NAFUSA member Andrea Sheridan Ordin (CD California, 1977-1981) was selected by U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee, CD California, to examine juvenile detention facilities for minors brought into the country illegally. In an order entered on October 9, 2018, Judge Gee gave Ordin the authority to hire staff, conduct investigations and advise the court on the government’s compliance with the Flores agreement, a 30-year old settlement that set parameters on how minors are going held for immigration law violations are detained. Flores v Sessions, 85-CV4544. 

Ordin is a senior counsel at Strumwasser & Woocher, LLP and is a member of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. She will assume her role as monitor effective October 15.

Peter Vaira

NAFUSA member Peter Vaira (ED Pennsylvania, 1978-1983) published a column comparing Pennsylvania state and federal grand jury procedure in The Legal Intelligencer on September 24, 2018. See VAIRA Legal Intelligencer (09.25.18) A Comparison of Pennsylvania State and Federal Grand Jury Procedure   

Vaira is a partner at Greenblatt Pierce Engle Funt Flores in Philadelphia.

On October 2, President Donald Trump announced the nomination of  NAFUSA member Don Washington to be the director of the United States Marshals Service. Washington served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana (2001-2010). He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point with a degree in mechanical engineering and served as an Army captain of the Air Defense Artillery and in the Army Reserve from 1983 to 1987. He has a law degree from South Texas College in Houston. He is currently a partner at the Jones Walker law firm.

Washington’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the United States Senate.

Larry Thompson

Volkswagen AG (VW) was sentenced in federal court in Detroit on April 21, 2017, after pleading guilty to three felony counts stemming from the company’s scheme to sell diesel vehicles containing software designed to cheat on U.S. emissions tests. VW paid a $2.8 billion penalty and the parties announced that the government had selected NAFUSA life member Larry Thompson as an independent corporate compliance monitor who was to oversee the company during its three-year term of probation.

On Monday, August 27, 2018, Thompson issued a report finding that the company has only just begun to take steps necessary to prevent future scandals.

“The wrongful acts and crimes that were committed in the United States were enormous,” Mr. Thompson said, according to The New York Times. “The cultural change is going to be enormous, and it’s going to require lots of work on the part of the company.” He said, “In my experience, one of the cornerstones of any effective ethics and compliance effort is the organization’s willingness to hold itself and its executives, especially top executives, accountable for wrongdoing.”

Thompson’s review of VW’s compliance continues.

Tim Heaphy

The University of Virginia announced on August 23 that NAFUSA board member Tim Heaphy has been appointed University Counsel by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. According to the Release from the University of Virginia:

Heaphy, a UVA alumnus and currently a partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth and a former United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, will take office Sept. 1. As University counsel, Heaphy will lead UVA’s Office of University Counsel, which is responsible for representing the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia in all legal and regulatory matters. The office provides legal counsel to the Board of Visitors, President Ryan, executive officers and other administrators, faculty and staff in their official capacities. As a member of the University’s senior leadership team, Heaphy will provide strategic advice to the Board of Visitors and Ryan on a number of important issues.

 

“With his deep roots in Virginia, in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia, Tim is well-positioned to help President Ryan and the Board of Visitors implement their vision, and to help the University continue to grow and thrive,” Herring said. “His experience in the private and public sectors, especially his years of service as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, give him a depth and breadth of experience that will serve the University well.”

 

“Tim is an outstanding attorney with a sharp mind and a long history of public service,” Ryan said. “He understands the important role the University plays in the community and nation, and his legal expertise will undoubtedly benefit both the commonwealth and UVA. I am delighted that Attorney General Herring has appointed Tim and grateful that Tim has agreed to serve in this important leadership position at his alma mater.”

Attorneys in the Office of University Counsel are appointed by the attorney general of Virginia and represent the University on legal matters affecting University operations and interests.

