Joshua Wright Sworn in as FTC Commissioner

This posting was written by CCH Trade Regulation staff.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz welcomed Joshua D. Wright as an FTC Commissioner at a swearing-in ceremony January 11. President Obama named Wright, a Republican, to a term that ends on September 25, 2019. He was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 1, 2013, and will replace J. Thomas Rosch, who served as a Commissioner beginning in January 2006.

Before joining the FTC, Wright was a Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law. Wright previously served as the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the FTC Bureau of Competition, from January 2007 to July 2008. Prior to GMU, Wright taught at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy and clerked for Judge James V. Selna of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

He received a B.A. in Economics at the University of California, San Diego and a J.D. and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was Managing Editor of the UCLA Law Review. According to Truth on the Market blog, Wright would be the first J.D./Ph.D. to serve as an FTC Commissioner and only the fourth economist.

Ohlhausen to Be Nominated as FTC Commissioner

This posting was written by the CCH Trade Regulation editorial staff.

Maureen K. Ohlhausen, a Washington, D.C. attorney and former Federal Trade Commission staffer, will be nominated as FTC Commissioner, according to a White House statement issued yesterday.

Ohlhausen would fill the position held by Commissioner William E. Kovacic, whose term on the FTC expires in September.

She is currently a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP, in the firm’s privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity practice.

From 1997 to 2008, Ohlhausen served in a number of leadership roles at the FTC, including as Director of the Office of Policy Planning and, earlier, as an attorney advisor for Commissioner Orson Swindle.

A graduate of University of Virginia and George Mason University School of Law, Ohlhausen is a senior editor of the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Journal. She has taught privacy law and unfair trade practices as an adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law.

Text of the announcement appears here at the White House website.