Former Adjunct Professor of Law; former Special Counsel to the President; former federal prosecutor, Georgetown Law (ret.)
Bill Otis is a former Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University, a one-time federal prosecutor, and a former Special White House Counsel for President George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Stanford Law School, he started his career in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, then became chief of appeals for the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. In the 1980's he served on the Department's "Train the Trainer" team, which taught US Attorneys Offices across the county how to implement the then-new Sentencing Reform Act. He has held several posts in the federal government, including Special Assistant to the Secretary of Energy and Counselor to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, in addition to the White House post. He has testified before Congress on issues in criminal procedure, illegal drugs, the US Sentencing Commission, and the death penalty, and has given numerous media interviews on those and other subjects. He currently teaches a seminar at Georgetown Law titled "Conservatism in Law in America" with his wife, Federalist Society co-founder Lee Liberman Otis.
Gary R. Trombley Family White-Collar Crime Research Professor, Stetson University College of Law
A former deputy prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, Professor Ellen S. Podgor teaches in the areas of white collar crime, criminal law and international criminal law. She has previously taught other courses, such as professional responsibility, criminal procedure, law and sexual orientation seminar, and advocacy. She served as Stetson's inaugural Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Electronic Education and also served as a LeRoy Highbaugh Sr. Research Chair. She is the co-author of numerous books including White Collar Crime in a Nutshell,Understanding International Criminal Law, and Mastering Criminal Law. She has authored more than 50 law review articles and essays in the areas of computer crime, international criminal law, lawyer's ethics, criminal discovery, prosecutorial discretion, corporate criminality, and other white collar crime topics. These have been published in journals such as the Hastings Law Journal, Washington & Lee Law Review, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Yale Law Journal Pocket Part, Washington University Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, U.C. Davis Law Review, American University Law Review, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, American Criminal Law Review, Vanderbilt En Banc, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, and many others.
Podgor has been interviewed on National Public Radio and been quoted in newspapers across the country, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, National Law Journal, Chicago Tribune, andBusiness Week. She is the editor of the highly ranked White Collar Crime Prof Blog. She is the chair of the Advisory Committee of the NACDL White-Collar Criminal Defense College at Stetson.
She has taught at other law schools including Georgia State University College of Law and St. Thomas University College of Law, and been a visiting professor at University of Georgia School of Law, George Washington University Law School and held a visiting endowed chair position at University of Alabama School of Law. She also was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School. Podgor served for six years as a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and presently serves on the board of directors of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL) and the board of trustees for the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS). She is a past chair of the Criminal Justice Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and is an honorary member of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. Professor Podgor is a member of the American Law Institute.
In 2010, Podgor received the Robert C. Heeney Award, the highest honor given by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She is also the recipient of the Dickerson-Brown Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship.
Executive Vice President, The Federalist Society
Dean Reuter is Executive Vice President at the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has served in two federal government agency Offices of the Inspector General, as Counsel to the Inspector General and Deputy Inspector General, responsible for policing the use of federal funds granted and contracted through those agencies. As such, he helped conduct and oversee criminal investigations across the country. He is the principal author of the non-fiction book, The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil, and editor of Liberty’s Nemesis: The Unchecked Expansion of the State and Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security. He was appointed by the President and served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and recently served as an appointee on the U.S. Commission on Presidential Scholars. He is a graduate of Hood College (BA with Honors) and the University of Maryland School of Law.
Partner, Arnold & Porter
John Elwood is the head of Arnold & Porter’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice. He has argued before the Supreme Court nine times, and appeared before most of the federal courts of appeals. He has successfully argued cases across a broad cross-section of subjects, with particular experience in environmental law, the False Claims Act, government contracting, and federal criminal law
Mr. Elwood’s work has earned him recognition as one of Washington’s top Supreme Court lawyers (Washingtonian, 2013), as one of “a small group of lawyers” with an “outsized influence at the U.S. Supreme Court” (Reuters, 2014), and as one of the country’s most innovative lawyers (Financial Times, 2014). Chambers USA reports that “[t]he much-admired John Elwood is praised for his advocacy skills” (2013), and describes Mr. Elwood as “phenomenal” (2014), “incredibly talented” (2012), and “a much-loved and widely respected lawyer who is quick on his feet” (2010).
