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PRESS RELEASE:
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08/27/07
Kelley Drye announced that it has welcomed David H. Laufman, former Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to the firm as a Partner. Mr. Laufman is joining the firm’s White Collar Crime/Internal Investigations, Litigation, Campaign Finance and Political Law, and International Trade and Customs Practice Groups.
“The substance and breadth of the experience David gained while prosecuting high-profile cases at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, serving at the highest levels of the Department of Justice, and conducting government ethics investigations strengthens our ability to serve our clients,” said Paul C. Rosenthal, Managing Partner of Kelley Drye’s Washington, DC office. “David began his distinguished career as an Associate with Kelley Drye Collier Shannon twenty years ago, and we are pleased to welcome him back.”
Mr. Laufman brings extensive criminal trial experience to the firm, as well as a deep understanding of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and federal law enforcement agencies. From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Laufman served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he specialized in prosecuting terrorism and other national security cases. In 2005, he served as lead trial counsel in the government’s successful prosecution of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, an American citizen who was convicted of providing material support and resources to al-Qaeda, conspiring to assassinate the President of the United States, conspiring to hijack and destroy aircraft, and other charges. For his work on the Abu Ali case, Mr. Laufman received the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement in Litigation, the Department of Justice’s highest award for excellence in litigation. Other notable cases that Mr. Laufman successfully prosecuted include United States v. Chandia, United States v. Khan (the “Virginia Jihad” case), United States v. Keyser, and United States v. Biheiri.
Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Laufman served as Chief of Staff to Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson at the Department of Justice, where he assisted in managing the day-to-day operations of DOJ and helped to coordinate the Department’s responses to the September 11th terrorist attacks. He served as Executive Secretary of DOJ’s National Security Coordination Council and as DOJ’s representative to the National Security Council’s Policy Coordinating Committee on Terrorism Finance.
Mr. Laufman also brings extensive experience relating to ethics and public corruption investigations. From 1996 to 2000, he served as Investigative Counsel to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (“House Ethics Committee”), where he conducted several ethics investigations. Among the investigations that Mr. Laufman worked on were the cases concerning former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Representatives Jay Kim and Earl Hilliard, and Representative Corrine Brown. In 1997, Mr. Laufman played a central role in drafting and negotiating changes to the ethics rules of the House of Representatives in his capacity as Assistant to the Special Counsel to the Ethics Reform Task Force. Previously, he served as Associate Independent Counsel to Joseph E. diGenova in the “Investigation Concerning the Search of William J. Clinton’s Passport Files During the 1992 Presidential Election Campaign.” In 1992-1993, he also served as Senior Associate Minority Counsel to the Task Force to Investigate Certain Allegations Concerning the Holding of American Hostages by Iran in 1980 (the “October Surprise Task Force”), which was a bipartisan panel of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mr. Laufman also enhances the firm’s International Trade Practice Group. In 2000-2001, he served as Staff Director and Deputy Chief Counsel to the Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control, a congressionally mandated body that examined U.S. laws governing the imposition of economic sanctions by the Department of the Treasury. Later, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he conducted investigations involving violations of export control and economic sanctions laws.
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Bio of Involved Attorney:
David H. Laufman, Partner
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