The NAFUSA Board of Directors has selected Wendy Goggin to be our next Executive Director effective July 1, replacing Rich Rossman who retired in April after serving honorably in that position for over eleven years. Rich will remain an active and valued member of NAFUSA.

Wendy retired from the Department of Justice in 2018 and moved back to Nashville after serving as Chief Counsel for the Drug Enforcement Administration for over 14 years. She led a nationwide network of over a hundred attorneys, developed a highly successful Division Counsel Program and managed a multi-million dollar budget, earning a Presidential Rank Award. She served as Attorney General-appointed, and then Court-appointed, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee during the Clinton Administration after previously serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in that office, first in the civil division and then in the criminal division where she prosecuted public corruption and white collar crimes. Prior to being appointed DEA’s Chief Counsel, she served as Counsel for EOUSA’s Office of Legal Programs and Policy.

Wendy is a graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Law and received a B.S. in Communications, journalism major, from UT. Go Vols!

Frank Donaldson served as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1981-1992.

Over the course of his remarkable life he served his country and the people he loved as a P-51 pilot and instructor in World War II, an FBI agent investigating Soviet actions in the US in New York City, the Pacific Northwest and the South during the early days of the Cold War, as a practicing attorney and law professor, as United States Attorney for more than a decade, as a legal scholar and writer, religious teacher and student, and through ongoing contributions in the arena of state and national political affairs.

Donaldson passed away on June 2, 2022.  He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Patti, his son David and his daughters Sharon and Susan.

As is our custom, at NAFUSA’s request an American flag was flown in John’s honor over Main Justice and will be presented to his family as a token of the esteem with which he was held by his colleagues.

NAFUSA member Preet Bharara joins Wilmer Hale.  Bharara served as US Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2009-2017.  Bharara served as Assistant US Attorney for 5 years prior to leading the district. Since leaving the U.S. Attorney’s post, Bharara has served as a scholar-in-residence at New York University’s law school and hosted a weekly podcast called “Stay Tuned with Preet”, which features long-form interviews with prominent guests. WilmerHale said he plans to keep podcasting and will remain creative director of the podcast company Cafe, which was acquired by Vox Media last year.

Mr. Bharara said he expected his role to include a focus on issues of E.S.G., or environmental, social and governance. That area can include how companies treat employees, encourage diversity and equitable practices and battle climate change.

Bharara is a graduate of Columbia Law School and received his undergraduate from Harvard.

NAFUSA board member and president elect Ken Wainstein was confirmed to Lead the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis on Tuesday.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas released the following statement on the confirmation of Kenneth L. Wainstein as Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis:

“I thank the Senate for confirming Kenneth L. Wainstein to lead DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), and I am incredibly proud to welcome him to the Department. Ken is an extraordinarily dedicated and talented public servant with decades of government experience during both Democratic and Republican Administrations. I am confident that his expertise in national security, counterterrorism, and intelligence will greatly benefit our Department and our country as we continue to combat evolving threats. I look forward to working with Ken as he leads I&A in its critical mission to share timely and actionable information and intelligence with our partners across every level of government, in the private sector, local communities, and the public to help keep Americans safe.”

The NAFUSA board will select his successor before the next board meeting in Austin, TX at the end of October.

Best Lawyers Magazine highlights one attorney in various locations and practice areas who receives the highest number of votes from his or her peers in the specific location.

NAFUSA member Larry Finder was named the Lawyer of the Year in White Collar Criminal Defense in Houston.  Finder was US Attorney 1993 in the SD of Texas.  Finder is a partner at Baker McKenzie.  Larry has a general white collar practice involving criminal and civil investigations (including internal investigations and defense of government investigations), parallel proceedings, grand jury practice, and trial practice. He routinely handles matters relating to all types of fraud (civil and criminal), the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, anti-bribery, criminal environmental offenses, criminal immigration offenses, criminal food and drug offenses, and corporate compliance counseling. He has been retained in some high profile matters, including an engagement by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to investigate and litigate the judicial misconduct of a federal judge, which resulted in the judge’s impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate.

NAFUSA member and former board member Richard Roper was named the Lawyer of the Year in White Collar Criminal Defense in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  Roper served as US Attorney from 2004-2009 in the ND of Texas.  Roper is a partner at Holland & Knight where he focuses his litigation practice on white collar criminal defense, government investigations, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement and commercial litigation. His practice also involves directing internal corporate investigations and representation in qui tam litigation, antitrust matters, environmental criminal matters and complex immigration matters.

John Lamp served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington from 1981-1991.  Lamp also served with distinction in the US Army, where he was assigned to the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He was deployed oversees and served in Vietnam before his honorable discharge.

After his service in the US Army, he served in the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Washington. Initially, he was an Assistant Attorney General under Roger Reed, representing EWU and all Eastern WA community colleges, and then was promoted to Washington State Attorney General for Eastern Washington.

Lamp passed away on May 25, 2022. He is survived by his brothers Don and Chris Lamp, his daughter Amanda Lamp and his granddaughter Avery, his pride and joy.

As is our custom, at NAFUSA’s request an American flag was flown in John’s honor over Main Justice and will be presented to his family as a token of the esteem with which he was held by his colleagues.

Lifetime NAFUSA member and former president Hal Hardin presented a flag flown over the Department of Justice to Judge Gilbert Merritt’s family at the Nashville Bar Memorial Service held on May 31, 2022.

Gilbert Stroud Merritt, Jr., the longest-serving member of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals died on Monday, January 17. He was 86. He sat of the bench for 44 years. He earlier served as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee from 1966-1969 under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and a bachelor of law from Vanderbilt University Law School. He is survived by three children and three grandchildren.

NAFUSA member Russell Coleman has announced his campaign for Attorney General for the state of Kentucky. Coleman served as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky from 2017-2021.

Coleman has always known from a young age that his calling was in law enforcement. He served as an FBI agent, where he worked to protect national security and volunteered for an assignment in Iraq to help in an effort to fight terrorism.  Additionally, Coleman served as Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Oldham County and Senior Advisor and Legal Counsel to U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell.

“Our current Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, has been an outstanding fighter for conservative values, for the rule of law and for Kentucky. I look forward to building on his many achievements. I’m also incredibly grateful to the well-respected leaders who are endorsing my campaign. I’m proud to have their vote, and I will work hard to earn the support of every Kentuckian,” Coleman said.

NAFUSA life member Ed Stanton will lead the third-party review of Tennessee Department of Corrections lethal injection testing oversight by request of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.  Stanton is a partner at Butler Snow and Commercial Litigation Practice Group Leader. The investigation and review resulted in a temporary reprieve for death row inmate Oscar Franklin.

As U.S. Attorney, Stanton served as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Western District of Tennessee from 2010 to 2017, managing an office of approximately 100 attorneys and support staff in two locations.

Prior to becoming U.S. Attorney, Stanton served as senior counsel with FedEx. There he served as lead trial and corporate counsel on complex business and litigation matters including governmental investigations, class action, labor and employment, trademark infringement, transportation law and environmental matters. Stanton also served as lead counsel in jury trials in federal and state courts throughout the country.

Currently, Stanton serves as the Court-Appointed Monitor in the case of ACLU v. City of Memphis stemming from the Memphis Police Department’s violations of a federal consent decree.

Stanton, a lifelong Memphian, received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Memphis and his Juris Doctor from the University of Memphis School of Law.