Before joining the firm, Mr. Elwood served in senior-level positions in the U.S. Department of Justice. Beginning as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and continuing with the firm, he has briefed more than 20 merits cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, and has briefed approximately 135 cases at the certiorari stage. As the senior Deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel, he advised the White House and federal agencies on a range of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory issues.
Attorney, Rathje Woodward LLC
Brian Murray is a first-chair trial and appellate lawyer with a nationwide practice, practicing at Rathje Woodward LLC. A former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, he represents companies and individuals in complex commercial litigation, class actions and civil government enforcement and regulatory matters. In addition, Brian has briefed over a hundred appeals, and has personally argued over 30 of them — including cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, nearly every federal court of appeals, and a number of state supreme and intermediate appellate courts. Brian also served as Deputy to the Associate Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice. In this senior leadership office at the DOJ, Brian counseled Department and executive branch principals and helped formulate policies and strategies for investigating, litigating, and resolving civil regulatory and enforcement matters. Brian relies on his deep experience in guiding his clients through pressing legal challenges.
Brian is routinely called upon to present clients’ most complex and business-critical matters to tribunals nationwide. Notable first-chair jury trial wins include a full defense verdict in a sprawling civil rights class action against the City of Chicago. Key appellate wins include a victory at the Supreme Court that changed the course of CERCLA law, and multiple wins in courts across the country for pharmaceutical companies combatting consumer fraud claims related to drug pricing. Other engagements over the last twenty years have included matters involving environmental, consumer fraud, RICO, antitrust, Title VII, the FAA, and other statutory and common-law claims; enforcement litigation involving the False Claims Act, environmental, and constitutional claims; and other complex civil matters.
Brian has taught Complex Litigation and Class Actions at the University of Chicago Law School for almost a decade. He is a member of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, the Chicago-Lincoln and Robert Jones American Inns of Court, and the Illinois Appellate Lawyers’ Association. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and on PBS’s Chicago Tonight.
Managing Partner, Schiff Hardin LLP
Ronald S. Safer concentrates in white collar criminal defense and also participates in our firm's civil litigation practice.
Mr. Safer, working with Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, obtained a not guilty verdict for the firm's client, Julie Rea Harper. This trial involved the defense of a mother being retried for the murder of her son, even though a convicted felon in another state had confessed to the crime. Mr. Safer and his litigation team successfully discredited the prosecution's case, and her acquittal highlighted the need to reform the special prosecutor system in Illinois. ABC-TV's20/20 broadcast a feature story on this case, spotlighting Mr. Safer, in March 2007.
Mr. Safer has lectured for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on various subjects including the use of RICO, complex financial frauds, and numerous areas of trial practice.
Mr. Safer continues to lecture for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concerning complex investigations.
Mr. Safer was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from 1989 until he rejoined Schiff Hardin in 1999.
As Chief of the Criminal Division at the time he left the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Safer oversaw all financial fraud cases and supervised all 100 Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the division. Earlier, he served as Deputy Chief of the Special Prosecution Section (also overseeing all financial fraud cases) and Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Division.
Mr. Safer successfully prosecuted literally hundreds of defendants during his tenure in the U.S. Attorney's Office, including:
Mr. Safer's role in the Gangster Disciples prosecution was described in a feature story in Newsweek, November 1, 1999. Mr. Safer also is spotlighted in the City Confidential and American Justice television programs produced for the A&E cable television network and on "The Prosecutors" television program produced for theDiscovery Channel.
Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Gil M. Soffer is Co-Chair of the firm's National White Collar Practice. He joined the Firm in August 2000, after six years as a federal prosecutor. Mr. Soffer concentrates his practice in white collar criminal litigation, particularly corporate fraud litigation; corporate investigations; insurance litigation; and anti-fraud counseling and litigation. Mr. Soffer is also involved in a wide range of matters involving reinsurance, health care, and alternative dispute resolution.
