Product Safety, Product Liability and Environmental Law
Experience in the complete range of product safety and product liability matters, to include preventive law and recall counseling and representation before federal and state regulatory agencies, to include the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and judicial proceedings that flow from such agencies. This also includes representing clients in defense of product liability actions that arise from product safety complaints and the national management of such litigation.
General Counsel and later the Executive Director, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In these positions he was responsible for the legal policies and management of the CPSC.
Acting Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste and Emergency Response, U.S. EPA; Enforcement Counsel, U.S. EPA; Deputy General Counsel, U.S. EPA. In these positions he was responsible for the legal policies and management of EPA's enforcement and regulatory programs.
St. Mary's University Law School (LLB 1961, Magna Cum Laude); Georgetown University Law Center (LLM, 1970)
Admitted to Bar, Texas, 1962; Washington, D.C., 1975; speaker and writer at numerous seminars and conferences on environmental and product safety law.
Past Chairman of the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization.
Born in San Angelo, Texas 1938; married to Teresa Boyd; two sons and one daughter, Michael, Matthew and Michele.
Michael Gidding, formerly of the Office of Compliance of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, consults in matters involving the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, the Poison Prevention Packaging Act, and consumer product recalls and defect reporting. Originally with the FDA's Bureau of Product Safety, Mr. Gidding joined the Commission when it began operations in 1973 as a member of the technical staff working in the field of poison prevention. He subsequently served as a compliance officer in the Office of Compliance specializing in child-resistant packaging and hazardous substances labeling issues, and, upon graduation from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1976, joined the legal staff of the Office of Compliance. In 1979, he moved to the Commission’s Office of General Counsel as a trial attorney. Mr. Gidding later served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia 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. Prior to his leaving in 2003, he served as senior trial counsel in the Office of Compliance. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Maryland in 1971.
Product Safety and Product Liability Law
Experience in the complete range of product safety and product liability matters, to include preventive law counseling and representation before federal and state regulatory agencies, to include the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and judicial proceedings that flow from such agencies. This also includes representing clients in defense of product liability actions that arise from product safety complaints and the national management of such litigation.
Consumer Product Safety Commission Deputy General Counsel, Acting General Counsel, Legal Assistant to the Chairman, Acting Executive Director. In these positions she was involved with developing and implementing the legal policies and strategies of the agency and in management issues.
Georgetown University Law Center (JD 1969), Mount Holyoke College (BA 1966)
Admitted to Bar, Connecticut 1969; Washington, D.C. 1972; Maryland 1984
Professional Memberships
American Bar Association, Section on Administrative Law, Vice-Chair of Consumer Products Regulation Committee; Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia