I was one of those first-year law students who came to law school without an exact answer to “what kind of law do you want to practice?” I had a broad interest in international law, but no precise plan of how to make it a career. After many conversations with my mentors about what type of legal work I desired to do and which classes I enjoyed (trying to narrow down my options), I applied to the Office of Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance ("Office") at the Department of Commerce. I received an offer to join them for the summer and enthusiastically accepted.
The work of the Office is specialized and complex. The Office works on antidumping and countervailing duties issues in both an administrative law capacity, as counsel to the International Trade Administration, and in a litigation capacity, defending administrative determinations before the Court of International Trade and the Federal Circuit in collaboration with the Department of Justice. In addition to the Office’s domestic representative role, the Office also represents the United States at the World Trade Organization, in partnership with the U.S. Trade Representative, and before North American Free Trade Agreement and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement tribunals.
As a law clerk, I was exposed to many of the Office’s functions. During my time there, I gave a presentation to the Office about surrogate value issues researched import licensing programs for potential new regulations, and also drafted two briefs. The first brief had to do with issues that arise when the Department of Commerce calculates anti-dumping duties for products from non-market economy countries. The second brief was a challenge to a scope determination, where the company argued that its products should not be subject to existing anti-dumping and countervailing duties. In working on these briefs, I spoke with the analysts who made the challenged determinations, read through the administrative record, and had many illuminating conversations with attorneys in the office about constructing strong legal arguments. Writing these briefs offered me invaluable experience in the type of work a Staff Attorney in the Office would be doing, and I am especially excited to continue tracking the progress of these cases.
While at the Office, I was able to sit in on moots with the Department of Justice in preparation for hearings, and virtually attended hearings in both the Court of International Trade and the Federal Circuit on cases handled by the Office. The Department of Commerce’s Office of General Counsel also hosted weekly brown-bags with law clerks from other offices giving us the opportunity to network with others we otherwise would not have met. At the end of the summer the interns were able to meet with Secretary Gina Raimondo and Deputy Secretary Don Graves which was an extraordinarily special experience.
I absolutely cherished the time I spent in the Office. I learned so much of the substance of trade remedies, but also found a practice that combined my interests and kept me engaged every day. I highly recommend this Office to law students who are interested in international trade, administrative law, litigation, or working at a federal agency.