In January 2008, Mr. Soffer accepted a position as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General in Washington, D.C., and shortly thereafter was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General. During his year-long term with the Department of Justice, Mr. Soffer advised the Deputy Attorney General on criminal matters at the Department, with particular emphasis on corporate fraud prosecutions. He played an integral role in drafting the Department's Corporate Monitor Principles and Corporate Charging Principles, and provided training on the latter policy to U.S. Attorneys' Offices nationwide. Mr. Soffer also managed the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force and briefed members of Congress about criminal matters within the Department of Justice.
Mr. Soffer had previously served in the Department of Justice when he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office in Chicago (1994 - 2000). In that capacity, he prosecuted a wide range of federal crimes, including bank, mail, wire, tax, and insurance fraud; narcotics and firearms trafficking; bank robbery; embezzlement; and money laundering. In November 1996, Mr. Soffer received the Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from then-Attorney General Janet Reno.
Mr. Soffer graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1986 and earned his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1989. Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Soffer clerked in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois under Judge John A. Nordberg. After his clerkship, Mr. Soffer became an associate with the law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen in San Francisco, where he practiced in the general litigation department.
Mr. Soffer is a member of the American Bar Association and is admitted to practice in Illinois and California. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Law School, where he taught Federal Criminal Prosecution. Mr. Soffer has lectured on subjects ranging from corporate internal investigations to deferred prosecution agreements, appeared regularly as a legal expert on the ABC News Now program Guilt or Innocence, and testified before Congress about the use and selection of corporate monitors in criminal cases.
In December 2009, Mr. Soffer was appointed by Illinois Governor Quinn to serve as a Commissioner on the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission. The nine-member Commission was formed to promote ethics in the executive branch of public service and to ensure that state business is conducted with fairness and integrity. Toward that end, the Commission adjudicates alleged violations of the Illinois Ethics Act and provides guidance to the State's ethics officers.
Former Adjunct Professor of Law; former Special Counsel to the President; former federal prosecutor, Georgetown Law (ret.)
Bill Otis is a former Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University, a one-time federal prosecutor, and a former Special White House Counsel for President George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Stanford Law School, he started his career in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, then became chief of appeals for the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. In the 1980's he served on the Department's "Train the Trainer" team, which taught US Attorneys Offices across the county how to implement the then-new Sentencing Reform Act. He has held several posts in the federal government, including Special Assistant to the Secretary of Energy and Counselor to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, in addition to the White House post. He has testified before Congress on issues in criminal procedure, illegal drugs, the US Sentencing Commission, and the death penalty, and has given numerous media interviews on those and other subjects. He currently teaches a seminar at Georgetown Law titled "Conservatism in Law in America" with his wife, Federalist Society co-founder Lee Liberman Otis.
Gary R. Trombley Family White-Collar Crime Research Professor, Stetson University College of Law
A former deputy prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, Professor Ellen S. Podgor teaches in the areas of white collar crime, criminal law and international criminal law. She has previously taught other courses, such as professional responsibility, criminal procedure, law and sexual orientation seminar, and advocacy. She served as Stetson's inaugural Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Electronic Education and also served as a LeRoy Highbaugh Sr. Research Chair. She is the co-author of numerous books including White Collar Crime in a Nutshell,Understanding International Criminal Law, and Mastering Criminal Law. She has authored more than 50 law review articles and essays in the areas of computer crime, international criminal law, lawyer's ethics, criminal discovery, prosecutorial discretion, corporate criminality, and other white collar crime topics. These have been published in journals such as the Hastings Law Journal, Washington & Lee Law Review, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Yale Law Journal Pocket Part, Washington University Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, U.C. Davis Law Review, American University Law Review, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, American Criminal Law Review, Vanderbilt En Banc, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, and many others.
Podgor has been interviewed on National Public Radio and been quoted in newspapers across the country, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, National Law Journal, Chicago Tribune, andBusiness Week. She is the editor of the highly ranked White Collar Crime Prof Blog. She is the chair of the Advisory Committee of the NACDL White-Collar Criminal Defense College at Stetson.
