#047: Austin King - Government Attorney at Federal Trade Commission

How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin

In this episode I speak with my dear friend and former co-clerk, Austin King. Austin is currently the Associate General Counsel for Rulemaking at the Federal Trade Commission. I conducted this interview when Austin was in his former role at the FTC as Attorney Advisor to Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. Before joining the FTC in 2018, Austin was a counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an attorney at the nonprofit Better Markets, Inc.

Before law school, Austin was an elected official serving as an alderperson in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. He also worked for the SEIU and Acorn. Austin is a proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin, New York University School of Law (where he graduated summa cum laude as a Root-Tilden Scholar), and the Harvard Kennedy School from which he holds an MPA.

He served as a law clerk to Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York and Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where he and I successfully shared an office for 11 months.

He spoke with me purely in his personal capacity and his views on the episode do not represent the views of the FTC or the government.

In our conversation we discuss his path to public interest law from local politician, the unique role of government lawyer and attorney advisor, the power and importance of being both a good writer and a good editor of the writing of others, ways to land a legal government job, and the differences between clerking on the district court and on the court of appeals.

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