News Release
Sidley Lawyer Amelia Porges Appointed Commissioner of Japan-US Friendship Commission and US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange
April 18, 2007
Washington, D.C. - Sidley Austin LLP today announced that Amelia Porges has been appointed as a commissioner of the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC) and the US-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON). Porges, who is in Sidley's International Trade and Dispute Resolution Practice, based in the firm's Washington D.C. office, will serve for a three-year term.
Porges focuses her practice on World Trade Organization and U.S. trade law, assisting governments and businesses in WTO and other dispute settlement proceedings and advising governments and businesses in international negotiations. She also advises on the law of international organizations, U.S. legislation and bilateral trade agreements. She has particular experience in legal aspects of trade in services, trade in software and digitized content, and market access for manufactured goods and agricultural products. She is listed in the 2007 Chambers Global guide to the world's leading lawyers.
Before joining Sidley, Porges served as Senior Counsel for Dispute Settlement and head of enforcement at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, where she briefed and argued WTO cases before dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body, guided U.S. WTO litigation efforts in the first five years of the WTO, and negotiated reform of the WTO's dispute settlement rules. During the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations, from 1990 to 1994, Porges served as Senior Legal Officer and Counsellor for Legal Affairs at the GATT Secretariat in Geneva, advising on trade disputes, negotiations and drafting of the WTO Agreement.
Porges, who speaks Japanese, earned her J.D. and M.P.P. from Harvard Law School and Harvard University, and received her B.A. from Cornell University. She has taught trade law at Sophia University in Tokyo and currently teaches WTO law at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She also co-chairs the principal continuing legal education program in trade law, the ABA-sponsored annual International Trade Update program at Georgetown University.
"We cannot think of any lawyer better able to contribute to the goals of JUSFC and CULCON than Amy," said Daniel Price, chair of Sidley's International Trade and Dispute Resolution Practice. "Her deep knowledge of global trade laws and U.S.-Japan relations will make her an invaluable asset to both."
The Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC) was established as an independent federal agency by Congress in 1975 to administer a US government trust fund derived from Japanese government payments made in return for public facilities in Okinawa it received when the Ryukyu Islands were returned to Japan, and as repayment of postwar American assistance. JUSFC makes grants from the income on the fund to promote scholarly, cultural and public affairs activities between Japan and the United States. The members of JUSFC are the US members of CULCON, which is a US-Japan committee founded in 1962 to promote cultural exchanges. For more information please visit http://www.jusfc.gov/index.asp.
Sidley's International Trade and Dispute Resolution Practice includes more than 50 professionals in our Brussels, Geneva and Washington, D.C. offices with extensive experience assisting clients worldwide on transactional, regulatory, dispute settlement and policy matters arising under international trade and investment agreements. Sidley was recently named Global WTO Law Firm of the Year by Chambers and Partners, and Global Trade & Customs Law Firm of the Year for 2005 and 2006 by the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers.
Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world's largest full-service law firms, with more than 1,700 lawyers practicing in 15 U.S. and international cities including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. In 2006, Sidley was named to Legal Business' Global Elite, their designation for "the 15 finest law firms in the world." Sidley was again named the number one law firm for overall client service by BTI, a Boston-based consulting and research firm, in 2007. BTI has also named Sidley to their Client Service Hall of Fame as one of only two law firms to rank in the Client Service Top 10 for six years in a row.
For more information:
Janet Zagorin 212.839.8797
Rhonda Walker Rubenstein Associates 212.843.8338
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