Introduction to Food Law and Hot Topics

Ilene Ringel Heller has more than twenty-five years of experience as a food and drug attorney. For the past five years, she has served as a regulatory consultant on food labeling issues, with an emphasis on consumer protection litigation involving deceptive food claims. During her fourteen years at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) as a Senior Staff Attorney and ultimately Associate Director of Legal Affairs, Ms. Heller filed numerous complaints and petitions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), drafted legal briefs, and co-authored several in-depth reports, including Food Labeling Chaos:  The Case for Reform. Following the release of that report, the FDA issued a record number of enforcement actions against food companies. The report also influenced proposed revisions to the Nutrition Facts Panel. Prior to joining CSPI, Ms. Heller practiced food and drug law at Keller and Heckman and Arnold & Porter. She has been a speaker at various food law conferences, including those sponsored by the Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI), and served for four years on the Editorial Board of the Food and Drug Law Journal. Ms. Heller graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and is a member of the District of Columbia bar.

Tracy Rezvani is a Shareholder of Rezvani Volin P.C. in Washington D.C. She is the District of Columbia co-chair for NACA. Over the last twenty years, she has represented consumers in food-based class actions and representational litigation focused on false “all natural” claims, false “No GMO” claims, and misleading sodium or whole grain claims.