Department of Justice. Before his arrest, Dr. Roy falsely certified more than 12,000 individual beneficiaries for more than 500 home health agencies in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, submitting more than $373 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for payment.  Dr. Roy caused the deaths of at least three patients, and harmed countless more through blatant medical malpractice.  He was not just an unrepentant con man, but a dangerous one.

Due in large part to AUSA Meitl’s efforts, Dr. Roy was sentenced in August 2017 to 35 years’ imprisonment. This case had a significant impact not just because Dr. Roy’s enormous criminal fraud ring was destroyed, but was also a model of seamless cooperation in health care fraud prosecution efforts by law enforcement agents from HHS-OIG and the FBI.

In just five years with the Department of Justice, AUSA Meitl has prosecuted more than 500 defendants and participated in more than 15 jury trials.  While the Dr. Roy prosecution was ongoing, AUSA Meitl still worked tirelessly to prosecute 89 members of North Texas white supremacist groups in Operation “Vanilla Ice”.  

Other nominees were: 

Emil J. Bove (Southern District of New York)

Daniel A. Chatham (Northern District of Iowa)

Zia M. Faruqui (District of Columbia) 

Elizabeth Gabriel (District of Columbia) 

Julie K. Hampton (Southern District of Texas)

Michael J. Hunter (Southern District of Ohio) 

Nathaniel Kummerfeld (Eastern District of Texas)

Timothy M. O’Shea (Western District of Wisconsin)

Perry H. Piper (Eastern District of Tennessee)

Keith W. Reisenauer (District of North Dakota) 

Matthew W. Shepherd (Northern District of Ohio)

Deborah Sines (District of Columbia) 

Richard M. Tucker (Eastern District of New York) 

Gordon A.D. Zubrod (Middle District of Pennsylvania)  

Mary Jo White Led Meyer Inquiry for Ohio State

Mary Jo White

NAFUSA member Mary Jo White (Southern District of New York, 1993-2002) was named by The Ohio State University to lead the investigation of what coach Urban Meyer knew and did about domestic abuse accusations against a former assistant. The university placed Meyer on a three game suspension after receiving White’s report.

Mary Jo White is a partner of Debevoise & Plimpton and a former chairperson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mike Dettmer Honored By The State Bar of Michigan

Mike Dettmer

The State Bar of Michigan’s Negligence Section will present its Outstanding Achievement Award to NAFUSA member Mike Dettmer at the Negligent Section’s Annual Summer Meeting in Traverse City on August 9, 2018.

Currently of counsel to the firm of Olson, Bzdok & Howard in Traverse City, where he still maintains an active mediation/alternative dispute resolution practice, Mike has had as interesting and diverse a career as any. He has been a trial lawyer for more than 45 years, served for many years on the State Bar Board of Commissioners, helped the state bar address the lawyer malpractice insurance crisis in the late 1980s, and was one of the founders of Michigan Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, where he eventually served as president and CEO. He also served the State Bar of Michigan as its 59th president. He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, where he served 1994-2001.

City of Chicago Independent Monitor RFP

The State of Illinois and the City of Chicago have released a draft court-enforceable consent decree in the matter of State of Illinois v. City of Chicago, case no. 17-cv-6260,  that addresses the findings issued by the U.S. Department of Justice in January 2017 and that form the basis of the lawsuit filed by the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Illinois.  A copy of the draft consent decree can be found here: www.chicagopoliceconsentdecree.org.

As part of the consent decree, the parties have agreed to work to jointly identify an independent monitor to oversee compliance with the decree. On July 27, 2018. the parties are released the attached Request for Proposals. Responses to the Request for Proposal will be due on September 4, 2018. The Office of the Attorney General of Illinois has invited NAFUSA to notify its members of this opportunity, stating, “Given your organization’s stated mission, we believe you may have members who have an interest in serving as the independent monitor or participating as a team member.”

Click here to open RFP:

Request for Proposal – Monitor for Chicago Consent Decree

 

Stan Bardwell Jr Dies, 78

Flag flown over Main Justice on July 17 in honor of Stan Bardwell

Former U.S. Attorney Stanford O. Bardwell Jr. died at his Baton rouge home on June 9, 2018. He was 78 years of age. Bardwell served as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana from 1981 to 1986. He also served as the deputy general counsel for the U.S. Energy Department 1986-1988. He is survived by his wife, Leslie Bardwell and his three children, Brian, Patrick and Erin.

As is our custom, at NAFUSA’s request, an American flag was flown over Main Justice on July 17, 2018, and will be presented on by NAFUSA member Ray Lamonica to Stan’s wife Leslie.

Read the obituary in The Advocate

Bill Leone Leads US Based Criminal and Civil Securities Defense Effort for Norton Rose Fulbright Global Team Chosen “Investigations Team of the Year”

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.

NAFUSA Annual Conference October 24-26

Click here to view the Nashville program.

The Westin Hotel in Nashville is completely sold out even after adding 20 rooms to each of the nights. They do have a wait list at this stage but since the hotel is sold out it is unlikely any rooms would become available.

Here is a list of nearby hotels the Westin gave as choices for our members to call:

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Lisa Rafferty.


The conference will open on Wednesday, October 24, with a welcome reception at the law offices of Butler Snow in The Pinnacle at Symphony Place. The firm, one of NAFUSA’s sponsors, has three NAFUSA members: Jim Letten, James Tucker, and Edward Stanton. Golf will be available on Wednesday morning at the Golf Club of Tennessee. If you want to play golf, make sure you plan to spend Tuesday night in Nashville.

On Thursday and Friday mornings, the CLE programs will feature:

  • a panel on the opioid epidemic moderated by NAFUSA life member Chuck Rosenberg, the former head of DEA with New Jersey Attorney General  Gurbir Grewal, Tracey Helton Mitchell, author of “The Big Fix: Hope After Heroin”, and Lou Milione, former Special Agent and Assistant Administrator, Diversion Division, DEA
  • a panel on international criminal investigations moderated by NAFUSA Secretary Karen Hewitt and NAFUSA board member John Richter, with Robert Buckland, Solicitor General for England and Wales, Sandra Moser, Acting Chief, Fraud Section, Criminal Division, DOJ, and William McMurry, Supervisory Special Agent, FBI
  • a presentation on ethics moderated by Chief Judge Waverly Crenshaw, United States District Judge, MD Tenn, with Douglas Richmond, AON’s Professional Services Group, and Brian S. Faughman, Lewis Thomason
  • and a panel on the Supreme Court moderated by Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal with Nicole Saharsky, Gibson Dunn, Joe Palmore, Morrison Foerster, and Prathik Shah, Akin Gump

The Thursday breakfast will be sponsored by Nardello & Co.

On Thursday afternoon, there will be a luncheon buffet and tour of The Hermitage, home of President Andrew Jackson (sponsored by Ernst & Young), with presentations by Director Howard J. Kitten and David Ewing. Thursday evening is reserved for class reunions at various off-site locations. Friday afternoon is free time, followed by a closing dinner and general membership meeting. Our keynote speaker on Friday night will be United States Senator Doug Jones, who would have been NAFUSA’s president this year if he hadn’t stepped down to run for AG Jeff Sessions seat in the Senate representing the State of Alabama.

click here to read the biographies of our 2018 conference speakers.