Ambassador Susan Esserman

Ambassador Susan Esserman is a former Deputy US Trade Representative and former long-time chair of Steptoe's International Trade practice. A principal focus of her practice is on advising US and foreign clients in high-profile trade matters that require integrating complex legal issues, policy dimensions, and political sensitivities. She also assists clients to expand access to foreign markets and represents clients in international trade litigation and dispute resolution matters. Ambassador Esserman has consistently received top rankings from Chambers and other ranking organizations and was recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the nation's outstanding women lawyers.

She brings to bear a strategic perspective arising from her experience in the US Government as Deputy USTR and in other senior government posts, including serving in the role of General Counsel at the Office of the USTR and the Department of Commerce. As Deputy USTR, Ambassador Esserman was responsible for US trade policy and negotiations in the WTO and with Europe, India, Russia, the former Soviet Union, Africa, and the Middle East. While serving as USTR General Counsel, she played a lead role in devising US litigation strategy in the critical early years of WTO dispute resolution. As Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Ambassador Esserman was the decision-maker in hundreds of antidumping cases and was also instrumental in developing US antidumping and countervailing duty trade legislation and regulations, which govern US trade cases today.

Ambassador Esserman is a leader of the firm's pro bono efforts to assist survivors of human trafficking. She is the Founder and Director of the University of Maryland SAFE (Support, Advocacy, Freedom, and Empowerment) Center for Human Trafficking Survivors. The SAFE Center is the first ever university-based program to combine comprehensive services for sex and labor trafficking survivors (legal, case management, mental health, and economic empowerment) with research and advocacy to combat trafficking.  Since opening in 2016, the SAFE Center has served several hundred human trafficking survivors and their family members in the Washington, DC/Baltimore metropolitan region.