Stephen Vaden, a former Jones Day associate in Washington who was on the Trump administration's landing team at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is now in line to lead the agency's legal team.

Vaden, nominated on Sept. 2 as general counsel, reported earning about $314,000 in compensation from the firm last year, according to a financial disclosure form the U.S. Office of Government Ethics posted online Tuesday. He has served in various roles in the USDA's general counsel office since January.

His work at Jones Day, where he'd been an associate for two years before joining the Trump team, focused on litigation—including election-law disputes in Ohio and in Virginia—and administrative matters. Vaden earlier was a litigation associate for three years at Squire Patton Boggs.

Vaden's Jones Day clients included eBay Inc., Google Inc., FreedomWorks for America, Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, National Football League Players Association and the Business Roundtable, according to the financial disclosure.

Vaden has regularly spoken on administrative law and regulatory issues. He was scheduled to speak in April at Arent Fox for an American Bar Association-sponsored conference on regulatory, legislative and compliance issues associated with pesticides.

Writing at a Federalist Society blog, Vaden in August put a spotlight on what he called an “academic love note” about the independence of federal agencies. The study looked at how much deference federal courts give to agencies in the interpretation of statutes.

“Practitioners who have a colorable challenge to an agency action may well want to set their sights on Cincinnati rather than Washington,” Vaden wrote. He later moderated a panel discussion about the paper.

At the USDA, Vaden oversees two deputies and five associate general counsels. Four regional attorneys provide assistance to the general counsel.

Some of the responsibilities of the USDA general counsel include the review of rules, regulations and contracts, and the preparation of legislation and other legal documents. The National Association of Egg Farmers met in July with Vaden to discuss reporting and data collection practices.

“He has a firm grasp of the legal issues facing American agriculture, and very importantly, understands the breadth and complexity of the regulatory burdens placed on our producers,” Sonny Perdue, the USDA secretary, said in a statement.

A 2008 Yale Law School graduate, Vaden clerked for U.S. District Judge Hardy Mays in Memphis and for Judge Julia Gibbons on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Vaden, then president of the Yale Law Republicans, criticized the effort of some students to block military recruiters at law school job fairs. He was among a group of law students who, in 2006, urged the confirmation of Samuel Alito Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Given recent press coverage, we wish to make clear that Judge Alito does enjoy strong support by those at his alma mater,” the students wrote in a letter to the late U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. “As future practitioners, it is in our interest to have Supreme Court justices with integrity, intelligence, and experience, and we believe that Judge Alito is exceedingly qualified on all three of these fronts.”

Vaden, a native of Tennessee and the son of a farmer, owns farm land in Tennessee and Kentucky that he leases. In his ethics agreement, signed Sept. 6, Vaden said he would take steps to avoid any conflict of interest his ownership of the land might pose during his tenure as general counsel to the USDA.

Vaden was among more than a dozen Jones Day lawyers who joined the Trump administration since January. Other Jones Day agency nominations are pending, including Noel Francisco for U.S. solicitor general and Eric Dreiband to lead the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Jones Day recently hired two senior Obama-era Justice Department lawyers.

Stephen Vaden, a former Jones Day associate in Washington who was on the Trump administration's landing team at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is now in line to lead the agency's legal team.

Vaden, nominated on Sept. 2 as general counsel, reported earning about $314,000 in compensation from the firm last year, according to a financial disclosure form the U.S. Office of Government Ethics posted online Tuesday. He has served in various roles in the USDA's general counsel office since January.

His work at Jones Day, where he'd been an associate for two years before joining the Trump team, focused on litigation—including election-law disputes in Ohio and in Virginia—and administrative matters. Vaden earlier was a litigation associate for three years at Squire Patton Boggs.

Vaden's Jones Day clients included eBay Inc., Google Inc., FreedomWorks for America, Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, National Football League Players Association and the Business Roundtable, according to the financial disclosure.

Vaden has regularly spoken on administrative law and regulatory issues. He was scheduled to speak in April at Arent Fox for an American Bar Association-sponsored conference on regulatory, legislative and compliance issues associated with pesticides.

Writing at a Federalist Society blog, Vaden in August put a spotlight on what he called an “academic love note” about the independence of federal agencies. The study looked at how much deference federal courts give to agencies in the interpretation of statutes.

“Practitioners who have a colorable challenge to an agency action may well want to set their sights on Cincinnati rather than Washington,” Vaden wrote. He later moderated a panel discussion about the paper.

At the USDA, Vaden oversees two deputies and five associate general counsels. Four regional attorneys provide assistance to the general counsel.

Some of the responsibilities of the USDA general counsel include the review of rules, regulations and contracts, and the preparation of legislation and other legal documents. The National Association of Egg Farmers met in July with Vaden to discuss reporting and data collection practices.

“He has a firm grasp of the legal issues facing American agriculture, and very importantly, understands the breadth and complexity of the regulatory burdens placed on our producers,” Sonny Perdue, the USDA secretary, said in a statement.

A 2008 Yale Law School graduate, Vaden clerked for U.S. District Judge Hardy Mays in Memphis and for Judge Julia Gibbons on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Vaden, then president of the Yale Law Republicans, criticized the effort of some students to block military recruiters at law school job fairs. He was among a group of law students who, in 2006, urged the confirmation of Samuel Alito Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Given recent press coverage, we wish to make clear that Judge Alito does enjoy strong support by those at his alma mater,” the students wrote in a letter to the late U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. “As future practitioners, it is in our interest to have Supreme Court justices with integrity, intelligence, and experience, and we believe that Judge Alito is exceedingly qualified on all three of these fronts.”

Vaden, a native of Tennessee and the son of a farmer, owns farm land in Tennessee and Kentucky that he leases. In his ethics agreement, signed Sept. 6, Vaden said he would take steps to avoid any conflict of interest his ownership of the land might pose during his tenure as general counsel to the USDA.