NAFUSA member B. Todd Jones was interviewed yesterday on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Click here to read or listen to the interview where Jones describes the tough challenges at ATF. Jones was confirmed by the Senate on July 31, 2013, as the first permanent director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives since 2006.

“There’s a sort of collective sigh of relief that not another person’s going to show up here for a bit,” Jones says in his interview with NPR. “You know, they had five acting directors in the seven-year span since they made it subject to Senate confirmation, which is difficult for any organization to build momentum or have continuity.”

NAFUSA member Peter Vaira, (ED PA, 1978-1983), shown right, was appointed  by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter on October 31, 2013 as Executive Director of the Independent Advisory Commission  to probe the cause a building collapse on Market Street, Philadelphia on June 5, 2013 that killed six persons. The Commission which  consists of 16 persons will be chaired by Glenn Corbett, associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, of the City University of New York. The Mayor signed an executive order directing the Commission to examine the role of the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections in licensing and inspecting the contractors who were demolishing the building when it collapsed, and to further examine the entire regulatory and licensing function of L& I. The Commission is to make a final report to the mayor on July 15, 2014.

The daughter of city Treasurer Nancy Winkler was one of the persons killed while she was visiting the Salvation Army gift shop  which was adjacent to the building being demolished when the building collapsed on the  gift shop. Two persons involved in the demolition have been indicted by the  Philadelphia District Attorney.

The Department of Licenses & Inspections has long been the subject of allegations of shakedowns and bribes, political influence, and general inefficiency regarding licenses and inspections of commercial buildings and businesses in Philadelphia.

NAFUSA board member Hal Hardin, won the latest battle on behalf of the former governor of Tennessee and the former deputy to the governor. On October 29, 2013, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee, dismissed for the second time an appeal in a civil case against the governor and his deputy for actions alleged to have occurred during a 77 day and night protest in 2005 inside the Tennessee Capitol over changes to the state health care program.

Contrary to State Capitol rules, plaintiff and other protestors entered the Capitol and were allowed to stay. The governor and the deputy took no action to evict the protestors, even though they could have lawfully done so. Plaintiff claimed the governor and the deputy retaliated against him for the exercise of his First Amendment rights during the protest. The Court of Appeals affirmed the grant of summary judgment against him and the lower court’s ruling that certain documents created by the governor’s legal counsel were protected from discovery by the attorney-client and deliberative process privileges.

Click here to read the full opinion of the Tennessee Court of Appeals

The law firm Bryan Cave LLP announced on October 7, 2013, that NAFUSA member Mary Beth Buchanan has joined the firm as a partner practicing in both the New York and Washington, D.C., offices.  She will practice within Bryan Cave’s White Collar Defense and Securities Litigation and Enforcement Client Service Group.

Buchanan served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania from September 2001 to November 2009, having been appointed by President George W. Bush.  As the U.S. Attorney, Buchanan oversaw the prosecution of more than 5,000 cases, including corporate and securities fraud, bank fraud, foreign corrupt practices, false claims, money laundering, health care fraud, public corruption and a broad range of violent crimes.  Prior to that time, Buchanan spent more than 13 years as an Assistant United States Attorney litigating criminal, civil and appellate cases.

At Bryan Cave, Buchanan will concentrate her practice on internal investigations, corporate compliance, white collar criminal defense, foreign corrupt practices violations, corporate and accounting fraud, antitrust litigation, health care fraud, SEC enforcement matters, Congressional investigations and complex civil litigation.

Buchanan joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania in 1988.  She spent her first five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Civil Division, and the next nine years in the Criminal Division.  During her tenure as the U.S. Attorney, she also had assignments at the DOJ, including serving as the director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys,  acting director of the DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women and chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. Buchanan also served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Organizational Guidelines Advisory Committee, which made recommendations to the Commission for amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines for Business Organizations.

Buchanan joins Bryan Cave from the United Nations, where she served as the ethics and reputational risk officer. Buchanan conducted the United Nations’ first ethics and reputational risk assessment for U.N. Peacekeeping and Special Political Operations.  She received a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Bryan Cave LLP (www.bryancave.com) has a diversified international legal practice. The firm represents a wide variety of business, financial, institutional and individual clients, including publicly held multinational corporations, large and mid-sized privately held companies, partnerships and emerging companies. Subsidiary Bryan Cave International Consulting provides trade and customs consultancy. Aided by extensive investments in technology, Bryan Cave’s more than 1,100 lawyers and other professionals in over 30 offices across the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Asia efficiently serve clients’ needs in the world’s key business and financial markets.

On Wednesday, October 16, 2013, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, SDNY, appointed NAFUSA life member Michael Bromwich to monitor Apple’s antitrust policies and procedures for two years. Judge Cote found Apple guilty of colluding with five of the six largest publishers in the U.S. in an e-book price-fixing scheme.

Bromwich was selected by President Obama in June 2010 to reform the regulation and oversight of offshore drilling in the wake of the DeepwaterHorizon accident and oil spill. He first served as the Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management Regulation and Enforcement (June 2010-September 2011), and then as Director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (October-November 2011). Bromwich served as the chief public spokesman for the Obama Administration’s reform of offshore drilling.

At the end of 2011, Bromwich left government and in 2012 joined Goodwin Proctor as a partner in its DC and New York offices, specializing in internal investigations and white-collar defense. He served as inspector general of the Department of Justice, 1994-1999. He also served as associate counsel in the Iran-Contra Office of Independent Counsel and as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.