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# Ex-FDA Top Lawyer Returns to Sidley Austin
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/ex-fda-top-lawyer-returns-to-sidley-austin/
- Published: 2018-09-11T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T00:31:03.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5142324

Former FDA chief counsel **Rebecca Wood** has rejoined Sidley Austin to co-lead both the firm’s food, drug and medical device regulatory practice and its FDA group in Washington with partner **Coleen Klasmeier**. Wood left FDA in July after serving a year in the Trump Administration as the agency’s top lawyer. Recently, it was announced that Trump Administration senior associate counsel to the president **Stacy Cline Amin** is moving to FDA to serve as chief counsel, effective 9/17.

At Sidley, she will provide counsel on FDA regulatory and litigation issues to clients in the life sciences industry and private equity firms investing in the area, the law firm says. Before joining FDA, Wood served as a partner at Sidley for more than 10 years, focusing on district court and appellate litigation related to the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the U.S. Constitution, including managing class actions and multi-plaintiff cases.

  
As FDA chief counsel, Wood was the “principal legal advisor on major initiatives, including efforts to streamline the drug and device development and approval process, modernize the agency’s regulatory framework, combat addiction to opioids and nicotine, enhance the product safety and labeling of food and medical products, and address drug pricing,” Sidley Austin says. “She served as a liaison to the Department of Justice and the White House and advised agency leadership on legislative matters. She also focused on First Amendment and preemption issues.”