A former Sidley Austin associate in Washington and clerk to Justice Samuel Alito Jr. is now the acting administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Paul Ray, succeeding Neomi Rao at the helm of the agency, first joined the Trump administration in 2017 as counselor to U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta. Ray jumped over to the regulatory shop last year, serving as the associate administrator.

The agency, widely known in Washington by its acronym OIRA, is the U.S. government's main portal where officials review regulatory proposals and approve government information collections. Rao, who'd led the office since 2017, was recently confirmed to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The naming of Ray as the acting head of OIRA “surprised some in the private sector as Ray is a relative newcomer to the regulatory agency,” according to a Bloomberg Government report.

A contender for administrator, Paul Noe, told the publication he had withdrawn his name from consideration. “This is not the right time for me and my family,” said Noe, who formerly served as counselor to the OIRA administrator from 2001-2006.

An agency representative was not immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

At Sidley Austin, Ray's clients had included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, National Federation of Independent Business, American Chemistry Council, Business Roundtable, Bayer Corp., and American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute. Ray, who'd joined the firm in 2014, identified his compensation as $421,000 on a financial disclosure.

Ray is among several Sidley alums who took posts in the Trump administration.

Rebecca Wood, who had been chief legal counsel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for about a year, returned to the firm in September as a partner. Her clients included AT&T Corp., PhRMA, Duke Energy Corp. and CSX Transportation.

Over at the Health and Human Services Department, Lowell Schiller is serving as acting associate general counsel. Schiller had provided legal services to clients such as Bayer Corp., Altria Group Inc., AbbVie Inc. and Amgen Inc.

Justice Samuel Alito Jr. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

Ray clerked for Alito during the Supreme Court's 2013-2014 term, and earlier clerked for Judge Debra Livingston on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2011.

Ray's fellow Alito clerks included Zina Bash, Kyle Hawkins and Megan Wold. Bash was a part of the team that advocated for Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation, and Hawkins is now the Texas state solicitor general. Wold is a litigation partner in Washington at Kirkland & Ellis.

“It was incredible to see how one of the greatest thinking minds of our time thinks about the law, but it was even better to see that great seriousness combined with the great kindness he displayed towards clerks,” Ray, a 2008 alum of Hillsdale College, told the school in an interview. He added: “Working at the court allowed me to see what actually persuades judges and justices.”