Francis J. Sailer

Francis J. Sailer is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) at the Department of Commerce (DOC). After graduating from Marquette Law School in 1978 (Member of the Marquette Law Review) and a one-year judicial clerkship, in 1980, Frank became one of the first lawyers to litigate cases under the nascent U.S. international trade legal regime as a trial attorney for the Department of Justice (DOJ), at the same time earning an LL.M. (International Trade) in 1982. He also argued a trade-related appeal on the first day of the CAFC’s establishment on October 1, 1982.  After five years with DOJ, Frank spent several years with a nationally ranked law firm practicing trade and customs law, before being appointed DAS in charge of all U.S. ADD and CVD investigations in 1989.

As DAS, Frank was instrumental in developing the NME methodologies that arose out of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 as China’s development into a major supplier to U.S. importers swelled in the late 1980s. In that position, he was also intimately engaged in the U.S. negotiating positions in the Uruguay Round trade negotiations as well as with evolving U.S. trade policies during his tenure with DOC. Frank practiced international trade and customs law with two other nationally ranked U.S. law firms before joining GDLSK in 2006.

Frank maintains regular contact with current DOC officials, using his 35 years of expertise as a leading member of the trade bar to benefit GDLSK clients.  Frank’s involvement in assisting China with respect to trade remedy issues has been substantial, and he enjoys a great degree of respect at the DOC. Frank has specific experience in the Department’s current trade remedy practice with respect to China by virtue of heading up our firm’s team in virtually all of the CVD investigations/reviews handled by GDLSK.

Frank has represented innumerable clients in many U.S. ADD and CVD cases throughout his more than 40-year legal career, with a particular focus on China and NME issues. He has also appeared before trade authorities in Canada, Indonesia and Singapore representing clients in ADD cases in those jurisdictions. In the 1993-94 ADD case against cased pencils from China, Frank represented the first two indigenous Chinese producers/exporters to win zero ADD rates in a U.S. investigation.

Frank has an AV Preeminent Rating from Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review and has been listed in all editions of “Who’s Who in International Trade and Customs Law.” Frank is the author of “Antidumping Duty Investigations—A General Overview and Focus on the Application of U.S. Antidumping Laws to China as a Non-Market Economy,” Doing Business in China, 3rd Edition (2007); “U.S. Countervailing Duty Law and Practice” (2003); “The Application of the U.S. Antidumping Law to Non-Market Economy Countries” (published in InterTrade – MOFTEC’s official journal of international trade) and “The Impact of the Uruguay Round Antidumping Provisions and the World Trade Organization on the New World Trading Order” (published in InterTrade — MOFTEC’s official journal of international trade).

Georgetown University Law Center, L.L.M. (1982)

Marquette University, J.D. (1978)

Marquette University, B.A. (1975)

U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit (1988)

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (1982)

U.S. Court of Federal Claims (1980, 1982)

U.S. Court of International Trade (1980)

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (1988)

Wisconsin Supreme Court (1978)

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (1978)

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (1978)

American Bar Association

Customs and International Trade Bar Association

District of Columbia Bar Association

U.S.  Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

U.S.  Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Federal Claims

U.S. Court of International Trade

U.S.  District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S.  District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin

U.S.  District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin

Wisconsin Bar Association