A group of NAFUSA board members held an “executive retreat ” when Hal Hardin and Dallas resident Susan Adzick hosted a Texas style weekend at Susan’s home over the Labor Day weekend. The prime event was the “Cowboy Classic”, the kickoff of the college football season at Cowboy Stadium.
Much to Rich Rossman’s dismay and despair, the defending national champion Alabama team lived up to its “Roll Tide” reputation, handing Michigan (soon to lose its preseason top ten ranking) its worse opening day loss ever.
In the photo above, Rich shows he is a good sport congratulating Bama fans Kathy Collier Selden and Jack Selden on the victory. Somehow Longhorn fan Ron Woods snuck into the game. Michigan fan Rick Deane texted his disappointed to Rich during the game. Doug Jones called Jack and urged the Tide to continue to roll.
Below we see the remainder of the NAFUSA block at the game: hostess Susan Aldzick, host Hal Hardin (both Vanderbilt fans), Patty Woods (LSU fan) and Patty Rossman (party fan and Michigan booster). When Alabama rolled up a 31-0 lead in the first half, this group spent the remainder of the game in the bar.
On Friday evening, Matt and Melissa Orwig joined the “retreat” at a cocktail reception at Susan’s home, catered by Chef Richard Chamberlain, shown below, one of America’s leading chefs and particulary admired by the ladies.
In an article published by The National Law Journal on August 15, 2012, NAFUSA member Kendall Coffey urges recent law graduates to consider the tens of millions of Americans who need attorneys. In Underserved middle class could sustain underemployed law graduates, Coffey argues that a pratice representing the middle class could result in a decent living for young lawyers.
The reality is that with prudent office economics, recent law graduates could earn decent compensation and launch successful practices, with the opportunity to continue to earn more. Rather than work for a law firm at high rates, of which two thirds goes to the employer, new lawyers could charge much lower rates and keep the earnings for themselves. Rates of between $50 and $125 per hour would make new lawyers affordable to the middle class while providing the lawyers with enough income to succeed.
Coffey adds that law schools would have to revise their curricula and more clinics are needed to provide supervision and legal experience.
Coffey is a founding member of Coffey Burlington, PL, concentrating on complex litigation, He serves as the chair of the Southern District Conference, Florida Federal Judicial Nominating Commission. He served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern Distict of Florida from 1993-1996. He has authored two books and over three dozen articles. He is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law and the Florida International University School of Law.
If you haven’t registered for Atlanta, please click on the registration button to the right and do so today. The deadline for the group rate at the W Atlanta Downtown is September 11.
As NAFUSA President Rick Deane says:
Bob Barr, Joe Whitley, Kent Alexander and I all look forward to hosting everyone in Atlanta in October. The conference will continue in the vein of what has come to be expected of NAFUSA: strong program content with outstanding presenters along with interesting and fun social outings. The immigration panel in particular will be balanced and thought provoking and John Doar will cause us to reflect on the Department at its finest. Our committee looks forward to seeing y’all in Atlanta!
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Charlie Savage, of The New York Times will be with us for the third year in a row moderating the panel of immigration issues. Charlie says:
Immigration enforcement is one of the most complex and contentious areas today at the intersection of law, policy and politics. From recent court rulings about the crackdowns in Arizona and Alabama to the Obama administration’s policy of granting relief from deportation to people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, there will be much for the panel to dig into at this year’s NAFUSA conference.
NAFUSA President-Elect Jay Stephens will moderate the panel on corporate internal investigations and says:
In an environment of aggressive regulatory enforcement and enhanced business compliance initiatives, the ‘internal investigation’ has become a critical tool to assist in resolving complex disputes and shaping management’s response to compliance concerns. Our panel of highly accomplished players from government, industry, and private practice promises to generate some fascinating perspectives about the judgments, constraints, and relationships that shape the conduct and impact of an effective internal investigation.
Click on the link 2012 NAFUSA Conference for full details of the Atlanta program, including speaker bios and a list of sponsors.
NAFUSA member John C. Richter, formerly vice president and deputy general counsel at WellCare Health Plans, Inc., is rejoining King & Spalding as a partner in its special matters and government investigations practice in Washington, D.C., effective September 4, 2012. Richter will focus primarily on health care investigations and qui tam cases.
