Charlene Barshefsky served as United States Trade Representative, the country's top trade negotiator, from 1997 to 2001. Prior to that, she was the Deputy USTR from 1993 to 1997. Under Bill Clinton in 1999, she was the primary negotiator with China's Zhu Rongji, laying out the terms for China's eventual entry into the World Trade Organization. She is a now a partner at the Washington, DC law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr and is also a member of multiple corporate boards, including Intel, American Express, and Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
She comes from a Jewish family [1] and received a J.D. from The Catholic University of America