Claus-Dieter Ehlermann is chair of EC law at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and counsel to Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Brussels. He specializes in institutional and competition law with a specific interest in international trade law, and is a former member of the appellate body of the World Trade Organization. From 1990 to 1995, Dr. Ehlermann served as director-general of the Directorate-General for Competition in the European Commission, and from 1987 to 1990 was the spokesman and head of the spokesman's group for the Commission, as well as the special advisor to President Jacques Delors. Since 1961, he has served the European Commission in many different capacities, including director-general of the legal service, director and deputy financial controller in the Directorate-General for Financial Control, and as a legal advisor. He received a doctorate in law from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Dr. Ehlermann is a senior fellow of the Salzburg Seminar and has served on the faculty of numerous sessions, most recently Session 350, Europe: Consolidation and Enlargement, 1997.