Connecticut U.S. Attorney David Fein announced several staff changes on Thursday, saying that “certain changes were necessitated by the departure of Nora Dannehy.” Dannehy, who had been serving as the district’s chief of the Financial Fraud and Public Corruption Unit, was named Connecticut’s Deputy Attorney General in December.

Eric J. Glover was named chief of the fraud and corruption unit. Glover has been a federal prosecutor since 1998, first serving in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Unit.  He has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in  Connecticut since 2002, most recently serving as deputy chief of the fraud and corruption unit.

Richard J. Schechter was named deputy chief of the fraud and corruption unit.  Schechter has served as a senior litigation counsel in the District of Connecticut since 2005.  Prior to his time in Connecticut, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey for approximately 18 years.

Robert M. Spector has been named deputy chief of the District of Connecticut’s Appellate Unit.  Spector has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney for about nine years, most recently serving as deputy chief of the Violent Crimes and Narcotics Unit and as Project Safe Neighborhoods coordinator.

S. Dave Vatti will succeed Spector as deputy chief of the Violent Crimes and Narcotics Unit and Project Safe Neighborhoods coordinator.  Vatti has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District for approximately seven years, primarily as a member of the office’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force,  which pursues major drug-trafficking operations.

Nora Dannehy (DOJ)

Connecticut Attorney General-elect George Jepsen on Friday announced that Nora R. Dannehy will serve as his deputy, the Hartford Courant reported.

Dannehy has been a prosecutor since 1991, specializing in white collar and public corruption cases. In April 2008, Dannehy was named acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, the first woman to hold the job. In September 2008 she was named by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the firings of U.S. Attorneys.

Dannehy was under consideration to be nominated as the district’s U.S. Attorney. However, David B. Fein received the nod.

Since Fein took over the office last summer, Dannehy has headed a new financial fraud and public corruption unit in the office.

The Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office has a restructured Criminal Division, the state’s top federal prosecutor announced Tuesday.

David Fein (DOJ)

The work of the Criminal Division is no longer divided by geographical jurisdictions, but is now split up by case type. The Criminal Division now has units for national security and major crimes, violent crimes and narcotics and financial fraud and public corruption.

“I believe these structural changes will allow the District’s criminal prosecutors to be as productive and successful as possible, broadening and deepening our ability to investigate and prosecute important matters,� Connecticut U.S. Attorney David Fein said in a statement.

Fein also named prosecutors to lead the new units. They are:

• National Security and Major Crimes Unit
  • Chief: Raymond F. Miller
  • Deputy Chief: Stephen B. Reynolds
• Violent Crimes and Narcotics Unit
  • Chief: Tracy L. Dayton
  • Deputy Chief: Peter D. Markle
  • Deputy Chief: Robert M. Spector
• Financial Fraud and Public Corruption Unit
  • Chief: Nora R. Dannehy
  • Deputy Chief: Eric J. Glover

The U.S. Attorney also announced that Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony E. Kaplan will be Senior Litigation Counsel.

Read our previous story about senior leaders in his office here.

Connecticut U.S. Attorney David Fein announced several changes in his office’s leadership on Monday.

They are:

• Deirdre Daly

• New post: Deputy U.S. Attorney

• Old post: Partner at the Southport, Conn., law firm of Daly & Pavlis LLC, specializing in white collar cases. She also spent 12 years as a Southern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorney.

• Nora Dannehy

• New post: Financial Fraud and Public Corruption Unit Chief. The unit is new.

• Old post: Deputy U.S. Attorney. She also served as acting U.S. Attorney from 2008 to 2010.

• Michael Gustafson

• New post: Criminal Division Chief

• Old post: Hartford, Conn., branch office Supervisor

• Peter Jongbloed

• New post: Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney

• Old post: Criminal Division Chief

• Sandra Glover

• New post: Appeals Chief

• Old post: Appeals Deputy Chief

The U.S. Attorney also said William Nardini, who was the Appeals Chief, will serve as the Justice Department Attaché at the U.S. embassy in Rome for two years.

Please send news of moves, promotions and honors to personnelchanges@mainjustice.com.

The Senate confirmed two U.S. Attorneys by voice vote Wednesday night.

Zane D. Memeger (Morgan Lewis)

They are:

Zane D. Memeger (Eastern District of Pennsylvania): The partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney was nominated April 14. He will succeed Pat Meehan, who resigned as U.S. Attorney in 2008. Read more about Memeger here.

David Fein (Wiggin and Dana)

David Fein (Connecticut): The partner at Wiggin and Dana LLP was nominated Feb. 4. He is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and was an associate White House counsel to President Bill Clinton. He will replace acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, who herself was a candidate for the presidential nomination. Read more about Fein here.

The Senate has now confirmed 47 U.S. Attorneys selected by President Barack Obama. The body has yet to consider another 19 would-be U.S. Attorneys who are waiting for votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved two U.S. Attorney nominees by voice vote at its meeting Thursday.

Zane D. Memeger (Morgan Lewis)

They are:

Zane D. Memeger (Eastern District of Pennsylvania): The partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney was nominated April 14. He would succeed Pat Meehan, who resigned as U.S. Attorney in 2008. Read more about Memeger here.

David Fein (Wiggin and Dana)

David Fein (Connecticut): The partner at Wiggin and Dana was nominated Feb. 4. He is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and was an associate White House counsel to President Bill Clinton. He would replace acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, who herself was a candidate for the presidential nomination. Read more about Fein here.

