Frank Gorman applies his experience at the highest levels of consumer protection enforcement to his practice counseling clients on advertising and marketing law, providing regulatory compliance advice to financial services companies, and guiding clients through government investigations. As a former senior official at the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with over twenty years of litigation, management and consumer protection policy experience, Mr. Gorman is ideally suited to help clients navigate the regulatory landscape and inquiries by the FTC, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Justice, bank regulatory agencies, and state attorneys general. Mr. Gorman’s leadership experience at the FTC provides him with a comprehensive understanding of the laws and regulations enforced by the FTC, including financial regulations that are also enforced by the CFPB and other bank regulatory agencies. For companies that are being investigated, his deep understanding of the processes and priorities at the FTC offers clients the best chance at success—considering everything from reputational risk to costs to impact of various outcomes on future revenue streams.

Prior to joining WilmerHale, Mr. Gorman served in various positions at the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection since 1998, most recently as acting deputy director. In that role, he established and implemented the commission’s consumer protection policy; reviewed all matters from the Divisions of Financial Practices, Advertising Practices and Enforcement; and managed the bureau’s law enforcement work in a wide range of areas, including financial services, advertising practices, order enforcement, privacy and data security, and marketing practices. His other leadership roles at the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection included chief of staff, assistant director of the Enforcement Division, chief of the Criminal Liaison Unit, and assistant director for regional operations. He also served as counsel to the director and as a staff attorney in the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices. As assistant director of enforcement for eight and a half years, Mr. Gorman supervised scores of investigations, hundreds of compliance reviews and any ensuing litigation in areas including privacy, national advertising, scientific substantiation for health and other claims, financial services, business opportunities, deceptive online marketing schemes, telemarketing, hardcore fraud, bankruptcy, collections, environmental marketing, country of origin claims, and negative option marketing.

Outside of his time at the FTC, Mr. Gorman spent two years in the advertising and consumer protection practice of an international law firm, where he represented clients facing investigations from the FTC, DOJ and state attorneys general and provided compliance advice on a variety of advertising, UDAP, and regulatory issues. He previously worked as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Charlestown, representing several hundreds of clients facing severe crises, including victims of domestic violence threatened with loss of custody of their children, families facing eviction, and disabled persons facing denial of government benefits.