The firm of Brown & Gidding, P.C. specializes in federal regulatory issues, particularly before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Coast Guard, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Food and Drug Administration and similar state and foreign agencies. This work has resulted in extensive experience in recalls.
Our offices are located at 3201 New Mexico Avenue, N.W., Suite 242, Washington, D.C., near the offices of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and of the Food and Drug Administration. Our offices are an easy commute from Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International and Reagan National airports and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
Principals in the firm are Michael A. Brown and Michael J. Gidding.
Michael Brown served as General Counsel and then Executive Director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. He also served as Acting Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Enforcement Counsel and Deputy General Counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency. He specializes in the defense of corporate and municipal clients. He is a founding member and past Chairman of the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization.
Michael Gidding, formerly of the Office of Compliance of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, specializes in matters involving the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, the Poison Prevention Packaging Act, and consumer product recalls and defect reporting. Over his 30 year career with the Commission, Mr. Gidding served as member of the technical staff dealing with poison prevention, as a compliance officer specializing in child-resistant packaging and hazardous substances labeling issues, and as trial counsel in the Office of Compliance and the Office of General Counsel. He also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia in 1986-1987 and, from 1987 to 1989, as senior trial counsel in the Office of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, after which he returned to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Margaret Freeston (Of Counsel) served as Acting General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel and Legal Adviser to the Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Organization. She is a specialist in administrative law and regulatory issues. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Consumer Products Regulations Committee of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.
Read full-length bios of our attorneys