Paul Coggins was elected President of the National Association of Former United States Attorneys (NAFUSA) during its Annual Meeting in San Francisco last month. Coggins, who served as the organization’s President-Elect for the past year and previously as Vice President, was U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas from 1993 to 2001. He is currently the Co-Chair of Locke Lord’s White Collar Criminal Defense and Internal Investigations Practice Group.

Coggins twice served on the U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Council and, in 1998, became its Vice Chair. As U.S. Attorney, he prosecuted the first federal “three strikes” case in Texas and some of the earliest cybercrime cases in the United States. He also prosecuted one of the most complex cases ever brought under the Economic Espionage Act, stamped out one of the nation’s largest immigrant smuggling rings and built one of the nation’s first health care fraud task forces.

Coggins focuses his practice on white collar criminal defense and has represented numerous Fortune 500 clients in high-stakes litigation before federal courts and the SEC. He also has conducted internal investigations involving alleged tax, fraud and securities violations. In addition, he develops compliance and ethics programs for corporations and other business entities.

Coggins is a graduate of Yale University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. In addition to his legal work, he has published two books: a novel (The Lady Is the Tiger) and a nonfiction work on sports (Out of Bounds), which he co-authored with former Congressman Tom McMillen. His second novel (Sting Like a Butterfly) will be released in March 2020.

Steptoe & Johnson LLP is pleased to announce that prominent white-collar lawyer, veteran prosecutor and corporate compliance monitor Michael R. Bromwich is joining the firm’s esteemed White-Collar Criminal Defense practice as a senior counsel. He will reside in the firm’s Washington office and also have a presence in the firm’s New York office.

Bromwich brings nearly 40 years of experience as a federal prosecutor, a special prosecutor, an inspector general, the country’s top offshore drilling regulator, the compliance monitor of major public companies and public agencies, and a criminal defense lawyer. Over the years, he has been called on countless times – by public corporations, private companies, federal, state, and local governments, cabinet secretaries, and the president of the United States – to deal with issues and problems of private and public significance.

In private practice, Bromwich has conducted internal investigations for private companies and other organizations, providing monitoring and oversight services, and represented institutions and individuals in white-collar criminal and regulatory matters and congressional matters. Most recently, his publicly disclosed representations have included Christine Blasey Ford and Andrew McCabe. He has also served as the independent monitor for two of the ten largest companies in the United States – Apple and Walmart.

Bromwich’s celebrated career also includes serving as the Inspector General at the Department of Justice (DOJ), where he was responsible for investigating public corruption and systemic issues relating to waste, fraud, and abuse within the DOJ and its law enforcement agencies including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). His work included investigations of the FBI Laboratory, the FBI’s role in the Aldrich Ames affair, and the DEA’s involvement in the CIA-crack cocaine controversy. During his five years as Inspector General, Bromwich took a new and virtually anonymous agency within the DOJ and shaped it into an internal investigations powerhouse.

Bromwich previously served as an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, and as associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel for Iran-Contra.

Bromwich’s most recent public sector service took place in 2010-2011 when he was selected by President Obama to reform the regulation and oversight of offshore drilling and to serve as the country’s top offshore drilling regulator in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon accident and oil spill. During his tenure at the Department of the Interior, Bromwich implemented a series of far-reaching regulatory and organizational reforms that revamped the nation’s regulation of offshore energy exploration, development, and production.

NAFUSA Life Member Kent Alexander (ND Georgia 1994-1997) and journalist Kevin Salwen have coauthored a new book: The Suspect- The FBI, The Media, and Richard Jewell, The Man Caught in the Middle.

Kent Alexander was the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia on July 27, 1996, when the Centennial Olympic Park bombing occurred. Kevin Salwen was a Wall Street Journal reporter and editor, who ran the paper’s southeastern section during the Olympic Games. “The Suspect” tells the story of Richard Jewell, the security guard who spotted a suspicious bag in Centennial Park minutes before the bomb detonated amid a crowd of fifty thousand people. Jewell became the FBI’s main suspect but later was cleared of any wrong doing. Warner Brothers has purchased the rights to the book and hired Alexander and Salwen as consultants on its upcoming movie on Richard Jewell.

