dig on scott schools

>>2013273

Working behind the scenes, South Carolina native Scott Schools is helping Justice Department navigate challenging times

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/working-behind-the-scenes-south-carolina-native-scott-schools-is/article_e658be28-68a1-11e7-b87c-63db6511a204.html

WASHINGTON — There are plenty of South Carolinians doing important things in the nation's capital, but veterans of the state’s legal community are keeping their eyes on one native son in particular: Scott Schools, the highest ranking career attorney inside the Department of Justice.

As one of a handful of associate deputy attorneys general, Schools, 55, is responsible for handling some of the most sensitive ethical and disciplinary matters at Justice.

He was hired in October by Sally Yates, President Barack Obama’s deputy attorney general who was dismissed early in President Donald Trump’s administration.

Only in the past few months has the scope and scale of Schools’s influence come into focus. The 30-year veteran lawyer is helping the DOJ navigate unprecedented political minefields that could undermine the agency’s integrity at a critical moment in time.

He could also be on the verge of having an even higher profile assignment than he did in 2007, when as interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California he slapped baseball legend Barry Bonds with a four-count indictment in connection to a mass steroids conspiracy.

Ask old colleagues and associates from back home in Charleston about Schools and they’ll describe him as trustworthy, reliable, hardworking and above all else a terrific lawyer — a “lawyer’s lawyer,” in the words of Bart Daniel, a Charleston attorney who gave Schools his first big break.

"The Department of Justice, and frankly our country, is very fortunate to have him the role that he’s in because he is in for the right reasons," said Brady Hair, city attorney for North Charleston. "And not many people can say that."

>>2013304

=more on scott schools==

Associate Deputy Attorney General

U.S. Department of Justice

October 2016 – July 3, 2018 (1 year 10 months)Washington, DC

Moore and Van Allen, PLLC

August 2013 – October 2016 (3 years 3 months)Charleston, SC

Member of the litigation team specializing in white collar criminal defense, health care, government investigation, and financial fraud defense.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-schools-03090b8

Hundreds of Justice Department Attorneys Violated Professional Rules, Laws, or Ethical Standards

Administration Won’t Name Offending Prosecutors

article from March 13, 2014

http://www.pogo.org/our-work/reports/2014/hundreds-of-justice-attorneys-violated-standards.html

At least one DOJ official has expressed doubt about the degree of accountability when OPR does find there has been misconduct. Scott N. Schools, then an Associate Deputy Attorney General who had supervisory responsibility over OPR,[12] was described in a federal ruling last year as having testified that the Department had been too soft on offenders. Merit Systems Protection Board Administrative Judge Benjamin Gutman wrote that Schools had indicated “he had long believed that the agency was being too lenient in disciplining attorneys for professional misconduct.”[13]

Despite that testimony, in an email to POGO, Schools said, “I think that the Department presently is doing an effective job of holding prosecutors accountable for alleged misconduct.”[14]

Contrary to the views of some critics, Schools argued that OPR might be more prone to finding violations of ethical standards than state bar authorities. “When OPR investigates a Department attorney, it applies a lower standard of proof (preponderance of the evidence) than most state bar associations (clear and convincing evidence),” he wrote. “So in that sense, the Department has decided to hold its attorneys to a higher standard than the professional licensing bodies,” he added.[15]

>>2013547