The Senate this week gave the Federal Trade Commission a full complement of commissioners with the confirmation of Julie Brill, a veteran consumer protection attorney, and Edith Ramirez, an intellectual property litigator.
Brill, who is considered a very pro-consumer appointee by various consumer advocacy groups, was Vermont’s assistant attorney general for consumer protection and antitrust for more than 20 years, and currently serves as senior deputy attorney general and chief of consumer protection and antitrust in the North Carolina Department of Justice.
She has testified before Congress, published numerous articles, and served on many national expert panels focused on consumer protection issues such as pharmaceuticals, privacy, credit reporting, security breaches, and tobacco. Brill has also been a vice-chair of the Consumer Protection Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association since 2004. She graduated from New York University School of Law, where she had a Root-Tilden Scholarship for her commitment to public service.
Ramirez joins the FTC from the Los Angeles office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, where she was a partner handling a broad range of complex business litigation matters, including actions involving copyright and trademark infringement, antitrust and unfair competition claims. She also has counseled and represented Latin promotion and production companies in the Spanish language music and entertainment industry in a variety of litigation matters.
A graduate of Harvard Law school, Ramirez has represented Mattel, American Broadcasting Companies, The Walt Disney Company, Izumi Products, and Seiko Epson Corporation in intellectual property matters, and Hauser-CIE Entertainment, Univision, and Ventura Productions in the field of Latin media and entertainment.
Ramirez will serve a term expiring Sept. 26, 2015. Brill’s term will expire Sept. 26, 2016.
The FTC had one vacancy, and Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour, whose term expired in September, is leaving the agency. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz will now have a 3-2 Democratic majority.
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