FDLI to Honor Beardsley, Landa, Silverglade and Taylor

Honorees Will Receive Distinguished Service and Leadership Awards at Holiday Reception December 7

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI) will honor four outstanding food and drug law professionals with its annual Distinguished Service and Leadership Award: Kate Beardsley, Michael Landa, Bruce Silverglade and Michael Taylor.

The honorees will receive their awards at FDLI's Holiday and Leadership Awards Reception December 7 at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C.

FDLI, founded in 1949, is a non-profit organization that provides a marketplace for discussing food and drug law issues through conferences, publications and member interaction. The Distinguished Service and Leadership Award, established in 1993, is given to individuals who have a record of sustained service, leadership and contribution to the food and drug law community and/or FDLI; or provided an exceptional contribution to FDLI and/or the food and drug law community, through, for example, outstanding writing or scholarship, by developing new legal theories and precedents, or engaging in significant activities on behalf of the public interest.

"Each of this year's award recipients exemplifies the criteria," noted Susan C. Winckler, FDLI's President and CEO, "and we are pleased to honor them."

KATE C. BEARDSLEY is a partner in the law office of Buc & Beardsley, LLP in Washington, DC where she represents clients interested in biologics, drugs, and medical devices. She has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing, and the Vice Chair of the American Association of Tissue Banks Government Regulation Committee. Beardsley also served as a Special Counsel in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was Deputy Director of the U.S. Regulatory Council where she worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Consumer Product Safety Commission. Before forming Buc & Beardsley, she was associated with the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges and, before that, Nixon, Hargrave, Devans, and Doyle. Ms. Beardsley received her BA from Smith College and her JD from Emory University School of Law, where she was an editor of the Law Review.

MICHAEL M. LANDA is Director (Acting) of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Previously, he served as the Center's Deputy Director for Regulatory Affairs, Deputy Chief Counsel and, in 2001 and 2009-2010, Acting Chief Counsel at FDA. Prior to this, he was in private practice as a shareholder in Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe and served as partner in the office of Fenwick & West LLP, where he practiced food and drug law. From 1978 to 1993, Landa served in FDA's Office of the Chief Counsel for various periods as Associate Chief Counsel for Medical Devices, Enforcement and Veterinary Medicine. Landa received his BA from Columbia College and his JD from the University of Virginia. From 1977-1978, he was the Food and Drug Law Institute Fellow at New York University, from which he received an LLM.

BRUCE A. SILVERGLADE is a principal with the Washington, DC law firm of Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz PC. Silverglade works on devising creative solutions to regulatory and legislative controversies involving food labeling, advertising, safety, and nutrition policy, on both the national and international levels. Until November 2010, Mr. Silverglade was Director of Legal Affairs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. He has served as lead counsel in U.S. Court of Appeals cases challenging arbitrary and capricious actions by U.S. government regulatory agencies, represented the interests of the public health community before Congress on more than 25 occasions, and organized a bipartisan coalition effort by medical and consumer organizations culminating in the enactment of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA). Prior to joining CSPI, Silverglade worked as a trial attorney at the Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Silverglade received his BA, cum laude, in political science from the University of Illinois and his JD from Boston College.

MICHAEL R. TAYLOR is Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the Food and Drug Administration. He is the first individual to hold the position, which was created along with a new Office of Foods in August 2009. Previously, he served as research professor at George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services. Before joining GWU, he was a professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland and a Senior Research Scholar in the University's School of Public Policy. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Maryland, Taylor was a senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF), a non-profit public policy research organization. Taylor has served in government as Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of FDA, Administrator of the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety at USDA and Deputy Commissioner for Policy at FDA.
In the private sector, he established and led the food and drug law practice at King & Spalding and was Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto Company. Mr. Taylor received his BA in political science from Davidson College and his JD from the University of Virginia.

SOURCE Food and Drug Law Institute