In an article published yesterday in Law 360, NAFUSA member Troy Eid, shown left, discusses issues surrounding the recent federal criminal raids of marijuana production on the Alturas Indian Rancheria and the Pit River XL Ranch Reservation in Northeastern California which seized at least 12,000 marijuana plants and 100 pounds of processed marijuana.
Eid writes:
A high-profile criminal investigation of two marijuana cultivation facilities on Native American lands in California is a reminder that despite recent U.S. Department of Justice assurances of possible prosecutorial forbearance, tribes considering violating the federal drug laws-even for the sake of much-needed economic development-may do so at their peril.
Troy Eid is the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado and is a shareholder in Greenberg Traurig’s Denver office and co-chairman of he firm’s American Indian law practice group. He previously chaired the Indian Law and Order Commission and currently serves on the Tribal Issues Advisory Committee of the United States Sentencing Commission.
A bipartisan group of 16 NAFUSA members led by Tim Heaphy, shown left, have signed a letter directed to Senators Grassley and Leahy of the Senate Judiciary Committee, urging strong support for the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015.
The letter, dated July 16, 2015, begins:
As former United States Attorneys and officials of the United States Department of Justice in both Democratic and Republican administrations, we share a lifelong commitment to enhancing the effectiveness of the American criminal justice system. That shared commitment leads us to speak out in favor of specific proposals to improve the system within which we have worked for so long. Today we write in strong support the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015, which would if passed make the federal criminal justice system both more just and more effective.
Registration remains open for the NAFUSA Scottsdale conference to be held at The Phoenician October 15-17, 2015. The conference will open on Thursday morning, October 15, with golf at The Phoenician.
NAFUSA The deadline for the conference rate of $325 a night has passed, but contact Blair Berman at the hotel at 480.423.2842 to check on availability. If a room is not available at The Phoenician, Blair will assist you in suggesting alternative hotels nearby.
Thursday evening will feature a cocktail reception at the Joake Inn at The Phoenician, honoring NAFUSA member David Margolis, as he serves his 50th year at the Department.
Friday and Saturday mornings will feature CLE programs, with a luncheon on Friday. The Friday program will feature an ethics presentation by Professor Marianne Jennings and a two hour panel on “Issues in 21st Century Policing: Protecting Civil Rights and Public Safety.”
Sally Quillian Yates
On Friday, luncheon will be held on The Phoenician Patio, with Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates as the featured speaker.
The Saturday CLE program will feature a dialogue with EOUSA Director Monty Wilkinson and AGAC Chair John Walsh, moderated by NAFUSA President Matt Orwig. The two Bradford Award winners will follow with presentations, and the morning will close with a two hour panel on “Criminal Justice Reform Proposals: How to be Tough and Smart on Crime.”
The conference will close on Saturday evening with a banquet and business meeting, featuring Jeffrey Toobin as the keynote speaker. He will speak on “The Supreme Court in the Age of Obama.”
Margolis is the senior-most career employee in the department and one whose tenure out-clocks that of J. Edgar Hoover, the legendary FBI director. A tall, shambling bear of a man, Margolis has been the consigliere to a succession of deputy attorneys general, with a Forrest Gump-like knack to be involved with a number of the most politically controversial issues of the department’s past 25 years.
DLA Piper announced on June 4, 2015, that Rachel Paulose, former United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota, and NAFUSA’s newest member, has joined the firm as a partner in its litigation practice in Minneapolis. She joins NAFUSA members Earl Silbert and Kathryn Keneally at DLA Piper.
Paulose comes to DLA Piper after an extensive career in public service. When she was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate in 2006 to serve as the US Attorney for the District of Minnesota, Paulose became the first Indian American to be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve in any federal appointment. Under her leadership, the office recorded the highest number of prosecutions in the District’s history. Paulose also oversaw landmark prosecutions of white collar crime, public corruption, and violent crime trafficking cartels.
Previously, Paulose worked as senior trial counsel with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, where she investigated and litigated complex civil cases involving violations of federal securities laws, as well as coordinated prosecutions with national and international law enforcement agencies.
Prior to this role, Paulose was counselor to the Assistant US Attorney General and supervised nationwide policy development for white collar crime, healthcare fraud and national security. Before that, she was senior counsel to the Deputy US Attorney General, special counsel for Health Care Fraud, and special assistant to the Attorney General, for which she reported directly to the US Attorney General.
