Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked for the resignations of the remaining 46 U.S. Attorneys appointed by President Obama who have not already left office “in order to ensure a uniform transition,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said on Friday.
“Until the new U.S. attorneys are confirmed, the dedicated career prosecutors in our U.S. attorney’s offices will continue the great work of the department in investigating, prosecuting and deterring the most violent offenders,” she said in a statement.
Wendy J. Olson stepped down as the United States Attorney for the District of Idaho (2010-2017) in February and Stoel Rives LLP announced that Olson has joined the firm as a partner effective Feb. 27, 2017. Olson joins the litigation practice group in the firm’s Boise office. Olson also joined NAFUSA this month.
“I am thrilled to become a part of Stoel Rives, such a highly regarded firm,” said Olson. “After a long career in public service, I look forward to private practice, where I will work with clients on civil and criminal matters, as well as assist them with government regulatory investigations. I know that I am joining a team of incredible lawyers at Stoel Rives who advocate on behalf of a diverse array of clients nationwide.”
A native of Pocatello, Idaho, Olson has served in Idaho’s U.S. Attorney’s Office for more than two decades, serving under four U.S. presidents. In 2010, she was sworn in as Idaho’s top prosecutor by President Barack Obama. As the U.S. Attorney, Olson administered civil, criminal and appellate litigation and office operations throughout the District of Idaho, and as the lead federal law enforcement official in Idaho, she coordinated and collaborated with prosecutors and law enforcement officials at all levels of government. She worked with federal, civil and criminal agency heads in Idaho and participated in tribal consultations with all five federally recognized tribal governments in the state.
“I am excited to welcome Wendy as a partner at Stoel Rives. Wendy brings her years of experience with the U.S. Attorney’s office to all of the Stoel Rives’ markets, and deepens our bench with her civil and criminal litigation experience,” said Nicole C. Hancock, Managing Partner of the firm’s Boise office.
Tim Snider, head of the firm’s litigation practice group, added, “We are honored to welcome Wendy as a partner, and we look forward to adding her considerable talents to our team.”
Prior to being appointed U.S. Attorney, Olson served as Senior Litigation Counsel and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boise. As Assistant U.S. Attorney, she prosecuted and defended on appeal the District of Idaho’s only federal capital case, as well as litigated appeals in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She also served as health care fraud coordinator and liaison to the Idaho Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Olson’s reputation as a criminal prosecutor precedes her time in Idaho. She served as a trial attorney in the criminal section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, as well as assistant to the legal director and director of operations for the National Church Arson Task Force.
She also has shared her expertise in the classroom, serving as an adjunct professor of legal writing at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. and as an instructor and mentor in a week-long intensive trial advocacy program at University of Idaho College of Law.
Olson graduated summa cum laude from Drake University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, and then earned her law degree from Stanford Law School with honors. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein in the Western District of Washington.
Stoel Rives LLP: Stoel Rives is a leading U.S. corporate and litigation law firm. One of the largest national firms focused on energy, natural resources, environmental law and climate change, Stoel Rives also serves the agribusiness, food and beverage, health care, life sciences and technology industries. With more than 350 attorneys operating out of 10 offices in seven states and the District of Columbia, Stoel Rives is a leader in regulatory and compliance matters, business, labor and employment law, intellectual property, land use, real estate development and construction law.
Kerry B. Harvey announced his resignation as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, effective January 13, 2017, and on March 1, 2017, Dickinson Wright PLLC announced that Harvey has joined the firm’s Lexington office as a Member. Harvey also joined NAFUSA this month.
“I’m thrilled to join Dickinson Wright’s Government Investigations and SEC Enforcement practice and expanding its presence into Kentucky, regionally and nationally,” said Harvey. “The firm’s strong commitment to helping corporations in investigations and proactive counseling is apparent from the strong bench of legal talent the firm has in place and continues to build throughout the U.S. I look forward to bringing my expertise in health care and securities to help round out the counseling, investigations defense and litigation services we deliver to our clients.”
“We are honored and excited that Kerry Harvey will be joining the firm’s Lexington office as a member of our rapidly growing Government Investigations and SEC Enforcement Practice,” said Jacob Frenkel, leader of the Practice Group. “Healthcare and securities continue to be high enforcement priorities for the government, and Kerry’s expertise and prominence will add considerable depth and tremendous value to the services that we provide to our clients. Kerry also will be a strong addition to our Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance, corporate monitorship and trustee practices.”
Harvey served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky from 2010 into 2017. He served as the Department of Justice’s Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer in Kentucky’s 67 easternmost counties and was responsible for achieving landmark criminal convictions and civil recoveries for fraudulent healthcare practices, prosecuting significant public corruption cases, and prosecuting large-scale drug trafficking organizations.
Harvey’s national responsibilities and significant efforts at DOJ included serving on the National Heroin Task Force; serving three years on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), serving as Co-Chairman of the AGAC’s Healthcare Fraud Working Group; and establishing the highly successful U.S. Attorney’s Heroin Education Action Team, an initiative to increase public awareness of the opioid epidemic.
