NAFUSA Foundation Awards Scholarships to Four Legal Interns

The NAFUSA Foundation has created the NAFUSA Foundation Intern Scholarship program which awards $5,000.00 scholarships to unpaid student interns who have performed outstanding work while interning at the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Department of Justice and for their achievements in law school.  The Foundation has awarded its first four scholarships. 

Suzanne Bell, Deputy Director and Chief of Staff of EOUSA, and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices assisted the Foundation by recommending individuals who met the criteria set out by the Foundation. The recipients of the scholarships are Alana Cammack of the University of Alabama School of Law, nominated by the Middle District of Alabama; Hannah Cho of the University of California, Davis School of Law, nominated by the Western District of Washington; April Hartman of Loyola University, nominated by the EOUSA; and Kathryn Pflug of Notre Dame Law School, nominated by the District of Nebraska. These individuals’ work ethic, positive attitude, professionalism and drive will make them outstanding attorneys with a career path that we hope includes public service.

Thank you to Donna Bucella, Jessie Liu, Rich Rossman, Paul Coggins and Bill Lutz for coordinating these efforts with Foundation President, Edward L. Dowd, Jr.

We are delighted to be able to assist these very deserving young people.

Former US Marshals Service Leader Don Washington Returns to Jones Walker

Jones Walker LLP announced on January 25, 2022 that NAFUSA member Donald “Don” Washington has returned to the firm as a partner in the Litigation Practice Group on the corporate compliance and white collar defense team in the Lafayette office. Don returns to the firm after serving as the director of the US Marshals Service from 2019 to 2021. Don is a former member of NAFUSA’s board of directors and was the treasurer until his federal appointment.

Speaking about his return, Don said, “While it was an honor to serve our country and lead the US Marshals Service, it is a pleasure to return home to my colleagues at Jones Walker. I look forward to collaborating with our team and being able to use some of my recent experience to enhance the exceptional client service we provide to our clients.”

During his service leading the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agency, he developed and established key agency priorities and strategies and oversaw the operations of nearly 5,500 US marshals, deputy marshals, criminal investigators, detention enforcement officers, and administrative staff. He led the storied agency through multiple operations to address the rise in violent crime, the turbulence of civil unrest, and the COVID-19 pandemic occurring in the United States and its territories, while protecting the federal judiciary, witnesses, and courts.

Bill Hines, managing partner of Jones Walker, said, “We are very proud of Don’s leadership of the US Marshals Service, and we are pleased to have him as our partner again at Jones Walker. He is a respected member of our law firm and the greater legal industry, and I am certain that his most recent role and past experience in the US Attorney’s Office will bolster our ability to provide excellent client service and train the next generation of Jones Walker litigators and other attorneys.”

Earlier in his career, Don served as US Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana from 2001 to early 2010. As the chief federal law enforcement officer in the Western District of Louisiana, he led federal investigations and trial teams as well as prosecuted cases involving criminal and civil violations of federal law. While with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), he held a number of leadership positions, including on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee; the DOJ-sponsored Executive Committee for Federal Prosecutors, State Attorneys General and District Attorneys; and the DOJ’s Terrorism, Controlled Substances, and Native American Issues committees.

Jerry Martin’s Client Awarded $28.5M BY DOJ in FCA Settlement

Jerry Martin

On August 2, 2021, the Department of Justice announced that mail-order testing supplier Arriva Medical LLC (Arriva), and its parent, Alere Inc.) Alere) have agreed to pay $160 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act. The settlement resolves allegations that Arriva and Alere made, or caused, claims to Medicare that were false because kickbacks were paid to Medicare beneficiaries, patients were ineligible to receive meters, or patients were deceased.

The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Gregory Goodman, a former employee at an Arriva call center in Antioch, Tennessee. Goodman was represented by NAFUSA member Jerry Martin (MD Tennessee 2010-2013). Under the FCA a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery. The Act also permits the United States to intervene and take over the litigation. as the government did here. Goodman will receive $28,548,749 as his share of the recovery.

According to the Tennessean, Martin called the win a “true David versus Goliath story,” and  said he was proud to still be able to work with the government of “Team America” from time to time.

Kathleen Sullivan: Supreme Court Update at San Diego Conference

Kathleen M. Sullivan will give the United States Supreme Court Update at the San Diego NAFUSA Conference in April. She is partner and founding chair of the national appellate practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP.  She has argued over 200 appeals including eleven in the U.S. Supreme Court.  Before joining the firm, Kathleen was a professor of law at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools and served as the eleventh Dean of Stanford Law School.  She holds a J.D. from Harvard, a B.A. from Cornell and an M.A. from Oxford (which she attended as a Marshall Scholar), and was a law clerk to Judge James L. Oakes on the Second Circuit.

San Diego Conference Registration is Open

Registration for the 2022 National Association of Former United States Attorneys (NAFUSA) Annual Conference is open.

Our Annual Conference will be held at The Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego California, April 6-8, 2022.

The conference will open on Wednesday, April 6th, with a welcome reception from 6-9 pm at the hotel sponsored by Guidepost Solutions. Lifetime NAFUSA member Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, will make opening comments. Golf will be available at 8am on Wednesday morning at the Torrey Pines North Golf Course. Bus will leave the hotel at 6:30 am.

