Administration Reportedly Considering Two for FTC Vacancies

This posting was written by John W. Arden.

The Obama Administration is considering two candidates for open positions on the Federal Trade Commission, according to a story published by Reuters on September 3.

There has been an open position on the Commission for the last 18 months—since Deborah Platt Majoras resigned in March 2008. The term of Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour expires this month. She is not expected to be nominated for another term.

The two candidates reportedly under consideration are Julie Brill, Senior Deputy Attorney General and Chief of Consumer Protection for North Carolina, and Edith Ramirez, a partner with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP, a 400-plus lawyer firm based in Los Angeles.

Brill, a graduate of Princeton University and New York University School of Law, previously served as Assistant Attorney General of the Consumer Protection Division of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. She has received several honors in her government service, including Privacy International’s 2001 Brandeis Award for work on privacy issues and the 1995 National Association of Attorneys General Marvin Award for leadership in advancing the goals of the organization. Brill is a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School.

Ramirez is a graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School, where she worked on the Harvard Law Review with President Barack Obama. In her law practice, she has handled a broad range of complex business litigation, including matters involving copyright and trademark infringement, antitrust, and unfair competition. She served in the Obama presidential campaign as Director of Latino Outreach in California.

The Federal Trade Commission is headed by five Commissioners, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, each serving a seven-year term. No more than three Commissioners can be of the same political party. Currently, the Commission is chaired by Democrat Jon Leibowitz. The other members are Commissioner Jones Harbour, an Independent, and Republicans William E. Kovacic and J. Thomas Rosch.

The Reuters story appears here.