“Meticulously reported, bracingly written, full of memorable and bizarre characters, the book casts a wary eye on the worlds of law enforcement and journalism, and their multiple failures in this tale. It’s a story with no winners – except for readers of this terrific book.”​ — Jeffrey Toobin

Harry Litman is a Washington Post contributing columnist, a former United States Attorney (Western District of Pennsylvania 1998-2001), and a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Now he has joined NAFUSA as our newest member. Harry will also join us in San Francisco.

He teaches constitutional law and national security lawat the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and the University of California at San Diego Department of Political Science. Litman also practices law with Constantine Cannon in San Francisco, specializing in the False Claims Act. He is a regular commentator on MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. He is the creator and executive producer of the “Talking Feds” podcast (@talkingfedspod), which has featured many NAFUSA members. Litman served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Anthony Kennedy. Prior to law school, Litman worked on the Associated Press baseball desk and as a feature film production assistant in New York City. Litman and his wife, Julie Roskies Litman, have three children.

NAFUSA Life Member Chuck Rosenberg will present the ethics lecture at the San Francisco conference in September: “The Korematsu Story-Duty of Candor to the Court”. Chuck also moderated the panel on opioids at the Washington conference in 2017. Chuck is currently a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC. His popular podcast, The Oath, features interviews with several former Justice officials, including NASUSA members Pat Fitzgerald and Barbara McQuade as well as Jim Comey, Sally Yates and others. Click on the photo below or visit msnbc.com/theoath.

NAFUSA member Peter Vaira posted an article on July 15, 2019, in the Legal Intelligencer on: Federal Effort Against Organized Crime: How It Began and Where It Is Today. Peter served as the United States Attorney for the ED of Pennsylvania (1978-1983) and earlier as the Organized Crime Strike Force Chief in the ND of Illinois. He is currently a member of Greenblatt Pierce Funt and Flores.

With Barry Grissom’s resignation from the NAFUSA board of directors to run for the United States Senate, the NAFUSA ByLaws authorized the board to select a member to fill Barry’s vacancy in the class of 2021. The board has selected Richard (Rick) Hartunian to fill the remainder of Barry’s term.

Rick is a partner in the New York City office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, having joined the firm’s Investigations and White Collar practice in August, 2017 after a 20-year career with the Department of Justice. Rick served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York from 2010 – 2017, and during his tenure was appointed Vice Chair and Chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee.

“I am truly honored to be appointed to the Board of this tremendous organization, whose purpose is to  promote and defend the integrity and independence of our United States Attorneys’ Offices.  It is a privilege to be associated with so many outstanding former DOJ colleagues, each of whom deeply understands the critical importance of that mission,” Rick said upon being notified of his appointment.

On July 1, 2019 NAFUSA board member Barry Grissom stepped down from the NAFUSA board and announced his campaign for the United States Senate from the State of Kansas.

In 2010, Barry was nominated to be the U.S. Attorney for Kansas and was unanimously confirmed by Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate.Barry is best known for helping lead the investigation and successful prosecution of the Wichita Airport and the Fort Riley bombers – two domestic terrorists who had plotted to kill hundreds if not thousands of Americans.

Working with local sheriffs and police, he helped take 23 members of the violent Norteños gang off the streets in Dodge City, and disarmed convicted felons throughout Western Kansas.

As U.S. Attorney, Barry worked with law enforcement and civil rights advocates to improve community relations, founded Kansas’s first Human Trafficking Working Group, helped clean up gang activity, oversaw Kansas’s Project Safe Childhood program targeting child sex offenders and led the charge among federal authorities to break up a dogfighting ring responsible for capturing and abusing over 400 pit bulls.

