White House Announces 2 Nominees for Trade Court Vacancies

The White House on June 28 announced its nominations to fill two vacancies on the Court of International Trade.

One is Lisa Wang, current assistant secretary of Commerce for Enforcement and Compliance. Wang has served in that role since 2022, having previously worked as a partner at Picard Kentz. She also served as a senior attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance and as an assistant general counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The other is Joseph Laroski, who is currently working as a partner at Schagrin Associates, a position he has held since 2021. Previously, Laroski served as deputy assistant secretary for Policy and Negotiations and director of policy at the Commerce Department. He also was an attorney-adviser for the International Trade Commission and an associate general counsel at USTR.

At least one of the vacancies opened in 2021 when Judge Timothy Stanceu took senior status, and the other was opened by Judge Leo Gordon's ascension to senior status in 2019. The lack of judges on the bench had been a source of growing discontent among members of the trade bar (see 2304200042), with the Customs & International Trade Bar Association even penning a letter to the White House in April on the issue.

CITBA said that the vacancies were burdening the court and compromising its ability to carry out speedy and just determinations, leading to a 10% drop in the share of opinions written by full-time judges. Prior to President Joe Biden's announcement, the trade court was the only federal court to not have a pending nominee fill a judicial vacancy. "It is good to see that President Biden has moved to fill these vacancies and bring the Court of International Trade up to its full complement of judges," Lawrence Friedman, partner at Barnes Richardson, said in an email.