Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner and Sauber LLP today announced that NAFUSA life member Michael R. Bromwich, former Inspector General for the Department of Justice, has joined the firm as Senior Counsel.  Bromwich will focus on corporate internal investigations and white-collar criminal defense.

Bromwich has practiced law for 35 years in the public and private sector.  He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1983-87); Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel: Iran –Contra (1987-89); Inspector General of the Department of Justice (1994-99); and at the personal request of President Obama, took over the country’s offshore drilling regulatory agency following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

From 1999-2010, Bromwich served as a partner and Chair of the Internal Investigations, Compliance & Monitoring Practice Group at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in both its Washington, D.C. and New York offices.  During that time he focused his practice on conducting internal investigations for companies, audit committees, special committees, and special litigation committees, and representing both companies and individuals in white-collar criminal investigations.

Bromwich will maintain the consulting firm – The Bromwich Group – that he established in 2012 and which focuses on independent monitoring, public affairs, crisis management, law enforcement, and offshore energy.  He will practice law exclusively with and through Robbins Russell.

Bromwich received his A.B. from Harvard College, his Masters in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He was a panel member on internal investigations at NAFUSA’s 2014 conference in Boston.

A former Baltimore police officer was accused of agreeing with owners of a local repair shop to refer damaged cars to the shop in exchange for cash payments. Under settled precedent, this alleged conduct constitutes extortion “under color of official right.” See Evans v. United States, 504 U.S. 255, 2698, (1992). But the government went further and charged the former officer with a Hobbs Act violation by bringing a separate count for conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right. The former officer was convicted and the conviction was affirmed by the Fourth Circuit.

Certiorari has been granted by the United States Supreme Court. According to NAFUSA member John Richter, a partner at King & Spalding, “The case presents an important question of statutory interpretation concerning the Hobbs Act: whether a conspiracy to extort ‘property from another’ under the Hobbs Act requires the government to show that the conspirators agreed to obtain property from someone outside the conspiracy.”

Richter has been seeking support from former United States Attorneys who are willing to join a brief in support of petitioner. The amicus brief is expected to be filed June 8 by Baker Botts.

 

When NAFUSA Board Member Catherine Hanaway was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1998, she was a freshman lawmaker in a body dominated by Democrats. By the time she left the House in 2004, she had become its first female Speaker in half a century. After her time in the House, President George W. Bush appointed her U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. Since then, in the private sector, she has built a successful law practice. A mother-of-two who grew up in rural Nebraska and Iowa, Catherine Hanaway is now seeking to be elected as the governor of Missouri.

Learn more about Catherine’s stances on the issues at: Hanaway Quick Sheet

NAFUSA Board Member Hal Hardin filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, May 19, 2015, in Davidson County Chancery Court in Tennessee on behalf of John Jay Hooker, a lawyer, civil-rights activist and former political candidate. Hooker is facing terminal illness and is challenging Tennessee’s law that prohibits assisted suicide.

Hooker, shown above, was a close friend of Robert Kennedy and became Bobby’s special assistant, working on various projects at DOJ when Kennedy was the Attorney General. Hooker lived with RFK at his family home in McLean, Virginia. The lawsuit contends that the state law, which makes it a felony for a doctor or another person to assist in any way in someone’s death, violates the state constitution. Only five states- Oregon, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington currently allow or do not prohibit doctors prescribing drugs that permit terminally ill patients to end their lives. Hooker was joined by three doctors as plaintiffs in the suit.

Hardin, shown right, served as United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee (1977-1981).

NAFUSA member Joe Whitley is named Attorney of the Month and featured in the current issue of the Metro Atlanta Edition of Attorney at Law. The article highlights Joe’s distinguished career, which includes serving as U.S. Attorney in the Middle and the Northern District of Georgia, the Acting Associate Attorney General, and the first General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. The article also discusses his recent move to Baker Donelson.

Timothy J. Heaphy and Ann Tompkins, two Obama appointees who have recently left the U.S. Attorney positions to join law firms, are NAFUSA’s newest members.

Tim Heathy, left, is a partner at Hunton & Williams LLP, and is chair of the firm’s white collar defense and internal investigations practice. Prior to joining Hunton & Williams, Tim was the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. He served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC), advising the Attorney General on emerging policy issues, served as Chairman of the AGAC’s Subcommittee on Enforcement Coordination, Victims Issues and Community Outreach, and was a member of the Subcommittees on Criminal Practice, Violent and Organized Crime and Civil Rights.

Before serving as the US Attorney, Tim was a partner at an international law firm where he represented individuals and business entities in white collar criminal defense matters. From 1994 to 2006, Tim served as Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia and the Western District of Virginia. Prior to law school, Tim served on the staff of then-Senator Joseph R. Biden. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.

Anne M. Tompkins, right, has joined Cadwalder, Wickersham & Taft as a partner in the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Group, resident in the Charlotte and Washington offices. Her practice focuses on representing companies and financial institutions, as well as their officers and directors in criminal, civil, and administrative investigations.

Anne was the United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina from April 2010 to March 2015. She led numerous high-profile, complex criminal and civil investigations during her tenure, including a public corruption case involving the former mayor of Charlotte, the national security case against former general and CIA Director David Petraeus. Anne served on the AGAC and was appointed Co-Chair of the Civil Rights Subcommittee and was an active member of the Health Care Fraud and White Collar Crime Subcommittees.

Anne also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of North Carolina, during which time she was detailed for eight months to the Regime Crimes Liaison Office in Baghdad, Iraq, where she assisted the Iraqi Special Tribunal investigation into international humanitarian crimes committed by members of the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Anne was an adjunct professor at the Charlotte School of Law, teaching Criminal Procedure and White Collar Crime. She received her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law.