The NAFUSA annual spring board meeting will take place in New Orleans on May 14, 2016. The board meets twice a year: at the fall conference and in the spring. Members pay their own travel and hotel expenses. NAFUSA members in the New Orleans area are invited to join the board at related social events. Former board member Don Washington and his law firm, Jones Walker LLP, are hosting this year’s meeting. Local NAFUSA members Don Cazayoux and Jim Letten will join us for dinner, as will local U.S. Attorney Ken Polite.
NAFUSA President Greg Vega will lead the NAFUSA Liaison Committee to Washington on May 5 to meet with Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC) to discuss issues of mutual interest. This continues a series of meetings with Department officials which began in 2010.
The Liaison Committee is composed of President Vega, President Elect Bart Daniel, Foundation President Mike McKay, Ken Wainstein, Jenny Durkan and Executive Director Rich Rossman.
NAFUSA member Jack Selden and his firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP won a significant victory this week both for their client AseraCare and for the False Claims Act (“FCA”) defense bar generally. A federal judge struck down a $200 million FCA case against the hospice provider, holding that the government’s second guessing of physicians’ medical judgment alone cannot prove false claims.
In United States ex rel. Paradies v. AseraCare, Inc., No. 2:12-cv-245, Doc. 497 (N.D. Ala. March 31, 2016), Judge Karon Bowdre granted summary judgment for the defendant after an eight week trial, much of which consisted of conflicting expert testimony about the hospice eligibility of 123 patients. After considering the evidence presented, Judge Bowdre found that the government had failed to prove its case, as “[a] mere difference of opinion between physicians, without more, is not enough to show falsity.” Id. at 2. AseraCare Memorandum Opinion and AseraCare FINAL ORDER.
NAFUSA sponsor Orrick has announced that Melinda Haag, who served as United States Attorney for the Northern District of California for the past five years, rejoined the firm as a partner on March 1. Melinda will serve as Orrick’s Global Litigation Business Unit Leader and will reside in the firm’s San Francisco office. She is also NAFUSA’s newest member.
After being nominated by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, Melinda served as U.S. Attorney from August 2010 through September 2015. She led a team of more than 130 criminal and civil Assistant U.S. Attorneys in handling a high volume of matters that involved export enforcement, computer intrusions, intellectual property theft, international corruption, digital currency issues, securities fraud, economic crimes, national security, organized crime, public integrity and civil rights violations, among other things. Melinda served as Co-Chair of the White Collar Crime Subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and was a member of the Cybersecurity and Health Care Fraud Subcommittees.
Melinda is a deeply experienced and accomplished trial lawyer and has served as lead or co-lead counsel in more than 19 jury and bench trials. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been included on many lists of top lawyers. Melinda has consistently been named by Chambers USA as one of America’s Leading Lawyers in White Collar Crime and Government Investigations, was identified by Lawdragon as one of 500 Leading Lawyers in America, was selected twice by the Daily Journal as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California and five years in a row as one of the Top Women Litigators in California, and was chosen by San Francisco Business Times as one of the Most Influential Bay Area Women.
“I am thrilled to return home to Orrick,” said Melinda. “It was an extraordinary honor to serve as United States Attorney, but I was able to leave after five years knowing that the public’s interests are in the hands of an extraordinary team of lawyers who are handling some of the most important and cutting-edge cases on the DOJ’s docket. At the same time, I am excited by the growth and client results achieved by Orrick’s litigation team over the past five years. They have clearly kicked it up another notch, and I’m honored by the opportunity to lead this top-tier team.”
Armstrong Teasdale, a law firm with offices across the United States and in China, announced that the NAFUSA’s newest life member, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Stephen R. Wigginton, joined the firm in January 2016. Wigginton, who has nearly 30 years of experience, joined the firm’s St. Louis office where he will focus on large commercial class action suits, complex litigation involving corporate malfeasance, and qui tam cases. He also has experience representing municipalities and other governmental entities as well as colleges and universities in a wide range of litigation matters.
NAFUSA member Robert J. Del Tufo, 82, died on March 2, 2016, of lung cancer. Del Tufo served as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, 1977-1980 and as the New Jersey Attorney General, 1990-1993. His older brother, Raymond Del Tufo, also served as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. Del Tufo joined Sadden, Arps, Slate, Meager & Flom in 1993, where he remained until his death.
Del Tufo attended Princeton University and Yale Law School. He was a legal secretary to Chief Justice Joseph Weintraub on the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1958 to 1960.
He is survived by his wife, Kate Del Tufo, daughters Ann Jackopin and Barbara, sons Robert J. Jr. and David, and stepdaughters Caitlin Hughes and Johanna Hunsbedt. He was predeceased by his first wife, Ann.
Funeral arrangements are pending. As is our custom, NAFUSA will request the Department of Justice to fly an American flag over Main Justice in Bob’s honor and it will be presented to his family as a token of the high regard with which Bob was held by his colleagues.
The Washington Legal Foundation is a national, non-profit, public interest law firm and policy center. NAFUSA life member Jay Stephens serves as chair to the WLF, and is counsel to the board of NAFUSA and a past president. The WLF publishes a series of “Conversations With” where Jay develops a series of questions for a written interview format.
In the Winter 2016 issue of Conversations With, Jay has a conversation with another NAFUSA member, Larry Thompson, the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States:
On March 1, 2016, Berger Singerman, announced that Pamela Cothran Marsh, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, has joined the firm as partner on the Dispute Resolution and Government & Regulatory Teams. Marsh will serve clients across the state, and she will work principally out of Berger Singerman’s Tallahassee and Miami offices. Marsh is also NAFUSA’s newest member.
As U.S. Attorney, Marsh earned a distinguished reputation for investigating and prosecuting cases relating to banking, securities, healthcare fraud, public corruption, cybersecurity, international and domestic terrorism, and human trafficking. She was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
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