Joshua VonTrapp is an Attorney-Advisor (International) with the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he supports programs on CLDP's Middle East and Africa team. 

Prior to joining CLDP, Mr. VonTrapp was an associate in the debt finance practice group of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where his practice focused on advising private equity funds and their portfolio companies on debt finance transactions primarily in the energy and infrastructure space, including on project and acquisition finance transactions. Prior to working for Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Mr. VonTrapp was an associate at White & Case LLP in Houston, Texas, where his practice focused on international and domestic energy transactions.

Mr. VonTrapp received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 2022. During his time in law school, he was a contributor to the Global Anti-Corruption Blog, an articles editor for the Harvard International Law Journal and a staff editor for the Harvard National Security Law Journal. Mr. VonTrapp received his B.A. in International Relations, with a minor in Arabic, from Brigham Young University. He was a recipient of the U.S. Department of State's Critical Language Scholarship for Arabic and studied in Morocco and Jordan. 

Mr. VonTrapp is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and Texas.