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Barry J. Cutler has extensive experience in counseling and litigating trade regulation and consumer law matters including investigations and prosecutions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state agencies. He has also handled a broad variety of civil and white collar criminal litigation. He concentrates his practice on consumer issues including advertising, credit, business opportunities, marketing and direct selling, FTC regulation and trade associations.

From 1990 through 1993, Mr. Cutler was Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. In that position, he managed the law enforcement efforts of about 200 attorneys in Washington, D.C., and 10 regional offices as the Commission developed an aggressive program of litigation and settlement negotiations in matters involving advertising, consumer credit and illegal marketing practices. He directed the FTC’s consumer education efforts through a diverse program of newspaper columns, video and audio releases and printed materials to focus public attention on consumer issues apart from litigation. Mr. Cutler represented the United States on the Consumer Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris to discuss and harmonize the policy and enforcement approaches of OECD countries, and he participated in bilateral and/or technical assistance meetings in Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Austria, Canada and Mexico. In addition, Mr. Cutler testified before Congress and met with congressional staff frequently to present testimony or explain FTC policy and positions on pending legislative issues, directed and carried out liaison work with state Attorneys General and other state and local consumer protection officials throughout the United States to improve the coordination of law enforcement plans and consumer education efforts, worked extensively with the media throughout the United States to publicize and explain the work of the FTC in consumer protection matters and planned and made budget recommendations for the allocation of appropriated funds to carry out the consumer protection mission.

Mr. Cutler is a regular contributor to BakerHostetler’s Data Privacy Monitor blog, offering commentary on data privacy and information security topics. (See Mr. Cutler’s August 6, 2012, post: “FTC Proposes Updating COPPA Rules to Address Nobile Technologies and Current Digital Advertising Practices in Gathering and Using Information from Children Under 13.”) In addition, he is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the BNA’s Antitrust & Trade Regulation Reporter and the Legal and Government Affairs Council of the Electronic Retailing Association. From 1994 to 2000, he was a member of the National Advertising Review Board of the Better Business Bureau. He served as Vice Chair of the ABA Antitrust Section’s Consumer Protection Committee from 1990 to 1998.

Mr. Cutler’s prior legal experience also include the following positions: Assistant General Counsel, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D.C.; Deputy Assistant Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D.C.; Assistant United States Attorney, District of Connecticut; Law Clerk, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, New York, New York; Tutor-in-Law in Trial Practice at Yale Law School.

Mr. Cutler is active in his community and in charitable work. From 2001 to present he has been a member of the Alumni Advisory Council, Cornell University College of Arts & Sciences, and since 2005 he has served as Co-President of the Cornell Class of 1965. He served as a member of the Boards of Directors of United Cerebral Palsy of Maryland and of United Cerebral Palsy of Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties from 1984 to 1995.