NYU Law hires former FTC Commissioner as senior fellow

NYU School of Law hired Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, at its Center for Law and Public Trust last week after President Donald Trump fired her without cause. 

The Center for Law and Public Trust was launched in October 2025 to combat the declining public trust in U.S. institutions. Slaughter was hired as a senior fellow at the center roughly two months after the Supreme Court upheld her firing — thus significantly expanding presidential power over independent federal agencies, such as the FTC. 

In a statement to WSN, NYU Law spokesperson Michael Orey expressed excitement to include Slaughter’s perspective on resisting corruption and sustaining public trust. 

“Rebecca Slaughter brings her experience at the highest levels of government in areas that include competition, consumer protection, and privacy,” Orey said. “Our many centers and institutes are home to leading experts across a wide range of disciplines and perspectives.”

Raised in New York City, Slaughter was a paralegal in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office before graduating from Yale Law School in 2008. She also served as the chief counsel to U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York prior to joining the FTC, and also worked in Washington, D.C. for Sidley Austin LLP. 

Trump fired Slaughter in March 2025, after she had served as an FTC commissioner since 2018. The president claimed that her service was “inconsistent with the administration’s priorities” without citing a specific cause, leading Slaughter to sue for reinstatement in April 2025. The district court ruled in favor of Slaughter in July 2025, declaring her termination unlawful and ordering her reinstatement. 

However, the Supreme Court eventually ruled 6-3 against Slaughter in the case Trump v. Slaughter. The verdict overturned a 91-years-old precedent set by the 1935 case Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, which restricted the president’s power to fire members of independent agencies without cause. 

In a LinkedIn post, Slaughter said she is looking forward to applying her past experience at the FTC to her work at NYU Law’s Center for Law and Public Trust. 

“The interdisciplinary work the Center is doing is among the most urgent of our time: fighting corruption, restoring the rule of law, and reimagining government so that it serves the people and not just the powerful,” Slaughter said. “I am excited to use my experience working on issues of economic justice and corporate accountability at the FTC and in the Senate to contribute to those efforts.”

Contact Brishti Sarkar at [email protected].