She has taught at other law schools including Georgia State University College of Law and St. Thomas University College of Law, and been a visiting professor at University of Georgia School of Law, George Washington University Law School and held a visiting endowed chair position at University of Alabama School of Law. She also was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School. Podgor served for six years as a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and presently serves on the board of directors of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL) and the board of trustees for the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS). She is a past chair of the Criminal Justice Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and is an honorary member of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. Professor Podgor is a member of the American Law Institute.
In 2010, Podgor received the Robert C. Heeney Award, the highest honor given by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She is also the recipient of the Dickerson-Brown Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship.
Partner, Arnold & Porter
John Elwood is the head of Arnold & Porter’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice. He has argued before the Supreme Court nine times, and appeared before most of the federal courts of appeals. He has successfully argued cases across a broad cross-section of subjects, with particular experience in environmental law, the False Claims Act, government contracting, and federal criminal law
Mr. Elwood’s work has earned him recognition as one of Washington’s top Supreme Court lawyers (Washingtonian, 2013), as one of “a small group of lawyers” with an “outsized influence at the U.S. Supreme Court” (Reuters, 2014), and as one of the country’s most innovative lawyers (Financial Times, 2014). Chambers USA reports that “[t]he much-admired John Elwood is praised for his advocacy skills” (2013), and describes Mr. Elwood as “phenomenal” (2014), “incredibly talented” (2012), and “a much-loved and widely respected lawyer who is quick on his feet” (2010).
Before joining the firm, Mr. Elwood served in senior-level positions in the U.S. Department of Justice. Beginning as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and continuing with the firm, he has briefed more than 20 merits cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, and has briefed approximately 135 cases at the certiorari stage. As the senior Deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel, he advised the White House and federal agencies on a range of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory issues.
Attorney, Rathje Woodward LLC
Brian Murray is a first-chair trial and appellate lawyer with a nationwide practice, practicing at Rathje Woodward LLC. A former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, he represents companies and individuals in complex commercial litigation, class actions and civil government enforcement and regulatory matters. In addition, Brian has briefed over a hundred appeals, and has personally argued over 30 of them — including cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, nearly every federal court of appeals, and a number of state supreme and intermediate appellate courts. Brian also served as Deputy to the Associate Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice. In this senior leadership office at the DOJ, Brian counseled Department and executive branch principals and helped formulate policies and strategies for investigating, litigating, and resolving civil regulatory and enforcement matters. Brian relies on his deep experience in guiding his clients through pressing legal challenges.
Brian is routinely called upon to present clients’ most complex and business-critical matters to tribunals nationwide. Notable first-chair jury trial wins include a full defense verdict in a sprawling civil rights class action against the City of Chicago. Key appellate wins include a victory at the Supreme Court that changed the course of CERCLA law, and multiple wins in courts across the country for pharmaceutical companies combatting consumer fraud claims related to drug pricing. Other engagements over the last twenty years have included matters involving environmental, consumer fraud, RICO, antitrust, Title VII, the FAA, and other statutory and common-law claims; enforcement litigation involving the False Claims Act, environmental, and constitutional claims; and other complex civil matters.
Brian has taught Complex Litigation and Class Actions at the University of Chicago Law School for almost a decade. He is a member of the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, the Chicago-Lincoln and Robert Jones American Inns of Court, and the Illinois Appellate Lawyers’ Association. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and on PBS’s Chicago Tonight.
Managing Partner, Schiff Hardin LLP
Ronald S. Safer concentrates in white collar criminal defense and also participates in our firm's civil litigation practice.
Mr. Safer, working with Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, obtained a not guilty verdict for the firm's client, Julie Rea Harper. This trial involved the defense of a mother being retried for the murder of her son, even though a convicted felon in another state had confessed to the crime. Mr. Safer and his litigation team successfully discredited the prosecution's case, and her acquittal highlighted the need to reform the special prosecutor system in Illinois. ABC-TV's20/20 broadcast a feature story on this case, spotlighting Mr. Safer, in March 2007.
