The ABA White Collar Crime Institute continues in sunny San Diego, and one panel stood out from the rest: consumer protection enforcement. Why? It was the only session to feature sitting government officials — Sean Keveney, Chief Counsel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Jonathan Cohen, Chief Litigation Counsel for the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection. They joined former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, including our own Burden Walker, for a candid conversation about the future of consumer protection enforcement.
The headline takeaway: don't expect consumer protection to close up shop under this administration.
If anything, consumer protection is finding new life in the current moment. Many of the issues these agencies address — trade, supply chain security, gender-affirming care for minors, food safety — line up squarely with the current administration's priorities. That overlap isn't incidental. It's the engine driving