In 2020, Kansas will elect a new U.S. Senator due to the announced retirement of current Senator Pat Roberts. The state of Kansas has only had three “open” U.S. Senate races in the past 40 years.

Barry Grissom has dedicated his entire career to fighting for those most vulnerable in our society. Inspired by Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, Barry has never lost sight of the fact that his purpose as an attorney is to use the law to ensure justice for all.

The son of a Korean War veteran, Barry grew up the oldest of three and spent his childhood moving all across the American South and Midwest because of his father’s job with the International Harvester Corporation. After his family moved to Shawnee Mission, Barry attended Johnson County Community College before graduating from the University of Kansas. To help put himself through college and law school, Barry worked odd jobs including painting houses.

After graduating from the Oklahoma City University law school, Barry came back home to Kansas to begin his career as an attorney. He founded a solo law practice focused on helping those who faced injustice – including standing up against discrimination, fighting for workers to get fair wages, and protecting those who faced the wrenching decision to declare bankruptcy after they had emptied their savings to pay their medical bills.

“It was always difficult to watch someone who had worked their whole life come into your office and drop their head in shame because they’ve had to declare bankruptcy. Not because they were wasteful, but because they had the bad luck of getting sick and needed to protect what few assets they had left. You never forget that.” – Barry Grissom

“Protecting the American people from terrorism and violent crime was our primary mission in the U.S. Attorney’s office. It was vital that we disrupt attacks against our homeland and bring terrorists to justice. I’m proud that our office kept Kansans safe.” – Barry Grissom

Barry lives in Northeast Kansas with his wife Renee. They have two children and two grandchildren.

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Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced on July 12, 2019, that NAFUSA member Zachary W. Carter, the City’s Corporation Counsel, will be retiring from his post at the end of August of this year. When he retires, Carter will have served nearly six years as the City’s chief legal officer, one the City’s longest-serving in the history of the Law Department.

“On behalf of the entire City, I want to thank Zach for his almost six years of dedicated service,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Zach is one of our City’s finest public servants. During his tenure, he has stood for fairness and equity, as is evident by his work settling with the Central Park Five and victims of the unconstitutional and unjust Stop and Frisk era. He has moved our Law Department forward, and our City is better off for it.”

“It has been my privilege to lead the finest government law office in the country. The dedicated lawyers and support professionals of the Law Department are without peer in their knowledge of the specialized areas of law implicated in the extraordinarily varied operations of dozens of agencies that provide essential services spanning education,  housing, environmental protection, law enforcement and public health. I will be forever grateful to the Mayor for giving me the opportunity to provide legal support for this administration’s policies and to participate in a quest to make this a thriving, fair and equitable city,” said Carter.

During his tenure, Carter resolved longstanding litigation, ushering in a new era of equity and justice for the City. Memorable settlements range from the overuse of stop and frisk and the Central Park Five case to excessive uses of force at Rikers Island and the underrepresentation racial minorities in the ranks of FDNY, all on terms that reconciled the values of fairness and equity with the obligation to keep New Yorkers safe. 

Carter has also implemented numerous changes at the Law Department which have made the Department more effective in carrying out its mission. Last year, he launched a Strategic Litigation initiative to expand the City’s impact litigation efforts and expanded the Family Court Division to handle increased caseloads after the City lobbied for and the State passed Raise the Age Laws so 16 and 17 year olds can no longer be charged as adults.

Carter oversees a staff of nearly 1000 lawyers and approximately 700 support professionals who defend the City, its agencies and employees in litigation, initiate lawsuits to advance the City’s interest, provide legal support for critical functions of all city agencies and ensure that the policies advanced by the City’s administration are grounded in sound principles of law.

Carter was appointed in 2014, having previously served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and as both a Criminal Court and United States Magistrate Judge. When Carter steps down in August, Georgia Pestana, the agency’s First Assistant Corporation Counsel, will serve as Acting Corporation Counsel.  The City is launching a national search for Carter’s replacement.