Rhonda Schmidtlein, a Democrat who has served as a commissioner on the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) for more than a decade, is leaving the agency to join U.S. law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, the firm said on Thursday.
Schmidtlein will join the firm's Washington office in April, a WilmerHale spokesperson said. The ITC said her last day at the agency is Feb. 1. Schmidtlein chaired the agency from January 2017 to June 2018.
The ITC is an independent federal agency that has the final say in issuing trade remedies such as antidumping duties. It also has the power to limit or ban imports into the United States.
Republican President-elect Donald Trump is poised to upend U.S. trade relationships when he takes office for his new term on Monday. He has pledged to impose a 10% tariff on all U.S. imports and 60% on goods from China.
The ITC is led by six commissioners, split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Democratic President Joe Biden nominated candidates to fill two open seats in November.
Before she was tapped by former President Barack Obama to serve on the ITC in 2013, Schmidtlein served in various roles at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Justice Department and the World Bank.
Schmidtlein "has the well-earned respect of policymakers on both sides of the aisle and among trade experts," WilmerHale Managing Partner Anjan Sahni said in a statement.
ITC chair Amy Karpel in a statement called "an integral part of the agency for the last 11 years."