The committee has now approved 47 of President Barack Obama’s U.S. Attorney nominees, 41 of whom have won Senate confirmation. The panel has yet to schedule votes for another 19 would-be U.S. Attorneys.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the Connecticut U.S. Attorney nominee at its next meeting April 29.

David Fein (Wiggin and Dana)

David Fein, who was nominated Feb. 4, is a partner at Wiggin and Dana. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York from 1989 to 1995, serving as deputy chief of the criminal division and counsel to the U.S. Attorney during his tenure at the Manhattan-based office. He also was an associate White House counsel to President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1996.

He would replace acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, who herself was a candidate for the presidential nomination. Read more about Fein here.

The committee has yet to schedule votes for another 19 would-be U.S. Attorneys. The panel has endorsed 45 of President Barack Obama’s U.S. Attorney nominees, 41 of whom have won Senate confirmation.

A former interim U.S. Attorney for Connecticut was nominated Wednesday to fill a vacant seat on the state’s Superior Court.

John A. Danaher III (Gov)

Gov. M. Jodi Rell nominated former interim U.S. Attorney John A. Danaher III along with nine other candidates.

Danaher led the New Haven, Conn.-based U.S. Attorney’s office as its interim chief from May 2001 to November 2002. He joined the office in 1986 and worked there until 2007, when he became Rell’s public safety commissioner.

The nominations may lead to fight between the governor and the legislature, the Connecticut Mirror reported. Although the court currently has 20 open spots, court officials and some legislators had asked the governor not to nominate candidates for the seat because of a budget crunch.

Rell’s office didn’t have an immediate comment for the Mirror. But in a news release announcing the nominations, Rell said the positions needed to be filled to ensure continued efficient service in the courts.

David Fein (Wiggin and Dana LLP)

David Fein (Dartmouth College, New York University School of Law) is nominated to be U.S. Attorney for Connecticut. He would replace Kevin O’Connor, who was the district’s U.S. Attorney from 2002 to 2006. O’Connor resigned in order to become Associate Deputy Attorney General. The district’s current acting U.S. Attorney is Nora Dannehy.

His vitals:

• Born in New York, N.Y., in 1960.
• Has been a partner at Wiggin and Dana LLP in Stamford, Conn., since 1997.
• Has been a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School in New Haven, Conn., since 1999.
• Was Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton in Washington, D.C., from 1995 to 1996.
• Worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1989 to 1995. Also served as deputy chief of the narcotics unit from 1992 to 1993, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division from 1993 to 1994 and counsel to the U.S. Attorney from 1994 to 1995.
• Was an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York, N.Y., from 1986 to 1989.
• Clerked for The Honorable Frank M. Coffin in Portland, Maine from 1985 to 1986.
• Was a summer associate at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Southern District of New York in 1985.
• Was a summer associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York, N.Y., in 1984.
• Was a summer associate at Rosenman & Colin (now Katten Muchin Rosenman) in New York, N.Y., in 1983.
• Was a visiting lecturer at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford, Conn., from 1997 to 1998.
• Has tried approximately 15 cases tried to verdict, of which he was chief counsel in approximately 10.

Click here for his full Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

On his Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure Fein reported earning $1.8 million from Wiggin and Dana in 2009 in distribution and bonuses.

UPDATE: On his Senate Judiciary financial disclosure Fein reported assets valued at $4.5 million, mostly from his $2.8 million personal residence, and $978,000 in liabilities, mostly from a mortgage on the property, for a net worth of $3.6 million.

The White House decided today not to name the Connecticut acting U.S. Attorney as its nominee to lead the state’s U.S. Attorney’s office.

David Fein (Wiggin and Dana)

Nora Dannehy (DOJ)

Instead President Obama tapped Stamford, Conn., lawyer David Fein, a partner at Wiggin and Dana, to be the state’s top federal prosecutor. He would replace acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, who has led the office since Kevin O’Connor resigned in 2006.

Dannehy was among the finalists recommended for Connecticut U.S. Attorney by Nutmeg State Sens. Christopher Dodd (D) and Joseph Lieberman (I) in September.

The senators had also recommended Edgardo Ramos, a partner at the law firm Day Pitney and former federal prosecutor in New York’s Eastern District; and William Tong, an associate with the law firm Finn, Dixon & Herling and a state representative who serves on the legislature’s Judiciary Committee.

Fein, like Dannehy, has prosecutorial experience. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for Southern District of New York from 1989 to 1995, serving as deputy chief of the criminal division and counsel to the U.S. Attorney during his tenure at the Manhattan-based office. He also was an associate White House counsel to President Clinton from 1995 to 1996. Read more about Fein here.

Dannehy in September 2008 was named by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the firings of U.S. Attorneys, which many critics charged were inappropriate and politically motivated.

According to the Washington Post, Dannehy obtained documents and conducted interviews of key individuals involved. She questioned former Bush White House senior aide Karl Rove in May. She also talked with former White House political director Sara Taylor and deputy director of political affairs Scott Jennings, The Post said.

In addition, the Post reported she had contacted advisers to former-Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who improperly called then-New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias, urging him to quickly push through Democratic corruption cases in New Mexico. A month after Iglesias refused the request, he was purged by the Bush administration.

There has been no public announcement about results of the investigation.