Mary Thornton, former head of trade and export controls policy at Amazon Web Services, joined the Semiconductor Industry Association as vice president of global policy, SIA announced Nov. 2. Thornton will lead SIA’s global trade and economic security policy initiatives. Before joining Amazon, she was a senior trade negotiator with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where she served as the U.S. trade attache to the World Trade Organization.

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White, whose portfolio covers Europe, the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East, is leaving his position, with his last day Nov. 1, the office announced.

Jenner & Block partner Rachel Alpert was tapped to serve as the chief counsel to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the firm announced on Oct. 24. Alpert has worked at Jenner & Block since 2021 and has fleshed out the firm's national security, sanctions and export controls practice, along with the human rights and global strategy practice. Her practice centered around export controls and sanctions proceedings under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Export Administration Regulations and OFAC regulations, among other things. Prior to working at Jenner & Block, Alpert worked as an attorney-adviser to the State Department and as counsel at Latham & Watkins.

Ben Glassman, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, has been appointed deputy practice group leader for Squire Patton's Government Investigations and White Collar Practice group. As U.S. attorney from 2016 to 2019, Glassman prosecuted cases involving national security, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, antitrust and the False Claims Act, among other things, the firm said. Among other Squire Patton announcements was the appointment of Kendra Sherman as the firm's first U.S. national hiring chair.

Joshua Drew, former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, has joined Miller & Chevalier as a member. Drew's practice will center on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act proceedings, corporate compliance and internal and external investigations, the firm said. He served as assistant U.S. attorney 2003-2009, and before that as a DOJ trial attorney in the agency's fraud section. More recently, Drew helped lead international communications company Veon through an FCPA monitorship.

Emily Weinstein is leaving her role as a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology to join the Bureau of Industry and Security, she announced this week on LinkedIn. She will serve as a senior adviser to BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez. Some of Weinstein's recent work has included co-writing research advocating for new multilateral export control efforts (see 2205240039 and 2306270043). She also has outlined a potential way BIS can use its “catch-all controls” to tighten restrictions around exports of sensitive artificial intelligence models (see 2307060037), and has proposed the Biden administration take an end-user list-based approach to restricting outbound investments in Chinese artificial intelligence companies (see 2308300044).

Lydia Childre, former international trade and logistics senior associate at Venable, has joined boutique trade law firm Lighthill, the firm announced on LinkedIn. Childre worked at Venable for nearly two years after serving as a senior project adviser on Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs at the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration. Her practice at Lighthill will center on "national security and trade policy," the firm said. Lighthill was founded earlier this year by former Crowell & Moring attorney John Anwesen (see 2307050026).

Trade attorney Julia Kuelzow has moved from Kelley Drye, where she worked as an associate, to Fenwick & West, where she now works as a trade and national security associate, per a notice at the Court of International Trade. At Fenwick, Kuelzow's practice centers on export controls and sanctions, shifting from her trade remedies work at Kelley Drye. Prior to working at Kelley Drye, Kuelzow served as a law clerk at CIT and as a junior dispute settlement lawyer at the World Trade Organization, according to her LinkedIn page.

Bill Root, a former U.S. export control official and frequent contributor to the Commerce Department’s technical advisory committees, celebrated his 100th birthday Sept. 20. Root was a Naval officer, a State Department official and the head of the U.S. delegation to the now-defunct Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls, among other roles with the federal government.

Christopher Stagg, a former export control official with the State Department, announced this week he has left Miller & Chevalier to launch Stagg PLLC, his own export control practice. His firm will provide a “first-of-its-kind dedicated issues and appeals practice for high-stakes export control situations, such as appeals and other disputes with the export control agencies, regulatory interpretations, delisting petitions, and rulemaking changes,” Stagg said on LinkedIn.