Mr. Safer has lectured for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on various subjects including the use of RICO, complex financial frauds, and numerous areas of trial practice.
Mr. Safer continues to lecture for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concerning complex investigations.
Mr. Safer was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from 1989 until he rejoined Schiff Hardin in 1999.
As Chief of the Criminal Division at the time he left the U.S. Attorney's Office, Mr. Safer oversaw all financial fraud cases and supervised all 100 Assistant U.S. Attorneys in the division. Earlier, he served as Deputy Chief of the Special Prosecution Section (also overseeing all financial fraud cases) and Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Division.
Mr. Safer successfully prosecuted literally hundreds of defendants during his tenure in the U.S. Attorney's Office, including:
Mr. Safer's role in the Gangster Disciples prosecution was described in a feature story in Newsweek, November 1, 1999. Mr. Safer also is spotlighted in the City Confidential and American Justice television programs produced for the A&E cable television network and on "The Prosecutors" television program produced for theDiscovery Channel.
Partner, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Gil M. Soffer is Co-Chair of the firm's National White Collar Practice. He joined the Firm in August 2000, after six years as a federal prosecutor. Mr. Soffer concentrates his practice in white collar criminal litigation, particularly corporate fraud litigation; corporate investigations; insurance litigation; and anti-fraud counseling and litigation. Mr. Soffer is also involved in a wide range of matters involving reinsurance, health care, and alternative dispute resolution.
In January 2008, Mr. Soffer accepted a position as Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General in Washington, D.C., and shortly thereafter was appointed Associate Deputy Attorney General. During his year-long term with the Department of Justice, Mr. Soffer advised the Deputy Attorney General on criminal matters at the Department, with particular emphasis on corporate fraud prosecutions. He played an integral role in drafting the Department's Corporate Monitor Principles and Corporate Charging Principles, and provided training on the latter policy to U.S. Attorneys' Offices nationwide. Mr. Soffer also managed the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force and briefed members of Congress about criminal matters within the Department of Justice.
Mr. Soffer had previously served in the Department of Justice when he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office in Chicago (1994 - 2000). In that capacity, he prosecuted a wide range of federal crimes, including bank, mail, wire, tax, and insurance fraud; narcotics and firearms trafficking; bank robbery; embezzlement; and money laundering. In November 1996, Mr. Soffer received the Director's Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from then-Attorney General Janet Reno.
Mr. Soffer graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1986 and earned his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1989. Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Soffer clerked in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois under Judge John A. Nordberg. After his clerkship, Mr. Soffer became an associate with the law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen in San Francisco, where he practiced in the general litigation department.
Mr. Soffer is a member of the American Bar Association and is admitted to practice in Illinois and California. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Law School, where he taught Federal Criminal Prosecution. Mr. Soffer has lectured on subjects ranging from corporate internal investigations to deferred prosecution agreements, appeared regularly as a legal expert on the ABC News Now program Guilt or Innocence, and testified before Congress about the use and selection of corporate monitors in criminal cases.
In December 2009, Mr. Soffer was appointed by Illinois Governor Quinn to serve as a Commissioner on the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission. The nine-member Commission was formed to promote ethics in the executive branch of public service and to ensure that state business is conducted with fairness and integrity. Toward that end, the Commission adjudicates alleged violations of the Illinois Ethics Act and provides guidance to the State's ethics officers.
Is American Justice Blind, Or Blind To A "Prosecutocracy"? - Podcast
Conrad Lord Black, William G. Otis, Ellen S. Podgor, Dean Reuter
Federal convict Conrad Lord Black argued at National Review Online last fall in "Blind Justice" that America's...
Is American Justice Blind, Or Blind To A "Prosecutocracy"?
Honest Services Fraud: What's Left?
John P. Elwood, Brian J. Murray, Ronald S. Safer, Gil Soffer
Last year, in its "Honest Services Cases" the Supreme Court purported to confine the statute...
Honest Services Fraud: What's Left?
Chicago Lawyers Chapter and Criminal Law & Procedure Practice Group
Chicago, IL