Division Co-Chairs:
Marissel Descalzo, Anthony Musto
Specialized Practice Division
Amicus Review Committee
Co-Chairs: Mark Dwyer, Rory Little, Daniel Harawa, Christina Swarns; Marsha Levick
The Amicus Committee makes every effort to respond to the increasing number of requests for Criminal Justice Section applications for ABA amicus briefs. The Committee monitors pending Petitions for Certiorari and notes cases where the ABA might want to file a brief. As it has in the past, the Committee will consider such requests:
· in light of the importance of the issue and its significance to lawyers, the legal profession or compelling public interest;
· applicable ABA policy;
· the court in which the case is pending;
· the timeline for submission of the brief; and
· identification of a qualified brief writer.
Based on its review, the Committee will make recommendations to the Section Council or its Executive Committee. Upon Section approval and to the extent necessary and appropriate, the Committee will assist in drafting the application to the ABA Standing Committee on Amicus Curiae Briefs and, if the application is approved by the Board of Governors, in editing the draft brief.
Please make sure that a request to the Amicus Committee includes a summary of the record, including a copy of the Circuit Court opinion, any District Court findings and orders, and a summary as to how ABA policy supports the issues on appeal.
Goals:
The Committee welcomes Christina Swarns, Executive Director of the Innocence Project, New York, NY as a Co-Chair of the Committee. The Committee will continue its review of cases for those in which it may request the filing of an ABA amicus brief.
Appellate & Habeas Practice Committee
Co-Chairs: Jessica Langsam, Terri Rosenblatt
Explores habeas reform, studies current use of material witness warrants and procedural protections related to the issuance and continued detention of individuals under such warrants; makes recommendations regarding appropriate policy statements.
Seeks improvements in post- conviction remedies in State and Federal jurisdictions.
Considers existing or proposed measures that would enable heirs or family members of executed defendants, who had maintained their innocence, to try to establish their actual innocence through DNA evidence or other means. The same remedies would likewise be available for heirs of convicted defendants who had died of natural causes.
Goals: · 1. The first meeting will involve level-setting and a discussion of areas of interest and expertise of our members. Subsequent meetings will track progress on a few projects.
2. We would host a webinar on the ABA’s post-conviction forensic testing positions and advocacy.
3. To engage with membership and develop work plans on AEDPA procedural bars and a comment or article on the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Shin.
Cyber Crime Committee
Co-Chairs: Matthew Esworthy, Jody Westby
Studies various crimes committed via computer such as internet fraud, hacking, intellectual property theft, e-mail threats, child protection, etc.
Global Anti-Corruption Committee
Co-Chairs: Andrew Boutros, T. Funk, Tiffany Wynn
The Committee plans, organizes and sponsors events and publications in the anti-corruption field; works closely with, among others, the International Section’s Anti-Corruption Committee and some of its constituents, as well as the ABA Corporate Social Responsibility and Forced Labor Task Force, and the ABA President's Task Force on Human Trafficking.
The Global Anti-Corruption Committee's principal purpose is to monitor, evaluate, and report on developments under trans-national anti-bribery instruments such as the United Kingdom Bribery Act, the German Anti-Corruption Act, the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Law, Russia’s National Plan for Counteraction to Corruption, South Africa’s Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.N. Convention Against Corruption, and the OECD Anti-Corruption Convention, among other anti-corruption analog apparatuses.
International Committee
Co-Chairs: Tyler Hodgson, Bruce Zagaris
Studies developments in international criminal law, particularly as they affect the practice of law; explores methods of international cooperation through agreements and legislation; and works on projects with the ABA Section of International Law and Practice. The committee also monitors developments in international criminal tribunals, including the International Criminal Court, the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
International White Collar Committee
Co-Chairs: Mark Beardsworth, Patrick Hanes
This committee will bring together international and domestic practitioners to address the growing trend in cross-border investigations and prosecutions, as well as engage practitioners who have a practice tailored to international white collar crime, as opposed to solely domestic. The committee will go beyond the limits of anti-corruption (as addressed by the Global Anti-corruption Committee), but will have a narrower focus than the White Collar Crime Committee or the International Committee.
This committee will focus on a multitude of areas of international white collar, including cross-border money laundering and financial transactions, OFAC and ITAR compliance, corruption, international labor violations, customs fraud, offshore tax violations, corporate criminal liability, corporate human rights violations, market misconduct and manipulation, MLATs and international enforcement cooperation, and extradition. The Committee will also work in conjunction with the global white collar efforts of the Criminal Justice Section. It will also be a source of new membership, attracting international practitioners.