USITC Commissioners, Administrative Law Judges, and senior staff often participate in educational conferences and other bar-related activities to help educate the legal community and the public about the agency’s investigations into intellectual property infringement and other unfair acts in import trade.

In late February, the American Conference Institute organized an “Expert Forum on ITC Litigation and Enforcement” in Washington, DC, which featured speakers from the USITC including Chairman Deanna Tanner Okun, Commissioner Shara L. Aranoff, Assistant General Counsel Jean Jackson, Director of Unfair Import Investigations Lynn I. Levine, and five of the USITC’s six Administrative Law Judges, including Chief ALJ Charles E. Bullock. Juliana Cofrancesco, Counsel to the Chairman, and Thomas S. Fusco, a Supervisory Attorney in the Office of Unfair Import Investigations, also gave presentations.

Here, as part of the conference, five of the USITC’s six Administrative Law Judges participate in a “View from the Bench” panel discussion concerning their procedures and “ground rules” as they conduct section 337 investigations. They are (seated, left-right): Chief ALJ Charles E. Bullock; Judge Robert K. Rogers, Jr.; Judge Theodore R. Essex; Judge E. James Gildea; and Judge Thomas B. Pender. (Conference co-chair Alexander D. Chinoy (Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP) appears standing at the far left.)

5_judges_small.jpg