Rick  Deane, shown right in the photo above, and his Atlanta based committee, from left, of Joe Whitley, Bob Barr and Kent Alexander, succeeded in hosting one of the best NAFUSA conferences ever. Registrations totalled 186, including 83 members, plus spouses, significant others, speakers, sponsors and guests.The opening day set the tone when over 40 golfers enjoyed the prestigious East Lake Golf Club, home two weeks earlier to the PGA tour. The rest of the conference attendees joined the golfers in the evening for the opening cocktail reception, hosted by Greenberg Traurig. The crowd was welcomed to Atlanta by Former Mayor Shirley Franklin.

 

On Friday morning, the CLE program began with welcomes from the Georgia Attorney General Olens and current Georgia U.S. Attorneys, Edward J. Tarver and Michael J. Moore. Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben gave a presentation on the Supreme Court Term, 2011-2012, describing many of the significant cases of the term which he had personally argued. The Friday program closed with a panel sponsored by Ernst & Young on Corporate Compliance- Investigations, Diligence and Analytics and moderated by Jay Stephens. The panelists, shown below, were Dan Webb, Kevin O'Connor, Brain Loughman, Jay Stephens, Lanny Breuer; Sharon Zealey and David Remick.

 

 

 

The Friday luncheon was held at The Carter Center. Although Former President Jimmy Carter was unable to join us, he did send a personal letter in which he said:

I regret my schedule did not permit me to be in Atlanta this week to be with you in person and visit with some of my former associates. I commend you all for your service to our nation and hope that your meetings are productive.

AGAC chair Paul Fishman spoke at the Carter luncheon with his News from the Field and the AGAC.

 

On Friday evening, several class reunions were held: the Reagan-Bush I alumni, the Bush II group, the Clinton alumni and the Carter alums.

 

Saturday's CLE began with Marshall Jarrett, Director of EOUSA, describing the State of the Department. The J. Michael Bradford Award was presented to Reid Schar, ND of Illinois, who gave a stimulating presentation on his handling of the Blagojevich case. Rory K. Little, Professor of Law at U.C. Hastings College of Law gave the Ethics Presentation. The program concluded with a panel discussion on Immigration Issues, moderated by Charlie Savage of The New York Times. The panel , shown below, consisted of Julie Myers Wood, Nina Perales, Alejandro Mayorkas, Luther Strange, John King and Charlie Savage.

 

 

 

The conference concluded with the Saturday banquet and business meeting. The election of Jay Stephens and the other officers and directors is described elsewhere as is the unforgettable keynote address by Mike Cody. Rick Deane was honored for his outstanding year as president of NAFUSA and his organization of the conference. Rick was surprised by a celebration of his birthday, including a cake and 60 purple balloons. 

 

The conferences would not be possible without the support of the sponsors. This year sponors contributed $78,000 to the success of the Atlanta meeting. A full list of the sponors can be found on the right side of the home page of the NAFUSA website and at the bottom of this newsletter. By clicking on the sponsor logo you can visit their website.

 

The photos from the Atlanta conference  are now available.

 

Next year Washington, DC.

 

Cody has written a law review article which formed the basis for his speech: King at the Mountain Top: The Representation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memphis, April 3-4 1968. Cody was present at the Mason Temple on April 3, 1968, the night before Dr. King was killed, when he made his famous"I've Been to the Mountaintop" .

 

A young Mike Cody appears in the photo below in the lower right center on the day of the demonstration on behalf of the sanitation workers.

 

 

 

 

 At the close of the Atlanta conference, the NAFUSA membership elected Jay Stephens, to serve as its president for 2012-2013. Stephens is senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Raytheon Company. Raytheon, with 2011 sales of $25 billion and 71,000 employees worldwide, is a leader in defense, homeland security and other government markets worldwide. Stephens leads the company's legal and regulatory affairs, ethics and compliance programs, and corporate governance activities.

 

Prior to joining Raytheon, he served as associate attorney general of the United States. Before becoming associate attorney general, Stephens was corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Honeywell International (formerly AlliedSignal). From 1993 to 1997, Stephens was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro, where his practice focused on complex litigation, regulatory matters and corporate governance issues. He also served as co-managing partner of the firm's Washington office.

 

Stephens served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, 1988-1993. From 1986 to 1988, Stephens served in the White House as deputy counsel to President Reagan, where he was responsible for a wide range of legal policy and regulatory issues and for providing counsel and advice to the President and senior White House staff.

 

From 1973 to 1985, Stephens served in a variety of positions with the U.S. Department of Justice and in the private sector, including principal associate deputy attorney general, assistant U.S. attorney and assistant special Watergate prosecutor. He also worked as an assistant general counsel with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and as an associate with the Washington law firm of Wilmer Cutler & Pickering.

 

Stephens graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree in government, attended Oxford University on a Knox Fellowship, and earned his Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the Harvard Law School. He currently serves on the board of directors of the New England Legal Foundation and the Atlantic Legal Foundation. Stephens also serves on the advisory boards of the American Enterprise Institute's Legal Center for the Public Interest and the Georgetown Law School Corporate Counsel Institute, as well as on the General Counsel Committee of the National Center for State Courts, and as a trustee of the American Friends of New College, Oxford.

 

The following were also elected to serve for 2012-2013: President Elect Donald K. Stern, District of Massachusett; Vice President Matthew D. Orwig, ED of Texas; Secretary Gregory A. Vega, SD of California and Treasurer E. Bart Daniel, District of South Carolina.

