NAFUSA Update
December 2012
Greetings!

NAFUSA Update is published monthly. NAFUSA's website can be accessed directly from this newsletter. New articles are posted to the website during the month.  You may also subscribe to NAFUSA email updates, delivered to your inbox overnight, the day after any new items are posted. (Be sure to complete the two step process.) You can also follow NAFUSA on Twitter (@NAFUSAorg).
 
The Founding of NAFUSA: Why and How It Came To Be
  
 
John Clark

NAFUSA historian and past president John E. Clark, shown above at the Atlanta conference, was one of thirteen former United States Attorneys and one former assistant attorney general who met in New Orleans 33 years ago to form NAFUSA. After the Atlanta conference, Clark took a few minutes to describe this event in the attached The Founding of NAFUSA: Why and How It Came To Be.

 

As Clark describes:

All were veterans of the Nixon and Ford administrations. All had held office during difficult times for United States Attorneys. Their experiences had left them firmly convinced that the office of United States Attorney is uniquely essential to the fulfillment of every president's constitutional obligation to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," and that protecting the independence and integrity of the office they had held is a cause that transcends politics. Their deliberations in New Orleans resulted in the creation of NAFUSA, a non-profit organization whose charter reflects a non-partisan commitment to protecting and furthering the integrity, independence and effectiveness of the office.

The NAFUSA Newsletter - 3-15-79 also describes the initial meeting in New Orleans. Clark was elected the organization's first secretary and became president a few years later. According to Clark,

The 1980 meeting was held in Washington, D.C. At that meeting the question where to meet in 1981 was discussed at an informal gathering of the board and the officers. A few wives were present, and Harriet Crampton, Scott's wife, said, "I've always liked San Antonio. Can we go there?" And so it was decided.

Clark served as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, 1975-1977. He currenty practices law with Goode, Casseb, Jones, Riklin, Choate & Watson, P.C. in San Antonio.

Chris Christie: A Front Runner for GOP in 2016?
  
  
Chris Christie

 Despite some criticism from within his party for his bear hugs for President Obama during Hurricane Sandy, NAFUSA member Chris Christie is receiving some recognition as a possible front runner for the GOP nomination for the White House in 2016. New Yorker writer John Cassidy, for instance, writes in his blog Can A Certain (Very Popular) Fat Guy From Jersey Win The White House?:

Then there is Hurricane Sandy, a tragic accident of geography and nature with which Christie will forever be associated. A month on, he is basking in record approval ratings: sixty-seven per cent, according to one new poll; seventy-two per cent according to another; seventy-seven per cent, according to a third. "Christie never looked more like 'Jersey Guy' than when he stood on the seaside boardwalk after Sandy, and, just about unanimously, his New Jersey neighbors-Republicans, Democrats, Independents-applauded," said Maurice Carroll, the director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "The Governor gets high marks from the cities, the shore, from every corner of the state." And not just in Jersey. More than his flirtation with a Presidential run earlier this year, more than his speech at the Republican Convention in Tampa, Christie's vigorous response to the storm-and his vigorous embrace of President Obama-turned him into a national figure. In a situation crying out for leadership, here was somebody who seemed willing to set aside partisan politics and seek help anywhere he could find it, even if that meant putting his arms around a Democratic President who was due to face the voters a week later.

In the meantime, Christie has a relection campaign to face in New Jersey.

Susan Brooks Elected to Congress
 
Susan BrooksNAFUSA member Susan W. Brooks, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, was elected on November 6th to serve as Indiana's 5th District Congresswoman. Brooks, who attended the Atlanta NAFUSA conference and was supported by many of her former colleagues, said on her website,

"I am so proud to represent the 5th Congressional District. I'm ready to get to work. Thank you everyone!"

Marshall Jarrett Reports on the State of the Department
 
Marshall Jarrett At NAFUSA's annual conference in Atlanta in October, H. Marshall Jarrett, the director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, gave the State of the Department address. Jarrett told the conference that civil cases were up 10% in fiscal year 2012 but criminal cases were down 8.4% from the all time high in 2011. He said it was not a surprise as staffing was down 850 employees and constituted a return to 2008 levels. A hiring freeze remains in effect, with federal pay raises frozen for the past two years.
 

Jarrett mentioned a bright note in that collections are expected to be $13 billion in fiscal year 2012 compared to the Department's appropriated budget of just under $2 billion for the year.

DOJ and SEC Release FCPA Guide

On November 14, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission released A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The 120-page Guide provides a detailed analysis of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and closely examines the DOJ and SEC's approach to FCPA enforcement.

 

The Justice Department, in announcing the release, said,

The Guide provides helpful information to enterprises of all sizes - from small businesses doing their first transactions abroad to multi-national corporations with subsidiaries around the world. The Guide addresses a wide variety of topics, including who and what is covered by the FCPA's anti-bribery and accounting provisions; the definition of a "foreign official"; what constitute proper and improper gifts, travel and entertainment expenses; facilitating payments; how successor liability applies in the mergers and acquisitions context; the hallmarks of an effective corporate compliance program; and the different types of civil and criminal resolutions available in the FCPA context. On these and other topics, the Guide takes a multi-faceted approach toward setting forth the statute's requirements and providing insights into DOJ and SEC's enforcement practices. It uses hypotheticals, examples of enforcement actions and matters DOJ and SEC have declined to pursue, and summaries of applicable case law and DOJ opinion releases.

The Guide is available to the public free of charge online at www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa.shtml.

2012 Conference Sponsors
 
 
 
 
 
National Association of Former United States Attorneys (NAFUSA).
 
Richard A. Rossman
Executive Director
27 Oakland Park
Pleasant Ridge, Michigan 48069
Phone: 248-548-8289
 

 
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