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.

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.

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.

One of the candidates to be the next U.S. Attorney in Connecticut wouldn’t have been a U.S. citizen at birth if it weren’t for the intercession of the Justice Department years ago, the Connecticut Post reported yesterday.

William Tong (Finn Dixon & Herling)

William Tong, who is one of four candidates for the post, which is filled by presidential appointment, was born in the United States because DOJ stopped the deportation of his parents to China, according to the newspaper. His father sent a last-minute, handwritten appeal to President Richard Nixon that DOJ accepted a few years before Tong was born, the Post said.

“The Department of Justice is why I’m here today, and it’s the reason why I was born an American and why I was born in Hartford, Connecticut,” Tong, a state representative and an associate at Stamford, Conn., law firm Finn Dixon & Herling, told the Post about the fortunate developments that shaped his life.

The U.S. Attorney candidate has the backing of Connecticut police and fire unions, the newspaper said. State lawmakers also praised Tong in Post interviews about his work on gun legislation.

Sens. Christopher Dodd (D) and Joseph Lieberman (I) recommended in September that President Barack Obama nominate either Tong, Connecticut’s Acting U.S. Attorney, Nora Dannehy, lawyer David Fein or lawyer Edgardo Ramos to become the next Connecticut U.S. Attorney.

“That was an amazing act of kindness and generosity, and to have the opportunity to serve the Department of Justice and our country as a U.S. Attorney would be an equally personal honor for me,” Tong told the newspaper.

 

Nora Dannehy (doj)

Connecticut’s two senators have recommended four U.S. attorney candidates to the White House, including Nora Dannehy, the prosecutor investigating the U.S. Attorney firings.  The Hartford Courant has the story.

Edgardo Ramos (Day Pitney)

A 1986 graduate of Harvard Law School, 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 — following the resignation of Kevin O’Connor, who went on to become associate attorney general, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department. Then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed Dannehy in September 2008 to investigate the U.S. attorney firings.

David Fein (Wiggin & Dana)

The other finalists include David Fein, partner in the law firm Wiggin & Dana, a former associate counsel to President Bill Clinton and a former federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District; Edgardo Ramos, partner in 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.

According to the Courant, Sens. Christopher Dodd (D) and Joseph Lieberman (I) sent the names to Obama in a letter to the White House Thursday.