Cincinnati and Washington DC – Rob Portman, who recently left the President’s cabinet as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will join global law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P. as part of the firm’s transactional and international trade practice. Prior to OMB, he served as United States Trade Representative (USTR), and for 12 years as US Congressman from Ohio’s Second Congressional District. Before his election to Congress, Portman practiced international and business law as a partner in a Cincinnati law firm. Portman will be based in Squire Sanders’ Cincinnati office, but will also maintain a presence in other offices, including the firm’s Washington DC office.
This new position at Squire Sanders will allow Portman to live in his hometown of Cincinnati and to stay involved with his community while working on national and international issues. Squire Sanders has a thriving Cincinnati office and, with 30 offices in 14 countries, an exceptional national and international platform.
“Rob’s extraordinary background in public service and law makes him an outstanding addition to our team,” said Mark J. Ruehlmann, managing partner of Squire Sanders’ Cincinnati office.
Portman is widely regarded as one of the finest and most thoughtful policymakers in the nation. His track record for success is largely attributed to his ability to work in a bipartisan manner to achieve consensus on a wide variety of important issues. He has been an effective champion for fiscal responsibility and has successfully legislated on issues ranging from environmental conservation and drug prevention to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reform and expanding retirement security.
“Squire Sanders provides me with the unique opportunity to join a prestigious global law firm with 30 offices worldwide while living and working in Cincinnati,” said Portman. “I am looking forward to being involved in helping multinational clients both here and abroad while maintaining the ability to be involved in national public policy issues and community projects,” said Portman.
“Rob brings to bear a sophisticated global perspective on public policy and trade issues that will benefit our clients’ business endeavors around the world. We are thrilled to have him join us,” said Squire Sanders Chairman R. Thomas Stanton.
Portman’s longtime chief of staff, Rob Lehman, will also join Squire Sanders. Lehman has more than 20 years of legislative experience on Capitol Hill and most recently served as Chief of Staff at OMB and USTR. Lehman will work out of the firm’s Washington DC office.
About Squire Sanders: Founded in 1890, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P. has more than 850 lawyers in 30 offices and 14 countries around the world. With one of the strongest integrated global platforms and a longstanding one-firm philosophy, Squire Sanders provides sophisticated seamless legal counsel worldwide. Offices in the Americas are located in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Palo Alto, Phoenix, San Francisco, Tallahassee, Tampa, Tysons Corner, Washington DC, West Palm Beach, Caracas, Rio de Janeiro and Santo Domingo. In Europe, offices are in Bratislava, Brussels, Budapest, Frankfurt, London, Moscow, Prague and Warsaw. In Asia, offices are in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. Associated offices include Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Kyiv and Santiago.
About Rob Portman: Rob Portman has served at the highest levels of the United States government. He has been a legislative leader in the Congress, the nation’s top trade negotiator, and the lead Administration official setting budget and regulatory policy. Portman is held in high regard both domestically and internationally for his integrity, substance, and proven ability to address the most challenging issues facing our nation.
A Cincinnati native, Portman was elected to the US House of Representatives in a special election in 1993. For more than a decade Portman represented his constituents of the Second Congressional District of Ohio. He was a successful legislator who reached across party lines and earned the respect of colleagues from both sides of the aisle.
In Congress, Portman served as the Chairman of the House Republican Leadership, a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee and Vice-Chairman of the House Budget Committee. Portman was known as a problem-solver who sought consensus.
During his Congressional tenure, he passed legislation that strengthened retirement savings, simplified tax laws, improved drug prevention and education across communities, brought fiscally sound and innovative approaches to environmental conservation, and reformed the IRS; all with large bipartisan support.
Portman left Congress in 2005 when he was nominated by President Bush to serve in the Cabinet as the United States Trade Representative. As the nation’s trade negotiator, Portman opened new markets around the world while vigorously enforcing US trade laws. He energized lagging global trade talks with an ambitious offer to lower US agricultural subsidies in exchange for greater market openings for US farmers. He successfully worked with the Congress to pass the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and the Bahrain FTA. He launched two new trade agreements with Korea and Malaysia, and successfully negotiated agreements with Peru, Oman and Colombia.
In his second and most recent Cabinet position, as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Portman instilled fiscal discipline, proposing a balanced budget and instituting greater transparency in government spending. Portman led administration efforts to adopt the goal of balancing the budget by 2012. He enforced spending restraint by recommending veto of spending bills that the Congress produced in excess of the President’s budget plan. Under his leadership, OMB also launched an unprecedented effort to publish a database of all Congressional earmarks.
Portman received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his J.D. from the University of Michigan. He practiced international law as an associate at the Washington, DC law firm of Patton Boggs, and business and international law as an associate, and then as partner, at the law firm of Graydon, Head & Ritchey LLP in Cincinnati.
Portman also served in the George H.W. Bush Administration, first in the White House Counsel’s Office as Associate Counsel to the President, and later as Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
He resides in Cincinnati with his wife, Jane, and their three children.
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Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P.
Mark J. Ruehlmann
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P.