NAFUSA life member John C. Richter won a unanimous federal jury verdict of not guilty on behalf of client Vascular Solutions, Inc. (VSI) and CEO Howard Root regarding allegations of “off-label” promotion of Vari-Lase Short Kit. With Friday’s verdict, Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth—sitting by designation in the Western District of Texas—dismissed the case, which cannot be appealed.

The verdict vindicates the company and Root, who fought the allegations in and outside court at great cost for almost five years. The allegations advanced by prosecutors at trial concerned whether VSI and Root engaged in a promotional campaign to encourage members of the company’s sales force to speak to physicians about the use of the Short Kit to treat varicose perforator veins in the leg and whether that use was outside the Short Kit’s FDA-cleared labeled indications for use and therefore an “off-label” use.  The government’s case lasted three weeks.  The defense rested without calling a witness.  After a day-and-a-half of deliberations, the jury unanimously rejected all of the prosecutors’ allegations.

Richter, a King & Spalding partner and former U.S. Attorney for the Western  District of Oklahoma and Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, was joined by Michael Pauzé and Robert Hur in trying the case.  Pauzé and Hur are both former Assistant U.S. Attorneys. NAFUSA member Johnny Sutton, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, served as local counsel for VSI on the case.

“We are gratified that after five years of investigation and three weeks of trial, the jury completely exonerated our client, Vascular Solutions, and its CEO Howard Root,” said Richter. “The verdict vindicates the First Amendment right of life sciences companies to provide truthful information about their products.”

Snell & Wilmer announced on February 15, that NAFUSA member Greg Brower, a commercial litigation partner in the firm’s Reno and Las Vegas offices, has been appointed to serve as Deputy General Counsel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He will assume his new role in Washington, DC in late February.

Brower has more than 20 years of experience as a “first chair” litigator. While at Snell & Wilmer, he was instrumental in the development of the firm’s gaming and white collar criminal litigation practice groups and the expansion of its corporate investigations and administrative law groups. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s Boyd School of Law teaching courses in national security law and trial practice.

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Crowe & Dunlevy recently announced former United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma Sanford C. Coats has joined the firm as a director in the Oklahoma City office. He serves as co-chair of the firm’s White Collar, Compliance & Investigations practice group and is a member of the Litigation & Trial practice group. He is also NAFUSA’s newest member.

“Sandy has an exceptional reputation as a talented, experienced prosecutor, and we are honored he has joined the firm,” said Kevin D. Gordon, president and CEO of the firm. “His experience during his time as U.S. Attorney for the Western District, including his background in white collar investigations, criminal and litigation work, is extraordinary and will help us provide comprehensive legal counsel to clients here in Oklahoma and across the globe.”

Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate in 2009, Coats was U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma for more than six years, stepping down on January 15, 2016.

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In 2002, NAFUSA Foundation President Mike McKay was appointed to serve on a committee to advise the Seattle Catholic archbishop how to deal with the child sex abuse allegations made against Catholic priests.  The committee reviewed the files and made recommendations on particular cases.  In 2003, it issued a report that included a series of recommendations which, if followed, would decrease the number of cases occurring in the future. The archbishop rejected the report and fired the committee.

A new archbishop arrived in 2010 and appears to now be implementing, however imperfectly, some of the committee’s recommendations.  This includes the release of names of 77 priests accused of child sex abuse. See Seattle Times, January 15, 2016.

But the release of names is not enough, McKay argues, so he and other prominent Catholics are pressing the church to release the underlying files so that church members and the general public will understand the serious nature of these sexual assaults, including where they occurred. See Seattle Times, January 30, 2016.

Last week, the Seattle Times editorial board weighed in to support McKay’s position: The Archdiocese of Seattle should open its secret files on priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

 

 

NAFUSA member Jim Cissell, Southern District of Ohio 1978-1982, has published the 2016 edition of Federal Criminal Trials. As NAFUSA member Joe Whitley writes,

Jim Cissell has produced the premier go-to resource for defense counsel and prosecutors engaged in federal criminal litigation. I recommend Jim Cissell’s book as an indispensable resource to getting quickly to the heart of highly complex federal criminal litigation issues. It is a must-have for federal criminal practitioners.

Cissell is offering a discount on the new edition between now and the end of May. Click here to view the flyer for the new publication, including the discount offer. Federal Criminal Trials 2016.

 

NAFUSA member Frank Keating, the former governor of Oklahoma, has joined Holland & Knight as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office. Gov. Keating was formerly the president and CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA). He will focus on serving clients in the financial services industry.

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NAFUSA members Tom Heffelfinger, Paul Charlton, David Iglesias, Brendan Johnson and Tim Purdon, joined by former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, have filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in U.S. v. Bryant. In a brief authored by Robins Kaplan, the amici curiae identify themselves as former United States Attorneys with experience in the prosecution of violent crimes, including domestic violence offenses, in “Indian Country.” The issue in Bryant is whether uncounseled tribal court domestic violence convictions can be used as predicate offenses to support a federal “Habitual DV Offender ” charge under 18 U.S.C Sec. 177(a).

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As part of the ongoing discussion of criminal justice reform, the Aleph Institute is presenting the ASKS Summit 2016: Alternative Sentencing Key Stakeholder. It will be held March 7-8, 2016, at Georgetown Law School in Washington, DC. The Summit Chair, Hon. Charles Renfrew, US Deputy Attorney General (1980-1981); US District Judge, ND of California (1972-1980), has written NAFUSA and extended and invitation to all NAFUSA members to attend.

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