Cooley Adds Ex-Consumer Product Safety Commission Chair in DC

Elliot Kaye, the former chair of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, is joining Cooley’s expanding litigation practice in Washington.

The hire enhances Cooley’s plan for a largely, but not exclusively, Washington-based litigation practice that is equipped to deal with any federal agency and state attorney general, said Michael Attanasio, who chairs the department for the firm. “Enforcement, regulation and litigation are only going in one direction and that one direction is more,” he said in an interview.

Kaye starting in 2014 spent seven years as a commissioner, including nearly three years as chairman. He tackled issues such as the recall and ban of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones and brain injuries in youth sports.

Cooley has been building its white collar, litigation and investigation practices. The firm earlier this year added Elizabeth Holmes prosecutor John Bostic in Palo Alto, California and Teresa Michaud, co-chair of Baker McKenzie’s North America class action practice, in Los Angeles. In February it launched an investigations practice in Washington.

Kaye joined the commission in 2010 from Hogan Lovells as senior counsel to the then-chair, Inez Tenebaum. He later became chief of staff and chief counsel before President Barack Obama nominated him as a commissioner.

Elliot Kaye

Kaye in his Cooley role said he will focus on regulatory and enforcement challenges faced by companies making and selling products ranging from household goods to artificial intelligence. “These are really exciting emerging issues that align so well with what I have worked on at the agency,” he said.

After stepping away from government in 2021 Kaye served as senior vice president for policy at the World Central Kitchen and helped serve meals after the Russian invasion in Ukraine. He underwent a kidney transplant in January 2022 and stepped away from the nonprofit in November of that year to focus on his health.

Kaye said he kept in touch with former commission colleague Matt Howsare, who is the current chair of Cooley’s North American product safety practice. Howsare previously served as chief of staff at the commission.

“It mattered to me what he was saying about Cooley,” Kaye said of Howare. “What began as sort of an offhand series of comments turned into a very serious recruitment process.”

Kaye’s addition to the firm is important for the consumer product safety practice and to all of its litigation offerings, Attanasio said. “It’s a grand slam for Cooley,” he said.