Thursday and Friday sessions will include a panel discussion on “Leadership and the Legacy of Women at DOJ” with Loretta Lynch, Jamie Gorelick and Sally Yates, moderated by Karen Hewitt; a presentation of the Bradford Award to the top AUSA of the year; a Supreme Court Update by Kathleen Sullivan; a panel on “Crypto: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly” with Steve Bunnell, Sean Joyce, Jai Massari, and Eun Young Choi, moderated by Ken Wainstein; an update on EOUSA with Monty Wilkinson; and an ethics presentation by Chuck Rosenberg entitled “The Korematsu Story: The Duty of Candor to the Court.” On each day of the meetings, luncheons will be held for all participants. The Thursday lunch will honor retiring NAFUSA Executive Director Rich Rossman.

Thursday evening is reserved for class reunions at various off-site locations, organized by a representative of each class. The closing dinner and general membership meeting will be held on Friday with a presentation from our keynote speaker, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

Here is a link to the program: NAFUSA Program San Diego 2022 PDF.pdf

You may register by clicking on the link below. Our reserved block of rooms is already full but see the registration form for alternatives.

Attendees should be fully vaccinated and, if possible, have a booster shot, or be prepared to show proof of a negative covid test.

 

Chuck Rosenberg: Ethics Presentation at San Diego Conference

NAFUSA Board Member Chuck Rosenberg will give the ethics presentation at the San Diego NAFUSA Conference in April. It will be entitled “The Korematsu Story: The Duty of Candor to the Court.”

Chuck has held numerous senior positions in the United States Department of Justice – as the United States Attorney in both the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Texas, as the senior counselor for national security to one Director of the FBI, and as the Chief of Staff to another FBI Director, as counselor to the Attorney General of the United States, as the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, and as the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration – a position from which he resigned in 2017. 

Chuck joined the Department of Justice directly out of law school, through the Attorney General’s Honors Program, and quickly found the job he enjoyed most – as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, in Norfolk and Alexandria. There, he tried dozens of criminal cases before juries and briefed and argued many of those cases to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Chuck prosecuted complex financial fraud crimes, public corruption, violent crimes, and national security cases. 

Chuck currently works as a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC, as a senior counsel for a Washington, D.C. law firm, and as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, where he teaches National Security Law and Policy.  He is a graduate of Tufts University (BA), Harvard University (MPP), and the University of Virginia (JD).  Chuck also hosted the acclaimed podcast, The Oath, which finished a four-season run with more than ten million downloads (available at msnbc.com/theoath).

Judge Gilbert Merritt Dies, 86

Gilbert Stroud Merritt, Jr., the longest-serving member of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals died on Monday, January 17. He was 86.

“Judge Merritt was a cherished friend of my entire family,” former Vice President Al Gore told The Tennessean. “A deeply intelligent and deliberative legal thinker, he was an ardent defender of the liberties that form the foundation of our Constitution…I am holding his family in my thoughts and prayers.”

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.

On June, 26, 2019, NAFUSA former president Hal Hardin interviewed Judge Merritt as part of the oral history project of the Nashville Bar Association.

 

As is our custom, NAFUSA has requested that an American flag be flown over Main Justice and it will be presented Judge Merritt’s family.

James Tucker Dies, 82

NAFUSA lifetime member James Burns Tucker, 82, died on December 28, 2021 following a lengthy battle with illness. James was born in Georgia on September 25, 1939.

He earned a B.A. in English from Millsaps College and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

His professional accomplishments were many and included 30 years of service in the U.S. Attorney’s office, Southern District of Mississippi (Chief of the Criminal Division and Interim U.S. Attorney) and 20 years of practicing law with Butler, Snow in Ridgeland, MS. He also served 30 years in the Naval Reserve in the Judge Advocate General’s office and retired with the rank of Captain. He also taught Trial Practice at the Mississippi College School of Law for 25 years with his friend and colleague Judge Kent McDaniel.

Among the many professional honors bestowed on Tucker’s are America’s Top 100 Attorney’s Lifetime Achievement Award and his 2016 induction into the Ole Miss Law Alumni Hall of Fame; membership in the American College of Trial Lawyers; and membership in The American Board of Trial Advocates.

Tucker is survived by his wife, Jeanne; their daughter Lisa Rainey Fletcher (Fred); their son Charles Edward Rainey, Sr. (Meredith); 10 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held on Sunday, January 2, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. at Christ United Methodist Church of Jackson, Mississippi

Corey Ellis Appointed as Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina

On December 22, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Corey P. Ellis to serve as the Interim United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina. Ellis will be sworn in on January 10, 2022. He recently served as the acting director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. On October 28, 2020, he appeared on the NAFUSA webinar along side then chair of the AGAC, and now NAFUSA member, Erin Nealy Cox. He is presently serving as chief of staff for FBI Director Christopher A. Wray.

Previously, Ellis served in several leadership roles in the Department of Justice, including as chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. Ellis was also the first assistant in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina. While an assistant U.S. attorney, he handled a wide range of criminal investigations, including public corruption, white collar fraud, securities fraud, and cybercrime. Ellis began his career as a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office in Hendersonville, North Carolina and has tried more than 100 jury trials.

Ellis received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his law degree from the University of Memphis School of Law.