 

“I am honored to have been appointed University counsel for the University of Virginia,” Heaphy said. “UVA and Charlottesville are very special places for me and my family, and I can’t think of a better way to continue my career as a public servant in the law than to represent what I believe to be the best public university in the nation. I am grateful to Attorney General Herring for entrusting me with this responsibility, and I look forward to serving the UVA Board of Visitors, President Ryan and the University’s distinguished faculty and staff.”

 

Appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia in 2009, Heaphy was the chief law enforcement officer responsible for prosecuting federal crime and defending the United States in civil litigation for six years. Prior to that role, he was a partner with the law firm McGuireWoods. He served as assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia and the Western District of Virginia from 1994 to 2006.

 

In 2017, Heaphy led a team of lawyers at Hunton & Williams who conducted an independent review of the protest events in Charlottesville last year. The report and its findings led to the development of new policies and procedures regarding how to better manage public protests while also ensuring First Amendment protections and public safety.

 

Heaphy is founder and board chair of The Fountain Fund, a nonprofit organization in Charlottesville that provides low-interest loans to formerly incarcerated people in Central Virginia. As a law student at UVA, he helped start a loan forgiveness program for students who entered public service work after graduation.

 

In 2015, former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe appointed him to the Commission on Parole Review. He clerked for Judge John A. Terry of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and prior to law school served on the staff of U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware.

Heaphy earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the UVA School of Law.

Jay and Julie Stephens are vacationing in Northern Michigan and stopped in Leland (the unofficial home of NAFUSA) to have dinner with Rich and Patty Rossman. They also toured the Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore and enjoyed a day on the Rossman pontoon. Jay is the counsel to the NAFUSA board of directors, and a past president. Rich is the executive director of NAFUSA.

Mary Jo White

NAFUSA member Mary Jo White (Southern District of New York, 1993-2002) was named by The Ohio State University to lead the investigation of what coach Urban Meyer knew and did about domestic abuse accusations against a former assistant. The university placed Meyer on a three game suspension after receiving White’s report.

Mary Jo White is a partner of Debevoise & Plimpton and a former chairperson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mike Dettmer

The State Bar of Michigan’s Negligence Section will present its Outstanding Achievement Award to NAFUSA member Mike Dettmer at the Negligent Section’s Annual Summer Meeting in Traverse City on August 9, 2018.

Currently of counsel to the firm of Olson, Bzdok & Howard in Traverse City, where he still maintains an active mediation/alternative dispute resolution practice, Mike has had as interesting and diverse a career as any. He has been a trial lawyer for more than 45 years, served for many years on the State Bar Board of Commissioners, helped the state bar address the lawyer malpractice insurance crisis in the late 1980s, and was one of the founders of Michigan Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, where he eventually served as president and CEO. He also served the State Bar of Michigan as its 59th president. He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, where he served 1994-2001.

Bill Leone

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has been awarded Investigations Team of the Year at the annual Transatlantic Legal Awards. The Awards, held on June 14, 1018, in London, were judged by a panel of senior editors and reporters from The American Lawyer and Legal Week and recognise firms for their excellence in advising on complex matters spanning the US and the UK. NAFUSA member Bill Leone lead the U.S. based criminal and civil securities defense effort for the Norton Rose Fulbright team.

The Investigations Team of the Year award recognises the firm’s successful defence of a senior banking executive in multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil proceedings arising out of the JP Morgan “London Whale” case, which included investigations and proceedings brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), and extradition proceedings in Spain.

Following over five years of investigations and proceedings in the United States and Europe, in August 2017 the DOJ and the SEC dismissed all criminal charges and civil claims against the firm’s client, Javier Martin-Artajo, a former senior executive at JP Morgan. The allegations related to events in 2012 in connection with what has been referred to in the press as the “London Whale” trading losses.

The U.S. government’s decision, which came following four years of civil proceedings involving the disclosure of millions of pages of documents, depositions of over 35 fact witnesses in the U.S. and Europe, and the government carefully analysing the evidence, completely vindicated Mr Martin-Artajo’s position and reflects the strength of his defence which he has consistently maintained from the outset of this matter in 2012.