Attorney General Miyares appoints LA-based law firm as special counsel to review UVA shooting

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced on Thursday that he has appointed the Los Angeles-based law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP to conduct the external review of last month’s shooting at the University of Virginia that killed three of the school’s football players and injured two other students.

According to a statement released by the Attorney General’s Office on Dec. 8, William Burck and Crystal Nix-Hines of the Crisis Law and Strategy Group at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan will lead the review of the tragic events that occurred on UVA’s campus during the night of Sunday, Nov. 13.

Earlier on the same day, Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., the UVA student accused of committing the deadly shooting, made his first in-person appearance in court. Jones, 23, was led into the courtroom by deputies who stood in front of him, blocking him from the view of the rest of the room. He faces three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony in connection to the killing of Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler. He also faces two counts of malicious wounding and firearm charges in connection to injuring two other students, Marlee Morgan and Michael Hollins.

On Nov. 17, UVA President Jim Ryan and University Rector Whitt Clement formally submitted a request to the Attorney General to appoint a special counsel to conduct an independent investigation of the shooting. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan’s investigation will include a rigorous examination and analysis of UVA’s actions before, during and after the shooting.

Additionally, Miyares’ office confirmed that former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Zachary Terwilliger, has been appointed as a special counsel for matters related to federal, state and local law enforcement issues surrounding the shooting.

“I have full confidence that Mr. Burck, Ms. Nix-Hines, and Mr. Terwilliger will conduct the thorough and professional external review requested by the University of Virginia,” Miyares said in his office’s statement. “Understandably, there are many questions about the events that led to the tragedy at University of Virginia. At the appropriate time, a report will be released to the public to help answer those questions.”

Burck, a graduate of Yale Law School, has clerked on the Supreme Court for Justice Anthony Kennedy. Nix-Hines is a graduate of Harvard Law School and has clerked on the Supreme Court for Justice Thurgood Marshall and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She is also a former ambassador to UNESCO and has served on the Princeton University Board of Trustees. Terwilliger, a graduate of UVA and the William & Mary School of Law, has worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Associate Deputy Attorney General and as the Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/attorney-general-miyares-appoints-la-based-law-firm-as-special-counsel-to-review-uva-shooting/