Charlene Barshefsky (born August 11, 1950) served as

United States Trade Representative The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government responsible for developing and promoting Trade policy of the United States, American trade ...

, the country's top trade negotiator, from 1997 to 2001. She was the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative from 1993 to 1997. She is a partner at the

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, also known as Hale & Dorr and WilmerHale, is an international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. It is co-headquartered in Washington, D.C. and Boston. It was formed in 2004 thr ...

. She is also an advisor at

Moelis & Company Moelis & Company is a global investment bank that provides financial advisory services to corporations, governments, and financial sponsors. The firm advises on strategic decisions such as mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restruct ...

Early life, education, and career

Barshefsky was raised in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family on the North Side of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, to Gustave, a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

immigrant and chemical engineer, who died in 1995, and Miriam, (who died in 2011) a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

immigrant and retired substitute teacher.Jewish Woman's Archive: "Charlene Barshefsky" by Robert D. Johnson
retrieved November 19, 2012 She has one brother, Alvin Barshefsky, and one sister, Annette Weinshank. In 1968, Barshefsky graduated from

Von Steuben High School Von Steuben Metropolitan High School (also known as Von Steuben Metropolitan Science High School) is a public 4–year magnet high school located on the border of the North Park and Albany Park neighborhoods on the north side of Chicago, Illinois ...

. In 1972, Barshefsky graduated from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

with a bachelor's degree, double majoring in English and political science. In 1975, she earned her J.D. from the

Columbus School of Law The Columbus School of Law, also known as Catholic Law or CUA Law, is the law school of the Catholic University of America, a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. More than 400 Juris Doctor students attend Catholic Law ...

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution ...

. Barshefsky was nominated by former President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

to serve as Deputy U.S. Trade Representative along with

Rufus Yerxa Rufus Hawkins Yerxa (born May 6, 1951) is an American lawyer and former U.S. government and international official. He is currently a Senior Advisor with the global consulting firm McClarty Associates. He served as Deputy United States Trade Repr ...

and

Richard W. Fisher Richard W. Fisher (born 1949) is the former President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, having served in that post from April 2005 to 2015. He is a Senior Advisor to Barclays Plc, a British bank holding company, a Director of Peps ...

. In 1999 she was the primary negotiator with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Zhu Rongji Zhu Rongji (; IPA: ; born 23 October 1928) is a retired Chinese politician who served as Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1998 to 2003 and CCP Politburo Standing Committee member from 1992 to 2002 along with the Chinese Communist ...

, laying out the terms for China's eventual entry into the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

in December 2001. Her negotiations have been analyzed in

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

case studies.

Legal practice

As of June 2012, Barshefsky is a senior international partner at WilmerHale. Her legal practice focuses on international business transactions, commercial agreements, and regulatory impediments to exporting and investment. Specifically, her expertise lies in "crafting market penetration strategies for goods, services, and investment and devising practical solutions to market access barriers". Her clients include

Fortune 100 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along w ...

and other multinational companies that services like trade litigation, dispute resolution, and government relations strategies. She also advises foreign corporations on commercial and regulatory issues in the United States. Barshefsky has written and lectured extensively on both U.S. and foreign trade laws and

public procurement Government procurement or public procurement is the procurement of goods, services and works on behalf of a public authority, such as a government agency. Amounting to 12 percent of global GDP in 2018, government procurement accounts for a subst ...

regimes. She was a partner at the law firm of

Steptoe & Johnson Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Brussels, Beijing, and Hong Kong. History Philip Steptoe and Louis A. Johnson, both g ...

. She previously served as vice chair of the International Law Section of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...

as well as a member of its governing council and chair of its Publications Committee.

Personal life

Outside of her legal practice, Ambassador Barshefsky participates in several professional organizations; she is a board member of the America-China Society, a fellow of the

Foreign Policy Association The Foreign Policy Association (formerly known as the League of Free Nations Association) is a non-profit organization founded in 1918 dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world. The Foreign Policy Association aims to ...

, and a member of the

American Academy of Diplomacy The American Academy of Diplomacy is a private, nonprofit, non-partisan, elected organization whose active membership is limited to men and women who have held positions of high responsibility in crafting and implementing American foreign policy. ...

and the

Trilateral Commission The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...

. She also serves on the boards of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

, Estée Lauder Companies, and the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

. She is a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

. She also sits on the advisory board for

America Abroad Media ''America Abroad'' was a monthly documentary radio program produced by America Abroad Media (AAM), a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization. The program was distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) and broadcast on public radio stati ...

. Barshefsky lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband.

Honors and awards

* Named one of "The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers" (40 lawyers total) by ''The National Law Journal'' in the regulatory category. * Included in ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

s list of "Top Female Corporate Directors" * Named one of "50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America" by ''The National Law Journal'' in 2007 * Lifetime Achievement Award from Chambers & Partners in 2007 * "Top Lawyers in Washington, D.C." in international trade by the ''Washingtonian''magazine for 2007, 2009, and 2011 * Outstanding Achievement award at the ''

Euromoney ''Euromoney'' is an English-language monthly magazine focused on business and finance. First published in 1969, it is the flagship production of Euromoney Institutional Investor plc. History and profile ''Euromoney'' was first published in 19 ...

'' Legal Media Group's "America's Women in Business Law Awards"

References

External links

Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky's WilmerHale biography

United States to Resume Bilateral Investment Treaty Negotiations on the Basis of a Revised Model Treaty
15 May 2012, WilmerHale Publications
The Copenhagen Climate Change Agreement: Failure or Success? Next Steps and Key Considerations for Business
21 December 2009, WilmerHale Publications * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barshefsky, Charlene 1950 births American people of Polish-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American women in business American women lawyers Clinton administration cabinet members Columbus School of Law alumni Jewish American members of the Cabinet of the United States Living people United States Trade Representatives University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partners Women members of the Cabinet of the United States 21st-century American women