William N. Kent is an Attorney Advisor with the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) in the Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he leads the food safety, agri-business, and sanitary and phytosanitary portfolio for the Afghanistan team. 

Prior to joining CLDP, Mr. Kent was an attorney advisor with the U.S. International Trade Commission working on Title VII antidumping and countervailing duties issues.  He also served with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service in the Office of Country and Regional Affairs, first as a desk officer covering Canada, Cuba, and the Caribbean, and then as lead desk for North Asia covering Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.  Upon graduating from law school in 2014, Mr. Kent practiced as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of General Counsel’s Energy Efficiency Enforcement Division, and on the Congressional Oversight Team. 

Mr. Kent also served as an officer in the U.S. Army where he led a 65-soldier platoon through a 15-month deployment to Iraq.

Mr. Kent received his Juris Doctorate degree, Master of Law in International Business Transactions, and Certificate of International Law from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, during which time he served as the Managing Editor of the Denver Journal of International Law & Policy.  He also holds a Master of Arts in Middle East Studies from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.  He is an intermediate French and Arabic speaker.  Mr. Kent is admitted to practice law in the State of New York.