Richter’s return to King & Spalding follows his two-year stint at WellCare supervising litigation, internal investigations and business contracting at the $6 billion provider of managed care services targeted to government-sponsored health care programs. At WellCare, he led the successful resolution of enterprise-threatening criminal and civil matters the company had been facing.
Richter served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, 2005-2009, and the acting assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2009, he received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General’s Award for Combating Medicare and Medicaid Fraud.
Richter also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Georgia and Oklahoma, where he investigated and prosecuted white collar and public corruption cases. He also served as an assistant district attorney in Georgia. While at King & Spalding’s Atlanta office from 1994 to 1998, Richter represented individual and institutional clients in securities and other commercial litigation matters. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.
King & Spalding is an international law firm that represents a broad array of clients, including half of the Fortune Global 100, with 800 lawyers in 17 offices in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The firm has handled matters in over 160 countries on six continents.
As reported today in The Huffington Post, NAFUSA member Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, has been selected to be the keynote speaker for the Republican national convention to be held in Tampa later this month.
Christie, shown above speaking at the 2010 NAFUSA conference in New York, served as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, 2001-2008, and as governor of New Jersey since 2010.
Huff Post Politics writes:
The keynote speech is the highest profile spot for someone not accepting the party’s presidential or vice presidential nominations. The slot has launched many political figures, most notably a little-known state senator from Illinois named Barack Obama in 2004. Four years later, he won the White House.
After a Miami doctor was unsuccessfully prosecuted in a drug case, his petition for legal fees under the Hyde Amendment was granted by the district court. The Eleventh Circuit, however, reversed and held that the prosecution was “objectively reasonable.” The doctor has applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari.
On August 9, 2012, a coalititon of more than 50 former federal judges, federal proscutors and members of Congress filed an amicus brief on behalf of the doctor attacking the the appellate decision which held that monetary fees are only available under the the Hyde Amendment in situations in which a prosecution itself is deemed unreasonable.
Read a full report in The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times, which includes a link to the amicus brief with a full list of the amici, including many members of NAFUSA.
NAFUSA member Dick Thornburgh testified before the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate on July 12, 2012, in favor of the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities “as an important component of the worldwide effort to end discrimination and to promote the rights of as many as one billion men, women and children with disabilities around the world who seek vindication of their pre-eminent human rights in an ever-challenging world.”
Thornburgh served as attorney general of the United States under two presidents. He also served as the governor of Pennsylvania, 1979-1987, assistant attorney general for the criminal division, 1975-1977, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, 1969-1975, and under-secretary general of the United Nations, 1992-1993. He is currently counsel to K&L Gates in Washington.
NAFUSA member and former board member Richard A. Stacy had his comments regarding the Colorado shootings published by The Denver Post on August 2, 2012. In an comment entitled Has violent entertainment contributed to Colorado massacres?, Stacy writes of the potential nexus between mass murder and violent entertainment.
Stacy served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Wyoming from 1981-1994. He also served as a U.S. Administrative Law Judge in San Jose, California. He is currently retired and lives in Denver, not far from the tragic events at the Aurora Theatre.
Each year, NAFUSA recognizes an Assistant U.S. Attorney for outstanding performance through the J. Michael Bradford Memorial Award. The award is named after J. Michael Bradford, who served as a U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 1994 to 2001. Bradford, who died in 2003, had a distinguished career in public service, including successfully defending the government against lawsuits stemming from the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian’s compound in Waco, Texas. NAFUSA annually solicits nominations from current U.S. Attorneys for the Bradford Award. Typically, the recipient has handled a significant investigation and prosecution or series of prosecutions that has had a significant impact and merits special recognition.
Once again, a number of exceptional nominations were made by U.S. Attorneys around the country. The Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Vice President Don Stern. Its members included Ed Dowd, Bart Daniel, Jim Brady, Matt Orwig, Karen Hewitt, and Rich Rossman. This year, the Board voted to give the award to Reid Schar.
Schar was nominated by NAFUSA member Patrick J. Fitzgerald, at the time the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Schar was an assistant U.S. attorney from 1999 through 2012. (He recently left the U.S. Attorney’s office to join Jenner & Block in Chicago). Schar handled numerous significant cases in his years at the U.S. Attorney’s office, and has repeatedly demonstrated a superior level of performance during his career. The Bradford Award specially recognizes, however, Schar’s work in the investigation and prosecution of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and various other associates.