Prior to his arrival at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Harvey served as General Counsel for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services in Frankfort, Kentucky (“Cabinet”). At the Cabinet, he led a team of 35 lawyers with responsibilities that included health care fraud and Medicaid reimbursement litigation, certificate of need issues, and public health. Harvey served as the Acting Inspector General for the Cabinet where he led efforts to prevent and detect fraud in various programs that the Cabinet administered.
Harvey received his B.S. from Murray State University and his J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law.
On March 3, 2017, FBI Director James B. Comey named NAFUSA member Gregory A. Brower as the assistant director for the Office of Congressional Affairs. Brower entered on duty with the FBI in 2016, and previously served as deputy general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel.
Prior to joining the FBI, Brower served in the Department of Justice as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada (2007-2009) and as the legislative counsel in the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.
Brower has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law, teaching national security law and trial advocacy at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Brower is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and The George Washington University Law School. Before attending law school, Brower served in the U.S. Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer.
Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney in Baltimore, has been nominated to be the Deputy Attorney General. Rosenstein, 52, is the sole holdover U.S. attorney from the George W. Bush administration who is still in office. He is the longest-serving U.S. Attorney in the nation, having been confirmed for the District of Maryland in 2005. If confirmed, he will continue the recent trend of former U.S. Attorneys elevated to the posts of Attorney General (Holder, Lynch and Sessions) and Deputy AG (Yates, Rosenstein).
Rosenstein, a Harvard law graduate, joined the Justice Department in 1990 as a trial attorney in the criminal division’s public integrity section.
On Thursday, February 16, President Trump named former United States Attorney R. Alexander Acosta (Southern District of Florida) to be his next pick for labor secretary. Acosta served as an assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. He also served on the National Labor Relations Board. He is currently the dean of the law school at Florida International University. He also served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. , when Alito was a judge on the Third Circuit.
Acosta received his law degree from Harvard Law School, worked at Kirkland & Ellis and taught at George Mason University Law School.
James P. Connelly, who served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington from 1993-2000, passed away on February 14, 2017. He was born in Spokane, Washington. Jim’s family emigrated from Tuam, Ireland in 1860. His father became both a U.S. Attorney and State Supreme Court Judge. Jim attended college at Notre Dame, and Gonzaga University and graduated from Gonzaga Law School. After working as a prosecutor for Spokane County he joined the firm of Cashatt, Williams, Connelly and Rekofke. He later joined his lifelong friends Robert McNicols, Leo Driscoll and Mike Cronin to form the law firm of Winston Cashatt. Throughout his career he was known as a fierce and brilliant trial lawyer, a passion he shared with many attorneys throughout his career. He retired from private practice and taught for a short time at Gonzaga Law School before following in his father’s footsteps and was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.
Jim was known for his colorful language, his love of books, his enjoyment of a good gathering with friends and a stiff glass of good scotch. Most important to Jim were his eight children. Jim and his wife Marianne, enjoyed many wonderful years with his large family, taking trips to the Oregon coast, skiing at Schweitzer, sailing on Lake Pend Orielle, and spending winters at the beach in Coronado, California. Jim is survived by his wife Marianne; his eight children and their spouses, Patrick (Laurie), Michael (Sue), Anne (Gordon Connelly-Chew), Lisa (Kubi Ibrahim), Mary (Jim Doherty), Matt (Kristi), Cara (Ahmad Mohammadian) and Kathleen (Tom Arnold); 21 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and his cousin Kathy Connelly.
A Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, February 18 at St. Aloysius Church at 10:00am, followed immediately by a reception at Cataldo Hall. As is our custom, NAFUSA arranged for an American flag to be flown over Main Justice on February 15 in Jim’s honor, and it will be presented to his family as a token of the regard with which he was held by his colleagues. In lieu of flowers, donations in Jim’s name can be made to Volunteers of America, Crosswalk Shelter.
Winston & Strawn announced that NAFUSA life member and past president Matthew Orwig has joined the firm as head of the litigation and investigations practice for the Dallas office. He has more than 30 years of experience investigating and litigating complex civil and criminal cases. Matt’s cases include high-profile money laundering, public corruption, securities fraud, insider trading, health care fraud, and civil and criminal fraud. He also focuses his practice on civil and criminal fraud investigations, False Claims Act (FCA) and qui tam actions, internal corporate investigations, complex civil litigation, and litigation involving government agencies. Matt previously served in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), initially as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and culminating in his presidential appointment as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas (2001-2007).
Winston & Strawn is an international law firm with more than 875 attorneys across 17 offices. The exceptional depth and geographic reach of its resources enable the firm to manage virtually every type of business-related legal issue. The firm’s Dallas office opened in February 2017 with a well-established and sizable group of partners from eight major law firms. As the firm’s second office in the state of Texas, the Dallas office complements the firm’s existing capabilities in the areas of corporate, finance, private equity, real estate, tax, and civil and criminal litigation and regulatory defense.
NAFUSA member Donald J. DeGabrielle, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas (2006-2008), has joined Lewis Brisbois as a partner in its Houston office, where he will chair the firm’s national White Collar Criminal Defense and FCPA Practice. He is admitted to and licensed in Texas and Louisiana with active practices in each state.
“Don DeGabrielle’s depth of experience in federal law enforcement, including his time as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, will provide us with a skill set that can be marketed nationally. We are extremely excited that he is joining our Houston office,” said Houston Managing Partner David Oubre.
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