From 1999-2002, Paulose served as assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota before going into private practice. She began her legal career as a law clerk for Hon. James B. Loken of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and thereafter joined the US Department of Justice as a US Attorney General’s Honors Program trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division.
“As a former AUSA, USA, and SEC attorney, Rachel has significant white collar crime and governmental investigatory credentials that will resonate with companies, particularly those in the Twin Cities that are doing business globally,” said Alan Kildow, managing partner of DLA Piper’s Minneapolis office.
Paulose received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a Coker Fellow, and her B.A. from the University of Minnesota, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has named Davis Polk litigation partner Neil MacBride to the Ad Hoc Committee to Review the Criminal Justice Act (CJA). MacBride is the only private practice lawyer to serve on the Committee, alongside federal judges, federal defenders and law professors.
The 11-member Committee, chaired by Judge Kathleen Cardone, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, will review the impact of judicial involvement in the selection and compensation of federal public defenders and the independence of federal defender organizations; equal employment and diversity efforts in federal defender organizations; judicial involvement in the appointment, compensation, and management of panel attorneys, investigators, experts and other service providers; and the adequacy of compensation and quality of representation for legal services provided under the CJA.
The CJA was established in 1964 to establish a comprehensive system for appointing and compensating lawyers to represent defendants financially unable to retain counsel in federal criminal proceedings.
MacBride’s practice focuses on government enforcement actions, internal investigations, congressional investigations and complex civil litigation. Before joining Davis Polk, he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. MacBride currently serves on the NAFUSA board of directors.
NAFUSA’s newest member, Ron Machen, former United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, rejoined WilmerHale in April as a partner in the Investigations and Criminal Litigation (ICL) Practice. He was the longest serving U.S. Attorney in nearly four decades while leading the largest U.S. Attorney’s office in the nation.
The firm’s ICL Practice consists of more than 100 lawyers, including 20 former Assistant U.S. Attorneys, throughout its New York, Washington, Boston, California and London offices. Machen will join another NAFUSA member, former FBI Director Bob Mueller.
Machen said,
I am thrilled to return to a firm with a top-notch global practice and a great culture. It was very tough to leave a job I loved, serving as United States Attorney, but I look forward to returning home to WilmerHale for the next phase of my career. I am excited about working with a dynamic group of white-collar lawyers at the firm to serve clients on the most difficult matters.
Prior to his appointment as U.S. Attorney, Machen was a partner at Wilmer Hale and a member of the firms’s ICL Practice. Before entering into private practice, Machen served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the D.C. Office. He graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Law School. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Damon J. Keith, US Court of Appeals Judge for the Sixth Circuit.
On June 17, 2015, the Department of Justice paid tribute to David Margolis, NAFUSA member and long time friend of the U.S. Attorney community. Margolis is celebrating 50 years of service with the Department of Justice.
Margolis became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1965 in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1969, he joined the Organized Crime Strike Force, serving as the Attorney in Charge of the Cleveland Strike Force and then the Brooklyn Strike Force. He moved to Main Justice in 1976, as the Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Section, and became the Chief in 1979.
In 1990, Margolis was named Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. In 1993, he was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General, a position he continues to hold.
Speakers at last week’s celebration included NAFUSA members Chuck Rosenberg and Scott Schools as well as AG Loretta Lynch, DAG Sally Yates and Director Jim Comey.
The St. Louis Cardinals announced yesterday that they had retained the St. Louis law firm of Dowd Bennett to conduct an internal review of the allegations of hacking into the Houston Astros’s database. The Cardinals said they had retained the firm in February, well before it was disclosed this week that the F.B.I. was investigating whether the team had hacked into the database, which is used to track players and prospects.
The internal investigation is being led by NAFUSA members Jim Martin, shown above, and Ed Dowd, shown below, partners at Dowd Bennett. Martin said yesterday that high-level executives of the Cardinals were not involved in the hacking.
“With what we have done so far, I am 100 percent confident that this does not touch upper management,” Jim Martin, said. He added that he was sure the hacking did not involve people like John Mozeliak, the team’s general manager, or Bill DeWitt Jr., its chairman.
The New York Times reported “There has been no indication of how many employees might be under investigation, and Mr. Martin’s comments were the first to suggest that any wrongdoing could be limited to the lower levels of the Cardinals’ organization.”
The internal investigation is not finished and Dowd Bennett is also helping the team cooperate with the federal government.
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