Current Assistant U.S. Attorneys Have the Privilege to Represent the United States

The following is an excerpt of remarks given by Tim Heaphy at the Assistant United States Attorneys Association for the District of Columbia gala on November 6, 2025, as he accepted the Robert A. Shuker Memorial Award. We are publishing his remarks with his permission:

When I was a young AUSA (Assistant U.S. Attorney), I used to come to this dinner, not just for the buffet, but because I always left feeling like I was part of something larger.

This isn’t just a job, this is a mission, this is a calling. This is something that has a significance beyond what other lawyers do down the street.

I’d come out of here every year at the end of the dinner, just fired up and charged up about the privilege that I had to be part of that legacy. So for me tonight, to have a chance to help people feel that way, that might be the best part of all of this.

So let’s talk a little bit about values. I’m going to tell you a little bit about the people that shaped my values when I was an AUSA.

I started in this office on April 25, 1994. Eric Holder was the U.S. Attorney who hired me, and after the swearing in, we went into his office, and he said, “I don’t have a long list of rules for you. I don’t have 25 things that you have to keep in mind. One rule that you have to keep in mind at all times: Do the right thing.”

Lots of you have said that tonight, which I really appreciate. That’s been passed along and inculcated in the values of this place.

He said, “Look, that may not always be the most prosecutorial or aggressive thing. That might mean that you disappoint people. That might mean that you are unpopular. But I hired you because I trust that you have an innate sense of what’s fair and what’s just and what’s right. You’re gonna have immense discretion. Do the right thing. That is the most important thing that I will ever say to you.”

He was right, and many times over the course of my time in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and over the course of other things that I’ve done as a lawyer, I’ve always come back to that. You’ve got to have this moral compass about what is or isn’t fair, what is or isn’t just, what is or isn’t right. I give that same speech to every lawyer I’ve ever hired myself in subsequent jobs.

Some years later, about 15 years later, I was really fortunate to have a chance to run a U.S. Attorney’s office, to be a U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Virginia, where I had moved and had been an AUSA. Eric was now the Attorney General of the United States, and he arranged for about 50 of us who had been confirmed to go to the White House to meet with President Obama. About 50 of us were in the east room of the White House, and we were standing on these risers, and President Obama came in with Eric Holder on one side, and Kathy Ruemmler on the other side (Kathy Ruemmler, an alum of this office, was White House Counsel).

President Obama said, “You’re not my lawyer. I don’t want any of you to think for a minute when you are making decisions in your district, what’s best for Obama, what’s best for this administration.” He said, “You were hired because you are uniquely familiar with the unique needs of your district, and you should at all times be guided by what’s best for the people of your district. You’re not my lawyer.”

When I left that room, I didn’t think that was a big deal. I didn’t think that that was some earth-shattering advice. That, to me, was the same advice that I would have gotten from President Bush or President Reagan, President Clinton, or anyone. That was just sort of what I expected would be my role as U.S. Attorney. I was pleased to get that direction from him, but it didn’t strike me as unusual.

Because that was the value of the Department of Justice, the value of this office: Doing the right thing, and being guided by the facts and the law and nothing else. That is what has marked this place and made this place great forever, regardless of political change or of who is standing in front of a podium. It’s shaped everything that I have done since the time that I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

I want to give that same advice to the current AUSAs. I know a lot of you are here, and if I could just talk to you, I would say you’re so fortunate that you get to stand up every day in court and say that you’re here for the United States. I’ve heard a lot of talk tonight about how hard that is, and it is hard, but it is a privilege.

You’re really lucky that you get a chance to represent something as high minded as the cause of justice. I don’t do that anymore. I’m a lawyer in private practice, and I do what a client wants me to do to try to get a good, just, but good outcome for them. You represent a virtue, the United States.

You don’t represent a president, you don’t represent an attorney general, you don’t represent the U.S. Attorney – you represent the cause of justice and that is a privilege, but that’s also a responsibility.

When you stand up in court, judges give you a lot of credit because you inherit this legacy of people that for years have done that, have done justice, have done the right thing. I’ve represented the people of the United States. You benefit from what has come before you, this legacy of excellence, of integrity that people have built up.

But it also comes with a responsibility to maintain that. It’s in your hands now. You’re the ones that are standing up in front of those judges, we are not. You have to at all times be mindful of that legacy and be sure that you represent the United States. You have to adhere to that standard and keep that core interest in mind.

It’s hard. There are late nights, you’ve heard again and again about all the challenges, and you know that, but keep in mind that you’re lucky. I miss it. It’s a privilege to do what you do.

As I finish, the reason this place is so good is because certain things don’t change. I worked for four different U.S. Attorneys, and under several different presidents, but certain things remained the same: Fidelity to purpose, doing the right thing, following the facts of the law.

Everything changes. Personnel changes. Somebody else will be standing here next year, and somebody else will someday be out in this audience. But certain things shouldn’t change, and that is fidelity to those core principles.

I encourage all of you who are still in the office: Be stewards of this legacy, of this really important brass ring that you hold representing the United States. Do the right thing at all times. Make sure that you make decisions that are based on the facts and on the law for no reason other than that they’re right and that they’re fair.

Appreciate the opportunity that you have – because I really appreciated the opportunity that I had.

Thank you very much.

Tim Heaphy served as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia from 2009-2014. Before that he served for 12 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in both the District of Columbia and the Western District of Virginia. He is currently a partner at Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.