Judge Sandra (Dee) Lord joins the ITC

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) returned to its full complement of six Administrative Law Judges (ALJ) to preside over Section 337 investigations when it welcomed ALJ Sandra (Dee) Lord. Judge Lord replaces Judge Robert K. Rogers, who retired from the ITC in June 2013. Before joining the ITC, Judge Lord served as a Special Master for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims from 2009 to 2012 and as an ALJ in the Social Security Administration's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. Judge Lord's previous experience further includes work as a trial attorney in the commercial litigation branch of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division and in private practice. She has also served as Associate General Counsel at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Bethesda, MD, and was an Assistant Counsel for Appellate Litigation in the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of the Solicitor. Judge Lord received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Yale, with a double major in English and French literature, and her law degrees from Georgetown University Law Center.

As is customary with ITC ALJs, Judge Lord hit the ground running. Judge Lord was initially assigned multiple Section 337 investigations, including Nos. 337-TA-854, 859, 864, 868 and 886. When ITC operations resume following the shutdown (discussed in our post about the effect of the government shutdown), Judge Lord will soon conduct her first evidentiary hearing at the ITC. Prior to the ITC shutdown, Judge Lord ordered that the hearing in the -859 Investigation will be conducted December 16-20, 2013. Although these dates are likely to be tolled due to the shutdown, after only a few months at the ITC Judge Lord will be presiding over evidentiary hearings and issuing Initial Determinations. Welcome to the ITC, Judge Lord.