Since 2003, Schar and a team investigated allegations of illegal activity occurring in the State of Illinois government as part of the Blagojevich administration. Through outstanding, dedicated and zealous investigative work, trial preparation, and trial presentation, Schar led a team that obtained the indictment and conviction of numerous individuals involved in corruption at the highest levels of Illinois government, including former Gov. Blagojevich, two of his chiefs of staff, and a variety of insiders who profited from their relationship with corrupt officials. This series of prosecutions was more involved than the usual complicated public corruption case. The investigation included numerous wiretaps on multiple phones. Indeed, one of these wiretaps in late October, 2008 resulted in recording of the then-governor making incriminating statements. Based upon these statements and other evidence, Schar and a team immediately produced wire applications for Governor Blagojevich’s home phone, campaign phones, and the phones of additional members of Blagojevich’s inner circle. These wire taps were approved and the recordings on those phones began approximately October 28, 2008.
The wiretaps were maintained until December 9, 2008. During that timeframe, Schar worked 7 days a week to analyze the wiretaps and continue the investigation based on leads obtained in the on-going recorded conversations. Through Schar’s hard work, crimes were uncovered related to the attempted selling of the United States Senate seat, and the Blagojevich-led shakedown of a children’s hospital and two individual contributors. Ultimately, Blagojevich, then the sitting governor of the State of Illinois, was arrested on December 9, 2008, along with his chief of staff, John Harris.
In August 10, 2010, the jury convicted Blagojevich of making a false statement to the FBI, but was hung on all other charges. The second trial began in April 2011 and lasted until June of 2011. Blagojevich testified in the second trial, and Schar cross-examined Blagojevich. Blagojevich was found guilty of multiple counts of wire fraud, extortion, and bribery related to his efforts to sell the United States Senate seat for financial gain, shaking down a children’s hospital, and shaking down a contributor in relation to then-pending legislation that would have benefitted the contributor. On December 6, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
The Board considered many other outstanding nominations made by U.S. Attorneys. In recognition for the exceptional work performed by these other assistant U.S. attorneys, NAFUSA will award a plaque to each AUSA, which will be presented by the U.S. Attorney in their respective office, along with in some cases a member of NAFUSA from that district.
The other nominations were:
Sherry W. Hobson, nominated by U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy, Southern District of California, for her work in connection with the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, which discovered, dismantled and destroyed four subterranean cross border tunnels stretching from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California.
Theodore Merritt, nominated by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, District of Massachusetts, for his work as lead prosecutor in a significant public corruption trial involving the then-Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and two of his lobbyist associates.
K. Tate Chambers, nominated by U.S. Attorney James A. Lewis, Central District of Illinois, for his pursuing violent gangs in Peoria, violent crime in rural counties and the huge increase in meth manufacturing and distribution. Chambers had responsibility for various prosecutions, as well as working with other law enforcement and community partners to develop a violence intervention program.
Susan Lehr, nominated by U.S. Attorney Debra R. Gilg, District of Nebraska, for her prosecutions against a well known street gang, the South Family Bloods, engaged in multi-state marijuana trafficking.
David P. Zabel, nominated by U.S.Attorney Barry R. Grissom, District of Kansas, for his work in connection with the investigation and prosecution called Operation Camera Shy. This series of cases involved numerous prosecutions for drug activity and violent crime in certain neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kansas.
Kimberly Sanchez, nominated by U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, Eastern District of California, for her efforts in revitalizing the office’s Project Safe Neighborhood program. This resulted in the indictment of approximately 50 illegal firearm possession cases, with most defendants being active gang members.
Mark A. Trammel, nominated by U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Rose, Northern District of Iowa, for his prosecution of an elementary school principal for sexual exploitation of students.
Reynaldo P. Morin and Lisa G. Flournoy, nominated by U.S. Attorney John M. Bales, Eastern District of Texas, for their prosecution of members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. The prosecution resulted in 8 convictions, including two generals, one captain, and one lieutenant of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.
Ann C. Rowland, nominated by U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Dettelbach, Northern District of Ohio, for her successful investigation into widespread public corruption in Cuyahoga County, Ohio’s largest county and home to the City of Cleveland. These prosecutions led to over 50 convictions, including two of the most powerful local political figures and two sitting judges.
James B. Nobile, nominated by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, District of New Jersey, for his leadership of the special prosecutions division, which has resulted in numerous significant public corruption investigations and prosecutions in the State of New Jersey.
You must be logged in to post a comment.