In yet another extraordinary development, the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys has issued a public letter to Mike Nifong, demanding that he recuse himself from the lacrosse case:

It is in the interest of justice and the effective administration of criminal justice that Mr. Nifong immediately withdraw and recuse himself from the prosecution of these cases and request the cases be assigned to another prosecutorial authority.

I am unware of any such document, in any state, issued to a district attorney prosecuting a case by his fellow chief prosecutors. The symbolism of this move is obvious: the state's elected District Attorneys have issued a public statement of no confidence in Mike Nifong.

Thomas C. Clark of New York City and Litchfield County, Conn., Robin A. Ferracone of Los Angeles, Kenneth W. Hubbard of Greenwich, Conn., David M. Rubenstein of Washington, D.C., Robert S. Saunders Jr. of Durham, Alan D. Schwartz of Greenwich, Conn., and Anthony Vitarelli of Marlton, N.J., began their terms on the 37-member governing body on July 1.

"Our new trustees bring valuable experience from the business world and a commitment to Duke University ," Steel said. "As the trustees work with the faculty and the administration to help Duke achieve its aspirations in the university's long-range strategic academic plan, ‘Building on Excellence,' we firmly believe that the counsel and insight of our new trustees will prove invaluable."

Clark, a 1969 graduate of Duke, is division president and managing director of U.S. Trust Company, N.A. He joined U.S. Trust in New York City in 1978 and has held a variety of positions there.

Clark, president-elect of the Duke University Alumni Association, has been active in the banking industry. He was founding chairman of the Private Lending Roundtable of the Risk Management Association and chair of the private banking division of the American Bankers Association. He has served as chair and board member of several not-for-profit organizations in the New York City area and nationally. 

While a Duke undergraduate, he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar, a Navy Scholar, a varsity swimmer and president of the Glee Club. Clark has served in many volunteer roles for the university, including as president of the Duke Club of New York . 

Ferracone, a 1975 graduate of Duke, is a worldwide partner at Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. At Mercer, she leads the Human Capital Advisory and Information business. She was formerly the chairman and co-founder of SCA Consulting, which was acquired by Mercer in October 2001.

Ferracone has more than 25 years of consulting experience in such areas as value management, performance measurement, workforce strategies and compensation design. She has authored numerous articles, is quoted frequently by the media and is a frequent presenter for organizations that include The Conference Board and the CFO Business Week Forum. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on presidential compensation.

At Duke, Ferracone has served on the university's Trinity College Board of Visitors since 2001 and was a member of the Regional Campaign Council from 1999-2004.

Hubbard, a 1965 graduate of Duke, is an executive vice president of Hines, an international real estate company. He joined the firm in 1974 in Houston and is responsible for the acquisition, development and management of commercial and mixed-use projects in the northeastern United States .

Hubbard has served Duke in many volunteer leadership roles, including the university's Trinity College Board of Visitors from 1994 to 2000 (chair 1999-2000) and the Arts & Sciences Campaign Committee from 2000-04.

Hubbard is a trustee of the Urban Land Institute, a member of the National Real Estate Advisory Council of the Trust for PublicLand, and a board member of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute. He formerly served as a trustee of the Greenwich Country Day School (1985-1991) and the Loomis Chaffee School (1994-97).

Rubenstein, a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke, is a founding partner and managing director of The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm.

He served as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments in 1975-76. From 1977-1981, during the Carter Administration, Rubenstein was deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. He has also practiced law in New York and Washington , D.C.

Rubenstein is a board member of the Institute for International Economics, Freedom House, Johns Hopkins University , the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, several performing arts groups, the visiting committee of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Advisory Committee of J.P. Morgan Chase.

Saunders, a 2000 summa cum laude graduate from the College of William and Mary, is pursuing a PhD. in physics at Duke.

At Duke, Saunders has been active in several student activities. He has served two terms as president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council. During his tenure, he sponsored a Graduate and Professional Student Life Task Force to examine the student life issues facing graduate and professional students. He also has focused on student health care, serving on the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee for five years, participating in the Student Health Advisory Committee, and researching the student health models from other peer institutions.

Saunders is currently finishing his dissertation examining image quality metrology for medical imaging devices. After graduation, he intends to explore a career in science policy.

Schwartz, a 1972 graduate of Duke, is president and co-chief operating officer of The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., one of the leading worldwide investment banking and securities trading and brokerage firms. He is a member of the firm's executive committee and sits on the board of directors. In addition to his firm-wide responsibilities, including involvement in corporate strategy, Schwartz is the firm's senior investment banker. 

At Duke, Schwartz is the former chairman of the Fuqua School of Business's Board of Visitors and serves on its Athletic Advisory Board. He has served on Fuqua's board since 1986.

Active in numerous professional and civic organizations, Schwartz serves on the boards of directors of American Foundation for AIDS Research, St. Vincent's Services, NYU Medical Center , The National Mentoring Partnership, NYC Partnership and Robin Hood Foundation.

Vitarelli graduated summa cum laude from Duke in May with a bachelor of arts degree in public policy and economics. For the past two years, he has served as president of Campus Council, Duke's residential student governance organization. He also co-founded the Duke University Greening Initiative -- an interdisciplinary sustainability advocacy organization that raised more than $300,000 and helped shape Duke's environmental policies.

In 2004, Vitarelli was awarded a Truman Scholarship for his leadership, dedication to public service and academic promise.

Vitarelli will spend this fall working for a small microfinance non-profit organization in Santiago , Chile , that helps entrepreneurs start small businesses. He will then transfer to Washington , D.C. , for the spring to work at the Chilean Embassy. He has deferred admission from Yale Law School and will enroll in the fall of 2006.

We reported in an article on the Duke case:

"First the North Carolina Bar Association filed an unprecedented 17 page complaint against Nifong charging him with multiple violations of the rules of ethics"

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We wish to make it clear, that the complaint was filed , not by the voluntary bar association of North Carolna, but by the mandatory state bar association which has authority to determine fitness to practice law and ethics questions.The mandatory state bar's name is the North Carolina  State Bar.

We regret any confusion.