The National Law Journal announced on March 31, 2014, its annual list of America's 50 Outstanding General Counsel and it included two NAFUSA members, Jay Stephens and Larry Thompson.

Stephens, left, immediate past president of NAFUSA, is the senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of Raytheon Company. He served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, 1988-1993 and as the associate attorney general and in the White House as deputy counsel to President Reagan.

Thompson, shown right, executive vice president, government affairs, general counsel and corporate secretary of PepsiCo, Inc, served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, 1982-1986, and as the deputy attorney general.

WilmerHale announced on March 24, 2014, that Robert S. Mueller III has joined the firm as a partner in their Washington office. Mueller completed 12 years last fall as the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a position he took one week prior to the September 11 attacks and held under two presidents.

In its press release, WilmerHale said:

As FBI Director, Mr. Mueller managed the transition of the FBI into an agency that dealt not only with the hardest criminal justice matters, but also with the most challenging national security issues, including cybersecurity threats. He brings to the firm his broad range of experience as a career prosecutor, an ability to lead the most sensitive investigations, his steady hand in managing crises, and unquestioned integrity. He will enhance and build on WilmerHale's investigations and strategic counseling practices.

 

Mueller was a United States Marine Corps officer, an assistant United States attorney in three different offices, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division, and the longest-serving Director of the FBI since J. Edgar Hoover.

Mueller currently holds a teaching appointment at Stanford University, and will spend time in WilmerHale's West Coast offices. He also serves as Executive-in-Residence for Georgetown University. From 1993-1995, he was a partner at Hale and Dorr LLP, before the firm combined with Wilmer Cutler Pickering LLP a decade ago.

Mueller earned his law degree in 1973 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served on the Law Review. He received an MA in international relations from New York University in 1967, and graduated from Princeton University with an AB in 1966.

H. Marshall Jarrett, director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), announced his retirement on March 7, 2014. Jarrett was appointed director of EOUSA on April 13, 2009.

Prior to assuming the position of director, Jarrett served as counsel for the Office of Professional Responsibility, where he supervised investigations of professional misconduct by Department of Justice attorneys. He has served as an associate deputy attorney general and as deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section. In addition, he has served as chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and as criminal chief and first assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia.

In an email announcing his retirement to the current U.S. Attorneys, Jarrett reflected on his career and the good fortune he has had to work with so many remarkable people. In his email, Jarrett said:

I've had the privilege to serve with the most talented and dedicated public servants in the country.  I will miss coming to work each day and standing shoulder to shoulder with you and our other extraordinary colleagues throughout the United States Attorneys' community to help ensure that justice is served for the American people. In particular, it has been extremely gratifying to witness firsthand your perseverance, dedication, and commitment to excellence during a very challenging period.

Jarrett is a recipient of the Edmund J. Randolph Award for outstanding service to the Department of Justice and has been conferred the rank of meritorious executive in the senior executive service. He has also received a Presidential Rank Award for his meritorious executive service.

Jarrett also served as deputy director of the enforcement division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and as a deputy attorney general for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the West Virginia University College of Law.

In testimony before the U.S. Sentencing Commission on March 13, 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder endorsed a proposed change in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that would lower the levels for the base offense for various quantities for drug trafficking crimes. If adopted, the change would reduce the average sentence for low-level drug offenders by nearly a year. The Commission projects that if the proposal is adopted, the Bureau of Prison population would drop by 6,550 inmates at the end of five years.

The Commission first proposed the change in January and is expected to vote on it by April. In the meantime, the Justice Department will direct prosecutors not to object if defendants seek to have the newly proposed guidelines applied during sentencing.

Click here to view the Department's press release and Holder's testimony before the Commission.

On March 10, 2014, General Motors announced it had hired NAFUSA member Anton "Tony" Valukas to help lead an internal probe of an ignition-switch failure tied to at least 13 deaths. The investigation will focus on the handling of the flaw that prompted the recall of 1.6 million vehicles and will be conducted jointly by a team led by Valukas and GM General Counsel Michael Millikin. Attorneys from King & Spaulding are also part of the team, according to G.M.

