Alabama Attorney General Strange announced on April 21, 2015, the appointment of NAFUSA board member and life member Alice Martin as Chief Deputy Attorney General effective May 1, 2015.  Martin, shown above at the NAFUSA 2013 conference in Washington, a Mississippi native, brings 25 years of experience in civil affirmative and defensive litigation, as well as criminal prosecution and defense.

 

 

"I am pleased to welcome Alice Martin as my new Chief Deputy Attorney General," said Attorney General Luther Strange, who spoke on a panel on immigration at NAFUSA's 2012 conference in Atlanta.  "She possesses an extensive legal background in federal and state courts as well as in private practice.  A former assistant U.S. Attorney in Memphis, Tennessee, Martin continued her impressive career in Alabama as a Circuit Judge for the 11th Judicial Circuit in Lauderdale County before President George W. Bush appointed her U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2001 to 2009.  She is also no stranger to the Alabama Attorney General's office having recently served as Deputy Attorney General for the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts since 2013."

 

The holder of an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and a law degree from the University of Mississippi, Martin is married to Louis Martin.  They live in Florence and have three adult daughters.

 

"I look forward to working with Attorney General Strange given his priorities and our good working relationship," Martin observed.  "I could not pass on the exciting opportunity to join an office I greatly respect and work with the high caliber of professionals that represent the legal interests of this State."

 

NAFUSA lifetime member John McKay continues his residency in Ramallah, Palestine, where for the past two years he has headed the U.S. State Dept. (INL) rule of law program supporting Palestinian public prosecutors, police and security services.

 

On April 8, 2015, he visited by NAFUSA members Debra Yang and Marc Jimenez as they toured the Masada Fortress near the Dead Sea. McKay took them on to visit Bethlehem and Nazareth, before ending up on April 9 in Tel Aviv. Deb Yang reported, "Learning so much about the region, the people, and the history from our dear friend John McKay. He is doing the 'good work' out here."

 

Yang will be busy upon her return to the U.S. According to a filing in the Northern District of California on April 13, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have replaced Uber's prior legal team in its litigation over whether the company's drivers are employees or independent contractors. Yang, of Gibson's Los Angeles office, will be part of the new legal team. 

 

Deb Yang, John McKay, Marc Jimenez

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAFUSA board member and life member Bill Leone (Colorado 2004-2006) has been named Head of Disputes for the New York office of Norton Rose Fulbright. In addition, he is now the Chairman at the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission. Bill served as US Attorney in Colorado and led several high profile, complex white collar investigations including the prosecution of Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio. He is shown above moderating the ethics panel at the NAFUSA Boston conference in 2014.

 

Norton Rose Fulbright is the 3rd largest law firm in the world following the combination of Norton Rose LLP and Fulbright & Jaworski, with 55 offices around the globe, including North and South America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia. Bill continues to spend time in Denver where he maintains his practice and has led the litigation group for the past four years. Bill's practice includes investigations in the energy, medical device, health care and technology sectors, as well as a portfolio of white collar cases and civil and criminal trials.

 

 

 

NAFUSA Foundation President Mike McKay (WD of Washington 1989-1993), shown left, and William Hyslop (ED of Washington 1991-1993, and president-elect of the Washington State Bar Association), shown right, have joined the effort in Washington to try to convince the state senate to reconsider its announced budget cuts for the state courts.

 

In an OpEd in The Seattle Times on April 28, 2015, entitled  Budget cuts threaten justice, McKay says,

Though Washington ranks dead last among the 50 states in the percentage of state funding for the courts - our judicial branch receives just two-fifths of 1 percent of the state budget - the state Senate is now proposing even deeper cuts in the funding of our court system.

 

Hyslop's OpEd was published in The Spokesman-Review on April 26,2105. In Further court cuts jeopardize system, Hyslop argues,

Lawmakers must balance the budget and provide for many, many services to Washingtonians. As part of that balance, a fair and functioning judicial system is not a luxury. It is a basic tenet of American governance, a right of the people. It protects us from the abuses of all kinds of power and helps the rest of government and society to function.

Continuing to cut court budgets in this manner harms everyone.

 

In a follow up interview, McKay stated:

These cuts are grossly disproportionate to those made for the rest of state government.  The state supreme court recently ordered the legislature to increase its appropriations to public schools, ruling that the decades-long practice of allocating fewer and fewer dollars for public schools has violated our state constitution.  It has been speculated by some that these draconian cuts are calculated to punish the state supreme court for enforcing the constitution.

 

 

NAFUSA member Richard Stacy (Wyoming 1981-1994) emerged from a successful surgery early last month which removed a malignant nodule on his right lung. In an opinion published on April 21, 2015 in The Denver Post, Stacy credits a doctor's decision to order a CT scan of his chest. Read his opinion here: Colorado Voices: A challenge to managed health care, where he urges that CT scans and other imaging techniques be used as part of routine physicals.