Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Monday named Hartford antitrust attorney William M. Rubenstein as consumer protection commissioner.
The agency’s mission is shielding residents from shady business dealings and overseeing the state’s professional licensing standards.
“Bill’s exhaustive experience in public service, his success in the professional arena, and his work as a professor, leave me with no doubt that we have a commissioner who will be a diligent and thoughtful protector of, and advocate for, Connecticut residents,” Malloy said in a statement.
Rubinstein’s appointment marks his return to public service.
In the early 1980s, Rubenstein, 59, was counsel for the Federal Trade Commission, where he garnered extensive experience on antitrust and unfair trade litigation.Â
From 1986 to 1997, he was a Connecticut assistant attorney general, handling antitrust and consumer protection matters.
One of his biggest assignments came in 1996, as a member of the legal team that successfully represented the state in its lawsuit against tobacco giant Philip Morris that yielded a multi-billion-dollar settlement to states and changed the way  tobacco could be advertised and sold in the U.S.Â
Rubenstein is a partner and ethics officer at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP in Hartford, where he works as a lead attorney on antitrust, intellectual property and trade regulation cases for Fortune 500 companies.
Rubenstein also has taught antitrust law at the University of Connecticut School of Law.
He is married to Judith Eisenberg and lives in West Hartford.