 

Alice Howzwe Martin, ND of Alabama was elected to fill the vacancy on the board in the class of 2013 due to Bart Daniels moving to the chairs. The following were elected to the the board as the class of 2015: Kent B. Alexander, ND Georgia; William J. Leone, District of Colorado; Kenneth L. Wainstein, District of Columbia; Donald W. Washington, WD of Louisiana and Sharon J. Zealey, SD of Ohio.Click here for photos of officers and directors.

 

Finally, it was announced that the 2013 conference will be held in Washington, DC on September 26-28 and the 2014 conference in Boston on October 9-11.

 

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One of NAFUSA's newest members, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who resigned as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois earlier in the year, has joined Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.  He will be practicing out of Skadden's Chicago office, focusing, among other things, on internal corporate investigations, civil litigation and arbitration. 

 

  

In 2001, Fitzgerald was appointed by President George W. Bush as U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois. In this capacity, he led numerous high-profile investigations and prosecutions, including the convictions on corruption charges of two successive governors of Illinois - George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich - and the fraud conviction of media figure Conrad Black. As a special counsel, Fitzgerald was selected to lead the investigation of leaks in the Valerie Plame matter and tried the case of United States v. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. During his tenure, the U.S. Attorney's office prosecuted significant fraud, civil rights, organized crime, narcotics and national security cases. Fitzgerald also was involved in a number of nationwide initiatives, including the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force and the Attorney General's Advisory Committee.

 

Prior to his 2001 appointment, Fitzgerald spent 13 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He served as lead counsel in the investigation, prosecution and seven-month trial of United States v. Usama bin Laden, et al., in which defendants were charged with and convicted of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals overseas and the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He also participated in the nine-month trial of United States v. Omar Abdel Rahman, the prosecution of a conspiracy to attack the United States that involved the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 1995, Fitzgerald co-founded the Organized Crime-Terrorism Unit, investigating terrorist groups and facilitating coordination between the law enforcement and the intelligence communities. He also handled numerous drug trafficking cases and organized crime cases, including the six-month trial of United States v. John Gambino.

 

 

Fitzgerald began his legal career in 1985 as a litigation associate at a New York-based firm before moving to the U.S. Attorney's office in New York. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He has received numerous awards and recognition during his more than 20 years in public service, including the Cox, Coleman, Richardson Award for Distinguished Public Service from Harvard Law School (2007), Lawyer of the Year from The National Law Journal (2005) and the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service (2002) and for Exceptional Service (1996). Fitzgerald is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

  

  

 NAFUSA member Andrea Sheridan Ordin retired from her position as Los Angeles County County Counsel after two years as the head of the 250 in-house counsel office providing civil representation for the Board of Supervisors and the departments of Los Angeles County.

 

On July 1st she was re-appointed to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, and elected as its president. Under the Charter the Board is the head of the LAPD, and the five civilians donate 20-30 hours per week on commission business, set policy and are assisted in improving service to the public by a paid professional staff, including an Inspector General's office, headed by a former assistant U.S. attorney, who serves as the eyes and ears of the Commission.

 

In addition in January, 2013, Ordin will be joining the adjunct faculty of Loyola Law School, teaching an advanced legal ethics course, called the Government Lawyer. Ordin, a former NAFUSA board member, served as the United States Attorney for the Central District of California (1977-1981).

 

On October 26, 2012, Morgan Lewis announced that NAFUSA member George J. Terwilliger III, along with three other partners and two associaties, will join the firm's litigation practice as a partner resident in Washington, DC, effective November 1. Terwilliger had been a senior partner at White & Case and the former head of its Global White Collar Practice Group.

 

Terwilliger was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont, 1988-2003. He served as deputy attorney general and as acting attorney general in the George H.W. Bush Administration. He has been recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 Most Inflential Lawyers in America. He has represented energy, financial services, telecommunication, healthcare, and industrial companies in government investigations and in civil and criminal litigation. He has tried numerous cases, and has conducted corporate internal investigations and legal compliance reviews, including for boards and board committees, involving work in more than sixty countries in all regions of the world. He served as special outside counsel for a Senate committee investigation, counsel to an executive commission, and advisor to government officials involved in enforcement and other proceedings involving political affairs.

 

Terwilliger is a graduate of Antioch School of Law.

 

 

 NAFUSA member Peter Vaira, former United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and former attorney in charge of the Chicago Strike Force on Organized Crime, has published an article in the summer/fall issue of the ABA WhiteCollar Crime Committee Newsletter entitled Brady at Sentencing in Federal Court, a Neglected Practice.

 

As Vaira points out, "The obligation of the prosecutor to search for and turn over Brady material extends to the sentencing process."

 

Vaira currently is a partner at Vaira & Riley in Philadelphia.

 

In the aftermath of the Senator Ted Stevens trial, two assistant U.S. attorneys from the Alaska U.S. Attorney Office, Joseph W. Bottini (represented by NAFUSA board member Ken Wainstein) and James A. Goeke were handed 40-day and 15-day suspensions, respectively, by the Department of Justice.

 

On October 16, 2012, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys (NAAUSA) filed a amicus brief before the Merit Systems Protection Board urging that the suspensions be reversed.

 

NAAUSA is a national association representing the interests of the 5,600 AUSAs employed by the Department of Justice. In its press release accompanying the filing of the amicus brief, it stated:

While acknowledging that unwillful mistakes had occurred in the government's performance of its discovery responsibilities, NAAUSA asserted that the Justice Department, in taking disciplinary action upon Bottini and Goeke, had "failed to appropriately acknowledge the collective responsibility of the entire trial team and the exceptional circumstances that led to the prosecution's discovery-related errors."