October 20, 2011
News Release 11-134
Contact: Peg O'Laughlin, 202-205-1819

Deanna Tanner Okun, Chairman of the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), announced today that Judge Charles E. Bullock has been named the Chief Administrative Law Judge at the USITC.

As Chief Administrative Law Judge, Bullock will provide administrative guidance and leadership to assure a thorough, yet expeditious, processing of the agency's section 337 investigation caseload. He will continue to preside in section 337 investigations as well. USITC administrative law judges manage proceedings, preside over evidentiary hearings, and make initial determinations in the agency's investigations involving unfair practices in import trade. These investigations most often involve allegations of patent and trademark infringement.

Bullock has served as Acting Chief Administrative Law Judge since August 2011, following the retirement of former Chief Administrative Law Judge Paul J. Luckern.

Bullock has served as an administrative law judge (ALJ) at the USITC since May 2002. From 1996 until joining the USITC, Bullock was an ALJ with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In that position, he conducted hearings and wrote initial decisions in enforcement proceedings brought under a number of environmental laws administered by the EPA.

Before Bullock joined the EPA, he had served for 24 years with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). For the last 12 of those years, he was an ALJ, conducting hearings and writing initial decisions in complex, multi-party cases involving electric utility and natural gas pipeline rates. Prior to assuming his judgeship at FERC, he was a trial attorney and then an Assistant General Counsel at that agency.

Bullock is a 1968 graduate of Bucknell University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He received his Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School in June 1971. He is a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.

The U.S. International Trade Commission is an independent, nonpartisan, quasi-judicial federal agency that provides trade expertise to both the legislative and executive branches of government, determines the impact of imports on U.S. industries, and directs actions against certain unfair trade practices, such as patent, trademark, and copyright infringement.