FTC Acting Chairman Ohlhausen Names Thomas Pahl Acting Director of the Agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection

Federal Trade Commission Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen announced today that she has appointed Thomas Pahl, a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, to be the Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

 “Tom’s career demonstrates his continuing commitment to protecting consumers through active enforcement and advocacy that promotes a free and honest marketplace,” said Acting Chairman Ohlhausen. “His thoughtful approach will help ensure consumers benefit from thriving competition and innovation. Tom’s talent, deep consumer protection experience, and strong principles make him perfect to lead the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and I’m very pleased to have him aboard.”

Pahl is rejoining the FTC, having served in a number of different roles starting in 1990, including management stints in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection as Assistant Director in the Division of Advertising Practices and the Division of Financial Practices. He also advised top agency officials on consumer protection matters. For three years, he advised Reagan appointee and FTC Commissioner Mary Azcuenaga. And he later served for four years as an attorney advisor for Republican FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle. 

Pahl previously served a detail to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee under the leadership of Chairman Orrin Hatch, focusing on antitrust and consumer privacy issues. Pahl also has worked as an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, and is a member of the Federalist Society.

More recently, Pahl has worked on consumer financial protection issues (especially credit reporting and debt collection issues) as a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory LLP, and on debt collection issues at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Pahl is a native Minnesotan who earned a B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He earned his law degree, cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago, Illinois. Afterwards, he returned to Minnesota to clerk for Hon. D.D. Wozniak, the Chief Judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and worked as a litigator a large Minneapolis law firm before starting his career at the FTC.

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