The New York Times reported on March 12, 2014, that the Justice Department has begun an investigation into GM's alleged "decade-long failure to address deadly safety problems before announcing a huge vehicle recall last month, according to people briefed on the matter." It is unclear whether the federal probe is civil or criminal but is led by federal prosecutors in New York and is "expected to center on whether G.M., the nation's largest automaker, failed to comply with laws requiring timely disclosure of vehicle defects." In addition, there are indications that both the House and the Senate will hold hearings on the issue and the National Highway Traffice Safety Administration is undertaking its own investigation.

Valukas, Chairman of Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago, served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1985 to 1989. He has also served as the Justice Department appointed examiner of the downfall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and represented the bankrupt assets of GM during the SEC investigation of the company's pension accounting. He is a Fellow of the American College of TrIal Lawyers. He has been an instructor at the John Marshall School of Law and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law. He is a graduate of Northwestern School of Law.

Mark W. Buyck, Jr., NAFUSA member, who served as United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina in 1975 to 1977, was honored at the 2014 South Carolina Bar Association meeting with the DuRant Award for Distinguished Public Service. The award recognizes long and illustrious public service and outstanding leadership to the profession, community, state and nation, and is considered the highest award presented by the South Carolina Bar Foundation.

Buyck practices with the Florence, SC law firm of Wllcox, Buyck & Williams, P.A., and is a past-president of the S. C. Defense Trial Attorneys Association.  He is a permanent member of the U. S. Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference, and past-chairman of USC Law School Association. He is a former member of the Federation of Insurance and Corporate Counsel and the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel and a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Board of Trial Advocates.  He is past-president of the S. C. Chapter of ABOTA and a current member of its national board of directors.  Buyck is past-chairman of the National College of District Attorneys Committee of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a regent and vice president of the National College of District Attorneys.

He graduated from the University of South Carolina  law school.  He is on the Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina.  He was named Distinguished Alumni by the USC Alumni Association in 2005 and received an honorary degree from Carolina at the May 2008 graduation. Buyck has been active in civic affairs, serving as president of the Florence Rotary Club, the Florence Country Club, and the Florence Little Theatre.  He was one of the founders of the Florence Heritage Foundation, the first chairman of its board and current president.

Buyck is past President of the South Carolina Historical Society. He served for a decade on the initial Advisory Board of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the S.C. State Bar Foundation. He has been honored by two Governors of South Carolina with the Order of the Palmetto, the state's highest award, and has been listed in all published editions of the Best Lawyers in America. He received the prestigious honor of the Judge Hemphill award for distinguished service to the profession and the public by the S.C. Defense Trial Attorneys Association and the Compleat Lawyer award by the USC Law School. In 2006 he was presented the Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of South Carolina and in 2008 he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the USC School of Law. Buyck is a member of the Board of Directors of The Bank of Clarendon and IRIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He serves on the Board of Trustees and as Secretary of Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation and is a member of the Carolinas Hospital System Board of Trustees.

Before his appointment as U.S. Attorney, MacBride served as associate deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice in 2009. He also served as chief counsel and staff director for then-Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. from 2001 to 2005 on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  From 1997 to 2001, MacBride served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia.  During his time as an AUSA and as U.S. Attorney for EDVA, he conducted more than 25 jury trials.

In joining Davis Polk, MacBride said,

Davis Polk is one of the world's great law firms, and one of the few remaining true and lockstep partnerships.  Its white collar and government investigations practice has long been one of the most respected in the world.  I am thrilled to be joining Davis Polk and developing the firm's increasingly important presence in the nation's capital and I look forward to working with my new partners in advising our clients on their most difficult criminal, congressional and regulatory problems.

In announcing MacBride's addition to the firm, Davis Polk stated:

Mr. MacBride's tenure as U.S. Attorney for the EDVA was universally regarded as extremely successful.  He led the office in bringing cases of national and international significance, involving financial fraud, international corruption, copyright infringement and trade secret theft, defense procurement fraud, money laundering, terrorism and cybersecurity.  Some of the most significant matters during his tenure involved the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Wire and Mail Fraud statutes, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Arms Export Control Act, the False Claims Act and the Federal Tort Claims Act.

Davis Polk is a global law firm and has approximately 900 lawyers in offices in New York, Menlo Park, Washington DC, São Paulo, London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo.  For more information: http://www.davispolk.com.