The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced June 23 that Sarah Ellerman was named the new assistant U.S. trade representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She had been acting in the same role, USTR said in a news release.

CBP named Daniel Mercado the port director for Presidio, and he was sworn in on June 22. Mercado has a long tenure with CBP and was most recently liaison to the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

The Federal Maritime Commission has hired Alex Chintella as an administrative law judge, FMC Chairman Daniel Maffei announced June 21. Chintella was previously an attorney and administrative hearing officer with the Federal Railroad Administration.

Everett Eissenstat, a former White House and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative official, has joined Squire Patton as a partner in its Public Policy practice, the firm announced. Over his career, Eissenstat has served as deputy assistant to the president for international and economic affairs and deputy director of the National Economic Council. Before those tenures, Eissenstat worked as chief international trade counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and assistant USTR for the Americas.

Trade attorney Lauren Fraid will be moving from the Bristol Group to the Office of Regulations and Rulings at CBP, Adam Gordon, partner at the Bristol Group, confirmed to Trade Law Daily. A notice at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirmed that Fraid ended her employment with the firm on June 8. At the Bristol Group, where she worked for more than three years, Fraid's practice centered on trade remedies, export controls and sanctions.

CBP named Jesus “Louie” Chavez port director of Columbus, the agency said in a news release. Chavez, formerly port director in Presidio, Texas, will direct operations at the Columbus and Antelope Wells ports of entry in his new role.

CBP named Jayson Ahern the new area port director at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the agency said May 15. Since assuming the role in late April, Ahern oversees day-to-day CBP operations at DFW and the ports of Austin, Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland, San Antonio, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Ahern was previously DFW assistant director-passenger operations.

Seven attorneys and two international trade professionals, all from McDermott Will, joined Blank Rome's international trade practice group in Washington. The new lawyers are partners Joanne Osendarp and Eric Parnes, senior counsel Lynn Kamarck and Alan Kashdan, of counsel Conor Gilligan, and associates Tyler Kimberly and Brendan Saslow. Also joining are Jorge Miranda as trade economic adviser and Deborah Flinn as international trade manager, both from McDermott Will. Osendarp will co-chair the practice group with Anthony Rapa. The attorneys' practices involve trade remedy cases, export controls and sanctions proceedings and False Claims Act litigation, among other things, Blank Rome said.

Melba Hubbard, chief of the broker management branch at CBP’s Office of Trade, will retire in June, an official said at the agency’s National Commodity Specialist Division Trade Forum on April 12. Hubbard has led the broker management branch for four years, and in her 30-year career at CBP also was at the quota branch and antidumping and countervailing duty branch, as well as the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Nasim Fussell, former top trade counsel for the Senate Finance Committee, has left Holland & Knight for Lot Sixteen, a public relations and lobbying firm. Fussell wrote in her bio at Lot Sixteen: "As a trade partner in a big Washington law firm, I represented corporate, trade association and government clients on trade policy and regulatory issues across the spectrum. Having been in my clients’ shoes during my own time in the corporate and trade association worlds, I understood how to make them happy." Fussell joined Lot Sixteen as senior vice president this month, according to her LinkedIn bio.