Paul Rodriguez. Courtesy of state of New Jersey.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy will nominate Paul Rodriguez, currently acting counsel to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, to be the next director of the Division of Consumer Affairs.

Rodriguez will begin serving as acting director on June 1, according to an announcement from Attorney General Gurbir Grewal's office. It was unclear when Rodriguez will be officially nominated for the post, which ultimately requires Senate confirmation.

In the interim, Kevin Jespersen, currently Grewal's chief counsel, will serve as the division's acting director. It's a position currently held by Sharon Joyce, who is leaving to lead the attorney general's newly created Office of the New Jersey Coordinator of Addiction Responses and Enforcement Strategies (NJ CARES.)

Jespersen, who joined the Attorney General's Office in 2016, has been Grewal's chief counsel since February. He is set to become acting DCA director on April 6, according to the announcement.

Joyce, a 38-year-veteran of state government, has served as DCA acting director since September 2017. In February she took on dual leadership roles when Grewal selected her to head NJ CARES, which seeks to coordinate the state's addiction-fighting efforts.

Rodriguez, a New Jersey native, currently advises de Blasio on legal, management and policy objectives.

“As the federal government abandons its responsibility to protect consumers from financial fraudsters, it is more important than ever that New Jersey picks up the mantle to protect its own residents,” said Grewal in a statement. “Paul has the energy and ability necessary to lead the division as we work to protect New Jerseyans from fraud and professional misconduct in the marketplace.”

Before joining the de Blasio administration, Rodriguez was an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York City, where he worked in a variety of areas, including financing transactions, securities regulation, and intellectual property.

His pro bono work for the firm included assisting with the negotiation of a multimillion-dollar framework agreement on behalf of indigenous tribes in Peru, an important step in ongoing efforts to remediate impacts of four decades of oil extraction in the region, the announcement said.

Rodriguez also served as the Simpson Thacher extern to Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A, representing nonprofits dedicated to serving low-income communities.

Rodriguez previously served as a projects specialist and senior staff member for U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, specializing in transportation, infrastructure, organized labor, and homeland security. He received his law degree from Yale Law School and graduated from Montclair State University with a degree in political science.

The division is the lead state agency charged with protecting consumers' rights, regulating the securities industry and overseeing 47 professional boards.

Grewal said Rodriguez's selection highlights the Murphy administration's efforts to fill the void left by the Trump administration's pullback of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), fulfilling one of Murphy's promises to create a “state-level CFPB” in New Jersey.