With a mandate to ramp up the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's battle against Obama-era regulations, former top Bush Justice Department official Rachel Brand begins work next week as a senior litigation counsel at the National Chamber Litigation Center.
Brand will serve in a new position as chief counsel for regulatory litigation at the Chamber's litigating arm, according to the center's executive vice president Robin Conrad. "The Chamber is really going to step up its activities in that area," Conrad said today.
In positions at the White House counsel's office and as assistant attorney general for Legal Policy at the Justice Department, Brand was a visible player in confirmation and other battles. She sat next to Samuel Alito's wife Martha-Ann during her emotional moments at Alito's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January 2006, and also helped shepherd John Roberts Jr. through his nomination as chief justice in 2005. More recently, she was counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
Also starting at the litigation center next week is Kate Comerford Todd, who was an associate White House counsel from 2007 to 2009 and a partner at Wiley Rein. Most recently teaching a course at George Washington University Law School, Todd will be chief counsel for appellate litigation. Todd was a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, and Brand clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Both high-profile hires are aimed at expanding the Chamber's litigating presence as it fights a range of battles spawned by what it sees as a tidal wave of regulatory burdens for business. The Chamber is involved in 21 Supreme Court cases this term, a record, according to Conrad.
Photo by Diego Radzinschi
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