U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Chief Counsel Ralph Tyler is leaving the position he has held since January 2010. Margaret Hamburg, FDA commissioner, sent an email informing the agency of this development on June 30. Tyler’s last day was August 5.
Prior to joining the FDA, Tyler served as Insurance Commissioner of the State of Maryland, as well as counsel to Maryland’s governor, Baltimore city solicitor and Maryland deputy attorney general. He previously was a partner at Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P. Tyler’s law experience spans more than 35 years, and he has focused primarily on civil litigation and administrative law. Tyler received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana, juris doctorate from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and his master of laws degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
There has not yet been word regarding Tyler’s future plans. When it initially was announced that he had accepted the position of chief counsel in December 2009, he said that doing so allowed him to “return to being a lawyer.” As of press time, an acting chief counsel had not been named.